Surprise phone call -- college basketball!

Andy got an unexpected phone call New Years’ Eve - his baseball coach called to see if Andy Hall would be willing to fill in on the basketball team for a few games, since they were short handed. When he told me about it, I asked him if he wanted to, and he said, yes, but didn't know if it would work. A phone call determined that it would mean going back to school a week earlier than originally planned, actually on his birthday, Jan 3rd.

But what an opportunity! The Raiders have one of the best winning traditions in junior college basketball. They are coached by the legendary Gene Bess, who has averaged almost 28 wins per season in his 39 years as head coach and has lead his teams to 20 Missouri Region 16 championships and 29 national junior college championships.

So, we took care of the remaining things he needed to do and Dan drove him back to school on Sunday for a 3 pm practice. He practiced the next day with them before joining them on a road trip to Alabama, where they played Jan 5th. Andy got 8 minutes of playing time and really got the attention of the announcer, who really seemed to enjoy the novelty of a baseball player on the team, and talked about him alot, even asking the head coach about him after the game.

He got to play again Saturday night in a home game. Even though that means a 2 1/2 hour drive for us, Dan and I made the trip, and it was well worth it, because the team is really fun to watch. It was a conference and region game, so pretty important, but after they built up a 20 point lead at the half, they gave Andy lots of playing time, and he got a couple rebounds and scored. It was amazing how many people seemed to be especially rooting for him. In fact, after the game, several people, when finding out who we were, told us how glad they were to have him on the team. We shook hands with both the legendary coach Bess and his son, who seems to be the head coach during the game. Andy tells us that the elder coach's knowledge of the game is amazing, and that he is very involved in the coaching.

The biggest compliment to Andy, however, is that the basketball coaches told him he could continue to play with the team as long as he wanted. But baseball started today, and he decided that since the basketball team really didn't need him anymore, he would just do baseball. We're disappointed, because it was so fun to watch him play basketball again (tonight's game was a blow-out -- something like 130-40, so he would definitely have gotten to play), but we think he made a wise and mature decision.

So it was a brief, but fun interlude!

RHAA hosts teams from Arkansas, Game day

RHAA decided to have a "tournament" of sorts right here in Rolla, and teamed it with a visit from the homeschool group from Jonesboro, Arkansas the weekend of Dec 11th. They came up for 3 games between our groups on Friday night, then spent the night for their 14U boys to participate in our Game Day. We also were able to get two other teams to come to town to give their varsity teams another game. It was a total of 14 games, and very exhausting, but a lot of fun! Our teams didn't win many games, but they played well, and I think learned a lot. Our next Game Day, for 14U girls, is less than 2 weeks away.

Preparing for Christmas, Part 2

The second week of December started with Becky getting sick. We knew it was going around, so we braced ourselves to all get sick, and it did go around the family, though I think Becky had it the worst. It was pretty mild for most of us.

We were very excited about the start of our basketball season, and then our opponents called to cancel an hour before the scheduled start when they started to experience ice on the interstate. One car of girls arrived, though, so we had an informal girls game anyway, and then Varsity boys practice afterwards. It was amazing that there were almost 75 spectators there even though there wasn't a game -- our homeschool sports organization is really beginning to have a following, and it is really fun!

Fortunately, the weather cleared up enough that we were able to drive down to Poplar Bluff to pick Andy up from school. We decided to combine it with a visit to a couple of Missouri landmarks which we had not yet visited, and took the whole family except Abby, who was taking her turn being sick. After Poplar Bluff, the first stop was Taum Sauk Mountain, the highest point in Missouri. Only Dan braved the look-out tower, which had some ice on the steps and railings that deterred the rest of us -- the following photos give an idea of what he braved and what he saw. The rest of us decided it will be much more worth the climb in the spring!

Looking down from the top -- where we are trying to stay warm in the van!

Looking out from the top of the tower.

Panoramic view from Taum Sauk Mountain overlook

About a 1/2mile away from the lookout tower is the actual highest point. A "rugged" path takes you right there, the long way. Dan took a short cut through the woods, the direct way and beat us back to the van!the rugged path

Seven Halls at the top of Missouri -- wow!

Next stop, Elephant Rocks state park. These huge granite rocks are an oddity in Missouri -- but they may look familiar to those of you who live in California and have ever hiked in the Sierra Mountains! They mined a lot of beautiful red granite blocks out of this area, but these rocks were too soft to be of any use in building, so they got to become a state park. The kids want to go back with friends -- lots of places to explore and hide.

One of the places they quarried out of, now full of water -- but no swimming allowed!

We finally played our first basketball games on the weekend. All three teams - Dan and Zeke's junior high boys team, Abby's girls team, and the varsity boys -- started off with a win. Unfortunately, the last two were mismatches. The girls' game wasn't too bad, since we have 14 players and this gave the coach the freedom to give the less experienced girls more playing time. But the varsity boys' game was painful to watch. We could have probably scored 100 points and held them to zero, but the boys did a good job of not turning it into a total slaughter, by practicing their passing and allowing some of the weaker players to shine...the other coach was very appreciate of our team's attitude and character, and thanked us for being willing to play them and for being so nice about it....and we all agreed these kinds of games are an opportunity to build character..The next day the Junior High boys got to be on the other side of the character building coin as they were outmatched and pretty badly beaten twice (they were in a tournament). But they really did pretty well, considering it was their first season, and only a few weeks of practice. It is a good solid group of guys that have a lot of potential, especially if they keep playing together year after year. Dan does a great job coaching them in the basics of basketball, which are so quickly left behind by many coaches, it seems.

Zeke preparing for a rebound.

Jockeying for position against Lebanon

Because we got through the tournament so quickly, we were able to get back home in time to participate in our church's Live Nativity. This was the third year, and Isaac is still wearing the shepherd costume I made for him for Christmas Eve that first year, after he insisted while we were visiting the Live Nativity that he had to be a shepherd. That first year we tied a kitchen towel around his head and sent him out to be a part, and he went up to people and asked them if they had seen the baby and then took their hand and led them to the manger, proceeding to tell them not only the Christmas story, but also the Easter story! What a witness! It has become a family tradition. This year more of us got involved (Abby reading scripture, Isaac as a Shepherd, Dan and Zeke as wise men) -- Dawn stayed inside and made sure people felt welcomed!

Elizabeth checked out the manger scene, including climbing over the bales to look into the manger. It was precious!

Can you find Isaac in the wooden nativity display?

Sunday afternoon, Dan and I enjoyed the Rolla Choral Arts Society Christmas concert, in which Abby's choir participated. It was fabulous. We are fortunate to have an opportunity to hear such fine music from people in the community. We rushed home after to host our church youth group who arrived to watch Christmas movies in our shed, which has become a do-it-yourself theatre. When we started the evening, it was 60 degrees and dry; 3 hours later the temperature had dropped to 35, and the rain had started....