The Tornado and The Old Lady

Children born into their biological families of course have their own personalities.  Even twins often  vary personality wise to quite a degree.  Not being an experienced mom with a baseball team of my own, I often ponder the nature vs. nurture question when met with the polar opposites that are my children.  Mixing in those four capitalized letters of A-D-H-D plays with the chemistry of the beast as well.

The Tornado (Sonny Boy) hits the floor every morning leaving a wake of mess and destruction behind.  It's go, go, go, go, go until we chase him into bed, he's forced to be horizontal and still for 45 seconds and he passes out from exhaustion.  Like a  real tornado, my Tornado often moves through life without forethought or malice but often leaves hurts, and tears behind him.  A tornado is a complex weather pattern that is difficult to predict and hasn't really been figured out yet by scientist.  My Tornado is a complex kid, brilliantly smart and funny one minute and yet prone to take wild detour into crazyland at a moments notice.  It's difficult living with a Tornado in the house.  I am in awe of it's unbelievable power, it's unique beauty, and zest for life.  On the flip side I fear it's destructive power to tear my material possessions apart, and sometimes my sanity.  My biggest fear for the Tornado is that they often tear themselves apart with self destructive behavior.

The Old Lady (Igor) is just that. Really, it's such a good description in two words I have a hard time expanding the metaphor.  Igor worries and frets about things to come.  He MUST have a plan for the day and it is unwise to vary that plan or the Old Lady get's crotchety.  The Old Lady likes things neat and will often tidy things without being told to, though often has messes of his own about that don't bother him at all.  The Old Lady likes to be helpful and is often underfoot offering to help and voicing his opinion about the project at hand.  Like an old lady, Igor often forgets himself from time to time and acts like a kid (thank goodness).  Hubby and I often joke that if ever there was a personality perfect for military service it would be Igor, as he would thrive in a regimented environment - too bad his health issues will exclude him from taking that route.  My biggest worry for The Old Lady is that he will become such a stick in the mud he will forget to have fun in life and not sweat the small stuff.

Igor's first pack meeting as an official Cub Scout 

 

 

For all of the boy's differences they balance each other well.  Two Tornados or two Old Ladies would be way more than I could ever handle.  I guess it proves the fact that God never gives you more than you can handle - though certainly He makes your load difficult at times.

Mow, Mow, Mow, Go, Go, Go

Seems like all that we ever do lately is mow the lawn and run from one appointment / activity to another.  I have a sneaky suspicion that the summer is going to play out mostly like that.  We got the estimate back for cabinets for the kitchen remodel and after we picked ourselves up off of the floor, decided we needed to wait on FIL's estate to be settled out so we would have a better grasp on what our financial situation is.  Honestly this suits me fine, as I really wasn't gung ho to live in a construction zone for the summer after finally getting my house back to myself again.  We will still likely remodel the kitchen as the plans have turned up a very practical (maybe not magazine worthy) but attractive kitchen.

Mowing has become a full time sport.  The grass is growing so fast one can practically watch it from the windows.  Not only the amazing speed with which it grows but the entire corner of the block we are now mowing.  We have a relatively large lot, we have Mom's postage stamp of weeds (that I've sprayed with killer) and our neighbor's medium size lot.  Why the neighbors?   Neighbor had abdominal surgery 3 weeks or so ago and is unable to mow.  Neighbor's wife is working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week and his adult children aren't worth spit.  Neighbor has helped us out of a pinch so many times that it's really not a problem, just the fact of keeping so many yards presentable at once has meant a lot of time pushing the mower around.

We are in the final countdown before school lets out and summer begins.  Currently I've been trying to either do everything appointment and task before school ends or pushing everything into August.  FIL clean-up, camping, camps, vacations and the like are filling the calendar quicker than I could imagine.  I still need to squeeze swim lessons for Igor in as well.  Thank goodness Sonny Boy has opted out of baseball, I don't think I could contend with that as well.

