I can't believe my eyes!

My dad is Texting! With Tommy about Deer hunting. Are you surprised?!

Merry Christmas

Toby Wrestling

This is my first attempt to upload video from new camera.  Obviously I need more work since the quality is very poor.  Not sure what happened.

 

Toby won the 125lb weight class in a wrestling tournament last Saturday.  On Friday he won the 119lb weight class at another tournament.  This is the first of his matches at 125lb.

 

Growing a kiwi

Somewhere along the way, someone decided that our baby girl (due March 20) should be nicknamed Kiwi. Well, to give a pre-emptive post to Mom's typical pregnancy requests, here's a picture of Karen with our baby Kiwi. As of yesterday (Friday), we're at 27 weeks... and as of today, just 3 months to go! This one's for you, Mom!

Off the Charts

Braden had his 4 month check-up today (yeah, I know he will be 5 months on Sunday.)  I've been curious to see just how big he is. Last visit he was in the 95th percentile for length and weight.  Well today he weighed in at 19 pounds, 1 ounce and was 27 3/4 inches long!  Compared to the average 5-month-old, he is off the charts for both length and weight.  According to his doctor, he is the size of an average 9-month-old.  No wonder my arms are always tired!  Here's a picture of my big boy just to make you smile!

~Becky

Toby's first wrestling match...six months post surgery!

 

Toby has actually only this week been allowed to wrestle at full strength during practice.  He won this first match, but lost in the championship round, to take second in his first tournament this year.

Toby getting ready to wrestle...Sam videos and keeps Toby's clothes close by.

Not a great pic, but shows the strength and concentration it takes.

This match took all three 2 minute rounds and would have been a tie if he took a few seconds longer to make this pin.  I think he was just too tired to consider overtime!

A little celebratory emotion!

Christopher had his band concert last night. He was moved up to the advanced band a couple of weeks ago. Since he didn't have time to learn all the songs he was asked to play a reindeer during a couple of songs.

Tonight he went to his first formal dance at school. I tried to get a couple of pictures of him and he decided to get a little silly. I can't believe how grown up he is getting. I am having trouble uploading the slideshow so you can click on the picture to see all of them.

Christopher

What a Difference a Year Makes

I was looking at last year's tree decorating pics and just can't get over how much Tessa has changed in just one year's time (15 months old vs. 27 months old.) I think the big difference is she went from 4 teeth to a mouthful and her hair has grown so much!  She is a little girl, no longer a baby!  She is so sweet and sassy at the same time.  She is our "actress"-- can change into character in a moments notice!  She has changed so much, I just had to share...

~Becky

 

   

Thanksgivingish 08

SUCCESS. A deer for Dad. In the deer woods, a doe. 12/2/08 AM

Brian & Becca working on scarfs for each of her students. 21 of them!

One of my students

One of my students from our church plays football for the Nebraska Corn Huskers.   Each week Nebraska Fellowship Of Christian Athletes posts an interview with a player or coach.   This week Lance Thorell was featured.  Lance graduated from Loomis in 2006.  His dad is one of my Elders.   I would like to think that I taught Lance everything he knows but the truth is the Huskers have an amazing FCA group and one of their assistant coaches, Ron Brown,  was the Neb FCA director. 

 

Toby's deer

Toby waited until the last evening of the deer season to take his deer.  He shot this large doe at about 100 yards.  He was in a tree stand by himself.  His shot dropped the deer.  Sam & I were in another stand about 100 yards away but saw no deer.  Every one has shot a deer this year.  Jesse of course shot two.  I have three deer in the shed right now to cut up.  Our freezer is full and we will give some away. 

 

Jesse's Deer

I took Jesse on his first hunt Friday afternoon.  We set the blind up in an Alfalfa field where Sam shot his deer on Monday.  With 10 minutes left before dark two deer came out ten yards from us.  I stopped the lead deer at 20 yards and Jesse shot it, dropping it there.  The other one ran out into the field and stopped turning to look at us at 60 yards.  While celebrating and high fiving we remembered that their youth permits allow a second bonus tag for an antlerless whitetail.  So Jesse then shot the second one as well.    So on his very first deer hunt Jesse took two.   He thinks this hunting thing is easy.

New glasses

Darlene's glasses broke in school today so she had to get a new pair. What do you think.





By the way, notice the new colors of our living room? Dad came over Saturday to lay the carpet and Darlene convinced us it would be the perfect time to repaint the living room. So we did most of the painting on Sunday. I still have to finish the trim and the cutting in. I am not used to such dark colors, but I really like it.

Sam's First Deer

This is Sam's first season hunting deer.  Sam, Toby a I went hunting all day Saturday.  We saw a couple of does and one huge buck but did not get a deer.  Today, I picked Sam up after school.  We set up on an Alfalfa field where the deer are feeding.  Only ten minutes after getting in the blind a doe stepped out at a little over 100 yards.   She gave us several opportunities but we decided that Sam would wait for a closer shot.  Soon a deer stepped out into the field at 35 yards.   Sam made a perfect shot and harvested his first deer.  Nebraska allows the kids a bonus antlerless tag so he used that and still hopes for a buck.  The deer ran about 60 yards after the shot.  Sam drug it back to the field by himself.  

