Keeping busy (a little too busy)!

This week has been the longest in my life. I feel like the events that I went through on Monday seems like a months ago instead of days ago. I threw myself into work on Tuesday at church. We had to get ready for "Kindergarten Roundup" and the youth groups meetings for the next day. I didn't turn up at church on Wednesday. I was too busy here cleaning for my own family and one of S's friends. That night L helped me out by dumping trash (twice!) . Then I came in today to check if there was anything to do to clean up for a funeral luncheon scheduled at 11 AM. Still there was trash to dump, wastebaskets to find in unknown places, doors to close, nursery to rearrange, and cups and paper products to restock before coming out to help with the funeral luncheon.

I have been in and up/down mode since Monday and wasn't looking forward to helping at the funeral luncheon. So I got to church nearly at 11 AM and asked what I could do to help. MS said it was taken care of. I actually smiled for the first time in days!! Relief!! I'll just come back tonight and do the BIG CLEANUP. I rather prefer to do that. I think since most of the people could be in a sad mood it was probably a great idea I wasn't there. I might have started to cry too but not for the same reason. Maybe another time I might be open to help out for a funeral luncheon, but not now. Give me some time.
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I've been looking online for dogs. I found one for free from H town. It was not housebroken and was an outdoor dog. I have my preferences. It has to be housebroken, likes cats (or at least tolerates them), would really like a black or chocolate lab, and gets along with the family. It would be great if the dog could be male and neutered and free. This may take a while but we are ready to share our home. We already have the name picked out. If anyone knows of a dog that fits that criteria please let me know (that is if you live in this city/county).
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I'm checking my activities for March. The first two weeks looks to very busy for us. I'm going to train to be a Forensics judge. I think that should be interesting. Technically speaking, English/communications was my minor in college, so I think it will be fun to judge the kids on how well they do their speeches, orations, and acting. Then there will be spring break. I already know where we will be going to on one of those days. The land of Crimson and Blue. I wonder if we will be eating at "The Longhorn" or somewhere else? I'll be turning another "number" in March. Oh boy! At least I'm still in good health! Sprinkled in between those days will be the Big 12 tournament and the NCAA tournament. Just hope KU does well down the stretch.
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KU basketball senior speeches are on March 3rd. I will have to find some way in recording these for S as her favorite player, RR will be delivering his. We have watched him and others grow into gangly freshman to strong seniors. Last year KU had no seniors on the team. But this year we have Sasha K, RussRob, Darnell J, RodrickS, JeremyC (who is actually a grad student), and BWitherspoon (a bench player). S said she will cry when RR leaves KU. I'll cry when Darnell leaves, he's such a nice guy!! Then next year Mario (my fave) will be a senior. We will have to look for new players as they come through the ranks. Tyrel Reed and Cole Aldrich are the new ones whom we like.

Something to Smile About

Brandon Rush was laughing while Iowa State was at the free-throw line. He had fouled a player in the act of shooting a 3. So that player went to the line to shoot three free throws (and made them all). The Iowa State player next him is looking to say, "If I did that I would have to run a bunch of suicides." Or "You're crazy man, what are you laughing at?" Rush fouled the player late in the game and it was Rush's first foul. I'll bet Self wasn't laughing.

KU finally got their road win against the "Hamburger Team," ISU. (note their colors of red and yellow). They did really great from 3 point shooting and seemingly got their confidence back. Rush rang in three three pointers, Mario Chalmers put in two three pointers and Sherron Collins had one three pointer. Mario's points were from way out! Like an NBA 3 pointer. Sasha Kaun played well despite back pain. The team didn't have as many fouls as they did against OSU on Saturday. In fact they only had 2 fouls and 5 turnovers in the first half. A nice tight game. The refs (from KU standpoint) weren't too bad. This time I enjoyed listening to the ESPN announcer. Steve Bardo. He played for Illinois before Bill Self coached there. Bardo and the other guy were pretty good anouncers; way better than Ron and Fran.

Next game is KU--KSU....the revenge game, college game day, the game we wanted to go to. It's a showdown starting at 8 PM. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWKS!
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During the game someone was calling us. I will not answer the phone when KU is playing. I don't care if you are my long lost cousin bequeathing me tons of money, I just will not answer the phone. The phone rang twice. Both times not for me.
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I have good times and bad times since Monday. I was thinking about an incident when I lost my old pair of glasses. I looked for them all over the place and they weren't in the house. So when I was outdoors patting Daisy I looked down in her tail. Guess what? The glasses were stuck in her tail!! They were quite scratched but they were intact. Daisy didn't even wimper when those things were in her tail. It was funny. I just need to remember the silly times with her.

Life without Daisy

I've been keeping plenty busy at my work, it's a good thing since I am mourning my dog. But looking at this sunny day, I think how much she would have enjoyed today running in the yard and sunning her fur.

When I came in the yard today, I kept thinking she would welcome me home. Racing up to the back porch, wagging her tail and looking for some approval from me. I blinked my eyes and remembered, "Oh yeah, that's right. She's gone." Other places remind me of her too. I look out at the sandbox where the kids didn't play much in it but she did. She would often lay on the sand and look around the yard. Other times playing basketball in the yard. We would dribble the ball and she would bark at us. We would shoot the ball and she would come up to "bother" us. The backyard was hers and if we were back there it was to play with her and nothing else.

A friend told me that I should take some time to grieve about the loss. But how long should that be? If I had another dog in our backyard soon, I wouldn't forget Daisy. I haven't forgot Liberty either. I think it depends when you are ready to move on with life. The quickest way to do this (for me) is finding the perfect dog for us that will mesh into our "pack." That's my opinion.

