Last home game of the year! One of the moms got great pictures on the field and several of Andrew. We of course had tears again, not because of playing time, but because he felt like he just didn't do a good job. Several times they told him to get off of the field and he ran to the sidelines only to be told to get back on the field and he either didn't make it or barely made it. He thankfully got to play his position but again, messed up a few times and was very down on himself. I will tell you that they were very discombobulated on subbing, and I do like that he held his self-accountable, but I don't put 100 percent of the blame on him. I know baseball is way different, but I always when I was coaching had a scripted sub plan for all of my coaches so there was no confusion. I feel like this could be done in football as well, but I digress.
Running with Reds
Join me as I journey through life as a mommy to a little red headed boy and four red australian shepherds and wife to an awesome hubby who can't say No. My addictions include distance running and training dogs (specifically in dog agility) and my job is in science so expect a dose of a little bit of all of these things. Running with reds is how I keep my sanity:)
Monday, October 14, 2024
Mom, mom, mom
Last home game of the year! One of the moms got great pictures on the field and several of Andrew. We of course had tears again, not because of playing time, but because he felt like he just didn't do a good job. Several times they told him to get off of the field and he ran to the sidelines only to be told to get back on the field and he either didn't make it or barely made it. He thankfully got to play his position but again, messed up a few times and was very down on himself. I will tell you that they were very discombobulated on subbing, and I do like that he held his self-accountable, but I don't put 100 percent of the blame on him. I know baseball is way different, but I always when I was coaching had a scripted sub plan for all of my coaches so there was no confusion. I feel like this could be done in football as well, but I digress.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Hey Hey Hey
I feel like a broken record. I have so much to say but I feel like I am just writing the same thing over and over again. Another blow out win, another night of a few plays and not even in the position he usually works on in practice, so he was clueless. Another car ride home of tears and not understanding why he couldn't just get in to play is position and show them what he could do. Another week of working his ass off in practice just hoping to get some sort of playing time and not getting any. This is a hard life's lesson he is learning, and it sucks to be a mom and have to watch and know that you can't fix it. Life sucks and it isn't fair but hey, that's life.
Two runs and no work out classes thanks to meetings/events at night and me not being able to get up early and run. I did get a morning run on Friday thanks to being up early to take Andrew to film and I hope i can continue that for the upcoming weeks. That truly is the only way I am able to get in runs right now other than on the weekends.
I will end on racing. Wow. What a weekend. Two second places to two very awesome and fast racers. We finally got a go pro in his car and it's so much fun to watch him drive his butt off! You can hear him keeping his foot in the gas and you can see his lines. We also caught some fun stuff in the hot chute and after the races. One of the dads gave him a great pump-up speech post-race and I have played it like 100 times because I just love it. I think this is the first year I don't want racing to end for the year!
Have a great week y'all! Let's go Chiefs and Let's go Royals!
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Ollie and racing
A better week for working out for sure, still not the best. Three short runs of 3 miles and one work out class. Post football things should lighten up or so I hope, because we go right into wrestling before football is even over.
First let's talk about football. We won 50 something to 6. My child got in for 4 plays total. We still had starters in till the 4th quarter. Make it make sense? I feel that you can maintain your insane lead AND sub in kids who aren't starters. I've talked about this before, but I won't beat a dead horse. Let's just say Andrew was incredibly sad that he didn't get much playing time as he has been working his ass off in practice. It's hard as a mom to watch your kid get so down because they actually care now, and they see the writing on the wall. Next year may be an easy decision on football versus racing, especially if we travel more.
Ollie update: If you remember, Ollie was the dog that we received from a family who was in over their heads. She loved them and they loved her, but she was driving their cats and the family bonkers. We were going to just take her and help her find a home, but we fell in love with her weird ass and kept her. We've had issues ourselves but have worked through them and seem to be on the other side with a lot of them. Her impulse control is better, she isn't door bolting as much, and she is a lot less reactive. She is still a bit much on runs and overheats easily unless there is mud/puddles for her to get in. I am so ready for fall so that maybe she will stop getting so hot. This last weekend i had to not only bring her home and hose her down, but I also had to the next day run to the park and dunk her in the pond to cool her down quickly. She just gets SO worked up about running and cars and birds in the sky, and and and. I am hoping longer mileage out on our gravel roads will help calm her down a bit, but she is still a bit young and it's still too hot to do too long.
Lastly, I will end on racing. Madden, the kiddo that races nationally was gone for a big national race, so we actually had a chance for a podium. Noah had a super-fast car in Heavy Honda, but it kept breaking again and Andrew was able to pass for the win. We won the heat race in Heavy 160, even with Dash moving up this week. He is an amazing driver with a heck of a race team supporting him and will be hard to beat next year. We will give it our all for sure! Dash and Noah ended up getting him in the feature as he bobbled coming out of turn 4. He battled the rest of the race but couldn't get it done. Doesn't matter for me, I will take 3rd and a big battle.
