Happy Thanksgiving

We had the pleasure of spending this Thanksgiving in Minnesota at my parent's house. Our little Nissan Altima was 1 of the million cars traveling the stretch of I-90 and thankfully we were able to dodge all of the (not so) inconspicuous State Troopers that were parked along the Interstate (honestly, we counted 8 within 5 miles!). Our uneventful drive came to an end when we finally pulled into my parent's driveway at midnight Wednesday. Thursday morning we were greeted by my niece Jada who was anxiously waiting for her "Tayle" to get out of bed and make up 3+ months of lost play time.





Thanksgiving morning consisted of the women (me, my mom and my sister Sarah) slaving away in the kitchen . . . In all honesty, we had a blast! We enjoyed making memories, sharing stories, reminiscing about the past and giggling as we baked, sliced, stirred and carved. While we prepared the feast, the men (Josh and my dad) sat in the basement trying to figure out and hook up the new Wii that my mom surprised us with (more on that later . . .). Thanksgiving dinner was served right on time (12:00 noon) and was nothing short of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, homemade stuffing (I'm a Stove Top girl but I must admit, this was the best stuffing I have EVER had - way to go mom!!), green bean casserole, fruit salad, dinner rolls, pies and ice cream (hence the reason we are all now 5+ pounds overweight).

After we stuffed ourselves to the max, we decided to go downstairs to the family room to try out that new talked about Wii. All I can say is AWESOME!!! Whoever thought this game up needs to win some type of award - maybe even made President or something significant :). We played game after game - ranging from tennis, bowling, golfing, baseball, boxing (my favorite!) and of course, Josh was hooked on the Cabela's game my mom surprised him with (Thanksgiving night I woke up at 2:30 a.m. wondering were my husband was . . . all I could here was the clicking of a gun - sure enough, he was HUNTING in my parents family room!) Cayel and Jada even enjoyed playing - it was hilarious to watch them play tennis (uncle Mark, you would be proud of Cayel - tennis :)!! Not only is this thing incredibly FUN - holy cow is it a good WORKOUT!! Me, Josh, my dad and my sister Sarah sat up one night until midnight boxing each other - our arms were so sore the next day (Sarah was still complaining about it Sunday :)! So, that's my "sales pitch" on the Wii . . . it is SO much fun! THANKS MOM!!!








Friday night Cayel got to experience his first movie in a Movie Theater. Me, my mom, my sister Sarah, Jada and Cayel had a "date night" and went to the movie (Madagascar 2). I wasn't sure how he would do (he usually lasts about 30 minutes watching a movie at home before he needs a change of scenery) but of course, he proved me wrong and was a PERFECT little boy. He sat in his own chair and got to fill himself with as much junk food (pop, twizzlers, popcorn and fruit snacks) as he could cram in during the hour and a half movie. At one point my mom asked if he wanted to sit on her lap and his response was "no Nana, I watching the movie." It was a lot of fun and hopefully a new tradition we can keep going as the kids get older.

Saturday we got a babysitter for the kids and had an "adult afternoon." We all drove to Mankato and had lunch at Famous Dave's (once again, over stuffed ourselves) and spent some time at the mall. It was nice to get out of the house and have a chance to spend some quality time together. It still amazes me how as you get older, those little bratty sisters that once used to be an annoyance, are now friends that you yearn to have bonding time with. It was a great afternoon!



Saturday night we continued the Monopoly war and once again, my dad took the trophy. I'm still not sure what his tactic is but he sure knows how to play Monopoly. Sarah and Josh tagged up and were a little competitive so needless to say, I was usually the first one out (after Chelsea that is :). Along with the Wii, Monopoly was the other game of choice for the weekend - we spent MANY hours at the dining room table buying and selling property.






Sunday morning our family-filled weekend came to an end as we packed up the car to make the journey back to Spearfish. It was an amazing weekend filled with laughter, fun, bonding, new traditions and memories! I have always loved Thanksgiving and Christmas but after a weekend filled with family, it makes me realize how blessed I truly am!

