Hi fall, can ya stay a while?

So much to do, so little time.  Working out = one class and two runs, with those runs being a 4 and 6 thanks to cooler weather.  

Overall, the weather is still all over the place but trending towards colder at night and not as hot during the day (although we did have a 90-degree day this week).  I am just praying we have a little bit of fall before we plunge straight into winter.  Although, both fall and winter are my favorite times to run, but I do like a period of time where we can have the windows open and sit on the deck and enjoy the day.  Ollie and I did a four miler on Saturday and a 6 miler on Sunday.  While she is still having issues with freaking out and losing her mind about birds and cars, she was able to hold it together for 6 with minimal blowing up.  We still had mud and puddles from a mid-week storm that helped cool her down.    

Homecoming parade and WHO YA GOING TO CALL.  We had no choice on the homecoming parade since it was downtown where the theater also was located to watch Andrew and I's favorite 80s movies GhostBusters.   Andrew goes through cycles where he watches the same movie or same series of movies over and over again and this is one he had hit pretty hard multiple times in his young life.    I am glad I took off early from work to go downtown, as we had a blast!  Seeing all of the car groups at KSU in the parade really inspired Andrew and yet again, I heard him say something about wanting to go to college at KSU (SCORE).  I've never pushed college on him as he doesn't strike me as the kind of kid who would love or thrive at college BUT if it's his dream and his idea, then I know he will make it work.  

The movie was perfect with their cute light effects, and we enjoyed cheap popcorn and beer.  Plus, Andrew had quite the haul of candy from the parade to snack on.  We ended the night with Culvers fish dinners, one of my most favorite place to get fish.  

Concert.  We had our first of the year joint choir and band performance.  I was SO excited to hear both groups play and sing.  Andrew has been loving both of his classes and was so pumped for us to hear what they had been working on.  I tell you I was blown away again by how well they sounded for the first concert of the year.   Their blending this year was so much better as several kids had dropped out and the band was overall much smaller.  

They still have 9 trumpets, but we didn't have one person trying to out play and be brassy compared to the other ones.  I am excited to see where this band goes this year with their competition concert pieces.  Their sound is really maturing, and I am so over the moon with how good they sound for 7th graders.  

KSU/KU game.  Tony and I wanted to go to Manhattan to watch the game somewhere since we didn't get tickets.  Much like the Chief's game on Sunday with the Raiders, things were way too close.  We played cards, had pizza at Ajs, and drank some yummy beers from Manhattan brewing company.

I so love fall in Manhattan!

The outdoor patio areas have become my favorite place to eat and talk.  Too bad they didn't have TVs or we would have stayed for the entire game.  True fall is so amazing in Kansas.  

Y'all have a great week! I am looking forward to cooler temps and hopefully our last races of the year IF the weather cooperates.  

We race for Jerry

It's been a light week for working out with one class and two runs.  That's it.  We are officially done with football and are seriously debating wrestling.  He doesn't want to do it, but I feel like he needs to try a sport a season and then next year if he isn't happy with any of the sports, we can stop and just race.  It kills me because I feel like sports help his racing in many ways and I am worried he won't be able to do summer work outs without sports in the fall.  We have several wrestling tournys on Thursdays and Saturdays and we will miss some for racing.  I do love the person they have coaching and would love to have him coach Andrew and see what he can get out of him.  To be continued.

Racing was amazing.  We had our last race of the points season and the Jerry Renchler memorial trophy race.  If you haven't read my blogs in the past, Jerry was on the board and a big part of building our club to what it is today.  He helped build our current track and loved it with all of his heart and soul.  He loved the sport, and he wanted the kids to live their best lives racing their butts off.  Jerry really helped me become a better board member and encouraged me to stay and keep fighting rather than walk away when I was mentally done with the constant attacks.  Often, he would text me during board meetings or we would call and talk post club or board meetings to discuss rules and votes and procedures.  I want to be right and do things correctly since our board was accused of not doing so all the time my first two years (spoiler alert we were), and he was a rules guru who helped me with that.  When Jerry unexpectedly passed away, we were one of the first people to know and we were devastated for his wife and daughter and extended family that we race with. I don't have a single picture that I can find with Jerry.  He was my rock on the board, the reason I even showed up to meetings and races when Andrew wasn't doing so well.  He protected me and kept me safe.  I have missed him every single day that he has been gone.  

