It's been busy around here!

Life has been super busy in my world the past couple of weeks. My husband's Grandfather is very ill. He's been in and out of the hospital the past couple of months. He's now back in the nursing home and my mother in law has flown home from Arizona to be with him. He's lost the ability to speak and swallow and sleeps most of the time now. Noelle and I stopped to see him and more or less say goodbye on the way to Pierre last Sunday. He finally looks like he is 94. He's always looked much younger than his age, but now, his illness seems to be catching up with him. We pray that his last weeks and days will be peaceful and that somehow, the spirit of the Christmas season will give him peace.

Noelle celebrated her 21st birthday on Sunday, December 7th! She drove down from SDSU and rode along with us to compete in the State FFA Leadership Career Development Events in Pierre. We arrived on time on Sunday afternoon and got checked into the hotel. After the kids got changed we headed over to the competition site. Breanna presented the FFA Creed, Ethan competed in Prepared Public Speaking, Jeremy competed in the Job Interview CDE and our Ag Communications team completed their editing exercise and their communications tests. It was off to China Buffet after competitions. The reading of the fortune cookies was the highlight of the meal!
Monday morning we were up and off to competition again. The ag communications team of Stacia, Spencer, Joe, Shannon and Tucker gave the presentation of their life and led the judges through the question and answer portion instead of the other way around. After their presentation, it was off to the capitol to check out the Christmas Trees. Our capitol is a beautiful building and they fill it with real, fresh cut Christmas trees this time of year. Each tree is decorated by an organization or group from somewhere in the state. If you ever get to Pierre between Thanksgiving and New Year's, be sure to take it in.
We left the capitol in the rain and headed over for the awards luncheon. Some of us wer able to wait more patiently than others for results to be announced. Our major moment of excitement came with the announcement of the Agricultural Communications CDE ~ We heard what we'd been waiting to hear, "First place, the team from West Central". It didn't take long for it to sink in, that this team is now bound for national competition in October in Indianapolis!
Our drive home was a nightmare! Snow, ice, freezing rain, slippery roads - etc. I've added a slideshow below of pictures from our weekend.