Basketball, Basketball, Basketball

This past Monday was Martin King Luther Jr. Day so the kids didn’t have school. It was a very cold day out so it was nice to not have to get out and get them to school. We pretty much had a lazy day. I did a bike ride in the morning while the kids played. I had a couple different options I was wanting to do that day to celebrate their good report cards. We don’t do something every time but we didn’t do anything last time so I felt like I should do something fun for them this time. I thought about taking them to Sweet Espressions for hot chocolate and a treat but then decided they would maybe like going to eat at La Fuente for lunch better. But then Andrew had to go put out hay for his cows so I decided to not do that. We ended up getting Hotel Transylvania 2 and some snacks from Walgreens. They watched the movie and filled up on junk food while the twins were napping. Our reprinted family picture came in and it looked so much better. They replaced it for free with color correction and mounted it on a different board. I was very excited to get it up on the wall.

Andrew took Buddy to the vet that afternoon and thankfully had his claws clipped. So hopefully he won’t be ripping anything with them for a while. And Buddy already weighs 32 pounds. That night we had one of the kids’ favorite meals of Dobson Cottage lemon chicken and lemon broccoli. Jackson gave me a big hug and said it had been a great weekend-the Marvel show, the movie and junk food feast and then a yummy dinner. Moments like that always make me feel good-especially coming from Jackson as he gets older. After dinner was done and cleaned up, it was soon time to get Ellie to tumbling.

Tuesday brought snow. It started lightly snowing that morning after I dropped the kids off from school and didn’t quit all day. Even though some area schools got out early, Kirksville went all day. I did decide to not take Ellie and Payton to gymnastics though as there was snow south of us too. Payton’s mom was totally okay with that-we had actually agreed when we first started the carpool that we wouldn’t risk getting out in sketchy weather. I finally got back to working on cleaning out the storage area. After getting distracted with many other things, I just buckled down and got to work. I eventually got it all finished that evening. It was so nice to have it all done. The boys kept themselves busy playing with quite a collection of toys.

We had a busy night planned with Ellie’s gymnastics in Macon and basketball practices for Lincoln and Jackson, but they were all canceled. So we were able to get some stuff done around the house.  Andrew and I went out to shovel later that evening and Ellie joined us as we were finishing up. Buddy loved the snow and was running and jumping around in it. But he would also try to bite the shovel so he was a tad annoying J. Although the kids were hoping for it, they didn’t get a snow day the next day. The pool was closed in the morning though so I wasn’t able to get my swim in that day. We were starting up small group again that evening so I had a lot to keep me busy. I cleaned the bathrooms before taking the kids to school, then came home and made a red velvet sheet cake for small group snack. While the cake cooled, I went outside to clear off the driveway some more and shovel out what the snow plow had piled at the end of our driveway so that people would have an easier time getting to our house that night. Then I quickly got on the treadmill to do a run. I wasn’t sure if Andrew would be able to pick up the twins since he had an appointment but I decided to try to get my run in anyways and just go pick them up in my sweaty mess state if I had to. But thankfully Andrew was able to get them.

I spent the rest of the day getting things ready for small group from finishing up the snacks, to finishing cleaning and preparing our discussion. The kids were excited to play out in the snow when they got home from school and even went back out after dark to play with their friends. And that evening it was nice to see everyone at small group again. We just talked about what we wanted to do after we finish up our current study. But there was an incident of a kid trying to flush a cup down the toilet and then someone else going to the bathroom while the cup was still stuck. Andrew worked quite a while trying to plunge the cup through and put Jackson in charge of cleaning up the water that splashed out.  But they were never quite successful.

Thursday, the twins and I picked up some McDonalds for them and Owen and Lola after school and took it over to my parents so they could all play together while my mom and I talked Disney. Kaitlin and Zane were moving into their rental house in Pella so my parents watched the kids for a couple days while they got everything set up. We stayed there until it was time to pick up the other kids from school and the kids had a lot of fun playing together.  Ellie started her basketball practices Thursday night. She had a very busy day but handled it well. After school, she went to K-Life and from there she came home to eat dinner quickly. She got home at 5 and had to be at dance at 5:30. Her dance classes were supposed to last until 7, but I picked her up around 6:20 so she could be at her first basketball practice on time. It was a busy night for basketball because they had four teams practicing at the same time so it was quite the social event. I dropped her off and then ran to Westlakes to pick up a couple items for our new toilet. We took Ellie’s friend, Lauren, home after practice. The girls were excited to just be able to ride together. Andrew took the kids to school Friday morning and I was able to finish up my biking miles for the indoor triathlon. Since our Saturday was pretty packed with basketball, Andrew decided to head out to the ranch after lunch and put out hay. He took Buddy along with him at my request. The plumber came over and was able to fix the toilet in the basement and put in the new toilet in the half bath. I worked on getting dinner ready and we had my parents, Molly and Owen and Lola over for dinner. We had a spiral cut ham, roasted veggies, corn casserole, rolls and then apple dumplings for dessert. It was yummy and we had a decent amount of leftovers that we could send some ham and dumplings home with my parents and we were able to eat leftovers for a couple of days when we also included the pasta dish I had made the night before.

