Basketball

Ashlyn's team had their first real game Monday (the previous was just a scrimage) and they won by a point at the very end of the game - it was very exciting. However, Ashlyn only got to play the last 30 seconds and was VERY upset about it. We had to calm her down a bit and explain that life's not always fair and to keep working hard. She's very frustrated, though, because the coaches mostly let the starters do the scrimmaging in practice so she doesn't get much real practice, but she wants to really bad. Hopefully it gets better....

So John & I can officially take cubscouts camping now. We went to a day long BALOO (basic adult leader outdoor orientation) training this weekend to learn a lot of things we already knew, but now we are official. Not sure yet when we'll get to go camping, but we plan to in the near future. First we'll have a practice family camp in the pasture to make sure we have everything we need and make a good list of what to bring. We don't do the tent camping thing too often so we will need a dry run...

That's about it for now. The kids have the district food show this weekend so wish them luck! I have off next week and so do the kids (OFYP optional flexible year plan - they are passing everything and so don't have to go to school) and we'll be running errands and getting ready for Thanksgiving out at the ranch. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Quick Update

Things have been kinda crazy around here lately, but here's a quick update.

Judy came for a visit this past weekend and we enjoyed seeing her. We attempted to climb Enchanted Rock with her Sunday, but the rain forced us to turn around before making it all the way to the top. We still got some good exercise in though!

Ashlyn had her first game Monday - a scrimmage against Llano. They were divided into A & B teams for this game only since most schools Mason plays against don't have enough for two teams. She played on the B team and I was impressed with how much she had improved since last year. She plays point guard and made some pretty good plays and even was involved in some fouls which means she's finally getting aggressive! They were winning the entire game until the last 19 seconds when the other team scored and beat them by 1 point :( Oh well it was fun to watch!

Monday was a crazy day though. I worked in Austin so I left the house at 6am and John was going to be cooking hotdogs for the cubscouts at 6pm after taking Judy to the airport in SA that day and then had to be at a DVFD meeting at 7:30p. I had to come from Austin and pick Colten up from cubscouts after helping clean up from hot dogs and grabbing a few for Ashlyn and then went to the gym to watch Ashlyn's game which didn't start until 8:30pm. We were all exhausted by the time we got home a little before 10... whew...

Today I'm taking the afternoon off to help with distributing popcorn for the cub scouts. John picked it up Saturday morning and barely had enough room in his truck to bring it all home. Our pack did some serious selling - we had the biggest stack of boxes out of the packs in the Hill Country District! I just hope I got all the orders right.

Halloween & Food Show

Whew, what a busy weekend! Friday night we worked in the concession stand at the football game (Mason vs Junction - we won!) where it was so busy, we were out of hamburgers by the 2nd quarter! I was in charge of nachos again and still have no desire to eat them - that is some nasty cheese! Anyway, we only worked the first half and then went home because I wasn't feeling well.

Saturday, we made Ashlyn's dish for the food show on Sunday and then got ready for trick or treating. We went to the fall festival again and then did some trick or treating. It was perfect weather for once! Not hot and just cold enough, couldn't have asked for better!

Colten was a storm trooper and Ashlyn was supposed to be one of the vampires from the Twilight series, but the fangs wouldn't fit in her mouth so she was just wearing a wig and makeup. She didn't really like it and has sworn off makeup for the near future (yay!)

Here are Ashlyn & Colten fighting it out at the festival:

The food show on Sunday was small and all kids that participated (all 4 of them) got 1st place since they were the only ones in their category. But I think it's good practice for them and now we get to go to district in Abilene again. Colten made BBQ steak wraps (and being the only entry with beef also won the best beef dish award of $25) and Ashlyn made cheesy manicotti.

Elizabeth & Xavier's Wedding

Saturday we made our way to Austin to see Elizabeth and Xavier get married. It was a beautiful wedding and Elizabeth was a gorgeous bride. She made most of (or maybe all?) the flowers (fabric) and decorations herself - she is so talented! I was very impressed! :) I realized that this was my first cousin on my Dad's side to get married - we haven't had a wedding on that side since John & I got married forever ago ;) but we've had several on my Mom's side. Anyway, it was very nice and a lot of fun.