His and Hers Buck

Josh wanted this memory blogged so sorry for the book . . .

4:45 a.m. the alarm went off. I laid in bed pretending like I was still sleeping, secretly hoping Josh would hit snooze and sleep through the next 2 alarms scheduled to go off. Nope, he hopped out of bed like a fire had been lit underneath him. "Okay, I thought, you have to do this. No wait, you want to do this . . ." I walked into the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face and brush my teeth, hoping that would help wake me up. "Hurry up, we gotta go," I heard Josh call from the basement. I sluggishly made my way to the basement - of course, he was already dressed in camouflage from head to toe. I could see the amazement in his eyes, I was actually out of bed and going to spend an entire day with him hunting. I put on my first layer of long underwear, next came the pants and long sleeved shirt, then the wool socks, then a fleece shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, a fleece hooded jacket, camouflage waterproof pants, a camouflage winter jacket, gators to keep the snow out of my boots, a hat, my sweatshirt hood over my hat and then another hat. I looked like an oversized marshmallow painted in camo - Josh was proud.

We drove an hour north of Spearfish - it was still dark out so I closed my eyes and slept. Finally we pulled into the Ranch that the Horak family has been hunting for 45 years - I felt honored. It was 5:45 a.m., there was still no sign of daylight and the brisk 20 degree air seeped through my layers of clothes. As we made our way to a ridge the frozen earth cracked below our boots - Josh politely and patiently reminded me that we had to walk quietly. "How the heck do you do that," I thought to myself. We sat on the ridge that overlooked the ranch for about 20 minutes, I closed my eyes and rested while Josh scoped out the land surrounding us. "I see a buck chasing a doe, let's see if we can get you a shot," he said. Back down the ridge we went. As we were walking I kept thinking to myself, "walk quietly, stay down, walk slowly, cross hairs behind the shoulder, safety off, focus, deep breath, don't jerk, squeeze the trigger - don't pull." The thoughts went on and on . . . I wanted to learn. I wanted to do this right. Finally we came to an old abandoned barn and stacked hay bails. It was surrounded with a barbed wire fence. We had to get under the fence to make our way within shooting distance. I laid on the frozen snow covered ground and rolled under the lowest barbed wire. Josh handed me the rifle as he made his way under the fence. We crawled on all fours until we finally came to a place where we could set up the rifle on the bi-pods. I laid on my stomach and got situated with the gun - the scope was crystal clear and it seemed as though I could see for miles. By this time the sun was starting to rise, we quietly watched 5 deer make their way in and out of the creek bottom, between the trees and brush and into the open prairie. It was absolutely beautiful, breathtaking, in my eyes, it was a small glimpse of God. I was in awe, I watched a small buck walk out of the brush and stand under a tree, the long prairie grass surrounding him, with the golden sun shinning in the distance. "This is amazing," I said. For the first time since Josh and I had met, I understood exactly why he does this thing called hunting. I think it is safe to say, it has nothing to do with the "kill" and everything to do with the "hunt." If it weren't for the fact that my legs were freezing and starting to go numb, I think I could have laid there all day. Finally, after about a half an hour, "the buck", the buck that we were "hunting" made his way out of the trees. I could see him perfectly in my scope. My heart started pounding. I slowly took my gloves off so when I got the okay from Josh, I could pull the safety back and make the shot. My stomach was doing circles. My adrenaline was pumping. As I anticipated Josh saying, "okay, shoot." He instead said, "I don't want to miss this one, he's going to get away." Next thing I knew, the rifle was taken from me and the shot was made. One shot taken, he missed. Second shot taken, perfect hit. He looked at me with utter excitement and happiness and obviously (as any person would) assumed I would have the same reaction. I don't know what happened, instead of being ecstatic for him, I was hurt. That was my buck. That was supposed to be my shot. I woke up at 4:45 a.m., I "army crawled" through snow and brush, under a barbed wire fence carrying the rifle, I laid on the frozen ground for 30+ minutes watching those deer in my scope - and I didn't even get to take a shot. As they say, "it was like taking a sucker away from a baby..." times a thousand!! I fought to hold in the tears. I kept saying to myself, "get over it Marcy, it's just a deer. What's the big deal anyway?" The big deal was, for the first time in my life, I felt that "passion" that Josh talks about.

