The Beginning of Noise

Friday evening, we arrived shortly after kick off at the high school football game which our friend, Derek, coaches for. We found seats next to our friends and enjoyed the game, which the Fremont Little Giants won!

You know there's really nothing that makes you feel quite as old as when you go to a high school sporting event. It just so happened to be their homecoming game and the high-school hoochies were rampant. Within five minutes of being seated, Eric and I looked at each other and wondered who let the stripper referees up in the stands. Two pretty teenage girls had claimed their railing (which, I'm guessing may someday turn into a pole) and showed off their tight-enough-to-be-painted-on referee striped spandex shirts and shiny, pleather, pleated mini skirts. Just to show a little more of their fashion sense, they paired their skimpies with white knee socks , hooker heels, ball caps and whistles. Wow. Jaw dropping. I saw one talking on her Razor cell phone and wondered where in the world she had pulled it from. Her outfit was THAT tight that their was hardly room for a bulk which a Razor phone would have.

We (and probably the other 300 football fans present) wondered where in the world their mothers were and could almost feel their parents' embarrassment if they only knew what their "pretty" daughters were representing.

So, you really don't need to hear any more about how many times my eyeballs nearly popped out of my face in shock and sometimes horror over teenage behavior and appearance, let me tell you about what a good weekend we had. After the Friday night game, all of the coaches gather at our friends' house and hang out, have some drinks and eat too much food, way too late. Such was the case this night also. Elaina had a great time at the football game and was more than excited to be going to her friends' house to sleep over. In addition to Mackenzie, Camryn and Kendyl, there were 2 other little girls there to join in the fun. Between the 6 girls playing together, the toy room looked as though it had been hit by some supernatural force of nature to cause so much destruction. I'm only mildly exaggerating but, these three little girls who live there have just about every girl themed toy ever made, which made my little girl feel like she was in toy / babydoll/ cooking / jewelry paradise. Saturday morning was off to an early start when Elaina woke at 5:30 wondering where she was and trying to find her missing binkies, followed by a sleepy Lincoln who woke at 6:00 due to all of Elaina's commotion and flopping about. Eric and I were definitely paying the price of late night visiting with our friends and an after 2:00 bedtime. And so we were up. And so Saturday never stopped. The guys hung out watching what else? Football. The little girls played and napped. The big girls (Beth and myself) hit a few end-of season garage sales. And our little linebacker-in-the-making was held and kissed and passed around onto every 2, 4 and 6 year old lap in the house.
We made time to visit Derek's parents who wanted to spend a little more time visiting with us and seeing the kids than the first half of the football game in bleacher seats had to offer. After dinner, we drove 20 minutes to my parents' house to drop off some Tastefully Simple hostess kits for my mom to host a book party and my other friend to serve at her November show. (WooHoo, I'm getting shows booked!)

We already knew that we wouldn't have much time to spend with them since we had already had a long day and an even longer drive home. For the 45 minutes that we stayed, Elaina was overjoyed to play with her Pop-Pop and asked her Gramma to make her cinnamon rolls. Boy does she have each one of my parents' pegged with what she wants from them! Even for a short visit, it was so worthwhile. I had to pry Lincoln out of their arms just to change his diaper and had to con Elaina into getting back into the car by the bribe of the binkies awaiting her to go to sleep.

It was a great, busy, full two days, but, again, so worthwhile to see so many people we love. I think we both felt like we were cheating on Eric's parent's since we literally had no time to make a trip to their house. I even felt like it was unfair to only be at my parents' house for under an hour. That never happens. And so I was the lucky winner to make our nearly 3 hour drive home while Eric and the kids slept soundly. We arrived safely home after 11:00 and were all ready to drop. (Refer to: functioning on 3.5 hours sleep the previous night.)

Why did we have to hurry home on a Saturday night rather than Sunday, you may ask? Because Eric had Steelers tickets for Sunday's game. Yes, it is all about the Steelers.

(Editor's Note: I was able to crackle a little bit above a whisper on Friday night and a full blown crackly-hoarse voice was my achievement for Saturday. NICE.)