WTF was I thinking?

I cannot believe that I didn't share pictures of the other weekend... the husband & I headed to Waconia, MN for the annual Waconia Vintage Snowmobile Ride, Show & Swap.

There were over 600 vintage sleds that participated in the trail ride. We pulled over and took pictures.

There were the oddest looking sleds there, too. Many homemade ones.

Here's the husband (back to the camera) with some of his snowmobiling buddies. HairyBob is the guy on the right (I like his beard :) ) and Pooch is in the ElmerFudd looking get up. But he has a golden retriever named Belle that is one of Saki's friends so Pooch is an ok guy! (can't wait to see Belle again in June when we go to South Dakota!) Can't remember the other guy's name.
That green monster is the race sled that he built last year.

Sleds were bound to break down and Rampages was no exception. Him & the husband had to do this "can't hear it running" joke that... well, it's a joke because there are some guys who show their sleds but never run them or even let them touch the snow. So the guys will joke that they look good, but don't run.
Maybe you just had to be there.

Our hero, CruelPaul. (yes, all these guys go by goofy names) He's my kids' heros anyway... they have a band on Guitar Hero called "The CruelPaul Rockers". He's a helluva guy. He was announcing the races, but took a moment to pose for me.

More strange sleds....

And Rampage, before his sled quit on him. He's another helluva guy.

Gotta love these snowmobile guys... best damn people you'll ever meet.

It's snow

Well, it ain't much but I think it's going to be enough to cause snowmobile tracks through it later today...

Below Fricken Zero!

So the husband wants me to go with him on this snowmobiling trip in February... way the hell up north in the boonies of Minnesota... way up by the Canadian border where nothing with warm blood lives. We're talking -40 below weather! Yeah, thats negative, as in below fricken zero. I'm supposed to go up there, freeze my ass off and sit behind his ass on a snowmobile. Why did I even agree to this? Good Lord, what have I done?
I still haven't committed to this 100%... I mean we're talking below zero - like instant ice. I have a low blood pressure to begin with and I've been wearing long johns since September. I ain't a cold-blooded woman!
I try to be a good wife and try to get into this whole snowmobile fiasco that he's gotten himself into, but why can't he just get into water-skipping or something? (thats where you snowmobile across water.... in the summer... when it's warm!) Maybe I'll take it up and he'll forget about snow.
Ok, nevermind that. I don't look good in a bikini anymore.
So thats my whine of the day - to go or not to go. It's gonna be cold. Cold... freezing. Ack! I don't know what to do.
He better never question my fricken love for him if I do go.

My weekend- snowmobiling in June?

I'm doing it again this week - throwing all memes together.

We headed to South Dakota for a summer snowmobile show. Went there on Thursday... slept through down pouring thunderstorms Thursday night... spend the day Saturday fighting 30-40mph winds... but Saturday turned out great!For Camera Critters... Saki met a friend. Belle is owned by everybody... well, she actually belongs to a friend of ours, Dan, who is also into this whole vintage snowmobile thing. Belle just runs wherever she wants, but never goes too far away. She hung around with Saki most of the weekend, though. They got accused of being mother/daughter once !

Because of the rain... it was muddy... so Saki & Chico had to stay in the crate when they weren't out running around.
For PhotoHunt, which this week is hair - it seemed rather fitting on Saturday. If you didn't have a hat on... you had hair in your face. 40mph wind will do that to ya! (yes, that's me!)and my weekly winners are..... and this all goes for Wordless Wednesday & Weekend Snapshot, too!

"Mom, they are playing 'Let It Snow' on the radio!"

Lemme run and check the calendar... April 11th. I'm not dreaming. Didn't they say spring began a couple weeks ago?

They are playing "Let It Snow" on the radio?

Yes they were.

And they were, for good reason. Yesterday morning it was bare ground, yesterday afternoon it was raining. Last night they canceled the spring concert at school (Demon #2 was not happy!) and at 9pm last night it was thundering & lightning.... but it was snowing.

Yes, we got snow... and there is more coming yet. Too bad the husband is at work... hopefully it will stick around until the morning so he can do some last minute snowmobiling before it all melts away.

Oh yeah - and there's no school today. Poor mommy.





Got one more to add to the mix....
I just took this... this is the door from the garage to the backyard where the doggie-door is. I couldn't figure out why the dogs wouldn't go through the door this morning... then I opened it. Saki "plowed" her way back through the door later on so it's useable again.

Naked Squirrels!

