Merry Christmas To Mason

Mason got a helmet from Santa, so here he is trying it out, with his last year's Christmas present (the snowmobile)~ He did an excellent job for not even being 2 yet!

He got a train that he sits and stares at, and puts his legs over to make a bridge!

I'm ready to Ride!

He loves his monster trucks and Elmo Live! Although he's a little rough on the trucks... He thinks they need to fly up to the ceiling and crash onto the floor, so 2 of them are already broke!

He loves to color on his Aquadoodle (and eat the pens)!

A book "All About Me".

Christmas was very fun this year, seeing all the excitement in Mason's eyes. He got clothes, a dinosaur, a guitar, 2 trikes, and a wagon with Legos on Christmas Eve (Shane's family). We got home around 11pm and made a plate of cookies and milk for Santa! Christmas day we woke up and opened all the presents he brought! Mason was excited to see that Santa ate the cookies we left him! Later that day, we had one more stop (Katie's family), where we had even more presents to open. Mason received a train set, Elmo Live, a dinosaur play set, a dinosaur blanket, monster trucks, and a hunting coat! Being only his 2nd Christmas, the kid made quite a haul!

Saturday we went for a snowmobile ride out to Foley and back. The rain on Friday sure ruined our beautiful snow we had. We rode on a lot of dirt and rocks, and it just wasn't pretty! Sunday we took Mason out on the lake to ride his 120, and he is getting very good at it ~ he just needs to learn how to turn when you're about to run into something! He hit a snow drift and rolled over, but jumped right up and hopped back on! I rode with him to park it, and when we got to our driveway, he cried and said "again"!

Other news....we found a nice house with a big shop, and 5 acres in a great location. We'd buy it in a heartbeat, but it's a little out of our budget, and we'd have to sell ours first. So, if you know anyone wanting to live in the Rice area...send them to my house. Also, if you know anyone looking to give away a bunch of money, send them my way too! Pretty sure I'm just dreaming, but for Shane to actually WANT to move, that's a miracle!

It's Christmas!

This past weekend was a bunch of fun-filled activities! Saturday was the "Montag" Christmas gathering, complete with Christmas Carols, a Christmas Rap Dance by Jenny & Cassie, a ton of food, and Santa Clause! Mason was so excited that Santa brought him a tool set~he even slept with it! We left there about 8:30pm, and went to plow out Shane's grandparents driveway~ luckily we made it that far, his diesel truck gelled up, and we were stuck in the freezing windy weather. Shane tried to fix it, out in the cold, but it still wouldn't start. His dad came at 11:30pm to pull him to our heated garage, which he then worked on til about 3:30am. Then had to get up at 6:30am to go do more plowing!

On Sunday, the "Sabraski" family took a Christmas vacation to The Lodge Waterpark in Baxter, MN. Mason had a blast~he loves the water, and had fun going down the slides (just the kiddie ones), and sitting in the hot tub, that was indoor/outdoor! We swam all day, then went back to the room for pizza and playstation. I put Mason to bed, and then was just getting ready for bed myself around 11pm, when the firealarms went balistic! It was the loudest noise I've heard. Shane went to see where (or if) there was a fire. Sonja and I went to another room to see if we should get out! Just then, we turned around to go back to our room, and we saw SMOKE! Oh crap, get the kids, we see smoke! We go upstairs (we had a loft room) to grab Mason and Skyeler, who were sound asleep, wrap them in a blanket and get ready to leave. Just then, Shane comes back and says there's no fire.....a sprinkler system went off! What a relief! (The smoke we had seen was steam outside coming from the dryers in the laundry room.) We put the kiddos back in their bed and go check out the comotion! What we saw was unbelievable.... It was the Niagra Falls pouring down the balcony on to the lobby (look closely at the last picture...it's not the waterpark, it's the lobby). A water pipe had apparently froze and burst on the 2nd floor. They chain and padlock all the valves to prevent people from messing with them, so not even the manager could shut the water valve off! The fire dept. arrived about 45 minutes later, and cut the chains off!

Merry Christmas to All!