Here are pics of the big day from both my mom and me:

Elizabeth & Xavier's Wedding

Camp Sol Mayer

Although we were the only family from our pack that signed up to go, we still decided it would be fun to see what Camp Sol Mayer family camp was all about. We were not disappointed. We arrived somewhat early since we weren't sure what to expect. You really only needed to get there before lunch if you were camping, but we brought along a picnic lunch that we enjoyed on the back of the truck after taking a walk around the camp. The activities started at 12:45 with the flag raising and then all the scouts were let loose to choose from many activities. One advantage of being the only people there from our pack was the freedom to go where we wanted, unlike the large groups of kids that took over various activities as a group. We avoided whereever they were.

We were lucky enough to be the first at archery where Colten earned his first beltloop of the day. Both kids got to try it out:


After archery, we headed over to sling shot where the kids shot dog food at paper plate targets... ingenious idea! We decided that's how we should feed the cats sometimes :) Next we tried for bb gun shooting, but the line was WAY too long so we made our way to the paddle boats on the river. After a few rounds up and down the river, we went back up to shooting... still a long line. So we went to wildlife conservation - Colten's second belt loop of the day where the main attraction was a boa that both kids got to hold for awhile:




When we were done there, we went to the art (third belt loop), bowling and marble activities and then headed back down to see how bb gun shooting was going. The line was more manageable so we waited so Colten could get his belt loop there. Next was the highlight (and lowlight) of the day, the mud pit! This consisted of a sprinkler on a pole with a mound of dirt around it and a moat around that. This moat was connected to another body of water with a swingset type contraption that had water coming out of the top and a rope that could be used to swing across the water. KID HEAVEN! They had so much fun getting dirty and throwing mud and sliding down the mud pile. However, getting clean wasn't much fun... we had brought extra clothes, but no towels, so we squirted them off with cold water and had them lay out on the side walk to dry some. Then we took them over to the truck and had them dry off with paper towels and change clothes. They didn't like that part much, but didn't have much of a choice. Ashlyn said she wouldn't have done it knowing that we didn't have towels... oh well, too late!

Here they are playing in the mud and how they looked when they got out:



What a day! We concluded the day with a nice supper at Dad's favorite Menard restaurant, Ojeda's and had to rub it in a little :) And of course some major showers when we got home!

Busy Busy!

First off, I want to say that Jason in 99% better after the bike crash. When they arrived for our walk yesterday, I didn't even notice the tiny scratches on his face.... talk about a speedy recovery! I was sooo happy about that. He still has a pretty bad scrape on his arm, but it looks much better, too. Thank goodness!

So much has been going on lately, I'm sure I'll forget something. Last Saturday was the 4-H food fun day where the kids go to different stations to make food that becomes part of our noon meal. I was in charge of a station this year and I helped the kids make fruit smoothies and fruit pizza. The kids had a lot of fun and we all enjoyed our "brunch" of ziploc bag omelets, pumpkin muffins, sausage balls, granola and of course the fruit items. It was more than any of us could eat! My station went well until the end. I had mixed up a big batch of smoothies with some of the left over ingredients for the adults to share and had it sitting on the table while I washed dishes. Ashlyn came running in saying the smoothies exploded - well that didn't sound good. Still not sure how it happened, but one of the older boys attempted to pour himself a cup and almost the whole batch leaked out of the blender and onto the table! That was fun to clean up....

Saturday evening we went to the Stonewall VFD fish fry and were happy to be able to enjoy this one after working so hard at Doss. However, we should have brought jackets b/c we were all freezing cold when the sun went down. I guess we're all weenies now after that long hot summer, but 55 was a little too chilly to hang out and drink beer in :) so we didn't stay too long.

Colten started getting sick Sunday - he got a really bad headache in church and started crying, but after John took him out and gave him a drink he seemed better so we sent him to Sunday School. The same thing happened there, poor guy! He had a little bit of fever that afternoon so we kept him home Monday & got him an appt Tues where he tested negative for the flu - they said he probably has strep and is on antibiotics now. Hopefully that's all it is!

Also on Sunday, we tried cooking cow tongue for the first time. We had one from one of the steers we butchered and we all actually liked how it turned out! John can do amazing things with food sometimes :) He started with a recipe for lengua and did his magic with it and we were all surprised - even him!

Both kids got on the A Honor Roll for the first 6 weeks and we are super proud of them! They're off to a rough start for the 2nd one though - Ashlyn was out last week for a couple of days with Bronchitis and missed a few things that brought her grade down - hopefully she can get it back up!

