Penguins, Seafoam Paint, and the big "L"

Let's get the big "L" out of the way first. First, Broncos lose. My husband couldn't sleep. You'd think he was on the team or something. I'm a fan and all, but seriously.... just a game. You have the kicker on suicide watch and/or facebook diving because of the hate mail. Really? Last time I checked, football was not a one man sport.
Then.... we got our first "L" and it was not pretty either. Had to set some starters which didn't help because they were gone over the holiday break, but we played the number one team and well..... they are the number one team for a reason. Scrappy, aggressive, quick, and did I say aggressive. I like aggressive. Big fan. Unless it's the other team. :D So we have some room for improvement. We thought we were ready after holding our own against our sophomores, but.... no... we have some work to do. On the bright side, some girls who haven't played real well (or very little) in the past, stepped up and didn't do too bad filling in for starters.
The other team is beatable and practice is going to be turned up a notch tomorrow.

So the bad news is out of the way. On to happy news. Got Maddi a penguin that not only sings, but dances. To say she loves it is an understatement. She danced with it, hugged it, held on tightly, and gave her dad the attiTUDE when he tried to take it from her. I was SO cute. How cute? We'd know if her parents would post some pics (hint, hint). They came over yesterday and Maddi also got to see the Christmas tree we just put up.

To relieve some of my stress over tonight's loss, I decided to head to Stacy's (my brother-in-law's) house and help him paint. We knocked out the living room and dining room in no times and I finished off the trim in his bedroom. What a difference a little paint makes. Happy to see him reaping some blessings in his own life. New job, new place, got his truck paid off and has a bulb for his T.V. coming in this week. I'm happy to see him happy.

Serving others really does make things like sporting events seem minor when we step back and look at the big picture of life. Serving others also helps us forget our own problems and frustrations.

Tomorrow night I get to watch my old team play and then go shopping for some paint and fabric for costumes and backdrops for our Christmas play. I also get to have lunch with Rellie. That will brighten any day! :D

On a food note.... I forgot to take a lunch. Ended up having some of the healthy snack crackers Mandy brought me a while back and a small can of peaches I had in my desk. Didn't have time for breakfast, so starving right after school. Stopped and got a deli sandwich (pastrami) and baked chips. Had some hot chocolate after I got done painting. Need to plan better tomorrow.

Thanksgiving With Bob

Turkey Time

So before I forget, the whole breathing and counting to 10 when trying to build more patience..... it works. Our last bball practice was GREAT! I delegated some responsibility and gave homework to my captains and they did a great job. The team was focused on Wednesday and they learned a lot. Today we just had a shoot-a-round to work off turkey and they had yesterday off. Tomorrow they scrimmage the older team and learn some humility. Sure they're undefeated, but they've only had two games, so I figure having them practice against a harder team will get them ready for their game on Monday. Who schedules a game the Monday after Thanksgiving break?! Could be ugly.

Speaking of Thanksgiving.... went to the parents for Thanksgiving and all my kids and grandkids were there so it was nice. It was dad's birthday too so it was good to see some friends I haven't seen in a while as well. We had cardboard Bob (the cutout of my brother who is deployed) there with us as well and got some more pictures of him enjoying Thanksgiving with us. That was funny. Made us think of him too and we know he was thinking of us. My heart goes out to all of our servicemen and women who are deployed during the holidays.

So the husband has never been Black Friday shopping..... ever. And... he may never go again. :D :D Talked him in to going with me this year. We hit Wal-mart at midnight and when we pulled into the parking lot.... he began to experience Black Friday. He couldn't believe all the people. Once inside the store it was crazy, as usual, and I didn't get half the items on my list, as usual, because they were gone, but overall, people were really pretty polite. My husband was a bit traumatized from the ordeal, but he hung in there. He said he's doing all his shopping on line next year. We came back home and slept a little then headed out again this morning hitting a few more stores and crossing a few more things off our list. In between we did basketball practice and fed the missionaries.

Tomorrow we are car shopping for a little used car that gets good gas mileage. Something we can just pay for. We'll do that after practice. Then we're off to see how STacy's coming on the rental and if he needs any help since I am the painting queen now. As we had the three elders over for dinner tonight I was reminded of many things. Mostly, how some are not at home with their families over this holiday season. Either they are deployed in God's service, or deployed in their country's service, or they have alienated themselves or been alienated from their family. Whatever the reason, I pray that they are watched over, taken in, and reunited.

