Football, football, football

Okay, so I promised an explanation on the football situation. And I'll try to keep it brief, I know I tend to ramble - sorry!! Tyson has wanted to play football for years, but we always seem to miss the chance. This year it looked like it might happen. I was just about ready to sign him up for the local Pop Warner league, when we found out some of their games were on Sunday - bummer! When I told Tyson he was a little disappointed, but understood that we don't play sports on Sundays, so he couldn't do it. We found a little light at the end of the tunnel, there were week long sports camps up on post and they had a football camp. We went through the whole rigga-ma-roll of registering them with Youth Services (a huge pain in the tookis) and he went to football camp and Zach and Emma went to a soccer camp. Two days into the football camp the coach approached Tyson and asked him why he wasn't signed up to play on the football team. He told him it was because he didn't play sports on Sundays (I was so proud of him!!). So after practice Tyson told me the coach wanted to talk to me (I got a little nervous, what could Tyson have done?), but he just wanted to talk to me about letting Ty play on the team. He told me what Tyson had said, asked if it was correct, I said yes, and then the most amazing thing happened. The coach asked if I would let him play on the team if he would let Ty miss the Sunday games!! I was completely shocked that he would do that. The only clincher is that all the playoff games are on Sundays, so he would miss all of those, but Tyson was okay with that. Oh, and they do have their home games on Saturday, its the away games that are mostly on Sundays. So Tyson was OVER THE MOON about the chance to play football, and willingly sacrificed boy scouts until the season is over. Now, wait for it, wait for it, there is always a catch!!

Lets talk practices. Practice is up at Ft. Drum, we live 15 minutes from Post. Practice for the entire month of August and until school starts after Labor Day is Monday thru Friday, 6-8 pm. Yup, I get to drive up to Ft. Drum every night, and drag the kids along for the ride, because of course Ron is gone all month at JRTC. I try to stay occupied during those two hours up on post so I don't spend more gas driving all the way home and back to pick him up. But going to the commissary and Super WalMart (right out the gate) only takes up so much time. So needless to say, I am pretty sick of football practice. I did pay a young man from church to take him once a week so we can have a little break, but its not enough of a break to keep us all sane. And then we encountered more problems..... (I'm starting to ramble, sorry!)

Tyson wants to quit. You heard me, quit. After all we went through to get him registered and signed up on the team, all the gear we had to buy, and all the gas and time that the whole family has sacrificed - he wants to QUIT!!! The first week of practice was physically challenging, he was sore and completely exhausted. I got him through the first week by telling him it would get better and his body just needed to adjust. Well, then this week they started practicing in full gear and they started tackling. That first practice he called me 4 times, crying, begging me to come get him, telling me he couldn't do it, and he wanted to quit. It took many conversations with me, one long one with Ron over the phone and the entire next day to convince him he needed to go back to practice and try again. He did make the request that we have a special family prayer for him right before practice, which we did. The current deal is that at the end of the week we will revisit the quiting issue. If he chooses to quit, there are conditions attached: 1- he has to personally tell the coach that he quits, he can't just stop showing up to practices. 2- he has to pay us back for all the gear and gas money, so far it totals around $200. 3- the next time he says he wants to play a sport or take lessons for something, the answer will probably be no. However, I think he might make it. This week has gotten better and better, and tonight they are having a mock team scrimmage. He is really excited for this, and tonight he will find out his final position on the team.

Football is turning out to be quite the learning experience for both me and Tyson. I must admit that when Tyson said he wanted to quit, I was thrilled - no more daily practice!! But I also didn't want him to quit something just because it was hard. I have to thank my brother Andy and his wife Jenna for hearing me out, being understanding and giving me advice on how to deal with it. I should clarify, Jenna was understanding and heard me out, Andy gave awesome advice. To quote my brother, it came down to one thing "Am I raising a man or a boy?" He told me sometimes you have to "put their feet to the fire" and let them struggle and learn. He was right of course, I just really hate having to do this all on my own. I really, really, really, hate the Army right now, but that's a whole other post. So, sorry, lots of rambling, but that's the whole story. I'll let you know what happens!!!