The Must Haves : SledderWear.com - Snowmobile T-Shirts & Gifts : CafePress.com

LOL I made a little squirrel riding a snowmobile this morning... I think I've officially lost it. Must be the SNOWSTORM we are having today... hello?!?!?! Tomorrow is April for God's sake --- ENOUGH WITH THE SNOW ALREADY!

So yeah, well... anyway. I decided to make some new snowmobiling t-shirt designs this morning and my little squirrel one made me giggle so I had to share.

This just might be the end of snowmobiling designs for awhile... I mean once it's really warm out, who can do snowmobile stuff?

Another snow day

Woke up to more snow this morning... I don't know how much we got since yesterday morning, but it was a mom-walk-around-with-a-camera kind of morning! Just wait 'till the demons get outside!

The husband's ugly green sled

This is the big project that he worked months on... it's a Kawasaki Invader that he made into a race sled. He hasn't raced it yet though.

Vintage sleds shamless plug

Vintage sleds - vintage snowmobile: "03.05.08
LIVE ON SKIS JOURNAL PART II
First video from the big ride comes from our gal 'Ceptorlicious (great screen name huh? Can you tell she's a Kawasaki kind of gal?) who took this video at the beginning of the ride. First John Deere off the line is our special guest Forrest Hess."

Ha ha... they love me. Ok, maybe not love me, but the husband had to point out that I was mentioned on the front page of VintageSleds.com. I feel honored... although it's strange - I wasn't even at LOS! The husband took the video, I just posted it!

Anyway... just wanted to share because... well, they are a great bunch and I can say that.

28 days, being alone and a lot of money

Day #28 today and $168 saved. Remember, thats a low number though... I put down $4/pack on the website, but we really pay close to $5. And double that for the husbands quitting. I'm pretty much down to 1 pill a day, too, but not by choice. I just keep forgetting to take the other fricken pill.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. My husband left me. Ok, ok, not really... well, yes he did. He left me at 5am for snow covered snowmobile trails and a bunch of guys who all they do is sit around and talk BS and snowmobiles all day. It sorta rather sucked without him yesterday...

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day - or any commercialized holiday really. Yeah ok, I go overboard on Christmas, but the rest? Bah humbug. A few years back... probably 8 or 9 years ago the husband walked in the door the afternoon of Valentine's Day with a huge vase filled with one dozen roses and a balloon that said "I love you" attached to it. I was in shock! MY husband did this? Talk about falling in love all over again!

In our house we have one checkbook and it stays with me. He hates writing checks and when he became a truck driver I was forced to be responsible for the bills, so it's just kinda turned into me handling it. Which works for us... and hey! no fighting about money! It's great. #1 reason for divorce in America is financial fighting - won't happen here! Anyway, I have the checkbook, but he has one of those handy dandy plastic cards that works as a check, so when he uses it he has to give me the reciept so I can deduct it out of the checkbook. He used the check-card for the roses, so he handed me the reciept. I took one look at it and said; "If you EVER buy me roses on Valentine's Day again, I'm leaving you".

And I mean it. Some guys will say women don't mean it when they say it, but I do. $85.00 for a dozen roses, a vase and a stupid balloon. That should be illegal. $85.00!! If he would have waited a week they would have been $40. It's stupid and as far as I'm concerned - not very original. If most men think women don't mean it... think about this. Women expect it. Valentine's and roses go together. We don't think men can think past what they know... it's an easy-out. Throw money out, bring home roses. Done.

Let me put it this way - I have all 3 notes that my husband has ever written me. I cherish them like I cherish my children. How many of those 12 roses do I have? None. Figure it out.

Anyway. How about a picture of my puppies just to lighten the mood?

Today we are off to the orthodontist and then the dentist. Demon #1 has braces and she doesn't have enough room in her mouth for all the teeth she has, so today the ortho is going to remove her brackets so the dentist can pull 2 of her teeth... then Monday we go back and have 2 more pulled. She's going to be a hurting unit after all this is said and done!

Speaking of money... do we really want to go here when talking about braces? Ugh. And, of course, our dental insurance is good, but it ain't that good! $4600 for braces... that should be illegal too! And I know that Taryn is going to remember that amount until the day she dies because she is always reminded of the cost. Now granted, she might have ended up with braces anyway, but a lot of it is her own fault. She had no idea what the outcome would be, but when she was little and her baby teeth were loosening up, she wouldn't tell us. She didn't want us to pull them out. So by the time we realized they were loose, they were hanging by a thread and the adult tooth had already come in... and not in the right place. She did this time and time again and it drove us nuts. Snaggletooth we called her, because... she was!

