The Badgers say YES

He got the email and offered to open it with all of us.  The love and excitement for this kid to get the acceptance at Wisconsin!!  You did all the things to keep all the doors open.  I love that YOU get to make the decision.

A house divided is good fun!

 

Drew and Dad made Pasta

Drew was interested in making pasta - He was watching some cool You tube.  So guess what, this is just one of the many examples of how awesome his dad it.  What did we have for dinner!?  Pasta.  While Drew did plenty of work, it won't have happened without a supportive and enthusiastic dad.

Made for a very delicious Sunday night family dinner!

 

The Ratinator

We are experiencing a big of a rat issue.  Noticing tunneling into the coop.  Rats have a bit of a symbiotic relationship.  They come out at night (chickens are in bed) eat the food and head out.  But being well fed, they also reproduce.  A LOT.  

We bought 4 of these tunnel snap traps.  Over the course of 2 week, Drew and I killed and cleaned 12 this way.

Then we brought in the big guns - this is the ratinator.  Its like a lobster trap.  We put it out for 2 days with the doors open.  Then we SHUT them.  Rats can get in, not out.  Managed to get 4 all at once with this gem.  Only problem is, they are alive.  This is where farmer Chris needs to step in.  He was in charge of......  drowning the rats.......  Challenge is, everything is frozen.  Last thing we need is a frozen Chris trying to drown some rats.

This ends up being a pretty epic Leadbetter story, but the net net is, there were 4 drown rats deposited in the trash before the trash guy came that morning.  I got to see a bit of it out the basement window as the container it came in made for a pretty handy place to fill up water.......

Done for now...  Thank you Chris!

 

Headed off to school

Somedays I do wonder what school is happening.  Golf, wrestling bag, is there a school bag in there?

This semester Nick FINALLY has a free period, and he can leave school early.  LOVE this for him and he really EARNED it.  Gillette ridge has a simulator and they can't get enough.

Keep living your best life

 

We ski Killington!

Chilly weather and snowing coming in time for the MLK day weekend.  This is my jobsite in Mechanicsville NY on a rather early morning.

After a weekend of wrestling and sports, we have MLK DAY FREE.  We opted to go up the night before staying in White Plains.  Dinner was a delicious Italian restaurant after poking around the town grabbing some groceries and such.  Shane, Nick stayed back for practices and Farrah was in WVA for a girls retreat.  So it was just the 5 of us.

Had to pass this photo along to Rebecca to see if we were sporting the same outfit at different resorts.  It was a COLD day on the slopes.  We had a high of 8.

I think the even the trees are cold in this photo.  This was Macy's first day out on the snowboard in a few years.  She is such an athlete, so after a few slower runs her confidence started coming back.

They were making snow on one of the trails that we all got 'lost' in.  That one was wonky.  Overall the day was a win for all.

I will admit to loving my time by the fire.

Great lodge and warmed up crew.

Success for the first group VT outing!!

 

Nick's 100th Win at the HOME tournament

Nick worked hard to get himself to the 100th win achievement.  However it started to loom over his head.  When would it happen, what dual, what tournament?  It started to get into his head.  But looking back, there were a million reasons for this win to happen when it did.  I captured this photo to prep one of his posters.  He looks legit here.

This was the poster we put together.

We were blessed to have Tate home for the holidays and put his talent to use.  THIS is our favorite and signed by the McCullough family.

Love this one too - Tate was able to knock these out!

We managed to fill the stands for him first match.  Based on the tournament seeding, he had a first round bye.  Which really meant this round was going to be a bit harder. 

No pressure - no one is here to watch YOU!

Josh Kaplan is a former Canton coach and also on the 100 wins board.  He and his father are working the score table all day - same one where Nick wrestled.

His match was hard, during one of the periods the opponent accidental head butted Nick in the eye.  He claims he didn't even feel it.  My friend Beth Murphy captured this video and will be one of our treasures.  The way she captured the final seconds the relief and joy that you could see pour into Nick.  The crowds reaction, the signs, the coaches.  This was everything.

https://youtu.be/Azq0oIUlJ-s

Nick when you set the goal of 100 wins, I never imagined it to be this for you.

This was YOUR story of success that everyone wanted to be a part of.

Treasure this photo

The smile stayed on his face all day and We loved seeing it.

Can you see the starts of the shiner?!?  WE went on to rock the concessions and have a pretty fabulous tournament.  The wrestling families are so helpful.  Kids too - Drew ran the table ALL DAY and walked away loving it.

Even Shane stay the whole day eating his way through the concession stand.

Congrats to this team for winning at HOME!  Huge tournament and HUE accomplishment.

The bonus black eye lead to plenty of questions in the coming week - was the perfect segway for Nick to casually mention his 100th win!