Back to the Mat

Saturday we headed to Norwood Young America for a wrestling tournament. The boyz did a great job and show big improvement every time they head to the mat.

Tanner was wrestling with an injury. We have made two trips to Urgent Care and saw and ear specialist on Thursday. He damaged the cartilage in his ear and we have a few stitches & some packing. Still smarts a little bit but the packing will be taken off on Monday when we go back to the specialist. Dr. Luo is used to working on wrestlers he trained with Iowa State wrestlers for 2 years.

Dalton continues to get tossed in with the older group and lost to a 10Th grader by one point. But he battled back each time. He is so committed to his sport and his teammates the coaches are so amazed how much he has matured. (thank you football)

Tabor finally admitted it!! He's having fun wrestling. He is so under weight to wrestle at heavy weight. He weighs in right at 200lbs and most guys he wrestles weigh over 275lbs. He was the only Raider wrestler who would "shoot" during the 1st period and got some take down points. But when you roll a big boy around they tend to keep rolling so he's learning to stop his motion to keep them in a head lock.

A busy week of sports is headed our way along with the warm up! ALL RIGHT we will be all running around with sweatshirts instead of many layers.

Ready for the DEEP Freeze!

With temps dipping below zero each day we took advantage of the last day of holiday break to haul some more wood. About this time of year the boyz get a little tired of handing the wood so many time. They haul it into the truck...then truck to the house.....then unload the truck...... then haul it into the house then into the fireplace. This stack in the garage will last us about 2.5 weeks but it it doesn't warm up soon it will be gone quicker! Back to school on Monday

New Year's Eve

We headed to ND to celebrate New Year's Eve with Grandpa

& Grandma Elliott. We enjoyed a wonderful seafood boil
and a good time was had by all!

Happy NEW YEAR!

As we say goodbye to 2009.......We want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We had some amazing memories and lost some love ones. But we look back with a heart full of memories and look forward to a spectacular year in 2010.

Happy Anniversary Grandpa & Grandma Elliott

This picture was taken 3 summers ago when we celebrated Grandpa & Grandma's 40Th wedding anniversary. Today they celebrate 43 years together as husband & wife. Feel free to e-mail anniversary wishes to jelliott@gra.midco.net or delliott@vaaler.com.

The Art of making Ring Bologna

For years we have made deer Bologna and we have never blogged about it! With football smack in the middle of deer hunting season there was not time for much. And with only getting one deer during opening weekend there was not much to make bologna with. Six weeks later and more deer meat we took advantage of the snowstorm. So we ground about 75lbs of meat, mixing it with pork & beef. Grandma has this recipe that we use that has garlic, cure,cloves all spice and mustard seeds. Once that is all mixed in by hand it's time to sample. (the most popular of the ring bologna making event) Then at that point you chill the mixture down again as you clean the casings. Yes, casings are sheep intestines. Then everyone takes turns at filling the casings, tying the ends of the bologna. Not that long ago we had an old fashion sausage stuffer and we use to crank and crank. Once the casings are stuffed its off to the outhouse. We converted this old outhouse to a smoker. The rings are placed on rods that are hung in the house above the fire pit. The fire is started and when the logs get roaring hot and flames are put out with apple & cedar chips with water. It takes about 4 to 6 hours to smoke the rings. Basically it's an all day process but well worth it! It's so GOOD!

Christmas with Khloe

Cousin Khloe is 15 months old and she came to Christmas in a beautiful red dress. As you can see she was the life of the party with all of her toys.