Pictures of Nationals

Finally got my pictures downloaded from Nationals.....here are a few for you to see.

Jeremy spotting for one of his team members in silhouettes.

Courtney (far right) 6th place in rapid fire. Her cousin Jarrett (2nd from left) placed 9th in rapid fire.

.22 pistol team....Nina, Jarrett and Courtney-3rd place in Slow Fire. They shoot 4 targets for this one and on one of the targets Courtney got a perfect 100 out of 100 with 4 out of 10 bullseyes...Woohoo!

Nina, Courtney, Jarrett and Coach Harry (Nina's dad)-2nd place in Rapid Fire.

Courtney (far left) Nina (in dark blue sweatshirt) Harry and Jarrett working as a team in Silhouettes. Courtney and Jarrett are spotting for Nina shooting.

Courtney getting ready to shoot her slow fire target.

Jeremy shooting slow fire air pistol.

Air Pistol team shooting......Jeremy, Paul, Shelby and Paige.

Air Pistol Team placed 3rd in Slow Fire.....Paige, Shelby, Jeremy and Paul.

Courtney placed 5th in Slow Fire.

Whew.....what a week!

I'm Back!

We are finally back from our "vacation"! It was a good week, although there were a few storms that came through while we were there and it was about 90-95 degrees out while the kids were doing some of their shooting.

The kids did really good. Courtney placed 5th in slow fire and 6th in rapid fire. Her cousin Jarrett was also on her .22 pistol team and place 9th in rapid fire. Their team placed 2nd in slow fire and 3rd in rapid fire. They did not place in silhouettes. Then ended up placing 4th overall!

Jeremy's air pistol team placed 3rd in slow fire, but did not place in rapid fire or silhouettes (they only give out the top 3 placings....top 5 placings overall). They also ended up with 4th place overall.

It is so much fun to watch the kids shoot their guns. If you would have told me 10 or 12 years ago that I would put a .22 pistol in the hands of Courtney and let her shoot with hundreds of people around, I would have laughed at you. I am impressed at how much she has grown up and settled down (f0r the most part). Jeremy has always been pretty responsible and he takes his shooting pretty seriously. He is even thinking about joining the pistol team at college this fall.

I took lots of pictures but haven't had time to do anything with them yet....will post some when I get a chance.

Vacation!

I got the kids sent off on the bus to Nebraska today for the National Shooting Sports Invitational. They called a little bit ago and have made it there safely. Chad and I will leave tomorrow morning to catch up with them and watch them compete.

I will not be posting this week because I do not have a laptop.....hint, hint hubby....I want one!

We will return on Friday....hopefully all vacationed out and ready to get back to the farming and pigs....we started hauling them out this last week.

I hope you all have a great week!

Farm Fun!

Here is how my farm kids have fun on the farm..... Jeremy pulls Courtney around the yard in the cart behind the 4-wheeler....
he listens to her scream.....
while taking her over "hills" aka the driveway.....
and ties to tip her over.....
I know....they seem a little old for things like this but hey, at least they were getting along at the moment and having fun together!!! Oh, and nobody got hurt!

Hmmmm.....I wonder why Jeremy didn't let Courtney pull him around.....he's a smart one!

Fishing!

The Noem family actually took the night off and went fishing! It was so much fun and such a gorgeous night to go fishing. Chad driving the boat.....Jeremy eating.
Courtney....eating! There was one of me eating too but I chose not to post it!
The fish we caught......12 walleyes!
Aren't they nice??!!
Cleaning the fish! Guess what is for dinner tomorrow??!!

Awesome Story!

I got this in an e-mail and had to pass it along to all of you!

The Ant and the Contact Lens: a true story

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens . "Great", she thought. "Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry." She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there. She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me." Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it! The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You." I think it would do all of us some good to say, "God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will." God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of existence and my Savior. He keeps me functioning each and every day Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him....I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

Kittens

I found this little kitten in our barn just crying away. I could not find his mama anywhere and he seemed hungry and lonely. He was a friendly little thing and liked to be held and pet. I tried to feed him some milk and bread but he wouldn't eat it. I checked on him a few times throughout the day and he was still out in the barn crying. I was afraid he would die out in the barn by himself so I did the only thing I could think of besides bottle feeding him......

I brought him over to Sharon (my mother-in-law). She has lots of mama and baby kittens around there. She put him in with a mama cat that had a few babies the same size as the kitten I found. She went down to the barn the next day and this is what she found! Another mama with kittens about half the size of the kitten I found had adopted him instead.
He looks a little big with his step-sisters and step-brothers but he is happy and content!