Go Wildcats!!!

This is Frank the Tank with Trent. He is Trent's Defensive Line Coast. He unfortunately wasn't at this last Saturday's game in Colfax. Someone in his wife's family had passed away and they had to fly off to California. Frank is a big kid himself, and I was worried that the kids weren't going to do well with him being gone. He usually gets the kids hyped up to play. But I was wrong......

It was soooo cold in Colfax at 8am. I want to say it was in the teens. Trent is #16 and is hunkered under one of the assistant coaches. He has learned that if he stays under one of their wings, he gets more playing time. Smart kid because he's played about three quarters of each game. Trent almost recovered a fumble, but when he reached out to grab it, he ended up pushing it out of bounds. Good play though. The Wildcats played their hearts out. We won 30 to zip. Our fifth game and the boys are undefeated. We have a bye next week and the week after that they play at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow for the championship games. They couldn't be more excited.

After the game, Coach wanted to give them a pep talk and express how proud he was of them.

I love this picture of Trent looking up at Coach, just eating everything he's saying. It was funny to watch Trent when they won the game, he galloped around the field like a jumping jack rabbit with his hand in the air pointing the number 1 sign and of course a smile ear to ear.

Of course Dad made it down to watch the boy play. There wasn't enough blanket or hats on us to keep the cold out.

Conversations....

Background history .. Anyone who's around me knows that I can put my hair up with a pen (writing utensil). I twist my hair like so, weave the pen through like that and ta da.. my hair stays. On this particular day, I put hair up with said pen.

Setting: All of us are in Eric's pickup heading to Nezperce. All three of the kids were in the back seat coloring or drawing of some sort.

Caiti: Mom I need a pen.

Mom: You have crayons, use those.

Caiti: No, I NEED a pen. Trent has one, so I need one

Mom: Sorry, he's got the only pen. You'll just have to wait, or use your crayons.

Caiti: (with attitude) You have one in your hair, let me have that.

Mom: No. I'm not taking my hair out. Deal with it.

Caiti: Well, your hair looks weird any ways.

Eric, of course is trying to stay on the road from laughing so hard. I look at him and ask, " At what age do they learn manipulative remarks?" His reply.... "Apparently at 3."
She never got the pen.

The phone call...

Last night I cried. Not bad tears, tears of joy and confirmation. And to understand, I'll back up a little.
It's been a rough 5 months. Eric has been out of town, and it's hard raising OUR 3 children with little help. The busy sport schedules, staying in Asotin for 2 hours a night, 3 nights a week to save on gas, trying to get the girls to their dance, and trying to maintain the house, laundry and dishes. No easy feat. Stress has been high again due to talks of layoff. There are 6 plant with Eric's company and 2 of them got shut down this week due to no bids or jobs for them to go to, Eric's plant not being one of them. But no one was talking of where the next site would be, not knowing if there was one at all. How cruel this economy can be.
This past Sunday at church, I lost it during communion. I realized that like a lost sheep I had strayed from God, and thought that I could do all of this on my own. I apologized for my straying, and thanked Him for never letting me go, and that whatever His will is, He has promised to take care of my family. We have lived through two lay offs and survived by His good graces and if a third is to come, we would survive again.
Early last night, I was dog tired and ended up crashing in Eric's chair with Caitrin in my lap. I was waken around 12:30am by my phone ringing. Eric used to call me when he got off work, between midnight and 1am, but it was a 50-50 chance that I would answer, so he just gave up a few weeks ago. Realizing that it was Eric calling me, I better answer it since he hasn't called me that late in a while. He apologized for waking me, but he had some good news. (I wasn't sure if he was being facetious or not, I wasn't quite awake) My instant thought was that he had been laid off. He asked me to guess what pit they were going to next, in my sleepy stupor I told him I didn't know. I could tell he was smiling when he said "Pullman". That means that he's coming home! The Pullman Pit is close enough that he doesn't have to live in his trailer, and he'll be home every morning (since he works the night shift). But I don't care, I will get to see him every day. Not two days out of every seven, or two days out of 14. I asked him how soon and he said that they should be moving by the end of this month. Being with this company for the last 7 months, I know that Pullman can get yanked right out from underneath them, but I'm riding on the faith that the good Lord knows that I'm in need of my husband and He's bring him home to me.
After the phone conversation, I put Caitrin to bed and I meandered to mine. I just laid there and cried. I'm sure it was out of joy, relief, and knowing that God had answered my prayers. When I woke up this morning, there was a new vibe in the air and a little skip in my step. God is good.
***I do need to throw in credit where it's due. My sister has also been my saving grace in all these hard times. She has taken the kids to their events if I had a scheduling conflict, and she has fixed many meals for the kids and I. She has been my sound wall, when I couldn't talk to Eric and my shoulder when I felt times were getting a little to hard. I would be truly lost without her***

Football

As I have mentioned, Trent is in football this year. He plays for the Clearwater Football League. Full gear, full tackle. It's so awesome to see these little people run the whole length of the field and cream each other going for the ball. You might say that is brutal for an 8 year old, but I'm a firm believer in letting boys be boys. This was when they played in Pullman against the Colfax Bulldogs. Their standings were 2-0. He's pretty smug about his winnings. And for a first year, he has had a lot of playing time.

