Ice Skating Adventure

Long time homeschooling friends of ours are moving out of state. One of the boys had his birthday party at the ice skating rink before they left. I am happy to say that the couple times the boys have been roller skating must have paid off, because they were skating like old pros! C fell something like 10 times, by his own admission, and H fell a few times also, but they were really throwing caution to the wind with their skating. All of their falls tapered off toward the end of the skating. Other than it being so cold, and us not knowing how cold it would be (thereby forgetting coats and gloves!) they had grand fun.

B stuck pretty close to the wall, chance to fall. She would pass people, though, if they were hanging on the side and wouldn't move for her. I think she only fell once, but like I said, she was very cautious. She made and didn't give herself much of a me put skates on, and I might have been okay except that my feet hurt something terrible! I couldn't get the skates to fit right. Oh, and I was very cold. Yes, it was my own fault. : )

We're going to miss our homeschooling friends after their move, but we know it's for the best for them. I hope you're reading this, V. Family!

We Did Go!

A little update concerning my last post. And thanks, guys, for your kind words regarding this situation. It's certainly very exciting for me.

We did all go to church together Sabbath, our hubby/dad included. We were on the road by 8:00 a.m. sharp, and probably the first ones ready for first service, which starts at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Here are a couple pictures. The one of me is a rarity, since I'm always the one behind the camera. Hubby declined a picture, as he usually does if I ask him before I snap the picture!

So, now I am praying that this will become a regular occurrence for us. I have so longed for our church-going to be a family affair.

All Work and no Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

Okay, so our family works together, but we also play together. We went to the race track with our own celebrity race car driver, my husband! Well, he's still working on the celebrity bit. Ch did some racing on the dirt tracks when he was in high school. He started it up again last year. The boys always go with their dad to the race track, but B and I usually skip it. They get home very late, and it can be dirty and noisy. It's not B's thing so I usually keep her home. (I'm kind of a homebody sometimes and may not need much encouragement to hang out at home!) But the other night, B and I went with the guys. The meet at the track was not for a race, but open practice. It's gearing up for the new racing season.

Ch is very lucky to have a couple boys old enough to help him out. He's got a built-in pit crew! There are lots of other drivers near us in the pits, and they all comment on how they could use our boys for their pit crew. They're not kidding; they really are quite helpful! It's so neat to see them running around with their many duties. They know just what to do and when! This time, B got in on the action too. She had fun doing it, but we weren't there late in the night. She's more of an early bird and doesn't last late into the evening!

In these pictures, C is checking the air pressures in all the tires. If there's too much, he can take some out; if there isn't enough, he puts some in all by himself. Ch will change the pressures throughout the night as the track conditions change over time. H is taking care of the tires, only I had to take the picture off. It had a close-up of hubby's name on the trailer. All 3 kids kept very busy scraping mud off the car. Every time Ch took the car out, the car gets caked with a heavy cement-like clay mud. It covers the entire underside of the car. The kids scrape everything off they can, before it's time for Ch to take the car out again. I kept myself busy with the stop watch, taking still pictures, and also video camera taping of Ch's laps around the track. He uses the video footage to critique his performance. He's always trying to improve his technique next time out!

I have to say something else about this whole racing business. It is not always inexpensive. I am glad that my husband has learned how to be very frugal. Because of his line of work, he has built up quite a network for himself. He's always got his ear to the ground, and paying attention to deals and barter opportunities that may become available. He got this whole car for a steal. He traded the decals on the car and trailer for some dirt work he did for the decal guy. He's always at the auctions (looking for trucks for the water trucks) and you wouldn't believe the deals that you can get on all kinds of stuff. Lots of times, he'll buy something at an auction and turn around and resell it for what it's worth. Oh, and I can't forget to mention that it certainly helps that Ch is very much a handy-man. Self-generated labor is free, and easy on the pocket-book! He's even got sponsors for his racing. Businesses pay for advertisement. So, for that I am truly grateful. And for anybody that's interested, here's a shot of the engine. This is an "open-wheel modified" race car. Whatever that means.

The Auction Itself

This auction is so large it goes for about 10 days. Here are a couple pictures. It is just a smidgen of everything that is there to see.

Here are my guys, observing the auction in action. This little pickup truck with a camper top drives up and down the aisles and aisles of equipment up for auction. They have spotters on the ground, milling with bidders. If somebody wants to bid, the spotter calls the bid in to the auction team inside the camper truck. This is only one "team" in the auction, and they have several going on at the same time. You really have to be on your toes, checking the auction guide (book!) to see when things are supposed to be auctioned off, but you also have to keep checking on the progress of the team you are following, or you will miss out on what you were wanting to bid on.

This whole production is kind of neat to watch. There are food and drink vendors that follow along either behind or in front of the auction team. Auction team workers climb in and out of the camper throughout the bidding process that does not stop. People are sitting all around on their 4-wheelers and golf carts waiting for bidding on the item of their interest. Everybody is looking for a spot of shade, as it can get quite hot in the sun all day. And you'll see lots of people climbing all around the equipment, turning the motors on and off, checking buttons and tires. You have to know the shape of the equipment before you buy it, because once it's yours, you're stuck with it. A business associate of ours bid on a truck one time on accident. I guess it was a bad deal, and there was some kind of misunderstanding, but it didn't matter. He ended up selling the truck later, but it was not a good deal!

Like I said, this is the largest auction in the country that Ch knows of. It used to be the largest in the world, but he's not so sure about that now with China's economy exploding (while our country's economy struggles). There are several other heavy equipment auctions around here locally that follow this one. February is a busy month for heavy equipment dealers.

Monster Jam

We went to the Monster Truck Monster Jam a couple weeks ago with our business partner and a few business associates. (We had purchased our tickets a year ago, so it was like a surprise to be going!) I went with C once before we had kids, and he's taken the boys again several times since they were 2 yrs. old. This year, B and I went with the guys. It was great fun, and here are some of the highlights of the evening. We had great seats right in front of all the action.

This race (above pic.) was a kind we have never seen before but it was hilarious. The white cars don't have a motor, so they have 2 pusher cars each. The pusher cars push the cars around the track and have to also try and get other teams messed up in their travel around the track. We laughed so hard watching this! I can't remember what they called it, but it was some kind of "Demolition".

This truck crashed into a motorhome. He smashed it to bits! He ended up rolling over on his side and they had to turn him over with a big rig loader.

Then Grave Digger smashed it up some more. He blew out a tire in the process and kept right on driving on only 3 wheels!