Well I must run - as usual.  The boys are putting on a Memorial Day concert at school and since I missed Sonny Boy's spring concert and a little show put on by Igor (because I plain forgot) Mom and I are planning to go. 

Enjoy your Memorial Day and remember our fallen soldiers.

Hubby's Grandfather U.S. Navy WWII - South Pacific

 

FIL, U.S. Army 1st Cavalry, Vietnam

Hubby U.S. Air Force (thank God no war service)

 

 

Don't you think Hubby looks a lot like his Grandpa?  He doesn't favor his dad as much at least in these pictures but there is an occasional picture of his dad where the same genes are very evident.





Ohh, the Horror

A couple of weeks or so ago Sonny Boy started reporting that all the girls at school hated him.  We probed a little deeper, and according to him every time we walked by all the girls (with exclusion of three) they would jump back, scream, tell him he was weird, gross and just be generally overdramatic little witches.  We gave him the general advice of ignore it, because they probably like you and are trying to get your attention.  Sonny Boy gave it some time, and I'm sure he did his best to ignore the crazy behavior, but it wasn't improving. 

Hubby decided to be proactive (I had promised not to call the school since the "gay" incident) and called the counselor without Sonny Boy's knowledge.  The school counselor in her conversation with Hubby remarked "those third grade girls are something else this year."  Ms. Counselor had lunch with Sonny Boy that day to get the scoop straight from the horse's mouth.  Sonny Boy told her that it was really mostly two girls - a far cry from ALL the girls - and named the ring leaders.  Ms. Counselor called the ring leaders in and talked to them and the only reason they could come up with that Sonny Boy was weird or gross is that at their spring concert - where all the girls were dressed up - he told several that they "looked pretty".  Oh how horrible!  My son handing out compliments makes him "gross"!  The counselor talked to the girls and it seems the shrieking behavior has stopped.

In the middle of all this drama, the local high school was putting on a performance of Les Miserable.  I'd been to several of the performances of other plays;  the kids do a really impressive job and figured it was a cheap night out for Mom and the kids.  When I told Sonny Boy that we were going the night before he was excited, as it seemed one of his classmates (one of three non-shrieking girls) was also in the play. I asked Sonny Boy as I picked him up at school if he wanted to take flowers to the girl at the end of the show, as I was hoping to foster some positive interaction with one of the nice girls.   Sonny Boy was all for that so we picked up some carnations on the way to the play.  After the play Sonny Boy darted out of the auditorium and found the little girl from his class and gave her the flowers.  Little Girl was thrilled he was there and reportedly hugged him like five times.  I was later told those were the "best hugs ever". 

Sonny Boy now reports that he LIKES Little Girl, and he's pretty sure Little Girl LIKES him but she won't admit it.  Ahh, young love.  Thank God school is over in couple more weeks.

All the boy / girl drama is worrisome for third grade though.  My scout mom friend and I had lunch the other day, and she reported some of the same antics from the girls towards her sons (twins in the same class as Sonny Boy.)   Boyfriend/Girlfriend relationships are so pushed on kids so young.  Watch any of those silly shows on Disney that draw in the pre-teens and you'll see crazy antics designed to get the opposite sex's attention.  I don't blame it all on TV of course, but I'd bet a good chunk of it comes from there.  I'm pretty sure I was still pretty interested in Barbies in third grade.

With all this drama before puberty is even really close I don't even want to imagine the middle school years.  All I can say is that I hope science comes up with some sort of implantable birth control for men by the time high school hits or I'm afraid I might become a very young grandma.

Yes! I'm still alive (somehow)

To do a quick list of all the busy we've had going on here:

Flew down to Arkansas with Mom, rented U-Haul, loaded it, and drove it back in a three day span.

Unloaded U-Haul into Mom's rental (right next door) and moved the heavy stuff around for her and have left her to do the rest.  Mom is adjusting well I guess, I know my stress level went dramatically down.  I still go over and drag her out to walk around the block and she comes over and eats 2-3 times a week.  The best part is her craziness and nosiness are not right in my face all day.  Grant it she's still nosey, calling me the other day when I'd gone to a appointment and running errands " I see you've been out today" but at least she's not rummaging through my grocery sacks and mail before I get to it.