We've had another bad luck streak with cats (although some may call it good luck considering we've become a bit overrun with cats lately). A few weeks ago Colten found one of the younger kittens dead in the yard in the morning with only the dogs to blame. Now yesterday, the kids found another of the kittens laying under a bench unable to move. We're not sure what happened to it, but it seemed to be paralyzed. They tried to nurse it back to health, but this morning it was no longer breathing. Colten was very upset as that was his favorite. I wish the kids wouldn't have had to see what happened to them, but I guess that's life. We still have like 10 more cats left :)

This weekend, we are going to a Cub Scout camp near Menard for the day on Saturday. Should be fun, but I hope we have good weather.

So, I also wanted to share this story about Colten before I forget it :) He can be a little weasel sometimes! We know he's not supposed to take toys to school, but we'd been letting him as long as he promised to only play with them on the bus and left them in his backpack during school - it's a long boring bus ride after all. Lately he'd been bringing his Bakugan (little plastic balls that transform into creatures when you roll them over a magnet - from a cartoon), but I guess he had put them in his pocket to play with during recess and still had them there during PE. One of them fell out and another little boy claimed finders keepers on it. Colten knew it was his and they got in trouble for arguing about it. The toys got taken to the principal's office and could only be picked up by the parents. This happened on a Mon or Tue. Thursday during a walk, Leann mentioned that Jason told her that Colten had his Bakugan taken away - which we hadn't heard anything about. Hmmmm. Later, I asked Colten about them and he didn't have whole lot to say. I even said I might know where they are and he still didn't fess up. I practically had to drag it out of him, but finally he confessed. He said it wasn't his fault and that he accepted his punishment of getting them taken away. I asked why he didn't tell us and of course he thought he'd get in trouble - now he knows it's worse not to tell!

Accidents...

I've been walking on Tue & Thur with two of my neighbors lately. The kids bring their bikes and ride down the road and get back to the house way before we do and play with the kitties while they wait for us. This has typically been fun for all and a great way for us to get some exercise. This past Tue our walk was a disastrous one, though. One of the neighbors couldn't come because her child was sick with strep throat, so just two of us starting walking and the 5 kids went off on their bikes. A little way down the road we heard the kids, but they're always making noise so we didn't think much of it at first. Then the noise sounded more like screaming... we high tailed it down the road and I don't even remember flying over the cattle guard. I found Ashlyn screaming hysterically, a little scraped up and missing a shoe, and then I noticed Colten's best friend, Jason, walking toward me, bleeding profusely out of his mouth, scraped up all over, and also missing a shoe. I was very confused and freaking out! I checked him for broken bones (none thankfully!) and tried to see where the blood was coming from. By then his mom was there and Ashlyn was bawling. Thankfully Leann had brought her phone, so we called John to bring the truck down. They went up to the house and I stayed with the other kids to look for his shoe -in all the craziness Jason was very concerned about his bike and his shoe. His sister finally found it a few yards down the road in the grass. The kids and I walked back up to the house with the bikes and found Jason and his mom cleaning him up in the bathroom to see what the damage was. After things had settled down some, we got the story. The boys had ridden ahead some and stopped at the creek below the church. Jason must have been turning around or going across the little bridge when Ashlyn came barreling down the hill, unable to stop on the gravel road or go off the road b/c of the creek. She screamed to move, but too late. She ran straight into him and they both must have slid down the road aways, entangled in their bikes. Ashlyn managed to get herself and the bikes off of Jason and started screaming for us. And that's when we found them. Jason doesn't remember any of it. Ashlyn is very upset about the whole thing, rightfully so, so she made him a card and she had us get him a new Bakugan and some M&M's and ice cream (boy flowers) and we brought them over to him last night. His face is very scraped up and his lips are swollen (most of the blood was from him biting the inside of his cheek). He has a really bad scrape on one arm and other scrapes all over. Leann decided it wasn't bad enough for the ER, but has kept him home from school to heal as he is still very sore. Ashlyn is banged up a bit, too, with a big scrape on her elbow, and others on her knee, wrist and side. We did scold her for going so fast, but she has really been beating herself up about it so don't want to make it much worse for her. We are trying to use this as a good lesson - See what happens when you're not paying attention on a bike? Imagine what could happen in a car... Ashlyn, being less than 3 years from getting her driver's license, will hopefully be painfully reminded of this incident while driving. Once Jason is ready to ride again, I think they will all be more careful, but we will still be reminding them of the rules of the road.