Pheasant Season

Every year for the past 20 years, the Bettin family has had a crew of hunters that are friends of Todd and myself come to Iowa to Pheasant hunt opening weekend. The crew has changed over the years as well as the attitude and atmosphere. In the beginning, it was all about the hunting and the friendship was an added benefit. Now it is all about the friendship and the hunting is an added benefit. We have watched each other grow up and have watched our families change and grow as well. We have had some really great years of hunting (30 + birds) and some not so great. This year we had an absolutely wonderful time enjoying each others company and spending time just hanging out - which was about all that got done because so much corn was still in. We did hunt, but were only rewarded with 1 (yes you read it right) bird. But no one really cared because we get together now for the friendship and time spent together. I have added some pictures from the past so you can see how we have changed.

20082003

19951990 (They did shoot pheastant that year as well, but were so proud of the goose they got. Look how young they were.)

They Did It Again!

Tasha's team won another tournament this last weekend (10/24). It was a home tournament which made it even sweeter. Thanks to Grandma and Grampa Stewart for coming and to Aunt Nene for driving all the way to come and watch too!! Here are a couple of pictures.

Todd's Elk

Earlier this month, Todd and two good friends took off for the mountains of Colorado and went elk hunting for about a week. They packed themselves and enough supplies for 6 six nights up into part of the National Forest in southern Colorado on horseback (so remote, they had no cell phone reception). They spent the first two nights dealing with 50 MPH winds and snow, and hunted their hearts out. Finally on the second to last day, Todd shot a very nice 6X5 elk.
This is where the elk ended up

They Did It!!!

Last Saturday, Natasha's volleyball team played at a tournament in Manilla and came home with the gold medals. They started the day playing the toughest team at the tournament (next to themselves), the Harlan 6th graders. They had played these girls a couple times before this year and lost every time. Our girls played their hearts out and still lost 21-16 & 22-20. Then they did pretty well for the rest of the tournament and placed 2nd in their pool (there were two seperate pools of play, then the final rounds.) They beat the other 6th graders from our school in the semi-final round and then had to play Harlan in the finals. They lost the first game of the match 25-22, but came back and won the second game 25-19. They had to play a tie breaker game to 15 and soundly beat them 15-7. You would have thought it was the state tournament the way the girls and us parents were reacting. It was so much fun. BTW - Thanks Grandma Stewart for joining us for the day.

Little Black Cat - The Halloween Poem

Little black cat.
Little black cat.
Little black cat
O where can you be.

Little black cat.
Little black cat.
Little black cat
hunting me.

So that was my poem. Tell my what you think. Love Katie.

Which Do Like ?

Hey got some sayings for you .

Some of you might like this one (aunt Nene & aunt Sarah)"One Lean Fashion Queen!"

Or this one (for all you fokes living in the country)"No Skirt! Just Dirt!"

WHICH DO YOU LIKE ?I WILL LET YOU DECIDE!

LOVE TASHA!

Volleyball season is upon us.

Tasha has been involved in volleyball the last two years and this year is no exception. She has tournaments about every Saturday in September and October. She is on the same team that played last year in AAU during the winter months.

Here are a couple of pictures from last year.

Pet Day

Katelyn's 2nd grade class had "Pet Day" today as a culminating activity for their animal care unit. All of the students were to bring a pet from home that they could share with the rest of the class and the other students in school. Katie really wanted to take Gracie, but we were afraid she would get upset. So we talked her into taking Molly. Molly was a BIG hit. Todd took her tennis ball along and had her do tricks. She went and fetched the ball and Todd put it on her nose and made her hold it there until he said, "OK." He said she caught it in her mouth all but one time.

Allergy Tests

Natasha has been having a rash on her arms and legs for many years. We have been able to keep it under control for the most part with topical medicine, but in the past year it has been getting worse and the medicine doesn't seem to be working any more. SO... we started allergy testing a week ago. She went through a serious of dot tests on her back and then she had to get small shots in both her arms. They tested multiple things the first day, and she only had 1 minor reaction about 1 hour after the tests. Then we went back this week and they did more shots and some patch tests.

They found that she is allergic to penicillium mold (the most common mold found in all of the Midwest and very hard to get rid of.) We also removed the patches today and she had reacted to three of them: Tide laundry soap, Kenra Shampoo, and Grace Body Wash. So I guess I will have to find her a new shampoo, use "free" laundry soaps, and she is going to have to stop using the Grace products.

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE

Tasha once again is taking dance this year. She has class on Sunday nights every over week. Here are a couple of pictures from the first night of class.

Katie thought she wanted to dance again this year also. We went to the first night of class and now she is thinking she doesn't want to participate. None of her friends went out for dance and she is just not feeling it. I think we are going to drop out. I usually make the girls finish what they start, but this time Mom's just fine with it. She would have dance every Monday night at 7:00 in Sac City. AND...... there is no one else in the class to share rides with. That is 38 extra trips to Sac City this year. I already drive there at least 5 times a week for work every week. I really wasn't looking forward to all the extra miles.
Here are a couple of first night pictures.

