My weekend

Well this weekend I helped volunteer at a biathalon. What is that you say. well it is where you cross-country ski and shoot a rifle. The Youth/Junior World Championships Team Trials were held here in Northern MN this weekend. They were supposed to be in Anchorage AK but due to a lack of snow they were moved here, so because of the last minute move they needed some extra volunteers. So I went and helped, it was pretty interesting since I had never seen on in person before, I had only seen them on TV.

My job was to keep score on certain lanes on the range. I had to write down when someone missed the target. When you miss the target you have to complete a penalty lap, so it is important to keep track of the shooting

Anyway the winners and some other qualifiers now get to go on to the worlds which will be held in Germany later this month.

Here are some photos

Funny story

So three of the guys that I work with are on a trip. They are driving a 70's volkswagon van from Fresno to (hopefully) panama or however far it makes it. Here is the last email I got from one of them.

"I think that we should probably write a travel book about things NOT to do in Central America. We are fast becoming the prime example of ignorant american tourists.
Last night the van was burgled.
Now normally we grab all of the valuables out of the bus if we get a room for the night, but for some reason, when we got to Antigua, it seemed like such a harmless town that we neglected some of the little things that we normally do. Such as not leaving our passports and credit cards in the bus.
Last night we got into town and me and berto threw our party suits on and went out. We locked up the van, but apparently Berto and Paul left some of their stuff in the van. Paul was being slow so we left without him, but when we ran into him an hour later, he was driving some random girls truck. He said he was taking her to San Carlos... I think she was too cracked out to know where she was, but Paul being the gentleman that he is, he drove her to the next town, and took a cab home.
When the bar closed down at 2 (lame), we went to grab some water from the van on the way to bed, but berto couldn´t find his bag. Then we noticed that the drivers door was unlocked and there was a hole in the screen in the window. Somebody had forced the side window open and punched in the screen.
The worst part was that you cant make phonecalls from Guatemala phones without a phonecard, and our phonecards were from Mexico, so they wouldn´t work (even though the phone company is the same in both countries). So they couldn´t call and cancel their cards till the morning.
So far I think they´ve gotten the credit card stuff taken care of (except for the 15 transactions on Pauls card last night), but we´ll see how it goes with getting Paul and Berto replacement passports. Oh, and they stole all the vans registration papers, so I really don´t know how we are going to get the van back out of the country. So Mike, if you want to start some sort of pool on what happens to the van, I´ve got 5 dollars that says the van spends the rest of it´s days rusting in Guatemala.

We´ll keep you updated on pending deportations and jail time."

Last email before this was about them ending up at a male strip club in mexico city.

I wonder where they will take me next...... For those of you who know the guys I work with Chuck is who wrote the email.

Whirlwind!!

That is how you sum up my christmas. Here is what I did

Thurs: Drive down to Minneapolis hung out with Randi and Erika

Fri: Do some quick shopping pick up Laura in afternoon and drive home (in a snowstorm)

Saturday: Hang out with my nephew and Laura. During a snowstorm so shoveling was necessary. Laura and I went snowshoeing. It was her first time on snowshoes... I haver lovely pictures of her but she would kill me if I posted them on here

Sunday: Xmas at my Grandma's. Had to drive an hour north of here with roads that hadn't been plowed yet. My bro and I talked about making a comercial for subaru showing all that my car can do. Get home and realize that the snow has formed huge drifts all around my house....time to break out the snowblower (which almost ate me)

Monday: my nephew and Laura stayed here sun night so I spent the morning with him. Laura and I then went skiing in the afternoon. I discovered that one of my X-skis is broken...well on its way to being broken. The trails hadn't been groomed so we were breaking trail which is way more work than not, but the plus side was that because it wasn't groomed I made it down the big hill!!!!!!!!! After that it was time to head home and shower and get ready for church and dinner at mom's house.
After that I headed home and cleaned my house thinking that some of my relatives might want to see my house on xmas day since most of them haven't seen my house (I cleaned for nothing)

Tuesday: Xmas at my mom's house with my dad's side of the family. There are 3 boys there ages 7, 8, 9 so you can imagine what that is like. They had all been up early and were full of energy. I felt bad for my bro when he had to take my nephew to his GF family's house. I hope my nephew wasn't a brat but I think that he may have been one.

Weds: Drive down to Minneapolis to drop Laura off and the airport. I was sad to see her leave now I only get to talk to her on the phone. After we dropped laura off mom and I went to a couple of stores and got some good deals. Then we headed home and it took a long time since it was once again snowing.

Well that is my whirlwind xmas I hope you all had a great holiday!

