March!

Some bits of information, staccato fashion:

• I've inspired someone!  Read my friend Eric's blog.
  

• Junior high basketball season is over.  I know I didn't blog about it, so let me fill you in on some season highlights.  We finished 3-9 on the year, and missed the CALOC playoffs.  Our team had only two returning players and a whole lot of short, scrawny seventh graders.  It's true that we weren't as talented a team as last year's, but I really saw marked improvement among the players individually and as a team.  A few minutes ago, one of the seventh graders returned his jersey to me and I made sure to encourage him to keep playing, to keep working hard because I saw so much improvement in him this year.  It was hard being on the losing side so many times, especially when all of our losses but one were by ten or more points.  I learned many lessons this year as a coach, most of them having to do with patience, perseverance, attitude and perspective.  It was good season and I'm reminded how much I love coaching by the fact that as I'm typing this I would usually have been on my way over to the court to start practice.
  

• For those of you who don't know, at the end of January I was accepted into the M.Div. program of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.  I have sensed the Lord calling me into pastoral ministry and this was and is being confirmed by many different circumstances, conversations (with Amy, my pastors, friends, family) and prayer.  Lord willing, I will enroll in classes in the fall and Amy and I are tentatively planning for it take me four years.  It is a long, grueling program, requiring more units than a JD (law degree) or MD.  Since then, I have begun teaching our church's mid-week service - Reality Check - every second Tuesday of the month.  Amy and I continue to wait on the Lord for his leading in many different ways.  We have decided that I need to work part-time, so I can focus enough time on studying, writing papers, increasing ministry loads at church, etc.  Please pray that we would be patient and peaceful as we wait for God to show us how he will provide for us financially.  I do not know if I will continue at Liberty Christian, but I have told my boss that I would love to come back next year and teach Bible and PE and whatever else he needs until about noon every day.

• Last, the Lakers are playing amazing ball right now, and I can't wait for April and the playoffs!
  

Done

That's right. I finally finished the Thoene series I've been reading for quite a while. Despite my first reaction to Happy ("I'm mad at them. What a terrible ending!") I would highly recommend the series because it helps you to have a better understanding of what so many families went through in the years leading up to and during WWII. Then again, the books can't do justice to what it must have really been like to live it. As for me, I'm still very interested in learning more about the Holocaust, but I think I need a little break. I'm thankful I can take a break from it if I choose to. Still, I highly recommend the series.

Next on my list of books to read is Love that Lasts: When Marriage Meets Grace by Gary & Betsy Ricucci. I'm only 20 pages in, but I like it a lot so far, and I like where they say they are heading.

Since we're moving in a month or so, I've been collecting boxes from work (there's a warehouse in back and lots of boxes available). Right now, they are still all empty and sitting in a large pile in our apartment. I've never packed up an entire apartment before so I have no idea how long it will take, but I could usually pack up from college in one evening. I'm thinking that I should spend the two Saturdays before we move packing boxes. Anyone have any advice here?

That pretty much sums up the excitement in my life. I would like to post about Happy's jr. high boys' basketball game yesterday, but I'll leave that to him. I got to go and I'm glad :-) But now I'll get to my invoices. Oh, and I'm putting a reminder on my phone so I post pictures on our blog. That means that as long as our internet cooperates, expect pictures this weekend!

1-2

That's right, we won one game over the weekend, and it was to avoid being the last-place team in the tournament. We got destroyed in our first game by the host team, Brethren Christian. I swear they 16 year olds that were held back several times. On Saturday morning we played Rio Hondo Prep and we played really well in the first half, specifically in the first half of the first half. We were only down by two and we were getting lots of steals and many easy layups. However, the other team made the necessary adjustments (i.e., they stopped throwing the ball to us every time down the court) and our guys couldn't run the offense (again). So we ended up losing 45-33. Our point guard scored 24 of those 33 points, so that tells you about our balance on offense. In the last place game in the early afternoon we played a team that was smaller than us on average and although we didn't execute very well, we led 19-9 at halftime. However, both teams played sloppy and out of control in the second half, and it seemed that no one could shoot anymore. It came down to last second free throws and ball control and we hung on to win 27-26. That's right, we only scored eight points in the whole second half.

So there are plenty of things to work on in practice. Yesterday I ran them a lot because I don't feel like we were in good enough shape. Practices are outside and when the wind picks up, shots can go wild, especially when we shoot on the hoop with the crooked rims. I am learning much more than the kids are, because this is the first time I've ever done this. I am trying to instill character-building into my basketball teaching because I don't just want them to learn to play basketball well. I want to teach them to live well.

Oh, and no, I'm not the next John Wooden.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Even though Thanksgiving is technically tomorrow, I probably won't be thinking about posting on my blog because I'll be in Santa Clarita! Plus, I'm here at work and the phones have rung about a dozen times since I got here at 7 am. Needless to say, I'm hoping that we can all leave sooner than the originally planned 12:00 closing time. We'll see.

Soooo... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! I don't have pictures of any turkeys so I thought I'd post a picture of a sunset I saw from our apartment a few weeks ago. I'd just gotten my camera so I was pretty much taking pictures of anything, but this was especially beautiful. I don't see the sun set much during the week (particularly after the time change) since I leave work (driving north) just about when it's going down. Sunsets always make me think that heaven must be spectacularly breathtaking and God is the most magnificent Creator!

Last night Happy & I went to both the girls & boys high school basketball scrimmages. In light of the football games we had attended I wasn't expecting much. However, I was pleasantly surprised as the girls pulled ahead in the last minutes of the game to win by one point (I don't actually remember what the final score was :-) hehe... I'm such a girl)! The boys, on the other hand, absolutely crushed the other team and it was really fun to watch. I forget the score for their game as well, but perhaps my wonderful husband will leave a comment and fill in the missing information. I'm looking forward to the basketball season much more now than I was after the football season.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and give thanks to the One who deserves all our praise!