The Curse of the 3's

Well, you know some things just have to come in 3's and apparently bad news is one of them. On Wednesday afternoon a paniced phone call from my sister-in-law revealed that my mom was having a heart attack and was being rushed to the hospital. The shock of the news was too much for my dad to handle and he had an anxiety attack and kept fainting. My brother Jeremy couldn't keep him awake and drive at the same time so he had to pull into the Tractor Supply Store in Rome where an ambulance was parked and asked the paramedics to take a look at him. The paramedics said they had to get my dad to a hospital so Jeremy told them "take to St. Elizabeth's, that's where they're taking my mom." So we spent most of Saturday afternoon running between the emergency room where dad was and the Cath lab where mom was. But I am happy to report that they are both doing much better now, and I am so very thankful for all the kind words and prayers that everyone has been sending our way. Thank you so much. A very cute picture of the lovebirds will be coming soon, so check back.

No news is both good and bad

Some sad news to report, On Saturday night August 23nd my parent's barn caught fire and burnt down. The fire marshall isn't sure what caused the fire and unfortunatly everything was destroyed. Luckily though no one was home and no one was hurt and the house is fine. The above picture is the back of the barn where are snowmobiles were. My dad's tractor and it was the biggest part of the barn.
This is the front part of the barn. On the step right there is Cindy's saddle that is now mostly crispy =(
The one bright spot was that Friday, August 22nd, I got a phone call from Rome Catholic School and was offered a job teaching kindergarten. On Monday, August 25th I was officially hired and the following week I signed my contract and school started. I had about a week and half to prepare for my first full-time teaching job. These are some pictures from my very own classroom!!!
Finally all my hard work had paid off and on Friday, September 19th, I received my first full time paycheck and let me tell you it was a beautiful thing!!! I guess it just goes to show that good things really do come to those who wait.

And one final note, Just a little update on my dad. As some of you may know my dad fell on Wednesday, September 10th and broke his hip. He has to use a walker to get around but he has an appointment tomorrow with the orthopedic surgeon to see how his hip is healing and we are hoping that things are healing as they should be. If for some reason they are not there is a possibility that he could have to have hip replacement surgery. I would have blessed you all with a picture of "speedy" but I fear for my life after he is fully recovered around Christmas. =) haha.

Weekend Race Warriors

This is Kurt and I with our friends Tim and Angel on the track at Watkin's Glen. After the race on Sunday we got to walk the track back to our campsite. It was so cool the track was covered in pieces of rubber from the tires. We're hoping that the pieces we picked up are off of Dale Jr's car.
This is the view from the straight away before the cars head up through what they call the Esses. This hill doesn't look that steep but it was quite a walk but well worth it.
Saturday afternoon after the Nationwide race we walked over the track and up the hill near where all the race car haulers are parked and we got to see Boris Said up close and personal. Angel was brave enough to ask him for a hug and she got to hug him. It was the highlight of her weekend, that's all she talked about. Too bad I wasn't thinking fast enough I could have gotten a picture with him. Oh well, live and learn.
This is the view from our seats, we sat right across from the exit at pit road. We had a good view of the cars coming back out onto the track. In the background you can see Jr's car leaving pit road. Jr started out strong and lead laps on 2 separate occasions. Unfortunately he had a few problems with his car and ended up finishing around 20th or so. We had a great weekend, despite the rain and the fact that our tent flooded Saturday night. Luckily our friends Shane and Jackie had their camper their and let us crash in the camper. It was close quarters but tons of fun. Hopefully Kurt and I will actually be home for a while now.

Camping at Nick's Lake

On Friday night, August 1st, Kurt and I got out of work, packed up the car and headed up to Nick's Lake in Old Forge to spend the weekend camping with Kurt's mom and dad and the triplets, Laura, Rachel and Rebecca.
Kurt's mom said that it had rained off and on pretty much all week while they had been up there. Later Saturday afternoon it started raining again and we had to put up "tarp city" to protect the tent. The tarps protected our tent and added something "special" to the camp site.
Saturday night Kurt's mom and dad took us all out to dinner and we went for a short ride afterwards, we stopped in this parking lot and made friends with the deer having supper there. The girls had picked crab apples at home and brought them up. I feed these two little deer apples right out of my hand. Later we went up this other rode and Kurt fed a momma deer with twin fawns apples out his hand too. It was so cool!!! They weren't afraid at all.
Saturday morning after we ate breakfast, we went out on the canoe, Kurt tried his hand at fishing and after several attempts, he finally caught a small trout. Kurt said it was only "fish stick' size so he let him go.
We took a break from fishing and rowed back into this cove in the lake and it turned into a small stream. We beached the canoe up on some rocks and walked through the water over the bridge. It was a beautiful view. We had such a great time camping with Kurt's parents, I can't wait for next summer so go back.