Surgery date

As many of you know, Steve hurt his neck and shoulder at work on Dec 18, 2008. We've been dealing with workers comp and finding the right time to do the surgery. His shoulder hurts, but just enough to be annoying. His neck though, has really been giving him a time, especially these past few weeks. He has a bulging disc between c6 & C7. He's been in so much pain in the past few week, I'm almost afraid his ruptured. He's not even really felt like hunting much. His surgery date is finally set for Dec 17. Please say a prayer for him if you think about it.





I haven't been hunting much either. Too busy.





First, Emilee broke her finger Nov 13 tumbling. Of course, it was the day before a competition and I told her to suck it up and perform (not believing it was broke). When she let the trainer at school see it, he said we might want to have it xrayed if it wasn't better by Thursday. So on Thursday, we hopped on down to Vanderbilt Children for xrays and it was broke. Friday we sent to see Dr. Mark Christofersen at TOA and he immediately said, it's fix it with temporary pins. So my baby was to put to sleep the day before Thanksgiving. He set the break and inserted two pin and then casted the hand. This is what it looked like that day:

Now it is covered with about 75 signature of all her friends from school. I'll be glad when it comes off!

Gotta run, more later!

Halloween & cabinet

This is the only picture I got on Halloween. This was at Abby's house when we dropped off Em. Yes, there were girls there, but they were already around back. You can barely see Emilee back there.

This is my new project. I bought this last year and it's sat in my parents basement waiting for me to get motivated to clean it up. I finally decided yesterday was a good day since the weather was so pretty. I also stopped by our neighbor's house and talked to his step-son about making me a butcher block top for it. I plan on using this as my stamping station. I've gout about 1/2 of it cleaned up yesterday. I think it was used in a garage at some point because it was pretty greasy.

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Cheerleading competion in Nashville

This was the girls first competion of the year. They did good, but not great. Their dancing was amazingly good, but stunts need work. Em and her group dropped their flyer, but nobody was hurt. Our varsity did the same thing, great all the way through till the last BIG stunt and a girl fell. Nobody hurt thank goodness!

Em getting her makeup done!

Libby watching Heather get her's done and Lacy's in line behind Em to get her's finished.

A few of the girls:

Abby, Em and Heather

Emilee is in the middle during this jump. Pretty good!

Trying to smile even though she was soooo nervous!

Beginning of dance sequence... they rocked!

Deer pictures

Just wanted to update you on the deer we're seeing on the leases. Pretty impressive!

My Cougar Cheerleader!

Here is my little cougar cheerleader. She looks little "harried" in these pictures. I usually can get to school before the game starts so I can pull up her hair really tight, but with my new job and the games times sometimes starting at 4:30, I can't always make it.

Intern Adam

When we went to the Jonas Brothers concert, Emilee was dying to have her picture made with Intern Adam from Y107.5. She was so excited! She was funny because she wouldn't talk to him .....

Titans Game

Emilee danced again this year with the Titans. Here are a few pictures from the event. She got to dance on the stage to start off the show... it was GREAT! Such a proud momma moment. She did as good as the "big" cheerleaders did! Actually I think she might have know the dance better than her coach! Check out that perfect bow ... do I have it or what?

School & life

So, hunting has slowed down for me some. Emilee's schedule is busy right now. Football games, school fundraisers, competitions, halloween, etc. I get to be the one to stay home and be the taxi driver. But that's okay. I know Steve needs his time to hunt also. When I go, he doesn't even take his bow in the woods. It's all about me! (isn't that nice!). Maybe the first weekend in November I'll get to go. For you that know hunting lingo, it's be prime rutting time, so maybe getting a shot at big buck will happen.

Emilee has been struggling a little with school lately. I think she's too much like me, social butterfly. She has a "boyfriend". I really use that loosely, because he's basically her lacky. They text and talk all the time and when they are together, he's usually just following her around or doing stuff for her. But whatever. He's a good kid and their family is good family. Her report cards comes out this week (or maybe next) for the first 9 weeks and she's got like one a and the rest b's and c's. The c's were f's one point in the 9 weeks, but she worked like crazy to bring them up. I still might ground her from the phone though, because of of those c's was english and her biggest problem was not studying. Actually studying is her biggest problem in all her classes. And believe me, she's too much like me ... she HAS to study. No easy subject for her. She likes social studies and science, but I think that's more about the teacher, because they make learning fun for the kids. Anyways, let's pray that the next 9 weeks is better - let's pray that she's learned a little from this 9 weeks.... a little studying can be rewarding in the fact that you don't have to spend a whole weekend doing extra credit to bring up your english grade!!!!!