Coop is in the same league but they will never play against each other. Coop is in the 5th &6th division and Trent is in the 3rd & 4th division. Boy they do look good. Last weekend Trent was to play at Martin Stadium in Pullman. He came down with the flu. It was all he could do to sit in the stands and watch his team mates play. When he got up enough energy, he'd get his helmet on and stand by the coaches (can't be on the field without the helmet). His team won that game and the Wildcats are now 3-0 and we have our seat in the championship game. Tomorrow he plays in Kendrick. He's not a 100% recovered from the flu but he's going to try his best. It's been killing him not going to practice and sitting on the side lines. Not to mention Dad has been getting a kick out of coming home on the weekends just to watch Trent play.

Conversations

Setting: I'm in the shower getting ready to go to Trent's football game. The kids are still kind of waking up or running around getting their bowls of cereal.
Caitrin barges in to the bathroom...

Caitrin: Mom! I have to go to the bathroom!
Mom: Okay.. go. No one is stopping you.

I hear her situate herself and can already tell that there is some attitude in the works.

Caitrin: (sighs)... this is a complete waste of my time.

I just peek out of the shower curtain to look at her in bewilderment.

What do you say to that, because I'm at a loss?

Conversations... (it's been a while)

Setting: The girls and I are at the Asotin Football field watching Trent practice his football for 2 (very long) hours. Caitrin wanted to "mess" with my hair. Anything to entertain a 3 year old. I am playing a game on my cell phone.

Caitrin: MOM!! I told you to sit still!! (as she reefing on my head)
Me: I didn't move. You're the one moving my head.
Caitrin: I know.

She starts "combing" my hair with her fingers. Of course she's pulled out a handful of my hair. I winced in pain at one point.

Caitrin: Oh Mama. Don't be scared. It's okay.

I just grin and bear it, thinking myself "oh, I'm not scared, just afraid of loosing all my hair"

It's nice to know that if all else fails she could get a job at Helga's House of Pain.

Life's lil updates.......

In the past three weeks it has been non-stop.
First off, Dad came home from Coeur'd Alene on Tuesday. Should he have?.... No. His check out weight was 205. There really isn't much left of that man. With him coming home, I don't feel he'll get adequate therapy and most likely being the stubborn mule that he is, he'll end up driving the therapists away. I found out some horrible things that happen to him while he was in Kootnia Medical Center. They weren't changing his feeding tube regularly, so at one point he went 10 hours with out any food, in the mean time they kept pumping him full of his insulin. They missed his pain meds on a handful occasions, then they had the gall to say that he was a difficult patient and was combative. Eric's older sister Chaney is a nurse. When she requested his charts, they refused. So she called up Kathy, Eric's step-mom, to have her permission, they also refused them to her as well. Needless to say Chaney called and reported the hospital. The physical therapist that they assigned to Dad was an elderly, over weight women who only wanted to sit and scalded Cal every time he got up and wanted to walk around. Eric ended up turning her in and they removed him from her charge. I'm sure that's why Dad wanted to come home, figured he'd get better help at home. We aren't sure if his memory will ever be 100%. When we asked him the date he replied with " October 25, 2005". He kept calling Eric "Christian" (Eric's older brother), and Dad couldn't remember that Eric had purchased a new truck back in May. Eric's not happy that I haven't taken the kids up to the house to see Dad. Honestly, and maybe I'm being selfish, I don't want them to see him that way. That's not Papa. His jaws are still wired, but he's able to speak only with great effort and he's got a huge bandage where the hole in his throat was. I just don't want them to have that memory.

Trent has started football. His first official game is this weekend in Moscow. He had a Jamboree this past weekend, where they play all the teams in 15min segments. It's really cool to watch little boys run around and just tackle the heck out of each other. Do I have pics? Of course. Do I have my camera? That would be a BIG no. I left it at Eric's second cousin's house in Oregon.

Which brings me to the Reel Family Reunion this past weekend as well. It was in Estacada, Or. Just south east of Portland. Very beautiful. We met family I've only heard about. Eric's dad is a "Junior", so when he was growing up he was called "Butch"(I still can't figure out why). So when introducing ourselves, we had to say we were "Butch's" kin. Honestly annoying to all of us, but we put up with it for a couple of hours. "Butch" was also the black sheep of the family and had the black mark painted upon his forehead, so it bled on to all his offspring. We all felt awkward and out of place. We were the largest clan there, 7 adults and 9 kids all from "Butch". Eric's real mom was there, and she being the ex-wife, I'm sure she felt a little awkward as well, but she still considers them her family.
We had a good time in Portland though. On the way home we stopped at the Falls. Eric wasn't a happy camper since we always stop there heading out of town. I didn't care. The last time we were there, it was cold and snowy. Different season, different scenery.
Eric is Ellensburg awaiting to go to Goldbar, which is an hours drive our of Seattle. He's getting further and further away making it harder for him to come home on the weekends. From Goldbar he's supposed to go to Olympia. I think that'll be fun, I'll be able to take the kids to the coast and Eric's sister will only be a few hours out of the way. But all this is subject to change at the drop of a hat, so we'll see what they say tomorrow.
Right now I'm just trying to get through yesterday. Life is very busy with football practice, laundry, homework, and making whatever little time is left for me.