Sunday, February 27, 2005

Basketball is Truly Over

Well it can be said the whole season is over for the Concordia Lutheran Crusaders. The varsity made it to the semi-finals of state and lost that game. That was on Friday, so the season is now officially over. That means that all we have left is the awards banquet tomorrow night. The girls had a good run, but just couldn't finish it. That means that now we can really focus on baseball. That meant that Saturday was a tournament at school. Chad was there at 7:30 and got the first game in, they didn't even play, and then it was done. It has been raining for the last few days, so everything was just sopping wet. So we will see how long baseball season even lasts, with all these rainouts they have had, they could be playing until June and the school year is over in May. It is suppose to start being nice and so hopefully in the next few weeks before spring break, they can get in all the games they are suppose to.

Not too much else this past week. I did get to babysit Isaac for a while on Thursday, but with the rain, the match was cancelled and they just had practice. This week, I get to spend time with him on Friday after school.

This week we go for another ultrasound on Wednesday, but it is with the doctor that made us wait for 2 hours. At least this time, it is at Willowbrook (which is where I normally go) and we don't have to drive downtown to the Texas Women's Hospital. I am hoping that the wait will not be 2 hours again either.

Other basketball news from Minnesota. Both of Chad and mine teams from last year went to the state tournament this weekend. The TLO boys lost on Friday and then again on Saturday, so that meant that they were out. The CLS girls won on Friday, but none of the Minnesota people knew how they did on Saturday. We were pretty excited to hear that they got there and that they are all doing good.

We are looking forward to coming home in just about three weeks. The time will hopefully go by fast. I'm sure that it will, it seems like the weeks just fly by. Even now without basketball it seems like Friday gets here in no time, but then so does Monday.

Well I hope that everyone is good. I hope that mom and dad enjoyed their weekend in Florida. From the looks of things on Sportscenter, it didn't look all that sunny, so I know that mom will have been disappointed. Joel and Adam Happy Birthday this week. Alan and Tracie Happy Anniversary this week.

Monday, February 21, 2005

A Warm President's Day

Well, we once again have this day off, but it seems that we are usually trying to get more stuff done than any other day of the week. It is suppose to be about 80 today, so it is nice to be doing these errands without having to put on our snowboots and snowpants. A day off from work, but it still means that there is baseball practice. Chad has practice this afternoon at 4, it is a day off, why isn't it at about 2? I don't make the rules, I just have to follow them. This past week was a lot of spring cleaning for me, I did a lot of throwing away and condensing of our stuff. Chad was worried that I was going to throw away something that we needed, you know like old boxes that held nothing, notes from a class back in school, or something of that nature. It has been nice not to have practice after school, but I am usually spending those afternoons alone. Chad seems to average getting home at about 7 on practice nights and about 9:30 on game nights. He had a game on Friday, I went and watched. They seem that the team could be half way decent.

Now that basketball is over, I get to watch Isaac Kieper on days that Christa has away matches for tennis. She has some of the students watch him during practice, but on match days, that can get a little long. So this Thursday I get to have company in the afternoon, granted it is a 5 month old. We debated all week about going up to Dallas for the weekend, but in the end with baseball starting and everything else, we thought that we would hang around here. We did go and register at Target for baby stuff. Mom Heffelfinger is flying us home on March 19th-21st, to have a shower for us. She was debating coming down here this weekend, but then decided that she could bring us home. So we are looking forward to that. Even though it is only for a couple of days, it is the beginning of our Spring Break, so it is a little time away.

Today is going to bring laundry and grocery shopping, so I better get to those things. Chad has papers to correct and days to plan for the week. Of course, we both left these things until the last minute. It seems to make our lives more exciting.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Ben's One Today

I can hardly believe that Ben is one today. They were having a party and since we are 1200 miles away, we didn't get to go. I am hoping that they got some good pictures of him and his cake. I have a feeling that he will not hold back when it comes to eating his cake. Well when Amy or Joel read this, they can make sure they give him a kiss from his Aunt Erin and Uncle Chad.

This week has been hectic and basketball is over. We played our last game on Tuesday, we won by 10 or so. Chad is still going with baseball, but it has still been in the parking lot because of the wet field. We thought that the rain was going to be done, but low and behold there were thunderstorms last night and heavy rain this morning. It has now stopped and the sun is trying to peak out. They are suppose to have a scrimmage on Tuesday, but with this rain today, we will see how that goes. Varsity basketball is going to be on their way to Waco on Friday to play in a regional game and then if they win that, they will be on their way to Arlington the next weekend for State. They had a pretty easy game yesterday against a team from Corpus Christi, they won by 25.

We then headed down to Minute Maid after the girls' game yesterday to watch Baylor vs. Tennessee and then A&M vs. Rice last night. Pete went with us and it ended up being a really nice night. They had the roof open and it was just about 70 degrees. I talked to Amy while I was there and Joel was jealous of us watching baseball outside last night. Not too much else going on. Today we have been doing laundry and trying to clean up a bit. Chad has no school on Friday and Monday and I have the day off on Monday, so we are still thinking about going up to Dallas on Saturday and coming back on Monday. We have to talk to Adam and his aunt and uncle to see what everyone is up to. If not, we are going to try to get up there sometime in the next couple of months. I know that we are planning on going up there in May for his cousin's confirmation, but we are hoping to get there before that.

