Our little bit of free time

Despite being so busy, we’ve still taken a little time to do the things we love.  I played in two volleyball tournaments in the last3 weeks (poor timing, but I committed before knowing our listing timeframe, plus my opportunities to play are limited, both this season and longterm).  We tied for 3 in pool play in the first tournament (and lost the tiebreaker for playoffs), and we lost in the finals in the last tournament, so we did pretty great in that one.  My knees are torn up, my finger and thumb are swollen and bruised, but that’s the story of a volleyball  player.  I really love playing, and I feel like I’ve just finally got back to being confident on the court again after having taken so much time off with my elbow injury, during pregnancy and the several months after.  Once we move, I’ll still be able to play once a week in leagues if I want, or even just sub, but hopefully we’ll start to expand our family soon, and I’ll stop playing again for that.  Maybe it’ll be time for me to move on from volleyball at that point.  And I’m perfectly happy with that.  Life changes, and I’ll change with it.  Volleyball isn’t forever, but my family will be.  I’ve met a large portion of my friends through volleyball over the past 12 years and many of them will always be my friends.  Lo has been great about me playing as much as I want, though I definitely dialed back from the 4+ times I was playing per week when we started dating.

It actually worked out great that Lo’s mom was able to watch Jenson on the days I had tournaments this month (once at our house and once at hers), so Lo could get a bunch done while I was gone.  (shout out to Kim – she’s been a huge help with both watching Jenson and giving us stuff to use to stage our bedrooms).  Lo crossed off a huge list of tasks while Jenson and I were both out for the day…he probably worked harder than I did playing 7 hours of volleyball.

The night before, Lo got to go to the Crew (soccer) opener on Saturday night, despite getting over a bad cold and getting bit by a dog before the game (it was a friend’s dog and it wasn’t a bad bite, but he still went to get it looked at the next day so he could get it cleaned out and get antibiotics/tetnus).  (Also, it wasn’t the dog’s fault, so if the owners are reading this, stop apologizing!  Your dog was doing his job.)  So other than that, he had a good time.

I took Jenson to Target while he was gone, which wasn’t as fun, because I didn’t take the kinderpack and he didn’t want to sit in the cart seat after 5 minutes because he wanted to walk.  And then we (I) accidentally started playing a game where he’d go the opposite direction and I’d chase him and then throw him in the air.  So obviously he wanted to keep doing that, and I resorted to carrying him sideways through the store while trying to also push a cart.  He was actually pretty ok with that, but he got heavy.  So, next time I’m strapping him to me and NOT going right before bed.

*PSA to everyone, never get down by a dog’s face unless it is your own or a dog that is incredibly familiar with you – and even then, you never know.  It’s not a behavioral issue – their mouths are their only defense and if they feel threatened (or feel like their people are), they do what they have to do.  Humans have hands and feet to push people away if threatened…dogs don’t.  It’s so easy for dog lovers to make that mistake –I’m guilty of it too.  If anyone is a candidate for face bites, it’s me.  I kiss Boof so much and I “know” that she loves it, but Lo isn’t so sure and tells me she’s going to get tired of me and bite me.  But I just want to hug her and squeeze her and love her.  Actually, speaking of this, we’ve allowed Jenson to give Boof kisses and we should start discouraging that.  He doesn’t grab her to kiss her, but he’ll bend over and she’ll either kiss him or ignore him, depending on whether she things he’s had anything good to eat recently.  But it’s a really bad habit because we don’t want him to think he can kiss any dog.  We are strict with him about how he pets her, and he gets the whole “gentle” concept, but we’ve allowed him to be too brave with her toys and leaning over for kisses.  I don’t have any fear of her hurting him, but any other dog is the concern.

So even though we didn’t get to relax much in the last month, we got to make a little time for the things we love.  And now we can sit and watch tv at night until we have to start packing again for our move in mid-April.  I told Lo I couldn’t wait to sit and watch TV, which is something that he’d never thought he’d hear me say because I didn’t used to turn on the tv if he was gone.  But by sitting and watching tv, I also mean editing pictures and blogging, so it’s a package deal.  I shouldn’t pretend like it was all work and no play while we were getting our house ready – when Jenson was awake, we were always spending time with him and playing.  We just had to work extra hard after he went to bed each night, which is when we’d typically relax.  I know we’ll spend a whole month getting settled into our new house, but at least it won’t be such a frantic pace.  All of the hard work was worth it since our house went into contract so quickly – and it feels amazing to live in a decluttered and clean house.  We’ll definitely have to keep that in mind when setting stuff up at the new house.