We hit the ground running...

We hit the ground running this week, and it seems we have been running all week. We got home Monday evening to find our friends S & S had come up from Sac to do some projects at my house while we were away at the triathlon. It was a great surprise, and they worked so hard. We had school all week, and still have not had a "regular" week yet with Monday having been a holiday this week. I cannot believe that Friday is already here. It has been exhausting trying to find our rhythm. It takes us 40 minutes from our door to drive down the hill, find parking and make it to our kindergarten class room. So this makes it unrealistic to be able to come home while she is in school and then back again. Her school day is only 3.5 hours long, so I would spend over half of it in the car. E has school on Tues. and Thurs. and it is only 3 hours long and starts 45 minutes after H starts, so again not really enough time to leave, come back, find another parking space and then get her to class. We have been spending that time in the kindergarten classroom doing prep work for the teacher. E is fascinated by everything they are doing. I usually stand at the back counter while class is going on, E at my feet with her Dora "pack-pack" securely strapped on, peeking through the book shelf at the class. Her eyes follow their every move and she hardly makes a sound. She is engrossed in what they are doing. I thought she would be trying to get into everything, but that is not the case. The teacher has her entire attention. H is my happy go lucky people person (her dad) and E is a much tougher nut to crack (me) but she also already loves the kindergarten teacher, and vies with her sister to giver her hugs. I think she would move right in if we let her. S is coming back tomorrow afternoon and going to stay here for the weekend with the girls. It will be the first weekend they have been at home in quite a while. It will be good for them to have a quiet weekend. It will be good for all of us to have a quiet weekend. I am looking forward to seeing him. I just saw him Monday but it seems like such a long time ago. I have so much to tell him, I hope he has something to tell me too....

The Birthday Party....

Immediately following the triathlon, H & S ran back over to the house to get the BBQ going while we attended the awards ceremony. When it was over we all went back to the house for a birthday bbq celebration. Everyone was tired, hungry and pumped on adrenaline. There was tri-tip, chicken, and ribs (his favorite), and a plethora of other delicious food laid out along with tart lemonade. Everyone was happy to have a plate and a seat and enjoy some good company. K & C had made some wonderful photo collages for everyone to enjoy, one from back in the young days, and one from our Easter coast trip in April. They also made a great birthday card for everyone to sign with his picture on the front. After every one's belly was full K got up and did a wonderful job talking about him, and passing out "Eric Awards" for everything from friendship, to just making him proud. They spent so much time and effort on this day, he would be so touched, choked up even, we all were. There was a time when people shared "Eric Stories" D shared the garbage can story, R & B told of some of their childhood adventures, his dad told of the time he caught their truck on fire, C told hunting stories, and it was a great time to laugh and reflect on all that he has brought to us. Birthday gifts were handed out, not birthday gifts for him, but inspired by him. They were gaily wrapped packages full of all kinds of things that made us laugh. Things that he loves, from duct tape, tools, mad magazine, compasses to spam, it made us laugh. It was a great time for the girls to see all the adults in their life celebrate their dad. These are the moments in our life that give us strength. That empower us to move forward. There is no denying that he is loved, that many are pulling for him. That is a wonderful embrace for my children to be held in. K asked H what her Daddy's birthday cake should say. She thought about it for about a second and then told her. When they opened the cake box that afternoon, it was there across the cake for all to see (in purple of course) a child's simple wish for her father "Daddy feel better and I love you in my heart". That pretty much says it all. Some of our new friends, who competed in the race with us, but have never met him, told me that they were amazed at the day, and what a wonderful person he must be to have inspired so many to this. He is. K & C gave me the award for "making him proud" , but on this day, for this day, I will gracefully bow and hand it over to K & C, they really deserve it. They made him proud, they made me proud, they made our children proud.

Still Standing...

We are all still standing. We all made it to the finish line. It was incredible. I am not even sure where to begin. The first thing I have to say is how incredibly blessed we are to have such amazing friends. Truly amazing. I cannot say enough about the unbelievable job they pulled off. Almost everyone got there by Friday night. H&C opened up their front yard to "tent city", others came and stayed in their house with us, in motor homes, campgrounds, rented houses, and some drove all the way up just for the day. We all met up at the spaghetti dinner the night before. We ate, and visited and adjourned to the house for more visiting before bed. We got up at 6am and K & C had an assembly line bagel toasting operation going on. Everyone grabbed breakfast on the go and we were dressed and on the road at 7am. We got to Lake Siskiou and set up "Camp Eric". After fielding a few people who seemed so impressed by our presentation that they mistook us for the registration table, we shirted up and got ready for the show. Swimming is first, and all of our swimmers did us proud. MA was the first from our team out of the water, and she was followed by our impressive numbers. The 10 mile bike ride was next, and our own JB was the youngest triathlon participant and 9 years old he rode the 10 miles. I had already left by this time with A & M for our walk, pushing the girls in the jog stroller. It was brisk but it felt good. It felt even better every time we saw a gray shirt passing by, and there were alot of them. HB did an impressive 1hr 30 min solo. We were just so proud to see everyone out there. The kids were all amazing, they just put their whole hearts out there and did us all proud. After the race, they held awards. The rotary was very supportive of us and our endeavor. They presented everyone on our team with a medal, and gave us a beautiful wood plaque dedicated to him and all of us. It was a wonderful experience. Another wonderful example of celebration for our daughters to witness. More people their father has touched. Some who have never even met him, but still joined with us to celebrate. We competed and celebrated with our old friends, and made some wonderful new ones (T,S & B, the H family). It was incredible and I was touched by not only the commitment of the people that we brought with us, but also by the generosity of those that came out of their way to join us, to compete with us and cheer us on. We all made it to the finish line, on our own accord. No one had to scrape me up off the side of the road, and (please don't tell K, or she'll make me do it again) it was invigorating, inspiring and cleansing. More on the rest of the day tomorrow, but it is the end of the day for me, and time to rest. We did him proud. This I know.

