The Cat Nap

We are currently living and breathing all things basketball.  I am not sure how it happened.  But every day we are shuffling someone to a game or practice.  Sweet Pea, now a freshman (gasp!) made starting varsity this year.  So her life is homework and basketball.  Daisy Mae, 8th grade, totally bamboozled us and joined a club basketball team.

Allow me to elaborate.

One day, she texts me from school asking if she can go with her friend to basketball practice that night.  I say sure.  Because I am a nice gal.

I go to pick her up from the practice and the coach hands me the schedule, tells me when the first game is, and congratulations Daisy Mae on making the team.  I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t.  It is hard to be a parent.  She also just made the A basketball team  at her school.

The boys each just finished one league and are about to start another.  I am not sure how we are surviving, but we are.

Oh.  And I now have a fully stocked cooler in the car full of snacks and beverages. At all times.

The Sequoia:  our home away from home.

***

Christmas came and went.  It was full of pleasantries and merriment.

Our traditional cookie making day:

We had fun at many family events.  Sister Meagan came for a visit from far away lands. We got together with David’s side of the family.

Me holding my super cute nephew:

And here we are.  December 29th.  Christmas break is almost over.  Such sadness.  Yesterday, we drove to town for Sweet Pea’s . . . wait for it . . . basketball game.  We had a bunch of snow, as is the usual custom in these parts.  I left with ample time, but the roads were worse than I thought and I had to go slow.  Sweet Pea was getting anxious that she would be late, as is her usual custom.  About 10 min before we arrived at the gym, one of my windshield wipers broke off.  Which is always convenient during a mild snow storm.  It landed on the hood of the car and just sat there.  Well, I wasn’t about to pull over and try to fix it with Sweet Pea being all Nervous  Nellie thinking she was going to be late.  So I just forged on.  I got her there on time, of course, because I am amazing.  And my windshield wiper was back securely in place for the rest of the day.

After the game, my mother in law took all the kids for her annual “Cousins’ Camp.”  I had so many options!  I could stay in town and wait for David to get off of work and we could go out to dinner.  I could kill time by heading to school to get ready for class next week.  I even had my teacher bag in the car ready to go.

And I just couldn’t do it.

So, I just drove home.  All by myself.  And I had THE BEST AFTERNOON.  It was the afternoon that won Christmas break.

I sat on the couch and snuggled with Mama Cat and her baby, Norma Jean Riley.

The house was silent.  It was blissful.

David:  What did you do this afternoon?

Me:  I sat on the couch and I read for a couple of hours.  And I snuggled with cats.  I even took a quick nap!  It was A LITERAL CAT NAP.

So, David came home and I cooked him a dinner that he enjoyed from the days of yore that I don’t have time to make anymore because, basketball.

And he plowed.  Because, snow.

And then we sat down to watch our favorite college basketball team on the TV.  Because, basketball is what we live and breathe, you know?  But we had to keep going outside to brush snow off the satellite dish because the signal kept getting lost.

And when I say “we”, I, of course, mean David.  But I did shout from the doorway to tell him when the TV was back on.  I am his help-meet.

This morning, I woke up with David around 4:20am and I got all snuggled in to read my book and snuggle with my cats, because that is what I do now.  He left for work a bit before 5am and then called me around 5:20am to tell me he was went off the road and was stuck, high centered on train tracks, and could I please come with the truck to help pull him out?

Because I am obviously everyone’s go to person when needing a tow.

Now under lovely weather circumstances where I would just start the truck up and drive to him, this trip would only take about 10 minutes.

But no.  The truck has not been driven in a couple of weeks so there is like a foot of snow on top of it.  Plus the Sequoia was in the way of the truck, with a good 4 inches of snow on it.  So I am running around in the dark with a broom trying to quickly clear all rigs of snow and move vehicles around, all while more snow is falling.  It seems to take me forever.  I finally get going and the roads are SLICK.  I have to go very slow.  This might surprise you, but I am not as hearty as I seem and I don’t really feel like a champ while driving the truck.  I am more than halfway to him (30 minutes later!) when he calls to tell me a friendly logging truck passerby pulled him out and he is good to go.  So my adventure was for naught and I had to be terrified and try to find a good spot to turn the big rig around and not get myself stuck in a ditch.

Winter driving.  Not for the faint of heart.

Happy Friday!