14th Inning Stretch

We went to the "Little League Rivercats Game" last weekend. . .

and the game went 16 innings!

I've done plenty of 7th inning stretches, but I'd never done a 14th inning stretch until that night!

The boys wanted to stay for fireworks and we tried we really did. . .

but at 12:30 we gave in during the 15th and went home.

(we had 9:00 am church for heaven's sakes)

We did listen to the end of the game on the drive home and the Rivercats ended up winning!

This year was different in so many ways. .

First:

This is where we usually sit. . . on the 1st base line on the grass. . .

but this year something happened with the tickets and the grass was sold out so they gave us SEATS on the 3rd base line. . .

Second:

We didn't take Karalyn.

It's one thing to entertain her on the lawn where she can run and play. . . but in seats. . . I wasn't up for it this year.

Third:

The weather was perfect. I mean perfect. Not too hot like two years ago where we were dripping with sweat. And not too cold like last year where we watched the entire game huddled under blankets in the rain!

Fourth:

We didn't get to sit by our little league buddy family!

We have been doing little league together since Kale started like 7 seasons ago!

My buddy and me texted through the whole game so it kinda felt like I was sitting right next to her just like usual!

Some things however stayed just the same. . .

We still participated in the parade of little leaguers!

Kris's whole team practically showed up. . .

but Kale was the only one from his team that came so he walked with us!

And he wasn't too happy when I tried to get a picture with just him. . .

We still ate hot dogs!

And somehow

whether we are sitting on the grass or sitting in seats. . .

Baseball

still produces smiles from these two!

Until next year RIVERCATS!!!

IDAHO STATE REPORT

Kale came home right before Spring Break and informed me that he had a state report due "at the end of May" and that he had chosen Idaho.

Since it was due "at the end of May" I decided to not make him work on it during spring break. I mean after all it has the word "break" in it for heaven's sake.

BIG MISTAKE. . .

The "end of May" really was May 16!!!!

And with Baseball and Life. . . it crept up on us pretty quick. We (HE) got it done and he did a great job on it!

First let me share his introduction on why he chose Idaho.

I loved it.

I chose Idaho for my state report because I have family that lives there. Idaho is special to me because my parents met in Idaho and I have been to Idaho many times. After I was born my mom and I had to make many trips from California to Idaho to visit my very sick Grandma. I also chose Idaho because my favorite college football team is the Boise State Broncos. I have enjoyed learning more about Idaho.

Here's the FUN part of the story. . .

So Kale mentions to Kyle's parents that he is doing his state report on Idaho and Kyle's dad tells Kale he did his state report on Idaho. And the next day, Grandpa brings his Idaho State Report from 1962 over for Kale to look at!

It was so neat. And Kale couldn't believe that his Grandpa had to "write" his whole report and that it was all in cursive!

But the story gets even better than that!

We had the family over for Mother's Day and Kale is talking about his State Report.

Kyle's older brother Ryan then says,

"I did my State Report on Idaho too, and I probably used Dad's to write mine!"

And the next day, Grandma brings over a copy of Uncle Ryan's Idaho State Report over for Kale to look at!

(and he was right. . . he did kinda copy his dads! He even stole the postcard pictures from the end of Grandpa's report and used them in his - Genious!)

So to write Kale's state report in 2011,

he used his Uncle's state report from 1982,

and his Grandpa's state report from 1962!

(and a few other sources of course)

And there you have it!

THREE GENERATIONS of

IDAHO

STATE REPORTS!

The Last Birthday Post Until 2012

For Kale's Birthday he took us all to CHICAGO FIRE!!!

What a way to celebrate not having to eat off the kids menu's

(at most places - I'll still try to find the 12 and under restaurants)

But the real fun came almost 2 weeks later

when he had 11 friends over for a night of Air Hockey, Play Station, Nerf Gun Wars,

and . . .

FOOD!

A "Build Your Own Burger Bar"!

And ICE CREAM SUNDAES as a birthday cake!

He looks so serious!

I wanna know what he wished for with that serious face!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KALE!

Remembering

It's been 10 years since my mom passed away.

I've been thinking a lot about her this past weekend,

especially with it being Kale's birthday.

