L.A.C.R.O.S.S.E.

Lacrosse season is upon us! And you know what that means... Money, money, money!!!!! YAY! I reffed my first game of the season with Alta vs. Park City high school girls and loved every second of it. Here is a list of just a few reasons of why this is probably the all-time best part time job ever:

1. It pays $48 per game! And usually you do two games in one night.. 96 dollars in two hours!!
2. It's great exercise - I don't need to re-exercise for the day when I get home.
3. I can choose the days I want to ref.
-If I have a big test coming up, I can decline the game offered to me so I can stay home and study. Or, likewise, if I know I have a big shopping spree coming up I can do just the opposite and work, work, work! :)
4. It only lasts a maximum of two hours at a time - I can't possibly die of boredom.
5. I love working with high school girls.
-They are so much fun to be around and joke with. I really love these girls. I feel like such a dork but sometimes I will even get all teary-eyed when I hear a girl give a team mate a word of encouragement or seeing them get so excited for each other after a made goal. There is an innocence and sweetness about girls at this stage in their lives, just trying to figure themselves out and get through life any way they can.. and try to have some fun while doing it. I LOVE these girls.
6. I never need to worry about fans, players, or coaches being rude to me.
- In most sports, referees get all the crap. No matter what they do or say, they are wrong. In lacrosse, however, referees are respected in the highest regards. If I hear a fan shouting out negative comments, I can give them a warning and "card them" which means the team they are rooting for gets a penalty and the other team automatically gets the ball. That is the same procedure if a girl talks back to me on the field or even if she cusses. Everyone is always very respectful and willing to help.
-ALSO, since lacrosse is a fairly new sport, especially in Utah, many people don't know the actual rules. So when I make a call, most people don't question it since they don't know the rules anyway!
7. Taxes aren't taken out so everything I buy for the job is tax deductible.
-Including... my super cute new black Nike running pants and future black running shoes. I'm so excited!
8. Lacrosse just plain rocks anyway. It's like I get paid to be entertained and call things I want to call.


Well, for all these reasons and more, I love being a referee for high school girl's lacrosse. :)

RIP Molly

Last week we had a really sad experience.

I was at my apartment working on homework around 8:00 at night when I got a text message from my mom that Molly and Cosmo were missing.

Molly is my mom's sweet papillon pup she got about a year ago. Cosmo, who is also a little papillon pup, is mine and Jonathon's baby. Jonathon gave him to me as a Christmas present last year- he was the greatest Christmas present I could ever imagine! And he means the world to us.

So when I got the text, my heart dropped. Because my mom is deaf, I thought maybe she just couldn't hear them and they were stuck in a room somewhere or something. I texted her back and asked if she was sure and she replied that she had found a hole under the fence in the backyard that they must have dug and escaped.

I called Jonathon out of class and he came and picked me up and we hurried over towards my mom's house in Sandy. When we were driving up the busy connecting street near her house when we spotted a little white ball on the side of the road. It was dark so we turned around to make sure and I started bawling when I got out of the car and discovered that sure enough it was Molly. She had been hit by a car.

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't breathe. All I could do was cry. I ran up to the house that she was in front of, the owners were some good friends of ours I grew up with from the ward. I didn't know what to do I just wanted help. Jonathon got out of the car at that point and wrapped his arms around me. Our next thought then was that we needed to somehow break this terrible news to my Mom and search for Cosmo and hope that he had not had the same fate.

We went to my Mom's house and told her we had found Molly and she'd been hit. I found out that I am a terrible person when it comes to a stressful situation and probably should not have been the one to tell her. She was very upset and when we walked down to where Molly was she just cried and couldn't believe it.

Molly had been hit, but seeing her laying there you would have never known. She looked so peaceful- like she was sleeping. My mom carried her and we walked home quietly together. Pretty soon after, my brother Steven arrived. My uncle Eric and Grandma Richards (my mother's mom) came to support her as well.

Finally what seemed like hours later we got a phone call on Jonathon's phone. A lady called and asked him "Are you the owner of a little dog named Cosmo?" And his reply was simply "Is he alive?" She laughed and said, "Of course! He broke into my backyard and was trying to play with my big dog. Can you come get him?"

Molly was a very sweet dog. She was so loving and happy and cute. She loved to love people and give kisses. Her and Cosmo were best friends. Together they had just had a batch of puppies last November and created the four sweetest little puppies I've ever seen. I'm so glad a little piece of her was left to carry on that way.

It made me and Jonathon appreciate having Cosmo in our life too. We love him so much. We've always loved him with everything in us but we don't want to ever let him out of our sight again! That so easily could have been Cosmo on the side of the road. He is so much a part of our family. Anyone who has that type of special relationship with their dog knows what I'm talking about.

Thanks to everyone who was so helpful and supportive for my Mom during this time. It's greatly appreciated and makes such a positive difference. Though it's tough losing that little piece of her life, she is doing well and the statement 'time heals all things' is proving itself true.

Here are a few pictures of them:

Molly playing outside
Little Cosmo Junior (C.J. behind her)

Molly playing with her pups

Cosmo and Molly lounging in bed

Cosmo out in the snow - his most recent photo

Pay it Forward.

So, I got this from a friend. The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise! There's a small catch...You knew there would be didn't you? Post this on your blog then come back and leave a comment, telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift. Let's see who likes surprises!!