Forgiveness is sometimes posed as a one-way street with optional return, but I say it is a two way street requiring effort on both ends for true atonement and repair to happen. For example, Christ atoned for our sins, but we can ignore that and ignore him and never even acknowledge his forgiveness. Likewise, a person can be forgiving to us and even bend over backwards in suffering to help us in our life, and yet we can continue on our path without ever acknowledging or reciprocating that forgiveness. While it is true that it is our "own" loss.... it is more true that is at the loss and expense of both parties and not just one.

So as you are wrapping gifts and focusing on your own small circle, perhaps think of more important gifts, like friendship, family, love, life, jobs, etc., and step out of your circle to set things straight in your life and to serve others because service can always heal a weak or weary heart. You can't cross a bridge that isn't built, so it takes effort, but life's too short to limit yourself to the adventures and journeys of a one-sided bridge. So.... I will see which bridges I need to work on tomorrow, but tonight..... gettin' some hot chocolate and putting my fuzzy slippers on my tired shopping feet. :D

Cloudy with a chance of rain..... or snow

I can almost predict what my day will be like by the way the morning goes. Had to scrape my windows then got behind someone doing 45 in a 65 on the way to work. Got a message from my husband that his transmission went out on the money pit truck. Got to the game and had four girls walk in DURING pre-game talk in the locker room. Apparently they had not read the page about being to the game early to A) get dressed B) have the pre-game talk, and C) do pre-game warm-up drills that start 20 minutes prior to the game buzzer! So I had to waste time talking about being on time, then I was interrupted three times during pre-game with girls walking in late (not in uniform I might add). When I asked one girl why she was late, she said, "The light didn't change for a long time."

This is not how we roll....... they are getting that now. There were some who did not play tonight. It was a tough game and we could have used more breathers, but hopefully they all learned. That's what it's all about. It was an ugly "W" but as long as we learn from it.... I can live with that and just count my blessing that we pulled it out. Of course I won't know how much we've learned from it until next game. That said, I just have to count to ten more often. Wish me luck.

Thank goodness we have tomorrow to overcome today. What I say tomorrow will count even more than what I said today. I have learned that over the years. So..... I must go contemplate, reflect, breathe in and out without frowning, and LIGHTEN UP. Or.... I could whoop my husband in a game of cards... that always helps too.

On the bright side...... (and we must always end there)...... I came home to Christmas lights on my house. :D :D :D Thank you sweetie!

It's snowing.....

Woke up to chubby little arms and cheeks hugging me this morning. Then looked out and saw the snowflakes. It's the simple moments like that in life that make us the happiest. We took the two grandkids who spent the night (Daisha and Rellie) to breakfast this morning. They both ordered the pancake breakfast. Rellie liked the whip cream off Greg's hot chocolate the most though. He was very excited to see the snow too. We decided to take them and get some boots and hats since it was so wet outside. Rellie was beside himself when he saw all the Christmas decorations in the Christmas section at Wal-mart. He squeezed the inflatable snowman's carrot nose and ran to touch all the colored lights. It was so cute! The snowman ended up in the cart to take home to his mommy. Then Daisha picked some inflatable penguins to go to her house. Jason was not represented by any children, so we went for the metallic snowman (instead of an inflatable) so he'd feel special too. :D

I think we pushed every sound-making toy in the toy section at K-mart too. The dolls are almost creepy these days. You walk by and they start talking and playing peek-a-boo. Daisha and I decided one was stalking her for sure. All three grandsons will be well dressed Sunday in new white shirts and ties because they're all growing so fast everything's getting tighter and shorter. They are going to be quite the basketball team when they grow up! :D Speaking of basketball.... going to watch the varsity team play later today.

My brother's girlfriend said they make the life-size cutouts of the soldiers now and send home to the families, so she's been placing Bob, my brother, in pictures with family members... .like "breakfast with Bob". What a great idea. And so funny. Did I mention I miss my brother. Keep them always in our prayers. Hot chocolate is calling my name. Remember... warm chocolate-- not really hot. Not over 70 degrees is the rule. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.... except Monday of course. :D

another week bites the dust....

Well at least when things are so busy, the week flies by. Here we are heading into the weekend again. Drama tryouts are done. Finished today. Practice went well this week...... given the age group. :D We'll see how it translates on Monday though. I really dislike having Monday games. The girls started out a little slow Tuesday. I think their fat heads were making it difficult to walk. I brought them back to earth with.... practice. We still have so much to learn and so little time. I also let them know that it always looks easier when you play a weaker team. They said they were intimidated by that team last year.... Really? Didn't see it. Not even close. So, like I said, they are learning-- both the mental game and the physical game. Jeremy and the husband are good helpers. I won't know how much they really have learned until we get a few more games under our belt.

