They gave it a good try!

Lately I have come to realize, as my kids grow older, that I no longer plan their weekends, but they plan mine. I'm not always very happy about this, because it often seems that I am only appreciated by those two always-hungry, often smelly things I call my teenage boys when I have car keys and/or cash in hand, preferably in combination.

This weekend has been much the same, so far, but it was also a little fun. Last week, Evan brought me the newspaper to show me an advertisement for a 3-on-3 basketball tournament to be held today.

"Mommy..." he said, which is always my clue that some major sucking-up and a loss of money from my wallet is about to commence. It's rather disturbing to hear a 16-year-old say "mommy," but it's a nice break from hearing him call me "Twink," the nickname that ONLY my parents are allowed to use and which he loves to irritate me with. Anyway, since he actually remembered to ask nicely, I gave my blessing and my credit card and we signed up him , Braden, and another friend of theirs. All the money went to a charity called Buckets for Change, which helps youth in Africa, so at least it was for a good cause.

This morning, I woke up at 9:00 a.m. with Braden poking me. I should probably be thankful that they let me sleep in at all, but this week has been another of those long weeks where I have NOT been able to sleep worth beans, so I was really really really (insert about 2 dozen more "really's" at this point) looking forward to sleeping in later than normal. I used their trick and asked for "just 5 more minutes." 3 minutes later they sent Savannah in to poke me again. We didn't have to be there until 11:30 for pity's sake!

We got to the event, signed in, waited in the hallway with about 60-70 other boys ranging in age from 14 to 25 FOREVER. Did I mention there was no place to sit but the floor? After an hour of waiting, they finally got the brackets together and the boys were assigned to play the winner of two other high school teams: a group from Mtn. Crest, the boys' high school, and the other team, from the land of the Phillistines (you know, where Goliath from your Sunday School days was from?). Okay, I may exaggerate a bit: They WERE as big as Goliath, but they were really from Logan High.

The rules were that the first team to reach 20 points won and moved to the next bracket. The giants easily wiped out the first Mtn. Crest team and then took on my boys. I have to say that the other team was very nice and had fun playing with the boys, kind of like a cat plays with a mouse before it devours it! Evan was the tallest on our team, at 5'7". Sophomores and seniors are NOT created equally. The top of his head literally didn't reach the shoulder of the tallest kid on the other team. They gave it their all, and they really did get some good shots, but it just wasn't enough. It was on to the next team, also built more like football linebackers and a good half-foot taller than any of us. Again, they gave it their all, but it was all over but the crying. They were done (secretly I was a little happy because we could finally go home. My butt was numb from sitting on hard gym floors for so long).

As we left, Braden, ever the comedian, thanked the organizers and apologized for having wasted their time. All in all it was about 5 hours lost in my day, but it really was fun.

When we got home, I picked up this morning's paper, which I hadn't had time to read earlier. There, on the front page of the sports section, was a full color, 8x8 picture of one of the kids they had played on the first game: turns out he was just named player of the year for the entire valley, and Goliath, also known as "Big D" according to the article? He's defensive player of the year.

I think our boys should be proud for the effort they put in! If it had been me, I'd have probably run the other way.

March 28, 2009