Today marks the first day our 10 year old doesn't have a ball team to call her own. She made a very big decision this past week, one that we fully support. She has "enough" trophies and wants to focus on learning the game more and above all, having fun. She had a great 3 year run with her team, but they were going a direction that just didn't fit. It was tough, it is still in some ways, as we made the mistake of mixing friendship and business in one area. But, that will work itself out or it won't, but either way, our little girl decided to make a big change. So as of right now, she is a "free agent", hopefully guest playing for several teams to see what fits. This will also give her some time to find her strengths in other areas, most importantly, school. Lots of good changes going on there for her this year, thanks to a very good teacher who truly has taken little P's learning challenges on. So far, she is thriving. I am very proud of her and can't wait to see what the next quarter brings!
Big P is the softball star this weekend. Though, her team isn't quite as driven as the team mentioned above. Yes, they have been practicing like crazy, but this was the only tournament they chose for the fall. Her team doesn't come without challenges too, but those are things mom and dad can handle and she will continue to Spark her way through. She moves up to 14U next fall, (YIKES) and at that point we may face a change, or we may not. But it is nice to cheer her on as a family, instead of divided and conquered like the past summer.
Back to the above mixing of friendship and business. So many lesson continue from our time rebuilding from the fire. We have learned fairly quickly that people who support you up front and to your face, are so very quick to turn their backs on you. I think the part that is the hardest to understand is the amount of jealousy we've come across. Jealous of what? A fire? Oh Lord I hope not. But jealous of the new things we've purchased, and the donations given, all of which we NEVER asked for at all. In fact, if people truly knew me, they would understand that accepting help of any kind is NOT a strength of mine. At all! In fact, the day of I was given a little speech about learning to smile and accept donations and say thank you. I learned how to do that, and poured myself in 250+ thank you cards the days after the fire. Everything donated, raised and given was appreciated, still is 100%!!! But we had no choice, we had to get new things. We threw our stuff away in 3 large dumpsters, not because we wanted to. Not because we enjoyed seeing things our children cherished thrown away. But because we HAD to. I won't go into the specifics about money timelines and use it or lose it policies, but we never EVER meant for anyone to get upset with us rebuilding. That being said, we are not going to sit back and let people sling our names and integrity around town either. Things were done by contractors, most of those contractors backed up their work with receipts and invoices. Some chose not to, and changed their prices and their stories. We were taken advantage of. Friendship gone. Sad world we live in. Lesson learned.
On to happier things. I have a very happy, healthy, amazing family. We are not perfect, we have our flaws like all of you. But I thank God every day for the life we get to live. And the lessons we've learned along the way. Things are things. People are people. Life is life. In the end, who you love and who your heart belongs to, only truly matters.
The following pictures are part of an amazing gift by a local photographer who donated her time to us after our fire. A year and a half and three rain reschedules later, we got our pics! LOVE THEM! Shelly Jensen is amazing!
Big P is the softball star this weekend. Though, her team isn't quite as driven as the team mentioned above. Yes, they have been practicing like crazy, but this was the only tournament they chose for the fall. Her team doesn't come without challenges too, but those are things mom and dad can handle and she will continue to Spark her way through. She moves up to 14U next fall, (YIKES) and at that point we may face a change, or we may not. But it is nice to cheer her on as a family, instead of divided and conquered like the past summer.
Back to the above mixing of friendship and business. So many lesson continue from our time rebuilding from the fire. We have learned fairly quickly that people who support you up front and to your face, are so very quick to turn their backs on you. I think the part that is the hardest to understand is the amount of jealousy we've come across. Jealous of what? A fire? Oh Lord I hope not. But jealous of the new things we've purchased, and the donations given, all of which we NEVER asked for at all. In fact, if people truly knew me, they would understand that accepting help of any kind is NOT a strength of mine. At all! In fact, the day of I was given a little speech about learning to smile and accept donations and say thank you. I learned how to do that, and poured myself in 250+ thank you cards the days after the fire. Everything donated, raised and given was appreciated, still is 100%!!! But we had no choice, we had to get new things. We threw our stuff away in 3 large dumpsters, not because we wanted to. Not because we enjoyed seeing things our children cherished thrown away. But because we HAD to. I won't go into the specifics about money timelines and use it or lose it policies, but we never EVER meant for anyone to get upset with us rebuilding. That being said, we are not going to sit back and let people sling our names and integrity around town either. Things were done by contractors, most of those contractors backed up their work with receipts and invoices. Some chose not to, and changed their prices and their stories. We were taken advantage of. Friendship gone. Sad world we live in. Lesson learned.
On to happier things. I have a very happy, healthy, amazing family. We are not perfect, we have our flaws like all of you. But I thank God every day for the life we get to live. And the lessons we've learned along the way. Things are things. People are people. Life is life. In the end, who you love and who your heart belongs to, only truly matters.
The following pictures are part of an amazing gift by a local photographer who donated her time to us after our fire. A year and a half and three rain reschedules later, we got our pics! LOVE THEM! Shelly Jensen is amazing!
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