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.)