Meet Some of my Wildcats

Friday night was our meet the Wildcat night.  The community gathers around the football field and coaches introduce all of our athletes out for fall sports.  The pep band plays.  The cheerleaders cheer.  The cross country team runs their time trials.  The volleyball team scrimmages.  The boosters serve a meal.

And I take pictures.

 

I've mentioned that I am taking pictures on behalf of the football team. 

It's really quite a nice little gig for me. 

It would be quite accurate to say that my heart is totally in this job. 

Literally. 

On Friday nights you will find me down on the sidelines, taking snapshots of the Durant Wildcat football team. 

And my heart will be under those same Friday night lights, only on the other side of the camera. 

You will find my heart wearing the number 4 and filling water bottles and taping wrists. 

It will also be wearing the number 6 and

 

a size 11 shoe like this...

My heart may also be wearing a headset and calling plays or assisting the line players

It's safe to say that my heart is definitely in the job.

It's just on the opposite side of the camera. 

New Blog

So I have been working on putting a new blog together.  One that would serve more as an "author/speaker/snapshot-storyteller" website than just a journal. 

I have exactly ONE post up over there.  It's called "Football is a team game. So is life."

I think I am scared of the word "professional."

And I'm not sure if I should just keep it all here on Write-On, Mom!

Tell me what you think.  Click on over to A Well-Storied Life

Should I keep up with the two blogs, or keep them all here on one?

Seriously...I want to know what you think.

Back-to-School Snapshot & Pep-Talk Torture

It's the first day of school.  Not our first go-around with the back-to-school drill.

Outfits were picked out, lunches packed.  Band instruments, gym clothes, binders....

The kids got it all together; my role downgraded to merely spouting off the checklist before they headed out the door.

And taking the traditional first day of school snapshots and my rah-rah pep-talk to get them fired up for the new school year.  They used to roll their eyes at me when I would get the camera out.  But now it is old hat.  Expected.

They still roll their eyes.

As I was getting my camera ready, it occurred to me that this is a temporary tradition.  Just because August comes every year, doesn't mean I'm gonna have students in my home heading off to their first day of a new school year.  I only get 13 first-day-of-school photos.

And I'm on the 12th first day with this kid:

 11th first day with Marz. 

 8th First Day for Claire:

7th First Day for Tookie:

I was asking the kids how they hoped their new school year would go.

Actually I said "How do you want the story of your (junior/sophomore/7th grade/6th grade) year to read?

Responses were things like:  good grades, no drama, go to state in sports, the best jr. prom in the history of our school.....

Mind you, the discussion was forced.  I was the only one who really wanted to talk about it.  So I forced my pep talk which I wanted to sound like this:

Happy first day of your new school year. 

This year is your story to write. 

It is your story to live. 

Want good grades?  Want to go to state in sports?  Want to plan the best Jr. Prom in the history of our school?  Don't let someone else determine what your story should be.  And don't sit back and watch other people live their stories.  Write your story.  Live it.  Become a positive character in the stories of those around you.  

Don't want to be known as a drinker?  Be involved with drama?  Get bogged down with negativity?  You don't have to be.  Edit that stuff out of your story.

I can't promise you that there will be a happy ending for each story you write.  But one thing I have learned about the ending of every good story is this:  it isn't about the ending at all.  It is about the journey.  It's about what happens on each page that makes you want to turn to the next page.  It's about the struggles that are going to happen.  The struggles that can make you stronger, or the struggles that can bring you down.  Yours is about how you handle each day, each page, each good and each bad thing. 

Your (Jr/sophomore/7th-grade/6th-grade) stories will come to an end in 180 school-calendar days. 

Make it a memorable story.

Except that my pep talk came out more like this:

Don't buy a water a la carte at lunch. It's too expensive.  Take one with you.

As you can tell, I'm pretty good at this motivational speech stuff.  

Another Week/end in Snapshot Review

This sort of sums up my week:

I spent it behind the lens.

But I'm so glad I got to capture these week in snapshots.

 Marz turned 15 this summer.  She has been so busy, it's been hard to get away for some snapshots to mark it.  Last Sunday she pretended to be a model and I pretended to be a photographer and we snapped away. 

Guess what...she is a model.

In beauty and character.

How blessed I am to witness and capture it.

Here she is at the football field.  She is a team manager.  

It works out that I am the team photographer.

So I bring my lovely assistant with me, aka:  Tookie, and she gets recruited:

A great thing about this snapshot-story gig for the football team is that I get to capture some of my own kids too.

Speaking of Snapshot Stories.....that is what I am calling the photography that I have started doing.

Actually, I've been doing it for years, only it has been my way of chronicling my own family and life story.

Now I am helping other people, and the football team, to tell their own story through snapshots.

Check out the new page here on the blog for more info.

Here's a snapshot at camp.  

It's gonna be fun to follow this story this season:

 Also spent time at a parade:

 Look who decided to go out for band this year: 

 And my girl scout, Claire:

In between all of these snapshots, I actually worked at my two three other jobs, registered kids for school, dropped kids off at all the places they needed to be, and picked them up again.  I also fed these people.  

And I tried to keep some sense of order in my head and in my house.  I wasn't necessarily successful at the order part.

But we did eat and get to where we needed to be.

I feel like I should get a medal or something.  

What do the snapshots of your week look like?

Weekend in Photo Review

Snatshots.
Alot of little things adding up to a nice weekend.

Mama always told me this would happen

And now I know.

I'm guilty of putting my kids on a pedestal.  Forgetting that they are, in fact kids.  Human beings who mess up, disappoint, think like kids and not adults. 

Yesterday I was accused by one of these kids for not understanding their point of view. 

And I held firm that I did understand, but as the parent will follow through with the consequence that was laid out ahead of time.  No surprises.  Simple cause and effect. 

And the kid tried to make me feel bad for doing so. 

And OHHH how I wanted for the kid to just understand my point of view.  

Then I had like a 25 year flash back. 

It was me.  With my mom.  
Of me trying to make my mom feel guilty for not respecting the fact that I was a good kid and should be treated like an adult. 
Of me and my small vision.
Of me being disrespectful.
My mom not understanding me and me not understanding my mom.

Until now. 

Now I get it. 

As I was thinking and praying this morning for wisdom to know how to talk to my teen and the strength follow through, I had a sad feeling.

Sad about how I must come off to God in certain situations.
Trying to convince Him that I am a good kid.
That He must not understand my point of view.
Rationalizing.  With God, no less.  

I wonder if God feels as disheartened as I do today when He has to follow through with a consequences laid out for me when I am disobedient, or in this case, just plain old disrespectful. 

I wonder if He just wishes that I could see things from His point of view.  That we could flash forward about a quarter of a century so that I can look back on this day and say....

....oh yeah, I get it now.  

So as I am praying for wisdom and strength this morning, I am also asking forgiveness for acting like a teenager.

And as soon as I am done praying, I'm gonna go call my mom.

 

Train up a child in the way he should go;
    even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6