Okay, maybe there's something to this cold after all..

So Terre Haute has been hit pretty hard this week. We got 12 inches of snow in my driveway. It snowed us in and cancelled school, church, and all shopping excursions for the week. (Good thing I listened to some promptings and went shopping Monday!)

So, we've been inside shivering. It takes a lot to heat my house, and I haven't cranked up the heater past 70 all week. I've been hating this cold and never let my poor tolerant husband forget it.

Our good friends live on the prison reservation here and there is a huge "bowl" in the ground where they used to keep the trash long ago. Well, now it's just a huge hill perfect for sledding and since it's on the reservation grounds, there are no people. So Wednesday afternoon we decided to take advantage of the snow and go sledding. Now this really isn't my idea of fun--standing out in the cold with snow everywhere. But the kids were excited and there was this perfect snow hill we had to take advantage of.

We took the kids over there and they had a ball. I was a little worried about Zach since the hill was so big and the older kids had made paths with bumps and ramps and such. Then it was such a long climb up!

But, as usual, I was worried over nothing and he did wonderful. In fact, he was the one who didn't want to leave even though he was frozen through and through. And I admit, I did go a few times too, despite not being dressed appropriately at all. But I figured "what the heck? I'm going to be cold either way!"

Well, I was. But it almost made the snow and cold worth it. Almost.

A Sweet Way To Spend The Day

Okay, so I should have been doing a hundred different things yesterday. Everything from cleaning house to catching up on my blogs (I'm only 4 months behind) to starting taxes to catching up on tv this week, but I didn't. The kids were all home and inside yesterday. Which meant there wasn't an open computer or room anywhere in the house. And that is saying something since I have a pretty big house.

So instead, I moved all my stuff up into the kitchen and spent several hours making candy bouquets. It allowed me to be in the middle of my kids without being in the middle of them. It was nice. And I've got a few done for the Valentine holiday. And it turned what could have been a stressful day on top of my kids into a sweet, and productive, day.

Here are a few:

Christmas Violin Concerts

Henry's School Violin Christmas Concert. YOu can't see him because he's sitting behind the teacher, but he's there.

Tori's Violin Christmas concert. She's in the front room angled so you can't see her either.

Happy Birthday Josh!

My little ham certainly likes to be the center of attention, so he had a wonderful birthday!

Since Josh's birthday was on Sunday and it was Fall Break that weekend, Mom and Zach got to come and eat lunch with Josh at school on Thursday. He thought that was awesome, until it was time for after-lunch recess...then he took off running without a look back. But he did enjoy the cupcakes that we brought to share with his class.

Birthday night we invited our friends to come over after church for cake and ice cream (and a good card game.)

Josh had an awesome day and enjoyed all the gifts. He couldn't decide what he wanted most to do since he got so many fun gifts, but we found him camped out in a corner playing his Nintendo DS while all the rest of the kids were out and about.

He can't wait until he can get baptised now and is super excited that he gets to do it with his cousin and Texas family!

Touchdown!

As you all know, Henry and Josh have been playing football this year. It was a pretty hard season for all involved, but was a fun, rewarding experience....eventually.

Once he got over the troubles at the beginning of the season and actually commited to playing, Henry did AWESOME!

He played just about every spot on the team except for lineman.

He was the receiver for the punt team (Sorry, Scott and Kyle, don't know the actual name for all the spots...hide my head in shame), the quarterback, the running back, and I'm sure a few others that I could describe but would scare you with my lack of technical knowledge.

It was a sad season in that we played most of the season with only 13 boys. Since we were facing other teams with 40 or more on their team, it wasn't a very good record season for us. We only won, one game. And only had 2 touchdowns.

But my wonderful son, played quarterback for a game and made some awesome throws. While his teammates weren't quite as talented (no bias here) and they didn't score from that, Henry did run in a quarterback sneak for the second touchdown of the season.

It was so awesome!!1 (Again, no bias here!)

Josh had an awesome season! He played flag football for the YWCA. He was in the younger group and had a very young team. But he managed to impress the coaches and became the co-"star" player. He and another boy were the teams lifeline.