Chad is hoping to actually get in a game this week, even if it isn't until Friday. I think that the boys and the coaches are ready for this rain to be done, so they can actually start the season. Hope that everyone had fun at Ben's party and he wasn't on too much of a sugar high for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Just One More Game

Well tonight is it, the last basketball game for the season. We are playing Houston Christian, who we have already played twice. The first time we played them we won by twelve and last week when we played them, we went into overtime, but won by seven. The season has been long and it will be nice to be done with, but I will still keep going to athletic period twice a week to take the basketball girls who don't play a spring sport. It will be nice to have my evenings back, but they will mostly be spent by myself now that baseball has started.

Last week was one of the weeks that I just couldn't wait for it to be over. We had practice and games, but nothing seemed to be going my way. On Thursday our practice got cancelled without me cancelling it. It was cancelled because we were letting one of the grade schools host a tournament at school and their games started on Thursday and no one told us this until Thursday morning, so let's just say I was a little upset considering we were playing North who we are pretty evenly matched against, but lost to by 5 last time we played them. Chad had practice all week, most of it in the parking lot on the cement, because the field is pretty much a swamp right now. They are suppose to have a scrimmage on Friday, but the way the rain is coming and suppose to come for the rest of the week, it looks like that might have to be cancelled.

Not too much going on this weekend. We are thinking about going down to Minute Maid on Saturday to watch some college baseball, there are 6 teams playing all weekend. Three games each day and it is like 12 dollars to see all three games, so we were thinking about doing that this weekend. It is also the Astros Fan Fair at Minute Maid, so we would be able to go to that too. Other than that, not too much. We have been thinking about heading up to Dallas maybe the following weekend, with having no school on the 21st, but it all depends on baseball.

Things are pretty much the same down here. We are looking forward to the visitors we will have coming in the Spring. We are also looking forward to all this rain stopping and actually being spring down here. I hope that you guys in the north are keeping warm and that most the snow has melted away.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

A trip to the cold (and snowy) north

Last week here in Tomball, it was about 78 degeres on Wednesday, that would be the day I decided to get on a plane and fly to Milwaukee, where when I landed it was 16 and snowing. Why some people ask, let's just say I'm a little weird and sort of missed the snow. Now the five days that I was there, with the foot and a half of snow, were more than enough. This was a Christmas present, because I had off from work and we didn't have a basketball game. We had been planning on going down to CIT to watch the girls' game, but then my mom got off from work on Friday and the plans just spiraled.
Thursday- Mom worked a half day, picked her up at noon and headed to Chicago. We picked Alan up from the store and got to spend a few hours with him and Kate and home. We were much entertained by Kate who is now walking and speaking perfect jibberish. Before Kate had to have her bath and go to bed, we decided it was a good time to leave and head to Schaumburg for a trip to IKEA. Mom needs track lighting. We went to grab some dinner and to our hotel for the night. Now we just needed the room for one night, so we weren't looking for anything too fancy, so The Red Roof in will do. We got our key, started putting our stuff down and that is when mom discovers, we had an extra animal in our room. I furry mouse, just sitting on top of the tv. So we went to change rooms, they very much understood. We were about to get in the car and mom realizes she forgot her purse in the mouse room. Meanwhile I am talking to Chad on the phone in the parking lot, while she is running back into the room to get her purse. It was a cold night and I was already laughing about it, but it gets better. Just as mom is coming out of the room, the person who is staying next door comes out and I would say they were probably ready to go out to some bar, but it must have been a cross-dressing bar, because here comes this tall man in ladies' clothes. I mean thigh high nylons and a mini-skirt. Now remeber we are in Arlington Heights, I didn't even realize there were bars like that there. We got into our new room and everything was fine, we slept and got up and were ready to go for Friday.

Friday- took us to Woodfield for an H & M shopping trip, which ended up being not that successful. We then headed to Woodstock with a stop at the Huntley outlet mall before. We did find some really good stuff for baby at the Gap Outlet. We went to Woodstock to relieve Grandma and Grandpa Chapman of babysitting and waited for Joel to get home. Joel and mom left and I waited for Amy and then we went to CIT at River Forest. There were a few people there, but the fans weren't too rowdy. We went for some food after the game and Amy, Julie, and I left Jana and Steph at about 10:30 to drive home to Milwaukee.

Saturday- we headed Alex's basketball game where, her team won 32-6. We were entertained by Ben who was enjoying the ring pop and Amy let him have a few licks from. Amy and I headed to the mall, so I could get my Brewers' jersey. The salesman, was thinking I knew nothing about baseball and was trying to get me to buy jerseys of guys who didn't play for us. I think when I told him who they even played for now, he got the idea. Saturday night we just ordered pizza and watched a movie, okay I fell asleep during the movie.

Sunday- was church and then just spend some time at home before I had to leave. Mom made lunch and we actually sat at the table to eat it. Amy and Joel left at about the same time I was leaving and then I headed to the airport to come home. It was a awesome visit and I had a lot of fun, but it is always nice to come home. We think the next time we will be home, might not be until next Christmas, so it was very nice to spend some time there and just do some relaxing.

Things here are good, basketball is just one more week. I am looking forward to it being over, but I know that I will miss it. Some of the girls asked me if I was going to miss it, and it is yes and no, but I just look at it that we can start preparing for next year. Tonight is an away game and the the next two are home. Baseball is going now for Chad, but it has been raining the last few days, so they haven't been having too many practices outside. Their first game is on the 11th, so it is suppose to stop raining by the end to the week and then start warming up again. Well I hope that everyone is doing well and that you are keeping warm whevever you are.