Enough is Enough!!!!

OK, I know it is the season, but I really do not like parts of fall. For the most part, I love the changing leaves, the cooler temperatures, the idea that bugs will soon be gone, football games and decorating for Halloween (not quite yet, but soon). However...........I HATE the fact that the mice know winter is coming and so invade my home!

My defense you asked? Lots and Lots of traps and a well trained cat!! Well, I've got the traps down, now lets work on the cat. Rascal is an excellent "catcher" of mice. The kill sometimes leaves a little to be desired. The last few mornings he has caught a mouse down stairs, sometimes small and sometimes larger, and brought it upstairs to share with me. AND THEY ARE NOT DEAD!!! Then he lets them go and chases them around the bedroom and bathroom. If I can corner it and throw it out, Gracie will grab it and eat it. If I can't, so ensues the pursuit around my house.

Today was the ultimate. He brought one up without me knowing it. Let it go in my bathroom and then proceeded to go outside with Todd and Molly. I went to take a shower and moved the floor towel to straighten it out. Guess what appeared when I did this? THE MOUSE!! You should have heard/seen the scream and jump. Now I am not scared of mice, but I have my limits too. I caught it, threw it out and then had the "pleasure" to watch Gracie and Rascal fight over it. I didn't get great pictures because they took it under the deck, but I did get a couple of them. They are a little grainy because I had to zoom in so far to get them. If you look closely, you can see that Rascal has it in his mouth and Gracie is contemplating her next move. What you can't hear are the growls coming from Rascal. Anyone have any training manuals for cats? :)

Third Times a Charm!

OR - Three strikes you're out? You be the judge.

We have now had three trips to three different Emergency rooms in 2008. The first was for me to Lake City for my broken leg. The second for my ear in Pierre, SD. And now, the third trip was made last night to Spencer to have a Orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hands work on Todd. If 2008 doesn't end soon, I am afraid to see what will be next!

Yesterday at about 2:30, Todd was working on a cow's feet in the clinic on his tilt table. He had her feet strapped down and was using a special blade on an angle grinder to trim the excess hoof off. She jerked her foot and the grinder jumped back, flipping over and cutting the back of his middle and ring finger on his left hand. It cut about 30-40% of the tendon on the middle finger and nicked the tendon on the ring finger. No surgeons around here would even attempt to look at him, Ames couldn't take him and Des Moines said to throw a stitch or two in and come down on Tuesday (You can guess what we thought of that).

So Todd called our good friends in Spencer and asked Mark who worked on his hand a couple of years ago when he had problems. He recommended Dr. Deffer, who just happened to be on call last night. After our local clinic made the arrangements, we went up to Spencer. Dr. Deffer stitched him up and we came home. (He is a great surgeon and a very neat guy.) Todd is in some pain but is trying to make the best of it. It will be a while before he is back to full use of his hand, but the prognosis is very good.

I think Rascal knew something was wrong. He rarely ever gets up on Todd's lap, but he didn't want to stay off today.

We're Officially Busy!

It has been 2 weeks again since I have been able to create a new post, and it has been a very busy two weeks. I started back to work on August 13th and the girls started back to school on the 18th. We were very fortunate to have nice days in which the temps stayed below 90. My classroom still reached the mid to high 80's by the end of the day, but at least the mornings were better. Tasha also started back with volleyball this past weekend and the girls are both going to be in dance this year, which starts the first week in September.

Thursday we took Natasha to the doctor because she has been having more frequent and more severe break-outs of eczema than usual this past month. We have to take her to an allergist the first part of September and then maybe a dermatologist after that depending on what we find.

On Friday night, Todd and I made a trip to Ames for the White Coat Ceremony of the College of Veterinary Medicine for the incoming class. Clayton, a neighbor, employee and mentee of Todd's, starts vet school this year and asked Todd to be his "coater" in the ceremony. We had a nice evening and the ceremony was very nice. (We'll post pictures when we get them from Clayton).

Now after a busy couple of weeks, I have spent the day trying to get laundry, dishes, and the house cleaned up, so we can start over with another busy week.

These are some pictures of the girls from the first days of school.

Slippin & Slidin!

Our good friends from Wisconsin came for the weekend to visit. Their daughters, Ellie and Sarah, are each about 4 months younger than our two girls. Dan went to vet school with Todd, and Mary & him were married about 3 weeks after we were (on my mom and dad's anniversary). The girls had a blast playing together both outside and inside. They played kid's lawn darts (with bean bag darts) and kid's horse shoes. They played tag and played with the dogs and cats. Then they played house, on the computer, and other games inside. The moms and dads had a great time catching up and comparing notes about parenting. With kids the same ages and difference in ages, we find that our children are behaving and doing things very similar to each other, and it is fun to compare them. On Sunday the girls used the "Slip and Slide" and then had a picnic outside for lunch because they were too wet to come in the house. What a relaxing weekend for everyone.

We took some pictures of the girls on the slip and slide that we borrowed from one of Todd's employees.