I like soccer. Well…I think I like soccer.
I at least like the idea of soccer.
I grew up playing soccer, but in the United States, that’s like saying I grew up with a friend named John or Jessica. Meaning: I grew up playing soccer…but so did the other 200 million other American’s born in the 80’s. My generation is, after all, responsible for the term “soccer mom”. Mini-vans, orange slices, and shin guards were as integral to my childhood as Legos, Dunkaroos and Top Gun.
So this begs the question: with so many people raised on the sport, why is it disrespected by all national sports media and regulated to premium cable channels like ESPN 18 or FSC? Why do I have to feel ashamed of being a fan of the world’s most popular game? As an adult, saying I like soccer is, in most circles, just asking to be heckled and mocked.
Whatever. I like soccer. I always have, but I’ve never been one to be up-front with it (or anything else, for that matter). Now, I can’t sit here and list all previous world cup winners, give you a game by game breakdown of last year’s UEFA Champions League, or recite the World Cup – 2010 team captains by heart, but I consider myself at least a casual fan. Lately though, I find myself becoming more and more wrapped up in it.
I find myself paying way more attention to the outcome of the latest Premier League match (or “fixture”, as they call them across the pond) than I am to “National College Football Signing Day” or anything NBA. I visit ESPNsoccernet almost as much as I check my Facebook page (which is, unfortunately, far too often). And I’m absurdly excited for the World Cup this summer.
How did this happen? I can’t explain it…but, it just sorta happened.
When I travel, my souvenir of choice is almost always a soccer jersey. It’s a tangible, yet trendy way to “show off” the places I have been…and collecting them is slowly becoming a mild obsession. I can’t resist the team colors and sponsors…from Pirelli and Samsung to Acorns and UNICEF. I have an A.S. Roma warm-up jacket from our trip to Italy (and serious non-buyer’s remorse from an Inter Milan jersey almost-purchase) and two Ghana National Team jerseys’…one I received as a gift, and the other from when I visited in 2008 on a mission trip.
Couldn't find an action shot, but I'm at least sporting the Black Star gear!
Ghana.
All over the world, sports are used as a release. People use them as a way to “escape” from the sometimes harsher realities of the real world. Some realities are harsher than others. In Ghana, soccer (football) is everywhere. If there is a ball, there is a soccer game going on. The young play, the old play, the women play, and the men play. Audiences gather for even the smallest pick-up matches. In most cases, I had more money in my wallet than they had…period. Yet…they were truly happy. More than happy. Ecstatic. It seemed that they found more joy in this…game…than I usually get out of a house full of all my…stuff.
I can’t describe it any better than that, but it is an extremely powerful memory from my trip…you will just have to take my word for it.
==========
So maybe that’s why. Maybe not. Either way, there’s no denying it any longer. Like it or not, I’m a soccer fan. Are you? What are your thoughts? Who’s your team and why? Let me know!
*End note: I feel that soccer isn’t as popular in the U.S. simply because of the choice our country’s best athletes have. All over the world (except maybe Canada), all the best athletes are steered towards playing soccer. Here, they would choose football, basketball, or baseball…before even considering playing soccer. Imagine if Lebron or AP played soccer? I bet our national team would fair a lot better every four years if our best athletes played soccer…
As you may recall, Missy and I had a blast in Manassas, but sadly we had to leave the Bixler clan and continue on with the rest of our Christmas on the east coast. Next stop: Fairfax!
My sister Hannah and her BF Chris had bought a place in the big city just this past summer, so Missy and I figured that since we were in the area we’d drop by for a visit. Turns out…it’s only 15 minutes down I-66 from where Jake and Melissa live…small world! Anyway, Hannah was quite the hostess…she made a mean beef stew for dinner after showing us around Tyson’s Corner, and fed us all the Christmas cookies we could eat. Our visit turned into a sleepover, and we listened to music and watched Christmas movies all night long. The morning we woke to Christmas panacakes and Christmas Smoothies. Ok…kidding about the Christmas themed everything…but Hannah really did make us killer protein smoothies! Already staying longer than intended, Miss and I soon packed our gear and continued on up to Hagerstown after breakfast.
Smile, babe!
The next few days leading up to Christmas in Hagerstown was a complete whirlwind of activity. Decorating cookies at my mothers new place, to catching my brother Robert’s Eagle Scout ceremony down at the church, to last minute shopping, and making sure I see my old friends…it was exhausting, but totally worth it.
