The Summer of Allison Comes to a Close

Well.  Tonight is the last night of the Summer of Allison.

Tomorrow I will drive to Longview to bring a load of Brandon's things back to Norman.  (And see him.)  I'll get home late (LATE) Sunday night, go to work on Monday and, when I get home, Mom & Peyton will be home.  (YAY!)

So as I reflect on 8 weeks of single-lady-hood, I've learned some things:

1.  Its kinda boring
I work, I come home, I watch some Animal Planet, I make some kind of dinner for myself and I go to bed.  Single life (for me) is SO not glamourous.

2.  I miss my boys
They keep me busy but, it turns out, I like that kind of busy.

3.  My roots are Oklahoma summers.
When given the opportunity, I'll (apparently) choose "hot country" ... youngins, Modern Country, or Top 40 Country used to be called that... for my summer soundtrack.  And when I say "top 40" I may or may not mean top 40 from 20 years ago.  (TWENTY!?)

I've driven 6 out of 8 weekends this summer and I always land on some kind of country.

And it feels good.

I remember windmills (the little wood & metal kind - not the giant 3-blade kind), and the smell of gasoline for 3-wheelers and a big ol' garden and the freakin bull snake and wheat fields just before they're harvested and 100+ temps.

The last time I drove to Longview, I took the back roads to avoid Dallas traffic and I drove through countless little Oklahoma ghost towns (that Siri guided me through)  (seriously, I couldn't have made that drive without Siri) and remembered some Waynoka and Alva summers.   It was a good 5 hours.

I wonder if Peyton will have Tennessee summer roots.

And now I'm a wrestling mom

Life has changed in the past year.  

This time last year I would have said "maybe Peyton would get into wrestling later".  

Because his dad did in high school.  And was pretty good at it.  

(and that is the ONLY reason I know that wrestling is NOT the WWF?  WWE?  WWD?  IDK....)  

But 7 year old wrestling was something I knew nothing about.  

and 4 year old wrestling was something I certainly knew nothing about.

(its a thing.  They start at 4 years old and (besides my own kid) those are my favorite kids to watch!!)

But when the flyer came in the Friday Folder for Norman Grappling Club and, it turns out, 

7 year olds are plenty old enough to sign up, we did.  

I told Brandon that I thought it was great that he wanted to get Peyton into wrestling 

(why I do not know... I knew nothing about it)  but I needed him to be the point person for it.  

I could do the soccer mom thing but I didn't know how to be a wrestling mom.  

He said "okay".  And I believed him.  

What was I THINKING???  

Brandon was WAY too busy being a student to be at 2 practices per week.

So I figured it out.  

With some help.

And Mom (MaeMae, who lives in Tennessee) and I took Peyton to his first wrestling tournament in Moore, OK.  And I was OVERWHELMED!!!!

We got there like 4 hours early but I didn't have any idea what to expect, so I needed to observe. 

Organized chaos?

Peyton is down there somewhere.

Brandon was so busy that semester that he was only able to come see Peyton for a few minutes and wasn't there for his first match.  (which he was sad about)

This is called warm up.

His first match was.  underwhelming.

(and SO overwhelming all at the same time)

Turns out it went the way most first matches go.

You'll have to enlarge, but this was Peyton's first roster.

THIS is why Brandon always knows how much he weighed in high school.  Until January 2015, I could never figure out how he knew (to the pound) how much he weighed in high school.  Turns out wrestlers weigh themselves and monitor their weight more than a teenage girl.  

Probably because their mom already paid for their tournament and wasn't going to have them not making weight.  (thats a thing)

Peyton trying on his tournament singlet.

I wonder how many moms know the minute their kid won their first wrestling match.

3:52 in the afternoon!  WOO HOO!!!

I may or may not know the date....

And dad was there to see it!!!

Full disclosure:  

I had no idea what I was getting into and I was super nervous to have my kid wrestling.  

I didn't know ANYTHING.  

Like I couldn't even read a bracket.  

(this is important)

Or figure out what mat he was supposed to be on and at what time.  

(even more important)

Our first tournament was kinda terrible.  But we got through it together.  

