The Ron Thon

The Lovell Bulldog wrestling team traveled to Riverton over the weekend to participate in the Ron Thon Tournament.  Lovell placed 9th out of 41 teams.  Not bad for a 2A school.  We were hoping for more boys in the final rounds but we got enough to keep us in the top ten.  Jacob Beck, 160, wrestled to 6th place.  Mark wrestled well to place 2nd at 220 and Dino Collins won the tournament at 182. Dino also got the outstanding upper weight wrestler award. Most of our varsity wrestlers won some matches, which obviously contributed to our team points. We had 99 points so hats off to the Bulldogs!

That is a nice piece of hardware around Mark's neck.

This was a fantastic move that Mark made in the championship match.  It was such a strong move, he used this same move to pin the Douglas guy in the previous match.

It was so cool to see Mark and Dino in the Championship face-off.  They had a write up on all the boys and everything was on TV.  Lucas and Gwen I know were able to watch it.  The announcers said good things about Mark especially when he did this move.

This is an article from the Casper paper.  Daniel Jay, Mark and Dino got interviewed.  I thought Mark said some really good things.

Mark is back wrestling again!

Mark is back wrestling again. His elbow dislocation injury is not giving him any pain when he is wrestling any more and he is almost as strong as he was before.  It sure felt good to go to a wrestling meet again and see him win.  This is the Championship video.  I think the Greybull wrestler is ranked 3rd in 2A.

Lovell won the whole tournament.  We had eight of our guys in the Championship round.  Mark at 215, Brigham at 195, Dino at 182, Tony at 170, Jacob Beck at 160, Nathan Grant at 152, Adam Beck at 145 and Dimas at the next one down.  I am not good at knowing what weights the lower weights are.  Everyone won except for Jacob and Adam.  So six champions overall.  I think all the Bulldogs did just great. Jacob Asay got third at 285.  He had some huge guys to wrestle and he did a really smart job. He pinned his last guy. Brigham was wrestling at 160 and decided to move up to 195.  It worked for him. Most of his matches went into overtime but he was able to pull it off.  Mark pinned his opponents all in the first period.  His confidence level is up and I think he will do ok going to the Ron Thon next week.

11-year old winter campout!

Yes, you guessed it, he got sick and had to come home.  Mike and Mark were gone to a wrestling meet. Jacob went to the campout at about four in the afternoon and I was settling in for a nice night all to myself (and the dogs).  I stayed up late because I knew I would be able to sleep in and take my time moving around in the morning.  Wrong.  I got a call at 6:59 from the Scoutmaster telling me that Jacob wanted me to come get him.  He had been throwing up since two that morning.

Luckily for us the Campout was only out at Moncur's skating rink.  I quickly got dressed and out there in about fifteen minutes.  Jacob spent the rest of the day on the couch and stopped throwing up at about two in the afternoon.  A twelve hour bug got him.  This has been a tough winter for him.  He seems to catch everything that goes around. Drat.

Before he got sick all the boys had a great time.  They had a huge bonfire and they went ice skating.  The weather was perfect for a winter campout.  It was 37 degrees when I went to pick him up with no wind.  How is that for a Wyoming Winter Campout?  A little abnormal if you ask me.

Sew...What?

These may not be fancy, or cute, or you may not even know what they are, but they are my project for the day.  I think Mark is about ready to get back to wrestling after his elbow injury.  We got him a brace that he can wrestle in but we needed  a sleeve to go over it.  We couldn't find anything on the internet or at the sports stores.  So I got out the handy sewing machine and I am making about six of these.  the one of the left is finished. the one of the right still needs to have the end hemmed and them turned right side out.  I have Betsy's kids with me today so I don't know if it will get done.  Maybe when they go down for a nap.

