We Found A House

April 2nd was a day we will remember for awhile...

First, we found out from Kelly's ultrasound this morning that we are definitely having another Boy in early August!

Second, after a very quick trip to Cheyenne over the weekend (including a creative route to avoid highways closed by a massive spring snowstorm) we put an offer on a home Sunday. At about 445pm Monday afternoon we heard back from our realtor that the seller accepted our offer. Basically a little below list price and stating we could close by April 30th!

Included here are a few of the pictures from the listing. We were not all that interested in this house just from the internet, but actually walking through it with a better sense of depth and height we really loved it! I'll take some new pictures when we move in that better represent the home and post them then. We need to get rid of some more of our storage type stuff but we have some time this week to work on that!






Remember you can click on the photos to see bigger versions.

We have a few folks starting to show some more interest in our Billings home too, so we are hopeful that there is some progress on this end soon too!

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.

Cheyenne Bound!

We are very excited to report that we will be moving south to Cheyenne, WY in mid-April.

Scott has been offered (and accepted) a Senior Forecaster position with the National Weather Service Office there!

Check out www.cheyenne.org for more information.

We'll be passing on more information over the next 6 weeks through this site.

Take care and say a few prayers for us as we go through this transition!

Scott, Kelly, Nolan and Barrett

Feb. 24th: Helena Hockey Tournament Weekend

We just got home from a great 24 hours in our state capital for Nolan's first hockey tournament. The Sleeping Giant Invitational is an 8 and Under tournament where the Tykes play separate from the "older" Mites. This really gives the younger Tykes confidence in the game and more room to operate than when the Tykes and Mites play together.

The Team Mom decorated each players hotel room door!

NOLAN EVEN SCORED TWO GOALS TODAY! HIS FIRST EVER!! They came in the first game and he continued to work really hard and had a great time through the other two games as well! Throughout the games, we thought he had a few assists too, and was really aggressive.

Barrett with big brother Nolan before his first game, at 830am.

Above: After lunch and a nap for the boys (and Dad) at the hotel, we went back to the rink for the 3rd game of the day at 3pm.

Above: Nolan is in the background, playing defense. You can also see the smaller goals they used in this picture. They played 4 on 4 with an additional player acting as the goalie. Everybody rotated through playing goalie each game, which was fun for the kids.

The Billings Junior Bulls "Teal" Team picture after their last game.

This is the medal and trophy that each Tyke player received. The medal sits on top of the trophy so the kids actually got two for one! Nolan had no idea he would get anything so he was thrilled!!

The Junior Bulls "Teal" team consisted of 10 Tykes from the Billings Amateur Hockey Leagues' Mite program including Nolan. As a credit to the coaches and to the Billings Mite program, our Tykes really showed they know what they were doing. Simple things like which way they should be going, where they should be standing for a face off, etc. were kind of a struggle for some of the kids from the other teams. They don't keep score in these games, but the kids sure keep score (and the coaches too) and the Billings kids would have won all three of their games today, so they were VERY excited about that. They played three games (against the Bozeman Jr. Ice Dogs, the Butte Jr. Blues, and the Helena Jr. Bighorns).

Feb. 23rd: Week of Sick

Haven't posted in awhile, but Kelly and I've been fighting off sicknesses and I was on midnight shifts last Sunday through Thursday nights.

We're slowly getting better and were very glad to be feeling "well enough" to travel Friday to Helena, MT for Nolan's first hockey tournament experience.

Scott

Pics from Nolan's 1st Game

Thanks again to Jim Maczko for shooting some pictures at Nolan's first game.

Nolan's First Hockey Game (Evacuation and All!)

Nolan was able to join his teammates on the Stars last evening for his first Tike/Mite game Wednesday Night. He really enjoyed it and played a variety of positions. Thanks to Gwen and Jim for coming over to the game. He thought it was cool that he had some extra fans. And thanks especially to Jim for shooting some pictures. Once we get a few, we can post them here. The two I took were quite blurry.

The evening got really interesting in the middle of the third period, as the asst. mgr. was getting sick all afternoon and called the local utility company to investigate a possible carbon monoxide leak. The staff purchased a detector and it went off like crazy when they turned it on. The utility company told the staff to order everyone out of the building as fast as possible, so Nolan's first game actually ended with a few minutes left in the 3rd period! We quickly left the building.