And wrestling is pretty darn good for the kids.  They learn a lot.  

(including the value of showering directly after sweating)  

(and that, my friends, is a priceless lesson)

Now I can run a weigh-in like a champ.

I know what a weigh-in is.

I follow wrestling shoes on e-bay.  (because those things are pricey to buy new)

I know that you don't wear wrestling shoes off the mat.

Ever.

And I know why.

I know the relationship between athletic tape and wrestling shoes on tournament day.

I know how to read a bracket.

And that they cost a dollar.

And thats the best dollar you will spend on tournament day.

Here's to TWO match wins in 2016!!!

:)

Losing Teeth and Making Money

In my absence, Peyton has managed to lost several teeth.  

So many that I have lost count.  

But we've documented a couple.

The first one, of course.

We tried to pull it out for a while, but finally decided it wasn't happening that night and sent him to the bathtub.  Where he promptly pulled it out on his own.

His tooth fairy is generous!

Brandon finally had to get a try at pulling out a tooth.  

But it wasn't happening for him, either.

Peyton pulled it out on his own at school that time.

His teacher anticipated many lost teeth from her second graders and had the cutest little tooth shaped keepers to send teeth home.

Moving to Norman

In case you haven't figured it out...

we did, indeed, move to Norman.  A year and 21 days ago, to be exact.

I think it took me most of the year prior to the move to shed the TONS (thats not an exaggeration) of crap we had accumulated over 9 years.  

Several weekends in a row, we loaded up the curb with said crap.  

Usually twice per weekend.

People kept coming along to peruse the crap and take stuff.

Which was GREAT!

Sometimes it was awkward to be working in the garage and watch people take our trash.

If you ever saw our garage in the years right before we moved, this would impress you.

The left side was stuff that went to storage.

Right side went to Norman.  (smaller pile)

And off we went!

Buh bye Edmond!

And here is the cleanest Peyton's room has been all year.

He hadn't come back from his summer with Mae Mae and Paw Paw yet.

Zoo 2014

Today I will dump some zoo pictures from the early months of 2014.

Mostly they are just Peyton acting silly.

Two Summers Ago

Yes, I really let him go down the street like that.

His daddy HATES this picture.  And the fact that it exists.

... for his birthday this year, Peyton asked if he could get a pedicure.  :)

4th of July Leap Frog

That was the year I learned how to do "temporary tattoos"

so happy to see his Aunt Teen

End of the summer day at the water park

He collected minions from McDonalds on his road trip with Mae Mae

I always loved that view!

Kindergarten Gym/Karate (2013/2014)

I feel that I have let you down on the whole updating the pictures thing.  So here we go...

Winter of 2013/2014

Peyton took gymnastics (and karate) and he had a ball!  

This was his end-of-season-show-off-awards-show thing.

This is how 5 year olds do it!!

He got to hold the sign for his class in the parade through the gym!

Back flip over the Boulder!

Hand stand.

... totally not taking anything away from a 5 year old here... 

... but I feel that I could have done this one...

Getting ready for the trapeze...

There he goes!!  

Warming up for the rings.

(He's on the right)

Still warming up...

Here he goes...

turning the arms...

... and the dismount...

Nailed it!  ... in 5 year old fashion!!

(seriously I don't think I could have done this one)

This one doesn't have an ending that I could find, but the start looks pretty intense!

Back flip into the sponge pit!

Woo hoo!  Its M&M Olympics!!

Everybody gets a trophy!!!

Because they're five and don't know what losing feels like yet.   

And that's probably okay.

Watching his buddies.

This was a 1/2 Karate, 1/2 gymnastics class.  Here is the karate part...

not 100% sure what is going on here... everybody seems to be doing something different.  

And it was a few years ago, so I forget...

THIS is warm up.  I'm confident.

Still warm up.

Okay now you have to look in the mirror.  It was the best view I could get of P.

And this is why...

Please ignore the poor coach's behind.  

Look at my kid kick him.  

In the mirror.  

Aww.  Little 5 year old karate pose.

Kinda looks like boxing.  :/