Saturday was our first wrestling tournament. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm ready to going back to being a Mat Mama. Mat Mama is like Soccer Mom but we're a little meaner and encourage our kids to unmercifully take another kid down to the mat and grind his face into it. Ok, maybe not that bad but pretty close.
I'll post pictures tomorrow hopefully sometime of the boys. They haven't competed since April and neither one of them skipped a beat it seemed. Cole walked away with a 1st place medal and lots of parents and spectators crowding around to watch his matches. One couple, I overheard talking about how good Coley was. The Dad said, I wonder how long he's been wrestling. And the Mom responded with, the way he wrestles, probably since he could walk. I smiled because it's not that far back, but pretty close.
Kaden was ambitious this week and wrestled in two different weights. His regular weight and then wrestled in one class ablove him in the Middle School 5-6th graders. All a year to 2 years older than him. In his regular weight he did really well and took 4th. In the upper weight class he struggled and didn't place but I was really proud that he went out and wrestled really hard. His heart doesn't seem quite into this year and he made a passing comment to me that he wished he could play baseball year round. I don't know, maybe once he gets a couple more tournaments under his belt this season he'll be excited again.
I hate this time of year when we start wrestling. It's a grueling schedule for all of us. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday practices until 7 or 7:30 at night and usually a tournament every Saturday. And on top of that it's a long season until April. Wrestling does switch styles in about February to Freestyle, which is my favorite and it breaks up the season a bit. I don't look forward to the cringing as I watch one of my boys have their faces ground into a mat or the mat burns. I don't look forward to the tears when they come off the mat after a loss. I don't look forward to the late nights and the tantrums because their nights go so quickly BUT.... I am such a proud Mom when I get to see one of them jump in the air after a tough win. I love to watch the Ref raise their hand indicating a win. I love to watch my boys have great sportsmanship when they shake the hand of their competitor and their coaches. I feel so good when I hear people talking about my boys and how great they are. I just swell with pride because these are MY boys and with all the sacrifices and all the bad things that come along with this sport, it's all worth it when I see how much my boys have grown and how competing has made them pretty special and responsible kids.
So ya, I'm a Mat Mama again. Watch out!!!
I've not been the best blogger lately but I'm going to make a bigger effort to keep all my friends and familes updated on our life.
Our House: We just got word yesterday that we'll be able to move into the house next week!!! We're super excited about it and I'm so happy we'll be in before the holidays. So next Thursday and Friday I'm going to take a couple of much needed days to off to move into our new house. I hate moving but this time I don't mind it so much.
Cole Birthday: Cole had his 9th birthday at the beginning of the month. I have just been very behind and remiss in my posts and haven't shared any of the news. We went bowling for his birthday which has become a tradition for the last few years and had so much fun. Every time Cole went up to bowl his face would flash up on the score screen with a Happy Birthday! around it and he got the traditional bowling pin with all our signatures on it. He seemed to have a lot of fun and loved all his presents. As his Mom, however, it makes me a little sad when I see each year pass and he grows bigger and bigger and doesn't need his Mom as much anymore. I'm excited to see him grow and do all the great things he does but it's hard to let go. Enough of that sad sappy stuff!!!!
Swine Flu: So Kenzie and Daddy have the swine flu so we all had to take precautions to try to stay away and not get it. The boys have been at their Dads all week and Kenzie and Daddy have been jailed upstairs. So far Bella hasn't shown any signs of it getting her but unfortunately I started not feeling super great last night and Tommy hasn't either. So we're loading up on vitamins and lots of water and crossing our fingers that neither of us gets it.
Bella: She is hitting her terrible twos a little early..... and they aren't really terrible. She's more head strong and independant rather than tantrum throwing kind of thing. Here's a picture of her with her Grandpa's socks on that she pulled from the laundry basket and insisted on wearing around the house all night. We also got her Halloween costume this last week (Little Red Riding Hood) and she tried it on and would not take it off. She also fell down the stairs and got an 'Owie' because she insisted on going down the stairs front first.
Tommy and I went this morning to the house and did our final walkthrough on the house. How freaking exciting is that? I think walking through today just felt like a combination of too good to be true and a little scary but I can't wait. HOORAY!!!!
This is the kitchen. Sorry about the glare but there's no blinds yet and so it was super sunny. The cabinets are all a dark wood and the appliances are all black and the floor is the big tiles. I can't wait to start cooking in there.
This is a view of our deck going into the backyard. Yes if you notice we have no neighbors for a long while. Bad news is that with all those fields there's lots and lots of grasshoppers (Hoppers as Bella calls them) and I am absolutely terrified of them. Something that I'm going to have to get over pretty quickly.
We have a cool archway that goes from our family room into the kitchen that I think is pretty cool. And a picture of our dining room right of the kitchen.
And finally here's the unfinished basement that we're planning on at least finishing the bathroom and one of the bedrooms as soon as possible. But we might just stain the concrete for now and make it a big rec room until we can finish the whole thing. 