Back to the race.  Several race teams sponsored a trophy memorial race in Jerry's honor.  The trophies were huge, the racing was hard, and we walked away with 2 second places in some tough races.  Andrew had great starts, great passes, and raced his butt off, and for that I am so super proud.  It's just so very cool to see him believe in himself and drive his heart out.  I am so excited for next year and what we can accomplish but also scared because he will have to be in new to him cars since he is getting so big.  Mom is going to need a third job to pay for all of this :)

We ended the week going to one of the local pumpkin patches with about 5K other families.  Boy, this one surely needs beer. I think they do wine slushes, but they are missing out on an opportunity.  They could even have pumpkin beer!  It was hot, the lines were long, but Andrew got to do a few things that he actually could still fit on and we called it good.  It's hard sometimes seeing him be stuck between still wanting to be a little kid yet growing up and starting to look and act like a big kid.  

He's grown so much lately, and it won't be long before he is towering over me.  Big difference between the above photo and this one:

Have a great week y'all!  I am looking forward to Andrew's first choir and band performance of the year!!!

 

Mom, mom, mom

Last home game of the year!  One of the moms got great pictures on the field and several of Andrew.  We of course had tears again, not because of playing time, but because he felt like he just didn't do a good job.  Several times they told him to get off of the field and he ran to the sidelines only to be told to get back on the field and he either didn't make it or barely made it.  He thankfully got to play his position but again, messed up a few times and was very down on himself.  I will tell you that they were very discombobulated on subbing, and I do like that he held his self-accountable, but I don't put 100 percent of the blame on him.  I know baseball is way different, but I always when I was coaching had a scripted sub plan for all of my coaches so there was no confusion.  I feel like this could be done in football as well, but I digress.  

I am glad the season is winding down and we have only one more away game before we are done.  I won't be able to travel to see the game, but Tony is going to give me a play by play :) Work is cranking up and I am going to be working lots of weekends and late nights, but we need the overtime money with the traveling we want to do anyway.  Of course, wrestling starts this week, so more practices and more tournaments.  Oh well, this is the year we try everything and see what sticks.   

I only got two runs in this week and one class but again, that is okay.  It's the season of life I am in and I will take whatever I can get.    I took one run with just Ollie and she gassed out pretty quickly.  She still can only do about 3 miles before she is overheated, even when it is cooler.  Not sure how to help her with this as I don't think increasing her mileage is going to slow her down like it did Deuce.  She is seriously a nut job.  Every bird, every car, ever thing that rustles makes her go ape shit.  She does better with Boom with her but they both get super excited at times and attack each other, and I worry they are going to pull me over.  They really make running not fun right now and this is my favorite time of the year to run.  To be continued.  What am I going to do if running with reds stops entirely :(

Mom came out and spent the week with me when I wasn't working.  We didn't have a race but I had an experiment planned so Sunday was mostly working.  She also helped in the tower for our annual arrive and drive fundraiser for the club on Saturday.  Sad that she has helped so many times that she is an old pro.  

We had a couple of new club members step up and help but it was mostly the same old people.  Not sure what is going to happen to this club when we move on due to Andrew being too big to race.  They seem to think we will be there forever.  No one has stepped up to learn my position which includes taking minutes (easy) and doing points (not as easy).  No one has stepped up to learn how to do the arrive and drive (also easy, I have an SOP) or score in the tower.  I guess I will just have to help this club till I die?

Have a great week y'all!  Last points race of the year, cooler weather, and last football game!

Hey Hey Hey

I feel like a broken record.  I have so much to say but I feel like I am just writing the same thing over and over again.  Another blow out win, another night of a few plays and not even in the position he usually works on in practice, so he was clueless.  Another car ride home of tears and not understanding why he couldn't just get in to play is position and show them what he could do.  Another week of working his ass off in practice just hoping to get some sort of playing time and not getting any.  This is a hard life's lesson he is learning, and it sucks to be a mom and have to watch and know that you can't fix it.  Life sucks and it isn't fair but hey, that's life.  

