Basketball and Family Week

 Blake had a fun basketball season.  At first he was very disappointed to not go and play with his old team.  But he really enjoyed Uncle Jared as a coach and had fun with some of the boys on his team.  Some it would have been more fun to play without, but isn't that how most things go.  For none of the team, except Blake, having played before, they did quite well.  By the end of the season they were coming together and learning to be a team.  Jared's patience was amazing to us.

I didn't know that when I took these pictures of Leah it would be her last game.  As mentioned before there had been some problems with her teammates.  Drinking before practice, not showing up etc.  Before this game the principal and athletic director had a meeting with all the girls and had them re-sign code of conduct, gave them a talking to, a warning, and all girls agreed to be better.

I love watching Leah play against her friends.  They play hard and don't give in, but during down time are just chatting.

Anyways, with in 24 hours of the meeting, many things went down.  Girls expelled, skipping school, drugs.  It is a mess.  They were all called back in and they cut the girls basketball program.  Leah had one tournament and one game left before league finals.  It was a huge blow to her.  There were many tears for many days.  She is really hoping for one last season next year, but things do not look good right now. :/

We had a great Family Day.  With the new changes in how missionaries communicate with family we all got to talk to Cora early in the morning. She was excited that her first call just happened to catch us all at home.  It was good to catch up with her and actually get some answers to some of our questions.  Cora is great at phone calls, has never been good at texting or emailing.  We then had a nice breakfast and went into the church to play ball for a few hours.  It was an amazing foul shot day for all of us.  We played many rounds of bump and hardly missed anything.  Don't usually play that well, but we were on fire.  After lunch we had projects to work on and had a lazy sort of day.  That evening we spent more time than usual on our Come Follow Me and watched a movie.  Dave was back to work the next day, but the kids had the week off.  They each picked a day to prepare dinner. We watched some movies, went for runs, deep cleaned and hung out.  It was a good week. 

Winter Camp book ended by Updates

Dave and I celebrated our 20th anniversary this past month.  We had basketball games on the day of.  A great way to spend it and then the day after we did a temple session.  It was nice to spend some time together just the two of us.

My birthday was also a nice day.  We didn't do anything.  Perfect!

Blake is still going strong with basketball.  He has another tournament this weekend.  It is a JV tournament, so hopefully they have a little better chance.

Leah also has about another month of basketball.  She is getting a little frustrated with her team.  Since Christmas there have been two of them showing up to practice.  Once in a while they will get 3-4 other girls.  But usually when they show up they either are high, drunk, or sit on the stage and talk.  They had real potential at the beginning of the season.  Now they have lost the last few games and even to some that they have beat before.  It's to bad.  But she just keeps showing up and doing her best every day. Leah has a tournament this weekend too.  Dave and I will decide  who is going which way.

Blake has been wanting to go winter camping with his friend Gilbert since Dave took him last year.  I kept telling him to get is organized with his dad.  I am not a camper and it really made me nervous to  send these two 13 yr old boys off by themselves.  A weekend finally opened up, I realized that he was going to be persistent until it happened, so we made arrangements.  Blake decided on the food and found all the camping gear.  Dave over saw and checked to make sure it was all there and winter appropriate.  We didn't want freezing boys.  They loaded up a vehicle and followed Dave down to the willows, about 3 miles away.  We wanted to leave them with transportation just in case.  Dave said the grins on their faces was so proud and excited as he glanced back in his mirror.  The boys got all set up.  They cleared a spot for a fire and cooking.

(No on was harmed in the taking of this photo:))

Dave went and checked on them a few hours later and then we went down again just before bed.  They had built a fie, eaten dinner and washed all the dishes, played card games, had hot chocolate and tried to pick out constellations. Blake had decided on tin foil dinners for supper.  I made up 4, 2 for them and 2 for Dave and I.  Leah was at a friends all day.  Then I cooked theirs, so they would only have to heat it up, and set it out on the BBQ to cool to put in the cooler.  They got all the food and gear packed up.  I asked if they had gotten the dinner, yes they had and off they went.  Later Dave came home and said, uh what are the tin foil dinners out on the BBQ for?  They had packed the raw ones.  :)  Dave went down and exchanged them.  When we checked on them that night they said they had not left the dinners on the fire long enough and ate them cold.  To bad, but good thing they were not the raw ones. 