Heaven and Hell

In case you haven't seen it in the news, Westmont College, the Santa Barbara California Christian liberal arts college where Karen worked for 4 years has been in flames the last couple of days. There has been a terrible wild fire that has spread thru Montecito and Santa Barbara destroying numerous homes, including some Residence Halls, Classroom buildings, and faculty housing on Westmont's campus. The fact have been hard to keep straight, so to prevent from spreading false rumors, I'll refer you to the Westmont website, www.westmont.edu. They have pictures, facts, and prayer requests posted. Please keep the students, faculty, and campus leaders in your prayers as they try to re-group. We have many friends who have lost their homes, and/or now have LOTS to do to just care for the community (coordinating housing, working with parents, preparing for the remainder of the semester, etc.). Thanks for your prayers!

Championships

We had our championships this weekend in Hershey. We had the unfortunate luck of having a lot of rain the last few weeks of the season. We even had to have one competition inside which was very interesting. Saturday started out with clouds, but quickly went downhill fast. We did not have a choice but to practice in the rain. It poured hard for more than an hour. We ran for cover for about 15 minutes. When the rain stopped we called all the kids out and it started to rain again. By the time we got inside, everybody was soaked and the flags were about 10 pounds heavier. We tried to hang them up in the cafeteria to dry and the water just poured off of them. Eventualy we took the 2 larger flags to the home ec rooms to use the dryers. We used hairdryers on the smaller flags.

It was still raining hard when we left Oakcrest but it was not raining in Hershey and there was not forcast for rain there. Just as we started to warmup for the show, it started to drizzle and was extremely windy. Not good for the traveling of music and the flag routine. As we entered the field to perform, it had stopped raining and the wind was not blowing. Tom later told us that the wind died down just as we were going on and started again shortly after we performed.

We ended up in 5th place with a score of 91.9. We were not happy with the score, but we had fun anyway. You can go to our website to see more pictures taken by our photographers.

Nebraska Hunting Trip With Dad

Dad came out to hunt the big bucks of Nebraska.  We hunted hard for five days taking only Sunday morning off.  We each had shots at big bucks.  Buck fever is still alive and well even for us veteran hunters.  On the last evening I shot a small 6 point buck with a broken rack.   I had a doe permit so I waited until dark and was in awe as this buck stepped out 15 minutes before dark.  I had no permit for a buck so I took this picture.  It was too dark for the picture so I had to Photoshop it to see the buck.

This is one of dad's setups.  He had several opportunities as the deer headed toward the alfalfa field behind him.

The last morning dad rattled in several bucks but none would come close enough.  This one however came in 15 yards from me after I grunted at him and I still had only a doe permit.  Dad said this 8 point was the small one.  On Monday night I missed this buck or one similar to it.  My excuse is that I had to hold my bow at full draw for a long time and he was 38 yards.

So I settled for this buck when he walked up behind me.  The shot was 10 yards.  At 4:35 I texted      ( dad and I sent text messages back & forth to keep each other up to date)  dad to tell him that I had seen no deer.   At 4:39, I texted him to tell him I had shot a small buck.  I hit the shoulder but he only went 50 yards.  There was no blood trail but he was easy to find.  He never left the run.  He is not the big one but he will surely make great chili or lasagna.  We have had a great time enjoying our God's creation.

Halloween in New England... it was Grrrrreat!

We also had a great time for Halloween! The boys were so excited about Trick or Treating that Zach woke up asking to go! We hit the cul-de-sac across the street from us and the boys loved it! They were running from house to house and got quite the stash of candy.

It's official: It's a Girl!

We actually found out a week ago, but it was confirmed again today... we have ourselves a girl! We went into Boston for some extra ultrasounds and were able to get some 3D shots. I guess it's time for pink! The grandmothers had all sorts of ideas of who she looked like when all we had was a picture of her skull. I can't wait to hear the theories now!

Halloween Fun!

Every year our church has a great Halloween outreach called Family Fest.  Tons of candy, games, bounce houses and food-- they really do it well.  This year Both Drew and Tessa had a blast.  Drew was a firefighter (he'll tell you that's what he wants to be when he grows up) and Tessa was a fairy princess.  They were both thrilled with their costumes.  Braden had fun taking it all in!

Here they are ready to go to church:

  Couldn't get Tessa out of the ballpit!

 

Braden's all smiles!

  

 

 

 

 

Rob's camo makeup made for some very realistic soot

 

 

 

Tessa hammin' it up!

