Let the Olympics begin!

I watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies last night. I must admit is was bittersweet. This was the Olympics our son Garon was shooting for. But his life took a different path a few years back and he "retired" from the sport.
He was overall World Cup Champion and Junior National Champion just a few short years ago.

I KNOW the hard work and sacrifices an Olympic athlete goes through to get where they are. There are many many hours of training, travel, eating strange foods, missing family, trying to get an education on the road, and missing out on life in general.

They are not there for the little special moments in a family's life - birthdays, Sunday dinners, holidays, vacations, hanging out.

When I saw his fellow luge teammates front and center when the American athletes came into the stadium, I was a little sad that he wasn't there with them but so proud of the ones that were there representing their country, their sport but most importantly their families who have been behind them every step of the way. They who have urged them to keep going and have dried their tears and have done without so they can help fund training and track fees and travel expenses and international calling cards and the list goes on.

Our good wishes go out to these athletes who have become like a member of our family: Bengt and Megan and Erin.

Chris - you always knew where I was standing on the track and could hear me yelling for you. Just know that I am cheering you on from here.

So good luck, be safe and have fun!

And I expect to hear all about it, k?

Our latest adventure (or in other words - no wonder we're sick!)

We want to put a bathroom downstairs after 31 years but first we needed to fix the leak in our shower. Did that ever open a can of worms! Or a mess of mold and dust! This is what we found when we pulled up the shower floor. Yuck!
And this is what we found when we pulled up the vinyl floor - along with a few more leaks!
We removed the whole floor . . .

Replaced it . . .

Took a rest or two. . .

Rented a huge 90 lb. jackhammer (this is the compressor it used)

And the boys spent Saturday taking out the cement floor in the basement. You can see the pipes are right in the middle of the floor and one of the drains is located under the stairs. Crazy!

I sure am glad I have great kids in this family. The guys have all been working hard to get things fixed and rebuilt - especially since Gary and I both have gotten the crud which I think is from all the junk that has been kicked up into the air.

The tile is laid on the floor of our bathroom. Our plumber is working downstairs on moving the plumbing and Gary and I are waiting for our dr. appt where we hope to get a nice shot and some cough med. so we will be all better soon.

Hey . . . at least I posted to this blog after several months.

Hopefully, this post will be continued soon (and I hope that is REALLY soon!)

This deserves its own post

Now don't die, Cris, but these pictures are just toooooooo funny. These are all about this little girl and her bestest furry friend.
Whenever Spartie comes over to visit, he follows Meili around because he just knows he will get a treat of some sort. . .

A sample right off her tongue . . .

A special secret shared only with him . . .

Or maybe just a runny nose to take care of for her.

Heehee. They sure do love each other!

Christmas 2009

We actually had all 5 kids and spouses here for Christmas! That hasn't happened for a looooooong time. We had so much fun hanging out, wrapping presents until way late on Christmas eve, staying up late on New Year's Eve, and enjoying yummy food. And grandkids make the season so much more fun. We had a ball with Tyler and Camden staying up late with us on New Year's Eve and they are old enough now to play Yahtzee with us and light off fireworks at midnight. So much fun!

The quilts I made for the girls for Christmas. Yes, there is a story behind them. Have you seen the movie "The Proposal"? Remember when the grandma pulls out the "baby maker" quilt and hands it to the couple? The girls and I went to see this movie and afterwards they requested one of those quilts for Christmas (since some of them can't seem to have babies). I found an ancient Celtic knot that is the symbol of fertility and then added a few xoxo's to make it into my own version of a baby making quilt. They were all the same, just different borders and celtic knot colors. Let's hope they work! We need some more grandkids around here.
She liked her doll's play pen so much that she had to try it out herself.

Silly Meili!

Trying out the Zuzu pets. Hilarious!

Putting together transformers.

My new favorite face to pull.

Playing transformers and galactic heroes.

She was trying to fit in the car to drive it around.

Grandpa had to take the kiddies around the block on the snowmobile after our big snowstorm.

Meili loved it and didn't want to get off.

Believe it or not - I'm posting

I have a huge amount of catching up to do and will probably skip most of what went on over the past 6 months but I'm wishing for summer right now and would love to be up at the lot with the family so I thought I'd post some of the fun things we did last summer up there.

Gary made a shooting gallery for our airsoft guns.
A wild bunch of friends trying it out.
Whitnie helping Tyler shoot.

Just don't shoot this guy. We call him Grandpa because he is gray and big and is continually visiting us. The kids love putting cookies out for him. He will scamper right under our table.

We dug back about 4 feet to give us more room around the firepit and used all the rocks we dug up to make a rock wall.

Deepening the firepit will have to wait until spring.

We made wider and safer steps.

Sawing down the log to make the steps.

These two little guys became best buddies this year and LOVED digging in the dirt pile with their trucks.

Do you think she likes it up here?

Grandpa's favorite part of being at the lot - playing with the grandkids.

Can't keep him off the fourwheelers.

We did sit and take it easy a few times.

Even this bundle of energy.

Grandpa's girl.

The kids loved their weekend pet - a horny toad we found while on a walk. He had some caterpillers to keep him company.

On the "Buck-a-bonco"



The kids have a fantastic dirt area and did they ever enjoy it!

Truck trying to pull the tree down.

4 wheeler trying to pull tree down.

Needless to say, neither one worked. We have a dead tree with a huge crack in it that is leaning on another tree right by our trailer. We tied tow straps around it to try to pull it down. You can see the 4 wheeler and the truck flipping to the side from the strength of the tree. Hopefully, the winter storms will bring it down.