The next morning after breakfast, we all went down and Dave brought the guns.  We shot at a couple targets. Leah sat by the fire, then we came home.  Blake and Gilbert stayed and made lunch and packed all up and them eventually came home themselves.  They were very safe and smart.  And they had a really great time.  Now that it is over, I am very glad they did it.  What a cool thing to do as a young teenage boy.  They will remember that forever.

Cora update:

Cora loved the MTC.  They would go out on field trips to Manchester and practice talking to people.  She was there 3 weeks.  They took a bus to the mission home.  She said they had a full day of more training and interviews before she got to meet her trainer and see where her first area would be.  Her first area is Jersey.  She was really hoping that she would get one of the channel islands at some point in her mission.  Lucky girl got it first off.  They are opening a new area back up.  Her companion is really awesome.  They Skype the district leaders who are on Guernsey. and they get to fly back and forth to the mission home in Birmingham for zone conferences.  Flying, Island, England.....this whole mission is so Cora it is amazing.  They Lord sure knows and loves this daughter of His.

In her last letter she said, 'I can actually speak to people on the streets. It's not me though, 100% everything I say is inspired cause I'm just an awkward person. Ugh I LOVE this!!

Birthday and Basketball

This weekend we had a basketball tournament.  It is not often that during basketball season my kids are scheduled to be close in distance, never mind the in same place.  It was wonderful.  Blake had three games.  They lost the first two and won the third.  He is really starting to love basketball.  Can't wait till his next game every time and he does well.  His dribbling is coming along.  He had some great baskets and even a steal or two.  Also good rebounds.  He can jump pretty well.  When he wasn't playing he was watching videos on how to and then going to the garage to improve his vertical.

Leah was reffing the tournament.  She had a few parents from different teams stop her and thank her and tell her that she was their favorite ref of the weekend.  That was a nice compliment, since it is not an easy job.  She didn't particularly love it, but had fun and enjoyed the pizza and subs left for the refs.  We celebrated Dave's birthday on Thursday, since we weren't sure when we would all be together on Friday.  Just cake and a movie at home.  The roads were dry, it was quite warm for January and we were all together.  It was a wonderful weekend. What more could ya ask for?!!?!

And She is Off!!

January 2nd we took Cora to the airport.  We had to get up at 3 in the morning to get her there on time.  Blake had not been feeling well all the day before and finally threw up just before bed. We checked with him when we got up and he could barely move.  I was very torn.  I really wanted to see my daughter off that I would not see for a year and a half, but didn't want to leave Blake.  Normally, even sick Blake would have been fine, but it didn't seem fair for him to miss it either. We went back and forth for about 20 mins and finally decided he would stay by himself.  He was devastated, so was I.  In the end he grabbed a blanket and a bucket and came with us.  And we just prayed he didn't pass it on to Cora. By the time we left he airport he was fine and ready to eat.  I am glad he made it.  Our first stop was to check her luggage.  In all the trips we have taken we have never taken more than a carry on backpack.  So we taught her how to check luggage and how she would pick it up in Manchester.

Cora then said good-bye to us all and was on her way.  I don't even think she was really nervous.  She had flown enough to understand airports and what to look for.  Was totally comfortable going through customs.

We watched her walk off.  Very confident and very ready for this adventure.  Blake is really looking forward to there being a much greater height difference in Cora's return photo. :)

Isn't she the cutest sister missionary ever!  I may be a little bias. Dave said just before going through customs, she looked back and gave one last quick wave.  So quick she didn't see Dave and Leah wave back.

We tracked her flights and was very glad to get the short email telling us that she had arrived.  She did end up flying with an Elder she knew from our stake, so she wasn't alone.

In her email she said that they had both asked which gate to go to for their connecting flight in Newark to Manchester and had been given the same answer.  They had a 4.5 hour layover.  They chatted and slept a bit.  Then just at boarding time heard the announcement...we will start boarding zone 1 for San Francisco.... both panicked, started asking around and ran to the other side of the terminal.  They were the last ones on the plane and just made it. 

She is a pretty special girl.  We have loved her emails so far and look forward to reading everything about her mission. Watch out England, you just got an amazing Sister!

Cora's Farewell and New Year's Eve

Cora's boys came down for her farewell. They are nice kids and is was fun to met them.

Austin, Cora, Jonas and Scott.

I had gotten back a little later than I thought I would from the Puzey Christmas and still had lots to do to get ready for her dinner.  I started quickly making cornbread, as we fed everyone a snack.  I wasn't happy how it turned out and the next morning got up early to make more.  Blake was assigned a youth talk and Cora and Leah sang.  Leah had wanted to sing 'Come Unto Christ'  It is a beautiful song.  It is the youth 2014 theme song.  Lalainia wrote in an alto part and played for the girls.  Cora nailed it with her talk.  We thought she did so good.

