Basketball is over

 Preston and Quincy played in their final basketball game for this season yesterday.  It was a fun season, and I think they learned a lot.

It was nice to take a break from the house to go to basketball - we are now about 95% packed up and living out of boxes.  I keep stubbing my toes, so I was glad to get out away from the piles of boxes to save my feet for a while!
The kids don't seem to mind the boxes, it has been a grand adventure of hide and seek, coloring surfaces, and contests to see who can stuff the most junk into the smallest box.  I am thankful that my sister's work has given us a lot of great boxes, and that the nursing home has been sending the girls home with a lot of boxes as well.  My big goal is to not unpack too many of these boxes so that we don't have to go through the whole process again in a few months!  :)  We shall see how that turns out!

I might also add that I was pretty proud that even though we have had our house upside down for a few weeks now, we did not one time lose the basketball shirts!  In the past, this has been a big enough issue, with  everything everywhere, I figured one or both of these basketball shirts would have disappeared.  Sometimes its the little things in life that give the most joy!

Sold!

 For the second time in our married life, Jim and I have sold our house.  The first time, we moved first, and then stressed for months about having to make 2 mortgage payments.  This time, we were smarter!  We sold the house and are now waiting for our landlord to finish the flooring in our rental house so we can move in.

 In the meantime, empty cabinets and all these boxes have been great entertainment for the kids!

And we have unearthed a world of treasurers we forgot existed.....like brother's old jacket that now fit us!

The first time we moved, we also did so in a crazy hurry, leaving behind Osage City in a blur with little emotion, and getting out of  a house that was a total money pit.  This time, we are leaving behind a house we really liked, one which when we bought it was so much better than the one we were living in we were elated about moving in.  We have made great memories here.  Doubled the number of children we had when we came here almost 13 years ago, laughed, cried and had many birthday parties and Christmases in this house.  Madison and Mallory were talking about how hard it is to move out...and I agree with them.  We are also leaving behind a wonderful neighbor who we all love, not really though as we are  sure we will still see her a lot....she just won't be as accessible for Quincy when she decides to run away now!
The only thing that makes this move tolerable is the fact that we are moving forward with a dream that Jim and I have had since about 2 seconds after we got married.  We dreamed of being in the country.  We have talked a lot about lists of must haves in a home, and always it must be in the country.  I am excited about the possibilities and I am happy that after all these years, we can still dream together and work together toward our dreams.

Just stuff

 Mallory tried to redeem herself and her snowman building skills by building a bigger than 6 inch snowman.  It was a little better, and was definitely cuter.  Harper was pretty upset that it has started to melt and is now headless.

 Saige is a crack up.  She makes all these funny faces and does all sorts of tricks.  She has kept us entertained as we have been doing what seems like endless packing, packing and more packing.

 She has been a bit under the weather this weekend, but she still keeps us all entertained.

 Harper was very excited to get this doll from aunt Jeanne this week.  Aunt Jeanne thought she would like it since it has pink glasses like hers.  Harper loves the doll, but was a bit concerned about where the lenses were in the doll's glasses.  I thought this was pretty funny since it is a theme of our household to look for her lenses which seem to pop out at inconvenient times.  She has an eye doctor appointment in April, and I am really hoping to get a new pair of glasses at that point because this pair does not hold together very well.  Thank you for making Harper's day aunt Jeanne!

 Preston and Quincy were happy to be back on the basketball court.  When I say on the court, with reference to Quincy, I mean it literally!  She seemed to spend most of her game on the ground.  I don't know why!

Preston had the high score for his team yesterday, and was pretty pleased that they won their game -- I have no idea how he knows this since they don't keep score, but apparently he tabulates it as they go!  :)

We did get a giant no on the house purchase offer, so we are back to needing to rent a house.  The house we had been planning to rent is iffy at this point, so we have spent this weekend looking for a backup plan just in case.  I am sure it will work out, but we have been a little worried this weekend.  We definitely know about ups and downs by now, as this year has been very giving in the insanity department.  We are blessed to say that we are healthy and even though it has been a lot of stress, we have all been getting along and happy so that is a true blessing, because it could be a lot worse!

Second verse.....same as the first (sorta)

 We were pummeled with snow again last night.  The kids were excited to have another snow day, and this time, it was pretty severe, and Jim even stayed home with us.  The above photo shows the kids bikes which they left in the back yard!

 The kids had a good time playing in this wet, heavy snow and were outside for quite a while, which is good, because they have had a lot of days off and only one day of school lately.  The excessive quality time and family bonding has started to lose its quaintness!  :)

 The city maintenance workers have not had a good day at all.  Because the old snow from last week hadn't melted, there wasn't much room for pushing this snow off the streets.  They have been stuck, and broken a hydraulic hose in the snow plowing truck!  They have also had a sewer back up.  Jim has had a lot of phone calls, but has not had to go out and help (yet).

 Mostly, we are just relaxing, doing a little more packing, and watching some old movies.  I never mind having a day to stick around the house!

Saige likes watching the kids playing outside and she liked watching it snow this morning!  She is an easily entertained tribe member!
Mallory and Madison are working again - since we live close, they can make it when others cannot.  Mallory had to go in early this morning to do the breakfast shift, and is also working the evening shift, as she was scheduled to do.  She had to walk to work this morning because we could not get the van out of the driveway.  Since it was still dark, Jim walked with her.  I think we are all ready for spring weather now!

We weathered the storm

 We made it through what is being called "the blizzard of oz" a title which I personally don't like as much as snowpocolypse, but I guess once its been used, you gotta do something new, right?  :)
I had another of my moments where I got up early and said "wow! They called off school for this?"  Only to wait a little while and realize the weatherman did not mess up the forecast!  Altogether, I believe we got about a foot of snow.  Moisture we needed, so I am trying to not complain loudly about it!