Sonny Boy had a spell of nastiness.  I requested his pediatrician up his ADHD medicine and he wouldn't since his grades were still good, a few days later shit hit the fan with him and after another trip to the pediatrician, a psychologist, a psychiatrist and now ongoing therapy with the psychologist and an increased dose of meds (that I said we needed in the first place) he's getting back to his normal self.  The psychologist tested him both on and off meds and seems to think he needs an even bigger dose.  I may hold off on the bigger dose until school starts back in the fall as long as we can keep things calmer around here, we'll see.

Spring has finally sprung and trying to get things done in the house is very hard when gorgeous weather and sunshine beckon me.  Therefore the yard looks very good - the interior of the house is embarrassing.

We are debating the merits of me flying up to MN and working a week and then Hubby bringing the kids up for another week and we will have a giant yard sale and try to clean up FIL's property.  Really it's such a mess that a month's worth of work probably wouldn't be enough.  The overwhelming bit of that mess sends Hubby, SIL, BIL, and I into stress overload.  Frankly I think we just need to dive in and get it done so it's not constantly hanging over our heads.

I've kept myself really busy and I'm loving having the house to myself during the day, I wish school would last another month as honestly I get so much accomplished when I don't have to stop and referee kids, feed kids and clean up their messes faster than I can get anything done.  Honestly I'd love to be able to get a good spring cleaning done before school is out but in reality it ain't gonna happen.  I'm going to settle for somewhat organized, not disgusting, and presentable.

My summer calendar is filling up so fast it makes me ill.  Vacations, camps, camping trips, etc etc are all on the books and I still don't have one good camping trip planned for the boys and I which I really hope to squeeze that in sometime too.

So yes, I'm still alive and so busy, but it's good.  (I'm not saying that too loud because you know how it goes)

I'm a Travelin' (wo)Man....

I suppose I'll be pulling out the suitcases again soon.  It's good news though.  I hereby formally announce...

TA TA Ta DA (a trumpet fanfare)

MOM IS MOVING OUT!!!!

I may have made mention in the last post the rent house behind ours was becoming available again.  Mom, as sick of us as we are of her, trotted over and talked to the landlord and decided to rent it.  Hubby and I guided her that she should ask for just a six month lease in case the disability drags out to forever or some other malady strikes.  The last week or so has been a brainstorm session of what is the most feasible and economical way to get down to Arkansas and back with her stuff.  After much internet searching and the like Mom and I will fly down, rent a U-Haul, load it with some help from Uncle's farm labor and drive it back to Wisconsin.  Hubby will stay here and either leave work early or work from home the three days or so it will take us to make the trip.

I think the landlady cut Mom a deal on the rent because last year when we inquired about it the rent seemed about $100 higher.  Mom told her there was no need to re-paint as there was just some minor dents in the paint.  So with that cost removed and knowing the yard work would fall upon our shoulders (and likely any minor repairs) and not having to look for a tenant etc. might have worked in Mom's favor.  Luckily the yard is TINY, like honestly it will take a whole extra 10 minutes to mow in the summer. 

I'm so excited, would it be wrong to start dragging her clothes over there and blow up and air mattress for her?  he he

The good part of her being close is she'll still be handy to keep an eye on the kids now and then and we can keep an eye on her as well.  I can call her over for supper a couple of times a week to make sure she's not living completely off of ham sandwiches and Lean Cuisines but if I feed the kids chicken nuggets and canned corn for supper I won't hear any complaints.  Mom is also excited she won't have to pay for internet and will be able just to hack into our Wi-Fi.  Hopefully it will work out well.  Funny when I think about it this is the third generation of our family to live next door to grandparents.  Mom lived next door to grandmother when she was a child, I lived next door to my grandmother from third grade on, and now my kids will live next door to their grandmother at least for a time.

