Weekend Fun

Once Hunter was feeling better, we decided to get out of the house!  We went to the aquarium and took my oldest niece with us.  Hunter loved having "Key-Key" around even if he wouldn't share his goldfish with her (he eventually did).  I love the new set-up at the aquarium.  It is much more kid friendly, with most things right at eye-level for the smallest kids.

Looking at the crocodiles (or croc-uhs as Hunter calls them).

High-fiving the sea turtle

Looking for shells

We stopped in the crazy cat lady's Mel's house to visit with her million 3 cats.  Hunter had never been up close with a kitty, but loves watching the neighborhood cats outside (and gets pretty angry when they run away from him, back into the woods).  He did not want to let poor Mia go.  He proceeded to chase her around the house.  Luckily, these cats are used to torture, haha.

We also went to the zoo.  It was a gorgeous day on Sunday!  We took Hunter's "bike" with us and he rode around on it for a little while.  It was about 2 hours to closing time when we got there, so the animals were pacing in front of the doors to go in for the night. They must have been thrown off by day-light-savings time.

That sign to the left?  It reads, "For your safety, please do not climb on the bars."  Parents of the year!

Sick Week

Our poor little man had parainfluenza and croup this past week.  He started to get the cough Monday and Tuesday he woke up feeling pretty warm.  His cough was that barking cough so I decided to take him to the pediatrician.  Two of his little buddies at Mrs. Cathy's had had parainfluenza the week before and sure enough that is what our pediatrician said he seemed to have (along with the croup cough).  Luckily, he never had the strider breathing issue.  I was very prepared to stick his head in our freezer if that started to happen.  I took off two days and Carl took off two days.  His fever finally broke Friday evening and he was officially fever free for 24 hours Saturday.  Yay!

On the way home from the pediatrician.  This was at about 8:30 in the morning.  He never naps that early.

Wishing he could go outside.  He and Koal just watched the birds.

He was actually acting sick at this point.  He is not a big cuddle-bug, so when he cuddles he is either really tired or not feeling well.  This is how he played on the iPad for about 15 minutes.  Then it was like he regained his energy and was off again.



Playing "Monkey Preschool Lunchbox".  What a great app!  It has some concepts (biggest/smallest/same/different), counting, color identification, puzzles, all while the little monkey is being the reinforcer and every few items you get to pick a sticker.  Hunter loves it!



Like I said, he didn't act sick the whole time.  This was at the end of the night (even running a pretty high fever).

The disaster area... aka... his play room part of the living room.  This all occurs in about 5-10 minutes while we are getting breakfast ready.

I saw this idea on Pinterest, but it was through an OT/PT/SLP company.  I decided that Hunter would enjoy it as much as any other kid, and hey, if he is getting some PT in, it is a win-win.  When Hunter walked out of his room, he said, "Oooooh!"  He did the course twice, then was tired, and told me, "done" "off".  Carl told me I was very mean making our son do an obstacle course when he was sick.

Finger painting fun.

iPics

Making silly faces in the mirror with my baby boy.  He loves to look at himself after he gets out of the bath.

Carl sent me this picture of Hunter drinking a slurpee Thursday afternoon (the afternoon of Ralph's funeral).  I love it because it is a tribute to Ralph.

It is a rough life relaxing on Mommy while watching George on the iPad.

It has rained A LOT here the past couple of days.  Hunter has been asking to go "owside" all weekend.  Finally when the sun came through for about 30 minutes, we went out and splashed in the puddles.  He was not happy when we had to come back inside.

Celebration of Life

I had never been to a funeral.  Okay, I had been to one funeral, but it was for Carl's grandmother who I had met one time and Carl and I had just started to date.  I had never been to a funeral for someone who meant a lot to me.

Ralph's funeral was a celebration of life.  It was simple, yet beautiful.  It was very much "Ralph".  Gia, Alana, Brittany, and I all spoke and us along with Cassandra, Lauren, and Stephanie were pall-bearers.  Our speeches were full of funny and loving memories of Ralph.  Most made us laugh, some made us cry, but anyone who didn't know Ralph would certainly realize that he meant a lot to us and was a big jokester.  We were so honored for Ralph's family to ask us to be a part of his service.  It meant a lot to all of us.