R.I.P. Daisy Mae (ca 1997---2008)

She came into our lives when we had nowhere else to turn to. Liberty, was put down about 2 years before. We had been through several dogs none worked out. Then we walked into the vet clinic and there she was panting and "smiling." We loaded her into the van and took her home. She lived with us for seven and a half years. We remember the times when she chased J around the yard and how she barked, yipped, and "talked." When she would come in and wanting attention, placing her paw on our knee until we satistified her need. Sitting on the floor just patting her as she looked deep into my eyes, laying her head on my chest. Scared because of fireworks, running into the hall. Watching her ears lift up when she heard thunder wanting to hide under the bed. When we would pull into the driveway how she would bark endlessly until we saw her. She always wanted to be first in line to get into the house when it rained. Make several turns before she "decided" she would walk into the house. Hearing the clicking of toenails on the kitchen floor. Chewing on dog toys, lapping up water noisly, burping when she ate too much.

Now I look at the empty yard thinking about our life with her. Looking at her feeding mat, thinking she would be laying her head in my lap watching me work on the computer.

Looking forward to seeing her along with Liberty in "Dog Heaven."

Now we are looking forward to find another dog who needs a new home. We at least hold on to that new hope and bright new day.

Depressing Loss!

I was hoping that KU would win this afternoon at Stillwater. They didn't they lost by 1 point at the last second. It looked like maybe we could have pulled out the win in the last few minutes. The loss happened in the first half. This is where KU didn't score any 3 pointers and that KU had way too many fouls in the first half. O-State went to the line constantly, in particular that Byron Eaton. He was hit like 17 out of 18 free-throws alone. Yes, it was free throws (OSU's tally) that got us. We were done in by 21 turnovers, this in itself was a record for KU and lack of 3 point shooting. But we did get two 3 pointers in the second half. Compare that with OSU's total 3 pointers, they had 8. We didn't execute well. Everyone played the way I've been feeling all week...depressed. Darnell Jackson's cousin died in OKC this past week and Rodrick Stewart's brother died as well this week. It's been rough on these kids lately. Now the 'Hawks need to regroup and start playing better against Iowa State on the road on Wednesday. Practice will probably hard tomorrow as I kind of doubt it that Coach Self will let them have the day off.

During the game we got so sick of listening to the TV announcers. So we did like all good Jayhawk fans do and turned down the sound to the TV and listen to Bob Davis and Chris Piper.
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It's a rainy, sleeting, muddy day in Harper. Depressing skies and cold temps. Tomorrow is suppose to be warmer and sunny. I can't wait. I love those days. I certainly hope that Spring comes next week. I am not a rainy type person.
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Still taking care of Josiah once in a while. She is a nice little lively dog. Even though her "parents" are looking for a new home for her, I am still wanting a younger dog preferably a lab.
It's so rough to watch your dog of 8 years succumb to death. I am ready to get the vet out here and just ask him to euthanize her no matter the costs. We go outside and check on Daisy. We know that she will not get better, no miracle is in there for her, she doesn't eat or drink water and she has lost the sparkle in her eyes. It's time for her to gently close her eyes and be put down. I've accepted this. I don't like it but I can't do anything for her. It's frustrating.

Rambling Friday

Today has been an interesting day. L and I was commenting about S's text messaging. We thought she had unlimited access. Ha! I called the cell phone company and found out just EXACTLY what we owed. I was like....AGGGGHHH!!! It wasn't the national debt, but it was at least 3 times higher than the last bill. So apparently we didn't have unlimited access. I texted her and told her the bill. So meanwhile, I am looking through the company's site to see if there is anything about changing our plan and getting unlimited messages. I call the service rep up from that company and thankfully I got this nice man who actually spoke English. He sounded like an old friend of ours when it said, "By jove I think I've got it." (Randy). So I explain to him that I thought we had it and boy, I was wrong! He accessed the info and said about the same thing that I was thinking. He tells us that he can knock off some money off of that bill. Thank you God, there are some nice people out there! Then we changed the service so instead of paying a high amount (like this month) it will be slightly lowered with unlimited texting. Whew! If only credit card companies would be that nice to talk with!!
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Daisy is still hanging in there. She raises her head when we say her name but other than that she just looks pathetic in her dog loo. She never got in this before. It was like "I'm not going there unless I die." Guess that's how it is now. :( I have left her food and water in her igloo and she has not touched it. My vet drove by to check on her. He said she wouldn't last a month but he wasn't sure how long she had. She could die tomorrow or two weeks from now. Euthanizing costs and since she isn't moaning she will die a natural death.
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I have resigned that we will get another dog. I am having our vet look around for us. We want a lab. Liberty was a great dog and she was a lab. Our vet told us not to buy one as there are plenty of dogs who need a home. I know buying is the wrong way to go. We learned that lesson over 8 years ago before we got Daisy.
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KU is playing tomorrow!!! That will take my mind off of the dog/cell phone/satellite bill thing. I need a distraction. This was the game that I should have gotten tickets for. Maybe I still can!! I think I'll check the OSU ticket office!! No, tickets don't go on for sale until 6 pm tonight. Oh well, guess I won't go. But I'll be watching on TV tomorrow!!
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Been snacking on Girls scout cookies. I ordered a few boxes from a church girl scout and now I wished that I would have got something else besides the cinnamon snack cookies. The Thanks Alot are so good, even though they are so fattening!! I need that bit of chocolate to get me through this week!

My Years With Dogs

When I was 8 my family got a dog. It was my first dog. We were basically a cat family and when our cat disappeared, presumed dead. I can remember going to our Humane Society in Hutch and my brother picking out this little black and yellow dog. The people said that he was half daschuand and half terrier. He resembled a miniature Doberman. My brother taught him how to sit, beg, and jump over his legs. We fed him cheese and chocolate chip cookies. Now I know in this day and age chocolate is a no-no for dogs to snack on. But we did it back then. We named our dog Floppy. During life events (such as my brother getting married and having a couple of kids) the dog was around. Then when I was at Sterling I got a call from my parents telling me that Floppy had died. We had Floppy from when I was in 3rd grade until I was a junior in college.
After that I didn't get another dog/pet for 10 years!!