Two runs and no work out classes thanks to meetings/events at night and me not being able to get up early and run.  I did get a morning run on Friday thanks to being up early to take Andrew to film and I hope i can continue that for the upcoming weeks.  That truly is the only way I am able to get in runs right now other than on the weekends.   

 

I will end on racing.  Wow.  What a weekend.  Two second places to two very awesome and fast racers.  We finally got a go pro in his car and it's so much fun to watch him drive his butt off!  You can hear him keeping his foot in the gas and you can see his lines.  We also caught some fun stuff in the hot chute and after the races.  One of the dads gave him a great pump-up speech post-race and I have played it like 100 times because I just love it.  I think this is the first year I don't want racing to end for the year!

Have a great week y'all!  Let's go Chiefs and Let's go Royals!

And how bought a throwback picture to my first 10k, stella as a puppy, and me as being pregnant and not knowing it :)

Ollie and racing

A better week for working out for sure, still not the best.  Three short runs of 3 miles and one work out class.  Post football things should lighten up or so I hope, because we go right into wrestling before football is even over.  

First let's talk about football.  We won 50 something to 6.  My child got in for 4 plays total.  We still had starters in till the 4th quarter.  Make it make sense?  I feel that you can maintain your insane lead AND sub in kids who aren't starters.  I've talked about this before, but I won't beat a dead horse.  Let's just say Andrew was incredibly sad that he didn't get much playing time as he has been working his ass off in practice.  It's hard as a mom to watch your kid get so down because they actually care now, and they see the writing on the wall.  Next year may be an easy decision on football versus racing, especially if we travel more.

Ollie update:  If you remember, Ollie was the dog that we received from a family who was in over their heads. She loved them and they loved her, but she was driving their cats and the family bonkers.  We were going to just take her and help her find a home, but we fell in love with her weird ass and kept her.  We've had issues ourselves but have worked through them and seem to be on the other side with a lot of them.  Her impulse control is better, she isn't door bolting as much, and she is a lot less reactive.  She is still a bit much on runs and overheats easily unless there is mud/puddles for her to get in.  I am so ready for fall so that maybe she will stop getting so hot.  This last weekend i had to not only bring her home and hose her down, but I also had to the next day run to the park and dunk her in the pond to cool her down quickly.  She just gets SO worked up about running and cars and birds in the sky, and and and.  I am hoping longer mileage out on our gravel roads will help calm her down a bit, but she is still a bit young and it's still too hot to do too long.  

Lastly, I will end on racing.  Madden, the kiddo that races nationally was gone for a big national race, so we actually had a chance for a podium.  Noah had a super-fast car in Heavy Honda, but it kept breaking again and Andrew was able to pass for the win.  We won the heat race in Heavy 160, even with Dash moving up this week.  He is an amazing driver with a heck of a race team supporting him and will be hard to beat next year.  We will give it our all for sure!  Dash and Noah ended up getting him in the feature as he bobbled coming out of turn 4.  He battled the rest of the race but couldn't get it done.  Doesn't matter for me, I will take 3rd and a big battle.  

I will end on a funny story.  Andrew has become quite brazen lately and mentioned to Dash that this was his house before the heat race.  After he won the heat race he said it again. If you know my kid, he NEVER does stuff like that.  Well, we explained to him that if you are going to shit talk, you'd better bring it.  All of the dads out there have been on the journey with Andrew and quite frankly a lot of them cheer him on to beat their own kids.  SO, Dash's dad thought it was pretty funny to see Andrew saying things that weren't typical of the ginger racer.  After Dash did beat him in heavy 160, he told Andrew, "Thanks for letting us visit your house.  You have a nice house", and I think Andrew died a little inside LOL!!!!!  I can't wait for the next few races and the end of the year shoot out!  It's going to be super fun!

Y'all have a great week!

It's FALL!!!!!