The day before and all is well....

It is the day before the big race. 24 hours from now I will either be moving along pushing my stroller or laying on the side of the road waiting for some kind soul to scrape me up and take me back to Camp Eric, let's hope it is the former. The girls left yesterday afternoon for Shasta. They were going to spend some quiet, fun time with their grandparents and cousin before the rest of us desend. Of course K & C have also gone ahead hauling a brood and a mountain of prep for the big day. They are amazing. They stopped off to see us at the hospital on their way up. MA and I spent the afternoon and evening with him, and he was good. We also were fortunate to have some new visitors yesterday. My aunt brought a Cranio Secral Massage Therapist down from Yreka to give him some treatments. It was an interesting and fascinating process. She did a 2 hour treatment on him, while MA,R,D and I waiting in the wings. We were close and could see some of the process but wanted to giver her the time and space to work. We could hear her quiet murmerings to him, and his murmerings back. He was quiet, he seemed restful and accepting of what was being offered. It was very interesting to us how calm he remained through the entire process, and then when it was over, he had an immeidate emotional response. When it was over, not during. We stayed with him until he fell asleep. He looked relaxed, and so much himself. She is coming back again today to do another treatment for him, and I look forward to seeing what his reaction is today. After spending the morning and afternoon with him today, we will make our pilgrimage north to join the rest of Camp Eric for the pre-race spaghetti dinner. Tomorrow is a big day. I am excited to see everyone embracing this event and joining us as we do something he loves to do and celebrating him. We are so honored to have so many people joining us in body and in spirit. Some of our wonderful friends are coming all the way from Idaho to join us. Yes just for this. J is going to do the whole thing himself and T (who I have known since Junior High) is going to be a runner on a relay team. It is a wonderful example for the girls to see how much they are loved and what an impact their father has made on others. It is quite simply what will get us through...

And now with much fanfare....

The program for the triathlon. Thank you to K & C for all of the hard work into the planning and execution of this event. Thank you to everyone who is participating, and those coming to celebrate with us and lend moral support! We appreciate you all. Those that still want to join us are also welcome! The girls know that we will be having a "fun race" and that after we are going to have another "get well" party for daddy and to help celebrate his birthday. Please help us promote these positive reinforcements to the girls. It makes them feel safe, secure and part of a big family. Thank you!

Another day come and gone.....

Another day has come and gone. I am hoping for routine, but it seems to elude me. Between the start of school, back to school night, and teacher work days, we have not had a routine week yet. I am craving it. I need it. I am ready to establish a routine, a schedule, some sameness. Ordinary. Monontany. The girls are adapting well. They both love school which is a blessing. I only wish it tired them out, but that would be a challenge since they have their father's energy and exuberance. H loves her teacher (she was over the moon when she said her favorite color was also purple) and is so excited about learning and brought her very first homework home this week. She wanted to sit down at the table and do it all right away. E is also loving school and is especially excited that the preschool is now her school and not H's. She loves her new Dora backpack and will happily throw me a goodbye and race into the classroom as soon as the door opens. We did get swimming lessons down to one day a week and that is helping with the driving. It is still alot of driving. I have started to listen to books on tape in the car again, there is so much driving. I miss him every day, and it still seems like a dream at times, like this is not really happening. But of course it is. I called to find out how he was doing today. Still holding his own, still sleeping alot. He tried something new today. Yogurt. He liked it. I will spend Friday and Saturday afternoons with him before I head up to the triathlon. I am looking forward to it. We have to finish our book.

Triathlon Update...

After hearing the stories of the first triathlon, SK came up with this fantastic art work for the t-shirts! K & C have been working on a wonderful program that I will publish soon. We have some wonderful teams, including our friends, family and our law enforcement family as well. We have a whole camp full of people who are coming out just to celebrate with us. It will be a good day. A day to be proud of. A day he will be proud of. A wonderful example for the girls. Thank you to everyone who is making it possible, especially to K & C for spearheading the effort and working tirelessly to pull it all off. Thank you.