BB and BB

The first BB
On Saturday Noah's basketball team hosted a tournament in Pine City. The Dragons defeated North Branch, then lost a close one to Esko (2 points), and then were handled by Cambridge. They played off for 5th and 6th place and defeated the Cambridge II team by about 10. It was a LONG day of basketball, but we survived. Only two more tournaments to go.

The second BB
After church on Sunday we headed out for a game of broom ball. It was a blast! However when we first stepped on the ice, the air temperature was below zero. With all the running around, we quickly warmed up. We played for about two hours and boy were we tired! Misha, Noah, and Jake played the entire time. I subbed in and out (I am not as young as I think I am). In fact, I am sore today - took a check into the boards and the broom caught me in the ribs!

5+1=6

Th five Adams family members welcomed Misha Yuta, from Ukraine, to our house this past weekend. Misha will be with us for the rest of the school year. If the three days he has been here, we have enjoyed seeing picctures of his country and family, getting to know him better, and the kids have liked having a 'big brother'. We attended the Grantsburg / Pine City basketball game last night and Misha had the opportunity to meet Deb's parents, Patty and Brody, and watch trent play in the game. We hope he enjoys his stay with us!
Noah had a basketball tournament on Saturday in Spooner, WI. The team played well and went 2-2 on the day to earn 4th place out of the 8 teams. They lost to a very good Duluth team and a team from Eau Clair, WI, but beat a Fredric and Chisago Lakes teams. We host an eight team tournament this weekend, so it will be nice not to have to travel.

Basketball Buddy

Last night Jake got to be a basketball buddy at the Pine City Varsity boy's basketball game. He received a t-shirt, pizza, pop, and Skittles. Jake met with the head coach (the husband of Lydia's daycare provider) and also met with the captains of the team. The guys were great and posed for a picture with Jake! His name and short essay he wrote on what it means to be a good player and student were also in the program for the game.
Our union came to an agreement with the school board on Monday night in regards to our teaching contract. Our old contract expired back in June, and we would be penalized by the State of Minnesota if we did not settle by January 15th. Nothing like cutting it close! The union members will vote on Friday, and the board on Monday night. It has taken a lot of stress off of me. I enjoyed being a negotiator, and learned a lot. But I am sure glad that we do not need to negotiate every year (the process will begin again next February).
Lydia will begin gymnastics next week. She is very excited and has a good friend Ellie in her class. One more thing to put on the calendar! Noah begins his next round of basketball tournaments this Saturday. We will all be cheering on the Dragons!

Happy New Year

Happy 2008! We rang n the New Year with sick kids! Noah was finally feeling better, but then Jake started throwing up! Yikes! He ended up missing two days of school, but made it back to class on Friday. Today, he is back to his normal self - playing Wii, yelling at Lydia, being a jokester, etc. He even wanted to go play in the snow. So we took the cats outside, and I took down the Christmas lights. I hate when May comes around and you can still see Christmas lights up in peoples trees or along roof lines.
The new year also brings about new goals. I really hope that I can do a better job of sticking to a budget. We have a lot of work that needs to be done around the house and yard, so we need to do a better job of saving! I also set a goal of running Grandma's Marathon again in June. I got the treadmill put back together last weekend, and ran a few times this week already. I follow a training plan that is on the GM website. It offiicially starts the training in the middle of February, but I started running this week. Last year I waited until February and it allowed me to finish, but my time was not something to brag about. I will do better this year! And aunt Deb is thinking about coming to MN to run in it too! That would be a lot of fun, and I better train harder so I can keep up with her!!!

A Merry Little Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we attended church service with Deb's parents at Grace in Grantsburg. It was good to see many of the people who we attended church with five years ago! The church looked beautiful, the music was inspiring, and the tradition of different families reading parts of the Christmas story brought back memories of our time at Grace.
The church was lit with candles and lights, which reminded us of our wedding almost 12 years ago (Dec 30th). Boy how time flies, and life changes!
Noah started running a slight fever at church, which caried over to Christmas Day. He was bummed, and spent a good portion of Christmas Eve resting and watching tv. We enjoyed eating and visiting with grandpa Henry, mom, Jill, Tom, Taylor, and Jordan.
On Christmas Day, we celebrated with Dennis, Sue, Patty, Trent, Brody, Jim, and Aubrey all at our house. It was good to see Jim and Aubrey! We all ate too much, and then a crazy game of Catch Phrase broke out. Everyone enjoyed some good laughs!

Watch out Grandpa Henry...Here comes the troops!

After church today, We (mom, Jeff, Deb, Noah, Jake, Lydia, Jill, Tom, Taylor, and Jordan) all headed over to Grandpa Henry's house for lunch. The kids had a great time wrestling, which provided entertainment for grandpa. No blood, and only a few tears. After lunch we tried sledding and snowmobiling. The "Kitty Cat" that Jill and I received as a Christmas present in 1974 is up and running again. Not quite the same power it had back then, but the kids enjoyed driving around grandpa's yard. It brought back lots of memories of the hours Jill and I spent driving around our house in town. One on the snowmobile and the other on skies or in the sled behind. Many tanks full of gas were spent on that little machine. (Jake is driving in the picture)
We all cheered on the Vikings at our house, but they could not prevail. Now it is out of their hands. They are at Denver next week and need a win along with a Washington loss. The kids had a great time playing and we look forward to another fun filled evening tomorrow night!

Basketball and Chritmas Programs

We got our first taste of an all day HOOPS basketball tournament. It was a lot of fun, but a LONG day. We headed out aout 7:00 am and returned home at 7:00 pm. The team played well. However, they lost a close game in overtime to Hudson, WI. in the first round. The team came back and beat Rush City in the second game. Prescott, WI was a tough team and really pounded on our guys. This put us in the 5th / 6th place game. The guys pulled out a close one against Somerset to take the 5th place game.
Jake and Lydia commented on how boring the games were, but liked the idea of eating between every game : )

Sunday brought the Kid's Christmas program at Joourney North Church. Noah, of course, would not smile. But Jake and Lydia did a great job of singing! We then headed over to aunt Pat's for the Lindquist Christmas. We decided not to do gifts this year, which was a great idea. So we sat around and ate while the kids played. Lots of good eatin'!