March 29, 2011

Wrestling weekend.....Cannon style

This last weekend there was a very large wrestling tournament in Butte that we decided to brave. Noah and Jacob had an early out so we left town early. It was a wonderful drive. We didn't lay Mason down so he actually slept most of the way to Butte. Mason travels one of two ways. He either sleeps or screams. I was pretty certain that since our ride was soooo wonderful getting there the rest of the weekend would be a success! We checked into our hotel and found a bag of candy wishing us luck in the tournament from the hotel. Jacob was impressed by the nice job the hotel did with making the beds. After this we went to weigh in. This is the first tournament we had to weigh in for ("we" meaning the boys. there is no weight class for the parents) usually our coach just submits the weights they have on the boys. I went with Jacob and Ethan to their weigh in area, Clint was entertaining Mason in the car and Noah ran upstairs to weigh in by himself. As we were getting finished weighing in J and E, Noah comes back downstairs and is a little upset. He weighs 89.5 lbs. Which is absolutely a wonderful weight for him but the weight classes are set up so there is a 81, 85, 89 then 100 lb 10yr old weight class. 11 lbs is a huge difference! Especially with the how talented a lot of the wrestlers are at this tournament. So the official weigh-er-in-ers upstairs suggested Noah run for about half an hour. Thank goodness Tony was behind us in line and was able to help Noah figure out what to do. Noah ran some laps, went to the bathroom (twice), then wrestled Tony for a few minutes and success! He was able to weigh in he weighed 88.9 lbs. Woohoo (I wish I could lose 1/2 lb that way!). Thank you Tony!!! We then met our good friends the Yates family at the restaurant for a great dinner and drinks. Their son Zay was wrestling as well. We wanted a table all together. It had to be a large table to fit my family of 6, her family of 5, and her aunt. There was a lot of testosterone in that room since 0f the 12 there were only 3 women. Back to the hotel for a long night of Mason miserable because it wasn't his normal routine. Mason loves routine. Especially his "nigh nee" routine. After a quick breakfast at the hotel we were off to the tournament. The brackets they had printed did not have the correct bout number on them, and then some were printed incorrectly multiple times. Because of this Ethan almost missed his first match. When we finally realized what was going on Noah ran him over to wrestle. They went so quickly that Ethan wasn't sure how to get back to where we were sitting (the tournament is at the civic center). Ethan quickly was pinned (so was Jacob and Noah this round). When Ethan wasn't back a few minutes after his match I was worried, but hopeful that he would be there any second. Then I hear the announcer say "Will the parents of Ethan James from Great Falls please come to the announce stand. Your son is lost". Love that he knows his middle name, but important that we work on telling people your first and last name if ever lost! After watching lots of wrestling there was a break. Sarah and I brought the "babies" out to the entryway to run around. The other boys were hanging in our seats. Moments later Steve comes running out and tells me "your kid just puked on your chair and I don't do puke". I ask which one and he says "the little one Ethan". I leave Mason with Sarah and hurry to the bathroom to get some cleaning supplies. The paper towel dispenser I'm sure saves the Civic center a ton of money since it will only dispense one towel at a time, but for a mama needing a large amount of paper towels to clean up puke in a public area I wanted to find the override button. Back in the stands poor little Ethan is white as a ghost and there indeed is plenty of puke on the chair I had been sitting in and on the floor. He also had a few other gastrointestinal issues but we won't discuss those here. I was able to successfully clean up the puke and sanitize the chair between my limited supply of stolen towels from the bathroom, the napkins/trash on the ground, wet wipes from my bag, and sanitizer wipes from Sarah's. Clint then took poor Ethan and Mason back to the hotel for some rest. Ethan had to forfeit his second match. Jacob lost his second match although it lasted much longer! Good job Jacob! Noah lost by points on his second match. He went all 3 rounds with a boy that had some serious muscle definition and had some pretty amazing moves. It was a close match for the first 2 rounds Noah even giving the poor boy a bloody nose but this must have made him see red so the 3rd round his opponent pulled out all his tricks and won. This was a hard lose for Noah because he tried so hard but I was very proud of him. Thanks to Zay I feel like we still were victorious since he brought home 3rd for us! No matter what we do there are always some bumps in our adventures (see the postings about our summer vacation). Although it wasn't a "perfect" weekend it was definitely a Cannon style adventure and we had a great time!

March 20, 2011

Keeping the Frat party at bay

I usually work 1 of 2 shifts. Either 7 to 3:30 or 7 to 7:30. Either of these shift can be much longer depending on the day but there is always hope that I will be home shortly after. The days that I get off at 3:30 are great I have the whole evening to help with homework, cook dinner, do dishes and hang with my boys. Often when I come home after my 7:30 shift I feel like I came home to the wrong house. Maybe I accidentally set foot into the frat house.

What could have possibly happened in the 4 extra hours I worked? Where did my sweet little boys with good manners go? I can't help but smile when I open my house and hear all the giggling going on. Even if it is over someones bodily function. There are wrestling tournaments, and Mario tournaments, push up tournaments and eating spicy sauces on pizza tournaments. These are only some of the tournaments that I am privy to knowing about. Some days when I ask them what they've been up to I only get giggling in response. These days it is probably best I didn't know.

Thank goodness there is a little estrogen in this house. My new motto should be "Motherhood keeping the frat parties at bay".