Basketball Weekend

We spent almost all our time this weekend either watching AAU basketball or NCAA basketball.  We arrived in Lexington yesterday morning at 10:00 am for the D2 AAU State Championship, and we left the gym at 7:00 pm last night.  We then spent the next four hours watching the Cats and the Cards.  Then it was back up to Lexington this morning for the tournament (yesterday was pool play).  John's team made it to the final four, and was soooo close to going to the finals.  It was such an exciting weekend, although at times very stressful.  This was our first AAU state championship experience, and while it's fun to watch the kids, there is a lot of stress, competition and tension between the teams, parents and coaches.  We learned a lot this weekend, and John is ready to get back to practice next week.  

Tonight was supposed to be John's first baseball game with the Gladiators, but it was mercifully rained out because the ground was so wet from last night's storms.  This meant we were able to head up to the club for the swim team sign up party (buffet dinner = NO COOKING!).  I can't believe it's already time to start thinking about swim team, but summer will be here before we know it.  The weather was so nice out tonight that John and his buddy Quinn sneaked out to play a few holes of golf during the parent meeting.  

Hello Spring!

Lawrence and Sarah chilled in the lounge during the meeting.  Poor Sarah was so glad to be out of a smelly gym!  She was a trooper this weekend at John's tournament...15 hours in a loud, hot gym filled with hundreds of pre teen boys is not her idea of a fun weekend!  She actually has turned into quite the basketball fan, so maybe it wasn't all bad.  

Looking forward to another beautiful week.  I think it's supposed to be close to 85 degrees one day!  Bring it on! 

Best of March (so far!)

March is flying by with busy days of work, school, baseball and basketball.  We had our only snowy morning of the year at the beginning of the month...we still had school, and it didn't stick to the roads, but the view out our window was gorgeous!

Believe it or not, the very next afternoon it was almost 70 degrees and sunny!  The snow was completely gone, and I don't think we'll see any more.  We've had many days this month of brilliant spring weather, which means we've been able to head outside for things like lunch on the patio.  Lawrence and I enjoyed a nice lunch at Hurstbourne this week, and it felt wonderful to be out in the sun.

Sarah finished up her quarter of art class last week.  She brought home a great canvas painting, and now I know why her uniform skirt has been splattered with yellow paint over the last month!  I love her picture - it looks great in her room.

Last week was the end of the third grading period, and when I checked her grades online on Monday she had three Bs. This isn't terrible, but it's unusual for her...she spent the rest of the week cramming and doing any possible extra credit she could find.  She felt sure she could bring her Algebra grade and her Bible class grade up to an A, but she thought the B+ in Chemistry was pretty much a done deal.  She was so excited this week when she got her report card and found that she'd pulled out an A in that class too!  All As!  I couldn't resist and had to dig out the "Good Days" plate she had made in the first grade for her to eat her dinner on!

The Milliners lost Tony's mom this last week...Tony is one of 12 children, and his mother has 45 grandchildren and 48 great grandchildren!  What a legacy!  I told him I hope my kids love me as much one day as he and his siblings adored their mom.  I know he will miss her a lot.

Sunday night we celebrated the Hamilton March birthdays over at Shannon and Joe's.  This was AFTER Kentucky lost the SEC tournament to Vanderbilt and UofL had won the Big East Tournament...the Hamilton house is RED and BLACK, so it was a very happy birthday celebration for them!  Claire was all smiles!

We had a yummy lasagna dinner, opened gifts and had some fabulously rich chocolate cake.  A perfect way to end the weekend.

Mom helps with dinner

Yeah, this was as good as it looks 

Mark, Shannon and Joe Jr. blow out their candles

Shannon gets some new pool accessories 

Reese kicks back in the baby doll bed that Claire
passed down to her.  So cute!  

Papa beats his grandboys in pool

Last night Lawrence, Sarah and I went up to Country Lake to help out in the kitchen.  Country Lake is  housing hundreds of volunteers right now who are in Henryville providing disaster recovery relief from the tornados that ripped through the area a few weeks ago, and they are dependent on volunteers from Southeast to help support them.  We spent the evening getting dinner prepared for the volunteers staying there and had a great night hearing about where they are from (all over the country!) and the many ways they are helping those in need.  During the week they have about 80 volunteers staying there, but this weekend they will have over 200.  The retreat center is such a blessing!  All the disaster relief workers were saying they are used to sleeping on gym floors when they are at a disaster site, and to get to come back each night to the retreat center is so wonderful.  We definitely want to go up again to help when we can.

