Idols

 It's no secret that Regan looks up to a lot of athletes in her favorite sport of softball. She is lucky enough to have *the* most amazing head coach, who also recently finished playing 4 years of D2 softball at UMD. Becky is the perfect mix of intense and fun. Those two spend hours upon hours together, not only at training, games and practices, but during private lessons and via messages sending video and training tips. When Becky advertised hosting a clinic for the younger age groups this winter, Regan eagerly offered to help run the clinic and happily woke up at 6am in order to spend the day side by side with her own idol. At the end of the clinic, as we drove away, Regan teared up telling me how she remembers not long ago, being the little girl at those clinics, idolizing those big girls running the clinic. And now she is the big girl, working with those little ones who are looking up to her; oh how roles have reversed.   

Just Regan and Becky, in an otherwise empty training facility, working on drills and improving skills

We orchestrated a team bonding event to surprise Becky at her women's hockey game. After deciding to not kill me, I think she was in awe of her cheering section and maybe secretly even enjoyed it! 

This past weekend, we had a unique opportunity, as another one of Regan's idols was selling some of her gear/clothing from her days as a MN Gopher softball player. We were quick to start messaging with Makenna Partain and purchase some of her clothes for Regan. But the best part about the day of the purchase, was watching Regan muster up the courage and tell Makenna how great of a player she was and ask to snap a picture together. I think it completely surprised this former Gopher player who was super sweet and was happy to hear someone looked up to her :) 

I hope Regan continues to find these amazing women to look up to as she journeys through high school and beyond, while recognize she is graduating into the same role for those younger than she. 

Life Lately and Christmas prep

 It's a little challenging to prep for Christmas with all the chasing kids around that we do each week. But we're squeaking in a little cookie baking, tree decorating, present wrapping and just days before Christmas, we finally added lights to the house (perhaps with a lot of begging on my part). You see, these kiddos of ours are in love with their activities and sports, tugging us in every direction 6 (sometimes 7) days/week. We put on at least 150 miles each week driving them to practices, games, lessons and training.  Sometimes I manage to run in/out of stores during their longer 3 hour trainings, or shop online from the comfort of my car during their shorter 1 hour trainings. I search Pinterest for the latest Elf happenings and set reminders on my phone to be sure the sneaky thing has moved when I finally crawl into the house at night, often after 10:30pm. I turned my car into a "carfice", in other words my car office. 

And in between all of those sports and activities, we are sledding and crafting (more like science-kit building) and trying to find a good Hallmark show. 

It doesn't quite feel like Christmas to me yet, maybe it's because I haven't had a chance to slow down. We have one more day of school/work this week, and then we'll take a breather and try to enjoy the season, because at this point, I kind of feel like Ellie our Elf!