Then I finally adopted Liberty when I bought my first house in W town. I was single and Liberty turned out to be a great companion. She even got along with L after we got married. We moved down to H town and she was there when I had S and J. She died after 13 years, when S was 6 and J was 3.

Then we got Daisy, 8 years ago. As Pastor B would say, "That's been quite a long time ago." S just turned 7 and J was 4. Now S is in high school and J will be in middle school next year. How time flies.

As I think about getting another I wonder what dog I should get. Should I get a dog that's big, which carries a big responsibility (like Daisy was a big Collie), or do I get a little dog, small expense (such as vet bills, boarding fees would be much less). It's a decision that I just don't know which way to take. It's a decision that I didn't want to make for at least another 5 years.

My next dog depending on size and health will possibly be with us when both kids are away from home. If my next dog would live over 9 years then S will be out of college and J will be in college. It's something to think about.

Daisy

It's so hard to write about something about our dog today. I have tears in my eyes as I type. We adopted her from our vet about 8 years ago. We were looking for the dog to replace my other beloved dog, Liberty, who had to be put down after 13 years. So we had adopted several other dogs between Liberty and Daisy. We had Sugar (who lasted a few months), another Spice dog who at the time was pregnant at the time of adoption (that was not good), we got rid of her, another dog by the name of Jessie (to hyper), and we had just had gotten rid of a cross breed named Chip (the dog that NOBODY liked).

So we went out to the vets and they said, "Well we have Daisy Mae here." All I could think is wow she is HUGE!! A lot of fur too. So I wasn't sure how L would like her. The kids and I just LOVED her to pieces!! So we loaded her up in the van and went home. We took pictures of her with the kids and they loved her so much. She always loved the attention. S was around 7 years old and J was 4 years old when we adopted her. I think Daisy was around 3 or 4 herself. She would always have that annoying habit of sticking her paw up when she wanted us to pat her. We have sported several long scratch marks from her. She was friendly to everyone who walked into the yard. She got along with squirrels, other dogs, and even cats. She was truly loved.

Lately though things have changed with her. She didn't want to eat anything, doesn't come to me when I've called her. I decided to call our new vet. Thankfully, our vet makes house calls. So he goes out into the yard where she is laying. He noticed that something isn't right either as usually Daisy will go up to him and be the most friendliest animal ever, demanding to be patted. She lifted her head and placed it back down on the ground. So he took her temperature (which she didn't like and nearly bit him) and I asked the vet if he was okay. Of course, being a vet he's probably been bitten several times. But, usually Daisy doesn't bite. He said, "Well it's not good. Her temperature is three degrees below normal." Then he felt under all of that fur. I am guessing that he found a tumor. He said, "The kidney's are the first organs to shut down. She's dying."

It is so hard to go through this. I have lost so many animals over my life. And now I will be losing Daisy, our Collie that we have had for nearly 8 years. She has kidney problems. It is vital for an animal to have good kidney function because when that goes that is it. I have the sad duty of telling the rest of the family what to expect over the next few days. As the vet believes that she won't last very long.

I keeping hoping that he's wrong. But isn't that how we all are when we hear a diagnosis of grave consequences. "Couldn't he be wrong?" But he's a vet. He knows. He gave her a shot to make her feel a little better. I have cried buckets of tears this morning. I put some of her towels on her to make her feel warm. I have put my head down on her head crying. Pleading for her not to die. The dog doesn't like it when I get "emotional." But it's hard. It's hard not to cry when you know a member of the family will probably die.

I'm going to miss her so much. We used to say "Shake!" and she would raise her paw and we would shake hands. Then I would say "Switch" and she would switch paws to shake hands. I remember also how fearful she was when it came to thunderstorms and the 4th of July. She would hide out in the hallway or in J's room just to get away from the noise.

I am going to miss my old friend, Daisy.

The Victorious Runnin' Rebels!

Here is a team photo after the boys won over the ML team. J is sitting on one knee in the front row. He was pretty happy that things went well for him in the final game. Even though we have a small team of 9 boys they all get some playing time. Granted the coach starts the same players (much like KU) but he brings in the other kids throughout the game. Kids at this age usually pass it the ball off to whoever their friend is instead of the kids who are open. We were happy when the A kid passed it over to J to shoot.

Onto a related subject:

I often think of how things will be in middle school basketball. Will we have to combine with the A town team JUST because we have low numbers of kids playing basketball? Is it better to have a huge bench, only to have most of the boys to sit most of the game? I really think that a smaller team is better. For instance, this team started out having only 8 players in their first year and grew by one this year. If we combined with A town in basketball I'm not sure if this is such a good idea. Where would practices be held? Where else? CHS.

CHS is in between the towns. This is where some of the members of the school board and superintendent says would be "ideal" for the middle school to move to because of the conditions of both schools. They also think this would be a great "opportunity" for them to introduce shop and home economics. Aging teachers in both school system is another reason for moving them at a central location. I still believe that both middle schools should remain in their towns respectively. It's okay if they combine the A and H football teams because you need a huge number of kids to play football. But let's keep the the basketball team seperate as well as the middle school. Let's keep A and H seperate until 9th grade like it is now. I think small classes are good to have. You have that one-on-one help from the teacher more so. Activities will be that much harder to attend. It's nice to keep the schools local. This is my opinion and many others.

