SIERRA TURNS 10 YEARS OLD TODAY!!

I have to say that I'm just sooooo extremely excited to give Sierra her birthday presents. Jon is so bummed that he's in TX and won't be there for her today. She said she understands and I hope that he doesn't miss too many of these. . . :) We all said we're in this together so we know we have to hang tough and we'll get through it.
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Ok, since I know that Sierra won't be reading this, I'll spill the beans. SHE'S GETTING A NINTENDO DS LITE FOR HER BDAY!!! The poor thing has been wanting and wanting and wanting a DS and I keep telling her she couldn't have one. I finally talked with Jon about it and he said she could have one. BUT, we've been telling her that she needs to save her money so she can buy it herself! lol. I have to admit, watching Sierra try to save money is quite comical. She just likes everything and wants to buy it all! I bought a DS, numerous games, a case, special shield so it doesn't get scratched, etc. She worked her *ss off this summer for me. I told Jon I can really tell already that she's not home during the day because no one is washing my clothes, cleaning the house, etc. She did absolutely FABULOUS this summer and worked hard. Generally, we don't spend that much on bdays, but tell you what, this CHILD HAS EARNED IT!! I feel so bad because she told me she wanted money for her bday and she saw all sorts of giftbags for her on the fireplace. lol. She thinks she's not getting money and she was counting on this money to buy her DS! lmao. Poor thing. I can just imagine the look on her little face when she sees the DS in one of those bags. We're only giving her the DS, case, and 1 game and then lots of clothes. The rest of the games I'll give to her for Christmas or whatever. The game and case is technically for doing such an awesome job this summer, so she deserves me to spend a little more on her. :) Everyone at work thinks I'm just a horrible mom for expecting Sierra to do so many things while she was home. I told them I really didn't ask her to do anything she couldn't handle and she understood her things had to be done before she could go to the pool. She went to the pool each afternoon as Trailblazer picked her up. The days she didn't go to the pool, she had Carron over, so she definitely had her fun, too.
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I'm currently at work, so nothing like blogging and getting paid for it! lmao. I'm terrible, I know. Hey, at least all of my work is done, so I'm able to do this.
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Tonight we're going to Pizza Ranch with mom and dad and then we'll open gifts afterwards. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER FACE!!! She will be absolutely, positively THRILLED!
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I forgot to write in here that she's having a spa birthday party on Friday night. She's asking 8 people, but only the girls are staying overnight. We'll bring the boys home once it gets dark out. I bought mud masks for the girls, cucumbers for their eyes, sparkles for their hair and they can put on lots of make up and curl their hair, etc. Sierra and Morgan are just besides themselves because they are so excited. They told the rest of the girls to be sure to bring their robes, slippers, etc for this special treatment. Can you imagine 7 girls (including Sierra and Mercedes) running around with mud masks on? lol. Too funny. Wish me luck on Friday night!
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Peace.

MERCEDES PLACED 2ND AT STATE PEDAL PULL!!!!!

WE ARE GOING TO NATIONALS IN SOUTH DAKOTA!!! WOOO HOOOO MERCEDES!!!
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Here is the email I sent, along with a pic of Mercedes and her trophy, to several friends, family, pastor, the newspaper, teachers, and principal:
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Good Morning everyone!!
Today is a great day as it's Sierra's 10th birthday. But. . . I have to share our news that happened over the weekend with Mercedes.

As most of you know, the kids have done pedals pulls since Sierra was 4 yrs old. Each of the kids (including Lincoln) have done very well this summer and each qualified to go to State Pedal Pull Championship in Hutch. This means that any child who placed 1st or 2nd in any State sanctioned pedal pull can go to State. If 1st and/or 2nd already qualified then the child who placed 3rd can go to State. (Generally there's around 600 kids who compete at State.)

