Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fans in the Stands!

The Lady Kougars made it all the way to 6th place at STATE.
We rattled our pom-poms and hollered our heads off.
Here are some shots from the weekend...

The Boys in the Stands


Warming up on the big floor


A Crowd of Faces


Girl Power!  We can do it ALL!




Coach, Stats, and Fans



Coach Mom and Daughter



Shaley, Shelby, and Mikayla
Mikayla?  Is that you sportin' the mooostachio?
Hello? Mikayla? That You?


a brother-in-law and  an Aunt Tayta
(a very excited Aunt Tayta, I might add)


our dedicated local newspaper photographer,
a player's boy-fer-end
and a thumbs-up, #1 fan!

People tell me they saw me hootin' and a hollerin' on TV.  That could be the reason I didn't take a lot of pictures.  There were oh so many photos I missed cuz I was so busy hootin'.  At least this gives you a glimpse of some of the fun. 

Wish you all could have been there.....

Hopefully, we'll see you all next year at STATE!

from the range, peace,
kathleen
the handy girl

Sunday, March 6, 2011

A Badlands Birthday

"It's my birthday and I can do
whatever I want to do."

That's our Brown family philosophy.

So, I made my birthday last three days!
(Shhhh!  Don't tell the Senator I did that.
He's traveling in Brazil with the Ambassador and the Judge.)

It started Friday night with a small gathering of friends and children,
after the Kougar Boys BB team lost in the District finals. :(
The kids went crazy running around the house,
while the adults sipped a beverage in the kitchen. 
We analyzed the game. 

Saturday morning, my actual b-day,
brought thoughts of funnel cakes.
Yes, funnel cakes.
You know, State Fair.  Funnel Cakes, Ya.
So I made them.
And Patrick and I ate one.
Well, maybe just a little bit more than one. 
But, it was my birthday, and I could do whatever I wanted to do. . .
So what if I did have three of them?
Who's asking?  Who's counting?

Funnel Cakes.  My Birthday Cake.
Patrick and I decided to take a drive down the "low road," to see if we could spot some wildlife.  We bundled up and tootled down the road in the pick-up.  We stopped to check on ours horses, but didn't see them from the road, so we continued tootling down the road.  

We hadn't gone too far and we encountered this nice group of deer.
Great!  Things were looking good for our Wildlife Drive!


Unfortunately, we went a bit further down the road and encountered this:
I am not kidding you.  This is a road.
This is our Wildlife Loop Road.
Dang.  We turned around.
We decided to head to Belvidere to have a burger with my postmaster, bar owner, candy-making friend.  Her son had just won first place in the District wrestling meet. 
Another cause for celebration.

On Sunday, which I might remind you, was Day Three of the birthday gig, I was ready for another try at the Wildlife Loop.  This time we skirted the "low road" and went in from a different angle.  Unfortunately the clouds hung low and dark, but it was a still a great day to be in the Badlands. 

Hang on to your hats. Fasten your seat belts. Hold on for the ride. 
"The Window"
Do you see it in the upper right corner?
Patrick shot this pix of a big 'ol porcupine languishing in a tree.
They are so easy to spot in the winter.
They stick out like a sore thumb in the bare trees.
It wasn't long before we spotted this little guy,
 trotting along the ridge.
Over hill and dale we went. 
And then, BINGO, look what we spotted.
Big Horn Sheep.
It made my whole day, my whole weekend, to spot these guys.
...the best birthday present so far!
(Well, besides the Kindle.  I'll tell you about that later.)
Another porcupine. 
He really did not want his picture taken!
I trampled through knee-deep snow to get this pose.
Here's one last shot of the snow-covered Badlands.

What a great Wildlife ride we had!

But wait, just after leaving the park, we spotted a whole bunch of deer!
As if the porcupines and Big Horn sheep weren't enough!
Oh, and we did see one skunk.
It was dead
 on the side of the road.
Patrick didn't want to stop to take a picture of it.
Where is his sense of adventure?
Here are the deer we spotted. . .
I think we counted a couple dozen all together.  Nice.
Our Wildlife drive ended in Wall. 
They have a Dairy Queen.
We went there AFTER going to "open gym."
We did.
I know you think we just went to the Dairy Queen. 
I am telling you the truth. 
WE WENT TO OPEN GYM.
Seriously.
Patrick played buckets.
I rode the recumbent bike, while reading my Kindle.

I had to work off those funnel cakes.
Well, that ONE funnel cake I ate.
For my birthday.
After all, it was my birthday(s) and I could do whatever I wanted!
I hope you enjoyed the drive.

from the range, peace,
kathleen
the handy girl

P.S. I posted black and white photos because my camera
was not cooperating, AND I thought it looked kind of retro.
What do you think?

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Final Score

Yes, Sir.  When it was all said and done,
the Kougars came out on top!

Just like the gymnastics team, they were
"the cream of the crop"
"the icing on the cake"
"the tip of the iceberg"
the Mike of the Krzyzewski (huh?)

Here are some highlights. . .
We're #1
Tia, Emmylu, Alex

Coach Annette
The former Miss Floodwood Minnesota.
Oh just look how far she has come!
There were some pretty happy Mom and Daughter Combos after the game.
The Dads? 
Well I did see a few of them standing off in the distance casually wiping a tear or two from their eyes.
How sweet!
I let them have their "private time."
Here are some of the Moms. . .
Marti and Mom

Kayla and Mom

Taylor and Mom
And Sisters. . .
 I couldn't resist sharing this one with you.
It makes me a tad weepy.
In a good way.
O.K. here is the story inside a story.
Tess (on the right) is a junior starter on the team.
Her two sisters played bb in the state tourney back in 2004,
which was the last time the Lady Kougars went to State.

WELL, her two sisters traveled from all ends of the earth
to be at the game to watch Tess play.
It was a family reunion of sorts,
with a very happy ending, I might add.
Weepy, it just makes me weepy.

O.K.,
here's my theory on why we came out on top. . . 


We had better shoes
 They matched.


We had better hair
Just look closely.
It poofed. It twisted.
It crinkled. 
They had cute little headbands.
It poofed. It poofed. It poofed.
(It did all things my hair does not.)
Yes, we had better hair.
We had a better band
Well, we HAD a band.
The other team did not.
They had cheerleaders.  We did not.
That didn't seem to matter, now did it?
We had a better band.


We had better fans
Oh look, that's Rosie from The Pines.
A future Kougar.
 
We had more finesse
Enough said.

We had better moms
and better dads
and better brothers
and better sisters
and better grandmas
and better grandpas
and better aunts and uncles
and better cousins
and better dogs
and better horses
and better. . . .

We made more free throws
Marti was in for "two" on this one.

We were smarter than they were
Academic All-Stars!
And my final reason for coming out on top. . .

We scored more points than they did!
End of Story.
We're goin' to STATE!
Congratulations, Lady Kougars!
Thanks for the memories.

from the range, peace,
kathleen
the handy girl

an added note...
My friend, miss jones, took some of the pix on the blog today.
She said I could post them.
So there.
Thank you, miss jones.



Tuesday, March 1, 2011

High School GIRLS BB - ALL THE WAY TO STATE!

The Girls Basketball Team just made it to STATE!

What a hoot it was!

I'm tired.

I just had to tell ya!

More to come!


The Coaches.
Miss Annette is originally from Floodwood, MN.
I'm sure that is where she acquired all her bb skills.

Coach H. used to live in Alaska.
But that doesn't mean a thing.  He says he knows Sarah Palin.
That doesn't mean a thing either.
Way to Go, Coaches!

from the range, peace,
kathleen
the handy girl