Wrestling...and Music Concerts

Wrestling season is now in full swing. This year Tyler is wrestling 171 lbs. Right now there are three freshman all wrestling for that same weight. I think he is going to try to drop down to 160 after Christmas - there is no one else on the team at that weight right now which could mean a lot more matches for Tyler. We'll see how that goes.

He wrestled his first match at Colby and lost 10-3, but looked pretty good. The next day we went to the Jr. Varsity tournament in Goodland, KS. He started out the day with a kid from Wray that was really good. He beat Tyler 15-0. (It wasn't pretty.) His second match was against Riley O'Hara from Goodland. Riley is a beast. He pinned Tyler in about :58 seconds. It was at about this point in the day that Ryan asked me if he could go out to the car and get his basketball. Being frustrated with wrestling - I said "YES!! - Please get your basketball!!" Tyler was feeling a little discouraged after those first two matches so I told him that I had a new strategy for him. I told him to just pretend that whoever he is wrestling - is his brother! Well, it must have worked because Tyler pinned his 3rd opponent (a guy from Sterling) in the 2nd period. He felt a lot better after that.

This last weekend Tyler wrestled in the Ray Rhoades Classic here in Burlington. He had two matches. He pinned his first guy - and lost by points to one of his teammates in an exhibition match. Tyler looked so good that day! It is amazing to me how far he has come with his wrestling. Where he was when he started 7th grade to where he is now is pretty amazing.

There are a couple of varsity matches this weekend, but I don't think Tyler will see any action. (Gives mama a little time to rest!)

These last few weeks have been full of Christmas concerts for our family. On the 9th, we went to the High School for Tyler's concert. On the 11th, we went to Kately, McKenna, and Kyron's elementary school concert, and last night was the middle school concert. Those concerts are so much fun! Tyler and Ryan have the most amazing music teacher! It is just unbelievable what he can get those kids to do. Ryan is part of the 6th grade drumline. They performed "Axel F" at the concert last night and did a really good job. Tyler's drumline - which consists of all of the drummers from 7th-12th grade performed at halftime of a basketball game at the Topside Tipoff in Goodland last Saturday night. It was amazing! I imagine it will be on YouTube before long. They got a standing ovation!

Things should start slowing down for us for a couple of weeks anyway. The boys will be out of school from the 19th of Dec until January 6th. Unfortunately, this is a really busy time at my office so we don't have plans to go anywhere or do anything really exciting. We will spend Christmas here with family which is always nice.

I hope you all have a wonderful, warm, and safe Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Letter...

Happy Holidays!
We hope this letter finds you happy, healthy, and full of holiday spirit!
Not much has changed for us this year, other than the boys growing up way too fast! We are still doing well, enjoying life and of course keeping busy with all of the boys’ activities.
In March we took a family trip to Keystone where the boys learned to snowboard. Even though they only spent one day on the mountain they seemed to pick it up rather quickly. From where I stood, it looked like they were mainly learning how to fall and how to get back up – and they got really good that!
On the academic side of things, both boys are doing well in school. Tyler is in high school now and Ryan is enduring 6th grade—that long, last year before he can start playing jr. high sports. He can hardly wait! Ryan was chosen to be a leader in a peer pressure program at school. The lady putting on the program said he is a born leader. Tyler was the recipient of the Freshmen Cougar award for the 1st quarter. The recipients of this award are chosen by the faculty. The award recognizes student for their hard work, responsibility, and character. I am very proud of both of them for these accomplishments!
This last year we also had several exciting things happen in our own little world of sports:
*Tyler finished his 8th grade wrestling season with a stellar record of 18-3! Now he’s started high school wrestling and will either wrestle 171 or 160 (depending on how the holidays go.)
*Ryan took first place in the local Nuggets’ Skills Challenge for the third year in a row. I seriously think he has basketball in his blood.
*Tyler figured out how to run – FAST – in track this year. He ran the sprints and even gave the hurdles a try. His coaches said he went from being as slow as oatmeal in 7th grade to one of the fastest on the team in 8th grade! (I don’t remember them ever saying anything like that about me?!)
*Ryan’s Cal Ripken baseball team went undefeated during regular season and then lost in the championship game of the tournament to Stratton. Ryan played both catcher and 2nd base, depending on where he was needed most, and did a great job batting this year. This coming summer will be his last year in the Cal-Ripken league. After this he will move up to the big leagues—Babe Ruth.
*Tyler went with the football team to a team camp in Chadron, Nebraska in June. It was a great experience for him. He also started playing football for Burlington High School this fall. He played in every JV game and even saw a limited amount of time on the varsity team.
Now we are back in wrestling season. (sigh). Wrestling is so hard on mothers. I saw a mother of a wrestler with a t-shirt on that said “My son is killing me six minutes at a time.” Boy is that true. I’m one of those moms that sits in the stands an leans and pulls and bends trying to help him on the mat. I’m not sure which one of us goes home with more aches and pains. ...just kidding.
Oh...and I can’t forget to mention one other thing that is new to us this year—Tyler has a girlfriend! That has taken me a little while to get used to...but I have to admit, he couldn’t have picked a nicer girl—even if she is the football coach’s/high school principal’s daughter! (No pressure Tyler!!)
All in all, we have had a pretty good year. We are very blessed to have each other, our family, our friends, and our health. We are looking forward to 2009—but beware—Tyler will get his driving permit in April—so ya might want to stay off the streets—and sidewalks!
We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2009!
Take care and please keep in touch.

