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!