WoooHooo! I love today!

Dane's team (the Titans) remains undefeated. Today's game was a nail biter, for sure though. We were down 0-7 pretty much the entire game. The other kids were tough -- fast. Dane started off slow. He hurt his wrist on the second play of the game and came out. I worried about it -- and wondered if he was just upset that he missed the tackle. (If the boy has any faults it's that he is UNBELIEVABLY hard on himself.) My mom and brothers came to watch. I wanted them to see what an animal Dane can be. He shook it off pretty well and went back in. Dane is on every team. He plays running back on offense, linebacker on defense and is on special teams. He's good and I'm not just saying that because he's my kid. Really.

Anyway, the first half just had the Titans looking a little slow...a little down. They have never even been scored on, so to be losing was something they definitely weren't use to. After halftime, they started to perk up. The defense really got them going with great tackles and holding the other team off. Going into the fourth quarter the Titans seemed to get fire in their eye. They played tough football. Dane personally was a madman. Defensively, he was tackling them (and hard) and offensively they kept having him run up the middle. Tough runs. 5 yards here. Another 5 yards there. But the clock was ticking and I started to worry we might run out of time. The next play, Dane tackled a guy and stripped the ball -- and recovered the fumble!! WHOOP WHOOP! With about 4 minutes left of the game, his teammate Isiah made it around the corner and ran 15 yards or so to TOUCHDOWN!

Coach signaled that we were going for two. YIKES I knew the ball was going to Dane.

And there it was....hand off to Dane -- up the damn middle... Go, Go, Go...."I don't know if he got it" I said to Justin...and Justin said "he's not down yet!" And so I jumped and screamed and watched my beautiful son fight for each inch. "GO DANE!!!" I'm not kidding you there were 10 kids on top of him when he went down...such anticipation as they pulled boy after boy off of him. Then, as the pile cleared...TOUCHDOWN!!!!! Dane scored! Dane, my kiddo, with pure guts and heart, stayed on his feet long enough to get the extra push from his teammates for a victorious 2 point conversion putting us in the lead with 2 minutes left.

The fans went crazy. I started crying....YEAH DANE!!!!!!!!!!! They played tough defense for a couple more minutes and we win. 8-7. Wow.

After the game, Dane had a subtle grin on his face. He high fived his dad -- then each of my brothers, Justin, Cole and then me. He kind of giggled at all the "good games" and seemed almost embarrassed when one of the coaches for the PeeWees (the older league,) picked him up and complimented him by saying he can't wait to have him on his team! He is just like that. Humble. (where that comes from, God only knows. LOL) When we got in the car though, he was nonstop. He was telling me about the plays. He was talking fast and was so happy. "I took that guy down hard" "I wasn't sure I was going to get it, but then Carlito helped push me in!" (always complimenting his team) "I just wasn't going to lose, Mom" and so there we were driving home honking the whole way -- Dane and Cole in fits of laughter, windows down on a beautiful Arizona morning, shouting "WE ARE THE TITANS THE MIGHTY MIGHTY TITANS, EVERYWHERE WE GO, PEOPLE WANNA KNOW, WHO HE IS, SO WE TELL THEM"...and then he shouts "I AM DANE NUSBAUM!!!"

*Love*

See, I'm always proud of my children, both of them equally, for just about everything they do-- but I cannot tell you what it feels like when you see how proud they are OF THEMSELVES. He seemed to walk taller and more confidant. His beautiful dark brown eyes seemed to sparkle with pride. His voice was fast and giddy and seemed to spill with excitement!

Today was just an awesome day -- Football was great and I have nothing to do today but fit in studying between the love I am getting from Dane and Cole.

Dane just said to me "I love you mom. I'm so lucky you're my mom. You're the best mom a kid could ever have." and gave me a hug.

*tears*

No, Dane....I am the lucky one.