Rachael at 35 Weeks

Rachael just sent me this picture. So cute! We are patiently awaiting the arrival of our first grandchild. She is due January 1st but I am thinking it will be earlier maybe just because I never did get to my due date with any of mine. She will probably have a Christmas baby. What do you think? Since we don't know if it is a boy or a girl I haven't stockpiled up baby stuff yet. It's a good thing that there is a Walmart or two between here and Laramie when I get the call to come on down. I think it will be a very bouncy baby boy but I have been wrong before.

Big Building in the Backyard

We built a big red building in the backyard. I refuse to call it a shed. It is way too big for that. Spike really wanted a garage. This is even bigger than that. It is thirty by forty feet. The first thing we had to do for this project was to move the 'precious things' that were in the way, you know things like pallets that we might use someday, old lawn mowers that might have parts that we might need someday, pipes that could come in handy someday... things like that.
Then we leveled out the area pretty well and then we dug the footings. And by 'we' I mean Jacob and me. Okay, okay,it FELT like Jacob and I did it all but Scott Davis came over and helped and Spike lifted a shovel or so of dirt;). Then we had to put a lot of gravel base down.
Then Spike had some friends come over to help with the cement. James worked a lot! He was a big help, so were Mel, Bill, Kenneth, Scott, and the guy who brought the cement.


Spike's brother Gary sells metal buildings. He gave us a pretty good deal on one. It was cheaper to not have the ends put on so Spike decided to do that part himself. These guys came and put this up in about five hours.


Mark, Spike, Jacob and I worked hard putting up the west side of the building. Gary came along just in time and made the job go much quicker. We got it mostly done before the sun went down.




It is finished except for the east side now. Spike needs to put in a garage door and it has just been too cold and snowy for much outside work. Wrestling season starts this weekend so I am not sure how quickly we will be able to wrap things up, but I am sure it will be done before Christmas.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving. Family is most important on this holiday. I am very grateful for my family. This year we had Lucas and Shanae come home and join us. We missed having Jared & Megan and Rachael & Eli home with us. Hopefully we will see them around Christmas time. Rachael's baby is due for arrival on January 1st and we are so excited to welcome their new addition into our family. Jared & Megan are in New Mexico so we haven't seen them since August and we are very anxious to see them again.

The BIG dinner was held at our home this year. We had about thirty five people here for dinner! We had two tables set up in the Dining room and three more set up in the living room. I am so glad that people stayed to hang out and talk afterwards. Let's see if I can name everyone who came. Grandma Flash and Bob, Joyce & Glynn, Brian, Susie, Amanda, Kim, Joel, Sarah, Jenna, Will, Adam, Devin & Kynstyl, Gavin, Kelvin, Erin, Spike & I, Lucas & Shanae, Mark, Jacob, Margaret & Matt, Sam, Julie, James, Dallin, Jarom, Gary & Christina, Ethan, Katy & Caleb. Lots of people and lots of fun.

On Friday most of us got together again and played games at the church gym. We played some fun volleyball, basketball and boggle. I am still the queen of boggle! I am so grateful for many, many things. Family relationships are so very important and I hope that we as a family can remember to work on them and maintain them. I guess this blog is one place to keep in touch, so I am grateful for this.

I almost forgot something! On Thanksgiving morning our family participates in the Turkey Trot to make us feel better about eating way too much food later in the day. Joyce, Brian, Susie, Amanda, Kim, Jacob and I trotted. Well, Joyce and I didn't trot so much but we walked fast. We went on a nice three mile route in the snow and close to zero temperatures. Guess what? It felt good. Don't let the weather slow you down. Get out there and get it done!

One Last Post

This is a series of pictures of Mark getting an interception in the Thermop VS Lovell playoff game. You can get the feeling of how the whole team interacted. What a great bunch of kids.

This really is the last post for the football season. We had the awards banquet last night and Mark took home some nice hardware. Mark really worked hard this year. Last year he was starting to get into the games at the end of the season and lettered, this year he really matured and played every single play including offense, defense and all the special teams except for the second half of the Wyoming Indian game when the JV got to play.All conference Billy, Darren, Joey, Mark, Caleb, AJ, Cody and Dino.

All State LHS Football 2010. Coach Hazen is smiling and so proud of his boys. Billy, Darren, Mark and AJ.

MVP Awards. Dino for offensive player of the year. Dino was amazing this year. He is just a sophomore so we will be excited to see him for two more years! He has such amazing field sense and can find a hole where no one else could. WOW! Mark for defensive player of the year. Mark is a junior and had a great year. He really matured physically, mentally and emotionally to really help the Bulldogs out. He worked hard all year and one of the coaches came up to me and told me how much he enjoyed coaching Mark. He had never had someone who was so coachable and had so much talent. Sweet! Billy was the Team MVP. Billy is a senior and really did have a great season. He was a great team leader in that he led by example. He hit the hardest and never complained and when the underclassmen did well he let them know. He was one of the leaders in 2A in defense. You knew you could always count on Billy. Great young man. He will be missed.

