Sunday, February 7

Wow, what a snow storm. Happily we didn't get as much snow as some (our daughter in Dover, De. had 30") but it was enough to cancel our opening round of the Mid-State League tournament. Friday afternoon I attempted to remove some of the snow from our drive and soon decided that it was a losing battle. I decided instead to take another walk and enjoy the beautiful snow. Saturday one of our neighbors came over to finish the job I started so it was all good! I've included some of my favorite pics from the weekend. Notice the before and after photo of our driveway. The after photo was taken Sunday morning, what a difference the sunshine makes. Let's hope we can finish our tournament this week and play the championships on Saturday as scheduled.

Friday, February 5

Last night the girls won their last regular season game. Everyone had a lot of playing time which is always a plus. Mr. Bichler had to substitute today, covering for Mrs. Kitchen's 8th grade science class. Because of the snow storm, West Jeff had an early release at 1 0'clock and they have already cancelled the girl's tournament games scheduled for Saturday. This afternoon was spent trying to shovel some of the snow but after an hour you can't even tell where you shoveled. Finally I gave up with the shovel and gave in to the snow. I took a winter walk through the woods. It was absolutely beautiful. I know if I were driving in it I probably wouldn't feel that way. It did remind me of how much I miss my dogs. They just loved to run and play in the snow. I've posted some of the pics I took. I watched a mink at the edge of the creek for a long time. He would dive in the water and bring something up and lay it on the ice before diving in again. For a long time I couldn't figure out what it was and then I saw a claw. They were craw-dads or crayfish. I went back to the house to grab my camera but he was gone when I got back so I just continued my walk. It is a winter-wonderland!

Tuesday, February 2

Today was a much better day than yesterday. Our girls lost to Fisher Catholic last night 29-30. Not a good thing when we were hoping to be 1st seed in our tournament. Mr. B coached a really good game and tried about everything he could think of. We started out so bad and at one point we were down by 12. Finally in the 4th quarter we started to play the way we should have been playing in the first 3. Unfortunately we came up 2 points short of a win. I will say the girls showed a lot of spunk and we were certainly proud of their late effort. Last night we were thinking that we would possibly have the #3 seed but today we found out that we were tied with Fisher Catholic and we got lucky and won the coin toss and still got the #1. We play Millersport on Saturday at 11:30. So we did get lucky after all!

The snow was pretty bad on my ride up to the zoo this morning but the animals up in North America certainly were enjoying themselves. I caught the brown bears in action having a little fun in the snow.

Sunday, January 31

Well, basketball is nearly over. This week we play our last 2 regular season games, luckily they are both home as is our 8th grade tournament. We have Fisher Catholic on Monday and Berne Union on Thursday. Tuesday is the tournament drawing and we will find out when and who we play on Satuday. We've had a great season and are 11-1. With a little luck we can finish 15-1 with a tournament championship. No matter what, we've had a good time with the girls. Our main goal is to prepare them to play at the next level if that is what they choose to do. Hopefully we have done that! The girls have certainly helped with Mr. Bichler's recovery, even if they don't realize it. Every day he has something to look forward to and that has been a real blessing. Hope everyone has a great week! Maybe we will see you at a game!!

Sunday, January 24

Last week seemed very busy for some reason. Our basketball team had to travel to Liberty Union and Berne Union. We experienced our first loss at Liberty Union. The girls played hard but couldn't quite get going without our point guard who was home with the flu. On Saturday, during our make-up game with Berne Union the girls took out their disappointment by defeating BU 61-25. Monday we play at home against Millersport and it will be good to be playing in our own gym.

I've been going back and reading last year's blog entries to give myself some perspective on how far we have come. We had lots of snow and Trish and Luke were here to visit. Mr. Bichler was giving the therapists a hard time at Dodd Hall and we were walking to Wendy's way too often for our frosty treats. I also noticed that the girls defeated Berne Union last year on the 25th. I guess I never really thought we would be coaching and Mr. B would be teaching part-time this soon! Things seem to be going along at a good pace. We are looking forward to another visit to Hawaii and the birth of a new little granddaughter this spring. Rainbows and sunshine :)

Monday, Jan. 18

Just relaxing, not much to do today. Took down all the outside Christmas decorations including the Nativity scene and put them in the barn yesterday. I should be doing something right now but can't seem to get motivated. Our basketball team is still undefeated 8-0 and is starting to play better as a team. We have 2 pretty tough games left to play on the road but with a little luck and a lot of hard work we could finish undefeated. Of course, I think you have to get pretty lucky as well. This is my 28th year of coaching basketball and I only had 2 undefeated seasons. I had 3 teams that had only 1 loss, two of those losses came the last game of the season. Bummer! Mr. Bichler has had 4 undefeated seasons. Guess he is a little luckier than me. My new car finally came in a Chevy Equinox. I love it but really miss my old Trailblazer. I loved that car! I hope everyone is enjoying their day off! Practice tomorrow is early because of the in service. Think we will work a lot on shooting, especially foul shots and spend time on ball handling. Big game at Liberty Union on Thursday.

Saturday, Jan. 9

Guess I've been a little lax about keeping up on the blog. I've been spending some time watching my bird feeders and this morning I counted 15 different species at my feeder and we saw 2 muskrats at the edge of the creek. At first we thought they were beaver but after observing them in the water the tail wasn't right. But they sure were big for muskrats! I must say I honestly love the snow. It makes everything seem so peaceful. It does keep us busy shoveling but that's ok. Mr. B has been manning the tractor with the snow blade and keeping our driveway and several of our neighbors drives clear. We had to cancel our Thursday basketball game and not sure when we will make it up. I've been going back and reading last year's blog entries for the day. A year ago today, Mr. B was leaving the ICU for the first time, he still had a feeding tube and he was unable to walk without assistance. He's come a long way, baby!!

*photo 1 red-bellied woodpecker and Photo 2 is a Carolina wren.

(Other species at my feeder: house sparrow (of course), Song sparrow, Tree sparrow, White-throated sparrow, House finch, Tufted titmouse, White-breasted nuthatch, Cardinal, Blue jay, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Junco, Mourning dove, Downy woodpecker, Red-bellied woodpecker.)