Wow

So, I know that I mentioned that my cousin Josh was having a baby as well. They were due three weeks after Quinn. They moved back into town a little over a month ago and were to have their third visit with the girly doctor on the day that Quinn was born. They decided to go to the same doctor that Sheri goes to, but they hadn't met her yet because she had been busy with probably deliveries and what not. This day Josh blamed us for not being able to meet her because she was helping with Sheri's delivery. I thought that they might be able to meet her after the delivery but Josh and Kim didn't get to the hospital until after the birth and Sheri's doctor had already left. I informed Sheri's doctor that she was going to be delivering my cousin's baby in a couple of weeks and we would see her then. I told her that they had just moved here and she hasn't met them yet, but that the baby was coming soon.



I was driving home the night that Quinn was born to put Triton to bed and hopefully myself (I slept like crap even though I was awake over 24 hours). On the way home I was thinking that it was going to suck if I went back to work and Josh and Kim had their baby, because I wouldn't be able to be there. We had joked about how it would have been cool to have them on the same day because Josh and I are like brother's. He lived with us when his father was living with my mom. Shalee his sister was obviously living with us too and in fact lives with us now. So, he and I are very close and have shared many beds and baths together. When we were younger that is, it wasn't like the other day okay! We obviously knew that Kim wasn't going to have her baby on the same day because she wasn't due for almost three more weeks.



The next morning after trying to catch up on sleep I was getting Triton ready to go back to the hospital to see his mom and his new sister when Josh text me. His text read, heading to the hospital Kim is in labor. I replied with a one word text saying "Liar". He said that he was serious and that they were almost to the hospital already. I guess she had been having contractions since they went to bed and really bad ones since 4 am. They got to the hospital just before ten and she was so far along that she couldn't even get an epidural. She was in a lot of pain and I felt bad because Sheri wasn't even in nearly the same boat as far as pain was concerned. The baby was born just before 11:00am. His name is Parker and here is Quinn and Parker. Only one day apart but we will probably be able to have combined birthday parties throughout the years. I hope that Quinn and Parker can be as close as Josh and I have been our whole lives. I was so happy that I was able to be there and not at work. I love you Josh and Kim. It was so cool that we were able to go through this basically together.

Quinn is obviously on the left and Parker on the right. It was kind of funny when we were discussing names that we were thinking of naming Quinn with Josh and Kim because Parker was on of the names that Sheri liked back in the day. Josh said that Sheri had to negate that one from our list because it was theirs and they were sure on that. I guess they were because that is little Parker now.

Josh is a proud first time daddy. Kim is now a mother of three and of course Josh thinks of her two girls as his own. This is her first boy and Josh is a man having a boy as his first child. Three generations and six children all of the people on my maternal side of the family have had a boy as their first child. I am proud of Josh in that sense, but of course that has nothing really to do with how manly a man is or isn't.

Baby Q is here

Her name is Quinn as most of you already know. She was born today and weighed 7lbs 14 ounces. She is 20 and a half inches long and has the longest feet. Triton had short little fat feet, probably why he was able to walk at 9 months. Quinn might not walk until she is 5 with her huge feet. They are long and skinny, amazing how different she already is from her brother. Here is just a couple of pics before I slip into a coma after this long day.

Triton visits with his new sister.

