Front page SPORTS

So yesterday the boys had a photo session with the reporter from our local paper and this is the resulting photo.  I was standing just to the right of the shot and my car is just inches outside the frame of the photo.  She wanted the shot to look like they were running in the country, not in front of the school.  She did a good job.

Here is the newspaper story too.

They leave tomorrow on a bus for State after a pep rally. 

Oh, my kid is the one on the far left, front row in the bright red shoes!

Going to STATE

The boys team is heading to STATE Cross Country finals in WI Rapids.  N finished 15th with a time of 18:01.  The Webster boys were super fast but our boys did an excellent job keeping up with them.  The boys finished 2nd as a team which gives them the right to compete at State.  Did I mention that the BOYS team has NEVER gone to state in the history of the school??

That's it for my update....so much to do, so little time....

Last game

Q (#58) had his last game of the season...another loss, but with that another lesson.....can't win them all right?  He made it through without breaking anything unlike many of his teammates.  During the last practice three kids were hurt and unable to play in the last game.  One broken foot, an injured knee and a gash to a hand.....they play harder during practice apparently!!

Congrats to the TEAM

PAZZLES projects

This one is using some My Minds Eye papers....love the double sided paper for cards. 

The inside of that card..love the stars.  I actually cut Chipboard with the PAZZLEs and used it to give the hollow star on the front a little more strength.
More MME paper to work with.  I don't even remember the theme for this project because it was so long ago.
Details of the pop-up leaves.  Love those little leaves I created.  The tree still needs work I think.

I think I have more projects that need to be posted, but I will have to dig through my photo archives to find them.  My current project is fun...can't tell yet, but I am having a hard time deciding which theme to go with.....details later....much later....lol

Conference Meet

Look who made the ALL CONFERENCE team.....yup....and as a Freshman no less.

Plus the team took their first ever...in 32 years of Cross Country at the school....Conference Title.  A happy team indeed.

Another bad photo..he is sucking his lip in this one... one more chance at a good one next weekend.....then maybe State....crossing fingers.

its fall

My pretty tree out in the front yard.

Most of the leaves are already blown away with all the wind we had the other day, but it is still beautiful out there.

Football night.  Q (also known as #58) had a hard game Tuesday night.  They had their first loss.  We have to lose a few to learn right?  They didn't think so!  It was good for them and hopefully will make them work a little harder for the next, and last, game.  Weather was on our side.  Nice and chilly but dry.  It started raining on the drive home, so we escaped that one.
Cross Country too. Finally a good pose...but a blurry shot...i just can't WIN!  But N can.  Well, he got 7th place and the Team took a 1st again, so they are on track for State.  N's goal from the beginning of the season was to break into the 17's by this meet and he got a 17:38.  Last week he had been running 18:00 and 18:01....major change!  This was a flat course (so the kids said) and it was an "easy" run...easy for them to say....lol

Ok, as usual, that is all I am doing besides some crafting.  I have updated the crafty blog with a few new goodies.

In the paper

A copy of the ARTICLE from the LEADER TELEGRAM from OCTOBER 8, 2008
I linked this article a few days ago, but I wanted a copy here in the blog so I could have it later for some journaling. I bought the newspaper too. Can't have enough of that kind of stuff!

So here is the article as it appeared online a few days ago.

Inside Cross Country: Ramblers boys enjoying success

By Travis Mester
Leader-Telegram staff
It looks like the Eau Claire Regis boys cross country team has been taking notes.

Over the past four years it has been easy for this Ramblers bunch to be overshadowed by the Regis girls team, which placed seventh at the WIAA cross country state meet in 2006 and fourth a year ago.

But not this season, as the boys have put together their most successful campaign under coach John Snyder since 2003.

Led by seniors Brian Farley, Nick Johnson, Josh Kassing and David Connell, Regis won both the Warrior and Ladysmith Invitationals in the past month and looks primed for a tournament run in the near future.

Snyder is excited that his boys team is being able to find the same successes that the girls have had in the past.

"In cross country boys tend to get better as time goes on," Snyder said. "I think my four senior runners have matured very nicely and we've added some younger runners too."

Farley has led the Ramblers with a second-place individual finish at the Warrior Invite as well as a third-place finish at Ladysmith last week. A senior this season, he has returned stronger than ever from a knee injury that hindered him at the end of last year.

As for the younger Ramblers, freshman Nick Wagner and sophomore Kevin Mathiowetz have shown the most improvement.

