SDSU Women are turning into Gonzaga?!?!

Every year when March Madness starts there is a team or 2 that throw up this great Cinderella story and go way further in the tournament than people ever expected. I know you remember Gonzaga in 1999, Kent State in 2002, Davidson in 2008, George Mason in 2006, and 1983 North Carolina State with Jimmy V running like a mad man on the court after they won.

Not all Cinderella's make the championship game, but what they do for their schools is remarkable...after George Mason made their run in 2006, 2007's enrollment went up like 20% or something like that. Gonzaga experienced the same phenomena, and now they are almost expected to make the men's tournament every year.

Well, we are still waiting for the SDSU men's basketball team to catch up with the football and women's basketball program (last nights win did help), but the nation is starting to notice what is happening in Brookings with the women's program.

The New York Times did a story on the women's team and you can read it here by clicking.

Brecken LOVES Angie.

I am pretty sure that Brecken loves me, his mommy, his grandpas and grandmas, but I also think he has his first crush on a girl. An older girl at that, and married, to one of my best friends.

"ANNNNGIE'S HOUSE!?!?!" that's what he has said for the last 3 mornings as soon as he wakes up.

On Monday he woke up super cranky, whining and screaming...and he wasn't even out of bed yet. Steph said 5 words, and it was Christmas Day for him. "We're going to Angie's house."

He popped up, smiled and started jumping on the bed. He spent the morning there with Steph and Angie's youngest girl...doing who knows what, I'm sure making a mess of their playroom as usual.

Tuesday night we were headed back over to the Fast's for the evening, Brecken was singing praises to Angie the whole way over, and screamed the whole way home. Then this morning he woke up and I'm pretty sure walked up to Steph and said, "go to Annnngie's". He did get to see Angie as Steph and the girl's went out to eat for lunch...so he got his fix today.

Angie eats it up, and I think with 3 girls running her house it is nice to have a boy-fix every now and then, but I worry that Jared (Angie's husband) might be getting jealous of all the attention that the little guy gets, and he will put an end to Brecken's desire to go live with Angie.

This is about right...

A buddy sent this to me yesterday. He thinks he's funny, and unfortunately it's pretty true.

(note the cup of coffee that the crazy parent threw at the referee...pretty sure some folks have been tempted to give me an early shower of hot liquids)

Another Video Post...but worth it.

Don't know if you caught the Winter X Games on ESPN this weekend, but here is the insane highlight of the week. Maxim and Brecken were trying to figure out how much speed they needed to huck a snowmobile off the deck, over the trees and then barrel roll it 2 times and land cleanly on the frozen lake below...they are so not getting a snowmobile.

Gotta Love TV Shopping Channels...

Candy Cigs.

Last night we picked up the bunk bed in Mitchell for the boys, and on the way home Brecken had to go potty, so we stopped at a gas station called the Country Pumper (Or the Country Dumper as our family knows it) and Brecken did his job.

He was proud and when he goes potty in the potty chair at home he gets a handful of M&M's. So he thought that if you go potty at a gas station you get candy too, and I couldn't say no.

FLASHBACK: Does anyone from Huron remember Skeezicks Grocery? (Not sure on the spelling) Well they had the best array of candy, and every once in a while Sally and I would get to take our bikes down to that marvelous house of candy...I usually got the same thing, a couple packs of baseball or football cards and some candy cigarettes. I actually like the taste of candy cigs, and every once in a while when I would find a box I would buy them as a joke. I hadn't seen them in years...until last night.

So Brecken is looking at candy, and he sees this box with a cowboy on the front...great marketing to attract his attention...so I say why not and we grab a couple boxes of the sweet flavorful sticks of pure sugar.

Steph was less than impressed, but I talked her into snapping a picture of Breck and his new favorite candy. ROUND-UP CANDY CIGARETTES!

I'm Back!

HEY EVERYONE I'M BACK.

I finally got the snow out of the driveway on Saturday night, but not before getting barely stuck in a super hard drift about 30 feet from my garage! (and yes I did have it in 4-wheel drive!) Thanks to the neighbors for the quick pull to get me out. I think I could have pulled it out on my mountain bike!

So you all think you are naming our next child? There were some pretty good names in the list, some ridiculous as you would expect. This whole naming your child thing is taking on a life of it's own. It would be a lot less stressful if we only had one gender of names to pick. I honestly don't know if we will have it narrowed down to 1 boy and 1 girl name before it is born.

Finally a photo of the boys...I made them go outside on that day it was -45 degrees and -60 with the windchill. I kind of wanted to celebrate the day! (kidding)

Steph's First Post.

