Never A Dull Moment

AE and LE are moving out of their rented house into their newly purchased house. However, since they have to be out of the rental about 15 days prior to moving into the new one they are moving all their stuff into BL and JK's garage and then coming to stay with us. What we need are a few more people living in my house. With my brother living there even two bathrooms is not going to be sufficient, although if I can get ONE more male living in the house I'd be allowed to leave the seat up :)

BL was rear-ended by some woman last night, sufficiently smashing up the backend of their brand new truck. They have only had it for about a month or so.

While taking the trash out this past weekend I happened to look out in the pasture and see a bunch of little brown fuzzy things running around. No, they weren't Tribbles! They were, however, 10 little chicks. Apparently one of the hens has been stashing and sitting on her eggs. Apparently we didn't have enough to do!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention too that EP ran a 15:42 two XC meets ago. This was good enough to make her FIRST on her team AND placed her high enough in the ranks of ALL the girls that she got a medal (20th)! That rocks. This past weekend she ran a 16:27 on a very TOUGH course and got a ribbon for being 53rd overall. I know that sounds like it's real bad but when you consider there were 139 girls running, that's awesome. Even though she has not run this course before and about 1/4 mile of it was uphill, 16:27 is still her second best time this season too. She got 3rd on her team which means so far she has scored for her team every meet, and she wasn't that far behind the first and second girl. She has a meet tonight. It's a smaller meet and i'm hoping she does real well. Good luck EP!!!! Go get 'em!

Cool Running!

I was super proud of my daughter, EP, this past weekend. Her XC meet was late afternoon this time and gave us lots of time to talk about the course (she'd run it before) and talk about things she could do to help her time. Her personal goal was to reach the 16 minute mark. Last year on the same course she ran 19:26. Her best time this year so far was 17:19. It cooled down a little bit in the afternoon as a storm began closing in and the sloppy, muddy course was overcome by the large spikes her coach had put in her shoes prior to the bus leaving the school. Finally I had done all the coaching/pep-talking I could do. It was up to her. She got a really good start and had a decent time at the one mile mark. I went up into the stands to watch. I watched as the one girl who is always first on the team finished. I looked at the clock thinking she's not going to make her 16 minutes. There are usually 2 or 3 other girls that finish ahead of her. Then ... it happened ... she rounded the corner and headed for the finish! She was going to be second on her team! I watched her cross the line and hit the stop button on the stopwatch. I looked down at the stopwatch and immediately fumbled for my phone to call her mother. The stopwatch stared back.
16:38
Unbelievable!
Her coach saw her after she finished and went on and on about how she never expected to see her next and what an amazing run she had. One of the girls who usually comes in 2nd or 3rd asked her what place she got. EP told her 81 (there were 120 runners). The girl hesitated and asked again. She was just as shocked. She had placed 97th. EP had beaten her by almost a full minute.
Even the girl that comes in first on the team only beat EP by 50 seconds.
I know she will NEVER be in the top 10, okay i probably shouldn't say never, but the likelihood is well ...you know. But I have high hopes that at that rate she'll come in first for the team OR at least fractions of a second behind the girl who comes in first for the team.
I am one proud papa!

Survived?

The sheep went on a date. They are off to another farm to be bred. This means that EP no longer has any chores to do.

EP ran in her CC meet on Saturday and scored for her team. You have to be top 5 of the team to count. Her time this weekend was 17:19. If you remember her last time was 19:08 so she's running better already. I think she could have done better but I'm picky and very competitive.

CE seems to be doing okay at school so far. I haven't heard much but then the workload has been kind of light.

AE seems to have decided that they want a house and are putting in a bid on the house right next to her sister. If they get that house I sure hope they can get along being that close to each other. I'm not sure how BL feels about it.

The stupid water softener decided to act up so I have to get parts for it. The system it was using as drainage apparently isn't good enough any more and it has a tendency to shoot water all over the basement. I'll fix that sucker so it won't have any excuses.

I saw this on tv last night and I thought I'd share it with everyone. My brother's comment after the clip was over: "Nice house, nobody home."

This version has been subtitled. It won't help you understand anything but it's nice if you have the sound off.

Holiday Already?

CE and EP started back to school this week. They started Wednesday. What this means is that they get 3 days of school and right into a 3 day weekend. Seems to me that was almost pointless. In fact, CE said just yesterday, "I go to school to learn something, I haven't learned anything yet! Except the rules!" At least she has the right attitude! PS. This is a big year for CE as it is her first year at middle school.

EP had her second cross country meet on Saturday. It is a much flatter course and closer to home. Hopefully she can improve on last weeks time. It will be exciting to see how she does.

And one of the best things about this weekend? Guess what starts this weekend? Come on ... guess ....

I know all of you out there just yelled at your computer screens! I know you all said, "Come on, that's too easy!" I know you all said, "Buckeye football!"

In the words of Captain Tenneal from Spike TV's Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, "Well, you're wrong!"
Okay, so you aren't totally wrong but, (and I say this with the knowledge I may get pelted with digital rotten tomatoes), Buckeye football just isn't that important (especially this early in the season).

So, you say, what could possibly be BETTER than that AND starting this weekend? I'll tell you if you clicky the linky!

>HERE'S YOUR ANSWER<

Weekend Update

EP had her first cross country meet this weekend. It was at the same place her first meet last year took place. It is a fairly hard course as there are a couple of ugly hills in it. Last year she ran 21:38 for two miles. At the end of the year last year she had taken 4 minutes off her time finishing up at 17 something minutes. This year she ran that course in 19:08 so she is off to a good start. That time put her #46 out of 98 runners and just compared to the 8 girls on her team she came in 3rd, behind #2 only by 17 seconds. I think she'll do real well this year.

CE had a tryout for a local travel softball team on Sunday. From the way the coach talked she made the team. What this means is more running around and more money out of my bank account. But I think it will be lots of fun for her. Hopefully going into middle school this year she will be able to do softball and keep up her studies.

Today is obviously Monday. Everything that could go wrong today has! I hope your day has gone better than mine.