Opening Weekend

This was opening weekend for deer rifle season here in the Northwoods. You can tell we are living in a different area of the country by all of the celebrations taking place to mark this weekend. There were special dinners in town, craft shows and open houses all over town for the "deer hunting widows" to celebrate their husbands being gone all weekend, specials at gas stations....free coke for anyone wearing blaze orange! The funniest thing was the message I got from Kindra's school. They have an automated system that calls each house with a recorded message from the principal when he needs to let us know about events. Well, we had a message last week explaining in great detail the forms parents need to fill out for their children to miss school this week for deer season!!

Well, I got a deer....on opening weekend!! Unfortunately, I didn't get the deer with a rifle....I got it with my Suburban!! I was on my way home from Marshfield, WI for Anna's first gymnastics meet (more on that later). It had turned dark around 5PM, as we were leaving Wausau. Around 530, we were around Tomahawk, coming north on highway 51. I was in the fast lane, going about 70 MPH, passing a truck....and all of a sudden this deer was right in front of us. I swear, she looked at me, and then THUD. The guy I had been passing slowed way down, I put on my blinkers and pulled over to the shoulder. As soon as I stepped out of the car, I smelled something horrible and heard hissing sounds, so I yelled for Anna to get Noah out of the car (they were the only 2 with me). The guy who I'd been passing pulled up to make sure we were ok, and he took a look at the car with me...the front was pretty messed up!! He said it would be safe to sit in the car, so I got the kids back inside and got them a blanket from the back of the Suburban. I called Pavan while this guy went back to see if the deer was still alive....I'm not sure if he was going to put it out of it's misery, or see if he could take it home for opening weekend! HaHa. I already knew it was dead....I would think you could wrestle with a Suburban going 70 MPH and live!!

A few minutes later, a police officer pulled up to check on us. He'd been going the other direction and had seen us pulled over with just one blinker working, and figured we'd hit a deer. Obviously this is a common thing up here, especially this time of year. Then he saw the deer, it had been thrown all the way to the other side of the highway...and he said I tenderized it really well!! Not something you'd want to take home....

He stayed with us for about 45 minutes, filed the report, called a tow truck, talked with us about all sorts of stuff, made sure we were warm enough. Really nice guy. It took about an hour for Pavan and the tow truck to show up. Pavan had been at dinner with Kindra Amaya and Kindra's friend Kirsten. He had to take Kirsten home (left Kindra with her so we would all fit in his truck), and then drive the 30 minutes to find us. We watched the video from Anna's meet, talked with the officer, and took pictures and video of the front of the Suburban. Amazingly, the inside of the car stayed very warm, thank goodness! We got the truck to a body shop in Rhinelander around 730 PM. There were three guys working when we got there, so they took it right inside and opened the hood so Pavan could take more pictures. Thankfully, not much is damaged in the engine, so it'll be mostly body work. The radiator is apparently smashed...not that I know much about cars....but with the holiday it'll be at least a couple of weeks before we have our trusty Suburban back.

Seriously though....I am so thankful we were driving a Suburban. Noah and Anna were asleep in the back of the car when we hit the deer, and it didn't even wake Noah up. Anna just said, what was that, and I told here we'd hit a deer and needed to pull over and make sure the car was ok. I didn't even realize I'd had any damage, the impact was so minimal. It was when I saw the front of the car, that I realized how huge the impact really was. I didn't jerk forward in my seat at all, it's just amazing to me how well our car absorbed the impact of that deer, going 70 mph. If we'd been in a small car, I truly believe we'd have been injured if not killed. That deer would have been thrown up into the windshield, and I hate to think what could have happened at 70 mph!

Of course, we are planning to head to KC tomorrow when the kids get home from school. So first thing this morning I started calling around to find a rental car that would hold all of us and our luggage. Luck was with me this morning.....the second place I called has a Durango being delivered this afternoon, a brand new one!! So I rented it for the next 2 weeks. Insurance will only cover about a third of the cost to rent it....funny how you pay to insure a SUBURBAN, and they pay to rent a compact car!! Go figure.

Anyway, on to Anna's gymnastics meet. She did AWESOME!! She got a first place medal for her floor routine (she got an 8.8!!!), two third place medals, one fourth place ribbon, and a 2nd place team ribbon. Our team was the smallest by far, we only had 7 girls....there were 3 teams, the biggest probably had 30 girls there, but we did great! Tonight at practice they will go over their scores, what they lost points for, and start preparing for their next meet, which is December 3rd in Antigo, WI.