One of the hardest parts was seeing everyone cry, especially Ralph's granddaughters.  It broke all of our hearts.  I knew how much pain I felt and I couldn't imagine the pain that his family was feeling.  I know Ralph was there giving all of us one of his big bear hugs.

I find myself randomly thinking about him.  I think about all the memories from my teammates' speeches and they make me laugh.  I could picture each and every one of them.  Some I had forgotten about.

Some memories I don't want to forget (in addition to the ones listed in the previous post):
-His stories about how he met Eileen.  I had totally forgotten he used to tell us these until Gia talked about it.  It was always different how they met, but it was always the same ending.  He stole her from some man (or men) and married her.  I think it was part of his way of telling us how to find a great man.
-How we counted before saying our chant for the game: Ein, Trin, Bita.  He claimed it was German, but only "ein" is German (I looked it up... today).
-How we believed every story he ever told, until we got older and realized that some of his stories might actually be made up (like the counting above).
-How he always tried to grab our nose when we were upset.  It would annoy us so much that we would forget what we were upset about.
-Asking us if we "believed" before he did his magical healing.
-How he answered his phone.  "MMMMMM Hello?"  And then him asking, "Tiffany who?" and you having to argue with him that he does in fact know you.  This usually took about 5 minutes before you could ever start the actual conversation.
-We always got to play on field 13 at the soccer complex.  This is the very first field on the complex from the front entrance.  And Ralph always had a golf cart to ride around in. During "Atlantic/Rush" sponsored tournaments, we always had to clean the complex after the tournament was over.  I remember we would always beg him to let us drive the golf carts.  We were probably 16 before he actually ever let us drive one.
-Gia also reminded us of Ralph's typical attire for soccer games: white shoes, faded blue jeans, a white button up shirt, and his blue Cougar hat.
-During practices, he would make us make a circle and put two of us in the middle with one ball.  We would beat each other up (in a soccer sort of way) trying to keep the ball from the other person.  Soccer is a contact sport and Ralph taught us how to be tough.
-Ralph always pushed us to do more.  He always wanted me to continue on and get my PhD.  That, and to join the military.  He was constantly trying to recruit us.

Last night, I went out with Gia, Stephanie, Brittany, Cassandra, Lauren, and Alana.  It was great catching up.  We toasted to Ralph and relived so many memories.  We caught up on everything going on in our lives.  All of us are doing amazing things and Ralph is a huge part of our success.  I can't wait for another reunion, we have promised each other it won't take another 8 years.

Thanks Ralph for all the wonderful memories and giving your heart and soul to us and our future.  You were an amazing man and we are all very blessed to have had you in our lives.  Thank you Downey family for allowing us to be apart of his service.  We were all very honored to have been a part of his celebration of life.

A Huge Loss

I am writing this with a heavy heart.  My former soccer coach has passed away.  I have known Ralph since I was 9 years old.  He claimed he knew me when I would run up and down the soccer field in a full diaper, but I don't remember those days.  I started playing for him the first year he created the "younger" Cougars.  We picked the name because the team that he coached that was a few years older than us were called the Cougars.

I spent year-round with Ralph and our soccer team.  Most summers we took big trips somewhere for a soccer tournament (sometimes two!).  Without him, I would have never been to Canada or Minnesota.  We also played in the Disney Cup a few times.

Next to my father, he was the biggest male role-model in my life.  He not only taught me about soccer, but he also taught me a whole lot about life.  He also allowed me, and the rest of the team, to develop friendships with girls I would have never met outside of soccer (majority of our team went to all different high schools).  I am so thankful for having had him in my life.

My biggest regret was not calling him enough.  It had been a while since I had last spoken to him.  I kept saying, "Oh, I need to call Ralph, but I will do it tomorrow."  And, well, tomorrow never came until it was too late.  So, if there is one thing I can pass along to everyone reading this CALL PEOPLE.  Let them know you love them, miss them, care about them.  I know Ralph knew all of this, but I wish I had said it more often.  And called more often.