Monday Ramblings

Odorologist---It's really a word! Sometimes I think that's what my job should be changed to instead of "janitor" or "custodian." I check around for odors that smell, well bad to me. But a lot of things stink to me, that normal people would say I'm weird. It wouldn't be the first time. Among the odors that get to me are: Onions, carpet glue, skunk, dust, peanuts (I'm allergic), certain kinds of foods cooked in the microwave, sometimes popcorn, sauer kraut, and other foods that I just can't think of off hand, then of course everything else that "normal" people can't stand and I won't get into that, but I think you know what I mean! TMI stuff. When I clean I use lemon cleaner, baking soda (this neutralizes the odors), stuff that has febreeze in it, carpet deoderizer, scented trash bags, and certain kinds of plug in oils. When I was in the "new" pea-green room at church I noticed that both plug ins were pulled. I had been trying for weeks to get that smelly carpet-glue odor out, as it knocked me out just smelling it. I guess the class members thought it was "over-kill." I guess what smells great to one person really stinks to another. So I am only using one. Hopefully the teacher of that class (Spike) could tell me if he REALLY hates it and I will remove both to another part of the church.
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We are taking care of Josiah and Penny again. We love to go out there and look out in their massive backyard hoping to get a glimpse of some wildlife. There is a building project taken place so I doubt if we will see the wild turkeys running across the lawn until it is finished. Hopefully it won't be raining or snowing in the next few days because that's rough getting mud all over the car, etc., and possibly getting stuck.
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It's President's Day today S and J are off today. We always got off for Washington's birthday. President's Day is a rather new term. In 1968, legislation was enacted that affected several federal holidays. Instead of celebrating on Feb. 22nd, the holiday was moved to the 3rd Monday of the month. The official holiday was started in 1971. President's day honors not only Washington's birthday (Feb. 22), but also Abraham Lincoln's birthday (Feb. 12). Plus other men who have served as President. This is according to an article I read about the subject. President Ronald Reagan's birthday is Feb. 6th. (I only know this because I have a good friend who's birthday is on the same day).
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I found a great article by W. Bruce Cameron today. Pretty funny stuff!
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I continue to read my book (when I find the time) by Karen Kingsbury. Good inspirational stuff!
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What am I going to do? No KU basketball games until Saturday!! Guess I'll make time to read!
Until later...

Makes a Parent Proud!

I am double posting here. KU won easily over Colorado today by a score of 69--45. I watched the game, via DVR. When KU was playing I was watching my son's team win their tournament. His team, the Runnin' Rebels went 9-0 for the season and won the tournament over the ML team.

J got in the game in the second quarter and his teammates finally gave him the ball. He had a clear shot and got 2 points in. We get REALLY excited when he even gets to shoot or when it goes in. Then he got another basket! That brought tears to my eyes. In the second half he attempted to make baskets that were just too far away. Finally he found his mark and SWISH!! He had 6 points!! WOW! It was great!! He ran up the court and we cheered for him a lot. One of his teammates looked in the stands when he shot his baskets and grinned with two thumbs up. But J just took his baskets in stride. He probably would have made more baskets if only his teammates would have confidence in his shots. Some recognized this. J had a total of 8 points in 9 games. Not a lot, but not bad for a bench player.

The boys celebrated at the local pizza place and then went to the coach's house for further celebration. J's team is currently 17-0 in two seasons of biddy basketball. Next year will be their final season until they go on to middle school basketball.

We've had a very good coach and I hope that he continues to coach our team. I have enjoyed writing articles for the team and hope that I'll be able to do this next year. The coach thanked me for doing that for the team. He enjoyed reading them. I'll just hone my skill by blogging about KU! :)

110 Years of KU Basketball!

This will be some event for the current KU players to attend the banquet of KU Basketball greats.

KU does such a great job in promoting their basketball team. No wonder about every game is a sell out. Basketball is extremely popular there. After the season if there are any seniors on the team, the players travel the state for Barnstorming tour. We have been to two Barnstorming games.

The first one that we went to had Jeff Graves among the seniors. We went to Hutch High and saw the lines waiting to watch these three seniors play against a group of Reno County All Stars. I remember we would go down and have Graves autograph a poster and how I talked to him. He was just really nice. Then we saw other people getting pictures taken with the players. So my kids took pictures with them. They were so young back then. Then the following year Wayne Simien, Michael Lee, Keith Langford, and Aaron Miles were on the Barnstorming tour. This time the event was held at the Sports Arena. There was a HUGE line just to get into the arena and then we all waited like 2 hours just to get autographs and pictures of the players. J told his friend Seth about the tour. So his dad, relatives and brother all were there. They had a pretty decent seat near the floor and was actually picked to go play with the 'Hawks. It was pretty fun.

Since then we haven't gone to Barnstorming tours. We enjoy making the trip to Lawrence and watching a "real game" at Allen Fieldhouse. It's always nice to wait for the players to come and talk with those who stay around for autographs. Barnstorming is nice but it is way better to go to a game in Lawrence. I can't wait until November to watch them in their "house." No doubt we will find out where they will be playing for their annual Barnstorming tour and probably see them again.

Until then we will be glued to our TV set or DVR if we can't see the game in real time.
Rock Chalk Jayhawks!

Thank you Texas Tech (just this once!)!

Just got through watching the K-State/Texas Tech game. Now normally I really wouldn't care who wins this game. But tonight was different. Texas Tech had a hard fought game against K-State. Amid a lot of technical fouls/regular fouls and the "great and powerful" (note, the sarcasm here) Michael Beasley and Bill Walker, Tech beat K-State. Pat Knight's first win since his dad, Bobby stepped down. No longer is K-State on top of the Big 12 conference. That's right. KU IS NUMBER ONE!