Rodeo and A Fall

So this is Sheri...I decided that I needed to start writing things down as well. One reason being that due to Jason's schedule he sometimes misses out on going to activities and family outings. A perfect example happened a few weeks ago. Triton and I attended the Dodge National Circut Rodeo with some family on April 10th in Pocatello. Not a normal scene of ours by any means, but a great experience of spending time with family and something new for Triton to experience. I thought Triton would have a good time, which he did.
We went to the matinee for lack of a better term because we had more than one young child in the group. My dad and step mom Betty, sister Brooke and husband MJ, brother Tyson and his wife Mary with there three kids Bailey, Keeton, and Jaxon, brother Matt and his wife Jaime with their son Drake, and last but not least Triton and I.
We started our day at 9am when we all met for breakfast at Smitty's. From there we car pooled to Pocatello. As we got close the the doors there was a little Shelton pony (I am guessing) that the kids could pet. Triton liked that but was also a bit hesitant. We entered on the north side of the Holt Arena and had to walk down the ramp to our seats on the other side of the stadium; but it turned out to be a good thing because we walked right by a lot of people on horses warming up and getting ready for the events. Our seats were fairly good, but ended up being stretched out a bit. Just after things got started my dad came down and sat in Triton's seat and Triton sat on his lap quite a lot. He ate popcorn and Mike and Ike's and really into what was going on. I recorded some vidoes of him clapping and cheering as seen here. I think Triton's favorite event was the bareback horse riding and the same thing only with saddles....not sure what they call that one. Oh and running up and down the ramps from the seats to the concessions, during the break. I thought he would fall asleep on the drive back but didn't. I guess he was thinking too much about all he had seen.

Not long after we got home I went with my mom and sister to a grocery bulk sale at Smith's, to get some food storage items. On the way out the day went from great to horrible. When we go to a store generally Triton sits in the seat for little kids, but once in a while I give in and let him sit in the bucket. When I allow this I usually pull the cart while I walk right beside him, just in case. Well on the way out Triton was in the basket and i was pushing from the regular location...he decided to stand up. I immediately stopped pushing and was telling him to sit down, but he didn't listen and I stupidly didn't walk around to the side...as you can probably guess he fell out.
It all seemed so slow motion...as I watched what happened, I went over all the stupidity of what I had done wrong and the horror of it. He hit the pavement with his back and the back of his head. That image will forever be burned into my brain. I was terrified as most mothers would be. I was trying to remain as calm as possible because I didn't want to freak him out worse by my reaction. But I couldn't stop the tears as I picked him up and hugged him to me. I was so scared! My Mom was that extra help to me in remaining as calm as possible. I know I am not the first mother this has happened to, nor will I be the last. I have seen a similar situation personal happen to a little girl in Sams Club. It is a hard thing to deal with. I know I am a good mom, but I still have guilt for my role in the events, and why shouldn't I?
Well, to finish off my story I watched him pretty close for the rest of the evening. He seemed fine after a little while....running around and playing, his eyes seemed fine, but that night he slept next to me. I knew I wouldn't get any sleep if he was in a different room where I couldn't hear him breathing and check on him with that much ease. Triton was blessed! He will probably never remember it but this will be a traumatic event forever to me.

On a lighter note Jason had the day off on Saturday 4/24. He got up early to go golfing, came home and took a nap. After Jason's nap we decided to let Triton pick out a new movie and go try to fly a kite as it was windy. It was between Madagascar 2 and A Bugs Life. Triton chose A Bugs Life and that has been all he has watched since. By the time we got to the play ground the wind was getting stronger. Triton went down the slide and climbed a couple toys before he decided he wanted to help daddy put the kite together. Once that was done, which took both Jason and I the wind was pretty strong, but after going through all the trouble we tried to fly it for Triton. One of the wings was curling a bit the wrong way so we knew it wasn't going to work that great. we got it up but each time before too long it would turn left and come dive bombing down. Triton has been out golfing with Jason but not much else yet this season so it was a good time for all three of us to get out of the house together.

One last thing before I end. It is Monday April 26th and still no baby yet. Her due date was Friday, April 23th, but not surprised she is late as Triton was three days late himself. I go see the doctor again today and hopefully we will have a new baby girl very soon. As soon as she arrives we will post some pictures and tell you her name. Donnetta, be on the look out for some videos, wish you were here!