Just some memories I never want to forget about Ralph:
-Making us listen to some talk-show radio every soccer tournament trip.  Except the one time he let Gia, Alana, and I listen to the Dirty Dancing CD and sing to it in the car.
-His made up language he would yell at us in.
-Claiming he had a wooden leg and that is why he limped.
-His yearly trips to "Disney World".  He would never tell us he was actually going to the hospital for some treatments because he didn't want us to worry.  But as you get older (he was my coach from the time I was 9-18) you get smarter.
-Not starting me a few games because I had gotten lazy and started skipping practices.  He also played me less time in those games.  He taught me to work for things and not just expect them.
-Making us run around the "baby-pin" aka the fenced in play ground when we were being poor listeners or whatever we had done.  We never ran as much as he told us to.  I remember when Brittany S. first joined the team, she actually ran around it as many times as he had said and we all looked at her like she was crazy.
-He started this bad habit of getting us slurpees in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter.  Well, we decided we were "entitled" to those things and would go on strike and sit on the fence until he had a parent go get it for us.  I think we eventually outgrew this (maybe our last year with him, haha).  He definitely spoiled us!
-Him meeting Hunter for the first time.

Music and Memories

I've heard a lot of people say that certain smells trigger memories for them.  There are very few smells the trigger memories for me.

But music... that triggers lots of memories for me.  I tend to relate to songs that I listen to, or I could at least imagine being able to relate to the song.  Carl and I were watching an episode of Criminal Minds and the show had mentioned something about music people listen to when they are around 13 and 14 years old tends to be the music they continue to listen to.  Now, I don't know if that is an actual fact (although, if something is on T.V. it has to be a fact), but that is pretty true for me.

Anyways, back to memories.  Spice Girls and N'Sync definitely remind me of middle school, but none trigger a specific memory.  Certain Linkin Park songs tend to remind me of high school and old boyfriends/crushes.  The ones that a person listened to while we were talking on the phone for the first time, or that described our relationship.  Other songs that remind me of high school and friends include "Breathing" by Life House, Staind songs, and Dashboard Confessionals songs.

"My Immortal" by Evanescence was the first song Carl and I ever held hands to.  I can still remember that day.  We had just played a softball game for work and were headed to Chilis to eat.  We were in his friend's truck because something was wrong with his car.  "Hanging By A Moment" by Lifehouse was the song he sang on our first date while we were putt-putting.  We were supposed to dance to "I Miss You" by Incubus at our wedding, but I gave the DJ the song "Echo" by Incubus.  I was about to type it the other way until I started to listen to the song and that is probably how I ended up mixing up the request.

When I was pregnant with Hunter, after we had discovered cysts on his brain, I couldn't stop listening to "Show Me What I'm Looking For" by Carolina Liar.  That is all I think of when I hear that song, but I absolutely love it (the song that is, not so much the stress).

When I hear "Father of Mine" I think of Carl and what a great dad he in spite of his father.  The song actually makes me sad listening to it because I can't imagine not having love and support from my dad, nor can I imagine what Carl went through.  "Now I'm a grown man/With a child of my own/And I swear that I'm not gonna let her know/All the pain I have known".

There are quite a few songs (not ones I typically listen to, like R&B songs) remind me of Katie and Stephen's wedding and all the dancing that we did.  I will pass through the station and stop to listen to it because it makes me smile.

I just love music and how you can relate to it.  Any songs that bring back memories for you?!

iPics

Not too many this week since I just posted one.

I'm not sure who we purchased the iPad for, but Hunter seems to think it is for him.  While I was getting everything ready to leave the other morning, this is how I found Hunter and Koal.

It isn't often that I take a nap when Hunter does, and it is even less often that we nap in the "big bed" together.  I took a short cat nap and got snap a picture of Hunter sleeping peacefully.

I went for a hair cut Friday after work.  While I was sitting there I decided to do something a little crazy.  Not crazy enough to be really seen when my hair is down or up (because I'm not that brave), but you can see it if I do this...

Two streaks on either side.  Not the bottom layer of my hair, but in the middle so it is hidden when it is up or down.  I'm sure it will start to fade because my hair never holds color.