Florida Racing

The guy that won about every race...Jared Landers

The ARCA race prior to the Bud Shootout

Kenny Schrader & Kenny Wallace at the Dirt Track

The Whole Gang with Schraeder in his hauler

Sorry I haven't updated this in quite some time. I guess nothing was exciting enough to mention. However, a week ago, we had the opportunity to head south to warmer weather, and watch some racing. We watched dirt racing at Volusia, and spent the whole day Saturday at Daytona Speedway cheering on Steve Arpin in the ARCA race, and watched the Bud Shootout. I was rootin' for Jamie McMurray, and thought he had it won, but Harvick came outta nowhere. Kenny Wallace & Schraeder were racing modifieds at Volusia, and invited us into their trailer to have a few beers. They were very funny and down to earth. Now, everytime we see Kenny Wallace on the Speed Channel.... We say, "hey, we know him"!

Well, that's all for now............Probably gonna be a while again before anything else exciting happens!

Tom's New Ride

THE BEFORE

THE AFTER

Shane & DJ have spent the last few days building a body for his dad's new mod-4. He was in the short tracker division at Golden Spike and Willmar, and now moved up to the mini mod class. They will be racing this class at Willmar and also the Spike this year. Tom doesn't want to run for any track points, but just go out there and have a good time. I'm sure this will be quite the learning experience for him this year. The car looked pretty worn out....But when they were finally finished, they made it look really cool. They ended up custom making every piece, and redesigning all of it (that is why it took days to finish)!

A Little Bit of Everything!

Mason's Birthday Cake

Even the dog joined the festivities!

He insisted he carry it by himself to the table

Loves Coyote hunting, but was a little scared of the coyote!

The A-mod's new tin!

I'm a little behind, but last Sunday (Jan. 11) was Mason's 2nd birthday! He had a cold, so was a bit whiney, but had fun blowing out the candles, hitting the pinata (pinyata?), and opening all his presents! I am not looking forward to the terrible 2's, but I doubt it can get any worse~he was born part devil!

On Saturday, we had the Princeton Speedway banquet, and went out afterward with some friends~ I will leave it at that - we had a good time! Sunday we went coyote hunting with my Dad (it was me & Mason's first time). The coyote took a liking to Jenny's house, but not a pet I would want wandering around~he looked mean!

Shane has been busy making a body for his dad's mod-4 racecar. And has finished his A-mod body~ I really like the blue and black. I was beginning to get a little bored with orange! I have been busy planning our Hawaiian vacation, that we will be taking in March! I did some clearance shopping yesterday for shorts and tanks, and will probably pack my suitcase tomorrow (jk)! Not that anyone cares, but the plans to race in Florida have been cancelled! Only 3 more months til racing, and chaos begin!

Our Weekend Idols

Dan Ebert giving a shout-out to his "stock car buddies"

Dan won the Semi-Pro Open class & took 2nd in the Stock Class

Tucker Hibbert won both Pro Classes (stock & open)

The Clan trying to stay warm!


Our SnoCross Hero ~ Dan Ebert.....



And Our Football Hero ~ Jared Allen (from the Vikes)

This weekend was the most fun I've had in a while! It was a wonderful change of pace, yet still on the lines of racing....so everyone was happy! Denis, Shane and I headed down to Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN for the ISOC Nationals. Friday was practice and the Sledneck Invasion Tour. We got a hotel room, and attended Saturdays races as well! Russ & Joni Ebert invited us to pits, and wow are those rigs amazing! There is so much behind the scenes that race teams do, that you wouldn't even imagine. Dan won both his qualifying heats, and took 2nd in the Semi-Pro Stock main event, and won the Semi-Pro Open main event! Tucker Hibbert won both his qualifying heats in the Pro Classes and won both Pro Main Events ~ GO CATS!

We were having a ton of fun....reminiscing about when Shane used to race sleds, meeting new and old drivers, and watching the tricksters flip their snowmobile! Then, to top it off....we meet Jared Allen, a defensive end from the Minnesota Vikings!!! We're going down the escalator, and he is going up. Shane is staring, and Denis is kicking Shane in the leg..."that's Jared Allen"! So what do we do? We take the escalator back up and follow him! With our hearts pounding, we ask him if he would mind taking a picture with us, and he gladly said Yes! He was very friendly, and also, very tall! When we were bragging about getting our picture with him, not many people really thought of him as a celebrity, but he is one of Shane and Denis's favorite player, and I love his mullet!

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 ;)