Rellie and Daisha are spending the night. Daisha loves shrimp so I made her a bowl full. I also made broccoli salad and baked myself a little red potato. So.... I was much more disciplined today. I am so tired from staying up burning the discs last night though, that I think I'll take nap. Stayed up a little too late getting clips together for our student news. I'm looking forward to a nice weekend and most of the week off next week for Thanksgiving. My dad's birthday is on Thanksgiving, so that'll make it extra special. Speaking of extra special.... better go play with the grandkids. :D

4 Little Monkeys Sleeping in the Bed......

Well Saturday was a busy, crazy day. After practice we had the two hour shoot-a-thon. Daisha came to practice with me (and her dad) and she can dribble pretty well with both hands, but she still can't quite get it to the hoop. Maybe that's why 1st graders get to use the 8' hoops. At any rate, she was quite the helper and listener. I had to laugh because later that night we were talking about something and she said, "Yeah, like when WE were coaching..." So she didn't perceive herself as either an observer or player, she thought she was a coach. Too funny.

So then we had to go pick up Rellie who has had his bags packed since Thursday. He was beside himself when he saw that Daisha was with us. He LOVES Daisha. We went to Daisha's to pick up her suitcase and it was kind of hard to explain to Tucker and Bryton why they were not going to spend the night at Mem (that's their word for grandma/me) and Papa's house. So..... we had four little monkeys in the car before we knew it. This did of course mean a gigglefest when bed time rolled around.

We tried breaking up the gigglers (mainly the boys) by isolating them in grandpa's bed with him while I worked on my Sunday School lesson. Daisha and I had watched some Barbie movie earlier (it actually wasn't too bad I'm ashamed to admit) so she also wanted to stay up and help me make stuff for my lesson handouts. She fell asleep on the couch next to my computer within 15 minutes, but that's okay. I peeked in to see how grandpa was doing with the gigglers and all three boys were in our bed with him. So all total.... four monkeys in the bed. :D Good thing we have a king size bed!

So Sunday was a flashback to when we had our children to get ready for church. Papa apparently forgot a few things. For example, if you bathe them and dress them in their white church shirts BEFORE they eat.... there might be a problem. However, papa did make them bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast for breakfast while I finished my lesson. They all behaved very well at church and my lesson went fine. It's just really weird still not going to church until 1pm and getting out at 4pm. Makes for a long day. We dropped all the children off at their parents' houses after church and it was 5pm by the time we got home. We grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed over to Tammy and Stacy's house to take some things (like bedding) over that really couldn't wait till tomorrow. By the time we got home, I was pooped!

I also got a call from my brother Sunday morning saying it was the last time he'd be able to check in with me for a while since they were almost to Kuwait. It always make my stomach tight to think about him over there and headed to his next stop after Kuwait and into the war. Please remember all of our soldiers in your prayers. I really have been trying not to think about anything but the positives. I love him very much. All in all, it was a long day. Consequently, I slept well last night even though I knew our first game was coming up.

The game went well today. It had typical first game ugliness here and there and it was far from pretty.... but they won. They're off to a good start and all 14 of them got plenty of playing time. I'm thankful to have Jeremy on my bench again too. He knows exactly what to say to the girls because we've been coaching together so long now that we think a lot alike about almost everything when it comes to basketball. At school we started auditions for our Christmas play and that went very well too. Had a kid try out for Elvis and he did a great job singing. I'm excited for our play. Now I'm going to go crash, but my belly is in need of crunches first.

What if.......

What if I get a law degree.....
What if your point guard tells the team to set up an OOB play at the opponent's basket....
What if your husband says things like, "let's get a rootbeer float" at 9:30pm....
What if you stop at McDonald's to get the RB float and they say, "Sorry, we don't have RB floats."
What if your husband replies, "Do you have root beer?" (yes) "Do you have ice cream?" (yes) "Can't you just put them together and make me a float?" (no sir, we can't).
What if your husband says, "I'll just have a Snickers shake then" and they say, "Sorry sir, we're out of Snickers right now."
What if your husband puts the car in reverse and leaves the drive through. (There weren't any cars behind us)
What if God is trying to say..... YOU DON'T NEED A ROOTBEER FLOAT AT NIGHT. :)
What if you run into one of your former players while attending a game and she has her three children with her.
What if you feel old.
What if your post shoots the ball so hard it ricochets....
What if you're ready for Christmas to be here and it's not even Thanksgiving yet...
What if your rewrite A Christmas Carol and make Elvis the ghost of Christmas past...
What if you discover the kid who is auditioning for the part of Elvis has never heard Elvis because he says, "Thank you. Thank you very much" like one of those overseas operators who barely speaks English.
What if you just want to stay home curled up in bed for three days in a row.... but you know you can't.
What if you decide to stop wishing for things and start enjoying things.
Okay.... talked myself into it.
I'll stop.

