Weekend Update

I have got four hundred and eighty-one things I want to tell you about but have been going ninety to nothing since 6:00 Thursday morning, and now I'm so tired I don't have the energy to type out all four hundred and eighty-one things. SO, you'll have to live with one long, protracted story and a couple of little tidbits, okay?

Tidbit #1: Sawyer and I went with Tyler and Darcy and the rest of the 5th and 6th grade PCA Band to the Sandy Lake FunFest on Thursday, where they played Pirates of the Caribbean and earned a 1 for their efforts--woo hoo! The day could not have been more perfect--Sandy Lake bills itself as an "amusement park" but it is nowhere near on the scale of, say, Six Flags. Therefore, you don't have the lines, the crowds, the lines . . . and you've got bumper cars!! I rode with Sawyer once and discovered yet another ride I have no business being on with my neck and back condition--ouch!--but then Sawyer rode with a boy in Darcy's class at the same time that Darcy and Tyler were driving, so I had the immense pleasure of watching all three have the time of their life banging and crashing into one another. It doesn't get much better than that.

Tidbit #2: The ACSI District Young Authors competition was Friday morning so I dropped Darcy off bright and early so she could attend a couple of workshops, and then I went back at noon for the awards ceremony. She won second place for her story entitled The Life of a Teenage Missionary--another woo-hoo!!

Tidbit #3: The good news - I finally got to attend one of Tyler's baseball games! The bad news - his team stinks. And I am sad to say that the fun has completely gone out of it for Tyler. I will be honest, too--I'm having trouble saying, "Oh well, it's just a game." I mean, he it out there on the mound giving it all he's got, and he's got the Bad News Bears backing him up. This has been a looooong season.

And now for the wrap-up: Yesterday was Opening Day for Darcy's softball team. Ask me how many practices she's gone to. Go ahead, ask me.

None.

No wait, I take that back. She went to exactly one practice, and that's what makes this story funny. In her defense, practices have been every Sunday at 5:00 and I'm sorry, but she's NEVER going to make a practice at that time. And I told the coach that, but he was not deterred. Anyway, since their first game was Saturday, the coach called a practice for 5:00 Friday afternoon--hello??--and Darcy had not planned to attend that one either because she had been invited to a birthday party/sleepover that began at--you guessed it--5:00. But I'd called the Y and learned that uniforms and schedules were to be passed out at Friday's practice, so I convinced Darcy that she really needed to shift her priorities. And it wasn't difficult--she has longed to play softball pretty much ever since her season ended last summer.

I had to be at the church building Friday night to help set up for our Craft Fair, so Randy agreed to take Darcy to practice. And I'm telling you, she could not wait to go. She was literally champing at the bit.

Around 7:00 my cell phone rang.

Me: "Hello?"
Darcy: (sobbing) "Mom, why can't I go to Chey's house?"
Me: "Darcy, you said you wanted to go to softball practice."
Darcy: (sobbing) "But now I want to go to the party!"
Me: "Darcy, they went to Incredible Pizza. They're not even at her house."
Darcy: (sobbing) (Are you detecting a pattern?) "Why can't I go when they get back?"
Me: "Darcy, you have a game at 9:00 in the morning. You have to be there at 8:30. We have to leave the house at 8:00."
Darcy: (sobbing) "Can't you just pick me up?!"
Me: "Darcy! You have a game at 9:00 IN THE MORNING! Last week when you were at Chey's house you stayed up until 4:00 a.m.!"
Darcy: (sobbing) "I promise I won't stay up late this time! And besides, I don't even want to play softball anymore!"

HOLD THE PHONE.

Me: "You don't want to play softball anymore?"
Darcy: (sobbing) "No! We're gonna lose! They can't do anything!"
Me: "Darcy, that didn't seem to bother you last year. How many of the girls from last year are back this year?"
Darcy: (sobbing) "Most of them. But we're not going to win ANY games! I don't even want to play! Why can't I go to Chey's house?!"

Okay, some of you may be laughing at this point, or shaking your heads and saying, "Poor Andrea." Let me reassure you that yes, I have two tween girls living under my roof; but Darcy really is not prone to all this drama, so save your pity for when I really need it.

Well, I finally convinced Darcy that her ship had sailed and there would be no party for her that night, and when I got home around 8:30 that night she was sitting there as calm as could be. She said, "I'm sorry I said I didn't want to play softball. I was just frustrated that I couldn't go to the party." Aha.

Cut to Saturday morning. We show up to the ball field and Darcy goes to warm up while I chat with some of the other moms. Next thing you know, Darcy is sidling up behind me and whispering, "Mom, I'm the starting pitcher." Kill me now. Yes, this child has talked about softball ever since she laid her glove down for the last time last July and has eagerly anticipated getting back out on the ball field but the fact remains: She hadn't pitched a ball in nine months. Seriously, kill me now.

But guess what happened? She pitched two innings, in which she struck out three batters and had the ball hit toward her three times, at which point she fielded the ball and threw it to the first baseman, who actually caught it and got the runner out! All three times!!! I told one of the moms, "We may be looking at an altogether different team this year!"

At the plate, Darcy was three-for-three and she scored three runs--may I say "Woo hoo!" one more time? The best one was her last hit; she had gotten two singles in her first two at-bats and she wasn't about to sit down without another hit. That is her typical approach when she is batting, meaning she sometimes swings at bad pitches. And boy, did she swing at a BAD one this time--she seriously looked like she was golfing. But when the next pitch came to her, she knocked that sucker past the second baseman and into the outfield! Most of our girls had hot bats Saturday so Darcy's Cowboys won their first game 13-5! Needless to say, Darcy's not quitting the team!