Picture Post

As promised, here it is. I brought my camera to work today & loaded all of my pictures onto my computer. Then I took it downstairs to our photo machine, made a CD of all the photos & printed some I needed. I am charging the battery as we speak & when I put it back in I will be able to delete all the photos from the card & start over this afternoon at Ike's last home middle school wrestling match.

Here is a sampling of some of the pictures on the card:

This was Cassidy getting ready for a dance where they had to dress "cowboy".

The next several pictures are from Kaittlin's track season. She throws the shot put & the discus. She pulled a pec muscle early in the season while lifting weights & missed much of the season, although was able to come back right before districts. Although she didn't place at districts she came really close. She attended a very prestigious camp this summer to work on her throwing & is really looking forward to track this coming spring. She also purchased

her own discus & shot put designed for her height. I think that will help her throwing.

Regular season baseball...followed by all star baseball (picture was at his birthday bbq following the game)...followed by football.

Miscellaneous....

I think that gets you all caught up on pictures. I will post wrestling photos closer to the end of the season.

One last thing...as most of you know, quite a few years ago some dear friends of ours, Ted & Becky Schulz, asked us to allow their daughter to live with us during the week so that she could attend school here in St. Maries (they lived in Plummer). As a favor to them we agreed, and for two years Sonny attended school in St. Maries and stayed with us during the week...going home to Plummer on the weekends. She shared a room with Ike & quickly became a member of the family.

When Ted got a job in North Dakota & the entire family moved there the summer between Sonny's freshman and sophomore year we were thrilled for them that they were able to all be back together in one home again, but the void that was left in our house was enourmous...you see Sonny had become a sister & daughter.

We have continued to count her as a huge part of our family, enjoying her INFREQUENT (maybe she's reading this) visits to Idaho, traveling to ND for her graduation, & following her success in college both in the classroom & on the basketball court. (We even have a clock on the wall in the living room set to ND time!) We have traveled to Montana a couple times to watch her play over the years & Shawn was able to fly to Bismarck a couple years ago to spend a long weekend with her. This past week Sonny received a very exciting basketball honor & we are so proud of her. Follow the link below to read all about it:

http://www.umary.edu/UM/Athletics/WomensBasketball/ViewArticle/?GUID=%7b001C36D8-499E-45E5-B472-F743B2C15F43%7d

Two More Wrestling Opportunities & a Smelly House

Last Saturday we headed to Potlatch for a club wrestling tournament. This was a new experience for us. St. Maries is part of the North Idaho wrestling league. Our scheduled tournament for that weekend was in Sandpoint. As it turns out this year we have several tournaments quite a ways away (Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint, Priest River). Our head coach thought it might be fun to try a Central Idaho league tournament. We have a pretty small team this year, with quite a few young wrestlers. He thought it would be easier on the parents to have a shorter drive & good for the kids to have different kids to wrestle. After getting permission from leagues to switch for this weekend the decision was made to go to Potlatch.

The Central league does things a little differently. They wrestle round robin, which means that every wrestler gets to wrestle every kid in their bracket. This is good because it means more wrestling, more opportunity. There were only 4 kids in Ike's bracket so he got to wrestle 3 times. He was the lightest wrestler in the bracket weighing in at 98.4 pounds...he wrestled in the 113.2 pound bracket (they name the bracket after the heaviest wrestler in the bracket). He had three good matches & a very good day...he pinned all three of his opponents & secured a first place medal.

On Monday I had big plans of cooking a turkey for dinner & then having turkey leftovers all week. I put my turkey in the electric turkey roaster before I went to work, turned it onto 275 degrees & off I went. At about 3:00 that afternoon Kaittlin called me after arriving home from school to a house FULL OF SMOKE. Evidently the thermostat went out on the turkey roaster & instead of cooking at 275 degrees all day it cooked at 2000 degrees all day. The turkey & the roaster were crispy critters & the entire house was full of smoke. Thank God nothing caught on fire! However my house still smells sooooo bad....kind of smells like we burned the turkey with the feathers on!!! :( I have left the doors & windows open, run fans, sprayed Febreeze, burned candles....I think it's a little better, but, eeewwww.....it STINKS!!!!

Ike had his first home middle school wrestling dual last night. They dualed Canfield Middle School (Coeur d'Alene) and Kellogg. Canfield has a HUGE team...I heard they have about 75 wrestlers, although they only brought about 50. This gave our wrestlers a lot of matches. Ike had 3 matches. He won all three, two by pins & one by points in the very last seconds of the match...almost gave me a heart attack!!!

We head to Lakeland this Saturday for a club tournament and have another middle school dual at home next week.

Working on getting pictures off my camera for a "picture post" within in the week...stay tuned! :)

The Golden Pin

A couple years ago Mike & I heard about a little incentive that one of the wrestling clubs did for fun. Every time one of the wrestlers won a match by a pin they would go to the lady who started this (one of the moms) and she would give them a "golden pin". It was a gold safety pin. The kids loved it & I thought it was just the best idea.