So I'm long winded today, ain't I? If you are still reading... whats wrong with you? I'm not that exciting! LOL

Anyway... have a great day and remember to smile at a stranger for no reason. They'll smile back - I promise!

We're back

We made it home and survived the weekend. Saturday isn't much to speak of because we were stuck in the swap the whole time and I ended up getting chilled right away in the morning... you know how a bone-chilling chill can effect you! I was screwed the rest of the day. Then from shivering I got a massive headache. I think I was probably the biggest pain in the ass around.

We got back to the hotel about 5:30. The husband ordered some pizza while I jumped in the bathtub to try to get warm. I crawled into bed with one of his t-shirts on and a pair of wool socks, ate pizza &breadsticks and then laid down. This was 6:00.

"I'm just going to close my eyes a little while to get rid of this headache"

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

6:20 the next morning....

We skipped the swap on Sunday and went through the show, saw the races and tried to see everything we couldn't see on Saturday. We headed out about 1:30 right after the Loudest Snowmobile Contest.

Got home and did some laundry, caught up on the girls' weekends (they both had a blast!) and realized Saki had grown in the 2 days I was gone! Wow!

Oh.... and can you believe we never took our camera or our video camera out at all this weekend? What a bunch of losers we are, huh?

Day #7 - Goodbye & Good Luck

Well today is day #7 of no smoking. You want to know if these pills are worth it? Yesterday we were picking up a sled at some guys house and he pulled out a pack of cigarettes. I thought, "oh God, here we go!". I hadn't been around a smoker in 6 days. He lit one up and.......

.... nothing.

Thats right. Nothing. I didn't care. I didn't want to tear it from his hand, I didn't want to bum one from him. Nothing.

Then he got into our truck. I almost puked. The smell of smoke that was coming off of him made me gag. He wasn't smoking, he just stunk to high heaven of smoke. Yuck. If I needed a reminder on why I quit.. it was sitting in the front seat of our truck.

Ok other news. We leave today for Waconia 2008. Are you going? Why not? Well, if you are... stop by and see me! I'll be the one, as I've mentioned, sitting under a big green Kawasaki banner and sitting next to a big green Kawasaki sled. I'll also be holding a big beautiful white dog ransom for awhile... if Doc lets me I should say!

Bring me a cup of coffee, too... I'll be freezing my ass off! Or a shot of blackberry brandy will do just fine, too. Nothing warms up the blood like blackberry.

Saki isn't going with. I wish she was. They say a dog should meet 100 people by the time they are 16 weeks old. This would have been perfect for her, but the hotel we have reservations at doesn't allow pets and good luck finding a room this late! So she's staying home.

Day #4 and Snowmobile Shows

Well, Day 3 is here & gone... I did it! I had more cravings yesterday than I have yet, but hopefully they are right with the mumbo jumbo about after the 3rd day it gets much better.

I bought strawberry pop tarts yesterday, so I'll be able to take my pill sooner today. I broke down and took my pill yesterday morning w/ a granola bar. I had to fight to get that down. Yuck.

I am finding that the evening pill is giving me an upset stomach - to the point that I feel like I'm going to puke. Funny thing is; my dad doesn't take the morning pill for the same reason. I'm not going to stop taking the evening one quite yet... we'll see if it passes.

Today I need to start getting my butt in gear for the Waconia Snowmobile show this weekend. I have to go to Walmart today and buy hangers (and dog food & kitty litter). We are leaving Friday morning, so I want to have everything packed & ready by Thursday night. Of course, we'll go through the same fight again - I pack light and everything between my stuff and the husbands stuff can fit into one duffel bag. I have a nice sized one... only it's pink. He has this thing with his clothes being in a pink duffel bag. Silly man.

I've got a good selection going of SledderWear merchandise. A package of stickers should be at the post office today. I ordered a few last minute ones last Friday. I have my designs printed out for the catalog and just need to print out the ones I've done this week.

Plus I need to go to the bank today - the husband is getting the puppy-trade sled on Thursday.

Oh.... and it looks like the green Kawi won't be at the show. Don't ask - it's a sore subject. Everything that could have went wrong, did. It ran for 5 minutes last night, though! Sounded great! And then...... well.... it was good while it lasted.

Getting ready for the big show

The next few weeks are going to be filled with getting stuff together for the big snowmobile show in Waconia. This is one show that I don't miss, although I am skipping out on the ride this year. Last year I had just a wee bit of an incident that involved a sled, my knee and a pile of rocks. That's all I'm saying about that... the memory is too fresh. This year the ride is on the lake, so I should just get on a sled and shut up, but I won't. Last year the ice wasn't thick enough so we had to do this "other" trail ride which consisted of a lot of ditches. I hadn't drove in a sled in over 20 years... it wasn't a pleasant experience, lets just stick with that.

