Christmas break has been a fast and adventurous one. First, I had 16 for Christmas dinner. Then Tyler had a wonderful hunting trip with his grandpa and Uncle. Go to "My Uncles Blog" and check out the pictures. The rest of the vacation will entail getting ready for his first basketball tournament which will be on the 13th.

The first annual St. Mary's Icebreaker 3 on 3 tournament was held yesterday. The team was divided into 2 groups: black and white. Each team won 2 games and lost 2 games. This is their first 3 on 3 tournament. The boys did a good job of playing together and Steve did a good job of coaching. They have a month to practice before the tourney season begins. Good luck boys!!!

Thursday night St. Mary's held their Christmas concert. This is the 5th grade with their instruments singing to Child of Peace.
This year Tyler had the oppurtunity to join Show Choir. They practiced every Thursday morning at 7:30a.m. The kids chose the song "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts to move and groove to. They did a good job for their first year.
As if Tyler's room was lacking for plaques he received another one Monday night. This time from 4-H. One year ago he joined the SSSE (Shooting Sports and Safety Education) group. He just completed Air Rifle. Next he will be learning Shotgun.

No new pictures to post just some news to report. We've had a busy last couple of weeks. Thanksgiving weekend brought about a lot of fun for Tyler. We attended a Musketeers hockey game in Sioux City and went hunting with grandpa (no pheasants were brought home). Then on Saturday he spent the night with the Smith's visiting his twin cousins. Then home for another round of Dodgeball.
This week also brought Steve's first practice as coach for Tyler's basketball tournament team. Yesterday Tyler's team in NBA ameteurs lost the championship game. It was a close game and both teams did very well. Today is another day of basketball practice and dodgeball.
It is also Andrea's birthday today so "Happy 32nd Birthday Andrea".
Everyone have a good week and we'll write at you later.

As Rich calls it "Tyler magic". Tyler's never seen the Cyclones lose a football or basketball game. Yesterday was no exception.

What a weekend. Ours started out like this. Saturday morning Tyler played 2 games of basketball at NBA Ameteurs. Their team tied the first one and won the second game. While we were doing that, Steve was in Des Moines accepting Tyler's award for track champion. He received a plaque, coat, and $150 in prizes. After the ball games it was off to Ames to see Coach Mac lead the Cyclones onto the field for one last time. In true Cyclone fashion it came down to the last play of the game but this time ISU prevailed 21-16. Then it was back to Storm Lake where we spent the evening at the Sitzmann's playing games, laughing, and having a good time.
Today is another fun filled day of open gym, dodgeball, and meet the team night at school. Hope everyone had a good weekend. I know all the Cyclone fans did!!!

Here Jasmine Demers is getting beamed with a 7 inch screamin' dodgeball, while Hannah and Tyler look on.

Intramural Dodgeball

As if Tyler wasn't involved in enough activity already, along came Dodgeball. For the next 6 Sunday evenings, teams of at least 4 boys and 2 girls will compete against other 5/6th grade teams to see who is King of the Dodgeball World. Tonight the 5th grade team beat the 6th grade team 4-3.

Steve and Tyler participated in the Annual Turkey Shoot. Each kid and their parent shoots 15 free throws. The pair with the most wins a free turkey from Sara Lee. Tyler and Steve each made 10 baskets to win the 5th grade boys group.

Tyler is participating in NBA Amateurs for 6 Saturdays. The first 3 are practice and drill days. The last 3 are game days. Tyler and his team are in the light blue shirts and they are the Timberwolves. They won their 2 games today. Tyler made the game winning basket in the last game.

Tyler defending his opponent, his good friend Chase, whose birthday party he was at last night.

Cole and Joe

Dakota and Tyler W.

Tyler and his project on Egypt.

Rachel and Hannah

Tyler with his group of Moses and Diew. They did Africa with each kid featuring a different country.
Chad and Dimitri

The 5th grade had World Day today. Each group of students picked a topic that they wanted to report on. Steve got to the classroom for a look and taste at the kids' projects.

NBA Ameteurs started this Saturday morning bright and early at 9A.M. Here Tyler and his 3 St. Mary's classmates Joe, Chad , and Dimitri are practicing a passing drill.

Smile for the camera Hannah!

Hannah and Tyler taking a timeout from the last home football game. SL beat SB-L 28-9. It was a cold night but we made it to the end so the kids could run out on the field with the players. One last football game next weekend in Sioux City against Heelan. We'll see you there!

Pictures taken by Ezra Kies

After the game we headed to Ankeny to see Rich and Andrea's new house and celebrate Rich's 30th birthday. Here Tyler and the guys are playing a game of foosball.

Saturday was Tyler's last football game of the season. They played Central. They lost 21-7. Afterwards they played at the halftime of the BVU game, as pictured above. Hollie and Jason even flew in from Denver to take in the 30 degree temps.

No rest for the weary though...basketball starts this Saturday.

Rehashing the game as they walk off the field.
After the game the team got to ring the victory bell and let everyone know who's #1.

