Happy Halloween

.....and waiting for Ron to come home. We had all our Trick-r-treaters on Sunday so it was quite at our house. BUT I really love Halloween when there are kids galor coming to visit.....

Here's a picture of my special kids and friends last night...

Treats.........

for Kids and Adults alike.

I promised my lake friends that I would uphold the tradition of shots, and treats for the adults too........

I think I did good.  We had dips, dips, candy, chips, crakers and more dip :)

Had the kids draw numbers and pick special prizes...........

The big party.....

....the my Sister-in-law and Brother-in-law Angie hosted tonight in Fremont at their Photography Studio.

Ron and I stayed at our flip place at Woodcliff Lake. HOW much fun did we have? ALOT! It was a blast! Loved John and Angies party!

Here are a few pre-party photos....

Shrek and Fiona (AKA Angie and John)

By Big Ole Bear :) Keeping his paws to himself :)

Ms Static Cling.....I am stuck like glue :)

Not tasty Tuesday....

BUT love this! 

Perfect snack recipe:)

Monster Munch {Halloween Popcorn Mix}
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 package Almond Bark (1 lb)
12 C popped popcorn (about 1/2 C kernals)
1 C candy corn
1 C dry roasted, salted peanuts
1/2 C Reeces Pieces

Pop popcorn and place in a large bowl. Much larger than you think you need. The largest you have. It will make mixing easier! Pour peanuts, candy corn, and reeces pieces on top.

Big Candy.....

has been bought for the Duncan Lakes Halloween trick or treat.................PHOTO of the DAY!

Something special..

for one little dog.

Photo of the day............A special gift for my little Cheerio Boy. HE LOVED IT!

Farewell....

to the ONLY High School team and mascot I have ever known.

I have always been proud to be a Newman Grove Bluejay.

Tonight on the night of the LAST ever Newman Grove Bluejay Home Football game I will shed a tear to my special hometown. It breaks my heart to say goodbye to the only team I ever loved so much. All those years of being a Bluejay, I will hold on to those . I am going to text you like crazy Sheldon :)

I have watched my Jays, after I graduated and when my Niece and Nephew who were part of the Newman Grove school system participated in everything from FFA to Football. It is hard to put into words how I feel.

 I lost my niece and nephew playing sports and doing such great academic things, I lost figuring out the sports schedule.

I just pray that NG has a fall sports schedule which include wrestling....that will break my heart if those boys are not able to wrestle.............

To quote my Nephew Sheldon Boschen....


"Always be a Bluejay at heart!"

AND I always will be!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise Shel bell......

RIP DAN.....RIP....

As many of my followers know I am a HUGE NASCAR fan, but racing is in my blood and I do love ANYTHING on four wheels. I LOVE to watch Indy cars and I always watch the Indy 500. Two of my favorites are Helio Castronovis and Dan Wheldon.

Tonight I was shocked to learn that Dan was killed today at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Even more shocking to me was a race reporters Twitter before the race: "A sudden sense of foreboding just washed over me. Hopefully baseless. Hope everyone is safe out there today."  WOW  who knew........RIP dan

What the.....

...and how the H*** did we pull off the biggest comeback in Nebraska Football history.

A nice article about our miracle win:

Nebraska might look back on its record-setting comeback win over Ohio State as the game that saved its season.

A week after a 31-point loss at Wisconsin, the Cornhuskers trailed by 21 points in the third quarter before they won 34-27 Saturday night in the greatest comeback in program history.

With a challenging schedule in their inaugural Big Ten season, an 0-2 start in league play would have been devastating for the preseason pick to win the Legends Divison. 

The Huskers (5-1, 1-1), who remained No. 14 in The Associated Press Top 25 and a game behind Michigan in the division, have an open date this week before they go to struggling Minnesota on Oct. 22.

Home games against No. 23 Michigan State and Northwestern follow. Back-to-back road games against Penn State and No. 11 Michigan precede Iowa's Thanksgiving weekend visit.

"Our football team is ready for a bye," coach Bo Pelini said. "I think they need a break, mentally and physically."

Ohio State (3-3, 0-2) probably would like to get away from the stress and strain of the season, too.

The Buckeyes lost for the third time in four games and continue to reel from on-field problems stemming from injuries and NCAA violations and suspensions.

