The Bunch Have Yet Another Basketball Tournament And Prepare For The Cold Weather

T's spot is always under the basket.

We actually played 2 different tournaments in 4 days! The first tournament that T had was in Sherman and the coaches tried to rest T a lot so he would not be too tired for our other tournament. He is by far the top scorer on the team and generally averages at least 50% of the over all points in the game. This game he only played about 9 minutes total, but scored 24 points! The coaches kind of send him in to run up the score and then the secondaries come out and get to play a little. There have been a few games that the secondaries don't get to play at all and the starters play the whole time. I feel bad for them and their parents to do all that driving and then not even get to play! Even though we won that game, we let our opponent advance in our place because the next round interfered with a bigger tournament we had in Mansfield.

 Fun fact: Mansfield is about 80 miles from my house and we had an 8 am game AFTER having a 6:00pm game the night before. The players have to arrive 30 minutes before game time so basically we got home around 9pm the night before and had to get up at 4:30am to be back for the next game! I have NO IDEA how the boys had enough energy to play basketball. I was exhausted and I didn't play as hard as I could for 2 games each day. I will say that by game 4 both teams were obviously VERY tired. T and I would spend the 6 hours between games each day eating snacks and watching DVDS in the car.

Here is a snapshot of a tournament. 8 basketball courts, all next to each other. Buzzers and whistles constantly going off. I have no idea how the players know which is for them.

Games are constantly being play on all 8 courts, all day long, for 2 days! 

Every where is crowded and once you find a parking spot DO NOT leave it!

L went with us the first day, but she finally succumbed to the illness around us and stayed home after that. Unfortunately, I think we are all finally getting sick or maybe just recovering from our insane weekend. I lost my voice, but I am pretty sure that was from all my yelling. I am by far the loudest one out there. I like that the boys say I am the only one they can hear cheering. Why cheer if they can't hear you? A has been pretty snotty and can't taste anything and T feels tired and has a little occasional cough. I am so happy basketball season is almost over. We have one game left and one last tournament. I hate tournaments. They are so loud and long and takeover your entire weekend. We did place 4th again overall so we are doing well, but I really don't want to go to anymore for awhile.

We spent the next few days after the tournament preparing for the cold snap. We reenforced the horse's stall with extra tarps and plywood to keep the heat in, went ahead and moved all the chickens to the garage, and filled 40 gallons of freshwater in jugs in case the power goes out. The horse's stall is working great. It has stayed warm enough in there that their water isn't freezing at all. Since we moved the chickens inside before everything hit this time, we only go outside about 3 times a day to check on the horses. It has been really nice. We have also had power the whole time which makes a huge difference. This isn't turning into the super stressful event of last year and I am very grateful for that.

I wish we could move the horses to the garage. It is so much easier having them close. I see why pioneers made their barns adjacent to their houses.

We spend two days reinforcing this and getting plenty of hay and bedding.

It stays warm enough that even 20 degree weather isn't freezing their water though that will probably change tonight when we hit single digits.

She is so sweet. She always has to see what I am doing.

She thinks the camera is food.