Work is good for me. Okay for Steve. He's having neck surgery the week before Thanksgiving (we hope) and then a couple weeks after that, his shoulder surgery. Of course, dealing with workers comp is terrible. It's a big ole' pile of yuckiness. We finally contacted a lawyer, because 1) everyone told us to and 2) to make sure we were doing everything right and V wasn't taking advantage of us. Steve's neck injury scares me. He's been so active all his life and our marriage. I certainly don't want this to slow him down. His doctor appears to be really good and says it's nothing, plenty of people have this type of condition (bulging disk) and even Chris Hope that plays for the Titans has had the same exact surgery that Steve is having. But still, scarey stuff.

I changed jobs the first of Sept for those who don't know. Same place, just different boss. I'm working for a women now and she's great. I love what I do. I'm still learning and I'm constantly comparing myself to the previous AA because she was the greatest, but I really try to remember I'm basically learning a new job and it'll take me a while. C didn't get to be a great AA overnight and neither will I ........

Gotta run!

Sept 5 - KY hunting season starts and I was there!

So, the hunting season in KY started September 5. We were there! My first real hunt as a hunter! I was nervous honestly. I'm not sure why, but I always get that way till I'm settled and in position. So we get up Saturday morning at 4:00 after only 3 hours of sleep. We see deer, I draw back on deer and never release my arrow. Never saw a real buck. We did see a deer we have nicknamed unicorn because he only has antlers on one side. Fast forward till Saturday afternoon. We are heading back to the stand. Early afternoon ... Em texts to tell us storms are heading our way. As soon as we get in the stand we have deer on us. Several deer actually. I stand up for 1 1/2 hours straight, and even pulled back and help for about 3 mins before letting down and having arms of jello. It thundered on us and rained pretty good, but did it deter the deer? Nope, they are there. I finally got a decent shot at a doe and took it, only to miss. Steve says he knows what I did and it's basically at rookie mistake. Hey, we are all allowed. Neighbor Mike went hunting with us and shot a doe, so in the pouring down rain, we load up his doe, field dress it and get it hauled to the processor. Steve and I were soaked to the bone, because by now, it was raining really good! Sunday morning we got up at 3:30 and was in the stand by 5:15 or so. It was still dark. The sun rose while we were sitting in the stand. Had a couple of doe and a nice spike come up, but nothing to write home about till the very end and we had a HUGE bodied doe come in, but never close enough for me to get a good shot.

Hunting is a little stressful. First there's being scent free. Steve had me showering and washing my hair with scent free stuff for a whole day before we left. We had Scentblocker clothes also. And you spray down with the scentblocker stuff about 20 times. Then you hike as quietly as possible to the stand, through the dark in leaves, bushes and fallen trees/limbs. Then you take off your bow, hook it to the pull rope, then climb into the stand. FIRST thing you do is strap yourself into the safety harness. THEN, you pull up your bow, take off the quiver, nock an arrow quickly cause you never know when they will get there. Then you put on your jacket, gloves, facemask/head cover, spray down and then take a deep breath. You do all this as quietly and as fast as you can. Hopefully you won't be sitting too long without action or you'll go to sleep. I nodded off a couple times myself. After the deer come in, you've got to be really quiet and move really slowly cause they got really good eyesight. It's crazy what they can see. And their sense of smell and hearing is top notch!

It was a fun weekend. I especially like spending time with my hubby. Our 18 year anniversary was yesterday (Monday, Sept 7) and although hunting doesn't seem like fun to most, time spent with your life partner is always good.

Trail Cam Pictures ... 7.24.09

Steve and Neighbor Mike went up to KY leases Friday and hung stands and swapped out cards on the trail cameras. They got some really good shots. We spent most of Friday night downloading them. Then Steve spent Saturday morning/mid-day deleting the bad ones. We usually get a lot of the same deer and LOTS of racoons. We also have black birds and nothing shots. Anyways, its really fun to see what you've got on them. After we download them and weed out the bad ones, we put them in Picasa (cause it's the GREATest), so we can view them full screen. I noticed a few things when I did this that we didn't know about. Also love on Picasa that you can add text. Makes keeping up with our different deer a little easier.

I'll point them out:

When this pictures was full screen I noticed the deer in the back. You can't really see it too well, but it's there and what's weird is that in the next shot it's in the picture and the Skinny 8 has already passed. This camera is set up on a trail and guess who's stand it on it? MINE! and its only a 12 yrd shot! I'm pretty deadly from 10 - 18/20 yards, so I should do good on this. Steve was happy to get these shots because it just shows that the deer really use it, since there was no corn down at all to attract them.

