In Lighter News...

Jack pooped in the potty for the first time this morning, earning three stickers! In our world, doing a number two gets you two stickers. Plus, he peed right before that, so yeah... you do the math.

A triple-sticker morning for Jack! Hooray!

I called over to the Palisade school to tell Amy but she was with a kiddo. So, I asked Marj to tell her for me as kind of a strange request. She totally understood because her grandkids are training right now too.

Mommy and Daddy were very proud of Jack (as per usual).

-- The Vrbi

Sports Injuries

Last night, during the extremely overly-physical Maywood game, Tori went down with a knee injury within the last minute or two. The girls went on to win the game by a mere three points without her chipping in, but the injury was a pretty gruesome scene.

Heidi, Mom and Dad were at the ER with her last night where they only confirmed that it wasn't broken. Heidi and I are going to throw her in the back of the car today and get her in at either Kearney or Hastings to have it looked at by an orthopedic specialist. They were finally able to straighten it out at the hospital last night, but she's in a lot of pain and they only told her to take Ibuprofen.

Keep her in your thoughts and prayers today as we try to figure out the diagnosis and a treatment option for her. She's no wimp, and it was obviously a painful ordeal.

As for the game itself, it was ridiculous to watch how very few fouls were actually called in the match. It was pretty hairy from the beginning and just got horridly violent as the match wore on. A good pairing of teams, but the lack of control over the game by the refs was a cryin' shame.

What's worse is that from my vantage points under both baskets, I saw a mortifying lack of respect and sportsmanship all across the gym (even a couple in our own crowd, which overall was very mild compared to what I saw from kids and adults from the other schools). At one point, I started taking photos of a Maywood man who was having temper tantrums so juvenile that no three-year-old could begin to compete.

It was frightening as hell to think that any semblance of good sportsmanship may be lost and gone forever. Let's hope not.

Hmmm.... I smell a sports column cookin' in my brain.

More Tor On Da Basketball Floor

Tori (standing at right if you've never seen her before) and the rest of the team during a timeout against Perkins County. Those girls were good!

Tori does battle for the ball against an Eagle player from Garden County. If a Tori has a battle for a ball against an Eagle, it's called a Bronco Eagle basketbattle rattle. (Yeah, I tried too hard to make that happen.)

Hitting a bucket on the inside.

Um...Little Miss PersonalSpaceViolator, could you get out the way? Tori's tryin' to shoot.

Tori shooting over a midget. Okay, not really. Tori's seven feet tall sometimes.

If I were to commend Tori on her defense, gettin' all up in that girl's grill, that'd make me a hypocrite, right? So be it.

This pic isn't really of Tori per se, but she is on the right. I just think it's funny that the Paxton girl looks like she's kinda having a serious brain/facial issue.

Paxton girl, you just got served with a block.

Question: Why, oh why, do Tori and Blair gotta be so mean? 

Answer: Cuz it's their dang job.

This pic hit the paper a week or two ago. It's Tori beating a Falcon player to the ball. Neener neener neener.

Hey, you gonna shoot that ball? Better do it quick, cuz if not, Tori'll block ya.

My Column

Every week, I write a humorous column (at least some think so) for the paper. If you're interested in reading it, click here. 

The reason I'm telling you is there's a story on there from last week about the squirrel we had in our house. It's a doozy.

Enjoy. And check back often!

Dave

Happy Birthday, Larissa!

Happy, Birthday, Larissa! 

(She's on the left in the photo. She and Sabrina were nice and set up our pantry !)

Hope it's a good one and Shane spoils ya!

Peek-A-Boo!

Godspeed, President Obama!

History will remember this day as a monumental moment in time for our country.

Not like it wasn't already obvious, but the Vrbi are enjoying the inaugural coverage and wish our new president and his cabinet the best of luck. We are praying both for his safety and for the courage to tackle the long list of immediate priorities during his first year in office.

Good luck, President Obama! (Man, I love how that sounds.)

Guess What We Did Today!?

Jack used the big boy potty SIX TIMES today! Amy and I decided Jack was ready for the big boy potty since he's been interested in it for a couple months now. We wanted to make sure we were settled in before we went for it. Needless to say, the first day was a smashing success!

Putting the third sticker on the poster in the bathroom. We are far from potty trained, more like parent trained, but that's the first step: getting them to do their duty on the chair! We feel like he did a great job today. Three accidents and six successes is a great ratio for the first day! What a big boy. So hard to believe. Sigh...

It really helped to bring his potty out into the main area of the house. And he really liked to wear his big-boy pantaloons. Peyton was a lot of help too. I went over to their house this morning to grab her old Dora toilet seat and she wanted to come over (was pretty much begging). She was able to encourage him throughout three of his successes. We had all planned to go to the game, but decided to have Peyton over again instead of undoing our success by having to put him in a diaper for the game or worse yet, dealing with the underwear and going to the bathroom every 15 minutes.

Way to go, Jack!

Jack's Baptism

We had Jack baptized last Sunday during church services. He, his cousin Sawyer, and the Weiss twins, Jaysek and Jensyn, were all baptized. It was a great service, with great music, readings, a potluck dinner, and the whole she-bang. Above, me, Amy and Jack after the din-din.