It's bittersweet to walk away from something that even though it brought you great stress, it also brought you some of the best friends in the world.  This week was the nomination meeting for the board for our racing club at TKQMA, and I politely declined my nomination for another 2-year term.  Even though this club has basically caused me lots of therapy bills, I will miss being a part of two meetings a month and every single decision.  I love what we have built out of nothing basically and I am excited to see where it goes.  We have a big healthy club that right now that is mostly working together, and I love it.  I love seeing people get passionate about helping kids realize their love for a sport (and yes, I call it a sport).  I love seeing people want to grow our club, not destroy it for no reason.  I love after every race just going from trailer-to-trailer eating food, drinking, and talking, not having the division like we had previously fought hard to get rid of.  I hope the club continues to grow and prosper without my smiling face, and I feel like we will.  I really felt like it would be like a huge weight off of my shoulders but instead I am just sad and nervous, totally unexpected feelings.   I think part of it is I am just a control freak and if I am on the board I can help with control.  I know that it is time for others to step up, but it is hard to let go.  I will still volunteer my little heart out for everything and help the board in any way I can.  I wish the new president all the luck in the world and will help him with anything he needs.  I wish him great success in taking this club even further into the future of what it could look like and be.

Football.  Sigh.  Another week of a painful loss.  Another week watching kids struggle mightily that haven't previously struggled.  I really don't know what is going on.  The only new thing is the coaches, and I hate to put this all on them.  We had yet another week of 0 playing time.  I am not sure how to keep him going with no carrot to dangle in front of him with a possibility of playing time if we aren't going to win.  I wish they would play like high school were certain kids ONLY played defense and certain kids ONLY played offense so that more kids got playing time.  It was hard to watch in the 100 degrees heat the same kids play over and over and over again wishing and hoping for a score.  Oh well.  Next year may look completely different for us.  To be continued.

I did get one work out class in and one run in.  The heat was horrible this week with temps being back in the 100s.  Then fall hit hard on Sunday, but we had had a fun night of Tennessee football with a win (sloppy) and KSU with a loss (incredibly sloppy).  Both later games which meant we were up till almost 2 am watching football and having fun with our friends.  Let's just say hang overs suck in your late 40s.  I slogged through 3 miles and prayed to not die.  Sunday, I snuggled most of the day in my fuzziest blankie with my chief's sweat pants and my favorite sweatshirt.  Man, I love fall.  

Have a great week y'all!  It's race week and we have more football!

All American Clash FINAL RACE

What a busy week!  Didn't get much if any working out done thanks to events at night almost every single night.   Life will slow down some day right?  

Monday was my rest day since I had crammed 3 days of running back-to-back to back and needed a day off.  Tuesday was a new to us event Plates and Pours.   While we almost weren't allowed to participate since there was an invisible check in time that I never saw and we both work jobs (urgh), we finally were able to find someone and get our passports to begin our culinary journey.   Basically, you get a map, and every participating business has a drink and or a food.  Most places had some really yummy drinks and as someone who doesn't drink hard liquor, it hit HARD.  Plus, we got to go the fancy smancy speakeasy that is membership only in Manhattan and have some really tasty fru fru drinks that we would never order normally.  

All in all, it was a fun experience however, if none of the businesses have any of the foods offered at the event, what is the point?  At several places, we had very amazing food for them to tell us, yeah, we just made this for the event, sorry you won't ever get to try it again.  Okay.  

We also had football this week and unfortunately this team was really good, so Andrew got 0 playing time.  I get it and I am not mad because those kids looked like GROWN ASS MEN.  Seriously, what are they feeding these kids?  With the big race coming up I did NOT want him getting hurt.  If we race more next year, we may have to let football go and it makes me super sad :( I also may need two more jobs and to find sponsors to help fuel our fun next year!!!!

The weekend culminated in the last two races of the All-American Clash.  This is the series we have been traveling to all summer.  We had races in Tulsa that we didn't attend, Minnesota, Greenville IL, and then our home track.  We love this series because a) our track is in it but also b) it's on tracks and not parking lots.  Lots of kids love flat track racing and maybe Andrew would too but we love the value of him racing on a track.  Before NASCAR took over our youth program, all of the series were at home tracks and the home tracks made money off of the events.  Then everything moved to NASCAR tracks and guess who doesn't get the money anymore????  Now we have tracks going under because they can't keep kids in weekly races.  We have members who love flat track racing and who kick butt flat track racing and maybe Andrew would like it at some point, but we want our money to stay with the tracks and local clubs.  Anyway, off my soap box LOL.  

