The Quest for the 2012 Tree and other stuff...

The joys of winter! Seems like every year winter gets more and more packed and I feel like we move 100 miles an hour at all times. I am even resorting to doing laundry during the week as we are never home on the weekends because of basketball tournaments for both kids. The bad thing about laundry all week is it never feels like I get a break from it.

 

 

School has been crazy as well. As much as I should feel pretty secure doing what I do after 16 years, I find myself working more at home than I ever have. My co-worker finally said it best when she said, the more you research, the more ideas you get and the more pressure you feel to do things RIGHT. That is exactly what is happening to me. I spend hours getting sucked into research into best practices in reading and science and I want to do everything RIGHT in my classroom. It has felt so good to do these new things and see results. However, I feel like a new teacher. Lots of work from home, lots of redoing of lessons I used to do, and throwing out TONS of others and recreating them entirely. I am proud of everything, but exhausted too.

 

 

Basketball. It is unreal how one year can make such a difference. You might remember me mentioning last year Noah being so good at the game except for one area.....shooting. I laughed mentioning making baskets is usually a requirement in the game, so it was a frustrating season with many, many losses.

 

 

Then came this year.

 

 

I am going to brag here, and I am not going to hold back. I rarely go on and on about my kids, but this time I just have to. I have no idea what happened in the last 12 months, but let's just say that shooting issue....it's no longer a problem. Noah is on a team with really great kids. They all work hard, they all encourage one another, and they are all positive. They are coached by two sophomores in college that are kind and fun. The boys are loving it.

 

 

 

And the team hasn't lost a game! They have been in two tournaments and have won first place in both of them. I no longer cringe as Noah steals the ball and drives down the court for a lay-up. He usually makes it. He rarely is removed from the game (except when close to fouling out. Have I mentioned he's aggressive?). And Mike made the comment he would "kill to have made that many free throws in a season".

 

 

Proud parents indeed.

 

 

Connor got asked to be on a traveling team a year early. Initially I was hesitant as I knew it was going to be tough schedule-wise. But, my friend that put the team together was just too hard to say no to and I knew Connor would love it.

 

 

Connor has played one tournament and they took second! I don't know hardly any of the players on the team, and they are certainly just learning the ropes when it comes to setting up plays and passing (it's hard to share when you are 9). It's sure fun to watch though! Connor was agressive and had some great baskets. They look so small out there! I am curious to see how this extra year in traveling impacts the players next year.

 

 

 

Both boys also play Park and Rec and Kids First which means two teams each and two sets of practices. In January, Noah will start practicing after school every day with one team, and then practice up to three evenings a week along with tournaments on weekends for the other. Connor will practice twice a week for the two different teams and play on the weekends.  Could get insane. Hoping both kids stay healthy and continue to love it.

 

 

You are probably expecting pictures of these children winning their trophies....right? Yeah, well I was lucky to get all of us there on time to the various games with snacks and uniforms, so no pictures. There will be so many tournaments to come and we have some scary phone pictures of the team and their awards, but nothing for the blog.

 

 

In the midst of the craziness......we got our tree! We decided to try a new tree farm this year and went to Rochester. It was a nice place, and we would go back. We loves Budd's too though.

 

 

 

It was a semi-nice day but still chilly. We have no snow though so it made navigating the paths quite easy...

 

 

 

Connor always finds a stick. Cracks me up. He goes around whipping things as we hunt. All boy.

 

 

 

 

We searched for a tall skinny, but always find that skinny means SUPER tall. So, we just stuck with small all around this year.

 

 

 

It's a tradition I hope we keep forever. I told the boys it's something they should do with their kids. Ever year it gets harder to get them to want to go (13 is tough, let me tell you), but I think they are realizing that it's kind-of cool that their parents do this stuff with them.

 

 

 

So, it's up and the house is decorated! I don't get to sit home much and enjoy it, but it's done. The tree looks exactly the same every year. Haha! I am hoping to find some ornaments on sale this year. I am thinking all white decorations in the future, we will see......

 

 

But here is the Budach tree for 2012....

 

 

 

 

Let the crazy month of December begin!

LB