At least three more trips are on the books for me as well, two to go up north and deal with FIL's household.  SIL asked that we come up in the next few weeks and work at trying to clean up FIL's house so we could try to market it somehow. I also promised SIL I would come up for a week or so after school is out, and we could start sorting through all of FIL's stuff and have a giant yard sale.

Hubby also got the green light and the kids are going to stay with MIL and SIL for a week while we fly out to Oregon to visit some with an uncle of his and just mill around the Pacific North West.  I've never been to that part of the country and Hubby hasn't been since he was a young child.  Definitely on our to do list is see giant redwoods in northern CA but other than that we don't know.  I have already requested if it's not entirely too much extra money that we rent a convertible or a jeep for driving around in but we'll have to see.  I hope we can swing reasonable airfare as that will be the biggest bill of the trip.  We haven't made reservations yet, but it's in the near future.

Over all things are looking up and after Mom gets moved we will hopefully fall into a more normal rhythm of middle class, middle American life.  I'm almost scared to type that because you know that just has something sneaky hiding behind it waiting to throw a wrench into the inner workings.

So keep your fingers crossed and don't swear too much at the Uhaul with two women in the cab if you happen to be somewhere between Arkansas and Wisconsin!

I'm from a Third World Country (sort of)

Yesterday on Facebook an acquaintance from high school posted a link to a music video excited that several people were in it including her.  I watched the video out of curiosity of course.  It seems that the video was a very nicely (an probably expensively) produced music video promoting Heifer Project International.  I'm out of the loop, so it's really possible the guy singing it is some giant pop star, but I doubt it.

The video flips between images that are very distinctly South American and scenes from the town I grew up in, with some shots in front of Heifer Project's headquarters.  The scenes from my Arkansas Delta hometown were frankly more depressing than the mountain landscapes with rural people in the south American mountains.

A quick gander at Heifer Project's website shows that they only have two programs running in the U.S.  One in Oregon, and one in the Delta.  The rest of their projects are in either 3rd world countries or "second" world countries such as Ukraine. 

I'm torn though.  I'm glad that some well organized group is getting in there and trying to get people to help themselves; on the flip side I feel it destined to failure.  There is so little employment there, the school district has collapsed in mess of lawsuits and apathy, and the area is riddled with gangs and drug dealing and abuse.   People in general there have so little pride in their surroundings that when a building falls into disrepair it simply falls down and the pile stays there.  If there is a fire the burned shell of the building stays.  There are no public playgrounds or parks nor is there a tax base or a willing group of volunteers to work at things like this.  When the city does manage to scrape together a little money such as putting out concrete picnic tables the thugs come along break the tables apart.  Metal is stolen at an amazing clip - my uncle who farms there replaces culverts and parts on his irrigation systems frequently.  Depressing.

So to say that I'm from a third world "county" is not too far fetched, even major international charities think so.

This in no way colors my opinion of Heifer Project.  Honestly I feel it one of the better aid programs out there and urge you to donate money to the charity.  If you are not familiar with the philosophy of Heifer Project please read up on it as it was based on "pay forward" long before the term became popular.

In a weird footnote to the whole thing I might have been the one to put Hometown on Heifer Project's radar.  I don't know this for sure of course. A few years ago when the mayor that hired Mom was soon to be up for re-election and we knew he would likely be booted out, I spent hours on the computer trying to get agencies into the town and looking for grants.  I distinctly remember writing an e-mail to Heifer Project as they were starting new programs in the U.S. at that time.  Do I KNOW that I sent Heifer to Hometown, nope I don't, but I can't help but wonder.

Where O Where?

 

Where O Where is the Springtime?

 

Why isn't it coming to Wisconsin my home?

 

I searched the web over, and thought I'd found springtime,

 

but I checked my bankbook,

 

and Pftttt that idea was gone.

