2009 Girls Wrestling Camp

Girls wrestling camp will be from June 28 to July 2 2009 this year at Missouri Valley College in Marshall MO. Madi and Ellen will be participating this year and I'm really excited about it. I need to start planning activities early this year. We plan to have some great energy at camp this year. Hopefully camp this year will exceed camps past and may just involve another famous flour fight! Those are always fun...especially right after swimming! Nothing mixes better with flour than water...to make for a big pasty competition!
For more information on Missouri Valley College Girls Wrestling Camp contact Carl Murphree at murphreec@moval.edu .

Busy Times

A lot has been going on lately. Madi is in a wrestling tournament every weekend, which involves getting up @ 430 a.m. to travel...sitting on hard bleachers all day...then travelling home. Its exhausting and generally takes a day or 2 to recoup afterwards. She has practice 2-4 times per week in the evenings and of course the holidays + Ellen's birthday came and went in between.

Whew....

Sometimes I feel like I barely have time to breathe, let alone keep up with a blog! Maybe its a good thing that I dont have many people following my blog!

The girls got a Wii for Christmas, along with the Guitar Hero World Tour bundle with the drums & microphone. They also got a Wii Fit (which I have taken control of) and some other games. We spend so much time playing Wii! The entire family (minus Meg most of the time) is in the livng room together playing tennis & golf...bowling, skiiing, doing yoga....it is SO much fun...and great to spend time together as a family. This was a great investment!

Madi had a tournament in Jefferson City yesterday and kicked butt! I told her on the way there that I knew at some point the fighter in her would come out and then she would realize that she can beat these boys and yesterday was that day. She had the first kid an inch away from being pinned for over 30 seconds until time ran out. It ended up in a tie and the kid won the tie breaker but Madison fought til the end....I was so proud of her! We are looking forward to a couple of all girl tournaments coming up...Ill keep everyone posted!

Weekend Activities

Here are a few pics of Madi's 1st wrestling match!

Here she is warming up...

she was so nervous that she walked out onto the mat biting her fingernails.

They shook hands and off they went...


Madi wasnt being very aggressive, she spent more time trying to defend herself


This kid had no mercy...we found out later that he was a state champ last year.

And theres the pin....it didnt last long...but everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

I was a nervous wreck the entire time!

This kid came up to her after the match and said she did a good job and patted her on the back.

I thought it was sweet....he knew how nervous she was.

The Rockettes!!!

We spent all day Saturday in St. Louis. It was such a great day! Em & Chris have an awesome apartment on the top floor of this huge building. It was really cool. We all exchanged gifts and then went down to the fabulous Fox Theatre, where Em works, to see the show. We went into the private entrance and the place was breathtaking. I cant put into words how beautiful this theatre is. All of the details were overwhelming and we hadnt even seen inside the theatre yet...this was just the hallway! The lobby area was amazing...the enormous ceiling and great detail in all the painting and woodwork. There is no way I could justify it with words.

We had private club level seats, which were big comfortable chairs around a little table. Our waiter kept our drinks full through the entire show and the kids had french fries, candied nuts and rock candy suckers during the performance.....and the performance...WOW! It was so fun....the Rockettes are amazing. The wooden soldier part was my favorite. It is unbelievable how they do some of the stuff that they do. When they all fell down on each other, like dominoes, we couldnt beleive it...it was wonderful! One of the best parts of the show was the live Nativity scene. They had Mary on a real donkey....the set was spectacular! The wise men's clothes were beautiful and the camel's were so sweet! Madi swears she saw one guy whispering harshly to his camel and was all worried about it.

Anyway...all in all, we had a very amazing, fun-filled, exhausting weekend that words cant even completely describe.

Rockettes....Here We Come!

Thats right!

We're going to see the the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the world famous Rockettes!!!

Emilee works at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis and has acquired several tickets to this wonderful show and invited Carl, me, the girls & my mom to go see the show on Sunday. Em even said that we wont be sitting in general admission seats...we will be sitting in the Fox Club Seating, with a private entrance & waitresses come around throughout the show to bring dinner & drinks. I cant express to Emilee how very grateful we are...this is a once in a lifetime opportunity & I can hardly wait!

More booties & onesies

Here are the pics of the other sets that I made for the baby shower.....the moms-to-be loved them!

Bitty Booties & Onesie

2 of Carl's wrestlers are pregnant with boys so I have been making booties with matching onesies to give to them at their baby showers. I got the bootie pattern from Heather Bailey's website, which I love, and the idea for the onesies from Martha Stewart's show. I dont normally watch Martha Stewart, but I do love her....I just happened to stumble across the program one day and thought the onesies were really cute. I took pics of this first set but have actually made 2 sets of booties & onesies for each baby. If I can remember, Ill take pics of the others tomorrow before I wrap them up.

Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving is here, and Im sure everyone is looking forward to the turkey. Well, everyone except for the poor turkey.
I was watching the news last night and heard that there was a man delivering live turkeys in New York when a freak accident occured, and several of the turkeys were thrown carelessly from the truck. Thank goodness, they survived the incident and could be heard gobbling, "WE'RE FREE! ... Run for it!" Of course the police came and an ambulance (not for the turkeys), and since the driver and truck were fine, the driver was released to go on with his delivery. But not before they caught the turkeys that were thrown free and PUT THEM BACK ON THE TRUCK. Can you believe that? Why would they do that? I think this accident happened for a reason....maybe God wanted them turkeys free. Maybe they had families to return to. Oh no....the police caught the poor little guys and put them back on that truck which led to their certain death.
So as you all sit down today to eat your delicious turkey dinner....think of the poor little turkeys that were almost home with their families...but now are probably in the bellies of yours.
I leave you with a Thanksgiving song.....sung to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree" :
Oh turkey leg, Oh turkey leg...Im glad you lost your feathers
Oh turkey leg, Oh turkey leg....your skin's as tough as leather
If you could speak to us right now...You'd say, "Why me, and not a cow?"
Oh turkey leg, Oh turkey leg, We'll see you next at Christmas"
Sorry turkeys!