Kelly called Ask A Nurse about possible symptoms and extra effects on her since she is pregnant and the Dr. on call said to come into the ER. After dropping the boys at their day care providers home, we went to the hospital. Upon arriving, one of Nolan's teammates and his mom (also pregnant) were walking in as well. Before Kelly saw a doctor, the asst. mgr. showed up at the ER herself since she was concerned and still had a really bad headache. The three ladies basically had blood drawn to determine the level of carbon monoxide in their systems and then were given oxygen for around 2 hours. The Dr. said the carbon monoxide levels were low (around where a smokers would be), but that the oxygen was a precaution to help break down the carbon monoxide faster than it normally would. Some others from the rink went to the other ER in town, but we do not know how bad their cases were. Hopefully everyone will be fine.

Until further notice, we heard the rink will be closed until the leak is found and fixed.

Ultrasound Pictures

Kelly had a screening test done on Tuesday which involved an "extra" ultrasound. Attached here are the images which she brought home on a CD. She also has a check-up with her Doctor this afternoon (Thursday).

Nolan's A Star!

Nolan had another great night at practice. The main coaches continue to comment how well he listens and how hard he works and hustles...especially since he just turned 5.

The Mite coordinator put Nolan on the Stars team (other 3 teams are the Blues, Red Wings and Avs), and gave him his jersey tonight. Since he moved up for just the last 2 1/2 months of the year...we think he ended up with a #1 jersey meant for a goalie (probably the last one they had for the Stars). So it is an Adult Small and will need to be shortened "a bit." No matter, he loves it and is VERY excited for next Wednesday to arrive so he can play in a game!

Deal...

or No Deal?

Happy 3rd Birthday Barrett!!!

Today, Barrett shares his birthday with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (and bonus...Dad has an extra paid day off!!!).

Dad took Barrett to his 3 year well child visit this morning and he is doing great according to Dr. Gunville.

He is well on his way to challenging his Grandfathers for height, as he is 39 1/8" tall which is about the 90th percentile for his age. Both Grandpa's exceeded 6 feet in height, so Barrett may be towering over his Dad in a few years!

Happy Birthday "B"!!!!!

Movin' On Up

Last Monday, Nolan finished his second session of the USA Hockey Initiation Program and his coach again suggested that we move him up to the Tyke/Mite program. Tykes are basically kids born in 2000/2001 this season, with the Mites born in 1998/1999.

Nolan and his friend Jacob are the only two kids from the IP that have moved up to Tyke/Mites this month (others are moving up to Squirts since they are already older kids), but I think a few more will be moving up pretty soon.

He has been through two practices (last Thursday and Saturday morning) and is doing great, working very hard and having a lot of fun.

Here he is "patroling the blue line" and doing a snowplow stop in his first practice last Thursday.

The 5 to 8 year olds all practice together, broken into three groups based on how new they are to the program (there are about 50 kids in the program now!). They have practices on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings, and games on Wednesday evenings at 630pm. The kids are assigned to a team which they play on, but again they all practice grouped together. Nolan will find out this coming Thursday which team he is on and get his jersey, which you can imagine how excited he is about that!

If you haven't yet heard...

We are expecting child #3 in early August!!!

Barrett's 1st Skating Lesson

Hello again after a few weeks without a post...

Last Sunday (7th), Barrett started Snowplow Sam I class in the Learn to Skate program at Centennial Ice Arena. He had a great time and thought it was so cool to be on the ice and see Nolan up in the stands (instead of the opposite)!

As a reminder, you can see the larger images by clicking on those in the post.

Update from week 2 of Barrett's lessons...he went across the ice three times without his bar and even stood up by himself without the bar after falling down!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy 2007 to you all.

Kelly, Nolan, Barrett and I spent the early evening at Buffalo Wild Wings watching our Broncos eliminate themselves from the NFL playoffs, but we still managed to have a fun time.

After we got home, we played several games, listened to some music and enjoyed the CNN New Year's coverage from New York City.

Barrett stayed awake until Central Time New Year's (with all the Texas family) and then hit the sack!

Kelly made it until around 1130pm when Nolan and I were into a mean game of checkers.

Nolan made it until well after midnight Mountain Time for the first time ever. He had a great time outside with me watching the amateur fireworks around the neighborhood and hearing all the "booms" reverberate off the rimrocks and down the valley. It was really quite a show, nearly as much as the 4th of July.

We plan to sleep in a bit and enjoy the holiday Monday. Hopefully the bowl games are exciting and the shrimp in the fridge are delicious.

Happy Holidays again from the Big Sky State and may we all have a great and safe 2007!!!!!

Christmas Day-Merry Christmas

Wow!

What a day of presents, food and fun. We spent another Christmas here in Billings, and were able to send our leftover food (lots of them) to a friends house where they have a newborn and more pressing needs than cooking a Christmas feast. We heard they greatly enjoyed it! Lots of time on the phone with friends and family too.


