Here's the video

So here is the video I referenced in my previous post.

Pardon screaming/yelling...after all I am the proud Mama!!! :-)

The 2 E's

Yesterday was both exhilarating and exhausting.

I've blogged before about Dalton and wresting. Every year from November - February our house is pretty consumed with this incredibly intense sport. From the daily 2.5 hour workouts, to the early morning bus rides to the tournaments every weekend, to the obsession about weight control, to the packing your pre, post and during food consumption during a match/tournament...it's just plain intense, almost nerve wracking to some degree.

I love my son...I mean I LOVE my son!!! BUT...I do not love the daily mantra of wrestling drama ~ "what should I eat today" or "what do you think would be healthy for me but not put on weight" or "Do I have everything packed that I need, " of which my usual response is either "I don't know, what do you want to eat or I've told you many times what is healthy now it's your turn to decide or you're the one wrestling you should know what to pack!" I mean come on, he is a senior this year and I can only do so much to help him with stuff I've already helped him with for years. EXHAUSTING!

Well yesterday he participated in an annual wrestling tournament - the Brian Hill Memorial Tournament 2009. 17 schools entered this tournament for competition. The gym was filled with people, 4 mats of constant wrestling, whistles blowing, timers beeping ~ enough to make the head spin. Tournament play is basically like this ~ everyone is guaranteed 2 wrestling matches. If you win your first match, you go onto the next one. If you lose your first match, you are dropped into the loser bracket and have another chance to continue on in the tournament. It's 2 losses and you are eliminated. A match has 3 possible outcomes - pin the opponent, win the match by most points, or of course a forfeit is automatic.

So Dalton's first match ended in 1 minute 13 seconds with a pin (bottom line fold the other guy up into whatever position you want as long as both his shoulders touch the mat). He moved on to the second match where he pinned his opponent in 1 minute 27 seconds. WOW - 2 pins in a row...I was absolutely beaming proud. Here's a picture from his second match (PD is the one in black/red on top.)

I thought to myself "could he possibly go for 3 pins?". Well, his 3rd match was a semi-final round which means if he wins he goes on to wrestle for 1st/2nd place and if he loses he wrestles off for the 3rd/4th position. Can you guess what happened? If you guess win you are correct - not only win but yet another pin in 1 minute 27 seconds (yes the same time as the one before). He made it, oh my goodness he's wrestling off for 1st/2nd position. Dalton has never won a tournament. He won District last year but that's a qualifying match - not quite the same as a tournament.

So...final round the guy he is to wrestle is from Skyline - a tough competitor. The opponent I will say has a sort of caulky walk to him. He had also pin his previous matches (though it took him more time to do it than Dalton) and it showed all over his body language. At this point I am a nervous wreck. Not sure if I should throw up or pee. I have camera in hand and am ready to hold it steady. Whistle blows and Dalton takes off like a shot ~ folds the guy up like a pretzel and pins him in 39 seconds -winning 1st place!!! Oh My GOSH!!! His opponent literally looked dazed, like he wasn't sure what hit him. All he could say when Dalton went up to him and said "Good match buddy" was "WOW, that was umm fast!" Darn right, 39 seconds fast!!! I couldn't believe it - it was a perfect score - 4 pins in a row. Can you say EXCITING.
(I have a video I will post of this match but I am technically not that savvy to figure out how to take it off our camera so it will go up later.)

I am so totally proud of this fine young athlete that I am privileged to call my son.

P.s. FIREGIRL I would love to see your blog but I don't have access. Can you email me at ruth@thinkfluidly.com?

A sister for Abigail

Really, it's not what you think!

While we were in the 'waiting' process for Abigail a friend of ours gave us this beautiful Asian like baby doll for her. It took Abigail a while before warming up to the idea of having a doll in the first place, but now she is pretty much inseparable from this sweet dolly.

Most days she likes to hold her, rock her, come up to me with her hands cupping both sides of her cheeks and whisper to me, "Sshhh, baby sleeping!!!"