Anyway, State was this past weekend. There were 71 boys in Lincoln's group and he got 4th place. He was a few feet short of the 3rd place boy. I told him he did very, very well considering competition was that tough and he got 4th place. Next was Mercedes and she was all psyched up and was so excited to pull. There was around 30 girls in her group and she was inches from a full pull. After she went, she was in 1st place. Mercedes was #21 in the group, so there were several after her and we all were soooo nervous! There was one girl who got a full pull, so she bumped Mercedes to 2nd place. As each remaining girl went, we crossed our fingers so Mercedes wouldn't get bumped. State gets pretty crazy as there are pulls going at each end of the building. I asked my mom if she would write down the measurements (since I was sitting with Mercedes in a different area waiting to go) of everyone, but it gets crazy as they are announcing measurements for the pulls that are going on at the same time. So, mom said she wasn't always sure if she was writing down the correct measurement that pertained to Mercedes' group. We were just nervous and excited and really we weren't positive where she placed after the last girl went. We knew she was inches from a full pull, so we only hoped she placed 2nd or 3rd. Well, the 3rd place person was announced and we thought Mercedes went farther than her and then her name was announced as the 2nd place winner!! My mom and dad were there (Jon was in TX working, so he couldn't be there.) with me and the kids. We all started screaming we were sooooo excited!! Because she placed 2nd, she is going to NATIONALS in SOUTH DAKOTA!!!! This is such a huge accomplishment for her. She really worked so hard in the pedal pulls this summer! The National Championship is the last weekend in September so that's where we will be!!

Sierra's pull was in the afternoon and she was soooo excited as she was also #21 in her age group. As she knows, the competition at her age is also tough. The 3rd place winner pulled 16'3" and Sierra pulled 14' and some inches. She, too, was soooo close!! 2nd place pulled 16'6", so that shows you that literally, each inch counts. We all told Sierra that we were proud of her, too, because that's a big deal making it to State and still being in the top of the group.

Both Lincoln and Sierra told Mercedes how proud of her they were and it was just cute to see them. There were a few tears from Lincoln because he was sad about not getting a trophy and Mercedes did, but he realized it was ok and he had a good pull, too.
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Soooo, Nationals are the end of September and believe it or not, the top 5 in each group at Nationals move on to Internationals!!! Mercedes will be competing against kids from all States that have State sanctioned pedal pulls. We all told her she needs to keep riding her bike until Nationals so leg muscles stay strong! :)

Attached is a pic of Mercedes and her trophy. We all are so proud of her and I just wanted to share.

Thanks for taking the time to finally reach the bottom of the email!!!

(Our computer system is down right now, so hopefully it's up soon! Oh, how I love Mondays!!)

Have a great day everyone!!
blh
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What an absolutely fabulous weekend. We are just so extremely proud of all 3 kids. They each worked so hard.

Peace.

Where has the time gone?!?!

Ok, ok, ok. I just realized that the last time I wrote in here was the first part of June!! What on earth?! Sorry about that everyone. Yikes!
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Let me think back to June. It was actually a very uneventful beginning and middle of the month. Things were pretty stressfull the end of the month waiting for dad's scan results. Then, on June 27th (also Rick's bday), we got the best results EVER!! Dad's scans showed no new growth and no active cancer cells. YEA!!!!!!! Talk about awesome, huh? Well, prior to that, my blood pressure was sky rocketing. I ended up taking a family medical leave and I was gone 2 full weeks and then worked 2 days/wk through the end of August and then came back fulltime as of 09 01 08.
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In July, not much happened. For my bday we went to Rick's cabin and then went swimming at the Gaylord pool. That was the best ever! At night, we were all too tired for fireworks, so we actually watched them on TV. lol. Seriously, that was absolutely, positively perfect. We could relax and watch them all together. The end of July was the family reunion. Everyone from the Suedbeck's and Harbarth's came, but absolutely no one from the Kuphal side. No one from Gary's or Betty's even replied saying they couldn't make it! Jon and I both said that 2008 was our last year for the reunion. If people can't even appreciate all we do, then forget it.
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August was great and we were preparing for School and going to lots and lots of pedal pulls. The kids just keep kicking *ss!! It's great and I love it. All 3 of them got trophies most of the time at each pull so I'm sure everyone was thinking, "Great, here's the Suedbeck kids. Now we don't have a chance." lol. At the Brownton pull, all 3 got 1st place! Everyone looked at us and we just walked away proud with 3 trophies in hand. It was the best. Jon and I had the pull again at Eggstravaganza this year. Mercedes and Lincoln got trophies, but Sierra missed 3rd place by inches! Ugh! Leighton Rose got 3rd place instead, so maybe that was ok. This was also the month that I had a scare about cervical cancer. I've been doctoring for awhile now, but Dr Johnson said I'm supposed to schedule another Colposcopy for January 2009 and we'll see where that takes us. August 22nd we got results again showing no new growth and no active cancer cells for dad! THAT IS AWESOME!!! We were absolutely ecstatic. 2 awesome results in a row!
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The girls each have had their first days of school and they went fine. Really, nothing new to report with that.

Peace.