Baldy and the Grim Reaper

Well, the football team made the playoffs and as a tradition, the linemen shave their heads when they go to playoffs. Tyler called me from school yesterday and told me about the tradition and asked if it was okay if he shaved his too! I told him it was fine. I also told him not to be the first one in line. It wouldn't be very funny if he went first and then the rest of them chickened out. So, while Ryan and I went to Goodland to pick out a Halloween costume, Tyler fashioned a new look. Ryan has been wanting to be either the "Scream" guy or the "Grim Reaper" for a long time, and I've always tried to divert him to something not quite so scary. But this year I caved. He will be in Jr. High next year and will probably be over the costume thing by then...so I let him get the one he wanted. When we got home...this is what they looked like. I just rolled my eyes and laughed.

So anyway...we are in the playoffs. How that happened is beyond me, but hey...we will take what we can get. We go to Yuma on Saturday. The game is at 1:00. If we play as well as we did with Peyton and Byers we should do okay. If we don't...then I guess we will chalk it up to experience and move on to wrestling.

My Little Drummer Boys

A couple of weeks ago the boys marched in the Stratton homecoming parade. Ryan's 6th grade band was wearing the uniforms that we used to wear in high school. Kids are so much bigger today than they were back then that the uniforms don't fit the high school kids anymore. (Tyler was okay with that!) The high school band also marched. Tyler is part of an amazing drum line! Sometimes he plays snare and sometimes he plays bass.

Since I last updated, the football team has had it's ups and downs. The JV team is still playing really well. They did lose to Colby, but the C team turned around a beat them. The Varsity on the other hand hasn't been so fortunate. So far this year they beat Lamar, lost to Wray, lost to Akron, lost to Holyoke and then lost to Calhan! We are not used to losing so we were thinking that this wasn't that much fun. Finally Cripple Creek came to town - for homecoming - and we beat them 48-0! Tyler saw his first action at the varsity level. Most of the freshmen played in the fourth quarter. They even scored! Then last night we traveled to Peyton and took on the Panthers. The field was literally in the middle of a pasture and it was cold!!!!! It started out 6-0 Peyton, but then we scored to make it 7-6. About half way through the second quarter we found our bearings and we played awesome football. We ran the ball really well, we caught the ball, our defense was amazing, and the line played their best game of the season. We ended up winning 22-6. It was so fun! The crowd was really into it. It made being so cold seem not quite so bad.
Next Saturday we travel to Byers. I can hardly wait!

WE WON!!

The JV team played at Akron yesterday and won 34-16! They did so good!! It looked like the boys we knew in Jr. High! Tyler played center for awhile then moved to guard. He also played a little bit of defense. At one point it was 4th down for Akron and they were going to throw a pass but Tyler jumped up and batted it down. It was impressive!

It was so nice to get that first win under our belts! Now watch out...here we come!!

1-1, 0-2

Tyler is number 53 this year.

This is Tyler and Ryan on Tyler's first game day. They were so embarassed that I made them go outside to take pictures. Oh well! :-)
This is the Cougars running out onto the field before taking on the Lamar Savages on Aug 29th. Burlington won 18-6 (I think.)
This is the JV squad playing at Lamar the next day. They lost this game 33-8.
This is the varsity playing at Wray on September 5th. Another loss. The JV played Wray's JV the following Monday in Burlington and lost 16-0. I thought they actually played pretty good - at least showed some improvement. Tyler has seen a lot of playing time on the JV team but hasn't played on the Varsity team at all yet. That's okay with me. His day will come.

This week the Varsity plays Akron on Friday night and then we (JV) travel to Arkon on Monday. Wish us luck!!

A funny thing happened today...

This morning when I was dropping Tyler off at school I was thinking to my self how much he has changed and how much more responsible he has become. I could remember back when he was in 4th grade - we battled about everything - I wasn't sure either of us would survive that year. Well we did and every year since has gotten better. I was kind of smiling to myself as I drove away when all of a sudden my cell phone rang. It was Ryan..."Mom I forgot my Math book. Can you run home and get it for me?" I think I laughed out loud. :-)

Ryan starts flag football tonight. He's so excited!! I think now he thinks he will finally get some attention! I think having Tyler become so independent has been really hard on Ryan. He misses him a lot...and he really isn't too happy that Tyler has a girlfriend. I keep telling him that one of these days, he will start liking girls too. He keeps telling me that isn't going to happen. ...we'll see.