Sheri

MarioKart Wii

If you don't know MarioKart is the best game ever! It has been a favorite of mine to play since the Super Nintendo came out with it. For the Wii it is even better because you actually steer with the remote control. You know how back in the day you would make fun of the person playing a racing game because they were steering while they were playing. Back then it wasn't how the controller worked and therefore you were made fun of as if you were sticking your tongue out while playing as well. Times have changed and now the controller can sense your moves and steer the Kart while you mimic the movements of actually driving. MarioKart comes with steering wheels that you can place a remote into, but we have come to notice that it isn't advantageous and we just steer play without it.
Triton has played just about as long as we have, but he of course isn't very good. He plays as Yoshi about 90 percent of the time and that is the green dinosaur above. We usually play with all three of us even though Triton is slow he isn't really affecting the outcome of races. We don't have to wait for him to finish a race because the computer characters always place above him and the race is over when 11 of the 12 people finish because it is obvious that the 12th place person finished in 12th. I can't remember when, but we were so excited when Triton would finish a lap by the time we finished the 3 lap race. We would cheer him on and tell him he was doing so good. He had been getting better and would even finish two laps by the time we finished three. He of course gets bored with it here and there and just tries to run over bananas on the course or get blown up by lava vents. For the most part he has been getting much better. We hardly ever just let him play by himself because we enjoy playing too, but when he plays alone he can usually finish any race under 5 minutes. Pretty good considering he is not even three years old. There are 12 racers, like I said, and he had never finished a race in time to beat any of the other computer controlled racers. Last week when I was taking care of him during the day after work I noticed on this one race that he was on his last lap by the time I finished the race and I was cheering him on because he had a good shot to get 11th place. He was so close but didn't get in in time. That night when I awoke to prepare myself for work Sheri informed me that Triton had finished a race in 11th spot. I was upset that I didn't get to watch but of course I was happy for him. I told her that he almost did it earlier that day as well. She then said that he also placed 4th in a race as well! Oh my gosh, that is so cool! We have of course been trying to potty train the little monkey so we let him play Wii while sitting on the potty. He isn't able to jump around and be the little A.D.D. monkey that he usually is when he sits on the cough. He plays much better while sitting on the potty because he has to sit in one spot. I guess she had to help him a tiny bit and tell him to use certain objects that assist you throughout the race. He will usually use objects by himself, but not right off the bat. So he got fourth place and I didn't get to see! I still haven't seen him finish a race in 11th or better while playing two players with him.
This last week (April 22nd) we bought a router so that I could play MarioKart online and see how good I was compared to the nerds who are probably online and live the game. The router was taking forever to install and we just gave up for the night because there was a basketball game on and my friend Scott had come over to watch it with me. Triton had been playing MarioKart by himself while I was messing with the router and while Sheri was cooking dinner. What a good woman I know! Anyway, Scott and I gave up on installing the router like I said and walked into the living room where Triton was racing. I noticed that he was in 5th place on this particular race with just over a lap to go. I cheered him on saying "good boy". He turned and looked at us while he kept his finger on the gas. I told him to look at the screen and pay attention. Like I said I have never seen him finish a race ahead of anyone so I was making sure he was paying attention since he was doing so good with only a lap to go. He was doing so good. I don't remember telling him to use any objects that he obtained but maybe I did? He did turn around two more times looking at Scott and I but I quickly told him to watch what he was doing. The game was on 150 cc and that is the fastest hardest single player level there is and he was doing great. I can't remember any small details on how he did it, but he actually finished in first place. I was so proud of him. It is an easy course but not easy to get first place on. I imagine that I myself would only get first place on that particular race 70 percent of the time.
I was finally able to play MarioKart online and found out that I am not as bad as I figured I would be. You hear stories about how people think that they are really good at a game and they get online to play against others only to find out that they are nothing compared to the nerds that live the game. There are a few players online that can beat me, but I am way better than I thought. I wouldn't want to play any of them nerds for money but I am probably better than 9 out of 10 people easily. I think it is fun playing online but I can tell that Sheri doesn't too much care for it. There is a lot of waiting for games to load and there are a lot of players that are better than her too. Sheri has gotten good don't get me wrong she can beat me 4 or 5 races out of 12 but she doesn't like the online for some reason.
Bowling is over thank goodness! Or! Am I really glad that it is over? I ended up taking another golf lesson from a local pro. I have been getting better each year but if my game isn't progressing and I start getting discouraged I take a lesson. They tell me some simple thing that might help me and I have mentioned in the past that it really hasn't helped at all. I watch a ton of golf and try to replicate what I see. I can catch on to things really fast and integrate them into my own game. The thing that I thought was going to work great this year hasn't helped me too much. It has helped a bit, but not to the degree that I would like. I have had more eagle putts this year than I ever have had in all years past and that was all due to my own studying of the game just by watching the pros play on T.V. I was mad after golfing the weekend before last because I was starting to revert back to being pretty bad again. I wasn't focusing and was making mistakes that I never make so I took another lesson. The local pro knew that this last week was going to be bad weather in the late days of the week so he squeezed in a little 45 minute lesson on one of his busiest days (Monday). He is one of the nicest guys ever. He loves Triton