But anyway, we'll be at the show - big neon green snowmobile and snowmobile banner and all. Look for us. We'll have a bunch of stuff from SledderWear there, along with a catalog of all the designs available. Stop by and say hi... and bring me a hot cup of coffee.

I hope it's not freezing.

I'm gonna strike gold!

The husband caved in... I get a puppy!! And last night he informed me that out of all the breeds I like he thinks I should get a Golden Retriever.

Can you hear my heart melting?




Very soon I will be bringing one of these precious little faces home....

Stay tuned!



.... oh, the trade off on the puppy? Another sled. Oh well.

Want 2 kids? Cheap!

My kids are demons from hell. They wouldn't cooperate for the family picture, they were crabby and wouldn't smile. I said we'd try again next week, but with a little cropping & some blurring I think they can just be cut out of the family this year and we'll send a pic of just me & Trucker on our Christmas cards.
I had a killer headache that felt like my head was going to explode... you think they just could have smiled. Grrrr

Waiting for snow

We have until Saturday for it to snow. I want a family picture this year and we would like it on a sled, but if it doesn't snow I'm taking it without the "other family member". We'll go to a studio.

So, pray for snow... so I can have the picture I want.

Until then... here's some shots from years past.

Taryn waiting patiently for her chance... my little daredevil.


















Demons on the sled....


















Me on the Interceptor. Ha ha... I look so thrilled!!!!



















The husband showing off....


















Can't wait to take more pics this year...

Bye-Bye Trailer Queen

The husband just called me. The trailer queen is gone. That didn't take long at all... he's only been at the show for three hours! Sort of sad, really. I really liked that sled, but he never rode it because it was in mint condition. We still have the awards we won with it, though.

Last night actually sucked. I'd been looking forward to sleeping in bed all by myself for a week. Well, not exactly by myself. I had the 3 cats and the dog with me... with pets, you are never truly alone.

So I get the demons off to bed and I go and lock the doors. Funny thing that is, really. Won't go into that, though. I shut off all the lights and go to our bedroom. Get undressed.... hey, this isn't a exotic blog.... put my "granny jammies" on. Thats what the husband calls them; my grandma jammies. He hates them with a passion. Anyway, I put those on and crawl into bed, making sure not to disturb the already 2 sleeping cats. I get all snuggled into my blankets and take my place smack dab in the middle of the bed.

Then I get a lump in my throat.

Where the hell did that come from? Is this not what I've been waiting for all week long? The bed to myself... nobody hogging the bed or the covers... no loud smelly noises coming from under the covers? No familiar hand pawing at me, hoping I'm not as tired as I said I was? Whats the lump for? I just suddenly felt this incredible sadness. My honey wasn't in bed and I knew he wasn't going to be. I could have cried, it wouldn't have taken much, but I didn't. I just closed my eyes and fell asleep with the purring times 3 on all sides of me.....

Then I woke up this morning... best damn night of sleep I've had in a LONG time! Didn't even realize I was beating my snooze button until 45 minutes after I was supposed to be up.

Yep, I missed the husband, but not enough to not enjoy the slumber!

Looking forward to tonight...

LEFT AT THE CURB

Really I was left in bed. He wasn't even going to say goodbye, just gave me a kiss while I was asleep and was going to sneak out without me knowing. Before work it's one thing, but he's going to be gone for 4 days. I did wake up, obviously, which is a good thing because he almost forgot to bring pillows along on his 4-day trip across 2 states to go to the Michigan A-1 Snowmobile Show. He's going to sleep in the truck to save on money, so he needs his pillows. Would have been a rough couple nights without them!

So here I sit. Jealous. I wanna go! I could have, but then someone would have had to deal with Demon #1 & #2. Not that big of an issue, really, but me not going was cheaper. I really wanted to go to meet some of the people who don't make it over to the MN & WI shows. I really like going to the snowmobile shows - it's a good crowd of people that attend them.

Oh well. I'm not in the truck so I won't be there. Hope everyone has fun anyway.

DONTCHA HATE IT WHEN

You wake up with a fricken headache? Why bother going to sleep if you are going to wake up feeling like crap. Right behind my right eye, too. It's gone now. Thank God for prescription ibuprofen!

I'm off to work. Need to throw some new designs up at SledderWear today so they can be fresh & new for the show the husband is going to this weekend.