Cold Weather and Basketball.

 We are in our typical cold stretch of the winter right now. Today, the morning temp was -16 degrees. So, it was a little big chilly. 

It's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged, so I will try to catch you up. A few weekends ago, Good Shepherd came to Bethel to play some basketball games. We ended up losing all three games again, but the kids played so much better than their first games. Elliott had a really good game. He didn't score any points, but he was getting rebounds, making good passes, and hustling all game long. Emma also had a really good game. She scored 12 points, hustled, boxed out, and had a lot of fun. Bethel hung with Good Shepherd for the first half, but there were no subs again for the A team, so in the second half they ran out of steam and Good Shepherd pulled away. Grandma and Grandpa Kiecker came to the games. After the games we got Boss' Pizza, played some card games, and then called it a night. 

On Saturday, Mom and Dad headed home in the morning and John, the kids, and I headed to Brookings for a Jackrabbit double header. We shopped at the Jackrabbit store, and Emma got a nice hoodie and Elliott got a new hat. We had a ton of fun watching the Jacks. The girls played first, and we all enjoyed the game and a Jackrabbit win. Then, we stayed for half of the boys' game, and then we headed to Cubby's for supper and to watch the second half of the game, and some of the NFL football games. Emma's day was made because Mesa Byom came into Cubby's while we were there to eat supper with her parents. Emma kept looking at her and she even told her "good game" when we left. She had a great day. 

In other news, John has been doing some ice fishing when he has time. Elliott fishes with him sometimes. The kids also did the Kid's Fishing Derby again this year. Both kids participated, and Elliott got 8th place out of 300 kids. So, he was pretty excited and he won some pretty cool prizes as well. Both kids also got some free fishing poles. They all had a good time. I stayed home and caught up on some house things, went to the gym, and did typical Stacy things. 

I've been busy getting the Robot program up and running at work. I had to build our cart for the CORE, make all the preference cards, and just do the general work to get the robots running at the ASC. It's been busy, and a little stressful, but overall it's gone pretty well. I have put in some extra hours, but it was satisfying to be a apart of something new. 

This past weekend, the kids had another basketball game, this time against Cornerstone Lutheran School. My parents decided to come again to watch the kids play, and Jim and Barb came as well. The games were interesting. I don't think Cornerstone had ever played a basketball game before, and they got destroyed by Bethel. It made for some fun basketball watching for us. Elliott had 10 points and a lot of rebounds. And he ever got to play with the A team. Emma scored 18 points, had a ton of rebounds, and had a really fun time playing. Emma and Elliott even played at the same time for part of the game. Proud momma moment. After the game, we had some pizza, played games, and then called it a night. 

On Saturday, Emma and I had ticked to go to the Jackrabbit women's basketball game. It was Women's Sports Day in Brookings, so Emma and I got there early (we were actually the first ones there). Before the game, there were stations to go to that were run by other Jackrabbit student athletes. Emma and I got to make bracelets, make posters, get temporary tattoos. get free T-shirts, and take photos in a photo booth. We had a lot of fun. We also sat in the lounge/student area for the game, and had a really good view for the whole game. The Jacks won, Emma got ice cream, and we even got to get autographs at the end of the game. Emma and I were first in line for autographs, and we got every single player's autograph. Emma also made a bracelet for her favorite player Mesa Byom, and she got to give it to her during autographs. She was so happy. 

After all the excitement, we met up with John, Elliott, and Mom and Dad and ate supper at The Pheasant. It was pretty good. Then, we stopped at a Brewery for some games and a couple drinks, and then it was time for us to head home, and mom and dad to head home. 

Sunday was the Superbowl. We decided to just keep it chill this year and stay home. We went to church, shopped at Walmart (where I found boots and shoes for both kids for $5 a pair, it was crazy!), worked out with the kids. We are into lifting weights lately. We bought some dumbbells, and I pull up some Fitness Plus exercises on my phone, and the kids do them with me. It's pretty fun, and it's so good for them. Then, we played Superbowl Bingo during the game, ate some nachos, meatballs, and homemade chicken tenders. The Eagles beat the Chiefs in one of the most boring games ever. There were some good commercials, but the halftime show by Kendrick Lamar left something to be desired. 