What a game!!! On the second play off the game Tyler got his first interception of the year. It was beautiful!!! What a catch!!! The game was back and forth vs. Newell. Tyler also had 3 good hard fought tackles which allowed our offense to take the field and saved a Newell touchdown. After 4 quarters of hard fought play we won 14-7.

ST. FRANCIS BLESSING

Today the 5th grade class led the St. Francis service at the end of the school day. It is a special service where you as caretakers and your pets are blessed. Since everyone knows our cat, Devo, is not your typical outdoor cat we were unable to get him in his carrier and get him to the service. In Devo's abscence Steve and I attended and said a special prayer for our feline "indoor only" companion. Tyler was once again demonstrating his musical abilities by playing the xylophone to the hymns. He did a very good job.

GRANDPARENTS DAY

Yesterday was grandparents day at St. Mary's School. Steve's parents and mom (dad was truckin') got to see the talented musical abilities of the K-6th graders. After the program was over mom went with Tyler to see his classroom and meet his teacher Mrs. Benz. Thank you club for supporting Tyler and his musical ambitions. You all will be hearing and seeing more of them since Tyler has joined the middle school show choir. Rehearsals will be every Thursday morning at 7:30A.M. The group will be performing at their Christmas and Spring concerts.

Last night was also Tyler's 4-H SSSE (Shooting Sports and Safety Education) Club. He just finished his first year and learned the safety and use of an air rifle. Since the weather was cooperative the leader decided to let the kids have a try at their next lesson, shotgun, shooting clay pigeons. They have a wide range of guns. Tyler tried his luck with a youth 410 and a youth 20 gauge. He was 1 for 10. After he talked to grandpa on the phone he decided he needed a little more practice before their hunting trip.

Celebrating a 14-0 win.
Tyler's football game against Central this morning was a good one. Other than the fact that they won the boys did a good job of tackling, running, and working together as a team. Here Tyler is throwing his opponent down to the ground. He had another key tackle on 4th down where he made the big play to stop their run and get our offense back on the field.

Ryan
Chad
Hannah and Rachel
Joe, Tyler, and Cole
NYFL 5th/6th grade homecoming float

Since you're unable to throw out candy to the crowd the boys asked the crowd for candy...and actually got some.

HOMECOMING '06

This weekend is a busy one. We thought with racing being done we'd have time to relax. WRONG. Friday Storm Lake Public had their homecoming parade. As usual St. Mary's got out at 1:30 to be able to participate in the fun. Then we went to the football game last night. As you can see Tyler and his friends spent most of their time facepainting and picture taking. The true life of a middleschooler...it's so rough. If you're wondering Storm Lake did win the game against MOC-FV 23-12.

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, RICH!!!

WELCOME TO ADULTHOOD BROTHER. I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR IMMATURE 20S AND IN YOUR WISE OLD 30S.

LOVE YOUR ALREADY 30 SOMETHING WISE SISTER,

BRIGETT

Gram and Tyler standing in front of her door that proudly states she was a veteran of WWII. Tyler is reading a book on WWII at school so they were comparing real life to book. They both sounded relatively the same.
Tyler taking pictures of himself. This one out of 7 turned out really cute.

Great Grandma turns 83

Today Tyler and I spent the afternoon with Gram. It will be her birthday tomorrow so we decided to stretch the celebration an extra day. We arrived this afternoon in time for her to open her package of York Peppermint Patties and get in on a fun game of Hangman in the dining room with the other residents. Since the theme was "fall" Tyler thought he had it in the bag. Gram and him started off good but fizzled out in the end. Tyler missed the word... football. After the game was over I brought my version of homemade cookies (Hy-Vee helped) for everyone to share. It was a nice day to share between the 3 of us.

How the feature race finished up.
Randy Perkins handing Tyler his 2nd place trophy.
Before the Junior I gas class started their feature they lined up according to how they finished this year. Tyler got first place and is the 2006 track championship for his respective class.

A wise man, more than once, told me, "If racing was easy everyone would do it." He sure was right. We've certainly had our season of ups and downs, highs and lows, and crying and smiling. In the end I guess you could say it was worth it. We met some really great people, gained a lot of knowledge on what "not" to do and had a lot of fun along the way.

Over the past month Tyler has been debating whether or not to race next year. At the beginning of the season he set a goal for himself, gave up a lot to achieve it, and in the end met it. So with that being said this will be our last year of racing go karts. He has decided that he wants to pursue his other interests in baseball and football. Two of the sports he had to give up in order to race. We are very proud of him and will continue to support future goals he wishes to attain.

Thank you to everyone who helped with supporting his year in karting. Truthfully, without it we couldn't have done it. November 18th is the Banquet where the kids will be presented with trophies for their year of hard work. As always I will continue to post Tyler's other activities and maybe even think of a name change.

Thank you all!!!

