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Getting Ready for Houston

As most of you have noticed, we have been moved over to the Funny Car column. I will try to update more often to stay at the top but I know Wilber posts more often then anyone so he will always be on top. It’s like a little competition between us all, who can be on top. Now let’s get started! This week is so exciting for me! We get to go to Houston which is always fun because we love that track. I lived in Houston for four years and have a lot of really great friends who are planning on coming to the race. It is also where I met Terry for the first time. Now times are very different but we are so excited! There had been a chance that we were not going to go. On our list Houston was not one of the races we were sponsored for but because it was close we were planning on going. Our fantastic sponsor has come through for us and we are so ecstatic that we are going. Since my last blog it is getting busier then ever. The weekend after Braiden’s birthday was the bridal shower for my almost sister-in-law, which I hosted; we had a great time. Also, there’s the Four-wide Nationals in Charlotte which I did not attend but Terry did. He went with the Rapisarda Top Fuel dragster and was working as a crew guy. He really enjoys working with them. There is a chance that we may go to Australia sometime this year with them and I cannot tell you how amazing that would be. Terry also went and had his visitation with McKailen. Kailen is getting to where he tests Terry’s patience but it’s great to see them together. I have not gone lately but we are planning a trip to see him soon. Then in June he is coming to Texas for a week. We can’t wait. We have been servicing all of our parts. We have decided that again for this race we will run the Dodge body. It needed some work so Terry has been working away on it. But it is official we will debut the new Toyota body at Englishtown. I am very happy for this because since its Terry’s hometown it means more to go there and have a new body! So now the work begins to make sure that it’s ready. There is so much that goes into getting a new body. While it’s not brand new it is new to us. From all that I know a BRAND new body, when it’s all complete, can be up to $75,000. That is a lot of money. Many people don’t know all that has to be done when you get a new body. First, we take it to Ty Baumgartner with Baumgartner Race Cars to mount the body. He is the chassis fabricator and he does amazing work. Because Ty is the one who built our car, he knows where everything is and makes it much easier. Terry has always said he could mount a body but it would take much more time. After it gets mounted we have to get it down here to Texas and then real work begins. With a new body you have to actually put it on the car and make sure all the clearances are right. Then it will be sent to the paint shop and get its primary color. Then when it comes home we have to vinyl the rest of it. We are so excited that it will be ready for Englishtown. I hope everyone had a great holiday. I know we did. We spent the weekend with my family and we took Braiden on his first egg hunt. The hospital in our city is very large and my mom has worked there forever so we took him there. However, he is not interested in the Easter Bunny at all. He basically ran away from him. Then he got to play in all these inflatable jumping houses. It was great. My brother came in town and we did dinner with him. (Easter egg pic) I told Terry I wouldn’t put this is my blog but I just can’t help myself. So since Terry and I bought our house last year we are not the most domesticated people. With all of the traveling we do, it’s not always easy to keep up with all the maintenance. We usually have someone cut our yard and over the winter we just let it do its thing because it doesn’t need to be cut. So now that spring has arrived and everything is growing we had not called our lawn guy. Terry and I decided that in order to save money we would buy a lawn mower and do it ourselves. This is funny because I think our neighbor was going to fall over when he saw us outside on Saturday cutting the yard! It was quite a funny site! But we did it and now it looks great, and within two times we will have already started saving. Now it’s back to work. I have to put a rack in the car and then we will be ready. We can’t wait Hope everyone can make it out!!! Oh and from what I have heard Shawn Cowie is doing pretty well for everything he is going through. He had a very long surgery last week and then I think I heard they were going back in today. But he is off the ventilator and out of ICU, which is fantastic. Hope everyone has seen the decals and that they will be at Houston. We really want one to support him and his family. Keep the prayers going for Taylor, Shawn and the whole family. Have a great week.