This past week has flown by. The weather has been really cold, and snowy. We had no snow a week ago, and now we have a good 5 inches outside. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and I have a couple fun gifts for the kids I'm going to set out tomorrow morning for them. They also have another basketball game tomorrow against Good Shepherd and then the kids are going to Jim and Barb's house after the game so they can do some sledding this weekend. They are pretty excited. John and I are looking forward to a nice evening to ourselves as well. 

Tonight, John is at church council and Emma is in Watertown right now with the Tomczaks to watch some basketball. She probably won't be home until 9:30pm or so. The rest of our weekend is pretty open. It's kind of nice to not have much for plans and just enjoy our weekend. 

I'll try to be better about keeping up on my blogging so these posts don't get so long-winded. Basically, our life right now is basketball, work, and school. But, it's fun, and time keeps flying by. 

ballers

Jackrabbit girl 

Junior Jackrabbit 

Emma trying to get Mesa in the background 

The Davinci Robot at work 

Ice fishing 

4H crafts 

More basketball 

Women's Sports Day @ SDSU 

Making posters

And bracelets 

Mesa's bracelet 

Brewery Fun 

The $5 Walmart Shoes 

Post workout vibes 

More Basketball

 We survived another busy week. This one was a little less crazy, but it was busy non-the-less. The kids had basketball practice a couple days last week, we had haircuts and orthodontist appointments, and I had a Women of Bethel meeting and took down Christmas decorations at church. So, we stayed busy. 

I took the kids for haircuts on Tuesday evening, and it ended up taking us a good couple of hours there, and that was after Emma's orthodontist appointment. We didn't get home until after 7pm. But, the kid's hair looks really good and Emma got her hair trimmed and huge knot taken out from the back of her head, so it was time well spent. 

On Friday, the kid's had another basketball game against Good Shepherd. My parents ended up coming for the game. But, Friday was a really weird, sad day. I got a call at work around lunch time from Peggy, who was really upset. She called to tell me that Aunt Jill had passed away in her sleep the night before. All the siblings (except Jim) were together at Jill's house to celebrated Peggy's birthday. Jill wasn't feeling well, so she went to bed early, and then ended up never waking up again. So, that was a shock. I had to call Jim (who is in Hawaii right now) and break the new to him, and then I called John after that. Those were not fun phone calls. We are all sad that she is gone, but happy she is in heaven and reunited with everyone she has ever lost. I had to break the news to the kids when I picked them up from school, and they were really sad. Elliott cried pretty hard, and Emma had questions and wanted to talk about it. We aren't sure of funeral plans or anything at this point, but we are sad and miss Jill already. And Emma is worried about her cats. 

The basketball game ended up going pretty well. Bethel lost all three games again, but they are definitely improving. Elliott had a good game. He didn't score any points again, but he was rebounding and hustling, and he is getting better every game. Emma had a really good game. She played the entire game again, hustled, rebounded and boxed out like a champ, and scored 10 points. I love watching her play so much. 

After the game, we got pizza from Boss' Pizza and then played some games at the table with Grandma and Grandpa. We were all up until around 11:30pm, so we put some really tired kids to bed. And some really tired adults. 

On Saturday, we all headed to school for our turn at cleaning. Mom and Dad helped us clean, and they maybe even enjoyed it. Mom vacuumed (which is right up her alley) and Dad helped out and even fixed an outlet. It took us a solid hour to clean, and then we went to Hy-Vee for brunch. After all that, mom and dad packed up to go home and John, the kids and I headed to Brookings for a SDSU basketball double header. 

We headed to the bookstore first to shop. Emma got a new Jackrabbit hoodie, and a long sleeve shirt, Elliott got some jackrabbit playing cards and a hat. We had fun looking around, and spent too much money. The games were really good. The women won by 20 points, and then we watched the first half of the men's game. Everyone had a really good time and it was fun to see the arena and watch some good basketball. 

At halftime, we left to go to Cubby's for supper. We enjoyed a really nice supper while watching an NFL playoff game and the rest of the men's basketball game. Then, Emma's night was made because Mesa Byom came to Cubby's with her parents to eat and sat right by our table. Emma noticed her right away and kept looking at her. She told her good game when we walked by when we were leaving, and Mesa was really nice about it. It was cute. 

