Time to Catch Up

Sorry It's been a few weeks since I last wrote...just busy I guess.  The weeks seem short (but the day drags on), and the weekends are even shorter.  Lately my "to-do" list has looked much the same: grocery shop for the weekend, cook & pack for the weekend, go racing, come home, clean out hauler, do laundry...repeat the same for the following weekend.  This week, I added "update blog" so it actually gets done! I am such a "lists" person.  I used to keep a notepad on the counter, and have a list of jobs for each day.  Then when I had too much crossed off it started to look messy, so I'd re-write a new (cleaner looking) one. But then I felt unproductive that day cause I couldn't see all that I had done.  I ditched the notepad and got a whiteboard for the fridge.  Daily chores on one side and extras for this week on the other. Works great!

Ok, so now I'm sure you're thinking "I don't really care about your list obsession, get on with it".... but it got me to update this, and I'm sure you care about that or you wouldn't have read this far. :) Lol!

2 weeks ago we raced at Willmar for their fall festival and final race of the year. I know he won both nights with the superstock, and won 1 of the nights with the B-mod, but the rest I can't remember (must not have been too impressive).  I do remember everyone laughing after Shane raced his A-mod, cause he got out of his car and walked around the front and saw this....

 Look closely and you will see a wrench that rode there the whole race!  DJ must have thought he didn't get enough grief for leaving the fuel cap off! LOL :) I suppose after all his endless help, he's entitled to a few mistakes every now and again! :)

This past weekend we headed up to Good Ole' Bemidji for their final race of 2011.  There's something about the track that you just have to experience for yourself.  Though I wasn't too impressed with the place, I will give props to the pay.  It was below average (compared to other tracks we race) for the first place position, but the pay from 2nd on down, I was quite surprised with.  Compared to the previous weekend, Shane took home almost double from Bemidji, with similar finishes.  

Mason started school a few weeks back, and has really adjusted well and loves it! He cried at first because he didn't want me to leave, nor does he like waking up at 8am, but now he runs right in!  They emphasize on social & life skills rather than so much academic (which will be overwhelming come kindergarten anyway...so I appreciate that they let them be kids)! He really enjoys playing with his new friends and his favorite part of the day is songs and outside!

 This was the first day as I was walking out...He was sad :(

 I walked around the corner of the hall, and peeked in through the window, and he was already fine, clapping and talking to the teacher!  I could sit and watch through that window all day if I could! It's so fun watching him answer questions, wait his turn, and play with others.  He's like a different kid when I'm not around, so it's fun to be there when he thinks I'm not there!

And on the way home!

Braelyn hasn't been doing much new... She turned 11 months last week.  We never put shoes on her before, but now that she is walking, I've been putting them on her, which she's had to adjust to walking with objects on her feet. She loves dancing and hates going on walks.  I always have good intentions of going on my 3 mile route, but she's done after a half mile, so we make the 1 mile loop and head home.  A new gym opened up in Rice, so I might have to take advantage of that! It's either that, or have another baby and breast feed til I die, because I'm really missing my breast-feeding body (ear muffs, dad...Lol!)...easy weight loss and big boobs. :)  And I've lost most motivation for at-home workouts.  I need a change of pace.

That's all for now...Get out and enjoy this beautiful weather! Hopefully it sticks around for the weekend!

Wissota 100

I will give a quick run-down of the Wissota 100 from this past week out in Huron, SD... Quick becuase I didn't snap a single pic and right now I'm too tired to think...I'm guessing I just still haven't caught up on sleep yet...And it didn't help any when we went to bed at 9pm on Sunday and Braelyn thought she should wake up at least 10 times throughout the night. (No, I'm not exaggerating!)  So I took her in Monday evening to have her ears checked, and the doc said everything looked good.  She woke up Monday morning with a bloody nose (probably from the dry air and furnace on), and she's had a stuffy/runny nose for a week, so I thought something was up, but NOPE! no ear infection, tubes looked great, and throat was fine.  So I put a humidifier in her room and she slept all night last night! Thank God!