We all know that I'm a turkey junkie, so to see this moma BEARDED turkey with poults is pretty cool. This turkey is legal to shot because she is bearded, but really... why? Other than it's really cool to see a bearded hen. We have one that lives around us and I've seen her in the fields, but never while hunting.

This is Tall-Wide 8 .... he's got a very nice rack, even if it's only an 8. He'll be a good deer next year for sure if nobody gets him this year.

More turkeys .... TOMS and JAKES! This is Paint Brush Tom ... looooook at that beard. KILLER! I have to say, if I even see a turkey during bow season, I'm game to try and shoot one, especially this honking huge bearded TOM!

This is Kicker 10. We see him a lot at this spot. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a male friend and sometime with a lady friend. We also discovered while viewing this full screen, that he has 10 fully developed points and one "kicker" that comes off his left side browtine... pretty cool. Here's another picture of him.

So, I won't get to use the leases much .... but it's fun to see what's up there and we've still haven't found the deer that made the freakly huge tracks in the blog entry below.... still waiting on that one.

Steve had me shotting today out of the stand. Getting more comfortable being up there on that little platform. Hope I get a shot of at least a nice doe this season! We need some meat in our freezer!

Thats all for now. Blog ya later!

New pictures from last year

Last weekend, I borrowed mom's iBook and took it to KY. We wanted to download trail cam pictures on Steve's leases to it so we could leave the memory cards (that didn't work - another story or another time). But while I was pulling some pictures off Neighbor Mikes' card, I found some pictures we made at the beach last year. I barely remember taking them and they turned out really good. All of me and Emilee. We think Steve was playing golf and Mom, Emilee, Nana and Grandaddy were waiting for him to get home. Mom took these......

As mentioned above, we visited Steve's leases in KY. I know, doesn't sound real exciting, but it wasn't bad. I wanted to go since I had never been. Plus out of the 3 adults, I am the only one with any "computer" abilities. My job was to download the memory cards off the trail cam. BUT, I discovered on the way up trying to clean off one of Neighbor Mike's cards that my card reader won't read a 4gbHC card. So much for using it - good thing he had another 256 that I could clean off for him. They had two camera's already out. One with a 2gb and the other with a 4.... and you guess it, 4gbHC card. SO, I couldn't download Steve's card... the one with over 1700 wildlife pictures on it. We did stop at a Walmart to buy two more cards and I talked them into 2 gb cards, so we wouldn't have any problems. But, it really doesn't matter, because to get those 1700 pictures off the card (with no camera - because we replaced the card and left the camera strapped on the tree) we had to buy another card reader. NO problem though because it reads HC and non HC cards. BUT it doesn't read mom's compact flash card... bummer!

While visiting the lease with the camera's we saw a momma deer and a little fawn. It was toooooo sweet! When we left that lease, we visited Steve's other lease. Check out what we saw there ....

a freaking HUGE deer track. I actually asked Steve if he was sure it was a deer track. Needless to say, today he is in KY on this lease, checking for more FREAKING huge tracks. They don't have cell service where they are, so I'm not sure he's found anything... but they are putting out another camera in the location so we can watch for him!!!

What about Steve McNair? RIP! I saw him once at Goodpasture. He was a pretty big fellow. He was getting in his car and I was parked behind him. I really wish now I had stopped and either taken a picture or at least gotten his autograph, but I always hate bothering folk like that. I mean, doesn't Nashville pride itself on leaving our Celebs alone? No I wish I had! It's really a very sad situation. Nobody deserves that ... and neither does/did his wife. I'm sure she's a basket case right now. I didn't realize till just Wednesday that I know the guy that found him, Wayne. I use to buy all kinds of stuff from him at the sporting goods store across the street from work. I was actually in there about 3 weeks ago buying Steve a pair of weight lifting gloves to use when he cuts. Poor Wayne for finding his friend like that. I'm sure it will haunt him the rest of his life!

Emilee is at cheer camp .... this is her first camp experience and they are staying in dorms at TTU! Today has been a better day than yesterday .... and I think she'll be so tired tonight that she won't even remember our names. We go pick her up tomorrow. I miss her, but I think this is really good for her to learn to be more independent. Good for both of us I guess! :-)

Gotta run! Check ya later!

Here's the secret..........

