Barcelona and Basketball

I'm still dying away over here, but it does give me time to post. Someday, I may post the graphic details of having the flu while pregnant, but I question whether people really want to know! Let's just say, Dan married a beautiful, vibrant, happy and healthy woman who has recently transformed into Quasimodo. I miss being myself. I have little control over my body. That description should suffice.

Yesterday was a good day for our household. I felt way better than I have the past two weeks. I even put my contacts in! Big day!! I haven't been taking the girls to any of their activities, but I did manage to take them to their last basketball practice of the season. And what's MORE, Dan arrived home from Barcelona 5 minutes before I had to take them, and he kept Harris at home with him. So I could just sit by my trollish self away from the crowds and watch the girls play their hearts out.

The girls still don't know what sport they are playing. After two solid months of practice, Gwen still took the ball, cradled it like a baby and charged down the court without a single dribble. She also got in trouble for being too aggressive. Maybe I should sign her up for football? And June kept talking to to the coaches throughout the drills and stopped to give them several unnecessary hugs instead of concentrating on whether the ball was coming to her or not.

Nevertheless, it was a good experience, as all of our interactions with the Pathways program are. Kids of all levels and abilities and attention spans come together with adult and high school-aged mentors and work to whatever each kid's next step is. And they are okay with all the hugs June gives.

There are some kids who are scared to try anything. There are some kids who have a one-on-one mentor the entire time and they just work on one skill. There are kids who are really good at sports. There are kids who don't know what sports are. It's right up my alley.

A "team" photo. There are a lot more mentors than this. My June usually has someone work just with her and Gwen and maybe one other kid. The kid-to-mentor ratio is amazing.

And when we came home, we were able to hear about Dan's trip to Barcelona.

I, for one, was a little surprised he came back. At all. But I'm so glad he did. We were in rough shape while he was gone, and he has come back and immediately jumped into taking care of me.

He bought us presents. Right before he doled them out, he turned to me and said, "I'm going to do this like our dads would."

A dozen different scenarios ran through my head of what he could mean. Were we about to embark on a terrible yard work project, where the kids would earn their European chocolates after hours in the sun? Was there going to be a trivia portion to the night (which I would love but the kids would loathe)? What direction were we going?

Sometimes we still have the kids take their shirts off to eat. Haha.

And then Dan started talking about the history of Spain and Catalonia and current political conflicts there. The girls didn't care, but I was enthralled. This is my kind of talk! And exactly how my dad would have presented it. I should have known that's what he meant.

He started by talking about currency.

He gave us chocolate.

 And he gave me some jewelry.

And Harris gets this adorable jersey.

And then we all went to bed, except me. I had had this really great day and then coughed until 3 AM, at which point I was crying from pain. And Dan took care of me. I'm glad he's back.

The End.