The rest of the evening was just chill time at home. It's been really cold lately, and we have some -30 degree wind chills coming up, so it was nice to just be cozy at home. 

Today was another catch up day at home. We went to church, took down our own Christmas tree finally, rearranged the living room, and caught up on cleaning at home. We had a great supper of ham, mashed potatoes and corn, and we have plans for ham soup later this week since it is so cold outside. 

Work is a little crazy for me right now. We are going to have our first robot case at the ASC on February 3rd, and I am in charge of getting everything up and running now that Jarod is out on medical leave. So, it's been a little crazy. Tomorrow, I have to go to the main to watch some robot cases so I can get a better idea on how to do them and how to set everything up. My stress level is a little higher at work than normal. But, we will get through it and it will be fine. 

That's basically what's new around here. We are waiting to hear about funeral news and that might impact our week, but otherwise we have a quieter week this week which will be nice. We just need to survive the cold. 

Emma's haircut 

A shot of Hawaii from Jim and Barb 

Basketball girls with braids 

Our photo made it to the big screen 

My little Jackrabbit 

Elliott's a jackrabbit too!

Elliott with Emma's favorite Jackrabbit basketball player in the background 

Basketball, Basketball, Basketball

 The Bethel basketball season has begun. They started practice this past Monday, had another practice on Thursday, and then had their first game of the season versus Good Shepherd on Friday. I was impressed with how well they did, considering they had only two practices before their first game. It was a little rough, but they played hard. 

Elliott is number 11 this year, because he knows I like number 11. He's such a sweetie. He always tells me that basketball is "okay" and it's "not his favorite". But he's definitely a better player this year. He has more awareness of what to do, he's getting rebounds, and he's working on getting open. He needs to work on knowing what to do once he actually gets the ball in the post, but he's improving and he's having fun. And he played the entire B squad game without a single break. He got really tired, but he never gave up and kept working hard. 

Emma is number 20 this year, because that is Kate Martin's number. She still loves basketball and talks about basketball and has favorite basketball players. She played really, really well yesterday. She had to play against a really tall boy and a really tall girl on Good Shepherd's team and she held her own. She was grabbing rebounds, being aggressive, scored 12 points, and played the entire game. She was a beast. She also made 2 shots from pretty deep (there was no three point line, so not sure how deep) and swished them both and then held up threes in both her hands and was a little cocky. It was funny and most people were laughing about it, but we will have to keep an eye on it. Someone's been watching a little too much of Caitlin Clark. 

But anyway, I was a super proud momma and they were actually pretty fun games to watch. I was feeling pretty bummed because Emma's YMCA team fell through because there weren't enough girls. So, I was happy to see Emma be challenged and push herself in this game. All three Bethel teams lost by quite a bit, but they all improved from last year and it was a good start for these teams who haven't played much basketball. 

Hannah T came home with us and had a sleepover with Emma. We stopped at Kwik Star on the way home for supper (at 9:00pm) and then basically just relaxed and went to bed. 

Today was a wild day. We started off the morning by going to the gym (just me) and then going to school to clean. We have the next three weekends for school cleaning. After cleaning, we ate lunch at home, and then Hannah, Emma, Elliott and I headed to Brookings to watch the women's Jackrabbit basketball team play and John went ice fishing. 

The kids had a blast at the game. I found $10 tickets, and we watched the Jacks beat Kansas by 25 points. It was a really fun game and the kids were really into it the entire time. After the game, the team was signing autographs and the kids got every Jackrabbit player's signature on a team poster. They were so happy. They even got a picture with Mesa Byom, and they were thrilled. Then, we finally headed back home. 

We had a little mishap when we got back. We went to the school to get Hannah's stuff, and they decided to laminate their posters, only no one knew what we were doing. So, we got the posters stuck and wrapped around the spindles. They were stuck for a while, and the kids were pretty upset, but we got them out. They are laminated, but wrinkled and curled. It was not our wisest decision, but we are getting them flattened out and the kids are okay with how they turned out. We made some memories anyway. 

Now we are finally home and relaxing. What a crazy day. We all had a good time, but I am beat. We still have Bible study treats to get through tomorrow and then some playoff football and that's about it. We need a day at home.