Steve and I have been named to represent a hunting website for the state of Tennessee as Field Staff Members! Yea ... it's pretty cool. Of course, I think they took me because of Steve, but also having a married team is probably a good way to get more women involved. Here's the site link:

http://whitetailaffliction.forumotion.com/announcements-f1/a-big-welcome-to-a-couple-of-new-team-members-t1117.htm#10674

Shhhh, I've got a secret and I can't share yet....

Don't you hate that? Actually it's a secret about both Steve and me, but I can't tell anyone till "they" tell me it's time. Honestly, nobdy will really care ...... but it's exciting to us!

What a strange weekend. Saturday, I did basically nothing! I did a little laundry (still not finished), planted a few flowers, Em spent the night with a friend and Steve and I went to our regular weekend resturant (Paradise Ridge), then we topped off our date night with a trip to Walmart to buy dog food. We also needed aspirn and got gatoraides and water (looked like we were nursing a hangover!). Sunday pretty much the same. We slept late (missed church) and then I started cleaning up my scrapbook room some, made 2 pages and by the end of the day I had made a mini-album and 3 cards. (Wow, I actually scrapbooked!). We also hit the new DAIRY QUEEN in Joelton. That's a big deal guys, we only get new fast food resturants once every 10 years or so! We now have a McDonalds, Subway and Dairy Queen. I got a Snickers Blizzard, Steve got Chocolate shake and Em got a Blueberry Artic Freeze that was so sour she couldn't drink it! YUCK! Don't get the blueberry!

I'll leave you with a few new pictures. Steve and I took these this weekend.

Time for an update!

There's really not much going on in the Burch house. Em is into summer cheerleading schedule. Yesterday and today she spend 5 1/2 hours at the gym learning their competition routine. She said it was "ok", her feet started hurting. She has gymnastics two times a week, Monday and Fridays. 3 hours total. The Friday class is her favorite because it is straight one hour of gymnastics. BUT, she likes Monday because she gets to see her school friends that she normally would get to see during the summer. She's decided that she's gonna be a "big girl" now and spend the night away from home. I think she realizes that she's missing out on a lot of stuff that her friends don't invite her too because they know she won't spend the night. Good for her. Only took her 5 years to make the decision. Steve got his new bow set up, so we've been shooting some together. It's fun. He is better than me, but I'm getting there. I've decided to just go back to the way I learned and stop trying to make my stance and form perfect. I shoot pretty good just doing it my way. Right or Wrong. Em's Monday night gymnastics/cheer class is in Hendersonville, and right across from it is the bow range. Steve and I might take our bows one Monday and practice. It'll be fun to do it together. Last time we were there, I was the only one shooting. His new Hoyt is FAST! He really likes it. I'm happy for him.

I haven't been scrapbooking much, but I'm getting the itch. I've lost some pictures in my mess of scrapbook room. If it rains this weekend, I might tackle getting it cleaned up. I'm getting to the point of not being able to find anything. And it's getting on my nerves ....... which means it's really bad!!!! Memories In Bloom has some new stuff, so I'm kinda wanting to hit the store soon.

Since Em has two weeks of dead time from Cheerleading (TSSAA mandate) we're thinking of going to Holiday World or maybe even Beach Bend. Just something different and quick. It's hard with Steve cutting grass to take a long vacation, one or two days are doable, but 5 is hard. If you've been to either or both, let me know what you thought. I know Holiday World is more fun, but money is a factor since we just sent off Tuition and still paying cheerleading fees.

I have a few pictures to share. Enjoy!

This Kala, Steve's niece and her brother Cody. She graduated on Em's birthday May 21, from Greenbriar High School. She's a great girl! Cody and Em are a lot alike and almost exactly a year a part in age.

Em's "cookie cake" from Sweet & Sassy. I took it to school for her b-day along with pizza. The kids liked it but it was a bit rich. They really needed smaller pieces than I cut for them. Oh well, live and learn! It was quite cute though. Sweet & Sassy rocks!

After cookie and pizza in the cafe at school (love the verse behind them). These are all 6th grade girls acting silly!

Em and Pepaw Burch (Steve's dad) . This was his birthday party but it was on Steve' actual birthday day. Pepaw turned 65 and Steve turned 40. (not sure what that is on Em's head???)

THE TURKEY!!!! This is a really good picture. I think I'm gonna get it blown up 5x7 and hang it close to the mount when it comes in. This bird scored 68.5 with the NWTF. 22lbs 4 oz, 10 3/4 beard and 1 1/4 inc spurs! NICE ONE!!!

This picture seems to the the "lady's" favorite. I touched it up in Picassa, so that the edges are blurred. I think it's pretty cool!

If you're still with me, here's a new picture of Molly. She's is really one of the most beautiful dogs I've ever seen.