Our friends, the Wrights, participate in Cowboy Mounted Shooting. Sounds very dirty, but is basically, riding a horse while shooting balloons. You may think this sounds easy, but not so much. You have to ride fast while accurately shooting blanks at balloons. You ride a different pattern each time, and the dress is old time attire: chaps, flowy pants (not the technical name, I'm sure), spurs, hats, etc. This past weekend, we watched and I kept Rocky(the horse) busy while the three of them concentrated on their runs.

Dawn and I "shooting" the shit while she waits to shoot. Get it? hee hee........gimme a break, it's late, I'm tired.
Mark putting the brakes on Buck. Yikes!
Abby kicking ass and taking names. She placed second this weekend.

A great lady from Eric's work, made this cake for Jay. Let's say it together..........friggin' awesome!!
Yummy!
This is the "death star" pinata. I've aways wanted to make one of these crafty little creations. Now I have, and I will never, ever, do it again. I should have started this project a week before the party. I started three days......hey, I have never claimed to be organized! Anyway, the pinata lasted through about 6 hits, and it was a gonner. The kids really only cared about the candy, anyway, right?

Jay's birthday parties are always fun. He has a summer birthday, so we always hold it outside. This year's theme was...........can you guess?......................................I know the suspense is killing you..........STAR WARS!!!! First, was tug-o-war. Jay's team kicked a**!!!
The water balloon game turned out to be just a bunch of boys beaming each other........so much for plans!
It's called "keep the balloon off the ground with your light sabers aka pool noodles". I know you can't possibly imagine how this game could go awry.......:)

CAMPING Schreiber Style:


Critters, and lots of them (crawdads and a frog with it's tail still attached)
Horse-riding, not our horses, but ones that are better behaved...............
Swimming!!!!!!!!

Whutt?!!!
Yesterday was a nice, quiet day of laundry, some laundry, and then more laundry. I get a call from our neighbor who's at work - I know this because her company came up on the caller ID. She says, "Kevin (her husband) just called me and said your horses are out and in the field by our house". I think my exact words were, "Holy shit!!!" I run to the barn to grab...stuff. George has a fly mask on, but Minnie has nothing because either she rubbed it off or George bit it off for her. I run to the field and there's Kevin and my mailman standing there with my horses. We put the halters and lead ropes on and Kevin and I walk them back to the barn. They were perfectly calm, kinda like, "What's the big deal....geesh" How did they get out? Hmmmm......George busted through the side door. Two separate hook enclosures didn't stop him. I don't know if he was bored, or something spooked him. I'm 100% sure George did it and Mama followed. Ugh. While I proceeded to nail a board across the door, George was right there, with his nose up to the hammer. I had to push him away a dozen times. No regard for safety, that horse.

COULD IT BE?????????

I'm slightly stunned.......Brett Favre talking with the Vikes? Brett is my all-time favorite player! ( My second, Cris Carter ) I've always been somewhat of an anomaly, being a fan of the Vikes and the Packers. That would have gotten me killed while living in Minnesota ~ ok, maybe not killed, but booed at loudly? Shunned? Car... keyed? Wouldn't Brett Favre coming out of retirement to play for MY team be a dream come true? Wait, Brett Favre playing for any team NOT the Packers is just.....wrong. I'm so torn.

I'll be waiting and watching with bated breath..............................(sigh)

Jay's birthday is Friday, but Eric will be out of town, so we did our family celebration Wednesday night at Red Robin. Opening presents early was not a problem for Jay :)
*Some of you might recognize that Friday is also Eric and my 10 year wedding anniversary. Yep, he's out of town. He SOOOOOO owes me!!!!! This will probably go down in history as one of the most milked I.O.Us....hee hee!