So a few days ago, she was sitting on the couch with her baby in her lap and we had this conversation.
Mommy: Do you love your baby doll Abigail
Abigail: Yeah, she's my sister
Mommy: Oh really, your sister huh?
Abigail: Uh huh
Mommy: And what is your sister's name?
Abigail: China

So thus, we've informed Daddy that we now have a sister named China! Dad was relieved that he didn't have to change the messy diapers on this one!

I choose Nostalgia

So what is the big "Hoo-Hah" about Facebook anyways???

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that many people have re-connected with long lost friends, coworkers, even relatives through this simple little online directory of contacts. Friendships have been re-established, relationships have been built.

Recently a fellow blog friend had left a comment on another blog stating that the "comments" on peoples blogs have declined quite severely in the past year and I had to agree with her. Why last year alone, the month of December 2008, I received a total of 80 comments throughout the month. Now, mind you I posted a few more posts as I wasn't dealing with a remodel, re-move-in and the flu/crud, but my total for December 2009 so far...a whopping 5 comments, can you believe it!

I truly believe that even though many people may (or even may not) be busier this year than last, I believe the 'blog comment decline dilemma' is attributed to the simplicity of FB! People can post quick little updates, photos, comments in less time than it takes to upload a post onto blogger. I do admit that many times the "time commitment" involved in posting a post to blogger has kept me from posting at all as I clearly don't have the time most days. THOUGH...I do appreciate so much the 'diary-like' posts that I am allowed as a sort of log book for me, my kids, my family, etc. Like a photo album or scrapbook, one can go back through the pages and reminisce about what their "life" was like back then. Reading the journal-type entries gives me a window into even the emotion that was felt at that time - a sort of Nostalgia really. Not so with FB. It's a here and now.

I currently am not a FB member. Alright, already...I can hear all of you (not sure there really is an "all of you", rather the one of you who is reading this) saying how can I possibly 'dis' something that I am not a part of. All of the men in my house are FB members. I log onto my hubby's from time to time to check on the many friends he's made (many of them are mine too). I've even been known to chat with members who I have no other source of communicating with other than Facebook. Rather than looking at this post as a 'dis' on FB itself, I am simply re-establishing my commitment and love for blogging. Face it, I'm old school. I may one day decide to take the plunge, who knows.

So, as I LOVE to read each and every comment I receive (they are truly like that one present you find under the Christmas tree buried way in the back, that one that ALMOST was forgotten until you see the glimmer/shimmer of the wrapping paper out of the corner of your eye and your heart skips a beat at the thought of yet one more present!!!) it doesn't matter if I never get another comment again because I blog for ME!!! And what would a blog post be without pictures, right??

Cheese

Nothing like getting a clear shot up the nose?!?

There must be a treasure in here somewhere!

My magical friends

There is nothing better than Christmas Eve morning with Princess Daisy and Minnie Mouse, watching Mickey's Clubhouse!

One of the many "perks" we did experience while living in the apartment...CABLE! And not just any cable but 'on demand' which really meant nothing to me other than there were already pre-recorded tv shows/movies that you could select and watch anytime, over and over and over again. Well...Princess Baby-Cakes fell in love with Mickey's Clubhouse, Super Slueth Tigger and Pooh (Winnie the Pooh) and Little Bear. Thus because we are back home and don't have CABLE we have had to purchase the Mickey's DVD which I am sure we will wear out before New Years!

So a few nights ago Brian and I took her up to the mall to experience the "Holiday Wonder" and we decided to take her into the Disney Store. Mind you she was in her stroller as we told her she had to be cause there were way too many people (an everyday battle as she is 2 and has it in her mind that 2 year olds walk and do it themselves and...). As we walk into the store here is this perfect display of the magically wonderful Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters and she began to grab them one by one, exclaiming "I NEED IT, I NEED IT!!!" Are we in trouble or what? Thankfully it was a buy one, get one for free and thus we have instant Christmas presents!

That about sums it up!!!

So...whats a month really. I mean who really gives a big deal right. It's only 30 days or 4 weeks or 720 hours or...