Since the beginning of the year Wagner - the nephew of Joel Wagner, one of Snyder's previous athletes and the last Ramblers boys cross country conference champion 20 years ago - has improved his personal time by nearly a minute.

"(Nick) was so inexperienced because in eighth grade he was such a talent that he wasn't challenged," Snyder said. "But in high school he's learned early on that the competition is much better."

According to Snyder, the strength of this year's Regis team has been its balance and the fact that in an individual sport, like cross country, it has been able to work together to find success.

Regis has never won a conference title in boys cross country and Snyder says that ending that drought has become motivation for this year's squad.

"(Our boys) just haven't had this kind of success before," Snyder said. "We had a good feeling coming in to this season and we'd love to compete in the Cloverbelt and make it to state as a team."

Thursday in the swamp

So apparently all I post about these days is Football and Cross Country.

Well, that is all I do besides work!

Nick had a meet yesterday afternoon down at my old high school.  It was a pretty nice afternoon, a little chilly and windy but sunny.  Nick had a 6th place overall finish in this race and the team took another 1st place trophy home.

And, as you can see by the photo, I am still trying to get a good photo of him running.  This was probably the best place to do so, with the sun out and the runners spread out, but.....no.  I couldn't center it at all, and Peter is in the background of this one.  This is the final sprint to the finish line.

Tuesday Night Lights

And a rainy night ta' boot

My little guy (who isn't so little) is #58 and towards the top of the photo played in his 3rd official game for the season.  They won again against my alma mater.  A few of the kids on the other team are kids of people I went to school with, but with the weather being so yucky, I didn't get a chance to check out the other side.  We hunkered down under the rear door of my PT Cruiser with plenty of rice krispie bars and popcorn.  It was dry and we had the tunes going.  A PT Cruiser is a nice little party wagon when you need it. Flip the seats down and hook up the tailgate table....and you are set to enjoy the night....even if it is raining!  We had a few people stop by and ask if we had anything "good" in there....lol

And I usually don't have stuff to say about the other child...the running one...but he was mentioned in the paper, so I figured I had better link the online version to the blog.  I will probably copy it to another blog link so I can keep it, but for now it is available HERE.  It's kinda cool.  He gets mentioned in the paper each week under the "PREP" scores when he competes, so this is a little "extra" mention for the team.

So that is what I am up to right now.  I have one project that needs to go out, otherwise I am trying to keep up with the kids.

Running....it's all I do

I am here, I am just super busy right now.  I need to be in 10 places at once and can't keep all the balls juggling.  

So, back on Thursday, Mr N had his run up in Ladysmith.....far far away....and as usual, my "action" shots leave nothing to be desired.  You would think after 6 runs I would get ONE decent shot of the kid running.  Not to say this isn't a good shot, but I want to capture a different part of the run.  Granted, this particular spot was an uphill one with a turn just after this shot was taken, so his gait was different than the real "run it all out" to win run.  Oh, well.  6 more races to go.  Oh, he ended up with a 7th place finish in this one.  He finished 2nd for his team and the team won another 1st place trophy to add to the collection.  He even got to hold the trophy in the group photo this time.  Cool.  Oh, and before you wonder if he was running with aliens, I blurred the others faces (but I am sure you figured that out).

Mr Q didn't have a game this week because the other school didn't have enough kids for a 7th grade team.  So he had a mini-vacation from the game this week.

On to me.  Not much happening except work and running the kids around.  I have worked several days this week to keep up with all our events.  Today is the last one for a little while so I can relax a little...just a little.  We have to get ready for the next one.  Samples need to be made, classes organized, papers cut and whatnot.  And my DT work for PAZZLES should be arriving this week too.  No rest for the wicked.

OK, peeps.  Enough for today.  I have to make lunch and head to work.  At least Mr. Crockpot is busy cooking my supper for tonight, so all I have to do is walk in the door and eat after work tonight.  Potatoes, a whole chicken and carrots, it smells so good already!

I am in

I just got the email that I am on the Design Team for PAZZLES for the 08-09 session.

WooHoo for me. Should be fun

Now, a photo from last weeks little trip. In the town of WABASHA Minnesota they have something called SeptOberFest. It's a big weekend of music, art and fun.  The residents yards are decorated with these cool pumpkin sculptures and lots of other fall decorations. At the town hall they had three pumpkin people decorated to look like football players with jersey's and everything. I didn't get a picture of that but I did get a few from the streets were walked on when we went to the Eagle Center. This photo is the one in front of the center...and Eagle of course. They were pretty cool.