 

 

I you happen to be a youngster and don't remember Hee Haw the above should be sung to the following:

 



 



Besides the fact we've had more snow in March than we had in December and January combined I am still hopeful that spring is around the corner.  I can see bare ground in my yard which has a few hazards, one is the inevitable mud that happens in the less grassy areas of the yard - which a good chunk of the side yard.  The other is land mines laid by Callie.  Snow covers a lot of ills.  Today Sonny Boy was given a handful of plastic bags and told to go pick up poo.  Igor in an effort of never being left out of anything, insisted he be given a bag so he could participate as well.  Whatever floats your boat kid.  I didn't watch, but I imagine that most of the poop that was cleaned up was done by Igor just cause that's the kind of kid he is.  Good news for the kids is that I have a bid in on fancy pooper scooper on Ebay, bad news is I didn't realize that the auction didn't run out for 6 days yet, so unless I'm out bid it will be a little while before the super dooper scooper gets here.

Like we don't have enough stress going Hubby has gotten a wild hair that we must remodel the kitchen.  Now I'm not against remodeling the kitchen, all the kitchen gods agree that the kitchen is far from being functional, and only a couple of upgrades ahead of where it was when the house was built in 1893.  I'm just not sure right now is the best time to tackle such a stressful project.  However we have been planning on remodeling the kitchen since the day we bought the house 8 1/2 years ago so it's probably time.  Since the kitchen has such a poor design layout and we hope to remove a couple of walls, and somehow squeeze a mudroom/laundry out of the deal, we have hired an architect to design and tell us how to deal with the structural elements.  Today the architect came and measured all over the house from the attic to the basement.  If this proves feasible both structurally and financially I'll likely be cooking meals in the camper all summer.  Yay.

The little rent house behind us is emptying out again.  The young family that moved in last spring is in the process of moving out.  Kind of a shame as they have been our best neighbors there yet, actually keeping the lawn mown and doing a couple of little outdoor projects that looked very nice.  Mom is eyeballing it and threatening to rent it and live off of her savings.  I don't think I'm going to talk her out of it if she does.  I have no idea how much longer it will be before her disability is approved, but honestly I've had about all of it I can stand and frankly she's sick of us as well.  I'm hoping she goes for it.  Hubby says that maybe she can get a six month lease so if the disability isn't approved she would have a way out and at least we would get a break.  I'm going to keep my eyes open for the landlords and send her over to speak with them as they always come in and clean up after each tenant.

Mom has been good about going up to the library for her coupon job.   Mostly she's been stuck filing coupons which I'm sure sucks.  The upside is she LEAVES THE HOUSE for a couple of hours a week which has been really good for her.  She is still not good about getting dressed, she stayed in PJ's all day both Saturday and Sunday and most of the day on Monday.  I was flipping through the calendar today and saw that she has a shrink appointment in a couple of weeks.  I'm going to go with her and tattle.  I don't need to go and listen to her deepest darkest secrets, but I know her and she won't report she only dresses 3-4 days a week, and makes no big effort to make friends here in town.

Today I was telling Mom about a dream job opportunity (same company) that we hope comes Hubby's way.  Right now it's a very long shot, but he has definitely thrown his name in the hat.  If the dream job comes to fruition it would mean moving temporarily.  Mom's first concern was what about me?  My response was "you live here rent free!"  "But I don't know anybody!" and I told her she better get out and start making some friends.  Of course this is all just talk at this point and very well may never happen

Sonny Boy is being a handful lately.  His daily reports from his teacher are rather hit and miss.  Homework and behavior have become regular issues despite being warned, grounded and the like.  I'm beginning to think it's time to up his ADHD med dosage as he must be in a growth spurt because it's totally impossible to keep groceries around.  I honestly think I haven't seen the kid eating something in the last two weeks.  I also discovered that he was eating breakfast at home and then going and eating it at school as well!  I called the cafeteria and put a stop to that as he can eat his fill at home.

