hot lips

parental boasting

 My "little guy" was not only selected to represent his class in the Scranton School Spelling Bee, but he went in and took 4th place overall.  Not too shabby!  Especially since we started studying words the night before!  Good job Preston!

 Cam's team is having a rough season (have I mentioned this before?).  I am proud of Cam though.  If they gave an award to the kid who hustles the most, encourages his teammates the most, and has the most passion, he would be a top contender!  He really puts everything he has on the floor.  It is not easy to get stomped on every time out.....yet every time out he believes they have a chance and he puts in a supreme effort.  I think that takes a great deal of perseverance, confidence and love of the game.  They may not win a game this season, but I believe these are important lessons nonetheless.

 Cam is number 33 in white.

These photos were taken with my new iphone.  Yes, I came into the modern era.  Yes, I am still a bad photographer.  Yes, I did have to have help getting out of some programs I accidentally opened.  Yes, I am scared that I will never fully understand the tool I have in my hand.  And finally, yes, I am excited about trying it out, and about having to never worry about forgetting the camera again!  :)  Its the little things right?

Winter weekends

 Our weekends look like a bizarre blur of basketball, and wrestling.  Quincy had a game Saturday, and while we were there, Jim was watching the high school wrestling team in Council Grove.  I never thought I would say this, but thank God for texting, because it is nice to know how things are going with the other kids... and I am not sure how much actual face time I get with Jim on weekends, so it is a good source of communication!  (Only partly kidding here).  

 Colin's wrestling team took first place in a super dual among some much larger schools.  The schools may be larger, they may have more kids on their team, but our boys have more heart I would guess!  Colin was 4 and 1 for the day and his team was thrilled to be in first place.  They are excessively proud of the "cool trophy they get to present to the school for the trophy case."  Or so I was told -- several times!  

I will go on record here and say I love this photo (which I stole from a fellow wrestling mom's facebook page).  Colin's coach is a great guy.  I love how it looks like he is hugging his boys!  It is cool to see a man in a role like wrestling coach who genuinely cares about these kids.  

Other news - we signed a contract to sell our land.  It may have been the hardest decision that we have ever made.  We loved the land - truly.  I always felt it was like a gift from God that we were allowed to own it.  The thing is though, that when it was all said and done, we just could not make building happen.  We had a hard time with construction loans, and we had a hard time trying to find something to build that was both affordable and comfortable for our family.  We failed.  And it was depressing.  And then, last week we found a place in the country that was everything we ever wanted and more....we didn't get that particular place but our eyes were opened to the fact that if we let one dream go, we could fulfill it in another way.  And so with tears in our eyes, we agreed to sell the land to the neighbor.  The neighbor was overly generous and even treated us to dessert!  I think the deal will be final very soon, as they are wanting to move quickly.  And so we search.  And hope that the people who bought "our" house are abducted by aliens.  And search some more!    Today I drug Jim to an open house, and we toured another house that we both really liked.  The kids just roll their eyes.  I am starting to think I should pursue a career in real estate.  I am getting pretty good at finding properties to look at, and I really enjoy walking through other people's houses.  I may even be sad when we find the perfect place because I will need a new hobby!  :)

Mo' basketball

 This time of year our lives revolve around a basketball court.  The exception is Colin who gave us the 'gift' of learning wrestling rules.

 Cameron's team does not exactly play like a team and they have yet to not get blown away,  but Cameron loves basketball and he has a big heart, so we keep going to watch his team.  

Cameron is number 33 in white.  All photos courtesy of Mallory.  :)

Just another day with police at our door

A couple months back, Jim was hired as the city court clerk.  It means one night per month of court, plus a few other duties, which Jim has been learning about.  One of the duties is making sure that the warrants are carried out.  Jim had to learn how to do this, which meant taking a trip to Lyndon with our city police officer.  The kids and I all had a huge laugh when the officer showed up in the patrol car to pick Jim up for their training this morning!  The kids had a little too much fun taking photos and begging me to post them on the blog!  :)  It really isn't a regular occurrence that someone hauls Jim off in a police car.

This has been a heck of a week.  Jim and I found our dream house.  It seriously had everything.  For me, it was love at first sight, and Jim was pretty quickly right beside me on the "lets buy it boat."  I cannot think of a  thing that is on my list of must haves that this place didn't have.  And it was priced fairly too.  Unfortunately, the house sold before we could get an offer placed.  To say we were disappointed - that just doesn't do it justice.  I am starting to develop a new idea for a novel - a little informational book called  'how to fail miserably at real estate.'  Is it wrong of me to hope that the people who placed the offer will be abducted by aliens and not be able to complete their transaction?  I am starting to think that real estate agents should use my skills.  If I love a place, it will sell in a couple of weeks, while other places sit for months on end without so much as a nibble.  All they have to do is tell the public I love the house.  :)

Life is full of disappointments.  We know that.  Wow do we ever know that!  At least we have our health.

Scrappy Quincy takes the court

 Quincy is playing ball at the Carbondale Rec again this winter.  She had her first day today.  She is number 6 on the white team (someone really needs to visit with the Carbondale Rec people about how many colors exist besides white).  They all gather together and work on fundamental skills, and then they break up and play games against each other.  Quincy was pretty excited to get going this morning, was up and dressed before any of the rest of us!

 She is a pretty scrappy little player, and today she seemed to be one of the taller kids.  I think she had a lot of fun!

Just Stuff

 Mallory and Madison went to the PRCA Rodeo with friends this weekend.  They were looking fine in their boots so I decided to take photos.  Of course, one is always more willing than the other!  :)

 The scholarship offers have started rolling in, reminding me that these 2 are getting close to finished with high school.  I am proud of the consideration that they are putting into the offers, and trying to make good decisions about their future education.  

