Get his fight on

The MMA scene is pretty big in Iowa. Here's where Tyler trains: RoundKick.

Here's an interview with the owner/muay thai coach at Roundkick:  http://vimeo.com/1782542

YAY for Emmys!

I'm not typically a girl that cares about award shows but I'm super psyched about how well '30 rock' was recognized!!  It won best comedy, Alec Baldwin got best comedy actor and Tina Fey got best comedy actress. Tina Fey won best writing for a comedy series. The show also won best casting for a comedy series.

If you haven't seen '30 rock,' you are totally missing out! Tyler & I love it. I usually laugh til I cry.

Also, props to 'Deadliest Catch' for best cinematography for nonfiction program!

Takin' his game to the ring

In an age when someone can ignore flashing lights/siren behind them, fail to produce a driver's license, slap a cop's hand, jump out of a car when told to say put and refuse to follow orders and  then file a complain on how they were treated AND get all kinds of sympathy, I give extra credit to those strong enough to be in law enforcement. Sure there are cops who use excessive force or discriminate but they're the minority and partially a result of this flawed system. But why as soon as there are allegations does everyone point fingers at the officers? There was an opinion piece in yesterday's paper pointing out that good old fashioned respect & law-following might have alleviated the situation. Whole thing pisses me off.

In other news.... Tyler is going to take his game to the ring. That is, he's going to put these months of training, dieting and hard-work on display. Nov. 8, at the Val Air Ballroom, he'll be fighting in a pro Muay Thai exhibition, RoundKick Rumble 13. He's worked really hard, his coach says he's ready and he's continuing to train hard. And so I'll be biting my nails and screaming my lungs out. Holler if you want to come see him! Also, we're working on his fighter persona...   nicknames & theme song suggestions are being sought!  Think hard so he doesn't have to be Tyler "The kitten" Tompkins with the theme song  "It's raining men." :)

In other random news.... I HATE DEALING WITH CAR INSURANCE PEOPLE. I just want my FJ fixed!!!!!  and I want her fixed NOW.

Our life, available as screenplay!

As I tailgated a limo through Missouri, past Amish buggies and through flooded, closed roads this weekend, I laughed to myself. When I sat on the side of a Missouri Interstate in my mom's car and watched the trooper who'd pulled over the limo chat up my husband, I laughed to myself HARD and thought perhaps our life should be made into a straight-to-DVD movie.... Oh wait, should I back up a bit?

Let's begin with Friday as I left work in the rain, cruisin home in a great mood, ready to head to the fights with Tyler & my brother Brandon. Great mood until some dumbass punk backed UP the interstate onramp and into my car. MY CAR! My precious FJ that I love. Said dumbass got out of car and said "Sorry. I didn't want to get on the interstate" at which point I punched his lights out. Oh wait, just kidding. I WANTED to punch his lights out. Instead I took his DL and called the cops and sat in my car until they arrived. The dumbass admitted it was his fault AND admitted he had NO insurance. So today I'm playing the insurance/rental car/repair shop phonecalls. Which is why I was driving my mom's car Saturday. As for the rest of the story....

Tyler likes to browse Ebay motors and bid on vehicles he could fix up and resell. (In his spare time!) Apparently one day while doing that he saw a 1990 limosine for sale and thought "hm, that's a good deal!" and bid on it. And WON IT. at which point he remembered that good deals are only good deals if it's something you want! All jesting aside though, he got a good price and plans to fix it up a bit and sell it for more, which looking at comparables looks like a good plan. So we now own a limo. a LOOOONG limo with red vinyl seats and carpet, crystal glasses on the bar and 2 tvs and a vhs player. I know our neighbors are scratching their heads after seeing it parked in front of our house!!

OHH, and the flooded streets.....so about 1 mile after leaving the guy's house in Nowheresville, Mo, we hit a 'road closed' sign (during torential rain) but Tyler decides we can make it if we go slow.  So, in limo, he fords the river that was a road. and then it dies. on a closed off rural road. with no cell coverage. in the rain. BUT God was looking out for us and the next truck along was a mechanic who had worked on this limo before and he pulled out his rags, dried something out and off we went!!!

And as for being pulled over....apparently you HAVE to have a license plate in Missouri but we were not far from the Iowa border so he skipped the ticket but he did ask him why he would buy a limo!!  And, super weird, he knew the twin brother of Tyler's sergeant!

Regular Day?

Ah another not exciting day.

After watching a full 4 episodes of The Office last night (I love that show), I set my alarm for 8....and I woke up around 9. I have never slept through my alarm before but toady's the day.

Went to Muay Thai class and glad I did. I meet a newer member of the class who also installs granite and tile. We had him out the other day and he swears he is going to give me the deal of a lifetime. He apparently owns a 2003 Porsche 911 twin turbo. For those of you who are car-tarded one of the fastest cars on the planet, AND HE OFFERED TO LET ME DRIVE IT when he brings it in. I guess this means regardless of what his granite price is I have to pay it to get into that car.

The rest of the day was usual fielded some calls from tenants that could not pay their rent, cleaned the carpet in 2 units with Rug Doctor. OK side note here I wanted to purchase a rug doctor as often as I use one, there are thousands of dollars. So that made up my mind...I will rent (never thought I would say that). After helped with various tenant repairs and then headed for home, and work.

Boring day but productive I suppose.

woah, woah, a new voice on our blog!

Our blog finally has 2 writers-enough to make it "ours," not "mine" which is very exciting!  As I drove home last night, Tyler said "we should blog about our everyday life" and I said "that's the idea but I don't have time!" so he said he'd give it a shot.  But not only do I not have time, sometimes I just figure I don't have anything interesting to talk about....

But later last night as I danced with a mastiff and golden*, in my pajamas, and sang "Mercy" by Duffy out loud, I thought maybe he was on to something. Our everyday life IS something to blog about. 

So here 'tis, all 4 of our readers....a renewed commitment to regular blogging!

*Tonka refuses to dance with me.

Uhh am I in the right place...

Hello all this is Tyler.. you know the webmaster/blog freaks husband. I decided to not let Courtney have all the fun and start to post.

Soooooo here we go...

We are currently in that time of the year when we want to get out of town and have some fun. This time we are putting a little bit of planning into our trip and not just booking a trip and leaving two days later ( Courtney hates that, I do not). We are headed back to Vegas for a UFC fight on Nov. 15th (and yes we both love MMA) we leave on the 14th and leave Vegas on the 17th. We then journey up to Utah and see the grandparents in the lovely and hard to find town of Kanab ( and Joyce I swear you have to go through Zion Park to get to your house). After a few days enjoying the middle of nowhere Utah we will travel back down to Arizona and see my parents for a couple of days.

You know I go on these vacations and by the end I really am ready to return home for what ever may be waiting. It is usually some property emergency that gets me all frustrated on vacations and ruins a day ( just as Courtney). It never fails by the end of the vacation I swear I am never going on vacation again.........but here we are.

I'm famous!

for looking 12.....   

If you have a dog, read this

If you have a dog, please read Chai's story and share with anyone you know who has a dog!!!