Yes! The Roof Is Finished!

After much hard work . . .

And after I had to get up there to find out what was taking so long . . .

The roof is finally completed. And it looks fabulous!

Got Puppies?!

The Roof Has Been Started

Our Trip to Kalamazoo

When I called to enter Darren in an event in Little Rock, AR they said it was full but they had openings for bullriders in the Kalamazoo, MI event. Now we know why. They have what they call lake-effect snow storms in February.

The kids and I decided to ride along with Darren even though it was going to be a 9 hour drive - we hadn't been on a trip with him in a while and hadn't been to Michigan before. Thursday and Friday we heard reports of a storm heading for Michigan with 5-8 inches of snow, could be as much as 1-2 inches an hour, travel not advised.

So we decided to leave Friday afternoon to beat the storm. We drove all night and arrived there at 2:30 am our time - 3:30 am their time. We drove through about an hour of light snow which slowed us down a little but nothing serious. We slept in Sat, ordered pizza, swam, and watched it snow. We had plenty of time to get ready and get to the arena which was just across the way. They probably had 2-3 inches that morning then it let up and wasn't too bad - until that evening.

Everything was going good until after his ride - he was thrown in the dirt and the bull stepped on his face. He ran out holding his nose and mouth. There was a lot of blood. After they treated him and stopped the blood they finally let us go back to see him.

They decided to transport him to the hospital for further evaluation. They called for a second ambulance to take him since there has to be one at the bullriding at all times. The kids and I were escorted out to our car by a really nice gentleman who worked at the arena. The car was covered with about 4 inches of new snow that had fallen in the couple of hours that we were inside. We found our coats and cleaned off all the snow - then sat ready to roll. The second ambulance finally arrived and he walked out and got in on his own - typical bullrider. We followed them and tried really hard not to lose them since we had NO idea where we were going and the snow was coming down pretty heavily.

After some evaluation and X-rays we found out that nothing was broken and no stitches were needed. His nose and lips were extremely swollen and his cheek, chin, and lips had major scratches on them. They prescribed some pain medicine and ice for the swelling. Overall he was very, very lucky.

Surviving Winter

We are trying to survive the dark, cold days of winter.
We have been staying busy with pitching practices - which Cory has been doing for a year now and has really improved since she started. The coach just moved to Elk Horn, NE so it is quite a bit farther for us to go but still worth it.
We have also been busy with wrestling practices 3 nights a week and tournaments on weekends. Trevor has also improved this year and is enjoying it more and more.

Christmas Decorating

Well - it's that time of year again. Seems like we just put all of this stuff away.

We have been busy getting the house all decked out for the holidays again this year.

I thought I would post some of this year's decorations.

Every year - the weekend after Thanksgiving - we take the truck, buy a real tree, and haul it home. This year we decided to put it in a washtub and it really looks cool.

Darren worked several hours at putting all the lights on the house, potting shed, and garage. He even did the three dormers on the roof. The house looks gorgeous. It's fun to see it from miles away. It makes you realize how high on the hill it really is. We have the 2 deer out front and the wreath and 2 trees on the front porch.

New this year - we put an old, red bicycle in the flower bed and wrapped it with colored C7's. It is really fun.

The next project is to take some pictures of the kids for our annual Christmas photo card.

Busy November Weekend

This past weekend we went to Kansas City to do a little shopping and to watch a PBR event at Kemper arena. It was a beautiful day for November 1st.

Our first stop was Legend's mall. We always make sure and stop in to Cavender's Western Store - one of our favorites. We found a couple of t-shirts that we needed to buy. Then we walked around and found this turtle.

Trevor wanted to stop at the Build-A-Dino store so we qickly looked around in there. He found a couple of outfits for Rex and Beady Bear. We didn't have much time because we wanted to get to the event early in case a contestant didn't show up and Darren could possibly get in to compete.

We made it there with plenty of time to spare and at first we thought he was going to get to ride but then - 15 minutes late - the last few cowboys showed up and the event was full. We still had free tickets though and he was able to watch from behind the chutes - which is his favorite place to be. The kids and I had a great time. Since we didn't have time to eat at the mall before the event - they spent all my cash on $4 bottles of pop and $5 hot dogs.

Trevor found this loader in the parking lot after the event. Looks like he owns it - doesn't it?