Ohio State plays at unbeaten and 16th-ranked Illinois this week before its open date. Then the Buckeyes play No. 4 Wisconsin at home.

"These guys are resilient, and it's going to come down to a commitment to each other," Ohio State coach Luke Fickell said.

"We have a lot of pride in what we do, a lot of pride in ourselves, a lot of pride in the university. We're going to have to call upon their pride. It's not going to be easy to get over."

The same could have been said for Nebraska if it hadn't won the first Big Ten game at Memorial Stadium.

Not much has come easily the first half of the season for the Huskers. The defense has been awful at times, and quarterback Taylor Martinez has been up and down.

Martinez, who threw three interceptions in the 48-17 loss at Wisconsin, was picked off late in the first half Saturday. That led to a field goal that put Ohio State up 20-6 at halftime, and Martinez and his teammates were booed as they ran to the locker room.

The Huskers went three-and-out on the first series of the second half, and Ohio State drove 47 yards in seven plays to increase its lead to 27-6.

Linebacker Lavonte David went to the sideline and urged his teammates to play smart and not give up.

"We're not out of this," David told them.

David made the game-changing play on Nebraska's next defensive series, pulling the ball away from freshman quarterback Braxton Miller at the OSU 24.

Martinez ran untouched into the end zone from 18 yards to start the rally. Then came his 36-yard TD pass to Quincy Enunwa and his tying 30-yarder to Rex Burkhead after Stanley Jean-Baptiste intercepted Joe Bauserman in his first game at cornerback after moving from receiver.

Burkhead, who ran 26 times for 119 yards, scored the game-winner on a 17-yard run with 5:10 left in the game.

Martinez, maligned during the week for his performance against Wisconsin, ran 17 times for 102 yards and was 16 of 22 passing for 191 yards.

"We were just playing together as a family," he said. "That's been our motto all week: togetherness and 'familiness.' We just came together. I'm glad we came through with the win."

Just when it looked as if Miller was ready to take ownership of the quarterback's job, uncertainty cropped up again after he sprained his right ankle in the middle of the third quarter.

Bauserman took over and finished 1 of 10, and the Buckeyes generated only 49 yards on his four-plus series. Bauserman missed badly on several passes in an outing similar to his 2-for-14 night against Miami three weeks ago.

Pelini, who was coaching against his alma mater, offered a simple explanation for the difference in his team's performances in the first and second halves.

"We played better football," he said. "We executed. That's what the game comes down to. The same group of guys played the second half that played the first half. We executed better the second half."

Nebraska had 306 of its 423 yards in the second half. Its uptempo offense seemed to wear down the Buckeyes' defense in the rain.

"They made several big plays on us," linebacker Andrew Sweat said. "It was small stuff like a guy being out of his gap, not winning the one-on-one battle. It turned into huge plays."

BUT there is still NO place Like Nebraska!!!!!!!!!!!!

..and I am in Love with Rex Burkhead :) 

The announcement

Has been made So NOT Flashback Friday.....
Clint Bowyer relishes opportunity after initial disappointment of having RCR deal fall through

By Bob Pockrass

Friday, October 07, 2011

Michael Waltrip Racing will field the No. 15 car for Clint Bowyer next year.

Sam Cranston
NASCAR Illustrated

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – When Clint Bowyer moves from Richard Childress Racing to Michael Waltrip Racing after the 2011 season, the driver with four career Cup victories will join an organization that has two.

He’ll move from an organization with 99 Cup wins and six Cup championships to an organization that has never had a driver qualify for the Chase For The Sprint Cup.

He’ll move from one of the sport's most historic organizations that is in its 42nd season to one still trying to find its footing in its fifth full-time Cup season.

So it appears this could be a risky move, a step down for the 32-year-old Bowyer. He indicates that he didn’t have much of a choice to leave RCR, but that he has embraced this opportunity.

“I feel like this is an opportunity for a young company like MWR to catch up to some of these bigger companies that are more established,” Bowyer said Friday after the announcement of his three-year deal with MWR. “That [step-down perception] is fuel for the fire, but that doesn’t bother me. … I’m looking forward to part of the cause and I think we can all move forward in this thing.

“I tell you that because I believe it. The timing is right.”