Monday, September 23, 2024
It's FALL!!!!!
It's bittersweet to walk away from something that even though it brought you great stress, it also brought you some of the best friends in the world. This week was the nomination meeting for the board for our racing club at TKQMA, and I politely declined my nomination for another 2-year term. Even though this club has basically caused me lots of therapy bills, I will miss being a part of two meetings a month and every single decision. I love what we have built out of nothing basically and I am excited to see where it goes. We have a big healthy club that right now that is mostly working together, and I love it. I love seeing people get passionate about helping kids realize their love for a sport (and yes, I call it a sport). I love seeing people want to grow our club, not destroy it for no reason. I love after every race just going from trailer-to-trailer eating food, drinking, and talking, not having the division like we had previously fought hard to get rid of. I hope the club continues to grow and prosper without my smiling face, and I feel like we will. I really felt like it would be like a huge weight off of my shoulders but instead I am just sad and nervous, totally unexpected feelings. I think part of it is I am just a control freak and if I am on the board I can help with control. I know that it is time for others to step up, but it is hard to let go. I will still volunteer my little heart out for everything and help the board in any way I can. I wish the new president all the luck in the world and will help him with anything he needs. I wish him great success in taking this club even further into the future of what it could look like and be.
I did get one work out class in and one run in. The heat was horrible this week with temps being back in the 100s. Then fall hit hard on Sunday, but we had had a fun night of Tennessee football with a win (sloppy) and KSU with a loss (incredibly sloppy). Both later games which meant we were up till almost 2 am watching football and having fun with our friends. Let's just say hang overs suck in your late 40s. I slogged through 3 miles and prayed to not die. Sunday, I snuggled most of the day in my fuzziest blankie with my chief's sweat pants and my favorite sweatshirt. Man, I love fall.
Have a great week y'all! It's race week and we have more football!
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
All American Clash FINAL RACE
What a busy week! Didn't get much if any working out done thanks to events at night almost every single night. Life will slow down some day right?
Monday was my rest day since I had crammed 3 days of running back-to-back to back and needed a day off. Tuesday was a new to us event Plates and Pours. While we almost weren't allowed to participate since there was an invisible check in time that I never saw and we both work jobs (urgh), we finally were able to find someone and get our passports to begin our culinary journey. Basically, you get a map, and every participating business has a drink and or a food. Most places had some really yummy drinks and as someone who doesn't drink hard liquor, it hit HARD. Plus, we got to go the fancy smancy speakeasy that is membership only in Manhattan and have some really tasty fru fru drinks that we would never order normally.
- Winning 2nd place in Heavy Honda. That class was stacked with awesome drivers, and he didn't let any of them scare him
- Going against kids that were mostly older and or in high school and not being intimidated
- Conquering a new to him track that was very tricky and again not just phoning it in in IL
- Lots and lots of passing in all races!
- Improvement in MN, a track that kicked our ass last year.
- The heavy 160 class in MN where he was up 2nd place's butt the entire race
- Getting all the way up to 5th place in MN in heavy Honda after getting a bum call and being put to the back
- Driving a car with a flat tire like he was on fire
Monday, September 9, 2024
Go me!
I will try and be short and sweet and to the point. This week has been long with lots of challenges, and I am exhausted from mentally trying to deal with all of them. I am giving thanks that none of them involve poor health, death, or anything super serious. I am very disappointed in lots of people in my life. What is new right?
I had a lot of physical activities after several weeks of bleh. I had two walks, 3 runs, and one class. Going to have to abandon my Thursday classes for a bit since I will be busy on Thursday nights with football. Hoping I can keep this streak up but looks like the weather is going to go back to summer next week. Can we just hang on to fall for the rest of fall and not skip straight to winter???
Andrew had his first 7th grade football game. While I didn't have high hopes for him playing much thanks to him not subbing himself in during practice, we ended up blowing them out, meaning the second and third team got a whole half of playing time in. Andrew got to sub in on first team as well, which I love because they help him SO much when he is in with the starters. I know that he probably won't get much playing time every week due to us playing our better teams, but that is okay. At least now he is feeling more a part of the team. He said it was the best night of his life. Seeing him SO very happy made my momma heart super happy. He's been struggling with several of the kids on the team being not so nice, so to see them all sitting there laughing and having a great time as a team was a good sight.
