Busch Stadium Tour - Nancy

Last Monday at the Winter Warm Up we decided to go on a stadium tour. The only requirement we had was that we wanted Ed Tritschler to be our guide. Ed was marvelous and the tour was a blast. We all learned so much! The Cardinal Club, green seats, press box, Redbird Club were some of tour highlights. The favorite spot for the guys was the dugout. We picked up the phone and could call the bullpen . . .you could hear it ring in the bullpen. The only rule was you can not step on the grass. I want to know how they get green grass in January in St. Louis. Below are some fun pics from the tour.Eric, Kyle, Colton, Ed (tour guide and friend from Ne-O-Tez) and Marlin.

Monticello Wins Region - Way to Go!

Marlin, Carolyn and Nancy drove up to Mattoon, IL for Matt's basketball game on Wednesday evening. They defeated Urbana 49-17. We spent the night so that we could go to the Regional final game tonight - Monticello beat Effingham 35-25. This is a seventh grade 3A team but during the playoffs they have moved them up to 4A so they are playing much bigger schools. Next week they play in sectionals (yes we plan to head to Charleston, IL for the game!)
Proud Parents. Jake was with us on Wednesday evening but he had to work Thursday night. We kept him updated by "texting" him the scores after each qtr. GO SAGES!

Cardinal Winter Warm Up!

We spotted this gentleman soon after arriving at the Winter Warm Up - Monday we asked him for a picture with the guys- this guy has been in lots of pictures with this hat - even Sports Illustrated.

The Cardinal Winter Warm up is a great place for baseball fans. Each of the boys got autographs and pictures with a variety of players (too many to show them all here but Carla and I will make a scrapbook!)



Some of the players we met were: Joel Pinero, Scott Spiezio, Josh Kinney, Tyler Johnson, Brad Thompson, Colby Rasmus, Ron Flores, Randy Flores, Anthony Reyes, Danny Cox . . . .!

Our friends Retta, Kim and Rachel were there and we enjoyed sharing our time with them. I called the "guys" lobby lizards as they would hang around the lobby at night going for autographs - they scored several. One funny note: Fredbird was one of Carolyn's 1st graders!

Another highlight was our stadium tour with the Ed Tritschler as our guide - so many photos that will be another post!

It's Time for the Cardinals Winter Warm Up!

Last Saturday my friends Lisa, Mary and Kim and myself went to the Millenium Hotel to get in line to buy autograph tickets for the Cardinals Winter Warm Up this Sat-Monday! We left at 6 am for tickets that went on sale at 10 am - we were about 250 back in line but were still able to get what we wanted with no line number above 140! Lots of those in front of us were folks just purchasing a ticket to see Albert Pujols. Colton, Kyle, Eric and Nancy will be at the Warm Up from Saturday AM - Monday afternoon. We have learned it is just easier to get a hotel room there. JD and Carla will be there on Sat and Sunday and Marlin and Carolyn are going to come Monday. It will be crowded and crazy but we will come away with spring baseball fever! I'll post some pics on Monday! Stay Warm!

(PS - Matt finished his regular season of basketball on Thursday evening - undefeated season - 21-0. They have a first round bye in state playoffs this weekend and play Wed 1/23)

Camp Ne-O-Tez Quilt at Jeff and Marion's

A couple of years ago at the Annual Camp Ne-O-Tez dinner Jeff and Marion Earnhart purchased this awesome Ne-O-Tez t-shirt quilt. We had our camp meeting, Monday evening, at their new home (http://earnhartliving.blogspot.com) and got to see the Camp quilt proudly displayed in their lower level. Thanks to Marsha Kloske, Faye Kerper and Connie Horton for sharing their talents and making the quilt. If those t-shirts could talk I am sure they would have some camp stories to share.

OKAW Conference Champs - Nancy

Thursday night the Monticello IL Sages, 7th grade basketball team, won their conference championship. Their record is 19-0! Marlin, Carolyn, Lori, Rod and Jake were there to cheer Matt on to victory! This is an email we got from Lori : "It was a pretty exciting Conference Championship game last night. The Monticello boys played so great together against a very good Shelbyville team. The final score was 33-26 and Matt had 20 points and 17 rebound. His best game ever. He is one tired boy this morning. He never sat last night and he said those last 2 minutes of running up and down the court were hard." Congrats to Matt and the Sages. They have 2 non-conference games this week and then state playoffs begin. They have a bye the first round - their first game will be January 23rd!

Matt with the conference trophy!
Grandpa, Jake and Matt - they sure don't get their height from Grandpa Henley!

Lori and one of Matt's fans -the center from the girls basketball team!
The team!

This 'n That from the last week - Nancy

Everyone is back in school as of today and life is settling back into a routine! The last week has been a quiet but productive one for me. I was able to finish my Colorado 2006 scrapbook, organize all my cropping supplies and sort the entire year of 2007 pictures! We watched lots of college football and cheered for Mizzou as they won big and quietly accepted the Illini defeat in the Rose Bowl (we didn't expect to win but we did not expect to lose that bad!) Dad loves college football and as he watched the championship game last night he told us . .well, 7+ months and it will start over :) Last Friday night we were all at the St Charles West game where they defeated their cross-town rivals St. Charles High. It was a rout as they invoked the mercy rule of letting the clock run as SCW was 30 points ahead. Colton and Kyle are sure SCW will be in the state finals! Speaking of basketball, Mom and Dad are in Monticello to see Matt play basketball. They are in the OKAW tourney now. Mom just called and they won tonight so they will play for the championship of the tourney on Thursday evening. The Monticello 7th grade team is 18-0 now - we are also hoping they head to the state championships.

On another front it is Camp Ne-O-Tez membership time - the packets are printed, stuffed and ready to be distributed. If you don't get one or would like to receive one just leave a comment or email and I will make sure you get one. Mark your calendars for the Annual Ne-O-Tez dinner on March 28th, David Bearden is going to be our speaker this year.

Sunday afternoon Carla, Colton, Kyle and Eric and myself went bowling, well actually I went watching! What a fun afternoon.

Hasn't the weather been freaky? If I didn't know better I would have thought Dad left all the Christmas lights on (except they are down) as lit up as the front of the house was about midnight last night. We had a big storm with lots of lightning. Jake got a new bike for Christmas (guess you never get too old for a new bike for Christmas - his is a little more advanced than the type kids get!) and Lori said the weather was so nice that we went out bike riding on Sunday - not typical for January in Monticello, IL.

Enough rambling . . .Happy New Year to you and yours.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
FROM: J.D.,CARLA,COLTON,KYLE AND ERIC