Being the wife...

Y'all, I'm so proud to be a coach's wife.

It is HARD work and I know I complain about it a lot, but it is not the end of the world.

It takes endless hours away from my family and I get annoyed, and often jealous.

It means sometimes my husband comes home later than I would like.

Sometimes my kids don't see him for days at a time.

Sometimes when they do see him, he's so tired he isn't much fun.

Sometimes he misses dinner, and bathtime, and bedtime.

He came home last night for about 5 minutes only to rush back out again.

But one of his kids needed him.... so we ate dinner, did bathtime, and bedtime without dad.

He loves coaching.

He is more passionate about that than most people understand.

There are days when I want to tell him to quit.

Days when I want to yell about how angry I am at the things it keeps him from.

Days when I'm annoyed because I've been alone with little/no help from him for too many hours.

There are times when I want to ask him why these kids seem more important than my family.

But then I go watch him coach and I see it.

This is what drives him.

Something deep inside of him would change if he stopped.

It is part of his lifeline.

A necessity, if you will.

Saturday I was able to leave my mom duties and my own coaching duties to someone else for a while.

I got to drive south and watch my husband do what he does.

I drove to Macon to watch him coach our boys.

They are OUR boys.

I feel like they live in my house sometimes because I hear about them OR from them so often.

The ones who have graduated stop by to say hello.

Some of them even call me Momma and that makes me smile.

This is the 4th year in a row that we have taken 2nd place.

2nd place is a HARD pill to swallow when you were counting on 1st.

It is not something my husband wants a congratulations for.

Good job, or great work... but not congratulations.

2nd place is not 1st.

And I can assure you that my heart broke as I watched the matches unfold Saturday afternoon.

I cried as I realized the score wasn't going to be in their favor.

Each time the referees blew the whistle and the score changed I cried a bit more.

Slowly understanding that mathematically, we couldn't catch up.

We were going to lose, take 2nd place, not win. 

All that work....

All those hours....

And we came up short.

Devastation.

Someone asked me if he cried too.

He did, but we didn't see it.

And Sunday morning, after the sting wore off, he began prepping.

He began busily compiling notes on his iPad on how he could make his kids better.

Notes for them on things to work towards.

Things to improve, change, eliminate, etc.

He spent the majority of the day working through his disappointment and anger with notes to get better.

He helped with breakfast, and lunch, and dinner, and bathtime for the kids.

He cleaned the house and took a nap.

We talked about every match and what could have happened differently.

He started to pull himself back up and trudge forward by the end of the day.

The pity party was over and the work was just beginning.

He left the house Monday morning more determined than ever to make it work.

To win again.

His next chance, well THEIR next chance at a state title is in 5 weeks. 

I know it's all I'll hear about until it's over.

I'm prepared.

Remind me that I said that when I vent or whine about it, okay?

Side note:  I teach with the husband.

We both coach.

Somewhere between coaching and parenting I find time to manage his managers.

These are just a FEW of my girls.

They travel all over the state helping to take care of OUR boys too.

I am so thankful to know they are part of our world.

They work hard and take it hard when we lose. 

After ALL is said and done...

This is part of my family.

They love my babies.

They love me.

They love my husband, even though some days they might not LIKE him very much.

I wouldn't trade them for the world.