Sarah helps serve dinner to some of
the workers

March Madness officially started Tuesday night with the "First Four" games...my Hilltoppers beat Mississippi Valley to advance to the next round...against KENTUCKY.  Lawrence is at the game with Mike Yates (thanks to Mike's job with Stock Yards - nice to have access to a suite!).  The Cats just won 81-66...sorry Big Red, you know I still love you!  

John had practice at FOCUS tonight, where they prepared for their trip to the AAU state tournament this weekend in Lexington. I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to be all about basketball!  Hoping for some wins!

One last pep talk

In Like a Lion

The last few weeks have been busy with everyday life. We've been talking at church a lot about the "upper story" and the "lower story" of our lives...how the upper story is the big picture, and is sometimes hard for us to see, and how the lower story is our everyday life, where we are simply living out the minutes, hours and days that make up a week, a month and a year. This last week was busy with a lot of lower story chores...boot camp, working, getting to sports practices, taking Duncan to be groomed, having my teeth cleaned, cooking dinner, scrapbooking, paying bills...it's hard to see if any part of my "upper" story took place, but who knows, because as I said, it's hard to see how God uses little moments of your everyday life until you can see it in hindsight.

We celebrated Mardi Gras with a dinner of red beans and rice and a king cake. Lawrence found the baby, so he has to bring home the king cake next year. 

King cake! I think it tastes like a giant cinnamon roll

Red beans and rice - we love this at our house

We don't really officially observe the Lenten season in our church, but I like the idea of giving up something during the weeks leading up to Easter to remind me of Christ's sacrifice for me.  I chose to give up Facebook during Lent, John has given up fast food and Lawrence has given up fried food.  Sarah chose to sit the whole "giving something up" thing out. We'll see how we all do.

On Thursday John forgot his Kindle at home, and he is way into the Hunger Games right now, so I hated for him to not have his book with him all day.  It's "I Love To Read" month at school, and they've had lots of free reading time this week so I knew he would be missing it.  Taking his Kindle to him gave me an excuse to go have lunch with him, something I don't usually do because it's not convenient with my work schedule.  We had a nice 30 minutes of catch up time, and he was so happy to have his book back for the afternoon.

My lunch date

Friday ended up being a terrible day in our area.  We had been on high alert for storms and tornadoes, and all the schools ended up letting out early so that everyone could get home before any bad weather hit.  Louisville was spared, but some of the areas around us were absolutely devastated.  Over thirty people died across Kentucky and Indiana, and the number is rising.  It has been heartbreaking to watch people's live just ripped out from under them.  One hard hit area is Henryville, Indiana, which is where our church's retreat center is.  This is where my kids have gone to camp, and where I've gone to my scrapbooking retreats for the last 12 years. The retreat center is okay, but other parts of the town are completely obliterated.  The retreat center is now housing many displaced residents, so I'm not sure if we'll be having our scheduled retreat there in two weeks, but what a blessing that the center is able to be a refuge for so many people.  

On Friday night John woke up with a bad stomach virus, and this kept him down throughout most of the weekend.  I'm praying the rest of us don't get it (wishful thinking?)...I was just telling someone the other day that after bronchitis, chicken pox and a head cold, the stomach virus was the only thing I hadn't gotten this year.  WHY did I say that???

This morning I made something I've been wanting to make for awhile..."cinnamon twists".  I think of this as my mom's recipe, because it was something my sister and I loved when we were growing up, by maybe it's a well known recipe that lots of people make.  It's basically biscuit dough, sprinkled with butter, cinnamon and sugar, and drizzled with icing.  Sarah loves cinnamon rolls, so I hope this recipe becomes a favorite of hers too.

Yum!

Sarah registers for her high school classes this next week, and I can't help but wonder if any of the choices she makes will effect her "upper" story...what type of degree she'll get, where she'll go to college one day, what friends she'll be in class with...looking back, I can see where being in class with my friend Susie my freshman year of high school led me to where I went to college (I went to visit her when she was at Western, and I loved it), which led me to where I got my first job (BellSouth), which led me to meeting Lawrence (I worked with his brother, Rich)....you just never know where your lower story intersects with your upper story.  I can't wait to see where her story leads...I myself have no idea, but I know she's in good hands, and I trust the One who does know. Here's to a new month, and the arrival of SPRING!