Better get going. This is the second time I've had to type an entry for today, last time I got an error message and it erased the whole thing. So hopefully this time it will save ok.

More later!

Rebecca

Kindra's 12th Birthday

Yesterday was Kindra's 12th birthday. Hard to believe, they really do grow up fast. Especially considering she's 12 going on 17....

Obviously our trip to Lodge at Cedar Creek was her birthday party, but we saved some presents for her actual birthday. She was opening them late last night, since Tuesdays are especially crazy around here. They get home from school at 3:45, rush to change into their dance clothes and grab a snack, and then we are out the door at 4:00 to head to Merrill for dance class. We got home around 8:30...then of course everyone needs a bath and PJs and time to settle down and head to bed.

Anna has choir after school, Kindra has youth group this evening, and Noah has an appointment with his "happy doctor" at 6. Wish us luck...last week's appointment was a nightmare!!

Oh...wanted to let everyone know that Anna has her first gymnastics meet this weekend. Hopefully they will let me video tape her routines, I already know we can't take pictures....the flash can cause some real problems if they lose their balance! She has four routines, one on floor, one on vault, one on bars, and one on balance beam. We don't expect much from this first meet, the coach says if they even make it through all 4 routines, it will be a miracle!! But she is very excited, and we are too! The meet is in Marshfield, WI....about 2 hours from our house. Yuk. And we have to be there all day....leaving the house around 830AM, not getting home until around 7PM. Pavan is on call this weekend, so Kindra is planning to stay home with Amaya and I will take Noah with me. Keeping my fingers crossed that he will be having a good day....

More later,

Rebecca

Weekend at the Waterpark

We had a great weekend at Lodge at Cedar Creek, in Rothschild, WI. We got our first major snowstorm of the year on Friday, which was shocking, considering the night before they were calling for a trace to an inch of snow in Rhinelander. Well, Friday morning I dropped Noah and Anna off at school, and then went to Walmart with Amaya to pick up some groceries to take with us to the hotel. We were in Walmart for about an hour, and when we came out, there were about 4 inches of snow covering everything!! It was coming down so fast, the two of us and our groceries were covered in snow before we made it to our car (no easy feat in 4 inches of snow....). It was unbelievable! When it was all said and done, Rhinelander got 12 1/2 inches of snow!!!

Anyway, I was worried we'd have to cancel our trip because of the snow, but the road crews are awesome up here! They certainly know how to deal with a foot of snow, no problem! We didn't leave Rhinelander until around 7 PM to head to the hotel, and the roads were fine. We went a little slow, took about an hour and a half to get there. It was too late to go to the water park that night, but we spent all day Saturday in the water. Exhausting....but a lot of fun.

On the way to the hotel, the girls were discussing the boys at school, how most of them are jerks and such, and how they hoped there would be some cute boys at the hotel/water park. Well guess what....

We got up to our hotel room, and our hallway was FULL of BOYS!!!! Talking with one of the dads, I found out there was a hockey tournament in town, and they were staying at our hotel!!!! Apparently most of them in our hallway....so you can imagine the fun we had with 3 twelve year old girls and a hotel full of cute boys! Of course this gave us bargaining power....the girls wanted time in the game room, and we wanted dinner alone with no kids....so we traded! Pavan and I went to dinner Saturday night at a restaurant in the lobby of the hotel. They were having a prime rib buffet, GREAT FOOD!!! And the girls got lots of tokens and time in the game room, oh and room service pizza. We had a great time.

Nothing else going on here. I've been online all morning trying to finish up Christmas shopping for the kids. I haven't even begun to think about shopping for anyone else....Pavan and I have agreed that if we want something for Christmas, to order it for ourselves. That way we actually get what we want! Truly though, Christmas (as far as all the presents go) is for the kids. The part I enjoy as an adult is watching the joy on my children's faces, spending time with family, and celebrating the birth of that beautiful baby Jesus, who went on to become our savior. Very touching indeed.

Have a great week!

Rebecca

Last nice days

Not much going on up here in Rhinelander, just back into our routine, which some might say is hectic enough! We've had a wonderful stretch of warm weather this week, with high temperatures in the 50s, and even up to 60 yesterday. Unfortunately, it's cooled down to around 40 with a strong wind today, and they are calling for 3-6 inches of snow tomorrow. Oh well, at least the nice weather gave us an opportunity to get things ready for winter around the house, and gave Pavan and I the opportunity to take one last walk on the trails with Noah.

