Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you and your families have been blessed with great health, happiness and prosperity as the year 2012 starts to unfold. The Yates family is having an awesome year so far; very busy with family, holidays, birthdays, weddings and of course Jim has been extra busy working with A.J. and the team getting ready for Pomona – which is only 23 days away!

I guess you are wondering why I am once again filling in for Jim's blogging. Well, since Christmas he has only been home six days and presently is in Bradenton, Fla., testing with A.J. and most of the other NHRA Pro Stock teams. I did get a report this morning that A.J.'s Dodge (with Richie Stevens behind the wheel) went a 6.48 so I know that the guys were pretty pumped up about that. Those numbers make everyone excited to get to Pomona!

While Jim is working hard on the race team I have been holding down the fort here at home and the shop. In my free time I did get a chance to go through my 900 pictures that I took the weekend of the wedding – hey one cannot have too many pictures to look at! The wedding weekend was amazing. Melissa had a four-page schedule (she is her father's daughter, that's for sure!) and thankfully every day and every event went according to plan. Whew! The weather was awesome, the church was beautiful and the newlyweds were just glowing with love and happiness. Add to that all the special friends and family who were able to share in Melissa and Joey's special day and the weekend was just perfect. It makes me teary to just think about it. LOL

After the wedding we stayed in Charlotte an extra day to attend the Civali's New Year's Eve Party and then headed home on New Year's Day. I had just enough time to get unpacked, get some laundry done and repack Jim so that he could head to A.J.'s shop to work for the week. His schedule has been pretty hectic – working during the week with the race team, home for a couple of days and then back on the road again. Of course, you know Jim, there is nothing he likes better than working, racing, analyzing and tuning a Pro Stock car – well other than maybe driving one!

So now you have been brought up to speed on the crazy, wonderful year that the Yates family has been having. I am looking forward to hearing some more testing results but unfortunately, Bradenton and Jim's phone are rarely compatible – when he arrives at the track it is like he enters the "dead zone." Hopefully I will get a full report when he gets back to the hotel tonight.

With Pomona almost upon us, Jim will most certainly be busy for the next 23 days but I will make sure that he writes next week and fills everyone in on their Bradenton test session. I think that the team will be home for a week before they load up and head west to Vegas for the "Superbowl" race and then Pomona. I will be going to Pomona and then Phoenix and I can't wait. Enough of this "off season" – I'm ready for NHRA racing to begin: 23 days and counting!!