The KU/Colorado game would be one to see. In fact, there were tickets for that game. But, this is also J's tournament day and S's school activity up north for 4n6. So we will have to DVR the game. The championship game in J's league starts at 1:00. How I would like to be two places at one time!! Oh well, maybe we will get to at least see the second half of the KU game. It would be really nice to be there at KU to see half time as it will be an anniversary of the 1988 national championship team reunion. 1988 was a great year. Great for KU and was great for me and L personally, the year we got married. :) Happy Valentine's day L!
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Numbers crunching....cookbook numbers that is. I went (gulp!) to talk to the women's group at church. I realized that I should have went to them first before starting talk about a new cookbook. But since (sometimes) I can be a go-getter I just thought this would be a great way to get money for the building fund. I never thought it would be difficult to obtain financing. But after crunching the numbers I deciding how much we need the members of the church to buy, I still think it is workable. We may not have a huge contribution value at first, but if we could get the numbers to work for us, then maybe the women's group wouldn't have to contribute. And I wouldn't feel like a dog for not asking them first. I guess, I was acting out on faith. Going out on a limb, so to speak. Thanks for the ones who I've consulted with on this matter. Your advice was helpful!
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Speaking of help, high school homework is hard. I guess it depends on what subject you are good at. Math and Science is not my best/favorite subjects. S is needing someone who can actually listen to her and find out why she doesn't understand how to do certain procedures. The current Math teacher is not helpful. She sounds like my 8th grade math teacher, he had no time for questions and wouldn't take time to explain it. I still remember this man and not in a good way. I've had other math teachers who were the best. So I know there are great ones out there and when you get a lousy one it is tough. So my S will have to consult with her 8th grade teacher in the near future. Other students in the class already has gone back to their former teacher. Science, is very tough as well. This is not a great semester for S. So I am asking for prayers for her to do better. She is stressed out over her grades greatly.
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Valentine's Day is tomorrow. J could care less. This is his last year of filling out little valentine cards to his classmates. He nearly forgot and is frantically working on them at the late hour of 11. He will probably bring acres of candy home tomorrow.
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Thursday my busy day tomorrow. I'll be cleaning up, so to speak. In the trenches dancing with the vacuum. Oh boy! :)

Tough Loss to Texas 72--69.

I had high hopes that perhaps the Jayhawks could beat Texas. However, Texas had their home crowd behind them. Some of the calls were questionable. But the 'Hawks did make some mistakes and nothing seemed to go down for them. Granted they had more 3 pointers than the previous game but fouls pretty much got to the Hawks. The rebounds also got to the 'Hawks, not enough of them in the second half.

Darrell Arthur had 22 points, Darnell Jackson scored 13 as well as Mario Chalmers. Mario Chalmers nearly got that last shot to go down. But there just wasn't enough time to get that last three attempt to go down the basket. Brandon Rush scored 10, then Sasha Kaun got 4, Russell Robinson 3, and Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich each got in 2 points.

Darnell Jackson's mom was behind the KU bench cheering for her son. That was nice to see her after all that she had been through. There was a great Sports Illustrated article in last week's issue about Darnell. If you haven't read it you should. We have met Darnell (the autograph session after the game) and he is one of the nicest guys to take picture with and to talk with. He is very tall and very handsom. Hopefully he will have a career in the NBA and get a good draft pick. He has worked very hard to get where he is. I am so glad that he stayed all 4 years at KU and didn't take off his Senior year in order to go to the NBA, like many of college players do anymore.

The next game for the Hawks will be in Lawrence against Colorado. Now, K-State is ahead in the Big 12. Yuk!! Michael Beasley and the 'Cats already have a big head because they beat KU. I just hope Texas Tech will beat K-State, that would be satisfaction!

Practice at Lawrence this week is going to be tough on the players, but it needs to be so they can win games at the end of the season and in the tournament. That's when things will really count even more.

Sold Out!!

I tried my hardest to get the hottest ticket at Lawrence on March 1st. This will be one of the biggest games in recent history. The revenge match between KU and K-State. I had my information already to give out to the ticket office.

I watched seconds tick off my clock. 9 AM. Ticket office was open. I went to the computer to check to see if the event would be online. It was not. I dialed the number only to get a busy signal. I hit my re-dial button and each time I did I heard the busy signal. Then I would hit the refresh button on my computer. Nothing online. Press the re-dial button, busy. Online, nothing. This was like calling in for "American Idol" to even get to vote for your favorite singer (in this case my favorite team). It was like when a radio station would say, "Be caller 100 and win $1,000. You too can be a winner, etc." I kept doing re-dial, never giving up. Then finally at 9:17 AM I got into the ticket office. Joy! Rapture! At least I didn't have to hear the constant busy signal. My call was actually in the office. I would get the recording, "All of our office people are currently busy. We answer all calls. The next available representive will answer your call." This sounded like my satellite company!! I'll speak with a live person and get tickets!!

I got a real person online (didn't sound like my satellite company) at least I got someone who spoke English, if not Kansan. I ask about the Ku-Kstate game. She said, "I'm sorry but it's sold out." Crushed! Then I ask "What about the Monday game against Texas?" I would have the kids take off a couple of days just to hear the Senior do their speeches, that would be great! But again the office girl said, "No they are ALL sold out." I replied, "Oh, darn." (Exact quote!). She said, "Okay?" Sounding very nice and perky and I said, "Okay, thanks anyway." I hung up the phone and looked at my calendar for another game. Guess I'll be watching this game on my TV.

KU is playing OSU at Stillwater. "Wait a minute, I can get tickets for that game. It's on a Saturday afternoon and it's not that far down south. I have a friend who actually works for the veterinarian department at OSU, this would be perfect!" (Granted I haven't seen this friend since S was a toddler and before J was born!).

So I call up the OSU ticket office hoping that there would be some tickets left. I got the Athletic ticket office and the office person wasn't near as perky or as informed as the people at KU. I asked if they had tickets on the OSU game on Feb. 23rd. She said, "Huh?" And I'm thinking, did I call the right number? I regroup and say, "The Oklahoma State game against KU Men's basketball." Just in case she couldn't figure it out. She informed me that tickets for that game went up for sale the day before the game. UNREAL! KU would have had these tickets on their website (if it wasn't a sell out) at least 2 weeks ago.