Like Father ~ Like Son

Grandpa Dean, Mason, and Shane putting the roof on the B-mod

Heidi and Mason riveting the hood

Me and Mason

Mason putting the new fuel cell in

And the "almost" finished body on the B-mod

We stayed home most of the weekend, just laying low! Friday night Shane and DJ put the new fuel cell in the B-mod. Saturday, we took Mason out on the lake to teach him how to ride his 120 snowmobile (I took video, but no photos). He was a little timid at first, but quickly hit the throttle when we told him to let Skyeler (his cousin) drive it. He definitely wasn't gonna let someone else drive it! Later that evening, we went out deer hunting (muzzleloader). Mason would not sit still, so we left Shane there, and drove around looking for deer, and at Christmas lights. Shane has not seen any deer this whole week of hunting, and me and Mason drove around and saw 7 deer in one field....Of course, not the field Shane was sitting in! Later that night, Shane and Grandpa put the new body panels on the B-mod, with Mason doing all of the riveting! Tomorrow, I think I'll finish up with my Christmas shopping, that is if we don't get this big snow storm they anticipate. On Monday, a new 6 week old baby starts daycare, so I feel a stressful week coming on, learning how to care for an infant again ~ should be interesting ;)

Save Some Money~Spend Lots of Time

The A-mod after putting the old B-mod body on it!

The B-mod waiting for it's new body!

This picture does no justice! It was taken after half the work was done!

So, you'd think that being that there is snow on the ground and it's freezing cold, that the racecars could maybe just hibernate for the winter?! Not so... Shane and Grandpa Dean put the old B-mod body onto the A-mod this past week. He learned quickly (last year) that there's no need to put a brand new body on a car that's going racing in Florida- which is still up in the air! Tuesday, Shane went with Matt Wiesman to Fargo to pick up his car, and Shane's new body for the B-mod. Mason helped put the body on last night...together they accomplished the hood & nose piece (Mason loves using the "ribet gun"). Kyle Strand came over all day yesterday to put some new parts on the B-mod... I'm not sure what they all accompished, but when I went out there, the car had fallen right off the air jack!

Today, Shane is doing his best to save some money, so he thought he'd attempt to rebuild his transmission by himself. Might I add....he's never had any experience with this! So, I googled all morning for instructions on how to put the million pieces back together, but found nothing! A few phone calls and 5 hours later, he is currently getting it back in working condition~ A Big Thank-You to Joe at Rapid Performance for emailing us the instruction manual! Although, I still think the $200 for a professional to do it, is worth it!

1st Annual "Drink & Drive 500"

Your 1st annual "Drink & Drive 500" Champion.... Erik Peterson!

Finishing in 2nd place....Matt Wiesman (and his girlfriend, Melissa, won the women's race)!

Coming in 3rd place.... Jared Molski!

Shane and Mason driving the Late Model Simulator

We usually try to throw a racing party to celebrate a great race season, and this year topped them all! We had some great food, free beer, and some great tunes! Dale Mathison had the idea to rent a Race Car Simulator, and Ernie Wollak Provided the shop (our garage is just too small)! Whoever wanted to pay the admission to race, got 3 race sessions... whoever was in the top 10 for qualifying times, got to race the main event with pay and trophies going to the top 3!

They also put on a "powder puff" (girls only), which the top 5 qualifiers going to the main event. I qualified 6th, so missed it by 1. (Shane's advise to keep the pedal to floor didn't work so well)!

Thanks to everyone for coming out....(A special thanks to all those who drove a long way to get here). It sure is nice to see your racing friends in the winter too!

Out with the NEW....In with the OLD

Yes, I said that correctly.... Shane has traded his '08 chassis for an '07. He struggled the majority of this past season with his '08 Shaw Car, so when someone offered to trade frames even up, it was a "no-brainer". Now both the A-mod and midwest mod will be J-cars, hopefully making the jump from one race to the next more consistent! Even though it is the "off-season", there is still plenty of work to do. We will be getting the A-mod ready to head south in February. This will be Shane's 2nd year racing in Florida (although the decision is not yet final)! Well, Happy Holidays to All, for now!

Wissota National Banquet

This is at the 2008 National Banquet. Shane finished 1st with his midwest mod and 9th in the A-mod. The pictures are: Shane & DJ (pit guy), all the Midwest Mod 2nd-10th (Andy Jones, Dan Ebert, Wytaske, Bud Martini, Travis Saurer, Rich Pavlicek, Brandon Nelson, Shane Halopka, Dustin Strand), and Shane & I! And I don't have a picture of it, but Allen Gessell Jr. (street stock national champ) proposed to his girlfriend, Danielle Greene...it was so sweet!
My camera ran out of memory space because I recorded the long speech and proposal, so sorry I don't have any pictures of the big mod top 10!

Just Getting Started

So, I'm addicted to the Fouquette Racing Blog, and thought I'd try this thing for myself. Chad and Shane race together, and Audrey and I chat every Friday at the races! Well, Sorry to be a copy-cat Audrey.....but I think it's cool to post race results and stuff (everyone is alway asking for them)! As it is currently the "off-season", I am quite bored! Well, that's all for now!