Are We Done Yet?

Elias' football season has been in full swing since mid August and although they are on a winning streak I think we're all pretty much ready for the season to be over. Every year after his first game, Caleb gives Elias a humbling, rude awakening father/son talk which results in tears and hopefully a better resolve to try harder and toughen up. E loves being a part of the team and seems to have taken on the role of undesignated cheer-leader. When I say cheerleader I don't mean skirts and pom poms but he's a definite raw raw boy out there. When the boys are lined up for defense waiting on the offense to get out of their huddle he'll start chants like, E:What time is it? Defense: Sack time! (Repeated over and over) or E:Who's House? Team: Our house! And there are more! I know it has to KILL Caleb to see Elias be such a raw raw out there and it's even embarrassing for me a little. We've talked about having him not play football because of his size and the time commitment but I'm afraid if he didn't have football he'd definitely want to be cheering in a much more unacceptable capacity. On a brighter side of the sport Elias has FINALLY stepped it up these last few games and played OUTSTANDING!! He's really turned a corner and been so tough and made his tackles and kept contain (I think that's what you call it). The team is on a three game winning streak which is why Caleb hasn't reprimanded Elias for his cheering ability. For some reason he really does have the ability to get the team fired up. As long as he's wearing cleats and shoulder pads I guess we can live with it.

Isaac and Silas have been good sports about football this year too. With practices 3 times a week for 2 hrs a night plus games on Saturdays that end up taking at least 4 to 5 hours of our day the boys get a lot of time to play around at the field. Isaac loves going to the swampy areas and finding all sorts of creatures; bugs, snakes, grasshoppers, etc. He usually catches something, brings it over to show me and gross me out and then continues to love (torture) whatever it is to death. At last Saturday's game Isaac took his torture to a new level. He showed me a couple grasshoppers during the game which I finally told him I really didn't need to see anymore of those creepy things. After the game when we were all walking to the car Isaac told Elias to look in his thermos. Elias unscrewed the lid and looked in to find TWO drowned grasshoppers!!! Elias swears he wasn't drinking his water during the game (the coaches bring a cooler of Gatorade and as we learned from The Water Boy movie, "Gatorade is better"). It was so disgusting and Isaac is in trouble and will be sterilizing Elias' thermos but Caleb and I were totally laughing in disguise. You gotta love little brothers!!