March 25th, 2007

Finally found some time to make another post to our little blog. First of all, happy 103rd birthday to my Grandmother in Rockford, Michigan today!!!!!!

We are still awaiting more folks to take a look at our home here in Billings and hope to hear of some offers in the near future. We are still thinking of heading to Cheyenne to check out a few homes with our realtor, but with potential for some significant weather in the late March/early April timeframe...details remain vague.

Nolan has one more hockey practice this week and Barrett is down to one more lesson in this session of Snowplow Sam 2. Both the boys are working hard and having a lot of fun on the ice and I'm sure will miss it over the summer. For starting Learn to Skate at age 3, Barrett is doing really well learning what his legs and feet can do! It's interesting for Dad and Mom to see what motor skills the kids have at the different ages.

I had a great time last week in Missoula at a sub-regional WCM meeting and came away with a lot of creative outreach ideas which I hope to be able to share with the Cheyenne office. We were lucky enough to see Missoula during non-foggy and low-cloud conditions...and it is a nice place. I know I would not appreciate it when it is fogged in though and will gladly take the 300+ days of sunshine per year in the "front range" locations.

I also participated for the 5th (I think) time in the Billings Clinic Science Expo as a Science Fair judge Friday evening and at our NWS booth in the exhibit area on Saturday. Our office had a whopping 5 employees judging for the science fair this year and once again it was a great experience interacting with the students. We had a good time at the booth on Saturday too, but unfortunately the Van de Graaf generator fried our laptop and later in the day the belt went bad on the Van de Graaf itself!!! Not a great day for our technology and hands-on science equipment.

Will keep everyone posted as our moving plans progress.

Magic City Meltdown Tyke Tournament

Nolan had a great time at the Magic City Meltdown tournament today, playing 3 half-ice games for the Billings Stars. The Billings Amateur Hockey League put together two small tyke teams to go along with the visiting teams from Bozeman and Butte (the older Mites participated in a much bigger tournament Fri-Sun including 8 teams total).

During the second game today, against the Butte Blues, Nolan scored a goal on a tip that went off his stick, up off his shoulder pad and over the goalie!!! He made a great play with a centering pass from the corner for an assist. Finally, Nolan also made 3 or 4 great saves when he was playing Goalie (Barrett was proudest since he has shot a lot of balls at Nolan playing goalie in hallway hockey!!!). Once again Nolan worked really hard and was one of the minority out there trying to play his position and thinking with and without the puck. Barrett and Kelly cheered like crazy all day long. I was able to help coach and spent the day on the ice as the coach/ref for our team (each team has a coach on the ice).

Like the Helena tournament, they don't really keep score but the parents and players informed me that the Billings Stars had 3 wins and 0 losses today. Kelly got the photo above during the awards ceremony after the final game this evening.

March 9th: House on the market!!!

On Tuesday afternoon, our realtors put our home on the market. We've had a few people through the house already and hopefully will see many more after the Sunday newspaper and the realtor's tour next Wednesday morning. We really hope that our efforts in the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms, boys bedrooms, basement staircase, and all of Kelly's curtain creations will make the house more marketable.

If you know someone interested in a 2400 (1200 up/1200 in basement) sq. ft. 3 bedroom (+a non-egress room in the basement), 1.5 bath ranch, ask them to check it out!!!

March 9th: Happy Birthday To Scott's Dad!!!

Happy Birthday Dad from the Big Sky State!

March 4th: Nolan Lost His First Tooth

Hi,
Nolan is happy to pass along that he lost his first tooth last Sunday!

We've been telling people "he lost it in a hockey fight, and you should see the other guy." Nolan doesn't like us saying that though and proclaims, "there's no fighting in Mites!!!"

Whew!

Just taking a few minutes to rest this evening. We had a great day today moving items into our storage unit which opened up this morning.

Our friend Rod was nice enough to help me out with loading moving a part of our entertainment center and two dressers into his truck and out into our storage unit. Rod also helped me move the piano about 8 feet, which is harder than it sounds! Thanks a ton Rod!

Kelly has been continuing to go through boxes and following the moving furniture and cleaning up the mess beneath. It is amazing how some furniture has not moved in 5 years! Yikes that is a lot of dust!!

I also took over to storage the first two of many loads of boxes. Sunday will bring more of the same, but at least we are going to hit 50 degrees for this work!

All of this is in response to our realtor helping us make our house look bigger. She is a genius, because it really does look HUGE! We are just hoping and praying that all of our hard work pays off with a relatively quick sale.

I'm still fighting the same dang cold I've had for almost two weeks, but *knock on wood* I think I may be turning the corner.

We hope all of you are well. Be patient with us if you send an email. We hope that after we "stage" the house, things will settle down a little bit. We know we have to keep it clean and tidy, but at least there will be less packing and moving.

Nolan's tyke tournament in Billings is next weekend on the 10th, and I'm one of two coaches for his team. Should be a blast. Tyke teams are coming from Butte and Bozeman, and the Billings association will have two teams.