We had a lot of our family there and luckily one of them took a photo of the actual event for me. Rev. Judy was impressed that we practiced for the baptism when I told her during church, then later said to Tina, my co-worker, that she wasn't sure what that meant. It means that when we were having a little tea/water party at his table, I tossed water in his face and said, 'bless you, Jack' and he did the same to me. It became a fun game, of which I have a video to upload.

The baptism crew: me, Jack, Amy, Jaime, Jensyn, Pastor Judy, Jaysek, Jason, Sarah, Sawyer and Broseph Joseph.

The potluck dinner was exceptional. We have great cooks at our church.

Monkey see, monkey do. 

Me and Sawyer. We were buddies.

Happy Birthday, Keith!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Keith!

(aka Keith-er Sutherland)

Happy Birthday, Gampa Zherry!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAPA JERRY!

Today is my dad's birthday. I know I've used this joke at least twice before, but I'm convinced now that this chick is actually not diggin' these two. Consider that joke OVER. It was 'cheep' any way! Waaaa-haaa-haa-ha! Okay, I'm done 'ruffling feathers'! Tee hee.

What an awesome grandpa he is.

This was from back when Grandpa and Grandma had to say their good-byes before they left. Now, they just say, "see ya later."

Our Fave Fotos 2008 Edition: The Top Five

5. Amy took this photo of Jack gettin' sassy with her after messing with the oven when he shouldn't have. It's quite funny though he appears quite evil and the truth is quite the opposite. (Most of the time.)
4. Cute little booger. We snuck away from his birthday to take this one. He's so cooperative.
3. You knew this one would be way up here didn't you? He is absolutely hilarious in his c'boy garb. We might need to consider teaching him that it ain't polite to point guns at people...
2. This photo is huge in my personal calendar I had made. I just love his face, the hat, the mittens, the everything about it. He's just handsome.
1. Duh. This photo is just perfect.

From The Mouth Of A Toddler

Some hilarity from Jack lately:

• At the church Christmas program, Jack was enjoying the peanuts out of his stocking. Noticing his mouth full of peanuts, Marge Gates leaned over and said, "You're just a little squirrel eating all those peanuts." He looked up at her and said, "I not a squirrel. I a boy."
• Jack was being a goof the other day. Amy was sitting there laughing at him and he looked up and said, "Mommy, I totes funny." Ummm...ooops...
• I was wearing shorts tonight at the dinner table and Jack put his feet up on my leg. His legs were freezing so I said something that led up to me also adding, "ICE ICE BABY!" He looked at me and said, "Ice Ice, Daddy."
• We are lucky that Jack stays in bed after he wakes up until someone comes and gets him. The other day, he was laying there yelling 'mommy' over and over again. I walked in to get him and he looked up and me and very snottily sniped, "I said 'mommy'".

There have been many more, so we'll update as we remember them.

Our Fave Fotos 2008 Edition: Numbers 10-6

10. Un-decorating the Christmas tree...caught doin' what dad told him not to do...

Whatever. He's cute.
9. No rest for the cowboy at heart. There's actually a kid's book titled "Why Cowboys Sleep With Their Boots On". Might need to snag that one from Amazon.

8. I don't know what's the funnest thing about his photo. The climbing? The mischief? The little diapered butt? The socks? All of the above?

7. He seemed to just know what to do here. Some kids just know how to be adorable.

6. This will always be one of my very favorite photos of all time. For obvious reasons.

Our Fave Fotos 2008 Edition: Numbers 15-11

15. For some reason, this photo just makes me chuckle. It has a very third-worldy vibe to it though, so I guess it give me mixed emotions to picture my child as a pants-less 'fugee.
14. He just looks so suave in this photo. Laid back and chillin' in the breakfast nook. I should warn him though that smiling like that is gonna give him crow's feet. Nahhh...

13. Forget the dang birds. I'M hungry!

12. Takin' a break at TiLynn's before hitting up some other peeps for some treats.

11. Yoga with Jack. Love this picture for so many reasons.

Tori In Some B-Ball Action

One of the many perks of my gig is that I have access to sports photos (ya know, since I'm down on the floor takin' em that works out pretty good) and I can use them. Since I photograph the sports, I try to get some extra photos of Tori while she's playing. I'm fair about which ones I run, don't worry; in fact I'm so fair that she's the least published player on the team so far! So, I'm gonna at least publish them here. Above, it looks like her teammates are worried the clock is running out and urging her to put it up, but they're just talkative I guess.

A little outnumbered there, Tor.

Putting up a shot against Hitchcock County. Her team plays them again tonight.

Hitting a bucket in a crowd.

I'm pretty sure what she and Blair are doing to this poor Paxton girl is illegal in most countries, but boy it looks effective!

Workin' the ball against Wallace. 

Grabbing a 'bound against Wallace. The Broncos (Tori's team if you're not paying attention) are 7-2 and rated seventh in Class D-1. They're also third in wildcard points, so that's really a good thing. Hopefully they don't need that to go to state, but it certainly never hurts!

Okay, so the Cambridge girl made it through just fine. A touch of drama never hurt anyone, right? Except her of course.

This is the one that was in the paper. I was having a bad shooting night on my first excursion since I returned. The settings were not working for me on the camera. This picture is good, but coulda been better. Whatev. They're all just fine now 'cuz I tooled with the camera. So, from now on, only award winners! (Just kidding.)

And a reminder, the Breeze Web site is awesome: Click here to visit it.