Saturday morning Andrew did a ride on the trainer and I got my last miles in on the treadmill for the indoor triathlon training. It took me three weeks (we have 8 weeks to complete it) to do several miles over a full Ironman Triathlon and people do all of it in one day. It was nice to have some goal to work towards though.  Ellie even took a try at the trainer.

Ellie had her first basketball game at 9 that morning. She did a great job-was aggressive on defense, hustled and I think was even the high scorer for the game. She had a lot of fun too.

After her game we went home for a bit and got some lunch. Did you know that even super heros have to eat lunch? 

I went early with Lincoln to his game since they had pictures before at 12:15. His team had not got a practice in because of the snow and for most kids it was their first time playing since they are just a kindergarten team. His coach did try to go over a few things with them before the game since we had a little time after pictures. Lincoln was hilarious to watch play, well they all were. There was not much scoring going on but it was still an entertaining game to watch. Lincoln would get this real intense face as he was running down the court. He also realized at some point that about the only way he was going to get to shoot was to get the ball at in bounds and get it down the court. So we had to give him the “don’t be a ball hog” talk. After several attempts, he did eventually score and it was the only basket his team made the whole game. The other team had one kid that made several shots. Lincoln was sitting by me at one point and I said, “That kid is on fire.” Lincoln was totally confused and wondered why I couldn’t obviously see that the kid was in fact not on fire J.

It was back home after Lincoln’s game to regroup, switch out some laundry and then head out for Jackson’s games in Queen City. His first game was at 3:45 but he had to be there at 3:15. The kids wanted something to eat so we got them something at the concession stand and by the time they finished eating and got to the gym, Jackson’s game had already started. They ended up starting about 10 minutes early. They played a team that had beat once and lost to once. It was a great, quick game and Jackson’s team ended up winning. Then we had about an hour until their next game. The kids were starting to get a little antsy after a long day of ball but they were troopers. Jackson’s team had a slow start for their second game but ended up pulling it out in the end. Jackson is definitely gaining some confidence and getting more aggressive which Andrew and I like to see. And he enjoys playing which is even better.

We decided that we would take the kids to La Fuente for dinner if it wasn’t too busy. They were so excited when we pulled in and we were thankful we were able to get a table and place our order right away. Everyone was hungry and the three baskets of chips were gone pretty quickly. After dinner Andrew was nice enough to drive me around to Aldi and Walmart so I could do some quick grocery shopping. They wanted me to get some plastic sleds and Walmart was completely out so we had to stop by Westlakes since I saw them there a couple days earlier. Then we finally made it home. Jackson got ready and went over to Zach’s for a sleepover. A couple other boys from his team were there. One boy, Gage, actually just found out that is he moving to Amsterdam for a few months with is mom and stepdad since his stepdad is doing some work for his employer over there.

Sunday morning we went to church and then Andrew met up with a couple other guys and went for a bike ride. I didn’t realize how far he was going to go so I’m thankful we had the live tracking going. He actually did a 50 mile ride. While he was gone we had lunch and then we took Jackson to his hitting camp at Truman. He wasn’t going to be there just under an hour so we just went to run some errands while he was gone. We met a lady that we sold a bow case to at Walgreens, then picked up some work I needed to do at the office and then washed the car. We were finished a little early so we just waited in the parking lot. Jackson seemed to really like the hitting camp and felt like he was learning some stuff. When we got home I cleaned out the garage and the car a bit while Bennett shoveled some snow and Ellie and Buddy helped him do some sledding.  Then Andrew got back and Buddy joined for the last bit of his ride.

Andrew had told the kids he would take them sledding out at the ranch and offered to take some of their friends but the numbers quickly got out of control. Andrew felt bad leaving anyone out so he ended up taking my car, which I had just cleaned, and a couple of our kids ended up on the floorboard of my car. He ended up with 8 kids and Buddy and they had a blast. Along with the sledding they built a snowman family. The twins took a nap while they were gone so they didn’t get to join in on the fun. I was able to do my office work while they were gone.

That evening we just hung around at home. We had leftovers for dinner and Andrew was excited when I got a text from Sharon that she had some jambalaya for him. It made his night. After dinner we saw that Marley and Me was going to be on, so we all sat down and watched it. They did enjoy it but Jackson and Ellie got in trouble for fighting before the movie was over and had to go to bed early. That was probably best though since it is pretty sad at the end. Andrew and I ended up not finishing the movie either as he was ready to change the channel once the kids went to bed. And it was time for me to pick up the house and get things ready for the next day.