OMG, I have a blog?

Okay, the first person to harsh on me about my lack of blog updates is gonna get a Dave-sized boot up their butt (it's the American way, according to Toby Keith)! I have been so busy. How busy? So busy that I don't know whether to brush my butt or wash my teeth. THAT'S how busy I've been. Above, witness me coaching Jack to pee outside right off the highway. We were heading to McCook when he said he had to go. This was one of three stops that day that produced zero yellow snow. He's doing a great job on the potty training thing. Most days... Here's our little cheeser noodle. He has his Transformer shoes on (or as he prefers to have them called: his 'robot shoes'; if you make that mistake, he'll quickly inform you) with big boy pantaloons and an alien pajama top. Classy ensemble.

Jack and his snowman. We got a card in the mail from 'Mr. Snowman' one day. Only in a small town would something like that happen. You can read all about it here.

We jetted to GI for a vball tournament a couple weekends ago. Here is Jack with Jace, Jay and Nanci's son. They are adorb together, no diggety, no doubt.

A common interest: Whatever that toy is they're playing with.

Our boys. Such lookers.

Yes, the carpet is still around. No, it won't be for long. But that look? Let's hope it catches on.

The dudes doing the dishes. We're awesome.

Jack absolutely adores dish time. It makes the effort 100% more effort-er having him at the sink. There's also 25% more cleanup afterward! Worth it for that smile? Possibly.

My gawsh, how adorable can this child get?

Jack-a-roni with extra cheese.

His elbows needed some TLC. It's all good.

Blasts from the past

Front from left, John, Janet and Susan Koscielak.

Back row, George and Edna.

(Amy's Aunt Susan was nice enough to send these photos on to me. I'm definitely going to print and frame them as I love old photos. Send more any time, Susan!)

From left, Edna, Susan, Janet and John, in what appears to be Minnesota. This really makes me want to take a trip to the cabin this summer...

I assume this was taken in Minnesota at the cabin. Granny Janny and a very little fish.

Janet in foreground and Susan with the fish.

Janet had the mumps. I had never actually seen what mumps look like. Now I have.

Granny Janny in her younger days. (Before tax season took her from us anyway!)

Thanks for sharing Susan. 

This was WAY fun and made me kinda teary when I saw Grandpa George.

So darn busy!

Okay, I understand y'all want more regular updates, but we have been so busy lately we don't know whether to scratch our watches or wind our butts. A little update is in order I'm sure, so here's the long and short of it. During this time of year, Dave runs around to a million places snapping photos of games and many other events. We've also had a lot of extra stuff to do (Dave giving the sermon at church and filling in for Granny Janny's receptionist at H&R Block on Thursdays, Amy with WW and many other events going on, getting the storefront ready for the studio, games, games and more games. Needless to say, we have much more going on in this tiny little town than we ever did in GI! That, and we have a two-year-old we're potty training!) Anyway, Tori above is on the mend after her knee surgery on Monday. When they worked on her knee, they fixed her MCL, ACL, lateral meniscus and patella. Yikes. She came over last Friday to help Jack, Peyton and the Blackman boys make a snowdude with me.

Here's Jack and me. A moment amid all the chaos.

Jack was so very excited about the snow coming. I told him the night before it hit that in order for it to snow so we could build a snowman, all the little boys in town had to be quiet when they went to bed. I didn't hear a peep out of him, which is rare. The next morning, we headed out into the white blanket of snow to build our newest friend. He's, of course, gone now but everyday when Jack would go outside, he'd say 'hi' to the snowdude. That's my jacket on the snowman and Jack's hat. I'm wearing Jack's Mickey Mouse stocking hat (don't ask me how it fit) and Amy's Grandpa's coat her grandma gave me. I had to explain to Jack that the snowman had to leave before it melted, so while he was at daycare one day, I went out and took care of him.

The Jack.

Our snowdude.

I have a kajillion other photos to upload, but about the time I try to do it, I have probs with Blogger. Go fig.

Happy Birthday, Vanessa!

It's my cousin Vanessa's birthday today, so we wanted to make sure we told her to have a good one. Happy birthday, Vanessa! We hope next time you're back we're actually around to see you more!

Updates on the Knee and the Pee

Found out this morning that Tori has a torn ACL and her kneecap is pretty badly bruised. She and Heidi are going to the surgeon tomorrow to formulate a treatment plan. Needless to say, no more basketball for T.Rae. It came as kind of a surprise to me because when we went to Kearney on Friday, he really thought it was just a meniscal tear. Lucky for us, Heidi and TJ decided to do an MRI to make sure. This morning, Tina was telling me that a couple kids back in the day were told that it'd heal up in a couple weeks too, then they played on it and really messed it up. We're sad that we can't watch Tori play anymore this season. She was a joy to watch. I'm still holding out for hope that she can play volleyball with me this summer though. That'd be a good way to get her strength back...

Jack is really getting this whole potty training thang. He went poo three times this weekend in the potty—twice on his own! He is doing a great job and we are so proud. This morning, in fact, I could not get him off the potty to go to Laura's. He enjoys his time on the throne as much as Dad does. Wait 'till he starts reading. We'll never get him off there!

As for us, we're a little tired. I'm very Wau-Pal'ed out after last week. Games everywhere and on Saturday, I was up at the crack of dawn to cover the junior high tourney, then went to Arapahoe to cover the wrestling tourney, then on to Southern Valley for the girls game that night. All in all, about 14 hours of running hither and yon for photos. The truth of the matter though is that I thoroughly LOVE my job, so days like that are a tradeoff for the fact that I enjoy my gig so much!

Take care and have a good week, one and all!

If I can convince Sarah to send me some photos or update her blog with them, I'll have some cute photos of Jack to post. Hint hint, Aunt Sarah!

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."