The boys...who unfortunately couldn't look at the camera all at once...
There is a new sports bar in H-Town called the Greene Turtle, and thankfully only a two minute drive from my Dad’s new place. Missy and I spent much of Wednesday night catching up with all my high school friends at the Turtle. Honestly, this place was pretty sweet! Big screen TV’s (including an enormous scoreboard-themed centerpiece) in every direction and some great Maryland favorites on the menu…it was most definitely an upgrade (in our opinion anyway) from the same old stand-by bars we usually frequent on our visits back east.
* * * * * *
The Hardinge’s take Christmas to a whole new level. Missy was completely caught off-guard the first time she experienced the madness (a good madness, of course). The fun starts Christmas Eve with the Hardinge family dinner, consisting of Campbell’s Vegetable Beef Soup, wine, cheese, and crackers. The “tradition” started long ago, when there wasn’t enough time between Christmas Eve services (the evening pageant and the midnight candle-lit service) at church for a formal meal, so canned soup had to do the trick. Now, I don’t think it would be Christmas Eve without it. The wine, obviously, was a later addition 
The late service put us home after midnight…but the fun was just beginning.
Rising early, the first stop was up to my Mom’s place for breakfast and opening presents with her and the other siblings.
Joe Cool. We like to put our gifts to use immediately.
Usually, the next stop on our Christmas Day tour is to Aunt Barb’s for a huge brunch with the family, with eggs, sausage, ham, coffee cake, coffee, and doughnuts. It’s intense. This year, however, the brunch got bumped to December 26th due to the weather. So we had a little extra down time at Mom’s to watch some TV before heading over to Dad’s for a late lunch and presents, part two…
The Hardinge Siblings
…where we had a chance to catch up with each other and really enjoy the family togetherness that the holidays bring.
*cough*
The evening leg brings us back together with Mom’s side of the family at Uncle Andy’s for dinner, games and gifts. A few years back, Hannah decided to put together a Yankee Trader gift exchange, and it was an instant success with the family. It has since become an amazingly fun tradition.
Yankee Trader 2009!
Uncle Danny's Yankee Trader gift from last year...
When all was said and done, we didn’t make it back home until past midnight, which made for a super-long day. Oh, and Missy was super-heroine-esque, carrying triplets the whole time with a smile on her face! What a trooper!
If all that wasn’t enough…there was one last big surprise…Peg and Mom had conspired together to throw Missy a baby shower the day after Christmas! Since this would be the only chance most of my family and friends would have to attend a baby shower for us, they decided that this was the best time to do it. We were totally shocked, and so thankful for the generosity everyone showed us.
So, all-in-all, it was an amazing trip home to the Hub City. We had to make it count, since we don’t know when the next time we make it back out will be once the girls arrive!
Ten years, ten pictures. Sounds simple enough, right? Well…I think this task is easier said then done. In case you haven’t noticed, my wife and I like to take pictures. A lot of pictures. So before we move into this new decade (yes I know, technically the decade starts next year…but in my book it’s a new decade when the “decade digit” changes when I’m writing down the date), I’d like to take a few minutes and reflect on the last.
In the year 2000…
Missy and Tommy: The First Picture
….I meet the girl that would eventually become my wife in St. Louis, of all places.
2001 brought high school graduation and freshman (RAT) year at VMI.
VMI Barracks
The words “push, RAT” and “strain” become all too familiar.
In 2002…
My first Tropical Snow experience. DEE-Lish.
…Missy I and make things “official”. She makes her first visits to Maryland and gets her first taste of Maryland hardshell crabs. I make my first visit to Iowa and get my first taste of Tropical Snow and Iowa pork.
2003
All the roomies at Ring Figure.
Junior year at VMI brings Ring Figure; the presentation of class rings. Big dance, even bigger party.
2004
Surprise! Head-shaving is a 21st birthday tradition at VMI.
Missy pulls off what is perhaps the biggest surprise in our relationship to date: on parents weekend (and 21st birthday) she schemes with all the room mates and parents to completely surprise me for the weekend. She waits in Applebee’s for two hours to serve me my first beer. Decide that Missy is a keeper.
2005
Dad and I at my graduation from VMI.
Graduate from VMI and make my move to Iowa! Also: landed a sweet job at the Baker Group and got engaged to Missy over Thanksgiving. Life is good!