and actually allows Triton to go behind the desk and play in the range ball bin. The bin probably has thousands of balls in it and is the size of a small hot tub. Triton plays in there and of course loves it. Triton went golfing with us this last Friday and the same guy came out and asked how I was doing when we got done with the 4th hole. Triton was freezing. It wasn't that cold but Triton was shivering. We put my uncle's leather coat around him and he stopped whining. The local pro while talking to us noticed how cold Triton was and offered to take Triton back to the clubhouse with him! We only had a few more holes to finish and Triton stopped whining so I declined his invitation. How nice is that of him to offer that though? It wasn't that cold outside and Triton had been out with us when it was way more colder so I didn't know why he was shivering? We got done with 9 holes and I decided to leave early and not finish the round. I got Triton home and he was still cold. I washed his hands in the sink to warm up his arms and hands. We walked into the living room to watch the television or play MarioKart. I changed Triton's diaper and noticed that his arms and hands were still freezing. I cranked up the heater and put Triton under a blanket with myself and we warmed up. He was acting funny ever since the 3rd hole. I thought it was because he was cold, but like I said he had been out with us when it was way colder. The first 2 holes he was his normal self trying to golf with us and from then on he was just sitting in the cart freezing.
A little later I took his temperature just to see if he had a fever. He wasn't coughing or sneezing but he did feel warm to me. He had a small fever of just barely over 100 so I gave him some children's Tylenol and figured he would be fine. Sheri got home and I told her that she might not want to come with us to the last night of bowling because Triton has a fever. He wasn't acting any better and his fever actually got way worse. The Tylenol didn't seem to help at all? His fever went up to just under 102 and Sheri decided to take him to the doctor. They tested him for strep nothing, looked at his ears to see if it was another earache/infection and nothing? I guess they want to test his urine to see if he has some sort of a kidney infection maybe. He has acted like his normal self since then, but we don't know what is wrong with him. He has been having stool issues for the last few months where it seems that he is always constipated so maybe that has something to do with it? Who knows? I just hope and pray that he is okay. We weren't able to get much of a sample of urine from the little man because he hates the sticky bag thing.
So back to the whole am I glad that bowling is really over thing? I am glad just because of the frustration that I have had all year but of course the last night is when I might have figured something out. I switched over to the golf lesson in the previous paragraph's because that is where the last night's bowling good stemmed from. I had asked a friend and a really good bowler to try and help me a little over a month ago with my bowling. He tried to help me and gave me some pointers on how to improve. For the last 8 years I haven't really been a good bowler. I used to be somewhat good and even bowled a couple perfect games but since whatever happened to my train of thought or whatever bug I caught I have had no confidence. I have had friends try to see what I was doing wrong and they would all tell me the same thing "you are trying to hard", "you need to do this or that". Nothing was helping and depending on how next year goes I might actually quit bowling. If next year goes like this last week of bowling then I won't even have to worry about giving up on the game. While this local golf pro took time out of his busy day to give me a quick lesson he noticed that I wasn't following through correctly. I know that I was following though but didn't know that I should have been following though differently. I wasn't able to golf any day until Friday (the day that Triton was sick and also the last day of bowling for the year) because the weather was bad so I wasn't able to try out what the pro had told me until then. It helped a lot and I was actually at even par after 5 holes on a pretty dang windy day. The last 4 holes were into the wind and I ended up still shooting a 41 not good for the great start that I had but better than I was doing. Anyway I went home and tended to Triton like I said and for some reason got to thinking about bowling. I was wondering if my bowling follow through was the same as my golf swing. I knew that I didn't have much of a follow though and never really have. Even back when I was averaging 213 I didn't have that much of a follow though. I shadow bowled a few times just wondering how I could take what I learned from golf and use it to my advantage and maybe improve bowling as well. Dale is the guy who tried to help me a month or so ago with my bowling and he was trying to help me follow though. Of course anyone who has tried to help me in the past years has told me the same thing (follow through) but my "bowling" swing wasn't allowing me to correctly follow through. I only thought about it like 15 minutes or so that day before bowling and right before bowling it entered my mind again. The bowling league has an allotted 10 minutes of practice time before bowling starts scoring to allow players to loosen up and warm up. I was throwing the ball pretty good during practice. On another note we were bowling against Dale's (my coach a month before) team. Midway through the first game he asked me if I had been practicing? I jokingly told him not to give me any false hope that I was bowling better. I was scoring my better and felt much better about my release. I bowled a nice 230 game and fell off a bit the second with a 178 or something. The last game was almost over and Dale asked me what happened and why I was bowling so much better. He has seen me struggle all year and the many years before this one so he knows that the game has not been fun for me. I told him about the golf lesson and how it helped me think of something different and allowed me to have a follow though. My last game was 198 and I finished with a 600 series so that is pretty good after only trying one new thing. If I am able to remember how to allow myself to have a swing that will give me a proper follow though then lookout because I should be averaging over a 200 again next year and maybe having some good games. Fingers crossed because I would love to have another 300 before I die! I think I finished this year with a whopping 184 average! That is almost kill myself material! If I can remember how to do what I did to finish the last night of bowling this year and carry it over to next I will be fine. If it doesn't work and I have another year like this one next year will probably be my last.

