Getting the New Year Rolling

The kids were thankful that they only had 2 days back at school before the weekend came again. We jumped back into things with Ellie and Lincoln having basketball practices to finish out the weekdays and then basketball games Saturday and Sunday. We started out with Lincoln's first game at the Knox County Tournament at 8:10, but we had to be there around 7:40, so Lincoln and I headed out early and the others came around game time. They had to play the Highland 4th grade team again and they are pretty big compared to our boys and we had already lost to them and that continued. We weren't able to stick around for his next game because Ellie had games in Brashear. They won that second game and went on to the next two after that. Ellie's first game in Brashear was against the Brashear travel team who had already played around 10 games and we were actually tied 6-6 at half time. I had to send Andrew a picture. The other team pulled away during the second half, but we still did better than what I thought would. And we only had 7 of our 12 girls, which was actually easier for Dad and I as far as subs. We were able to get back to Edina and catch the last part of one of Lincoln's game and part of another before we had to go back to Brashear. Our second game was a blow out. The other team was a travel team on the tail end of their season. They actually started playing in August. We were no match for them, but the girls kept working hard. Andrew and the boys were able to make it to that game and then we ran back home for a little bit since the last game wasn't until 5:30. The last game was against Atlanta and Wendi Travis was coaching it. We had a great game and were up 23-22 with just a few seconds left in the game. But they were able to steal it from on of our girls and put up a shot just past half court that actually went in at the buzzer. Such a frustrating end to the game, but we were also excited that it was so close. To celebrate almost winning, we met up with my parents at Mi Casa for dinner.

We were able to go to church on Sunday and then made our way back to Edina for Lincoln's last game at 3:10. They had to play Highland again and it wasn't that great. But the loss meant we were done with the tournament and had placed 3rd place. They fought their way back and did a great job.

The next week we started back to more activities...Ellie's dance classes and I started back to at the twins' class and Lifeline. I was able to finish up my big house clean and organzing...except for the storage. And I also started working on the TriFAHL and hoping we can pull it off for this year. It has been frustrating trying to get the information I need from the previous director. He wasn't committing to organizing it again this year, so I just had to take charge since we were running out of time. And Molly has been helping me out by designing a new logo. Ellie also had a followup PT appointment and we were happy to learn that she doesn't have to go back for a while. She has exercises she is supposed to do at home, so I hope she is able to keep those up. Andrew took Buddy out and went for a mountain bike ride before the snow storm set in.

A few random moments from the week...Jackson keeps trying to get different parts of his body to touch the ceiling. This was his foot.

And Ellie has started a Google Hangouts group with Briley, Carson and Bella and it is fun to watch and listen to their conversations.

Our new family picture came in and I love it.

Us and my parents both got new mattresses. Thankfully, Jackson was around to help me get our old one into the entry way and then he and Andrew got it down to Leah's later that afternoon. And Jackson helped me get our new one onto the bed and I got it all unrolled and let it air up overnight before I slept in it the next day. We went over to my parents another night and helped them get theirs up to Caroline's old bed where they were going to let their's air up. Now we both have 100 days to decide if we like it.

Thursday they started giving out the Winter Storm Warnings for the weekend and the kids ended up getting out of school 2 hours early on Friday. We were supposed to be going to the Ray Miller PTA tournament that weekend, but they ended up canceling the Friday and Saturday games and pushing it all to Sunday. We were able to make it over to my parents for soup Friday night which was nice. It had been snowing since late afternoon, but it started to pick up more overnight and snowed most Saturday. Andrew took the kids out to help plow/shovel the driveway and sidewalk. They also did our neighbors driveway and played around a bit. Then Jackson and Ellie decided they wanted to put on shorts and t-shirts and race each other.

That night we ended up having a "find what you can" dinner (I had planned to make dinner, but the evening just got away from me) and watched Same Kind of Different As Me. I loved the book and I thought the movie was great too. The three youngest weren't that interested, but Jackson and Ellie liked it. It was nice to have an easy night at home, just all of us hanging out.  And the next morning, we ended up not going to church and they went back outside to clear out some more snow. The tournament was supposed to start at 8 that morning, but since we got more snow than expected (around 10 inches) and later in the day on Saturday, they pushed everything off to start at noon. They changed it from bracket play to pool play with a championship game determined by points and several teams ended up not coming. Lincoln ended up having games at 1:20 and 3:20 and I was supposed to help in in the concession stand from 1-4. They had a lot of help when I got there and then Jackson and Ellie helped some during Lincoln's first game. Their first game was again a Kirksville 4th grade team that has been playing together for several years and does the travel thing. I assumed we weren't going to win that one and we didn't, but they played them closer than I thought they would and did a great job. Andrew, Jackson and Bennett went home in between games and the others helped me in the concession stand and did a great job. Our second game started later than it should and we played Mary Immaculate. MI was definitely the underdog and I loved cheering for them when they made a basket, but Lincoln's team handled them pretty easily. Lincoln finally got a couple baskets. He had one great steal and fast break. He actually had several great steals and looked great the whole game. He doesn't get to touch the ball much on offense and spends a lot of his time setting screens, so I was happy he was able to put it up a few times. In the end, there were four teams that were 1-1 like us, but I'm not quite sure how they determined who made it to the championship. The only team who hadn't lost was the 4th grade team and then they played the Baskethounds. We didn't play them in this tournament, but the 2 previous times we played them, we beat them.

After the games, Andrew took Ellie to Smoothie King. He had promised her one since they have started lifting a bit. He has the younger boys doing pull ups and he, Ellie and Jackson doing bench presses and such. Now I need to join them. I've always known I need to add strength training into my overall training, but it is just hard to fit it all in. So, they went to Smoothie King and I took the boys to my parents. They still had some soup, so we had that for dinner, hung out for a bit and then went home to prep for another week back at school. Some area schools had already canceled for Monday, but we knew that wouldn't happen for us since they were able to do the basketball tournament.