We also had yet another night race. While I enjoy the fact that Tony has all day to work on the cars, something was not right with both cars this weekend and it showed. Tony was super late getting to the track which meant no practice time and then he fought set ups all night as it got very cool, and the track changed. Andrew decided he had no patience in the heavy 160 car and wrecked one of the slower cars with a bad pass and then passed another car on a restart, which meant he had to go straight to the pits with a big fat last place finish. We so needed a good finish in that car, but I am proud of him for pushing that car as hard as he could. We have the All-American Clash coming up this week so the few nights we can, we are going to practice. After the clash we have 3 more points races and the big 100 lapper. I am getting to the point where I am ready for this season to be done. We have talked about going to Las Vegas for a big race but at this point, I don't think we will be ready for that type of racing yet. Flat track racing isn't for the faint of heart and requires a new level of aggressiveness that we aren't quite at yet. Maybe next year.
I will end this with my disappointment. I as well as others volunteer hours and hours to this club and to race day. I love what I do, and I am damn good at it. Do I make mistakes? Yes. Am I human? Yes. Are you allowed to question me in a respectful manner and have a discussion about rules and why? Heck yes. What you are not allowed to do is yell and scream at me. I grew up in that environment where I had no way to get out and as an adult, you no longer get that right, and I get to walk away. Also, if I prove to you that you are wrong, I would like an apology admitting that. I get that people get frustrated and, in the moment, some people can't control their emotions. I appreciate apologies for outburst but walking away thinking you are still right when you aren't after I have given you every rule to prove the point makes me super sad. For ANYONE to think I try and screw ANY kid over makes me really, really sad. I am a rule follower to my very core, and I love all kids. Even when we had kids racing that I truly didn't like, I NEVER let them be treated anything but nice and followed every rule to the T when it came to their racing. I know I keep saying this but after a night of no sleep, I need to walk away. I would love to enjoy my kiddos last year of racing not being in the tower. The problem is, no one has stepped up and I fear no one will. This is my last term as secretary and I am walking away from the board as well this year and as of now, I have not heard of anyone who wants my spot. I would really like to train whomever but if no one wants it, not sure how this is going to go.
Have a great week y'all! Try not to melt!
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Confessional time!
How about some confessionals to end the month? I don't do link ups anymore because I don't have time to read lots and lots of blogs, but I still love their prompts. Also, you are welcome for some random AF memes about fall, adhd, and my overthinking.
I confess I haven't missed the battles that equal my neurotypical child and our school system. Andrew was gone with an excused absence for the race last week. I had emailed his teachers to make sure we had any and all class work done before we left as I knew we would be in a car without WIFI to power his IPAD which is where the majority of his work is done (and for the record I HATE). He got an F on an assignment that he was supposed to get done that I NEVER knew he had because that teacher chose to not communicate with me. YES, he has an IPAD with google classroom that tells what assignments are due when but when it just says class work, how am I to know what that actually means? Sometimes class work is on paper, sometimes on the board, sometimes it's on the IPAD, but I never know that. Anyway, he was offered to do the assignment during class on Monday but was never explicitly told it HAD to be done by end of day Monday, so he didn't get it done, choosing instead to do the classwork for that day. Now, do I think my kid is 100 percent innocent in all of this, no. He had pride time (homeroom) to get this assignment done before his math class and he still didn't get it done. His thought process was that since he had an excused absence, the work was excused which is totally not correct, but heck that is how his little brain works. He's 12 and in 7th grade and every day I regret putting him in school right after he turned 5. After consulting the handbook that he indeed had to have any and all assignments turned in prior to his trip (which he did for all other classes), the teacher decided to have grace and let him finish the assignment. I was ready to battle for my child and didn't have to thankfully, but I honestly cannot do this all semester, and I am sure that is what is about to happen. I am a HUGE advocate for my child and will continue to be, but what about the kids that fall through the cracks? The ones whose parents don't have time to care or just simply don't? It makes me sad.
I also confess that i am very disappointed in the school system for NOT getting the services in place for my child. Again, the squeaky wheel gets the grease but why does it take a almost a year to get this going? I know that our school system is not doing well with regards to retention of teachers and staff due to horrible pay and benefits. I am trying to be full of grace but it's hard when it directly affects your own child.
I will end this with I confess middle school is hard and I am so proud of my kiddo for knowing who he is and what his worth is. There are lots of kids trying to fit in, trying to figure out who they are, and they are being not very nice to him. He's always been different due to his interests and his maturity being one of the youngest without an older sibling in his class, so he's unfortunately used to being the brunt of a lot of jokes and mean things. He told me about a few things people had said lately in football and while it makes me shake my head, I am proud of him for not letting them get him down.
Two runs, one walk, and one work out class done. Ready to get back into the groove with some cooler weather on the way! Have a great week y'all!