The crazy season has begun

It's the beginning of August and Fall sports have already begun in earnest at the Kling household. Sean is beginning his 5th year in the local youth football league and Kirsten is trying out for Varsity Volleyball for the high school. It's difficult to believe that last year at this time, Mom and Dad had already begun their month+ long stay at Jim and Kate's.

Jim loved this photo of Sean and had me print and frame it for his bedside. He said it was very cool how I got the referee in the background and the other team players coming at Sean. Apparently,I even got the Nike logo showing on the ball. He also had me get a larger print and send it to Sean with a note about how proud he was of him. We framed it and hung it over his bed.

Jakers is just all boy and it makes me sad knowing Jim won't be around to share moments like this with him. Jim was so proud of Sean, and Kirsten. He would've been even more so of Jake and Rachel.

The beginning of this season has also given me a few smiles. Last year, when Kirsten tried out for Volleyball, she called Jim during tryouts to let him know how it was going. After she talked with him, I got on the phone.
He said to me "I don't think Kirsten likes the coach."
Me "Why do you say that?"
Jim "She kept calling him Coach Yucko."
I started laughing "His name is Coach Yockell. She's saying Yockell, not Yucko."
Jim "OH! Well, that makes more sense."
So poor Coach Yockell is forever called Coach Yucko in our house because it makes us smile and think of how funny Uncle Jim was. Some day the child will probably slip up and call him that in practice and she'll be benched.

We're almost a month away from a year since Jim passed away. It still seems unreal to me that he's gone. Unreal and very wrong. Rachel told me last week that she missed her Daddy and wished he didn't have to live in heaven. She would like him to live with them. The "they" I always like to quote to Mark say that it gets better with time. It wasn't better at a month. It wasn't better at 6 months. So far, it's not better as we head towards a year. We'll miss Uncle Jim a lot this fall as we head into our first sports season without one of our biggest cheerleaders.