Igor had an open house this last week that Hubby and I attended.  He had glowing reports from his teacher and was proud to show off stuff.  It was the first time Hubby had been in Igor's classroom so everything was new to him.  Igor's teacher reports that his reading has really "blossomed" in the last month.  Igor really wants to be a reader but he has to work at it, however he's right on grade level so we don't have any worries.

Good News!  FIL's crazy live-in moved out of his house without us having to pay a lawyer.  Thank God for small miracles.  Maybe the plea I posted on FIL's facebook page to haunt her worked.

Well it's late, and the is quickly descending into drivel.  I always come up with great blog topics as I lie down to sleep, but like magic they are gone by the time I get to a keyboard so I write about my real life dramas.

A Glimmer

Well hopefully we might be seeing some improvement in things around here.  I'm saying this optimistically.

The nightmare with FIL crazy live-in should come to a close soon.  She has promised to be out by the 17th, if she is not we have already contacted an attorney to get her thrown out.  Every time we talk about it we all get angry because she has all these "rights" to property that is not hers by any means be it lease or deed.  Either way that drama will likely be over with in the next couple of weeks and we can start really cleaning up FIL's place and put it up for sale.

Hubby and I sat Mom down for a heart to heart the other night.  I didn't say anything new, but Hubby was involved in it which was and for some reason when Mom hears something from him it's no longer me nagging but is heard at least somewhat.  We basically said she has to get out of the house for some amount of time - I offered up 6 hours a week - doing SOMETHING - because it was totally unhealthy for her to go weeks at a time without leaving.  I also offered up she needs to dress daily and do some walking.  When I went to the library on Monday to check out some books I asked the librarian if they had any volunteer jobs Mom could do. She was super excited to have Mom come clip coupons and file them.  The library clips all the coupons from the many newspapers they get, and puts them in a file for the people in the community to use. They have stacked up for weeks as they don't have time or a volunteer to get it done.  I came home with this information and the afternoon book club book.  Mom went yesterday to talk to them and came home rather excited because they were super nice and glad to have the help.  Thank God.  Maybe clipping coupons will give her some way to feel needed in the world if she has that silly little job to go to.  So now I have at least two hours of the house all to myself!!!  I might have a party, or just pay bills if I can ever get the bank website up.

Wrestling season came to an end.  Sonny Boy did better than expected at the regional tournament defeating his first opponent, however he was beaten the next two rounds and was out.  Weigh - in was the night before and when we got there he was .4 lb from the lower weight bracket, in hopes of giving him a little edge we dressed him in Igor's jacket, his own jacket, and my jacket and he ran laps around the gym for 45 minutes.  Yeah not the healthiest way to drop weight, nor really something I wanted to teach him. We have always just let him wrestle at whatever he weighed in at, but we knew competition would be fierce, and being at the top end of the weight bracket does give a bit of advantage.  Now I'm looking into summer camps, just got an email from a parent who wants to get a group together to attend a camp, it's rather expensive, especially compared to a camp at a nearby university campus.  The hitch is that is a rather prestigious camp that has a good reputation, so we'll see if the team discount and a commuter discount (I'll take the camper and stay nearby) will make it something we can do.

The dishwasher is still out of order.  The repairman came on Tuesday and said the motor was shot, he didn't have a replacement motor in stock so it is on order and he will be back next Thursday.  Yay, another week of hand washing dishes.

The head cold I struggled through last week passed on to Hubby who battled it a couple of days.  The kids seemed to have missed it, but yesterday the dog started coughing.  My resident Internet vet (Hubby) declared she has "Kennel Cough" and that it will clear on it's own.  The worst part is she coughs so hard she starts gagging and pukes up a little.  Nice.  So now when she starts a spell we all run for the door in hopes she gets outside in time.  Today she seems a bit better, but yesterday was rough on her,  Igor was concerned and wanted to take her to the vet immediately and to be honest he's not even that in love with her.  For now I'm feeding her small amounts of food at a time and the kids have been ordered to leave her alone so she can rest as the coughing seems to start up when she gets excited playing.