Basketball is defintely King in Kansas. KU knows how to run a ticket office because there is nothing like KU basketball. Rock Chalk Jayhawks!

Spending Sunday together

That is L and I spent it together without the kids. I am sure they had a great time at home and we got to go to W town and just look to our hearts content!

We went to the stores that they absolutely hate to go in when they are with us. Home Depot, Lowes, and Best Buy. Maybe they would like Best Buy but they wouldn't want to look at it for an unlimited time. I got to search out music, appliances, videos, and software programs. L looked at new keyboards and software. I have my eye on some appliance that we will probably ended up getting in the near future. We got some needed fencing material at Lowes and again looked at appliances and other things. We talked about when we first moved in our house sixteen years ago what plans we had made to make improvements. We had done some but not nearly as many as I wanted to do. The kids would have been so bored!! But I had a good time looking at home improvement items. We never get a chance to just piddle a day away. It was great!

We topped it off by eating at Mickey D's with food to go and a little happy meal toy. It's the little things that impress me! :)
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I have to get my computer ready tomorrow at 9 AM or be ready to make a long distant call. It involves tickets, basketball, and seeing a rivalry, IF there is not a sellout all ready. The revenge game is coming up March 1st. I'll let you know if we score some tickets. :) ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!

The Century Mark and no 3 pointers

KU won over Baylor tonight by a score of 100--90. It was not an easy battle. Baylor has a couple of guards who can really shoot three pointers from way out. In the first half KU played pretty sluggish. I guess Bill really gave it to them. The score at the half was only 36-33 and KU really never led in that half. But in the second half Darrell Arthur scored 16 points and ended up with 23 points (a career high). Mario Chlamers didn't score any points in the first half but put up 10 in the second half. Russell Robinson was stellar from the free-throw line. He was near perfect shooting 15 and making 14. He also had a high point total with 22. Sherron Collins came in with 17. Darnell Jackson had 10 points and for the first time in his career Brandon Rush fouled out of a game and racked up 9 points. Sasha Kaun was great defensively and had 6 points. Cole Aldrich came off the bench and had one field goal. Rodrick Stewart rounded out the scoring with 1 point. The 'Hawks had 46 visits to the free-throw line. They made 37 baskets and was shooting 80 percent at the line. Quite an improvement. KU put up some 3-pointers but none of them went in. This was the first time in 8 years that they went on to win a game without getting any 3 pointers. Amazing! Next game for the Jayhawks will be Big Monday against Texas in Austin. (not one of my favorite cities. S and J know why!)

For the first time I actually enjoyed the television announcers. Nick Bukaty really got into the game and got excited. I love it when they show their excitement for the game. No offense to Dave Armstrong but Bukaty was such an improvement. I hope to hear him call more games for the Hawks in the near future.
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I just feel so draggy lately. Once again I caught some kind of cold or maybe an allergy. I took a Claritan one night and that did nothing for me. So today I took my Zyrtec-D and had to up my blood pressure meds. People who have high blood pressure are advised not to take a decongestant. I talked to my doctor and he said that I could take a decongestant, BUT I'd have to double my bp dossage. So I did and wow I felt a little better not coughing near as much or sneezing but I felt major tired too. So it's a trade off. So I have to put up with the tiredness. I'm sure my doctor would not be happy with me as of late since I have NOT checked my bp in quite a while. I'm going to have to do this sometime like in March when I can get back to a fire station in my hometown.
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J's Biddy Basketball Team are now League Champions as of today. Now we are needing to be tourney champions. The team plays next Saturday in H town where we are the number 1 seed. I will still need to do a write up on the game we played today. Look for it in the Tuesday edition of the Advo. Thanks Mr. L.
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I have an early time at church tomorrow. I am a greeter. Actually L is too, but I'll end up being the one doing a solo.
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We are looking at ways to help our house become more energy efficient. Hope we can pull it off.

From the "How did that Happen?" department

I was out a work doing my routine cleanup when I looked up to check on an Exit sign in a wing of the church. We have had trouble with the signs lighting up in one area of the church and I wasn't quite sure if this one was involved. So I get up on my metal folding chair already to change a couple of lightbulbs. I just barely wiggle the wires in the box and the Exit sign is lit. The bulbs were apparently okay. I just chalked it up to me not tightening the bulb. After nearly falling off the metal chair, I placed it back in a room and walked into fellowship hall. All three exit signs which had been off since before Christmas was lit up. ???? Huh? How did that happen? I thought to myself.

I pulled off my earphones thinking, well maybe someone is here working on the problem. I listen. Nothing. I know that LG had been there checking all of the plugs and the electrical stuff last week. I wondered, did I just overlook that it was really on all of this time? I wondered, if that little wiggling of the wires in the other one helped the other three? Surely not. Maybe I am that non-observant and it's been on all of a whole week. But, then again, I don't remember if it was.

I left for lunch and came back an hour later. Was the Exit signs going to be still on or was this just a fluke? When I arrived the Exit signs were still lit. Wonders will never cease! Let's hope it remains on the rest of the time, or until a lightbulb burns out.

Red 4, Green 2, 30 seconds, 10 seconds, Time!

I was the timer at Quiz Bowl at my church today. Quiz Bowl is like the "GE College Bowls," back in my day, or like the "High Q" shows they used to have in the 80's. I had to hold a timer and start it after a question was read. Most of the questions were 10 seconds, unless it was a hard question like a math question. Then I had to stop the timer when someone from the red or green team would buzz in. Then if they were wrong I had to reset the box. Sometimes, I would mess up and BOY! did I hear from the audience (aka the coaches from other teams...Mr. S, was completely patient!). Once I didn't give them enough time to answer (I thought I did, but I guess according to the opposing team coach I didn't). Another time I had forgotten to reset the box and the green team couldn't buzz in, so the red team could. So we had to throw out the question so it would be fair to the green team. (Secretly, I was rooting for the team that did the less complaining from there on out).

