Texan Football - Playoff Time

While JB & Will's Falcons didn't quite make the playoffs, my & Annelise's Texans did...which, if I'm being 100% honest, is bittersweet. Cheer has ended up being reeeeally draining: two hours of practice both Mondays & Wednesdays and learning a new 2-3 minute cheer dance for halftime every single week is a lot to ask from girls ages 5-9, doing this as a low-key rec activity. [Not all of the other squads do this. Actually, none do.] I think the only one who isn't worn out & over this season is the head coach (I signed up to be assistant, b/c I didn't want to step on any toes being new in such an established organization) b/c she isn't backing off one bit, even though the season is winding down. The girls *know* all the cheers; they're also getting more homework as we get deeper into the school year...and more jaded with cheer. :-( I wish we would repeat previous halftime dances from earlier in the season and slash the practice times, (esp. b/c each dance could have looked so much better with some extra cleaning, instead of rushing to teach & then dumping it) but that's not the plan. This season has definitely been a giant lesson in humility for me - biting my tongue with every rebuffed suggestion, not losing it over ultimately unmerited nepotism, swallowing my pride when my greater experience (as an actual dance teacher) disputed the choices, not letting it keep me down every time I was ignored. I'm not used to *not* being the Queen Bee, and while I pray I've never been as flip towards anyone who has assisted me, this has definitely been an exclamation point in the neverending lesson of grace - both giving & receiving. [I chant my steady mantra of "next year, next year, next year" when my insides churn. :-P] Now I don't mean that it's been 100% horrific - truly, I'm just venting three months of built-up argh that seems to have just poured out here all at once. :-D Annelise & I both learned new things, I love the overall football organization, and most of the girls on the squad are so precious. ...But it breaks my heart that this has made Annelise not want to cheer. :-/ We'll see if her tune changes after we get some distance from this season, and if I head coach... (I would never force her; hey - I let her voluntarily give up dance this year for gymnastics! *THAT* was something for me.)

Wow. That was really therapeutic.

Thanks, y'all.

*deep breath*

And now to the happy aspects:

How cute are we? :-P (Yes, that's the sunrise this morning...)

LOVE this stunt at the end of our "Footloose" dance!!!

Our Texans won today (I confess, I rooted for the Jets in my heart - shhhhh! ;-)) so we've got another week of normal practices before next Saturday's 2nd round playoff game. At least we get to be there at 9:30 AM next week instead of 7:30 AM, like today. I think it makes it more disheartening that JB & Will aren't still playing, too, you know? We also have a league-wide practice for an hour tomorrow to prep for halftime for the TurfBowl - the Nov. 18th championship game where every cheer squad dances together at halftime.

On a completely different Texas football note, we finally made it to a local high school football game!!! We haven't been able to go w/ JB & Will having had football practice on Friday nights and with us having our own games all day Saturdays. Now that the boys are done, and since our cheer game was at 8 AM, we made it to the crosstown rival game at 11 AM today. Let me just say, WOW!!!!!!!!

This stadium is actually where we'll also cheer the TurfBowl, and yes - that is a JUMBOTRON!!! FOR HIGH SCHOOL!!!! (Any other Friday Night Lights fans out there? ♥) And they had INSTANT REPLAY! FOR HIGH SCHOOL!!!! God bless Texas. :-D