Tomorrow we may hit some sales in the morning and then Scott has to work the evening shift (starting at 1pm). After 4 evenings for Scott, we'll have another 3 day weekend for the New Year celebration.


Merry Christmas again, and we hope you all enjoyed the holiday as much as we did.


Scott, Kelly, Nolan and Barrett Carpenter

Gifts from Santa. Playing Clue Jr. w/ Dad.

One of many gift pics today.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Happy Holidays From the "Montana" Carpenters!!

Nolan continues to heal well from his surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids.

We had a great Christmas Eve meal with the "traditional" shredded roast beef sandwiches after both Scott and Kelly braved the local grocery store on two occasions today.

Prior to church services this evening, we also found time to take a family photo by our Christmas tree and real Michigan wreath.

After we got home from church and viewing nearby Christmas lights, we also let the boys get updated on Santa's location. The picture below is them "tracking Santa" with the NORAD web site.

Nolan and Barrett's Birthday Party

This year we decided to combine the boys birthday parties and have them in between the birthdays on Sunday, December 17th at the local ice rink. We rented the rink for 1 1/2 hours and had a great time. Many kids tried skating for the first time, so that was a great experience for them. We've even heard that a few may take up the Learn to Skate program this winter or next. Here are a few pictures from the party.



The Billings Bulls (our Junior B team) had a game immediately after the party, so Kelly arranged for the coach and a couple of players to come by the party. The boys, especially Nolan, thought this was pretty neat. In a picture soon after the one below, Barrett went right back to eating cake while Nolan gave "high fives."

We had the boys open gifts after skating, and during this both teams were walking by to warm-up on the ice. It was pretty funny because the kids got quiet and just watched all the players walk by the benches we were sitting on.

It seems everyone had a great time and the boys really enjoyed getting to skate with so many of their friends!

Happy Birthday Nolan and Barrett!!

December 19th...Nolan's Surgery

As of 130 pm, Nolan is home and doing great recovering from his tonsil and adenoid removal. He had this done this morning, and is now relaxing watching some TV and enjoying some quiet time at home before we go get Barrett from day-care.

December 18th...Kelly's Birthday

Kelly celebrated her birthday on Monday this week and had a great day. Although she taught in the morning, tutored in the afternoon and played hockey Mom in the evening, it was still a fun day. We made time for cake, ice cream and presents in the afternoon, and we all went out for dinner a few days ago since we knew it would not happen Monday.

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Church Christmas Program

I wrapped up my string of midnight shifts this morning...slept a few hours and then headed off to church for Nolan and Barrett's Church Christmas pageant. As the picture shows, Nolan was a shepherd singing Away in a Manger and Twinkle, Twinkle, Christmas Star, and Barrett was a sheep.



After church, Nolan, Barrett and I went to the local ice rink for the afternoon public skate. One of Nolan's fellow IP participants was also there so they had fun racing around the rink. In addition, we found out that other IP kids who are also in Learn To Skate this session were in the Learn To Skate Christmas Program (along with the daughter of one of Scott's co-workers), so we stuck around for an hour after public skating to watch the boys' friends participate.

Happy birthday to Brother-In-Law and Uncle Art today too!

Scott

December 7th...Nolan's Birthday

On Thursday, Nolan turned 5 years old and had a great birthday. His party will be combined with Barrett's on the 17th and will take place at our local rink. We decided to rent the rink out for part of an afternoon for the party and thought it would be nice to have it between Nolan and Barrett's birthdays for a combined party.

Some pictures from Nolan's fun time opening gifts are below.






After an excellent dinner at Outback Steakhouse (our Montana source for Texas' Blue Bell Ice Cream), we returned home for a green Mickey Mouse snowman cake. I'm not sure where the snowman came in, but this is what Nolan asked for in his birthday cake so Kelly complied. In any case, it was a delicious cake created by Kelly (as always).



It will be a busy year for Nolan, with starting school next Fall just part of the fun that awaits him!

Scott

December 2nd...Coaches Clinic

On December 2nd, I completed the first level coaches clinic for USA Hockey so that I could help out the main coaches during Nolan's IP sessions. This was a fun day of classroom time and on-ice time with some kids. The organizers arranged for some Mite kids to come help the coaches learn, and they said at lunch that Nolan and the other Dad's kids were welcome to come out and skate. So Nolan came out to help Dad learn too, and had a good time learning some new drills.

As of Dec 10th, Nolan's main coaches have welcomed the Dad's who took the course to help out during IP and we've been taking advantage and having a great time with the kids. It is nice to be involved when work will allow.

Scott