 Quincy and Harper were really wanting to build a snowman.  They know that mom does not like to play in the snow, but they finally begged long enough that Mallory went out to help them.  I had to give Mallory a lot of grief though....we got a foot of snow, and they made a 6 inch tall little baby snowman?  Ha ha!

 Harper loves him all the same!

 The boys worked very hard to clear our driveway and sidewalk, as well as helping the neighbor clear hers.  I secretly think that Colin liked the work!  He gets bored and then ends up thinking of all sorts of things to dare Cameron to do, which is not a good thing at all, because we all know Cam has never, ever turned down a dare.

Also new this week, we put an offer on a house.  I am not sure if they will accept our offer because it is not really close to the asking price, however, we feel it is a fair offer.  We are in a season of waiting, which stretches me in ways I don't stretch, and then in turn, stretches Jim for having to put up with me!  I like to think that I am a patient person, and I am, unless I have to wait more than 4 minutes!  :)  The house sits on 5 acres adjacent to the land that we own.  If it works out, it would be absolutely wonderful.  If not, we do have a back up plan.

Because of the snow, Cameron's basketball season is not over as it should have been.  He has one more game that they had to move to next week.  Colin did not make it to state in high school wrestling, however he is going to finish out the club wrestling season and try to make it to state for club in the next couple of weeks.  I am glad he decided this, as it has been a goal of his to try to get to club state for a long time now.

Also because of the storm, many, many people could not make it to Brookside to come into work, which meant that the girls covered a lot of shifts on their snow days!  I know that the days were very, very long and exhausting for them, but I am once again very proud of Mallory and Madison for being mature enough to handle cooking for the residents and making sure they were fed.  They are good kids!

The storm also meant that all the activities we had planned for today were cancelled.  Preston was not a happy kid when he found out there would be no basketball.  He really loves playing!  Colin was not upset however, when he found out that the concession stand he was supposed to work in for his CWF trip was cancelled!  Guess the lack of places to run off to means we continue on with the packing.  I realized yesterday that we close on our house sale in 14 days!  That is not much time to cram all this junk into boxes!

Dancin' Girls

 Mallory and Madison participated in the 4-H line dancing event at County Club days yesterday.  Their group took top purple.

I was very sorry that I did not get to go watch them perform.  I heard great things though!
I am very proud of them for participating.  The hours and hours of practice really takes a lot of dedication.

Side note - Mallory had been excited when she heard they were wearing blue and orange - then she found out that the little kids got the orange shirts.....she was a bit disappointed.  First she could never land on an orange ball team, now this!   :)

PS - thank you for the pictures grandma!

This week we....

 Watched a little wrestling action.  Colin wrestled in his league tournament last weekend.  I felt very privileged to go watch, and a little naked because I got to go alone!  I had a nice day of visiting with my fellow wrestling moms and not wrestling any little kids in the stands!  Colin did a great job.  He placed 5th in his league tournament.

 This weekend, he is wrestling districts, if he places in the top 4 then he gets to go to state next weekend.  If not, we are very, very proud of him.  It is not easy to wrestle varsity as a freshman, and he has definitely hung tough all season, even with not winning all that frequently, we are proud of him.  I told him recently, he could have wrestled JV, he probably would have had a lot more wins, but he would not have had the experiences, and that is what is going to make him a lot better in the next couple of years.  He agreed with me.  That being said, he wrestled last night, and we had a really hard trip home in blizzard like conditions which I was totally not expecting.  I was happy to walk through the front door!!

 We also watched a lot of Jr. high basketball.  Cam's team still has not won a game, but my friend Grace accurately pointed out that Cam can hold his head high knowing that he played his best in every single game and never gave up or quit.  Thanks Grace, for putting a positive spin on a disappointing season!  :)

 Cam really is a great basketball player.  He puts his heart on the court every single minute of the game, and he plays tough the whole time, even when they are losing by a lot.  Someday, maybe some of their shots will fall right, and they will win a game!

 Saige has become very good at crowd entertainment, even when the game gets brutal!

 We also attended Valentines Day parties at school.  Quincy and Preston's parties were at different times, which meant that Harper, Saige and I were able to go to both parties and hang out!  It was a lot of fun!  Harper thought she should probably start school since going there is so exciting!

 Saige wasn't too thrilled with the Valentines Day activities, but she did have a good time helping Mrs. Carroll organize her room!

 Preston is in a rather 'active' class.  It was interesting to see the things he complains about live and in action. I hope he will be in a different mix of kids for 3rd grade next year!

 Mallory and Madison actually had Valentines day off of work.  They kept the little ones home while Jim and I went to watch Cameron play basketball.  (Very romantic date for us).  I got a kick out of seeing that they were having a Just Dance tournament when I got home.  Preston had even made up brackets.  Of course, no matter what the score said, Harper won.

 For the past 2 Valentines Days, Jim has been sick.  I had complained that it was some conspiracy or something, but this year he was not sick, however I have come down with a monster cold, and even lost my voice.  Who was the genius who decided a day of romance should be during the height of cold and flu season anyhow?

 Saige turned 15 months old on Valentines day.  She is the sweetest, funniest kid!  She makes all sorts of noises and faces and is sort of like having a little trained monkey around.  The kids all have these tricks that they make her do.  And she is happy to comply.  She is not talking yet, but she definitely knows how to get what she wants.

She is also not walking much -- she can, but she is much faster at crawling, and in this house, fast is necessary! Last night, at the wrestling tournament, she was walking back and forth between me and the railing around the gym.  The wrestling boys kept giving her food, and trying to get her to smile.  She is definitely crowd entertainment!