Sunday at the Ballfield

After playing ball til midnight and not getting home til after 1 am, Carli and I were up again at 5 to head to Nacogdoches.  She had agreed to play pick up with Sneaky Cleats but we did not count on having such a late night on Saturday!  Needless to say, Dr. Pepper and donuts with a Thrive was a necessity!!

And I am going to have to type out this story because one day, it is gonna be one of those that I keep coming back too.  I have struggled to communicate with Carli in an effective way the last few months.  So when we put Ava in counseling for her anxiety (medical trauma b/c she passes out when she vomits) we found out that Carli could go as well b/c our insurance covered it.  We decided maybe it would be a helpful thing because I knew I was not doing a good job communicating with her.  So fast forward to this Sunday morning.  Carli was exhausted.  She didn't want to be here.  I didn't want to be here.  But the fact was that we made a commitment and we had to fulfill it.  So after the first game at 8 am, we had a break long enough for us to go to church service before we had to play again.  As we got in the car, I was boiling a bit b/c Carli's body language STUNK to high heaven and I just didn't understand the lack of effort...but I forced myself to count to 10.  I then told her all the good things she did that morning and then I told her this:

Carli, you have two choices...

1.  You can be totally exhausted, have a sour attitude, not hustle, not cheer, make a lot of new enemies and been seen as a mean girl and end the day mad at the world, exhausted and feeling totally defeated.

2.  Or you can be totally exhausted, but give all the effort you have to give.  Hustle on and off the field, cheer with the team, pitch your best, goof off with the girls and make a lot of new friends and end the day exhausted but proud of the effort you gave and the friends you made.

What are you going to do?!

Ya'll she seriously thought about it for four minutes.  FOUR MINUTES!!  I watched the clock and was about to give up and think this strategy the counselor told me to use wasn't going to work...and then she sighed and said.  I guess I should really do the second one.  And SHE DID!  I was blown away!!  She felt in charge and made her own decision.  And it worked!

I was pretty proud of how the rest of the day went for Carli.  They didn't win this tournament but she did her absolute best and that was just awesome to see!

Turned out Ava and her Thunder team played at this tournament as well.  When Carli lost out, she and I went home b/c we were so tired!  But Ava and Keith stayed and Thunder won it all!  Over all it was a great day for the Hays' Sisters!