And so it begins

The first two weeks of basketball practice are always the longest-- especially when you have a new group of kids. Everyone is adjusting and it's the time of the year we're also adjusting to weather changes and time changes. Consequently the voice goes out the first two weeks, I get a cold, and get very little sleep. I have the later practice right now so it makes for long days, but it also makes it easier not to eat so much. Well, as long as I remember to eat a little snack after school. Otherwise I'm starving after practice and end up eating a lot late at night. Not good.

Here is a little tip on belly fat. They sent this out at school for our healthy info stuff:

Is belly fat bothering you? Try picking the right kind of foods. Eat no more than 15 grams of sugar and 6 servings of carbohydrates. 5 to 20 grams is a serving: 21 to 40 grams is 2 servings: 41 to 60 grams is 3 servings of carbohydrates. Make sure your sugar grams are good choices. Try this for 2 weeks and see if your belly is smaller.

I've been eating my almonds again trying to build up my good cholesterol. Need to go buy some more olive oil. Mostly though, I just feel better when I'm eating greens and fresh fruit every day. When I'm in a hurry and start eating fried foods I feel yucky and my acid reflux acts up.

So on a more positive note, the weather certainly held warm a long time. I was thinking about the visual transition signs that winter is on the lurk. The pumpkin faces are drooping on the steps, the trees are nearly naked again, and you can almost hear the earth sighing as it prepares to hybernate. Some days I'm just ready to be retired so I can slow down, soak in the simple views in life, and stay in my p.j.s however long I want. I could get a different pair for each day of the week. Wishful thinking.

Found a little rental for Tammy and Stacy. Can't wait to help them fix it up. Sold one of our rentals. Sigh. Crazy market so we're lucky we sold it. Blessed, not lucky. Still plugging away at this one we're living in. It's a nice little house though and works just fine. I'm rambling. Good night.

Always and Forever

Well Friday night was fun with the three grandsons spending the night. Bryton (Bry Bry) ended up sleeping with us because Rellie and Tucker were "too noisy" with their talking and giggling and squirming. We had put them all three in a bed together. So, I let him sleep with us. He reminds us of when Jason was little-- he's the bullheaded one- the puzzle genius-- and the owner of the grouchy eyebrows. Tucker's more like his dad- talking..... talking..... still talking. He's also very loving and compassionate though. When he was looking through the Christmas toys catalogue he picked out some things for Rellie and when he first got here, he gave Rellie a hug. He's like that with his other cousins too. Baby Maddi loves him. Rellie is still trying to get over the trauma of the "scaries" from Halloween. I finally had to tell them that the garbage man hauled them off in the truck. Afterwards, I realized he's probably freak out every time he sees the garbaGe truck now. Well at least he doesn't think all the scaries are still in the garage at Jason's house.

In the morning I headed to practice leaving papa (or papacakes as Rellie calls him) with the three boys. Jason, Anne, and baby Maddi showed up toward the end of practice so Jas could help me out some. Maddi loved watching practice. She had the O face going. She has the same O face Daisha used to have when she was little, except that instead of saying Oh like Daisha did, she says "ew" with her O face. So anyway, I was holding her while I was standing in the key as the girls went flying by to do their lay-in and every time they flew by and shot her eyes would get all big and she would say "ewwwww" then giggle. It was SO cute. She definitely has some Kiester blood brewing in there. :D It is also definitely a freshmen basketball team. The nine best freshmen were moved up and I have what's left. Great girls, but some have a little trouble finding the square on the backboard-- even the big square! :D They'll improve though and they already have in just a few days.

Jas and Anne told me there was a Christmas Bazaar going on in the rest of the school, so after practice we went over there. It was HUGE! The parking lot looked like a sell-out football game and every hall was packed with booths and people. And yes, I bought a few things for Christmas presents. I mean who can pass up a Broncos microwave potato bag for the person who has everything? :D Thanks Jas and Anne for coming over, helping me out, sharing baby Maddi on my anniversary, and telling me about the fun bazaar. Anne and I got some great ideas for Christmas crafts too. We're going to have a Kiester family day in December just to make some of them. I'm really looking forward to that.