THEN, I would mess up in answering. I would look at red team and the green team would answer. DUH!!! I'd be like green 3 and red 2 would be the one who buzzed in. Towards the last I had a nice kid tell me to reset the box. So that was kind of him. (I was thinking, what team is that kid on?) I found out it was K town. I know a few people from out there. So they were a nice bunch to deal with.

Some of the math questions were hard...a lot of story problems. With these types of problems the coach would have know which person to put in. One from H team was quick, I could tell that her favorite subject was math. There would be easy (easy to me) sports questions. S used to be on QB last year and answered a lot of sports questions. Hopefully J will want to do this in a couple of years.

Over in the other room was "Battle of the Books." These students must answer obscure questions regarding the 16 books they read. Not just author and title but they must know some picky little detail. S did this when she was in 6th grade. I am persuading J not to do this activity. I have a hard time getting him to read anything let alone the required reading. Flute's K1 is in "BOB" and really enjoys it. The majority of the team are boys, such a switch when S was on it. There was only one boy on the team when S was in it.

County Spelling Bee Results

We just got into the high school with all 36 top spellers in the county. J was sitting in chair 1. So that was good! There were 3 judges (H from H town, one from At town, and the librarian from CHS, our friend K). A teacher from An town pronounced the words. She was very "clear" in her pronunciations! I give her high marks on that.

After they went over the rules, they did a practice round. J's word was "design." He asks for a definition. He thinks it over and says "disign." By this time I am closing my eyes, its a good thing that this was a "practice round."During the practice session, several of the kids got the words wrong and that made me feel a whole lot better. After the practice session came round1. He got the word "ballot." I held my breath. Was he going to get that one right? He spelled it correctly. Whew!! He got passed round 1, that was better than yesterday. The words that they gave them in round 1 were VERY hard. Bequeath, cantata, dearth, fiery, alamo, algebra, cobalt, easel, and bagel. In the first round 17 spellers went out.

Round 2. J's word was "primal." He spelled that one correctly. I uttered "PTL." The words that kids missed were babushka, semantics, crochet, paprika, and finale. All three fifth graders from H town remained in that round. This time they went down by another 5 spellers.

Round 3 and 14 spellers left. J's word was "affinitity." My eyes went big! I didn't even know how to spell THAT word. So he tried and missed it by one letter. At least he did try and it was a verry hard word. The other two fifth graders also went out on this round. O got vibrado and Bry got gestapo. In that round they lost 8 spellers.

Round 4 and 6 spellers left. Aquacduct and souvenir. They had to give out some easy words in that round such as "psalm" and "incredible." It went into round 5 and there was 4 spellers left. Three of the spellers went down and one girl kept spelling. So they proclaimed her as champion and had a spell-off for 2nd and 3rd place, which was ridiculous. There should have been a spell off between first and second. So first place went to a girl from At town (a 6th grader), 2nd place a boy from An town (an 8th grader), and 3rd went to the one who won the H school bee (an 8th grader). The winner goes to Great Bend and that winner goes to Washington D.C....WOW that would be cool! (Get prepared K2!)

Hopefully J will want to do this next year and continue to excell. It's going to be an uphill battle for me to get him to at least try. Oh well!

KU Wins/Spelling Bee continues/Personal note

KU got their confidence back as they beat Missouri (the border rival) by a score of 90--71. Darrell Arthur, who got in early foul trouble, came back strong in the second half shooting 5 our of 6 free throws from the line. He wasn't lead scorer but none the less, did very good for the team. Lead scorer was Brandon Rush with 19, followed by Mario Chalmers with 15, then Arthur with 13, Sasha Kaun and Sherron Collins had 12 points each, Russell Robinson had 7, Darnell Jackson and Cole Aldrich with 6 each. On ESPN they HAD to show the football game between Missouri and Kansas, whatever. Then I saw the shirts that the students had bought over at "Joe College," and for a Kansas fan it was funny but for a Mizzou fan it probably made them VERY angry. So I guess it all evened out. ;) Next game is an improved Baylor Basketball team. This won't be a cakewalk.
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J was out in the first round of the school bee yesterday. My friend, flute, got a pic of J on her blog. Thank you flute!!! J got out on a word that no 5th grader would use in this day and age (this was a comment made by Mr. V, fifth grade teacher). The word was "cassette." Now, J knows how to spell it and knows what it is too. Cassette. That's something we had when I was 12! Kid's nowadays have MP3 players, Ipods, and CD's. Not cassettes, or 8-tracks nor vinyl records like I had growing up.

Funny thing, J's librarian at his school was MY librarian in high school, when I was a mere sophomore. I talked with the librarian and he said that was his third year as a librarian. Now I guess he would be in his 40-41st year! I'm surprised he's not tired or re-tired like "Bobby Knight." Okay, that's another subject.

So the county is this morning. I hope this time he gets words that he knows. He knew the "harder" ones. His friend B got the word "talon." J could have spelled that one and even "perserverance." Like my friend flute says, "it's the luck or unluck of the draw." One word can knock you out. The kid who won is an 8th grader. He's not what you would call a model student. The one who came in second was an alternate speller and IS a model student and good kid all around.

I had to "coach" J in what to wear today. He wanted to wear a basketball t-shirt and I had to persuade him to "dress up," for the county bee. He is going to have to start wearing more "dress up stuff" when he is on the junior high basketball team in a couple of years. I know this will be a struggle.
I hope that J doesn't get out in the first round this morning.
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I normally only comment on my friend's flute blog. But lately have been following the writings of a Missouri teacher. You see he used to be my Botany teacher at SC when I was a senior. I knew his wife too as she was a student when I was there. So it's nice to see what is going on with "The Reformed Angler," who is a Presbyterian like I used to be growing up. So if he's reading this, that is how I know you and Susan. That is IF he reads this and IF he remembers me.