So we have a few baby names for our yet to be born baby. We don't know what we are having and it is another headache that Tom has given me. We should have found out, that way I could be buying a bunch of pink stuff or getting some blue stuff. Since we don't know we haven't settled on a name yet.

Skipper is out for a boy as that one is take in Tom's family, and Walt wouldn't work beside Maxim and Brecken. We have the girl's name narrowed down to a few, but are still open to suggestions.

If you have any please post them in the comments area.

Tom is not allowed to post anymore to this blog until he gets the driveway blown out again, so you might not see him until April...so until then I have taken over this blog!

My Snow Removal Budget Is Tapped.

The City of Huron tapped it's 2008 snow removal budget with about a month and a half left in 2008, and it was kind of the joke around town that the budget consisted of 4 tanks of gas, 4 dozen donuts and 14 cups of coffee.

This year isn't epic as far as snowfall, but I am getting sick of getting the driveways clean and then the next morning there is 2" of fluffy...I move that only to have it blow back in the next day when the 40 mph winds kick in.

In the past I think I have filled my snow blower 2 or 3 times a year...this year I am on my 5th tank of gas, and from the looks of things I'll go through another tank tonight!

Wonder if I have to change the oil after 3,000 miles on my snow blower?

Click here for a link to what it looks like outside today.

4X4 works...when you use it.

Remember the days of rear-wheel drive cars?

It seems like the cars produced now are all-wheel drive, on-demand 4-wheel drive or front-wheel drive. The only brand new car with rear wheel drives are sports cars.

Most every family in South Dakota probably has a 4-wheel drive car in the garage...if you don't you probably have a front wheel drive. You have to with the snow and ice we get around here. That brings me to a story that happened on Wednesday night.

Grandpa Bob picked up Maxim from school and took him to the bank, I think it is kind of a Grandpa "show and tell" thing. He gets to show off his grandson. On their way home dad took a "back entrance" to the house and while avoiding an overgrown tree limb he hung a front tire on a snowbank and his rear tires were on pure ice. He tried to rock it out, but he and Maxim ended up hoofing it to the house. (It was only a 2 block walk.)

When I got to their house dad informed me that I had to pull him out, so we drove the Yukon over to the spot and hooked up a chain. I was actually surprised that he was stuck with a 4-wheel drive pick-up in such a little snow pile. I barely pulled him and he popped out. On the short drive back to the house I wondered if the Yukon's auto 4-wheel drive even kicked in.

We got to the garage and I mentioned that I barely even put tension on the chain...he said, "Yeah, it probably would have helped if I would have put the pick-up in 4-wheel drive!" The whole time he was stuck he was trying to get out with only the 2 back wheels spinning on ice.

NOW I MUST ALSO COME CLEAN...I razzed him about it for a while, then dropped it because I remember my own misfortune only 3 weeks prior. We were loaded up and ready to head to town and the windshield was covered with a fine misting of ice, so I tried the lazy man's scrape of spraying some wiper fluid on it and just driving it.

I made it about 400 yards before I ran smack into a huge drift that blew into our road the night before. About a half hour later I got the Expedition unstuck...with the help of the little Subaru!

Winter driving tip #1 and #2: Scrape your windows and make sure your 4-wheel drive is engaged before you declare yourself stuck!

NHL's Winter Classic at Wrigley.

The NHL's Winter Classic was played at Wrigley this year...my 2 favorite things...hockey and Wrigley Field together. It was a good game too.

Here is a quicktime video of the rink set up.

Mite Hockey Festival

We spent the weekend as hockey parents, as Maxim played in his first tournament. It was entertaining to say the least. My team on average is 2 years younger than all the other teams we played...so we didn't exactly compete. As a coach it is frustrating getting beat 11 to 1 on average. Even though they don't put the score on the board, the kids know it and I know it.

Today in our final game we beat an Aberdeen team 4 to 1 or something like that...when we got into the locker room one of the boys shook up a Mountain Dew and started spraying it like it was champagne and we had just won the Stanley Cup. It ended our weekend on a positive note.

Maxim improved each game...he went from skating in the pack of kids to really trying to get the puck and a couple of times he carried it for a while, then some big 8-year-old from Sioux Falls took it away from him. He had fun and that's what mattered.

I spent the rest of the afternoon today behind the snow blower moving the 4 foot high drift in our extra parking spots...and then watching the Vikings blow it. I wonder if Coach Childress goes into the locker room and asks all the players if they had fun out there and then gives them a pep talk about the score not mattering? It works for me!