It didn't take Josh long to see the hurt and disappointment in my eyes. He was silent as we walked to the truck. I decided that I would put it past me and share in his excitement... "How come you're not saying anything, aren't you happy?" I asked. His response was simple, "no, if I could take back anything, I wouldn't have taken that shot. I should have let you do it." We drove across the ranch to where the buck was laying. I got out of the truck and took one look at that enormous, wall mounting material, 5x6 buck and the tears started flowing. He was supposed to be my buck . . . I think the guilt was eating at Josh, so to try and find some defense, he pulled out his range finder - he knew it was a long shot but felt he needed to "prove" it. "See babe, the closest I can get a reading is 396 yards and we were further back than the hay bails. It had to have been at least a 400 yard shot. That was too long of a shot for you." "So what, I could have tried," I thought to myself. I turned my head as he gutted the buck. He insisted that it was "our" buck and he wanted me to be in the first picture with it. He pulled out his cell phone and snapped a few pictures. I decided to let it go . . . He was happy. He shot a beautiful mule deer buck. And best of all, he got to share it with his wife. Everything he said he had always hoped and prayed for. Prayer answered.




The morning was emotionally exhausting for me and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue hunting. The more I thought about it and the more excuses I tried to make to go home, the more I felt something tugging at my heart to stick it out and spend the day with Josh. So, that's what I did. We parked the truck on the top of a lookout point that overlooked the ranch. As Josh spent the next 2 hours peering through his binoculars, I dozed off. We spent most of the afternoon watching a buck and doe bedded down about a mile and half away. Finally a couple of hours before sundown, Josh decided that we would make our way towards that buck and doe. All of those thoughts that I had in the morning came back to me, "walk quietly, stay down, walk slowly, cross hairs behind the shoulder, safety off, focus, deep breath, don't jerk, squeeze the trigger - don't pull." Again, the thoughts went on and on . . . But this time, I knew no matter how far the shot was, how difficult the shot was, how big or small the buck was - it was going to be my shot. I was nervous for some reason. It had gotten to about 40 degrees that afternoon, the ground was soft. The mud was as thick as clay and stuck to our boots - it felt like it added 10 pounds per foot and each step got harder and harder. Finally, we came to a stack of rolled hay bails, I attempted to clean my boots as Josh scoped out the buck. "I can't see them from here, we are going to have to get closer" he said. Thoughts of the morning came rushing back to me . . . back on the ground we went. Instead of "army crawling" under barbed wire fences, we scurried our way through brush and cactus covered ground for about 75 yards. We finally came to a place where we could see the doe and buck in the distance. For the second time that day, I laid on my stomach, set up the gun and peered through the scope. After about an hour, I asked Josh, "Do you think God would be mad if I prayed for him to send the buck my way?" Selfishly, I had been praying for that all afternoon. He smiled at me and responded with, "not as long as you remember to praise Him after He does. I've been praying for the same thing babe." Good I thought, I kept praying. The deer we were watching were at least 1000 yards away and they could have gone in any which direction (north, south, east or west). Dusk was starting to quickly approach. Just as I started to give up hope and prepare myself for yet another let down, 3 doe's, a spike and the buck I had been watching started running my way. 600 yards . . . 300 yards . . . jumped one fence . . . 200 yards . . . jumped another fence . . . 100 yards . . . 50 yards . . . I kept saying quietly to Josh, "he's coming, oh my goodness, he's actually coming my way. Can you believe this? Are you watching this? Josh, God is doing it." I couldn't turn my head to look but I would imagine he was smiling as he listened to the excitement and anticipation in my voice. Sure enough, the deer made their way right to me! Not a little to the left, not a little to the right, but right in front of me. I pulled back the safety, put the cross hairs behind the shoulder, took a deep breath and BAM! That buck was so close to us that Josh had to stand up and wave his hands so we didn't get trampled by the deer as they scurried to get out of the way. Although it wasn't a "wall mounting" buck, I praised God. No, I didn't praise God that I got to shoot a buck, I praised God for the amazing and beautiful day and experience Josh and I got to share together.