7-10

Triton had been golfing with me a bunch of times this last week. I think that we went 4 times this last week and only one of them was a nine hole day for Triton. It was warm one of the days and the other three were not too cold but weren't too hot either. His lips have been dry and Friday before bowling I decided to put some lip stuff on his poor dried out lips. I imagine a lot of it was from all of the golfing these past few days.
Applying chap stick or any other type of medicated lip care to Triton's lips is going to be different every time. For the longest time he was fine and would just rest his lips and go with the flow. Lately he has been pursing his lips to where you have to tell him to stop and pucker instead. I had forgotten that I had taught him how to pucker instead of pursing. So when I went to apply some tube "Chap Ice" medicated balm to his lips Friday night he was pursing his lips, but in the middle he puckered. I told him he was a good boy and realized how cute he looked and figured that I would see if he would hold the pose for a picture. Oh as you can see he did a little more than hold his puckered lips for the pose. He did a little GQ move and put up a little gangster pose to go a long with it. Something that he has never ever done before and for sure hasn't been shown how to do? He stood to the side and put his arms up by himself all while puckering his lips? I don't know where he learned or who he thinks he is but it was way adorable as you can see.
It is a weird coincidence, but as many of you know and have read Sheri and I met in a bowling alley. I worked there and she was friends with some of my friends. Blah bla you know the story. I realized the weirdest thing the other day. Our two kids can be known as a 7-10 split! If anyone knows anything about bowling it is that the 7-10 is the hardest spare to pick. Triton was born in 2007 and our new little girl (Q?) that is due any day is going to obviously be born in 2010. Thus the 7-10! I don't know about destiny, but some things are just meant to be I guess. It could also mean that we are going to have two of the worst kids in history? So be prepared anyone who is willing to babysit both of them at once for us!!
So, golf isn't going the way that I planned. Henry has beaten me three times already this year. I am always trying to figure out better ways to improve and that has cost me in my games against Henry. I can either hit the ball good and have no aim, or I can hit the ball with some little aim but not get any distance. I know there is something simple that I need to work on, but I just can't figure it out. I still have the other golf goals for the year, but I guess losing to Henry is going to have to be one that didn't pan out. He is golfing better than he ever has and his luck isn't so much a huge factor as it always has been. I am happy that he is gaining confidence in his game, but he will still lose a ton more than he will win.
I stopped playing online poker. There is just too many coincidences that happen online and I still believe that it is not regulated enough. It is too shady for my taste, but it hasn't cost me any money for the past 7 years. I had been freerolling for many years now. I imagine I will play again, but it just isn't for me right now. There are about 50 some odd tournaments that I might have a chance to win money on in a little over a month with the WSOP fantasy league coming up on Fulltilt, but I don't plan on playing regularly like I had been. So if you can't tell the simple goal of making an extra $100 a month is out as well.
With the new baby and the want to be around my wife and kids growing each and every day I imagine that I won't have time to play anyway. I golf a lot, but I still make time for Sheri and Triton. Triton has gone golfing a lot with me like I said. It is something that he likes to do. His rituals on the course are growing. Last year and the beginning of this year he would always have to putt out after we were finished with each and every hole. This year he is also expanding his wants to teeing off with us too. All last year he mostly used one club, a 60 degree wedge that we found in the garbage many years ago. It was broken so I simply duct taped on a grip and he was off and running. He didn't really like his three would that we made the same way or his putter. This year though he is carrying around his three wood instead of the wedge? The other night we were leaving to give Henry a ride somewhere and Triton had to bring his club and golf ball with him. He knew that we weren't even going golfing but he still had to bring it. He is starting to remind me of Phil Mickelson in that aspect because Phil's family have home videos of him at the beach with his golf club and balls as well. He had to take his club everywhere. I have no dreams of Triton becoming the next Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. I am just proud that he likes something that can be productive for him later on in life. Heck it would be a dream to have him get a scholarship that way we wouldn't have to pay for his college! Whatever he wants to be or do I will support him. So long as it is a law abiding profession that is!

