Tuesday, February 23

Last night officially ended the 2009-2010 basketball season with a very nice sports banquet. It was great to recognize the achievements of our middle school girls and boys basketball players, cheerleaders and wrestlers. At the end of the banquet, the teams that had won league championships (7th & 8th girls and the wrestlers) got to put their trophies in the trophy case. The basketball players also talked Mr. Boyd into letting them cut down the nets. The girls got a real kick out of having that pleasure. Mr. Bichler also insisted on getting into the action. I wasn't too thrilled about it but he was the winning coach after all.

Thursday, February 18

Hip, hip, hooray!! Mr. Bichler's 8th grade girls finally brought home a Mid-State League Championship in basketball. The girls were so amped up for the game. We hadn't practiced since last Friday but we fed them pizza after school and had a little walk-thru to review the defense we wanted to play and they just went out and played. We scored the first 8 points and the score at the end of the 1st quarter was 12-4. They kept the pressure on through the entire game and won 40-26. We were so proud of their effort and determination to win. We had 3 girls that scored in double figures and our post players pulled down 10 and 12 rebounds. I am so glad they were able to have this winning experience. I'm even more thrilled that Mr. B was able to come away with a championship in his first season back following the accident. Wow, words just can't describe the relief I'm feeling.

Tuesday, February 16

Back to reality. How much snow did we get?, I thought they said 10" but it seems we have about 20" in the driveway. Oh, well, we don't have anywhere to go so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. We are still hoping to get our championship game played Wednesday night but I'm not placing any bets. Mr. Bichler did a little shoveling this morning but we only did enough to get the car out if we need to go out. He thought about getting the tractor out but decided against it when he saw the drift in front of the shed.

I just read the post from a year ago. Mr. B had just come home after 45 days at OSU Medical Center and Dodd Hall. He was waiting to schedule out-patient therapy and still had to wear his helmet until his cranioplasty surgery could be performed to replace the front of his skull. Looking back always helps to put things into perspective!

Monday, February 15

Quite disappointed because our championship game was postponed until Wednesday nite. Of course this also means we had to postpone our trip to Dover and I was so looking forward to seeing Luke. Guess we will have to wait until end of March and hopefully won't have to worry about all the snow. Tired of shoveling snow and actually gave up after about 20 minutes in my drive and another 30 trying to dig my neighbor out. Just hanging out watching the Olympics and staying warm. Checked Facebook and saw that Sara and Matt went skydiving today. Think I will share some warm weather pictures. Sunny and 79 degrees in Oahu, Hawaii....a perfect day for skydiving! I may have to try this.

Saturday, February, 13

Well, the girls did it! They played the best game to date. It was a terrific game and very competitive. We jumped out to a pretty big lead 12-4 at the end of the first quarter, but our post player also had 2 quick fouls so we had to sit her down for a while and Harvest Prep made a little run. We came back in the 3rd quarter and built our lead again. We did have some girls in foul trouble but we were able to shut down their point guard who had scored 30 on us the previous time we played them. In the process of playing so aggressively we had 3 of our girls that fouled out in the 4th quarter. The good news was that our bench players stepped in and played great. We slowed the game down, had very few turnovers and hit some key shots and free throws. The final score was 48-37, what a game. Mr. Bichler was completely exhausted following the game. Monday both our 7th and 8th grade teams will be playing in the Championship Finals. The 7th grade will face the winner of the Liberty Union/Grandview game at 5 pm and our 8th grade will face St. Mary's (Fisher Catholic) at 6:30. In the regular season we defeated them early in the season but last week we lost a close game to them 29-30. It will probably be another nail biter. Stay tuned or better yet, come on over and watch the action live, should be a good one!

Friday, February 12

Mr. Bichler and his girls won their first tournament game Thursday evening by defeating Millersport. They will face Harvest Prep tomorrow at 10 am. We are hoping the girls play a great game that can take us into the tournament Championship on Monday at 6:30. We are also hoping that both the 7th and 8th grade girls teams will be playing. Our fingers are crossed for a good showing by both teams. If I think about it, I will take some pictures at tomorrows game to post. Mr. B is pretty excited about the tournament this year since he missed last year's tournament. Actually, last year this time, he was still at Dodd Hall working on his recovery. He has come a long way!

Wednesday, February 9

This snow is reeking havoc with my plans. I couldn't make it up to the zoo this morning because of it and I learned today that our tournament games have been pushed back and the championship won't be played until Monday evening. We had planned to make a quick trip to Dover next week to see Luke but I guess that will get postponed a few days. I have to admit that as annoying as it is, I just love watching and walking in the snow. I'm sure that if I had to drive in it I might not feel the same. On my "wonderland walk" today I saw 3 deer, the first I've seen in quite a while. I had found a seat on a downed log at the edge of the creek and was watching a great-crested flycatcher flitting around when the deer suddenly appeared across the creek from me. They really looked pretty in the snow. I also have been seeing quite a few brown creepers, a small brown bird that creeps up and down the trees looking for insects in the crevices of the bark. I've included photos of 2 of my favorite feeder birds. The white-throated sparrow and the melodious song sparrow.

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.