It snowed and was very icy and blowing when we woke up Sunday morning.  We started getting lots of calls and text saying people would not be able to make it due to weather.  Some friends and my family braved the weather anyways. 

After we had a simple dinner and then came back to the house.  Toone's and the boys came back and hung out for a couple hours and then everyone went home.

New Years Eve we took down Christmas, cleaned up the house, did laundry and got ready to go to the stake center to get Cora set apart.  She was given a very nice blessing.

After her setting apart, and back home, we had dinner, went through the new Come Follow Me for Families and played Uno and Dutch Blitz.  Dave even played with us.  We then dumped out our jar and read the papers.  It was grand time to go through them all and reminisce about each one.  It was fun to see that some things several of us had written about.  And we loved discovering papers from friends that had visited us over the year.

Everyone decided that they wanted to do the jar again.  My cousin Kathrine asked about the jar and said she thought she would type them up and put in a book each year.  I thought this was brilliant and I wish I would have done that before we threw them out.  I will be doing that next time.  We played some more games then toasted in the New Year at 10.  The kids and I stayed up till 11:45 then decided we were to tired to wait any longer.  Haha, so close. 

Happy New Year Everyone!

Week after Christmas

26th we headed out to my parents.  It was a bittersweet Boxing Day as we knew it was the last day we would spend on the farm.  We did the traditional Mexican feast.  As every year, it was amazing. Leah had a friend from B.C. close by that she had not seen since trek. She took Levi with her and they went to see him briefly before lunch. The kids played games, we sat and chatted, and then we loaded up a few things and drove to see my parents new place.

27th we took the kids skiing.  Dave and I had hummed and hawed about this for a few weeks.  We really did not have the money for it this year.  Cora desperately wanted to go one last time before her mission.  She knew the situation and didn't push it.  Myrna then gave us some money for Christmas and with this bit of help we decided that we would be able to swing one ski day this year.  The kids were so excited.

Leah's knees were bugging her and she had practice that night, so she decided to only do half day.  It was nice to have some company in the lodge for a while.

Love this top of the mountain shot.

28th and 29th was the Puzey Christmas get together.  We had clam chowder for supper.  I remember when I first got married this was the Puzey Christmas Eve tradition.  But I haven't had it for years. We then just hung out again.  Apparently my kids were super social with their cousins. :/

I had mentioned to Dave on the way over that I really wanted a tallest to smallest picture and an oldest to youngest picture.  So as dinner was being prepared, I gathered the kids and lined them up.  They were all so patient as I got my pictures.

I thought it would be funny since Cora is the oldest and shortest of our kids.  Ashton was obviously the tallest, but we had to measure Leah, Blake and Emry (they were exactly the same) and then Calum and Liam it was very close.

Saturday afternoon we had a lovely turkey dinner.  Cora's friends showed up just as we were about to eat, which panicked me a bit since we had not planned on seeing them until later.  But is was ok and we had enough food.  After Rachel told us about a game that her in-laws play to do dishes, called 99.  It was a great idea.  I think a new tradition has been born or the Puzey side as well.  Cora's friends helped some with dishes, then we sent them back to our house.  We stayed and played some fun games Rachel had put together, then also went back to get ready for Cora's farewell.

Christmas 2018

The week before Christmas was filled with band concerts, rock band, and basketball games.  It was a lot of fun, Cora got to see a lot things and made several trips to the temple with Dave.

On the 22nd we ended up having a funeral in our ward.  It was kind of unexpected and was fast, but it came together well, and my family really helped.  After the funeral Leah and Cora did a face mask as Leah did homework and house cleaning.  Dave and Blake finished the shed.  It came together nicely.

23rd was a short one hour sacrament meeting.  It was a nice meeting.  I got a few quick pictures of my kids after, thought I would take advantage of them all dressed up.  Cora loved her face in this picture, like really guys, just chill.  She laughed so hard every time she looked at it.

 Christmas Eve we did our usual appetizers and read the nativity. Dave acted out the angel. Then watched 'A Christmas Story'.  After that Cora and Dave each had a gift they needed to finish in the garage.

 Christmas was very low key.  We had a few small things for the kids.  Cora's was all mission stuff and she knew every present. We then enjoyed a nice lunch and played games, watched a movie and read.  It was a great relaxing day.