Leaving on a Jet Plane

Hey all you blog readers,
This Friday is the big day! I'll be leaving on a jet plane heading to India... yes India, which is so far from '052 that they don't even have zip codes... really Dad, no zip codes.
It takes 16 hours to get there (yes on the same plane)... but don't worry I'll take lots of pictures and post them here on the blog with all the funny stories that you know will go along w/ a trip like this.

I'll be visiting the Taj Mahal - (one of the 7 wonders of the world)

The star is where I will be staying - Gurgaon where our Stryker Offices are located.

Opening Day

Today was one of our favorite '052 holidays... Opening Day of Deer Season...

This year I decided to sit in a new spot (aka Bill's old spot) so we went trekking out to the woods before light (way before I normally crawl out of bed) and almost as soon as I was setteled into my stand I heard a noise...

I look up and its still dark so I can't see anything but I can hear rustling in the leaves... then here it comes... a big, fat, huge racoon... he must have thought we could sit in the stand together so he started to climb up my tree... I decided there was not room in that tree for both of us and since I wasn't getting down he was. After silently shaking my gun and waving my hand at him he finally noticed he wasn't alone in the tree and off he went. The leaves were so loud that he was making a lot of noise scurrying away and before I know it, Hello! Mr. Bucky standing in front of me. I couldn't tell exactly how big he was but I decided I better not consider it too long and let him run away. About 20 minutes after I shot Mr. Bucky I hear more leaf rustling - thinking my raccon may be coming back I look up to see another deer. At first I thought it was a doe, but no, it was Mr. Bucky 2 ...I think both deer were dead before 8:00 a.m. and it seemed like an eternity before I could get down and check out my deer.

Trevor and Bobby also had good luck (minuis the racoons) and we came home with a gator full of bucks.. Trevor wins the award for most points so far...

Happy Halloween, Happy Birthday and Hockey

This year for Halloween Cole & Lexi decided they wanted to go trick or treating w/ Slappy... so in celebration of Bill's Birthday, Halloween and all things slappy off to the Wings game we went...
Unfortunatly, the K-Wings were a little sleepy from their game the night before and they lost the game (only loss this season), but we had a great time and of course got lots of "fetti" from Slappy as you can see from the photos... (Slappy also shot me a T-shirt - which Lexi proudly wore the rest of the night)

Are you Ready for some Football?

This was Cole's debut season of tackle football for the Bulldogs and he is Hooked! Here's a few shots from his last game...

Jadyn

Hey all,
Just wanted to update you that our buddy Jadyn (City) is doing very well after his surgery. Jadyn's next step will be to go to Boston for Proton Radiation Therapy. Next weekend his family and friends are putting on a Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser at Schnauzers Banquet Hall in Schoolcraft, MI.

Goodbye to our Best Friend

Today we said a teary and sad goodbye to our best buddy Neo (the wonder dog). As I sit here now, it occurs to me (after many writes and deletes of this post) there are no words to describe how much we will miss him, how important he was to us and how glad we are that we had him in our family. For those of you who knew Neo well and probably have a muddy paw print covered shirt from a big dog's hello, here is a small tribute to our pal...

We know our little house on the prarie will not be the same without Neo and although he will be deeply missed, he will never be forgotten.

There are so many memories, including the day we got him - we were planning on getting a female dog, but 5 week old Neo was having none of that - he picked us and made it clear he wanted to be our dog, and he was... here are some of our favorite moments..

• Muddy paw prints on everyone who visited us compliments of the wonder dog
• Not 1 but 2 kiddy pools destroyed by puppy Neo
• Snoopy Neo laying not in but on top of his igloo
• Neo eating all the oil from the turkey fryer
• Neo on the fishing boat (what a disaster)
• Rollerblading Celery Flats (every single person stopped my to ask if I was crazy)
• Trying to shoot the gophers in the yard before he noticed what we were doing and went after it (he usually busted us)
• Neo's summer of Corn Detassling (still waiting on his check I"m sure its in the mail)
• Neo's days of snowplowing on the 4-wheeler w/ Bill
• Buying tomatoes from the store every summer because Neo ate all the ones from the garden.
• Neo jumping the gate @ my parents house without even needing a running start (we thought we would stop him - we were wrong)
• Neo and the Cow (if you don't know this one, don't ask)

Jadyn

UPDATE:
Little City is out of surgery and the doctors said the surgery couldn't have went better and they are hopeful they were able to remove almost all if not all of the tumor. He is doing well and we will know more about what comes next after his next MRI which is scheduled for later tonight.

For those of you who haven't heard, our favorite "City Folk" Jadyn Gottschalk is having surgery today. You may recognize Jadyn's name from his frequent visits to the blog. He is Jen and Joel's 10 year old son.
During a routine CT scan for allergies, the doctors found a mass at the base of his skull that they believe to be a chordoma. Jadyn is at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh having surgery to remove the tumor. Please pray for him and his family as they go through this difficult time.