As many of you know, this is birthday season in our house! Of course, Amaya had her birthday back on September 30th. Well, Kindra turns 12 on November 14th....then Noah turns 4 on November 22nd....then Anna turns 8 on December 20th. Somewhere in there is my birthday, and my mom's birthday....but we've agreed to skip our birthdays starting this year!

To celebrate the children's birthdays, we are taking them to Lodge at Cedar Creek for the weekend....which is about an hour and a half south of us in Rothschild, WI. It's a great hotel, with a HUGE indoor waterpark. The kids love going there, and all three of them wanted to go for their birthdays this year. Pavan is off this weekend (which is rare lately) so we decided to go now, and celebrate all 3 birthdays while we are there. Kindra is also bringing two of her friends along, both great kids! We got a room with 2 queen beds, a living room area with a fold out sofa, a kitchenette with breakfast bar, AND private bedroom with a king size bed. It isn't very expensive when you consider the room includes wrist bands for all 8 of us to use the waterpark! I'll go to the grocery store tomorrow and stock up on groceries so we won't have to pay for breakfast or lunch at the hotel. They do have a restaurant in the restaurant, but it's pretty expensive.

We are going to KC for Thanksgiving this year. I will leave with the kids on Tuesday, from Merrill since they have dance class that evening. Doesn't make any sense to come back to Rhinelander, when we will already be an hour into our trip by the time we make it to Merrill. We will probably try to make it to La Crosse, WI that night, and then head on to KC the next day (which is Noah's birthday). Pavan is on call Thanksgiving, but is flying to KC on Friday. We are having a birthday party for Noah on that Saturday, and then will drive home on Sunday.

I hope all of you are doing well as we head into the holidays. Before we know it, we'll be ringing in 2007!! Hard to believe....

More later,

Rebecca

Halloween

Good morning from Rhinelander. As I sit here typing this entry, I am watching snow flurries out the window. It's nice having my desk top computer right by the window, overlooking the lake. I have to admit, winter hasn't even arrived and I'm already weary of the cold and snow. This will be our third winter in Rhinelander, and I think this time we definitely need to make plans to escape to somewhere warm at some point before spring comes...let's see, that gives us about 6 months, haha. Truly though, our last snow melts in May. First snow comes again in October. I can't imagine how the first settlers in this area survived!! Talk about hardy people!

Anyway, about Halloween. Pavan got home from work around 530, so we headed straight out since trick or treating times were officially from 4-7 PM. It was around 30 degrees at that point, and already dark. The wind had died down some, but it was COLD!!! So, we headed straight to Grace Lodge for trick or treating. It was nice, there were several residents handing out candy, and the kids behaved really well. Amaya was so cute, she would just walk up silently, and stand there with her hand held straight out, staring at the person's face. Noah actually said trick or treat to everyone, and then said thank you for the candy. Of course, Anna behaved....I wasn't too worried about that! And for the first time, Kindra abandoned the trick or treating and just hung out with us adults. She had plenty of candy left over from her party, so it wasn't like she was deprived of sweets! The haunted house at Grace Lodge was pretty good too, just scary enough for the kids to get a nice fright....but not scary enough to give them nightmares! Although Noah got a good scare, and it made him mad! When he came walking out the door from the haunted house, he took his hat, threw it on the ground, and said...I'm going home. All of the residents who saw him do this started laughing, which further irritated him, but it was awfully funny to watch!

Once we left Grace Lodge, we decided it just wasn't Halloween without some good old fashioned "street" trick or treating, so we headed downtown to Joe Bodensteiner's house....thinking we'd hit several houses in that area. Keep in mind, we have this same idea every year.....and so far our record is 4 houses before we give up and head for someplace warm! So, we went to Joe's house. Saw Joe....then got back in our car and headed for Culvers to get some dinner. It was just too cold!!

We were home around 730, and Noah was already asleep when we got here. Pavan went to bed around 830, as did Kindra. Anna fell asleep around 9. Of course Amaya stayed up until around 11...so much for my hopes of getting to bed early!

Have a great day, and welcome to November! Let the holiday (and birthday in our house...) shopping begin!

More later,

Rebecca