Alright, so seriously, if we were to sit down together with a wonderful cup of something warm (whatever your fancy might be), I would only imagine the conversation to go something like this:

{friend} "So tell me, what's new with you?}
{me} "First off, it's not hard to look around and notice a lot of 'new' here. But probably the most important of all is that I (we) are back in our home!!!"

That about sums it up!!! Oh sure I could tell you how incredibly hard it was to trade our home where we were very comfortable, for a week long stay at a local hotel ~ close to dining and shopping!

Then I could tell you how totally, well umm, ahh... really words cannot describe... apartment living! Let's just say I am not interested in going back to that for sure!

And we should not forget the crud that got passed around like a winning football during a SuperBowl game! Let's just say that the gift of this delightfully unpleasant crud that my husband passed onto me is not the gift that I was hoping or even asking for for my birthday ~ diamonds, perfume, a really nice sweater are all better options in my mind!!! Nonetheless, last Friday I did receive one of the greatest "bday" gifts when the boys and I packed up the apartment and headed for home...for good. And then I received the sweetest gift when I followed Dalton to work for my "bday soy Chai" and saw one of my friends there having coffee with another gal. Upon hearing my poor sad story {of flooding, being sick, packing and moving alone... you get the picture}
She said to me, "Can you use an extra set of hands to help unpack? I was just going to go home and trim my Christmas tree but I can do that anytime." Now usually in this situation when asked if I need help my normal "martyr" response is, "Oh no, I've got it all handled", but lo and behold out of my mouth came, "you know, I could really use another set of hands - thank you!" It was like one of those out of body experiences where you see yourself talking but you don't have any control of what is going on. Let me say that I am so glad that my mouth spoke before my brain had a chance to stop it, cause what a blessing I received. She went into each bedroom and managed to move whatever needed to be moved to get to the beds to change the sheets/bedding on each and every bed so we at least had a place to sleep even if we did not have all the boxes unpacked. Isn't God's timing so perfect!!!

And do you ever have one of those days where it takes you allllllll day to do just one thing??? Today has been that day as I began this post about 9:00 this morning and here at 9:14pm this evening I am finally getting to finish what I started. So I guess after this long-winded post I owe some pictures. I tried to find pictures of the house before so I could do a comparitive, but no luck, so here goes:

Living room - almost put back together (I managed to keep the boxes out of the photo :-) Through the settlement we were able to upgrade our furniture to a new leather couch, chair and ottoman~ my dream for new furniture. Notice Little Missy is using her computer.

Yes, we even managed to get our Christmas tree up and decorated all in the weekend we moved back. Thanks to the boys, Abigail and hubby while I was unpacking other boxes :-)

Atlas, my new kitchen. We were able to put in solid oak floors with a medium brown swedish finish. Our kitchen cabinets are hickory wood (I love the inconsistencies in them with large dark natural 'eye' spots). We went with a 'Corian' like countertop (just the cheaper version right under it) in a cocoa brown which totally accents between the cabinets and floor. We also made the choice to upgrade to a new stainless steel stove and side-by-side refrigerator with the ice/water feature on the door, my favorite as the boys don't understand the difference between putting back the Brita empty or not! Now we don't have to worry about it, as they never have to open the door to get water/ice again :-)

Other side of the kitchen. We made the decision to eliminate the L-shape we had in the kitchen and straighten it out along the wall, opening up the kitchen a ton!!! We also switched the dishwasher to the right side as all of us, except Abigail are right handed. And we changed the lighting to can lights in the ceiling giving off so much more light than we ever had.

I tried to get a whole shot as best I could of the kitchen.

The new and improved hall bathroom. Looking at this photo our toilet used to be where the sink on the left was. We chose to swing the toilet along a different wall and re-plumb to add an additional sink considering having 3 teenage boys and a daughter, the whole double sink thing is a good choice.

In this picture, the tub/shower run along the left next to the toilet.

More pictures to follow as I haven't gotten around to taking them yet. Okay so the real truth of the matter is I haven't gotten around to cleaning/clearing the room so a decent picture can be taken. I'm just too tired from this crud, oh well, maybe later!