But anyway, back to the Wissota 100... Let me just warn you that I could be wrong on some of these, and i'm too lazy to look it up! (scratch that-I can't even remember his heats) And besides, the format is so dang confusing for most people to understand, so I will just say that he made the feature with all 3 cars.  You race your heat, then a qualifying feature, then the top 12 from the qualifying feature (each night) go to the big feature.  He finished 4th in the mwm feature, 11th in the super, and DNF'd in the mod.  He did pick up a win in the Race Of Champions with the mwm, so at least we went home with a little money.  And by home, I mean, spent waayy more than we made :(  The weekend was hard on everyone's wallet (I think Buzzy Adams, Lance Matthees, & Tim Johnson made out alright though ;).  The track ate tires like candy, the 10 hour round trip does a number on hauler fuel, and there's ALOT of racing (wear and tear on car, fuel) that takes place just to try to earn a spot in the money-paying show.  We had fun and enjoyed our "mini vaca" (other than the cold temps), but are glad to be home!

Harvest Cup Weekend

Regular weekly racing has come to an end, and from Labor Day on, is weekend specials (or week long, as is the case this coming week).  This past weekend was racing at Ogilvie Raceway for their annual Harvest Cup.  It wasn't the best finishes, but it was an improvement compared to how he normally finishes there!  Shane has never done all that well at Ogilvie...Not sure if he just can't figure out how to set the car up for that track, or if he needs to change how he drives there, or maybe just more laps around it would help! But anyway...typically he goes backwards in the feature, so it was a nice change to actually move forward (or hold about the same position)!! It is good to make progress!!

Friday night he finished 4th with the mwm, 8th with the super, and 10th with the A-mod.  Saturday he finished 2nd with the mwm, 3rd in the super, and 11th with the A-mod. 

Mason and Braelyn both like helping on the cars now!!  Mason puts the axel caps back on, and Brae's favorite thing to do is to put lug-nuts in her mouth & play in the tire grinding dust...both YUCK! 

This week we will be going to Huron, SD for the Wissota 100.  It's always a good time, but not too excited for the 5 hour drive...Oh, wait!.. a 5 hour nap...I can handle that!! The kids will be staying with my parents and sisters, because late nights and B's 7 o'clock wake up call make for a long day!  It's not unusual for racing to go from 5pm til midnight, and my kids don't even like watching the races.  They love to go with (play in the dirt & run around on the wheeler), but watching...not so much. Braelyn hates her earmuffs and won't leave them on, and Mason is always "boorrreedd" and wants to go back to the trailer!

On another note, Brae had tubes put in her ears a couple weeks ago, and as we IMPATIENTLY waited in our room, I decided to walk the halls (hoping to get her mind off of wanting a bottle/food, since you can't have anything after midnight).  As we were walking back I noticed what room we were in.......

Kinda funny!!

Mighty Axe Weekend

Sorry I forgot to do an update last week, kind-of slipped my mind, I guess! Yesterday would've been a good day to sit down and write, but we all sort-of slept the day away...T'was a long weekend of late nights! Friday we drove to Grand Rapids, MN for a special they had (my first time there since the short tracker days!).  Shane finished 2nd in the mwm, won with the super, and 14th with the A-mod.  We spent the night there and headed to Brainerd in the morning for their Mighty Axe Nationals.  Saturday, we won the feature in all three classes (mwm, super, and mod) and took home 3 axes (instead of the typical trophy, they give golden axes)! Sunday he ended up winning two of the features (mwm & super) and took 2nd in the A-mod! It turned out to be more than we ever expected, and we can't thank everyone who helped out enough!!  Thank you to all our crew! From changing trannys, drawing such good starting positions (which is half the battle), and getting the cars ready to go, you all are appreciated! 

 Mason won the pace car ride on Sunday night!

This was well after the races, but as you can see, the dirt particles are everywhere and pretty much ruins all the pics!

And the best part of the weekend was coming home and picking up Braelyn from my sister, and seeing that she had learned to walk! She was doing 5-6 steps before the weekend, but now she is walking the whole length of the house.  Mason was about the exact same age when he started walking (10 months), and hasn't been able to sit still since.  Let's hope she is a tad more mellow than him, but so far, no such luck!  (Not sure if the video will load)

One Last Camping Weekend!

