nineteen: soccer ball

As, I've already mentioned, many, many years ago, when we were just wee young things, Tom and I played lots and lots of soccer. We played on co-ed teams together, and separately on men and women leagues. We both learned the sport as adults, since it wasn't offered when we were kids. In fact, it wasn't a game we had really even heard of growing up. It was a difficult sport to learn because all the sports we had ever played relied on your hand-eye coordination, and, of course, in soccer, you use your feet. There was a learning curve, and a humbling time, but after we "got it", we were totally excited about playing. It required great conditioning, there was body contact, and being aggressive was what made a good player. In fact, in later years when Stephanie was playing high school soccer, we told her that for every person she knocked down, we'd give her five dollars. It didn't take long for her to understand that the fun was in the battle, and we had to stop the payment because she was getting too aggressive. We surely loved soccer, but we had to give it up after our kids began to play. Plus, Tom, ever the weekend warrior, had eventually gotten too many knee surgeries to overcome. Sad, but that is life.

You might wonder then, what we will do with this brand new soccer ball. Well, Tom planned for that by buying a ball that is a youth size, and it is already in the hands, or I should say feet, of our grandson, Malachi.