QT

The title for this blog is going to be the new name of the blog itself. It will still have to be accessed with the tritonsparents.blogspot link, but it will finally have a title. As you might be able to tell the T in QT stands for Triton and the Q is yet to be filled in. It will be filled in when the new baby girl arrives in a few weeks. She is due in 22 days, but I have a feeling that she is going to be an early arrival. She has been a moving around in Sheri's stomach a ton and I think is she digging in a foot hold or two to push her way out.
With yesterday being April Fool's day it reminded me of this joke Mike and I played on my mom once. It wasn't on that same day, but many years ago we got my mom good. I can't remember why, but Mike picked me up early from work. My mom worked at the same place as I did, but she didn't work in the same station and she did not know that I had left work early on this night. Mikey J and myself must have been going to a movie or something I can't remember. We went back to my house (my mom's house of course) so that I could change out of my work clothes. Well, I was in the bathroom and I heard my mom's car pull into the driveway. I turned off the bathroom light and all that was on was a hallway light. My room wasn't in the house itself. I had a room that was attached to the other side of the garage, thus if Mikey was even at my mom's house alone he wouldn't need to be in the main part of the house at all. I told Mike to act like I wasn't there as I hid in the bathroom. I heard my mom unlock the door. She knew who Mike was of course, but he wasn't a friend that I hung out with a lot. We hung out a lot, but usually not at my house. Anyway, my mom enters the back door and Mike walks around the corner. It was pretty dark in the house except for the one hallway light. I am sure she recognized him no problem. He then asks her this question "Do you know where Jason is"? Her response was exactly this "How the f*@# did you get in to my house"? Mike asked her that question without any sort of giggle or give away in his voice that would indicate that I was just around the corner. I don't think he ever answered her question. I couldn't tell because I was laughing too hard. I couldn't stop laughing and just shortly after hearing her response to his question I made myself visible. I think I remember her calling us both a few names as we laughed our way out the door. She didn't think it was funny at all and she hates it when we bring that story up. It has been a story to laugh at all of the time because my mom's classic reaction.