Sportsmanship

Cole has been practicing with the U-11 Taxofit camp. I'm not entirely convinced he has made the team, time will tell. In the meantime he is showing up with a positive attitude and desire to improve.

This past weekend there was a tournament south of town. Cole didn't have his player card so he couldn't compete in any of the games. It was an all day tournament and he had to watch all his new buddies play without him. I told him he needed to pay attention and support his team. I fully expected him to have about 10 minutes of interest and then want to go kick the ball off to the side while waiting another 7 hours to go home. Instead he sat with the coach and team, unsuited, and watched others play the sport he loves so much . All. Day. Long. 

I was impressed by his actions! I guess I wasn't the only one. The following Monday at practice his coach gave him the team medal.

I'm so proud of you Cole!! Some lessons are learned on the field and others learned off the field. 

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I usually start with a title but today nothing seems right. I was going to talk about "bumps in the road" or feeling "crushed". But those hardly seem appropriate for even my dry sense of humor.

Sunday evening we went for a walk with the boys and the dogs. We went all through this park and arrived home around 8:10pm. The boys went to shower and the dogs slipped out the door. Unnoticed. Around 8:15 a neighbor ran over to tell me the dogs were hit by a car. My heart dropped.

In all the chaos and details that I prefer to erase from my mind... Both dogs were outside our door.
Physically they appeared to be fine, I imagined much much worse. I was able to remain calm enough to get to the vet with Keith. This was an emergency vet who was already alerted by kind Germans that we were on our way.

The dogs spent the night there. I'm going to assume the got more sleep then we did. The boys didn't hear or see anything. They were told the dogs would be ok and I was banking on every prayer that I was right.

The next morning we transferred them to a specialist about an hour north of here. Today Maverick's lungs are being drained of fluid. Once they do that he will be able to have his front paw addressed and stitched up. Goose will have surgery today on his back tibia. They also found a foreign body in his stomach. I can only assume it's a rock. Silly dog.

I miss them like crazy. I told the boys they would be home by the weekend. They are begging to go see them. Me too. Those big, expensive, smelly, hairy, loveable, loyal, trusting, humorous puppies are a part of our hearts.

Please pray for them, and for the boys. It's been a hard transition here and they can't experience more crushing news. As tragic as it was, I know with all my heart that those dogs have been loved like no other. I feel the same in return. Get well soon Maverick and Goose. We have many more years of hair and poop to clean up!! We're waiting for your return home.

Panicked

Today is the last day of soccer camp. He has adjusted well. Yesterday he made the winning goal and his teammates were picking him up and chanting. It did my heart good to see the smile and fun across Cole's face.
They are so competitve here. They have a 1st place for everything.  Everyday they mark in each player's report card. Cole geys a daily grade and breakdown of areas to improve. The equipment and fields are amazing as well. This is such an excellent opportunity for him!

This morning I sent my baby off to ride his bike to camp by himself. Gulp! I feel a strong urge to  follow him every step of the way. Cutting strings is terrible. Oh, how I wish he was a tiny baby just wanting to be held all over again.  I'm heading up to watch their scrimmages in a bit.

(Camp is about a mile down the same side of the road with no possible way to get lost - but I still worry!)

School rules

Easy enough!

The Giving Tree

I love this stump!

The Test

Today was a tough parenting day. It was pretty tough on Cole too, but let's get back to me, shall we?

It's been exactly two weeks since we touched down in Germany. We aren't settled, camping in our own house for an unforseen future, and I shoved my first born out into the world.

He attended a soccer camp last week with his new buddy Aiden. Aiden is really good. Really good.... And he showed Cole the ropes. He translated for Cole and introduced him to the coaches and friends. Aiden is doing other soccer things this week, so Cole started camp all over again - SOLO.

We got him dressed and tried to settle his nerves. We told him it will be hard but one day, worth it. He will learn to pick up a few German words and slowly meet new people.

As Keith was signing him in this morning, the director came up to say hello. He speaks English and is fully aware Cole doesn't know a Lick of German. I told Klaus that Cole was nervous because he didn't know the language. That's when he thought Cole the hard truth about soccer. He said "Cole, you know scheize is shit and if you want them to play the ball to you, you say speigel" And that is apparently all you need to know!
Welcome to Germany.

Cole was so nervous. It was tough to smile and be confident leaving him. He sat by himself at lunch. (break my heart now please) I know it's only temporary, and I hope Cole can understand. He's going to be an amazing young man. Character building is a hard lesson. Scheize!

Say what!?!

I found a Thai massage place just down the road today. I had a 30 minute back massage and it was awesome! I will be returning!! This place might not be so bad after all!