The Happy Jacks and Laramie

Grandma Flash and Jacob picked me up in Casper after I finished the school board meeting on their way to Laramie. We had so much fun but the high light of the trip was going to a completely amazing concert of the Happy Jacks! The Happy Jacks is an a capella men's group at the University of Wyoming. They are all great singers. Lucas looked great out there on stage. Shanae was kind enough to save us all places front and center. I will post some of the videos of the Happy Jacks on you tube. You can click on the you tube link in the right hand column to get there.

On Saturday morning I got to meet Marci the beagle. She belongs to Lucas and Shanae. She is the cutest puppy in the world! I wanted to take her home with me but they wouldn't let me. The good news is that she will be coming with Lucas and Shanae on Tuesday. Molly will have so much fun with her. We will have some fun with Lucas and Shanae too. I hope to get some good pictures posted of Thanksgiving. We are going to have about thirty people over for dinner. What fun!

We do appreciate being able to stay at Hotel Clark. Gwen always does so much to make our stay fun. Mary and Brad took Jacob ice skating. He figured he fell down about eleven times. We had a Big Dog Party on Saturday night and saw all of the Laramie cousins. Rachael and Eli were there along with... Brooke & Chris, Brian, Lucas & Shanae, Lane, Kyle, Nathan, Brad, Mary. We missed seeing Sam and Joel & Sarah. But we should see them over Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the great weekend everyone.

Nice Picture in the Paper

This is from the Lovell Chronicle.
"Grant led the Bulldogs with 26 defensive points on four assisted tackles, six solo tackles, one tackle for a loss, one pass breakup and one interception."The caption says, "Lovell junior linebacker Mark Grant knocks away a pass intended for Thermop's Kyle Pebbles in the end zone on the last play of the first half during Lovell's loss in the second round of the Class2A playoffs Saturday at Robertson Stadium."

Ok, this is the last football post of the season, unless......Mark happens to get some post season awards. Stay tuned.

Lovell loses to Thermop :(

The Lovell Bulldogs lost to the Thermopolis Bobcats in this afternoon's game. This was the second round of playoff games. Thermop scored a touchdown late in the first quarter but failed on their extra point attempt. Lovell answered the Bobcat touchdown with one of their own and making their extra point to make the score 7 to 6.

At this point Lovell really had Thermop nervous and almost scored again. Mark had an interception and so did Colin McArthur and Hunter Hinckley. Our offense was unable to covert these gains into a score. The bulldogs were still in the game when Thermopolis got another touchdown in the second quarter. The bulldogs fought back and scored again with the 'heavy offense' where Mark comes off the line and then blocks for the runner. Dino ran in the TD. Anyway, the Bulldogs ended their winning streak by losing to the Bobcats 39 to 15. Thermopolis got another touchdown before the time ran out on the clock at the half to make the score 15 to 18.

Game recap from Wyopreps, "In Lovell, the Bulldogs led 7 to 6 before a 97 yard run by Bobcat QB Mitch Syverson put the Cats on top to stay. It was 18 to 15 in the third but the Bobcats shut the door with more scoring."

The score looks worse than it really was. Our defense did a great job for most of the game, aat the end they had to take some chances and some times those chances didn't pay off. Mark kept up with Kyle Pebbles who told him that he is the only person this year that has been able to stay with him. We are sad that we are not going to Laramie. That would have been awesome but we are looking forward to next season. We only lose five seniors. This year about half the team are juniors. Lots of talent next year and we should be back in the running for the State Championship. Go Bulldogs!

I apologize for the video. Mark get an interception here. He is on the far side of the field, reaches back and get a hand on the ball. The ball bounces around off of Mark and the Thermop guy and then Mark is on his back and pulls the ball in. Whew! The fun part is watching the coaches and our principal celebrate when the video goes a little crazy for a second. I hope I get better at this during wrestling season.

Here are a few more videos that Spike thinks I should include. They are of much better quality. Just keep your eye on Mark (71). I put these videos on you tube. Click on the youtube video link on the right of your screen. The quality is much better there. Slow motion it and make it full screen. In one of them Mark causes a fumble and the other one shows Mark tossing a guy while the rest of the team gets a tackle.

I just got a tip!

I just got a tip! The last time I got one was when I worked at the A&W for Don and Donna Williams. Mark and a group of four or five boys come to my house for more food after they go to the lunchroom. This year they don't get 'seconds' like they used to. There are fruits and veggies they can eat after they have eaten their meal there but they would rather come to my house and have more food. I usually feed then Nacho's but today I made sloppy joes and chips. After they left I went into the kitchen and there sitting on the table in the midst of the juice and chips was a five dollar bill. It made me laugh. Thanks boys!
This is one reason that I love to be home more. I love having those boys over with Mark. I love taking care of them and I love being a mom. Even though I don't have any one home all day with me I think it is still important to 'be there' for your kids.

By the way, I don't feed them every day just on those days that 'hot lunch' isn't their favorites.