Of Giants and Bees

I didn't watch much of the game, except the last of it. I was really glad to see the NY Giants win the Super Bowl!! I really enjoy Eli Manning. Now, Archie Manning, former quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, is the father of two Super Bowl quarterbacks, Peyton and now Eli. In Archie's playing days with the Saints his team never did go to the Super Bowl. This must be a very proud moment for their dad.
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The School Spelling Bee is tomorrow, as it was postpone because of snow days. The county bee is on Tuesday. I think J is prepared and that this will be a learning experience for him. I hope he does well. I told him that I knew he was good at this and that he should at least try. S did the Spelling Bee from fifth through eighth grade. In her first year, she didn't place at all, but she loved competing in the bee. In her sixth grade year she made third in the county; in seventh she didn't place; in eighth grade she was second in the county. So hopefully J will just try and like it. I think it is an honor to be able to spell well and get this far. When I went to school, in the dark ages, my big school didn't have the spelling bee. That was my favorite subject as I always pulled A's in it. I can remember when I went to jr. high I wanted to take a test on spelling only my unified studies teacher didn't think I was good enough. I knew better, but always felt cheated that I never got to prove myself. It's so nice that my kids at least get a shot at trying.

That's what Archie and I have in common. We didn't get a chance to prove ourselves but our kids did. It makes you feel so proud!
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KU is playing Mizzery tomorrow night. I just hope they play well against them. Mizzery is coming off their big game against Purple Pride.
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I wish our town had a pharmacy!! I buy my two prescription drugs at Wally World. WW sells one of my prescriptions at $4. It is because it is a generic drug. But the other one, which is also vital to my health, is not a generic. So I am always waiting in line for a refill, waiting for them to complete my refill, ugh!! On the $4 prescription I can double up on my pills on the other I can't because of insurance purposes. The other one cost $25 a bottle. I'm not sure IF we had a pharmacy here would the prescription be economical? It would be nice to have a pharmacy in town so that we wouldn't have to drive 8 miles south or up to Wichita for prescription drugs. Think about that one H town.

KU Wins! Thanks Missouri just this once!

It was nice to see KU finally come back and win really strong in the 2nd half. Sasha Kaun was just excellent scoring 12 points. He looks very strong coming off of the bench. Darnell Jackson stepped up his game hitting 10 out 10 (perfect!) from the free throw line. Then Sherron Collins, who was injured in the first half, came back to score 9 points without a miss. We had a lot of 'Hawks helping out throughout the game but not scoring.
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Thank you Missouri for beating our in-state rivals, K-State. This puts Kansas back up to the number 1 spot in the Big 12. I was just glad to see Missouri shut-up Michael Beasley and his ridiculous predictions. Now, guess who we are playing on Big Monday? Missouri. So I thank them today and I hope we beat them at our arena this coming Monday.
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J's team beat the Arlington team 24--8. That team has a bunch of thugs on their team. They were pushing our boys pretty good. When I saw them pushing on my kid how I wanted to go out there and push that boy back! I was yelling, "hey quit pushing on my kid!" J took it in stride and just played without playing on that kid's level.
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Super Bowl is tomorrow and I read a blog from "The Reformed Angler," who reported that the NFL was cracking down on church's for showing the game on 55 inch TV's. The NFL thinks this is infringing on their "profits." Church's usually have souper bowl parties and never charge any fees to fellowship and watch the game. Why should it matter how big the screen is? The people in charge at the NFL apparently have never been to a church when this event is going on. It's a strange world. I am not all that interested in the Super Bowl. I can remember at SC we would hold little mini-parties in our "parlor" area to watch the game. But I am not THAT interested in it. My kids are. They want the NY Giants. I like Eli Manning (Archie's son and Peyton's brother).
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I will be completely exhausted at the end of the day. It's time for me to go to work!

4 day weekend

Thanks (or no thanks) to the snow days this past week, the kids have been off from school for 4 days straight! S is looking forward to going back to school and really didn't want to have a snow day on Friday. But J could care less. He was happy school was not in session. Now I have to "motivate" him to be at school for Monday. I think that HG will be holding the school spelling bee. The county bee is either Tuesday or Wednesday and hopefully that won't be snowned out.
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Tomorrow (Saturday) we out to the high school because S has to leave for a forensics tournament and then we go up the road a piece, approximately 55 miles from here for a basketball game (Biddy ball) with a start time of 8:00 AM. But the team needs to be there by 7:30 to warm up. So hopefully we won't run into any wild animals (Bambie, in particular) on the road. I will be doing my scoring and writing a little article on the game. I hope J scores at least once tomorrow. After that we have business in Hutch and may or may not be watching the KU game. If we don't watch it we will be listening on the radio and going back home down south. Then we may have to pick up S and clean church. What a busy day ahead!

I should be in bed now!!

Don't worry, be happy!

When we traveling out to see Josiah this morning the engine light on our main vehicle came on. Thoughts of no oil, oh no and what now, came into our thoughts. So we drove it over to blueberry auto and our appointment is 4 days from now. They told us not to worry. Well, immediately I think, what if we are out on the road and the vehicle dies. Then what? I ask L about our backup vehicle. It's not much better. Suspension, alignment problems and other minor (major) problems.

I hate vehicle problems right up there with money problems. Thoughts of getting a better vehicle enter my mind. But that would sink us into even more debt. I was hoping just to pay off the cars and looking forward on getting a 3rd vehicle in a couple of years. Although, S wants it in 1 year or so. The thought of her driving alone is a scary worry.

How do people NOT worry? We talked about this in our Sunday school this past Sunday. We are supposed to give our troubles to the Lord. I just finished reading a book "Between Sundays," by Karen Kingsbury and the main character has troubles/worries and he talks to the Lord to take it all away and things change for him. He relied on the Lord. I need to do that more.