When I got home Stacy had already picked up their two boys and Rellie was the only one still hanging out with papa. We loaded him up and headed to Parma to take him to mommy. It was their anniversary this week too. They went out and ate and unfortunately got sick from the food, so it was quite memorable. :( After we dropped off Rellie we headed to Boise and the husband was in charge. He took me to the mall and said "Let's just go shopping." I almost fainted. I thougth maybe an alien had abducted my husband. We spent a few hours there and I did something I rarely do-- -bought myself some things. I haven't bought anything since last school year when I lost the weight. Quite honestly I was nervous about buying clothes right now because I feel like I haven't lost any more weight, so I've plateaued. Wrong..... I bought a pair of pants that were 5/6. What???? No Way! Then I remember the "Pant size article" I had my students read a while back. How stores are putting false sizes on their pants to make their customers feel better. So I tried on a different pair of dress pants... sure enough... still a 7/8. I bought the 5/6 pair of jeans anyway just to feel good about myself and decided that there might be something to that mind stuff. :D

I did break down and buy a few things for other people because I just felt so guilty only buying for myself even though that was my directive from my sweetie. Then it was "my turn" and I took him to the Japanese Steakhouse over on 8th Street. The have this seafood combination dinner (they serve presentation food on the white plates and make it look all fancy in the fine dining sections). When they brought it out it was in this huge silver pedestal bowl that took up most of the table. He had lobster, crab, oyster, mussels, shrimp, etc. on ice. It was beauteous. I ordered the salmon with finger potatoes (steamed long skinny potatoes with the skin still on) and asparagus. They put a topping on the fish that was delicious. It was like a chopped zucchini, lime, and onion salsa with some chopped spice (not cilantro). For an appetizer we had these lightly battered strips of turnip, zucchini, and carrot, with some prawns in the same batter. They also had very unique broth dips. It was all quite good except I had to spit out my oyster because it had a relish on the top that included Mesabi. HOT!

After dinner we went to a movie-- Hereafter-- and left scratching our head-- not because of the message-- because of the nonclimatic way it ended. Save your money. Still it was nice just to sit and relax and hold hands. It was a nice relaxing time with the sweetie. You are my forever sweetie. Love you.

Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

The playroom is full of multi-colored balls, the barn is mooing, Rellie is talking to Elmo on his fake cell phone, and Tucker is anxiously pouring over the pages of the Toys R Us Christmas catalogue. It reminds me of when our kids were that age and they would wait for the Sears Christmas catalogue to come in the mail then they'd circle each thing they hoped Santa would bring them. I also remember the Montgomery Wards Catalogue when I was a teenager.

I am SO glad it's Friday. It has been a long week. I've been fighting off some sort of bug that's made me hoarse and a bit blah all week. Plus when it's so dark in the morning it really feels like I should be sleeping-- not getting up and driving in the night. Thank goodness we "fall" back this Sunday! Speaking of fall. I love the drive to basketball practice right now. I have about a 40 minute commute to get there, but it's a beautiful commute right now anyway. I will attach some pictures so you can see what I see as I drive each day.

Basketball's off to a good start. A new challenge. A new group of girls. We have morning practice tomorrow. So far they are working hard and showing up. In the afternoon the boys go back home and we are going to spend the day celebrating our anniversary. The weekends go so fast. It's good we have Sunday to slow down and recuperate physically and spiritually!

My drive to bball practice each day

Eating Good Fats

My stomache is still recovering from the ulcers created by people who either blindly push the R or D button when voting or the people who apathetically sit at home thinking that their vote doesn't count anyway. And.... for some, it's like, shrug your shoulders, sigh heavily, and go back to your corner. For me... the fight has just begun. I'm circling the wagons and gathering the troops. I'm putting on the face paints and practicing war hoops. Sorry.... we're in the middle of a poetry unit. :)

So I had my health screening done today and mostly good news. My BP is awesome, my BMI is good, my cholesterol is good, EXCEPT my good HDL is NOT. Apparently I've cut out TOO MUCH fat from my diet. Go figure! I have to put some fat in my diet. :D yeah! Almonds, avacodos, and olive oil were the main three they recommended in addition to the fish that I've already been eating twice a week. Overall though, they said I'm in excellent shape. I needed to hear that as I've been feeling a little undisciplined. Now I'll go eat some fat! :D

How Scary Is It? NO, I'm not talking about Tom Luna

The thought of Tom at the helm again is enough to make all of us quit, but the "scary" I'm talking about is Halloween scary. Pictures attached.