Project: Water of Life

Sunday afternoon Karen and I attended the World Vision Experience: AIDS (www.wvexperience.org/). In case you're not familiar with it, let me explain. World Vision sets up a tent (this time in our church gymnasium). Before you enter, you are given an ipod shuffle with headphones and you listen to one of 3 stories as you follow an audio tour thru the tent which describes the life of a child in Africa. Each is the story of violence, starvation, and/or AIDS. As you progress thru the tent, you're not only exposed to the individual story, but also the staggering statistics of the atrocities taking place in Africa. Needless to say, it was extremely touching.

It is easy to feel like there is nothing one can do from here, so far away. How can one person impact such overwhelming issues? For both Karen and I, the first response was to sponsor a child. Although we won't make a huge difference for Africa with just one child, we can make a huge difference for that one child! Child sponsorship is nothing new, certainly. And we were left feeling like perhaps there was more we could do. But what? As I thumbed thru the "Donor Catalog" that World Vision provides, my eyes were drawn to the "Traditional Well". For the cost of $5390, World Vision can establish a new well in a village that provides enough clean water for 150 people to bathe, clean, cook, drink, water livestock and irrigate their land. This is for people who would otherwise either have NO clean available water.

Hearing the stories of people who have to walk miles to draw water from infected, dirty waters (if any available at all), really puts things in perspective. To think of my own frustration when my daily shower (how many gallons do I use?) runs a little cold!

The struggle is, $5390 is still more than Karen and I can afford on our own. So, we've decided that what we can do, is draw attention to the need as well as the opportunity. We have established a website, www.firstgiving.com/water_of_life, to raise awareness and provide people an opportunity to donate. Our goal is to raise $5390 by the end of February 2009. If we fall short, the monies donated will still go toward "shares" of a well, but how great would it be to say that together as friends & family, we were able to provide a well for an entire village?! Please don't feel obligated to contribute, but give it a look, pray about it, and see if this issue touches you the way it has touched us.

Of course, please feel free to pass along the website to encourage others to get involved!

A business trip to remember

Last week I got to spend Sunday - Thursday on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. I was there to provide some training to crew members of the project I'm working on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-based_X-band_Radar). Although it may sound glamorous, it was 10 hours of flying time + a 6 hour time-change, and I spent the better part of 3 days inside a trailer (complete with fake wood panelling). That said, I did get to go aboard the vessel and had 24 hours of free time that I spent touring the North Shore, the Windward Coast, and the Pearl Harbor monuments. We toured the USS Arizona, the infamous battleship that was sunk in 9 minutes, blazed for 2 days, and continues to leak 2 quarts of oil a day. We also toured the USS Missouri which was built in the middle of WWII, the treaty with Japan was signed on it's deck, and it was the first to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles in Operation Desert Storm. Despite being away from home for so long, I gotta say, it was a great business trip!

Phone is back on!

So I haven't gotten a new blackberry yet, but I've been told I'm "on the list"... I expect maybe in January when new budgets come out. Anyway... in the meantime, we got Karen a new phone for free and switched her phone to my number, so all in all, I now have a phone again. Same number.

Fall in New England with Grandmom & Poppop

A weekend of apple picking, hiking, and playing in the backyard! We had a blast! Mom & Dad left us with remains of apple crisp, apple pie, apple muffins, apple sauce, and another 1/2 bushel of apples. So, not only a fun weekend, but tasty too!

90.4!

The beginning of this year's band season was off to a rough start, but this weekend they did amazing. Saturday started off with practice from 8 to 10 in the morning, load the buses and travel for an hour to compete at 12:30, then practice for 3 hours, load the buses up again, travel for about another hour, stop for dinner then, our second competition at 9:15. I was a long day, but well worth it. We came in second with a score of 86.9. The band did a pretty good job and we were pretty happy. During practice we worked on some suggestions the judges had given us and made some other changes. One thing the judges have consistently told us this year is that the kids have the skill and working hard on the show, but they are not performing. They are just going through the motions and it was starting to affect our score. The staff is not quite sure what happened, but while we were practicing, the band started to show the performance attitude. The second competition was amazing. I actually believe it was a better performance than our championships last year. We received a standing ovation from all the other bands. The kids were so excited. Then when we heard our score of 90.4, we knew our hard work had paid off. That is a higher score than we ever received last year. We are currently in first place. They are going to have to continue to work hard to stay in first place. This is a video of the score announcement.

No Cell Phone!

When I travelled to DC last week, I left my cell phone in the hotel. An hour later I remembered and checked with the front desk. It was never turned in. I checked later, and it was never turned in. In the meantime, Verizon says someone is using it! The number has now been suspended, so don't try to call me on my cell. As luck would have it, I'm up for a new phone as of Wednesday... so I'll keep you posted when I get a new one! I'd love for my work to get me the new blackberry storm... but don't think that's happening just yet!

stop to shoot the flowers

I just got a new portrait lens today, but when I got home no one was up for a photo shoot... so I tested it out on this flower in the front yard. I liked how it turned out with no touch-ups, so I thought I'd share.