What a weekend!

So what a weekend we had! This weekend was the first State Qualifier for the kids. It was at the indoor track in Eugene and Nick did pretty well considering he got sick on Friday. He missed most of the day of school on Friday with a sore throat, stomach ache and headache. No fever though which was a good thing. I think he ended up getting the cold I had the week before. He was determined to race though so we went down on Saturday to go racing. He was only at about 70% Saturday and still managed to get 4th place (out of 6 riders). Gabi did a good job racing as well, but ended up 4th which was last for her class. Gabi ended up staying down in Eugene at Grandma Sue's while Nick and I drove home for the evening so we could bring Bryan down with us for the race on Sunday. 

Sunday's race was crowded since it was a State Qualifier. They ended up with 46 or so motos, usually there are around 25 maybe. Nick's class ended up with 10 riders in it so they were taking 2 qualifiers from each round so he had a full gate of 8 riders in the main event. He ended up getting 5th place and avoided a big crash that happened right in front of him on the first turn. It was a great effort considering he was also not at 100%. Gabi ended up not qualifying for the main event in her class so she was pretty bummed out. Having just turned 12 she got bumped up to a new class so it was a little more of a challenge with the older, bigger and faster riders. We are looking forward to the National race in Redmond in 2 weeks. It will be the biggest event we've ever been to with over 200 motos! Riders from all over the country will be there, even the Olympic Medalists should be there! It'll be an experience and great for the kids to see what happens on a National level. We're just hoping to take it all in and make the main events. We're after the experience this time. Should be fun. 

On a sadder note, we found out Muscles had a stroke this weekend. The poor kitty (who's only 4 years old) was acting a little strange on Friday afternoon. The kids said he was meowing really strangely on Friday but we didn't think much of it. He's pretty weird and does some strange things sometime. Plus he seemed normal sleeping on the couch Friday night. He still hadn't moved off the couch Saturday once we got home from racing, which is not out of the norm for him. But when we moved him off the couch to the floor so I could sit down we noticed he couldn't walk. He looked like he was drunk. After further investigation it looked like he had no real control over his front or back paws on his right side. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and looks completely normal when he is just laying on the couch, but he clearly can't walk normally and his right back leg sticks straight out when you pick him up. He stayed on the couch all day Sunday too. Last night I was petting him and cuddling with him and he finally started purring. He looked like he wanted to get down so we put him on the floor and he did hobble across the floor to the food and water bowl. He didn't eat anything but did seem to be in better spirits so that looked good. This morning he was able to run across the floor when Nick scared him which also was a good sign. I researched cat strokes online last night and from what I could find out they say most cats recover from a stroke, sometimes it takes a few weeks to a couple of months but they end up able to lead a pretty normal life afterwards. The vet can't really do much for them except run a lot of expensive tests to confirm he had a stroke, but there isn't anything they can do to help the recovery, so we will just keep a close eye on him and wait and see. I'm optimistic he will be OK, he just might need help with the stairs from now on. Or maybe we'll install a kitty elevator for him.  Poor boy. He's so young to have had a stroke, but apparently it can happen at any age. We are hoping for the best though. I'll keep you posted.

Well the kids start their long Spring Break this week. They have 2 days of school this week then it's parent/teacher conferences Wednesday & Thursday and then Grading day on Friday. Then all next week is Spring Break. Wish I had gotten a week and a half off of school when I was their age!