My life according to soccer

No one ever told me that my husband would be infatuated with soccer/football and spend all of his waking moments, when he's not working on a sermon, watching, eating, sleeping, breathing, dreaming, web-surfing, and thinking about Euorpean and North American soccer/football. I've learned that my life is a lot like soccer. I've recently learned new words and definitions in my life. Are you ready? Words like: FIFA, Striker (not a baseball guy who swings and misses), MLS (not the real estate people, either), pitch (again, not a baseball reference), Sentanta Sports, Adidas (ok, I knew this one, but didn't realize how much it would infiltrate my life), Geordies, Ameobi, and The World Cup - by the way, did you know that soccer teams play two different tournaments at the same time? Now that's multi-tasking! (kind of like having 3 kids playing baseball on the same night, at the same time, at 3 different fields!) They play regularly scheduled league play and then on top of it they squeeze in World Cup or other National tournament games. So they can be Red-Carded or Yellow-Carded in one league, and still get to play in another - kind of like "do-overs." Oh yeah, add Red/Yellow Card to that vocab list too.

So I am now a fan of the Chicago Fire men's professional soccer team, as well as the new Chicago Red Stars women's pro team. I put on my red & white, my scarf (yet another vocab word), my Fire earrings, and head to Toyota Park to cheer with Section 8 (don't ask - you just have to experience it). Can't say I'm overly surprised though. This has been coming for a year now and it has become like an addiction. What's really funny is that I started going with Joe and the kids because it was a family function that everyone got into. It was something that we could all cheer for and not fight about (we've got Cubs, Sox, Braves, Bears, and other sports fans in this tribe and it can get pretty ugly at times). BUT, as the games have continued, there's something about standing in a crowd of 15,000 people all singing the same songs and chants cheering on our beloved Red and White. The community at TP (no, not the stuff you throw in trees) is really awesome and the Fire organization is top notch to it's fans. Not only that, but they picked the most awesome person in the whole wide world to be the very first Soccer Mom of the Match this year! (wink, wink!) This whole "football" thing is kind of fun. Maybe I should start giving my kids Yellows and Reds instead of timeouts? Hmmmm...food for thought.

Ramblings for this week

The Chicago Fire lost against New England. Alas, our short season as new soccer fans is over (for now). I just found out that the European leagues play pretty much all year. Woo-hoo. I don't think there's one month in a calendar year that my family is not cheering for some type of sports team.

In VLI we just completed the Keirsey Temperment Test (Meyer-Briggs) and the DiSC Inventory. Very, very telling. It explains alot about how people in our church behave. It also shed a lot of light on our own children and why they act the way they do. Very interesting. I can't say I'm totally surprised by my results or by Joe's results. These tests pretty much pegged us, however there were a few points I kind of disagreed with. If you've never taken one of these inventories, I would encourage you to try one. Just "Google" them online - some of them are even free!

I've got another intensive this weekend (Acts & Missions) and a final in two weeks. Nathan and Ben's birthdays are next week and so is Turkey Day! Have a great Thanksgiving! :)