Jay has been on the internet looking at Star Wars things for months.....pretty much since Max and Al's birthday in February. He's had about 4 or 5 different drafts of his birthday list. One thing remained the same...a gunship. Well, the problem is that Star Wars toys are different than most. They are collectors items. What does this mean? It means they are damn expensive!!!! After many failed attempts on ebay trying to get a gunship, I finally prevailed. I told Jay, however, it just wasn't going to happen. They were too hard to get.
I think I truly surprised him.
"In awe" is a good way to describe Jay's present-opening experience. Here, Grandma Linda loaded him up with about 7 action figures.........wow.
A "Clone Wars" t-shirt. Jay says this is great, so that everyone knows he likes Star Wars. Actually, Jay, I don't think it's even a possibility someone would not get that impression....

It's tournament time!!
This team has had a great season. They may not have been the "winningest" team, but they have grown so much! Max has grown a lot, too. He had no interest in pitching, but he's good. So, he pitches. Coach told him the other day he's in the top 5 pitchers in the league, and it's his first year! *I apologize for bragging, I can't help myself. The past few games have been really crazy! Each game has had such excitement. There are kids not touching the bases (on both teams), diving catchers(we joke that no one has seen this kids move that fast...ever), things we hadn't seen all season. It's a lot of fun. I get so nervous, though-not so much for a win, but for none of the boys to make a mistake that costs the game.

We can't help but take pictures of the horses. They are so pretty.............



This is our "green" horse, George. You'd never know he hasn't been ridden much. I'm really amazed how calm and content he is.

This is pretty much Minnie's usual stance. She likes to show me her a**. I'm thinking she's trying to tell me something........maybe along the lines of..."You're so not the boss of me". Little does she know, I AM the boss of her! :)
Speaking of pretty..........
There's the love. She DOES know I'm the boss of her!!

Does Al look happy, here? No???? She reluctantly got on the tube. She was ok as long we were going nice and slow........
There's concern growing in Ally at this point. I think Mark was at all of 10 mph.
This is the cut-off signal. She'd had enough. That's ok, cuz it was now............................................................................
MY TURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even though most of our July 4th weekend was laid-back, we had to get some good hard fun in. Sunday we went with Wrights tubing. The kids/adults had so much fun! Unfortunately, the camera battery died right before Max AND Jay both knee-boarded!! Neither had any problems getting up or staying on! I was so proud.........................................:):):)



WOOOO-HOOOO!!!!! This is Megan and Max. The boys jumped at the chance to go tubing. They were daredevils!
Max requested this picture. He found it hysterical.
Jay and Abby. Can you see the smile on that kid's face?????
Thumbs up for a great ride. They just hit a big wave and stayed on!

Most of you got the memo regarding poor Gracie and her surgery debate. Basically, it went like this......the vet said Gracie blew out her knee and we could let it go, scar tissue would cover the tear, and she would heal that way. However, arthritis would set in and she'd never be the same. OR, we could do surgery. We opted for surgery, but I was so nervous. We personally knew several people who's dogs had emergencies during or after surgery. The day I took Gracie in, I was a mess. I couldn't stop crying, even though I tried for the kids sake. As we were leaving, I told the staff to make sure the vet knew to not give up on Gracie. If something happened during surgery, she was to keep going. I think they understood this request-although it may have been hard to hear me through the broken, sobbing mess that was me.

She came through surgery just fine. We got her home and the hardest part has been keeping her from jumping, stair-climbing and basically over-doing it.

We have had a slight complication (at least I hope it's slight....) Gracie has developed a urinary tract infection. I'm praying it's that and not a kidney issue.

Boo is very confused by all this. I know he's thinking, "Why does she get to come inside and get all the petting and attention?"

So many things wrong with this picture.......5 kids on a trampoline, no netting, no spring guard....Don't judge me.........I was not in charge here :)
Our July 4th was extremely low-key this year. We spent a day at Wright's, and I finally got to play "Rock Star". I could have played all night. I really didn't have a knack for the drums, but the guitar.......I totally rocked!!

We didn't even go to any fireworks. A mistake we won't make next year. Maybe we all needed a calm, relaxing weekend. Anyhoo, we had a good time hanging out together. I see boating in our future for today. Finally, a day warm enough for it!!!!!!