Book Discussion: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

We had an interesting book discussion in our Ward Relief Society the other day.  Since it is a Relief Society meeting our focus is on finding Gospel principles in the book and how it can help us as individuals.  I chose to introduce The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the group.  First, I suggested that the women should read The Magicians Nephew before the LWW.  I don't think anyone did. I also told them that the Narnia series is like a parable of the whole plan of Salvation written by CS Lewis who is one of the most quoted non-lds people by the general authorities.

This book is in a whole different genre that most of the women in the group enjoy.  I think they did this kicking and screaming a bit. Anyway, a few of the women read this superficially, not trying to get a deeper meaning.  I was surprised.  I thought it was quite obvious that Aslan was symbolic of the Savior. Some of the other women understood it and shared some lessons that they learned.  One thing that I thought of that I hadn't before was the symbolism of the stone table.  The stone table was a sacred place in Narnia.  Aslan was sacrificed on the table and after he was resurrected the stone table was broken.  I realized that the stone table represented the law of moses and the tablets of the ten commandments.  When the Savior was resurrected the old law was fulfilled or finished.  So the writings on the Stone Table were fulfilled or finished.  Interesting.

One of the sisters thought it a lesson learned when Aslan told the other children that is wasn't their business to know what he talked to Edmund about.  We need to learn that we don't need to know everyone's faults and their road to repentance.  We need only be concerned about our own repentance.

We are reading the Voyage of the Dawn Treader next month.  I hope we have a great discussion then also.

Shrine Bowl

Yea! Mark got selected to play on the North team for the Shrine Bowl.  AJ Montanez was also selected.  Colin McArthur and Eli Moody were chosen as alternates.  Congratulations Boys!  I hear this is just a great experience for the whole week.  Mark is really looking forward to it.

 Here is the team roster:

Nick Bazemore – Campbell County
Burke Burgess – Campbell County
Cody Okray – Campbell County
Kade Wasson – Campbell County
Terry Jackson – Kelly Walsh
Casey Keith – Kelly Walsh
Austin Wright – Kelly Walsh
Khaymon Bell – Natrona County
Caleb Saghetti – Natrona County
Jake Thomas – Natrona County
Cody Vollmar – Natrona County
Aaron Gray – Sheridan
Jordan Roberts – Sheridan
Riley Ryan – Sheridan
Christopher Mikal – Buffalo
Taylor Hubbell – Cody
Zach Swope – Cody
Jordan Hanson – Lander
Tanner Simpson – Lander
Josh Cragoe – Powell
Olie Olson – Powell
Cooper Wise – Powell
Bronson Hernandez – Worland
Austin Bolin – Big Horn
Austin Frazier – Greybull
Mark Grant – Lovell
A. J. Montanez – Lovell
Thomas Johnson – Moorcroft
Mitch Weigel – Newcastle
Chris Ryan – Thermopolis
Bailey Hepp – Wright
Mitchell Baker – Dubois
Adam VanNorman – Midwest
Anson George – Burlington
Bryant Wood – Riverside
Dalton Linnan – Shoshoni

Spike Turns 50!

My dear Spike turned 50 today.  He woke up not feeling well and decided that if this is what 50 feels like, well, then drat!  Happy birthday to a wonderful husband.  Love you Babe!

So now maybe it is okay to be a grandpa to two cute babies and be a high priest.  He didn't want this day to come....... it came anyway.

Today he is driving the wrestlers to Greybull and then on over the Mountain to the Wright Duals.  I'm not sure that is what he wanted for his birthday but he does enjoy being with Mark and all the wrestlers.  BTW Mark doesn't have to wear the brace on his elbow any more.  He needs to work with weights for a couple of weeks and then he can do some live wrestling.  Yes!

That will teach me!

That will teach me not to jump a barbed wire fence!  Actually it is not as bad as it looked.  I jumped a fence while walking with Kisha this morning.  I didn't even know I got scratched until I got home.  While we were talking outside I thought I felt blood trickling down my shin.  Sure enough when I got in the house it looked pretty nasty and kind of cool.  It was just scratched but had a hard time stopping bleeding.  It looked like I got attacked by a dog or something.