Friday night during the Storm Lake vs. LeMars high school game NYFL 5th/6th grade team got to do a scrimmage game during halftime. Tyler is on defense in the white jersey #30. Mom and I sat in the stands to watch the future "Tornadoes" in action.

Tyler and Eric with their trophies in front of a retired Indy car.
Trophy presentation at the end of the day.

Double points day was a windy one.

Whoever said that Chicago was the "windy city" has never raced a season at Jamaica Speedway. The kart had a lot of changes done to it today. Too much for this cheer crew to understand. Both heat races Tyler finished second. During the break Tyler said he was just "drafting". Grandpa then asked Tyler, "How's that working for you?" Now for all the woman that read this yes you're right, my dad, Mr. Male "I know everything about everything and a little bit more" just quoted Dr. Phil. I think for a brief moment I went into shock. My dad quoting Dr. Phil??? But then I guess maybe sharing the same hair gene might have something to do with their infinite wisdom. Since Steve and Tyler have been good sports all year to rush back to Storm Lake after racing so I could work I treated them out to supper afterwards. We ate at TOJO's with our racing group. It was fun to sit and visit with everyone. After a 2 hour drive home in what we called tsunami-like conditions we were finally home and ready to call it day...and a good one at that.

Friday night Mom, Tyler, and myself went to the Nickelback concert in Sioux City at the Tyson Event Center. We had a great time. The opening groups were Hinder, Chevelle, and Hoobastank. We loved the music. Our favorite part of the night was when they sang "Photograph". They did a video of pictures while singing that went right along with the song. Thanks mom for the tickets and the awesome time.

Saturday afternoon while Steve and Tyler raced to Boone to attend the supernationals I drove to Lawton to spend the evening with my grandma. The assisted living she resides at was having a "Luau" to kick off National Assisted Living week. So with my Hawaiian shirt and pea salad in tow I headed out in the rain. The hog roast Char Mac put on was great tasting, along with the homemade pies those farm woman brought in were excellent. Then after supper came the entertainment, "The Dancin' Grannies". These were woman with an average age of 73 who get together 2 times a week to line dance. The have a great time and enjoy performing. At the end they ask for audience participation, that's were Grandma and me came in. Trying my step at a basic line dance I didn't do too bad. Then I saw my soon to be 83 year old Grandma cuttin' a rug next to me. Picture time. It was a great evening and we both had fun and laughed a lot. Staff came up to us afterwards and said she did real good. They were even more amazed to learn of her agileness when I told them that just last year at her great grandson's birthday she was jumping on a trampoline!!!

The second picture is of us with her traveling spelling bee trophy. Each month they have a spelling bee. The winner gets to keep the trophy for a month until the next bee.

Tyler during a practice drill.
Tyler lining up on defense.

NYFL 2006

Practice for football started 3 weeks ago. They have practice every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6:00-7:30. That means off the bus at 4:00, homework, and supper all before we leave at 5:45. He plays with other 5th and 6th graders. Tyler's number is 7. The same number he had when he played in 3rd grade. Today was his first game against MMC (Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn). Tyler played receiver on offense and cornerback on defense. He had some hard tackles and a good deflection. Storm Lake ended up losing 7-22.

This is mom and dad's race car. They lasted for 1 event before mechanical problems occured. The cars new name is the "One Event Wonder". Old reliable "Browny" is pictured underneath with me.
Summer Festival 2006 at MAM was my turn to race. With Tyler as my crew chief and photographer I couldn't go wrong.I went in with the attitude to have fun, not DNF, and beat 2:30 min. for a run. I did all 3. We left for the track at 4:30 a.m. and got there by 7:00a.m. After the fog cleared and the track dried, we were off. I ran the track road course 6 times. By the last run I was at 1:58 min. Goal #3...met. All 6 runs were good runs. No DNF's. Goal #2...met. As far as goal #1. The entry fees were paid for, I met a lot of neat people, and had fun in the process...goal #1 met. Thanks to Mom and Dad for the good car, good food, and good times.

What a busy day Saturday was. Tyler raced and he placed 2nd. After that it was back to Storm Lake to attend Aunt Hollie and (soon to be Uncle) Jason's couple's shower where we got to meet the Smith's.

Tyler made the podium. The award is very sharp. Eric Bridger is first, Tyler second, Jack Koster third, Colin Smith fourth, and Brandon Worthington rounded out the top 5.

The Jr 1 gas feature just getting out on the track.

Here is a picture of Tyler coming out of turn 4 during qualifying. Tyler qualified on the outside of row 1.

I have no pictures to show just results to tell. Yesterday at the Grand Nationals in Jamaica Tyler got 2nd place out of 6 karts. He received a nice plaque for his efforts. Steve and Tyler are both there "camping out" watching day 2 of the weekend event. I had to work so Mom, Dad and I just spent the day there. Besides, I'm more of the Holiday Inn type anyway.

Today was Tyler's first day of school. He is now a 5th grade middle schooler. So today I was inducted into the hall of "my child knows everything and my parent knows nothing." Fortunately, it should only last for the next 10 years.