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.