We came into our home track in third place in points for the Heavy 160 class by the skin of our teeth.  Again, we mainly were in that position because our teammate Noah's car kept breaking as he was usually in 3rd and we were in 4th.  I hate to win on a technicality. I know that is racing, but it still hurts my heart for Noah as he clearly had the faster car in several races.  

We had had our one and only practice with our white car this week and when we arrived at the track, a couple of club members were there and worked on his car and turned it into a rocket!!!! I wished we had had the other car there becuase they not only fixed our car, but they also explained the whys to both Tony and I and it made so much sense.  He went out and turned the fastest laps he had ever done in that car in the dark.  We were super excited to see what he could do.

National races are all about passing points in the heats.  This has not been our strong point in the past but lately, he had been passing like crazy.  It's best if you start in the back and work your way forward to get maximum points.  He drew P8 in a stacked heavy Honda class, so we told him to get to work.  He went from P8 to P4!!!!  This gave him a wonderful starting spot of P3 in the feature which helped him to get to P2 for the finish against some super awesome kids.   I am not sure why his podium picture looks like a mug shot though.  Go figure.

Heavy 160 was not working that night.  We made lots of adjustments, but last place in the both the heat and the feature was the best we could do. I figured that eliminated us from the overall points because his teammate kicked ass and took names and got a 2nd place finish and podium that was well deserved.

The second day was all about dealing with this newfound speed.  We ended up fourth in both classes, so one off of the podium.  I was SO proud of that finish though in heavy Honda because they battled to the very last lap.  Heavy 160 was thrilling as we finally got the car dialed in and he was battling for 2nd, but a tire losing air pressure and going flat made us end up last.  I am so excited for the last few races because this kid is ON FIRE!

The banquet was Saturday night at the track, and of course, I had to leave due to well, dogs.  My BRF had some obligations and wasn't around to let them out, so I had to leave as soon as the racing was done.  That was okay, Tony and Andrew were going to stay for the banquet to cheer everyone on.  I knew it was going to be close for the overall points but figured his teammate Noah had won and should have won.  I just happened to sit down at my computer after getting dogs taken care of and opened the final spreadsheet of points to see Andrew in 3rd place in Heavy 160?????  WHAT?  I quickly called Tony and told him to have Andrew at the awards to cheer on his teammates just in case it wasn't a fluke.  Y'all, he won by three points!!!!!

I've said it before and i will say it again.  I don't like winning just because our teammate's car broke.  I wish they could have tied for that award becuase Noah deserves it hands down. I know that part of racing is having your car ready to go and that is sometimes how it just happens, but dang it, I want them both to win because Andrew did pass cars and did well, but Noah had a rocket in every race. Andrew did have good parts to every 160 race, so I am going to remember that.  I am also going to look forward to next year and winning in both classes.  

  

To wrap this up because yeah, it's long, I would like to for my memoires make a bullet list of all of the things I am proud of for this year's clash series.  

• Winning 2nd place in Heavy Honda.  That class was stacked with awesome drivers, and he didn't let any of them scare him
• Going against kids that were mostly older and or in high school and not being intimidated
• Conquering a new to him track that was very tricky and again not just phoning it in in IL
• Lots and lots of passing in all races!
• Improvement in MN, a track that kicked our ass last year.  
• The heavy 160 class in MN where he was up 2nd place's butt the entire race
• Getting all the way up to 5th place in MN in heavy Honda after getting a bum call and being put to the back
• Driving a car with a flat tire like he was on fire

I am just so very proud to see the maturity and the improvement, and I can't wait till next year.  I am really loving watching him to come into his own and truly love racing.  I am so hoping we get at least one more year if not two in quarter midgets before he gets too big for his cars.  We have one large car waiting for him and may have to sell our other three to get a second large car.  If ya see me on only fans, mind ya business, baby needs racing stuff!

Have a great week y'all!