 Of course, if you break out the camera, there is always a little one willing to pose too!  No, she does not have leprosy, she has taken a liking to coloring.  A big time, love affair with markers, crayons, and pens.  She is completely happy to sit through an entire basketball game if you give her a pen and a notebook.  Luckily for me, this is a cheap enough hobby!  I am surprised by the meticulous nature of her coloring....she is actually trying to make letters and shapes.  I see a great artist in the making!

Cameron was cleared to go back to playing basketball today.  They could not get him in yesterday, so he had to sit out of practice for a day.  Today, they once again told me that they could see no indication of a head injury or a concussion.  He was very relieved since he has another game tomorrow night.

Cam's first game

 Cameron's 8th grade team played their first game tonight at Perry-Lecompton.  Mallory took these photos with her iphone, and I thought they were pretty good.  She even got a photo of Cam when he was shooting, and he did  make the basket.  Cameron's team has a long, long way to go to improve.  It was a painful game to watch.  Painful in more ways than one.

Cameron drove into the lane for a lay-up and got fouled.  He ended up smacking the back of his head on the floor.  His coach pulled him out and did a concussion check, which he said Cam failed.  And so, they had me come over to look at him and talk to the coach.  I could tell that Cam was really mad because they let another kid take his foul shots, and that what they were calling disorientation was actually anger, but they would not listen to me.  The principal finally decided that Cameron could not play any more until he was cleared by a doctor.  I understand the new concussion laws.  I do.  I understand why they put them in place, and I even respect them for doing so, but that being said, I also know my kid.  I knew he did not have any symptoms of a concussion.  Needless to say, the mother's opinion does not count.  So we drove into Lawrence to the ER because it was close by.  I have never been impressed with Lawrence hospital.  To say that I am more upset after going there is an understatement.  They assessed him, asked me a million questions, asked him a million questions, made sure they had all my billing information and then kind of dismissed us saying he has no symptoms of a concussion, therefore we do not want to scan him unnecessarily.  OK that is fine.  Next thing they tell me is that they will not release him to play sports again because his primary doctor has to do that and since she is a Topeka doctor, they can't help me.  SERIOUSLY?  So you won't scan him, you don't think there is anything wrong with him, you feel safe enough in your diagnosis to let him go home, but you also won't release him?  If I was the Incredible Hulk I would have been ripping my shirt off and slamming some people.  Unfortunately, I do not possess any super powers, so we will now be wasting another trip to town to see our pediatrician so that they can tell me again that there is nothing wrong with him....that he has absolutely no symptoms of a concussion.  Thank you.  Not to say that I don't feel extremely lucky and blessed that he was not hurt....I just wish that we could have resolved this in the 2 hours we already spent at the hospital.

Preston's first basketball game

 Preston played his first official game today.  He has played basketball for a couple of years, but never on a team where they keep score and have real referees.  He was so nervous and excited!  His game was in Americus.  I got to learn something new today, because I had no idea where Americus was located.  I actually followed Preston's coach to the game, but it was not hard to find, so I think we would have been ok!  Preston got to be the jump ball dude.  Ok, I don't know much about basketball, and I thought that the center was usually the jumper, but he went on to play point guard, so I am clueless.

 Preston is number 4.  He seemed like he knew what he was doing, and as point guard was even calling out plays, which I must say I was impressed with.

Preston's team had 4 points today -little kid basketball is a bit on the low scoring side.  It was actually kind of sad, they has 4 points the whole game and were leading.  With a minute left, the other team tied it up, and with 19 seconds left, they made another basket, making the score 6 to 4  They were disappointed to lose.  Preston did have 2 points.  :)

 Preston's team only has 5 players, so he is definitely going to get a lot of playing time this season!

 I realize that these are some high quality photos.  Try not to be jealous of my mad skill!

While I was in Americus, Jim attended Colin's wrestling tournament in Rossville.  I heard that Colin had an impressive pin over a kid from Effingham.  Jim's text said he was a proud dad!  Colin told me that he thought he could have done better, as he went 3 and 2 for the day and took 6th place.  I couldn't be prouder of my kids no matter how they do!

Weird wrestling

 Colin had his first meet after the break on Tuesday evening.  It was a double dual at Burlington.  For those of you who know me, you know I have come to really enjoy wrestling.  If I was being honest, I would add that part of the reason I like it is because there is no place on earth with better people watching.  The people of wrestling could do a little bit of a competition with the people of walmart.  I have thought of dedicating an entire blog to that, but somehow I have always been a bit intimidated at the thought of taking their photos!

 Colin (in red) had a rough time in his first match.  We have been watching this kid wrestle for years, and it was the first time I ever heard him yell out in pain during a match.  Not to say he hasn't been hurt before, but he is not a screamer or a wimpy kid.  There was some illegal leg locking going on and he said it hurt and he couldn't breathe.  Colin's coach is one of the nicest, easiest going people alive, and he was furious.  Colin put up a good fight anyhow, but ended up losing the match.

During the second part of the night, the fire alarms started going off.  Everyone sat in their seats because we all assumed that some kid had pulled an alarm and they would shut it off soon.  After a few minutes, we noticed that there was smoke coming in and the police arrived to evacuate the school.  We heard that it was someone not using the popcorn machine properly!  

Colin won his second match with a pin.  That was way more fun to watch!

After the fire drill, apparently tensions we running a little bit high, and the fans got into a little brawl.  My husband may have gotten in on the action.  Luckily, no actual fighting occurred, and nobody was kicked out.  It was definitely an interesting, and entertaining night!  I can't help but wonder what will happen next time!