Big Hill part #2

Well I went x-skiing again today, but today we went when there was still some light out.....it made my lovely hill a little easier......I made it almost all the way down....I wiped out right near the bottom. Luke also fell there so I dont feel to bad.... But then later there is one part of the trail that is long downhill...not steep just long and gradual, but the kicker is there is a 90 degree turn right at the end. I watched Luke almost fall over and was telling myself dont do what he did and next thing you know I am doing a face plant.

oh well it was still a fun time.

Big Hill Part #1

Well I went skiing a gain last night and I dont think that I ever really talked about the first time down the big hill, but it is much harder in the dark than it is during the day.

First time we went Luke went firstand he wiped out early going down the hill. There is one point when you get a little air because of a dip in the trail...well when you go down with a headlamp you totally lose the trail. Well I watched Luke fall over so I kind of knoew where to go.... I made it farther down than he did but then you hit this big curve and well that it where I lost it....


Needless to say my goal is to make it down the hill by the time the winter is over.

So last night....Luke makes me go first down the hill....lets say first is harder.... Made it down a ways but kept picking up speed and I knew that I was going to lose it sooner or later and didn't want to be going 100 miles an hour. So I ended up falling. I then get up and try ot keep going but Lukes dog rainy decided that wasnt going to happen and ran into me, which lead to a face plant in the snow. Then as I was getting up I decided to stay where there was a little more snow so it wouldn't be as slick.....well next thing I know my ski is caught on a little tree and before I can get it out, I realize that I am now in the bushes.

There is a reason this cross-country ski trail has a bypass around this hill, but I will not take it...I will make it down this hill even if it kills me

Where'd I go

I spent the last week at training for work. It was nothing to exciting. It was a class on how to become a better instructor...most of it was pretty boring for me since I took class after class on that when I was getting my teaching cert. the only difference here was that it was teaching adults. It is much harder to teach adults than it is kids...or maybe it was hard in this class because if I ever get a job back in MN quite a few people in that room could very well end up being my boss. So anyway I ended up putting in lots of work after class to make sure that my presentation were good

It just seems like I have been super busy since I got home. Since I went to this training last minute I haven't gotten much done that I need to get done... I haven't sent out my xmas cards, I still have shopping to do...Stuff of mine still isn't unpacked but good news is.....I finally have internet here at home now so that is an added bonus.

well here is a photo of my decorated xmas tree. I have added a few more onraments since this photo was taken so it looks a little fuller now

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This mornings temp here in the Northland is -26..... that is what the local news channel says. Brrrrrrrrrrr. The good thing about when it is that cold that is that the sun is shinning and everything out my window looks so pretty.....however I will not be going anywhere, I am guessing my car probably wont start.

Looks like a day of watching movies for me.

My tree didn't get decorated because my nephew didn't end up coming over last night, so no pictures of that yet.

I found out that I have to work next week. I am going to a training class here in MN so that wont be so bad. It is only about 45 minutes away but I am staying in a hotel since there is some night work for this class and because the gov will pay for it.

here is a snow picture that I took last year

Thursday's Adventure

What did I do today?

Today I want over to my parents house and then went snowshoeing with my dad to find myself a tree. Every year we go back into the woods behind our house and find a tree. So today we went. I picked what looked like a scrawny little tree when we were out in the woods. I picked it because it was growing next to another one and one of them would eventually die.

I get it home and man it was bigger than I thought when we were outside. oh well . I think I am going to decorate it tommorow when my nephew is over. Lets hope that my dad remembers which one we decided for him to cut down for his house.

Tonight I am off to go skiing with my friend luke. we are going to some trails over by his house and we are going in the dark for a night ski. It is the first time x-skiing this year. I hope I dont die on this one hill on these trails. Laura we are going where you and I laughed so hard that one of us almost peed our pants and dad always goes down on his behind. Maybe Ill take some pictures... if I can find my camera that is

Snow, snow snow

Yes that has what I have been up to lately. Shoveling snow....and learning how to use my snowblower. I have lived in Northern MN my entire life but I have never used a snowblower until this winter. How is that you say, well my parents have a large driveway and they would have someone plow it and once my dad got a 4-wheeler he would plow it....or they made us shovel. So when I bought my house last year they left me the old snowblower.....the thing is huge and is from 1971...

I used it the other night and man if I didn't have muscles that thing would have caused problems. But it was great!!! It made things go twice as fast.

In other things I got my new bed yesterday. It is huge. I got a low profile boxspring and if I hadn't i don't know what I would have done. It seems way bigger by bigger I mean thicker and higher than when I was in the store.
The picture is a picture of the frame that I bought. With my new mattress you can barely see the wood. oh well it is ok and I like the way it looks in my room, and it sure was comfortable last night....since I dont have cable yet I think that i may just have to spend all day in bed.

well I better go shovel the snow from last night