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.