Did I mention that AJ had started soccer practice? If I did, I probably didn't mention that his games were starting too, because I didn't know! He had his first practice Thursday, which was a day he stayed home sick, so he didn't go to the practice. He had a game on Saturday at 11:00, which I didn't know about until 9:30 Saturday morning, and I was leaving at 9:45 to go to the church! AJ was actually still in the shower when I got the call. He had to hustle to get everything ready to go. As it was, Alli and I left before he and Ralph were ready to go, since they both had slept in.



I missed most of the game. I took him to the Anderson River Park at 10:45 and hung out long enough to see that he found his coach (we had no idea who he was!) and the start of the game. He changed into his uniform on the field - there is no modesty in the child! He did sit down to change his shorts, so he didn't show everyone his underpants. I love boys! After the game started, I took Alli back to the church to finish our job.

Church cleanup went good. I checked twice with the guy who was supposedly organizing it, and showed up at 10:00. Everyone else showed up at 9:00 or before. He told me that no one else followed his orders around there. I think I won't follow them anymore either! I got my usual job - windows! The insides were already done by the time I got there, so I got the ladder part outside. My only problem - Alli was inside! When I went to check in for what job they wanted me to do, I went into the sanctuary to talk to the 'head of cleaning' (since it obviously wasn't who I had talked to before!) and Alli found herself a seat on a pew, and settled in for the duration. She stayed there for about 40 minutes - until I had to leave to take AJ to his game. I would work for a couple of minutes and then go check on her, work a couple of minutes and go check on her. She was so cute and happy! The group of ladies that were cleaning the sanctuary loved her! After taking AJ to his game, I kept Alli with me outside, and she laughed and spun the whole time - happy girl!

Ralph was replacing some broken sprinkler heads at the church, and he wore himself out! He said he got up and down so many times he was exhausted. He did get three of the four sprinklers fixed - and it wasn't his fault that he didn't get the fourth one fixed! He had met up with Charlie from the church on Friday so he could see what he needed in the way of parts, and there were only three broken sprinklers at the time, so....he got parts for three sprinklers. Then, when the lawn was being mowed on Saturday, they ran over a different sprinkler, and Ralph didn't have parts for that one! Ralph got to take the rest of the day off after helping me out at the church. He did BBQ hamburgers for us for dinner - yum!

After I finished cleaning windows, Alli and I went back to AJ's game, and caught the last 20 minutes of it. AJ wasn't playing very well, and was actually sitting out most of the time I was there. Turns out they were ahead 6-0, and they weren't playing very aggressively so as to not drive up the score. Some of the same kids from prior years are on his team, including the kid across the street. One new set of parents I met recognized Alli from Challenger League baseball. Their daughter was on AJ's soccer team, and their son was just a year behind Alli, and just a bit more 'functional' that she is. The mom and I had a nice chat, and I look forward to the rest of the season! (It isn't often I find someone in the same circumstances - one 'normal' teenager, and one 'not'.) On a side note - Alli took herself to the bathroom again yesterday to go poop! Yippee!