Foto Story Friday #86-- my wrestler

This year my son, Cody, decided to join a sport. The first sport he has ever been in! OK truth be told, he did try out this sport once long ago..... way back in 2nd grade. Several times he would come home and say he was thinking about trying say track or maybe football, but he never actually went through with it, so we were a little skeptical, but supportive. He continued to talk about it and we went to the parent meeting, got all the info and the following day went down and bought wrestling shoes.
Wrestling shoes are not cheap, but he forked over the dough. When you pay for something it means a little more I think. He practiced and came home SO tired but excited about this move he'd learned or this take down method.
We live in the boonies and many weekends they are on the road traveling anywhere from 1 to 6 hours for a meet. They have had 3 home meets, but the first two were on the same nights as some of the other kids' Christmas music events and so we were forced to split up and support everyone. We did make the hour trip to a meet .... the bus broke down about 20 miles outside of the destination! We pulled up behind them and I snapped this photo.
The first match I was able to see. Cody is in black. Notice the hands? Cody is left handed and he thinks it's funny to shake with the left.... it's his sike maneuver!
It was a quick match.
The day before, when I wasn't able to be there, he got his one and only pin! He was SO excited when he called home to tell us! I only wish I had seen it :(
For each pin they get the coach gives them a gold pin to put in a place of honor.... in Cody's case that is on his backpack!
Tonight was their last home meet and 2nd to last meet of the season. He wrestled hard.
Proving that he has learned a lot and come a long way since the season started.
He has a good attitude and knows that if he keeps up with it, he will continue to improve. Here he is fighting hard to escape.
I can see the determination, he is thinking of how he would like to get up and out of this.
He came close to a pin here. He lasted the whole 3 periods and lost on points. We were SO proud of him! This was the first time he made it the whole time and was not pinned! :)
This was his second match of the evening at whistle blow and it's game on!
Fighting to get free. he made it to the second period and was pinned but he wrestled hard and we are so very proud of his achievement and the growth he has experienced being a part of this team and learning this sport!



Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story Friday #85-- January Birthdays

The beginning of January brought Shantel's birthday.
We only have a couple of shaped cake pans, and I'm not cool enough to just create an awesome cake. Shantel decided she would have a PoohBear cake for her 14th birthday. We made the frosting and Cody, Shantel and I chose a color and decorated it all together. It was fun. I'll let you guess who did which color.
After dinner and Grandma and Grandpa's we had cake and now she awaits her gifts. She designed a pair of Chuck Taylors which should be arriving any day.
2 weeks later it was Robby's turn to pick a cake pan. He went for the Mickey Mouse one. While he did his dishes, I frosted and decorated the cake.
Not too bad considering we used the left over frosting from Shantels and attempted to get acceptable colors.
Make a wish, Robby! He awaits his gifts as well. He designed a pair of custom Etnies. They will take 6-8 weeks to arrive.
Next birthday is in May!
P.S. Look what just arrived:
Shantel is one happy custom sky-top owning girl!


Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story Friday #84-- new floor

Back in November, on a Saturday, we decided to rip up the carpeting in the dining room. Did we have the new floor to put down? NO, but we were tired of the carpeting, so we just did it!
(I must admit, that Shantel took several of these pictures.) Troy and I ripping up that dang carpet. It was very hard and You should have seen the blisters we grew because it! :)
Miss Toughy thought she could do it all by herself..... turns out it was a bit harder than she thought!
Course Scott had to get in on the action!
Everyone helped in this project. Fighting over the various scraping utensils. Ice scrapers,
shovels,
and even putty knives-- which work really well for removing that stubborn glued over linoleum.
Finally this past weekend, we got to work on the re-flooring.
Looks nice, yes?! 13 boxes to go.

First off get the edging down.........
Boy these beginning rows took FOREVER, how many more do we have left?
Measure cut, fit, measure again.... cut again and finally it fits! :)
Progress! it's nearly 5 PM and we still have SO much left! We finished the dining area and left the last bit for Monday.
Success! By 3 Monday afternoon we were finally done! The kitchen
the dining room!
Course every muscle in my body was so sore I could hardly move..... I was not alone in the pain department, Troy and his dad were dead, their poor knees!

Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story Friday #83--Battery testers wanted?

First off I was so excited that Cecily asked me to co-host Photo Story Friday with her. I did fret about the pictures/story I would tell today, then I threw caution to the frigid wind and chose this zapping tale:
How many of you get a sudden urge to test a 9-volt battery? Come on, I know you tried it as a kid..... everyone did! Back in October, we had some bran-new 9-volts sitting on the table just asking for testing..........
The first victim, er tester:
Scott thought he might want to give it a try, Dad assured him it wouldn't hurt........... but he was not to be convinced not even with a huge cookie as a reward.
He just chose the cookie! Smart boy.
Age is not necessarily wisdom. Cody doubled up the 9-volts for a better test, er shock! :)

Robby also wanted the double test. Such good test dummies we have!
Well rewarded!

No harm was done to them in the testing of these batteries.... in fact last week Robby willingly and without provocation tested a 9-volt that was sitting on the counter.

Hosted by Cecily and Carrie

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