She passed away just 3 days after Kale's 1st Birthday.

I'm so grateful that she got to spend her last year with him and that he got to spend his first year with her.

This is my mom holding Kale in her arms for the first time as he entered into this life.

And as she was leaving this life she again was holding his little hand one last time.

I expected Kale's birth to be hard. Everyone told me it was hard.

It was a week before my due date and I was induced early in the morning.

I remember when the contractions started coming really hard I felt most of the pain in my upper legs.

I had expected back pain, or cramping in my stomach, but not in my legs and it was intense.

I couldn't get that epidural fast enough.

And once I got the epidural I felt absolutely no pain whatsoever.

I even took a nap.

At just before 1:00 the nurse came in to check on me and told us it was time to start pushing.

Now, my mom and my sister were driving down from Boise so that they could be at Kale's birth. They were supposed to leave early that morning and be to the hospital by noon, but my mom's blood levels were very low and they had to go to the hospital and give her a transfusion before they would let her travel.

So they didn't leave to make the 4 hour drive until after 1:00.

So when it was time to push I knew my mom would miss seeing him born and that made me sad (but remember it is childbirth so at this point you don't care and you want that baby out)

I started pushing.

And pushing.

And pushing.

And while my doctor told me I was a really good pusher, Kale was a big boy and it was taking him a long time to make his way down.

I pushed some more.

Every 10 seconds.

I thought if I heard anyone else count to 10 I was going to lose my mind.

It's after 3 by this point, and I'm still pushing.

And pushing and pushing.

And I have a wonderful midwife who would not give up on me. At this point I'm sure there are doctors who would have just opted for a c-section.

It's now after 4:00 and my doctor looks at me and says, "if he's not here by 5:00 we are going to have to do a c-section, but I know we can do this"

At this point, she tried the vacuum. No luck.

Then a nurse straddled me on the bed to put pressure on Kale's little bum to try to help him down. No luck.

And finally, the doctor (because the midwife can't use forceps) came in and after three tries with the forceps Kale was born at 5:03 pm.

And as he was crying for that first time my mom and sister came through the door.

In a way I was sad that she missed his actual birth.

But I'm glad she didn't have to see me go through everything to get him here.

And right after they got there, my mother in law came running into the room!

They were so happy.

I was exhausted.

I was shaking so bad right after he was born, that when the nurse came over to hand him to me for the first time I was so scared I would drop him, that I looked at her and said, "can you give him to his dad?" I had no idea the video camera was on and it was forever captured on film that I didn't even want to hold my baby! (It's a joke around here)

Turns out Kale was big. Over 9lbs BIG! And he was posterior which didn't aid in the birthing process!

But through it all I felt no pain. I felt nothing. I had an epidural that didn't wear off until the next morning.

In fact the most embarrassing part about Kale's birth for me (and this is saying alot because not only did it take 4 hours of my legs spread wide open to get him here, they were spread open for another 2 hours so that I could get a billion stitches put in. . . ((too much info I know sorry)) was for some reason unknown to me still, they took my catheter out, and the nurse kept coming into my room that night telling me I couldn't go to bed until I had gone to the bathroom.

I kept telling her I didn't need to go to the bathroom (which was odd I thought because all I had done since giving birth was drink bucket loads of sprite. It's all I wanted. And Kyle probably filled that hospital water pitcher up at least 5 times full of sprite for me!)

She finally came in and said she needed to take me to the bathroom before her shift ended. I still couldn't feel my legs. She practically had to carry me into the bathroom.

She left the door open just slightly as she left and this is the conversation I hear as I'm sitting in the bathroom between my mother in law and the nurse.

Kathy "I'm surprised she hasn't had to go the bathroom sooner. She really has been drinking alot since he was born."

Nurse "Oh she has gone to the bathroom. I just needed to get her off the sheets so that I could change them."

I WAS DYING!

I HAD BEEN WETTING MY BED FOR A GOOD THREE HOURS AND DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT!

Who knew all that came along with childbirth?????

I guess Kale just knew he couldn't make his entrance into the world if his Grandma's weren't going to be right there to immediately spoil him!