Until about two months ago, Bowyer thought that he would stay at RCR, where he has made all 210 of his career Cup starts.

But RCR couldn’t find sponsorship for Bowyer, and even when Bowyer brought sponsor 5-Hour Energy along, RCR still couldn’t make it work.

“We went and talked to them about the 5-Hour deal and they still couldn’t put a deal together, so I said, ‘Well, all right, we’ll go somewhere else,’” Bowyer said. “That’s probably what ultimately led to leaving RCR. … I was extremely surprised and disappointed. Obviously, I thought it was a sure lock.

“The more I got to know and realize the situation that Richard was in, I knew that I was in trouble. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. But change isn’t a bad thing.”

As he negotiated with RCR and team owner Richard Childress showed him his organization’s budgets, Bowyer realized that it was unlikely he would stay at RCR.

“Once you see the risk that they’re taking, you’re like, ‘Man, I don’t know that I blame you [for not doing the deal],’” Bowyer said. “It’s unfortunate and it’s tough for everybody in this sport right now. It’s opened my eyes up a bunch for the importance of funding, of sponsorships and those relationships.”

Bowyer said he took a cut in pay in making the move.

“At the end of the day, if your salary is taking away from the performance, it does you no good to hound after a salary,” Bowyer said. “You can’t go broke doing this, but you’ve got to allow these owners to have the funding to put you on top of the board.”

MWR general manager Ty Norris said that the perception of Bowyer’s move is understandable considering RCR’s pedigree.

“You can’t ignore it,” Norris said. “You’ve got to give Richard Childress Racing the props it deserves. They’re an organization that any driver in the world would want to drive for and should want to drive for and we’re still young.

“It takes people [such as Bowyer] who are willing to take some risks. … All we can do is continue the commitment to eventually be a team that has been here for 25 or 30 years that has won championships and races.”

Bowyer said he doesn’t want to be perceived as the “No. 1 guy” at MWR, which will add a car for Bowyer in addition to Martin Truex Jr. and David Reutimann.

“I want to be a team player, I want to be a part of something – if one guy is running well in an organization, it doesn’t do any good,” Bowyer said. “Look at our organization at RCR. We’ve got one guy running well and the other three are back markers.

“It’s not a good combination and it ultimately is going to hurt everybody.”

Bowyer hopes this move sparks his ability to make the Chase. He has failed to make the 10-race playoff in two of the last three seasons. No RCR driver made the Chase in 2009, all three made it in 2010 and only one (Kevin Harvick) made it in 2011.

“The last two or three years haven’t really gone the way the first three did,” Bowyer said. “I look forward to improving. I look at this as an opportunity to better myself. I really do.

“These cars are so even, it’s all about surrounding yourself with good people. I’ve been given an opportunity to start from scratch, to get a crew chief, to get a team assembled around me that is capable of making the Chase and winning races and competing for that championship.”

MWR will have to add employees for the Bowyer car if it continues its relationship of providing cars for JTG Daugherty Racing. It also needs to name a crew chief. Bowyer said former Earnhardt Ganassi Racing crew chief Brian Pattie is high on his list.

RCR likely will drop to three teams next season but obviously is grooming team owner Richard Childress grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon for future Cup rides.

“There was going to be an odd man out one of these days,” Bowyer said. “Everybody knows what’s coming. It was unfortunate that it was me. But I’m over the emotional part of that. I’m excited about the future. When I say the future is bright, I feel like it is.”

One of the reasons he feels that way is because he likes what co-owner Rob Kauffman brings to the team. Kauffman is a racing enthusiast and savvy investor who is based in England.

“He has success with what he does,” Bowyer said. “He’s a billionaire. Billionaires have success and make things work. I’m excited about working with Rob.”

Just two months ago, it would be hard to imagine Bowyer saying such a thing. But now he’ll leave the only Cup team he’s known as he lands at MWR after talks with RCR, Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports.

“Timing is everything,” Bowyer said. “It’s so weird how all of this has happened. The minute one door closes, it’s like somebody is looking after you and just kind of put me on this path.

“As one door would close, the other one would open. It almost was like the very next step. It didn’t matter who you were talking to, there was a closed door and an open door and it kind of led to this. I truly feel like this is where I was meant to be.”

CONGRATULATIONS DRIVER!