Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Official Start of Football

Yesterday I had a monster headache (it seems to have carried over to today for some reason). I have a lot of stuff to catch up on at work and I had planned to stay late last night. My head hurt so bad though that I had to leave at 4:30. I was so looking forward to a night of staying home with all of us in the same 1600 sq feet and doing nothing. The minute I walked in the door that all changed. Jay said he talked to another mother and we were to pick up football pads at 6:00.


Yuck!!! I really do not care if Cade plays football for so many different reasons. Probably my #1 reason is I absolutely hate the way sports have started controlling the kids (and the parents) lives. When I has in HS we could play sports, but still have our summers off. That’s not the way it is any more – they have “open” gym nights that aren’t required but yet they are required, if you know what I mean. They just have all this crap that they have to do and have to miss out on so many other experiences that summer offers like vacations and having a job. I already know that if he continues to play sports we can say bye-bye to family vacations and cattle showing in the summer. Ok, I’ll try to get off my soapbox now, but it still irritates me!

The other two reasons I don’t care if he plays is pretty much tied for spot #2. I don’t understand it. At. All. We didn’t have football in Sheldon so I haven’t a clue what goes on. I just go to the games to talk. Then the other reason is that it terrifies me. Every time I see a player go down my first thought is “where is his mother”. If Cade goes down on a football field they will have to haul out two stretchers because I will pass out. I don’t handle things like that very well. If he makes it to HS football I’ll be the one on the sidelines with the back of my chair facing the field. I’ll be there to support him, I just won’t be able to watch it.

So back to last night. When Jay told me about the pads I said we need to talk to Cade to make sure this is something that he really wants to do. Jay told me I could ask him, but he knew what the answer would be. I called Cade into the family room and asked him if he was sure that’s what he wanted to do. When he said yes I pointed out a couple of the negatives – he’d be practicing in the heat and he’d be hitting people and getting hit himself. He gave me a strange look and said YES he wanted to play. A few minutes later he walked back by and I asked him again if he was really sure he wanted to play. His face turned bright red and he said “Fine then, if you don’t want me to play maybe I just shouldn’t” then he stomped off. I felt kind of bad, but he was so funny I started laughing. I was trying to be quiet so I was laughing silently which always makes me cry. Jay yelled at Cade to come back to the family room and he told Cade he wasn’t in trouble he just wanted to talk to him. So Cade came out and Jay explained to him I was just worried about him playing but it was fine for him to play and they were going to pick up the pads in 30 minutes.

While Jay was giving this speech to Cade about playing football I looked down and saw Cade had slipped on my wedge heeled sandals that I wore to work. That really made me start laughing. Since Cade was still in the room I didn’t want to draw attention to the shoe thing so I was laughing quietly. Which made me shake and cry even harder. I think Cade thought I was crying because I was worried about him so he gave me a dirty look and ran off. I didn’t know if Jay saw the shoe thing but he did because he said “as he was wearing a pair of women’s heels”. I lost it again. I was trying to be quiet but it was just so funny. I was on the couch shaking and crying even more. About that time Cade walked by and saw me. He screamed “would you just stop worrying about me already”. That made me cry and laugh even harder. What could you say to that? I couldn’t even speak at that point. I think Jay managed to get it all smoothed over with Cade before they left.

When they got home Cade was showing me all of his gear, he was so excited about it. Jay told me that he tackled Neilson pretty good while they were picking up the stuff. Cade patted his shoulders and said “Yeah, he wasn’t even wearing his knee pads”. Guess what… I lost it again. Then Cade put his helmet on for me and then tried to take it off. I had to video it. I hope it will play for everyone, if not let me know. It’s too good to not share. As much as I thought Cade had grown into his genetically large Shepherd head, I guess I was wrong. I may not have to worry about Cade playing when he gets into HS – they may not make helmets big enough!

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