My 39th birthday is looming very near.  To be honest I don't really care, but I do.  Why?  I don't really know, I still get carded when I buy liquor at the grocery store, but then again they say they card anybody who looks under 40.  Like the saying goes, it's better than the alternative!

I wish spring would get here.  I have some daffodils that are trying to poke up in the bed by the back door (that bed is always very early as it is pretty sheltered) however I'm still looking at a fair amount of snow in the yard and it's spitting snow as I type.  March is always the time I get really sick of Wisconsin winter and yearn for Arkansas's early spring.

Blah, I'm going to see if I can get my bills paid now.  Double Blah.

Yuck

The dishwasher has been making funny noises for a while.  Hubby looked at it declared it needed work and since it's less than a year old he called the repairman who is supposed to be here on Tuesday.  The dishwasher went to dishwasher heaven last night as the load I ran through it, funny noises and all isn't even remotely clean.  Now I have a full dishwasher of dirty dishes and a counter full of dirty dishes to hand wash.  Nice.

To top it off I have one heck of head cold.  The kind of head cold where you can't breathe through your nose at all and it feels like your sinuses are going to explode out through your eyeballs.  Horizontal is not a position that works at all, but of course that's the only way I can sleep.

Lovely, I'm off to blow my nose and see if I get Mom to help me with the dishes before somebody from the health department shows up.

A little bit of nothing

The last couple of months our weekends have centered around Sonny Boy's wrestling tournaments.  I am amazed at the amount of youth tournaments in Wisconsin in a given weekend.  Now I'm sure some of them don't draw the same amount of crowds as the ones we attend but I'd guess on any given weekend in Dec, Jan, Feb and early March there are 10-20 tournaments in Wisconsin. 

This one was a couple of weeks ago.  Sonny Boy in 3rd here but only missed 2nd place by 1 point.  The kid who won was a real scrapper and certainly had an advantage on Sonny Boy. 

Today's tournament didn't go nearly so well, in fact I don't know if I'm up to attending that tournament again.  We were in a large "field house" where the only bleachers must have been dragged in from outdoors and were only 3 levels high.  We ended up sitting against the wall - on a set of two step bleachers that were behind another set of bleachers.  Ug, between that and the fact Sonny Boy was in an 8 kid bracket which leaves little room for flubbing a match and placing well.  Today Sonny Boy placed 7th.  The first kid he wrestled pinned him very quickly, the second kid he gave a really hard time but lost by decision.  The third match he was mad, and made the kid pay, and won it but gave us and his coaches a few heart attacks by nearly getting pinned once or twice.

Couple the fact the last nights supper came back to haunt me and I had to make several embarrassing trips to a very busy ladies room early in the day left me not too humoured to be there.

Next week is regional.  Honestly I don't expect him to make it too far.  Several of the better wrestlers on the team are not going after being disappointed last year.  We've done our best to explain to Andrew that he's not likely to do great but he declares that it's just like any other tournament.  The only upside I can see is that it's double elimination and once he loses twice we go home.  Is that bad?

Hubby is trying to fit in a little ice fishing here and there.  Really only gotten out once and the kids are begging to go again.

 

 

A week or so ago he took the boys out and this little northern pike is all they caught.  I know he looks longish but they are a bony fish and must be pretty big before they are worth keeping.  Not to mention they smell, even 10 seconds out of the water they are slimy and stink.  Fun to catch though as they are pretty aggressive.

 

Currently the I can't decide what's offending my nose more.  Hubby dragged up his beer making stuff and made a batch of beer this afternoon and that smells pretty bad.  Couple that with the methane releaser we call a dog this evening and I want to put a clothespin over my nose.  Normally I have a nice candle around to try to cover up the stink but I haven't purchased a good one in a while and the cheap ones hardly have smell to them at all.

 

Tomorrow nothing is down on the "books".  Hubby said he may have to tend an broken airplane, if not it's possible he'll take the boys fishing again.