MEET THE KATS

At Meet The Kats, the community PACKS they gym and we introduce all the athletes, band, drill team and cheerleaders and get everyone hyped up for the year athletically. It's a fun night and gives all the kids a chance to shine and be someone. Here's to a great year!

LAST FIRST DAY

Do I really have a SENIOR? This should be such a fun year! I am so excited to watch her go through all the fun. To really come to cherish her experiences, her friends, her family.....realizing, this phase in her life will soon be over. I'm going to try and not dwell on the fact that this is her last first day of school picture, or her last football season, or her last pep rally, or her last Homecoming dance.....alot of LASTS this year. But instead enjoy the moment. Learn to live in it and enjoy it....not watch it pass me by with no feelings, or feelings of sadness.

So let the ADVENTURE begin. It's going to be a fun one!

I also have an 8th grader. It's his last year of Middle School. He's BMOC. I'm excited to see him excel this year too. I'm hoping for a great year academically and in football. Let's see what he's made of.

FRIO FUN

We are as consistent as we can about floating the Frio. Everyone in the family loves the Frio. It's a relaxing trip where everyone can do their own thing on their own time and it's all good. We own the Cedar Bear house so it's also an inexpensive trip. This was our 2nd time with the Fountain's and Spinella's and it was a fun time!

Even with crippled hand Calli who had to wrap her "cast" in a Target back to protect it from getting wet. And we again took Tucker down the Frio although we have no pictures to prove it. He loved floating as long as he was in my lap. Wes tried to take him to pick up chicks but he would just jump out and swim to me.

Friday night Wes and I took the girls to THE dance at Garner State Park. Wes grew up going to this dance every night they were in Garner and they went every year as a young kid. It's such a cute setting with a dance taking place every night under this huge tree that overshadows a small dance floor. People just set up camp around the dance floor and watch a lot of kids learn the Texas famous 2 step.

Saturday night Cory Morrow was playing at the House Pasture so we even got to hear some good music. We also met a fun (very drunk) friend from Lubbock named Mark. Mark kept us very entertained! He's on the school board in his town which made us laugh. He assured us he was a model citizen and told us several times what a great life we all had.

The kids got to ride in a helicopter that they said was the ride of their life. It was a little too scary for me but the pilot assured me I would not be an empty nester and he would bring them all back alive. It had no doors and he appeared to go sideways a little too often for me. The kids said he also liked to show them zero gravity a few times.

Great trip! Great friends! Great house! Until next year!

IS THIS REALLY HOW WE WANT TO START HER SENIOR YEAR?

School cheer started back this week with a 3 day camp where they learn some cheers, stunt, dance, etc. The camp is at Woodlands Elite, where Calli has a 2nd home. So it's not all that fun for her and I really wish they could go somewhere away and have the experience of being away, being with lots of other schools and enjoying hotels, late night practices, etc. But it is what it is and we have been fine having camp at Woodlands Elite for the past several years.

So here's how Day 2 of school cheer camp went. I wake up at 7:30 AM to make Calli, Kyndall and Mal breakfast. I sent them off at 8:15 AM and wished them a great day! I went and worked out, had a couple of interviews and worked on some work things throughout the day. UNTIL 2:30 PM when I look down at my phone and see Coach Kevin calling me. Coach Kevin is one of the Woodlands Elite coaches and I thought 'Oh no. Why is Kevin calling me?' 

I answer the phone and Kevin very calmly asks if I'm close to the gym. When I replied no, he casually told me that Calli had had an accident while stunting and had dislocated her thumb. They weren't allowed to pop it back into place but if I could come get her, it would be best to take her to just a minor emergency place and they could pop it back in. 

I was sick but was hopeful that this would be as easy as Kevin made it out to be. It wasn't. And the day was somewhat stressful for me and VERY painful for Calli. 

What happened? Kyndall came down from a fill up and her foot landed on Calli's hand wrong and forcefully and pushed her thumb out of socket. It felt like it took FOREVER for them to even talk about what could be done. We got there about 3:15 PM and after paperwork, pregnancy test, x rays morphine shots (which really didn't help), and a call to an orthopedic to see if HE wanted to try and pop it back in place, the Dr at the Minor Emergency made his first attempt at relocating it. It was 5:15 PM. It had been 3 hours since it happened and she was still in significant pain. Over the next hour he tried 4 times to relocate it with no success. I finally asked him to just stop and we would go somewhere who might be a little more prepared to fix her thumb. 

So off we went to Memorial Hermann hospital where they were able to do a nerve block and THAT is where the pain relief came for her. That was about 7:30 PM. Once the nerve block was given she couldn't feel anything. The nurse and the Dr. tried maneuvering her thumb like it was a stick shift. Thank goodness Calli didn't feel a thing. But they had no luck either. 

That's when the Dr looked at me and said "I'm going to have to call my hand surgeon". I wanted to cry for Calli. Are you kidding?!? It's a THUMB and it's not broken, it's just popped out of place, just pop it back in. Please Lord! But that wasn't the Lord's plan that night, for whatever reason. 

At 9:30 PM that night, they were starting to wheel her to the OR and the Dr comes out to speak to me and Calli and explains that he's going to rotate the thumb back in, put 2 pins in and she'll have to wear a cast for 6 weeks. I saw Calli's jaw drop and face turn pale out of the corner of my eyes. I knew EXACTLY what she was thinking. How will she cheer (Woodlands Elite)? They'll kick her off Black Ops. I leaned down and told her that God was with her and she'd be fine.

We arrived home at 12:30 AM with the reality that she would be limited and impaired for 6 weeks. She'll be fine for school cheer, she's not worried about actual school (because that's not her priority) and her coaches have assured her that they won't kick her off. They are getting a stand in because he stunt group cannot not do anything for an entire 6 weeks. We are praying for a COMPLETE recovery and if all goes well she'll have 6 weeks after her cast comes off to get ready for Parents Show. We should be fine. 

And of course the next day we made our way back to Woodlands Elite to support the WHS team at their show off. 

It's still a pretty crappy way to start her Senior year.