2006
At last...Mr. and Mrs. Hardinge!
Missy and I get hitched! Most of the east coast fam makes it out to Iowa for the big event, which featured Hickory Park catered Bar-B-Q at the reception.
2007
Mom, Missy and I on the beach in North Carolina.
Settle in to married life in Iowa. Spend a week with the entire extended fam in North Carolina for summer vacation.
2008
The farm truck in Ghana.
Missy and I visit Ghana on a mission trip and our lives are rocked. “Life changing” is an understatement. Other significant events include my sweet niece being born in August.
2009 was a busy year, to say the least. I started this blog in 2009, so most of you know what was going on. However, if you need reminding of the highlights…
The harbor of Vernazza.
…we went to Italy for our belated honeymoon and we found out that we are expecting Triplets!
* * * * * *
Whew! I did it. Ten years with ten pictures. Looking back, it’s hard to believe how far we’ve come. However, now it’s time to look forward. These next ten years are going bring a tidal wave of change at the Hardinge household…and we can’t wait!
Those were the words of one sweet eleven year old little boy in my class after he solved the puzzle. The puzzle of course, announced the news that Tommy and I are going to have triplets in June. While his question is one of innocence and lack of knowledge, I know that many adults that DO know where a baby comes from have that same question. We share our story to provide some encouragement for couples who are going through the same struggles because we know that some people are not surrounded by support and feel like they can’t talk about their journey.
If you have been reading our blog for awhile, or know us well, you are aware that Tommy and I had a longer-than-most journey to starting a family. I have hypothyroidism and so after we tried for 6 months to concieve on our own, we were referred to an infertility doctor to get some testing done. Our “I.D.” was not concernd because we are fairly young and healthy, yet wanted to run a series of tests on us just to make sure there was something preventing conception that we were unaware of.
As I have blogged about before, the testing process is stressful and interesting because you want to be “fine” but you also want them to provide a solution to your heartache. It turned out that we both past all test with flying colors or above, so they told us it might just be a timing thing and not to worry. They had us just see what happens for another three months. After no news yet again, they wanted to schedule me for an exploratory laperoscopy to see if there was something going on inside of me that can’t be tested. While surgery is never a good thing, this time it ended up being one of the best things that could have happened in this process.
The surgeons found that I had severe stage three endometriosis (out of four stages). This was definitely a major reason why we would have trouble concieveing. They were able to laser all of the endometriosis out and told us that it will come back so we needed to be pretty agressive with treatment if we were going to concieve before it did.
Most people assume that we had Invitrofertilization to have these triplets, and I would too if I was in their shoes, but it isn’t so. The first month after my surgery, they started me on a medication called Clomid. This is a very common medication for women trying to concieve. Basically it is ten little pills that you take over the course of five days at the start of your cycle. It causes you to hyperovulate, or mature and release more than one egg during that cycle. They have you monitor your ovulation days and then usually they have you do an ultrasound to see if it worked. We skipped over that part because my body had always ovulated like clockwork. We had an IUI to help out our chances on the day that my test had indicated I needed it and prayed….a lot. The doctors informed us that usually this whole process takes a few months to work and that there would be only a 5% chance that we would end up with anything more than twins from the Clomid.
Two weeks later I was late. Tommy had seen the heartache I had endured taking a pregnancy test before and having it be negative, so he requested that I wait a few days to see if it was just the surgery or medication throwing my cycle off. I waited. The morning we agreed that I was to take a test if nothing had “happened” yet started at 4:30 AM for me. I couldn’t sleep, and I laid in bed wide-awake for an hour before I pep-talked myself into getting up and peeing on that darn stick while Tommy was sleeping. I did it and although the box said to wait 4-5 minutes before any results would show, it turned to a purple plus sign within 4-5 seconds. I awoke Tommy and we were beside ourselves with happiness.
Later that day I went to have a blood test to confirm the results. My “levels” were fairly high at that point and the teasing ensued that there was more than one baby in there. The test two days later repeated those results with high numbers. We just chalked that up to my hormones being off from the Clomid. Little did we know when we went in for an ultrasound a few weeks later, those high numbers were telling us more.
The first picture we saw where our whole life changed.
Our ultrasound tech was shocked, our doctor was shocked, and I don’t think there is a word in the English language to describe our reaction. Three separate sacs, three separate placentas. Three. Triplets. Most likely fraternal because of their separation. Actually there is only a 6% chance that they are identical if they split from one egg in the first three days after to conception.
