So after recovering from the excitement of Friday night's festivities, we all headed out to a reunion for my old soccer team from middle school & high school days. Actually, I sprinted out the door by myself to frantically help get things organized at my friend's house and left Matt & Gigi in charge of getting the babies dressed in their carefully chosen matching outfits. I don't dress the babies matching too often mostly because it requires too much thinking, but on special occasions I try to pull it together.
Way back in October when I attended my childhood bestie's wedding reception, several of us "Sting folks" decided it was time for a reunion. Now on many occasions before we had discussed this very idea but somehow in the craziness of our days, we never made it happen. But finally I decided to make it my mission to get it together with the help of lots of friends gathering addresses, etc. One of the girls was sweet enough to offer her house and so it began to take shape. In the future, I think planning a reunion from 300 miles away will not be on my top "to do"s list, but it all worked out perfectly. We had a great showing and it was so good to see everyone & all of their little ones.
I played for Sting for upwards of 8 or 9 years, basically from beginning to end. So I saw a lot of people come and go - and actually only 3 of us played all the way through on the same team. Yet, it always remained a very special group, one in which many of the core players and parents still keep in touch to do this day. If I am being honest, my early Sting days were not my favorite. Through most of elementary school and part of middle school, I was teased relentlessly by a lot of people, including a group of my teammates. I remember crying in my room before any sort of gathering like a team sleepover or overnnight trip because I knew it would not be a pleasant experience. I never knew why I was teased so much - maybe an easy target because I was so small, kinda nerdy, or more likely, because of the awesome sports goggles I was forced to wear since I wasn't allowed to get contacts until 6th grade. (Thanks, Mom! ha). :) At any rate, the teasing was not like anything you hear on the news now about these bullies, but still no fun.
Yet as we got older and the team morphed a bit, I began to make more friends who stood up for me and met girls who did not know about the previous teasing history. Soccer life dramatically improved by my junior year and I loved my team. And ironically, several of the biggest "teasers" are now a few of my closer friends --- we all grow up eventually and find we have much more in common than we ever had differences.
So seeing these women (some of them for the first time in well over 12 years) was so special. Everyone is doing their own thing, some are stay at home moms, some are soccer coaches, some work in the business world - but we all remember the good 'ole days of the Sting '80 Ladies. What a fun afternoon! Here are a few pics - of course we had to break out the traditional soccer team poses...
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| With all the kiddos |
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| The girls |
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| Girls and coaches |
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| Someone is breaking into the picture - precious! |
So after the reunion and catching our breath for a second, my good friend Amy came over to visit with her new son --- soooo good to see her although the visit was too brief as always. I think even if we had an entire night to catch up and chat, it still wouldn't be long enough. She is one of those that will forever be one of my "soul sisters" (cheesy as that may sound!) -- and I pray one of these days we can live closer than 300 miles. Of course, I completely forgot to break out the camera, so insert below a great pic of A, C, and baby R with R&Q. :)
And because we cannot rest for a moment while in Dallas, Matt and I hurriedly got the babies fed their dinner and did our best to clean ourselves up for "Twin Mommy & Daddy" night out. One of the many reasons I am on Team Facebook is that I have reconnected with two wonderful girls who both had twins right around the time I had Ryan & Quinn. We have been able to share the ups and downs of twin pregnancy, c-sections, having twin newborns, NICU stays, and all the other wonderful things that go along with twins. Not that I can't relate to my friends who have singletons because they have been a wonderful source of support as well --- but there is something nice about having friends who understand exactly what you are going through. These girls have become so special to me the past couple of years- and I am so happy we all got to hang out and burn off a little steam! I don't think us girls stopped talking from the moment we sat down until we finally said goodbye 3 or 4 hours later. Too fun - thanks A & M for a GREAT night. Must do it again soon. xoxo. Here are a few pics from that night:
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| M and I - her boys about 3 months younger than mine. |
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| All 3 of us - A's twins are about 4 months older than R&Q |
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| Whoa, these drinks were NOT all ours - I think our husband's drinks made their way into the pic -- oh and something funny happened to my eye when I was editing the pics. It's not usually silver. |
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| Hanging out at Gordon Biersch patio - it was a perfect patio night! |
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| The boys - who didn't get to talk to their wives all night because we never shut our mouths! What good sports - I think they all got along :) |
After leaving our dinner/drink night, it was of course IMPERATIVE that we stop at Taco Bueno. For some ungodly reason, Houston does not have Taco Bueno --- we have Cabana, Bell, but no Bueno. Makes no sense to me. So after getting the obligatory Mexi Dips and chips and a large diet coke, we finally headed home to crash for a few hours before R&Q's wake up call. I don't understand why they don't sleep in on the days that Mommy & Daddy are up wayyy past their standard bedtime?? We're going to need to work on that.
In B.C. (before children) days, we would have had a lazy Sunday morning, drinking coffee with my mom on the patio and then hitting up Chubby's for some greasy brunch, but not so much anymore. We had no idea how long it would take to get back to Houston, knowing the twin's schedule had been blown to pieces over the weekend. I was envisioning meltdowns all the way down 45. So we got the car packed up (or more specifically, Matt packed up the car), said our goodbyes and were on our way.
On the way out, we stopped by my dear friend Lisa's house to see her newest addition, born just a week or so earlier. Again, it was one of those times where I wish there were just more hours in the days to see everyone --- Lisa has been such an amazing friend to me and I just don't get to see her enough! Miss L was certainly 100% precious and perfect and I loved getting to meet her. It was also so neat for Lisa & Adam to finally meet Quinn, who was still in the NICU the last time they were in Houston to meet Ryan. After a quick visit (unfortunately! Love you guys!!!), we finally had to hit the road for good -- and somehow we timed it perfectly with the babies' second nap and again they slept halfway home and were pretty good the rest of the way. Thank God.
So whew, it was quite the whirlwind. It has pretty much taken me all week to recover, unpack,and get back on schedule. We had such a great time in a short amount of time - and feel blessed that R&Q finally got to meet all of these wonderfully special friends. Can't wait to go again. Well, maybe I can -- I need at least a few weeks to gather the energy to want to pack up our life again :)