It was a day that will go down in our memory book as one more "Chapter In Our Life."

Snow Day!!!

And who said that snow days are only for teachers and students? That's right folks, we reaped the benefits of the snow storm and got the pleasure of staying in our pj's for the majority of the day! Of course, as soon as Josh heard the town was shut down (honestly, they were giving tickets to anyone caught driving around town), he hopped out of bed and he and his friend Darren (who has been out here hunting since last Friday) tried to figure out how they could dig their way out of the house to hunt. I laughed to myself and thought, "yeah right." Needless to say, they are still snowed in, sitting in the basement watching the hunting channel and pouting because they didn't get to hunt. They did however spend about 3 hours out in the blizzard trying to dig out a couple of the vehicles in the drive way. Check out the drifts . . .





As for me and Cayel, we left the cold and dirty work to the boys and stayed inside where it was nice an warm. To be honest, we stayed in bed until almost 9:00 watching cartoons and snuggling - it was GREAT!!! But don't worry, once I climbed out of bed, I did my fair share of work too - I have been slowly painting our kitchen and decided today would be a great day to put a few more hours into it. Can you believe that - hours??? We just got new kitchen cupboards and unfortunately I didn't have the option to paint when the old ones were taken out, before the new ones were put in. So, needless to say, it has been a very meticulous job to paint around brand new kitchen cupboards. Since I started this project, I think I have put in about 12 hours. Thankfully, I only have 1 wall to go and it's the easiest wall!! Don't worry, I will post before and after pictures, but not until it's complete . . .

As for Cayel, he finally got dressed around noon, played, watched movies (or "moobies" as Cayel would say), took a 3 hour nap, played a little more, played a little more, played a little more and finally got snuggled in his bed under warm blankies to call it a night.



After prayers he asked, "can we have another snow day tomorrow mommy?" Hmmmm . . . sounds like a good idea to me!!!

Buck Fever!!!

It was an eventful Sunday in the Horak household - 2 bucks shot within 10 hours of each other and 50 yards of each other!!

Being Josh has been hunting for well over 20 years and this is probably his 30th+ buck he has shot - we'll move right to the important stuff :) . . . Marcy's very first deer - but not just any deer, a BUCK!!

Here is a girl who used to plug her ears when the fire trucks went by with the sirens on during a parade or still to this day, plugs her ears for fireworks on the 4th of July. Not to mention that she went through the vegetarian phase for 4 years of her life (thank goodness before she met Josh). And to top it off, she said she would NEVER have dead animals anywhere in her house. Now look what she has gone and done?!?!?! Shot a loud gun AND contributed to the hundreds of deer antlers we already have around the house (mostly in the garage thank goodness)!

I must say, it is quite a rush! Hiking to a beautiful place in the hills, sitting quietly as the sun sets and watching beautiful deer all around you. But, best of all, doing it with the person I love the most. You should have seen the look on his face when I took the shot - I don't know who was more excited, me or Josh??? For a hunter, I would think it is safe to say, there is nothing better than seeing your wife decked out in camofalge (don't worry girls, it has pink incorporated :), shooting a 22-250 and "wacking" (hunter's termonology :) a 5x5 (or as us Minnesotan's would say, "a 10 point buck").

Below are some pictures . . . As you can see, Cayel was VERY proud of his mommy!