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!!