I have kept this idea in the back of my head for a couple years & this year I decided that I would give it a try. I found gold safety pins online for way less money than I expected. I ordered 3 inch ones for the wrestlers' first pin & 1 1/16" ones for each subsequent pin that they can hang off the big pin. My thinking was that each year I will start off with a big pin for their first pin of the season & small pins for the other pins...they can wear them on their sweatshirts or caps & it would be a fun way for them to advertise their success on the mat.

I asked Mike to contact the woman whose idea I was stealing & ask permission before I did it. He saw her at a meeting about a month ago & she told him to absolutely steal her idea, however, she offered him a warning...this will take on a life of it's own. She said that she started out her incentive in club wrestling, but it quickly spread to middle school wrestling, & now she has high school wrestlers who come & find her after securing a pin because they want their golden pin for their Letterman's jacket.

We found out last night how true her words were. Last Saturday we had our first club wrestling tournament & told the boys about the golden pins. As I expected they were very excited & I was able to give out quite a few of the big pins & two of the little ones. One of the moms even said that the boys were so excited to get their safety pins that they were by-passing their parents' congratulations after leaving the mat to come find me to get their pin! :)

Last night we traveled to Kellogg to watch Ike in his first middle school match. We wrestled against Kellogg & Wallace & our team did very well. Only three of the middle school wrestlers also wrestle for the club team, but when I walked in they were quick to find me & verify that pins at these matches would count for "gold pins". When I told them they would & yes, I had brought them, the word spread & soon the whole team knew that if they won by a pin they too could have a pin on their sweatshirt. So, needless to say, several more pins were handed out.

It was fun to watch...even the boys who didn't get pins were so excited for the ones who did...they made sure they hurried over to the bleachers & got their prize. I think this will be a really fun thing to do.

Ike wrestled well again. He won his first match 6-2 and his second match by a pin (yes, this was his first pin of the year & he got his golden pin).

Silver Medal

Well, wrestling season has officially began!

I took the day off work on Friday (mostly because I just was not up to figuring out a Halloween costume to wear to work...I know, Iknow...). I spent the day cleaning house, cooking, & baking so that we would have food to pack & take with us to the Bonners Ferry wrestling tournament. This is the first club wrestling tournament of the year.

After the kids got home from school & Ike got done with middle school wrestling practice we packed up & headed out. Cassidy stayed behind, spending the night with a friend & joining us in Bonners Ferry on Saturday. We stopped in Plummer & picked up Al & off we went. When we drove through Worley we noticed that the town was completely dark, kind of weird for Halloween night. Evidently, the power was out all over the area (including St. Maries) for about an hour & a half that evening. We stopped in Coeur d'Alene & got a bite to eat then made our way north to Bonners Ferry.

We arrived at our motel at about 9:00 pm. Kaittlin's friend Alicia came & picked her up to spend the night at her house. Mike & I, Ike & Al got settled in for the night. We stayed at the Log Cabin Inn, which is just north of Bonners Ferry & is just the nicest motel, very clean & hospitable. We stay there every year that we go up for wrestling & highly recommend it to anyone staying in the area.

Mike & Ike were up early to go to the school for weigh ins. Ike was happy with his weight of just over 98 pounds, which put him in the 100 pound weight class. They came back to the motel for sausage/egg/cheese biscuits, juice, pumpkin muffins that I had made the night before. Then we packed up & headed to the school for the long day of wrestling.

The tournament actually went quite smoothly. Kaittlin worked all day at the table. Each club is required to provide table help. Kaittlin generously volunteers to do much of that each year for us. She enjoys helping, gets community service hours towards high school credit for it, & gets to free up the parents from having to spend as much time doing it. She recruited Alicia to help her this year.

Ike had a first round bye so had to wait quite a while to wrestle. All of the boys in his bracket were new to us. Ike did not gain any weight this year compared to last, so the kids he has wrestled in the past were heavier. His first match he wrestled VERY well & won 9-2. He was very excited with his win. There were only 6 kids in his bracket & because he drew a bye his first round & won his second round that put him in the medal round. The second match (for 1st/2nd) was a exciting match. Again, he wrestled SO good...it was anyone's match...a couple times he almost had his opponent pinned, but he wiggled out of it...a couple time HE almost GOT pinned but managed to get out of it. He ended up losing the match 6-9. He was disappointed because he felt like he had made some mistakes that cost him the match & he was really hoping for that gold medal, but silver is good & he wrestled well.

This was Al's first time watching Ike wrestle folkstyle & I think he had a good time. He is likely heading to Arizona this week.

Our whole team did really well...most of our boys medaled. All in all it was a very good day & we were done in record time...out of the gym before 3pm!!! We had dinner at Alicia's parent's house before heading back to St. Maries.

It was a long, tiring, but good weekend...nice to have that extra hour of sleep on Saturday night!!! :)

Booster club meeting this week, drama practice, Ike's first middle school wrestling match in Kellogg, cheerleading practice, club & school wrestling practice, & teacher conferences at the end of the week.