Saturday...

OK, so Saturday, Rachel stepped up, let me sleep in, and took Jake down to weigh ins at 7:00. She also set up the muffins and coffee in the coaches' room.

I got up around 10. I didn't sleep well. Just as I would drift off, a cough would wake me up. Rachel slept in the other room on the air mattress. That sucked. I can only remember one other time that we slept in separate beds due to illness. But hopefully she'll be spared this misery.

Anyway, I started making phone calls and got the pizza places that couldn't come through on Friday to come through on Saturday. And we still had to grate some cheese and make corn bread. We had a minor corn bread disaster...
But the other two pans came out fine.

So we ran off to pick up pizzas and enchiladas and get everything set up. It was a good spread - and we have great parents on this team. Lots of great dishes and people helping out. I know it sounds like we (or even I) did everything because this is my blog and therefore "Soderstrom-centric," but I am sure a lot of other folks overcame similar adversity. Lots of people were without power and all. And everyone came through.

Many hands make light work...

...and together we fed 75-80 people, and fed them well.

Now, let me take a minute to say that Rachel and I make a great team. We accomplish far more together than either of us could accomplish on our own. We add up to more than the sum of our parts, she and I. And she's cute as all get out and always smells good, too.

OK, so that was pretty much the end of the stress. And a sense of relief washed over us. And we went back to the gym to watch the rest of the matches.

And if you haven't been through a wrestling tournament, let me tell you a bit about it. It's a whole lot of waiting around with periodic cheering that disrupts your reading, and occasional excitement for about a ten minute stretch when your kid is on the match. So you can't really read. You just sort of hang out. Jake got a pin while we were rushing around, and in the end he was wrestling for 3rd/4th place. He lost that match to a senior varsity wrestler from Upper Lake who didn't make weight in his own class and got bumped up to Jake's division. He fought hard and was aggressive, but 3 years of experience was more than he could overcome.



That's what all the hard work is about - 6 minutes on the mat 3 or four times, then a few minutes on the podium. And if you work hard and perform well, you go home with a medal, and a little more pride than you started the day with.

The Welters were kind enough to take Jake home so we could load up the Touareg with the tables and whatnot and not have to make two trips. Last night we watched the Shawshank Redemption and went to bed. And we all slept in.