There are a lot of things that need to change in our lives including my car choice, finding a new house, and purchasing all of the “stuff” our three babies will need. All of that said, we are so excited and terrified at the same time and we will take all of the prayers we can get that all three girls grow to at least five pounds inside of me and remain healthy when they are born.
They were already too big to see full bodies in one ultrasound together, so here are their tiny three heads at 14 weeks.
A side view of baby C at 14 weeks.
14 Weeks Pregnant with Triplets.
All our big plans were dashed.
The Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit? Nope.
The National Christmas Tree? Maybe next year.
The first leg stop on our East Coast Christmas Tour ‘09 took us to Manassas, Virginia to visit Jake, Melissa, Tennyson, and the rest of the Bixler clan. Unfortunately, the East Coast Death Storm ‘09 had other plans and forced an overnight pit-stop in H-town before reaching our intended destination.
Thankfully, east coast snow storms don’t pack the brutal sub-zero temps as they do in the midwest, so the snow didn’t stick around for long. So by late Sunday morning the roads were clear enough for us to make the 90 minute trip to Virginia. Determined not to let the storm storm ruin our visit, we wanted to make the most of our time spent in Manassas.
Now as you may be aware, my niece Tennyson and I haven’t exactly “hit it off” in the past few months. It all started off so well and with such promise when Missy and I visited her in Portland, but she was only two months old at the time and most likely didn’t know any better. However, since then it’s been mostly nothing but bad news. In all of her recent visits to Iowa, she has usually been slow to warm up to me and quick to run away crying when I attempted to play with her for longer than five minutes. Honestly, I was leery (to say the least) of spending two days with her on her home turf.
Well you wouldn’t believe it (and I still don’t), but being snowed in with Tennyson might have been one of the best things that happened to me the entire trip!
The best Christmas present ever (well...almost).
Not only does Tennyson like me…she loves me…and it was one of the best feelings in the world. Why the heck didn’t we visit sooner?! Seeing me in her own home must mean that I’m an OK guy after all! Not just some goon with a goatee she’s forced to be with after riding on an airplane for couple hours. There was non-stop playing and no crying…inside, outside, before nap time, after nap time…BOOM…a Christmas Miracle, indeed!
Play time...Tennyson certainly likes a good swing!
Tennyson enjoying one of her new Christmas toys.
Whew…that girl was a handful, but in a good way, so I definitely didn’t mind. The two days went by too fast, and now I can’t wait to see her again (although next time, I’ll have three little girls of my own to worry about too )…
Crazy smiles...good times!
…but hopefully she won’t forget about me before then!
I have many leather-bound books, and my house smells of rich mahogany.
I stick to the four basic food groups of beef, pork, chicken, and potatoes.
I have Pine, Canadian Woodland, and Hickory Smoke scented colognes.
I enjoy hard-hitting football games on giant HD plasma screen TV’s.
I collect calluses like a kid collects baseball cards.
I believe that the darker the beer, the better.
My favorite movies include Lord of the Rings and Band of Brothers.
My guitar amp volume goes to 12.
I make fire with sticks and flint.
I live vicariously through myself.
I take my coffee black (ok…not true).
However, God apparently has a sense of humor and felt that I needed to dial back the testosterone. In a big way. Yesterday, December 29, 2009, Missy and I found out that our babies, the Hardinge Triplets, are all three…wait for it…
…gulp…
Girls.
To quote the All-American family man Clark Griswold, “If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am now.”
Look out, world…three baby girls are heading our way in May. If I was in disbelief before, this has completely blown my mind. We are already defying the odds though, so I guess I should have expected this! Plus Missy has had a few reoccurring dreams recently that featured three baby girls. We were also having a tough time coming up with boys names (the girls names were easy, but you won’t know until delivery, so don’t ask )…so I really should not be shocked at all by this latest revelation. At any rate, I am beside myself with excitement, anticipation, and joy! I am going to spoil those girls rotten, and I can’t wait ’til they get here!
I am Man, but…
My best friend in the whole-wide-world is a girl (Missy).
I can easily learn to like tea parties and fairy princesses.
I cried when I watched The Notebook for the first time.
I’ve been told that I am a good listener.
I’m not afraid to wear pink.
…and my future man-cave will be bigger than your house.
(Hey, I can dream, right?)