The coaches were really very good in letting the other boys play and score, but Cody and Josh were high scorers as they took on the other teams with their trick plays, their long passes, and their fast running abilities.

It was truly an awesom site to behold. (again, no bias!)

Hank enjoyed helping to coach both boys teams and became a GREAT sideline judge to those refs! We all enjoyed the seasons as we got into the games, some more than others! But I'll admit, it's nice to have the season over.

Mood Swings

Between Tori, Henry, and I...life has been "fun" lately.

I'm about to totally lose it. Okay, so maybe I already have. After all, I grounded Tori for two days yesterday for eating a sucker (lest, you think I'm a horrible parent, there was more to the story and the grounding didn't stick.) But come on, I'm going crazy here.

And poor Hank. I think he was actually dissapointed that he couldn't work overtime yesterday. I think he was ready to get out of the house and away from all the mood swings going on between two preteens and a crazy mom!

For those who are curious, and haven't heard, Henry's been having a very hard time with football. He has decided he doesn't like it--he doesn't like tackeling, he doesn't like to be tackled, he doesn't like all the coaches yelling at him, and he's very inexperienced compared to some of the boys.

But he's also really very good. (I honestly don't know if I'm biased on this fact or not.)

Well, they got beat on Saturday. They got beat pretty solidly. They played a team that had at least 40 players and our team only had 16. So our boys were pretty worn out by the second quarter. Plus, it was the hottest day EVER in Terre Haute. It didn't bode well for us. And we were inexperienced and played poorly. So we got beat.

Well, after the game, Henry decided he was done. He wanted to quit football. I had asked him to keep going through the first game. He decided he did that and hated football, so wanted to quit.

I spent the whole weekend stressed, upset, and praying to know what to do. On the one hand, we had told him he could quit if he truly hated it after his first game. I would hate for him to feel like he couldn't try new things because he would be stuck if he didn't like it. But on the other hand, we didn't want him to quit just because he lost or it was hard. He has talent and the team needs him.

So it came down to a real battle on Monday. He didn't want to go and we made him. We were going to try and get there early so we could talk to the coach about the problems, but Henry made us late so we couldn't do that. I spent the entire practice being glared at and given dirty looks by Henry. But I've also never seen him play better. It was very stressful for me.

After practice was over, he said something pretty nasty to me. I told him to go over and turn in his equipment--he was done. He stared at me for a while and then started walking toward coach. Then he turned around and said he would wait until after the game on Saturday. (We are supposed to be playing a bad team.) So he stormed off to the car. I tried to talk to him on the way home and he changed to a good mood enough that when we got home and everyone asked if he quit he just said "not yet."

So I thought we were okay for a few more days. Not so. The next day he tells me again, he wants to quit. I had a mental melt down. He gathered his stuff up and Hank took him early to practice. A half hour later, he comes home and puts his stuff back on and goes back to practice.

Hank tells me the coach told him the same things I've been telling him all week, that the team needs him (they've had 3 kids quit and only have 13 now), that Henry has a lot of talent, and that practices would get better. (I think he's afraid of a mutiny.)

Hank said he did a complete turn around at practice that night. He was AWESOME! He blocked and tackled better than ever, so much so that the entire practice came to a grinding halt when they saw him tackle so good he knocked the kid on his back. He got the whole team yelling and cheering and the coaches were shocked.

When I got home from church that night, he was glowing. He came up to me and gave me a hug and thanked me for not letting him quit. He loves football and was excited. And this morning he asked if he could play next year.

YIKES!!!

I told him, one day at a time...one mood at a time...that's all I can handle.

And They're Off....

It's the first day of school! YEA!!! (Ooops...did I say that out loud?)

No, after the summer we've had, I'm both glad and sad to see them go. And I think they are both glad and sad to go. They are anxious to go back and see friends again, but will miss the staying up late and sleeping in. Not to mention all the fun trips we've been able to take this summer. But now they are back in school, at least 3/4 of them.

Tori started 7th grade this year.

Henry started 6th and middle school.



















Josh is in 2nd grade.

Zach will start preschool at the Y next week. (but he didn't want to be left out of the picture taking process!)