We spent last weekend camping once again before we are back to racing full time.  This time we went to South Long Lake near Brainerd, which was a completely redone campground (we were there 10 years ago or so).  It had a brand new play area, a sand volleyball area, new docks, and was very clean.  The only downfall was that since it had been closed for, oh, 5 years, the swim area had grown some weeds from not being used.  The owner had just put loads of new sand on the beach the day we got there, so the beach was nice!

Mason caught LOTS of fish! He was so excited every time he reeled one in!

Sunday, we came home at about noon, cuz Shane was getting antsy to get back to racing.  (We went and spectated twice, and it's just not the same!)  He threw his B-mod in with the Superstock & crew and made the trek to Bemidji where he won both features!  The time off was was very refreshing, and we did enjoy our camping, county fair, & even a dinner & movie night... But it also made us realize that racing is where we belong!  It is where our friends are, it is what we love, and it is what we enjoy most!  SO WE ARE BACK! (and glad to be so! :)

Kids Update

Braelyn has been doing a lot of "new" things lately.  She was never good at eating baby food (except carrots) off a spoon...of course she'll take icecream from a spoon, but fruit or veggies...NOPE!  So I got this brilliant idea to put the baby food in a bottle with a super fast flow nipple, and she'll suck it right down!  I feel better knowing she's actually getting something nutritious, and not just eating snacks all day. Her all-time favorite food right now is cottage cheese! She also loves noodles (tuna noodle & ramen mostly), and is getting very good at a sippy cup! 

The other day I didn't see her anywhere in the house, so I asked the daycare kids "Where's Brae?"  Here the gate at the bottom of the stairway had been unlocked and she crawled up ALL of the steps (without falling) and was playing upstairs!  She hasn't had a tumble yet, but was very close one time when I heard her screaming, I ran over & her hands were on one step, and her feet were 2 steps above that...she had caught herself with her hands (belly down)!  She can also stand for a good while, but falls when she takes a step! 

Her hair is getting so long, that she almost always has to have a pony in or it hangs in her eyes!  I wanted to cut her bangs so bad, but Shane wanted it to grow out.  It's cute as long as it's in a pony or clip, otherwise she looks like a sheep dog! :)

 

Mason has learned how to ride bike without training wheels!  Shane and my brother, Paul, pushed him back and forth one evening in the grass (for a softer landing), and within a couple weeks, he was taking off on his own around the driveway!  He still has his fair share of diggers, but he's getting better! 

This one makes me literally LOL!! :)

 He is also sleeping ALL NIGHT in his own bed! He loved the security of being on the floor in our room, but was starting to complain that it wasn't very comfy anymore, so I started a "sticker chart" and if he wakes up in the morning in HIS bed, he gets a sticker, and after 10, he will get a reward (space aliens, bounce depot or a movie)!  It's taking a while to get 10, being that he's been at Heidi's, grandmas, currently camping for 3 days with my family, and this weekend we're going camping again!  The kid likes to bum! :)

Camping

It's been a week ago already, but I thought i'd post some pics of our camping weekend (last weekend)...  The weather was beautiful (except a short shower on Saturday), but the water was perfect temperature and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend!  Mason's favorite activities were making sandcastles and riding the jetski (which he was so afraid of at first that we couldn't get him on it).  Braelyn had her fifth tooth popping through so she was not quite her happy self.  She had a runny nose and light fever, so she kind-of slept alot.  It didn't seem to get any better as the week went on, so I took her to the doc and she had a double ear infection :(  It was a fun weekend that we all enjoyed for something different, but we did miss racing a little when everyone started sending results! :)  However, we are already half-way through the 30 days off, so it seems to be going by pretty quickly.  This week we've enjoyed going to the fair two evenings and tonight we'll go cheer on DJ in the demolition derby!

That's all for now.... Enjoy the weekend! (I can't believe I just posted on a Saturday...maybe I do have too much time on my hands without racing) :) LOL!