Basketball Report

Justin with the ball. Notice the large yellow-clad guys.

I think I've said this here before, but just to be clear, I avoid going to see tragic movies. I was probably one of the last people on the planet to give in and see Titanic. Scott enjoyed the soundtrack so much that I gave it to him as a Christmas gift that year. Unfortunately, he could never play it when I was in earshot. It completely wiped me out emotionally.

In the interest of maintaining my positive, sunny outlook, I should  really consider avoiding Saturday afternoon basketball games.

The game started as these things generally do. All the parents were there in force with noisemakers. There was a glimmer of hope as our team had lost to this team by only ten points a few months earlier.

Then it began. The other team got a basket, than another, then another. And the ball resisted all attempts by our team to go into the basket. It was maddening.

Justin's a strong defense player, and sees that as his main role on the team. He usually makes a few baskets a game, but does his best to get the ball to other guys so they can shoot.  However, he had determined to work harder on offense this time. His best friend was out with an injury (they seem to have some sort of tag-team plan for their injuries/illnesses this year), so Justin felt he needed to step up his game. He even studied some basketball videos on Youtube as preparation--especially running up with the ball, then taking a step back before shooting.

So, like the other guys on the team, he tried in vain to make baskets in the first minutes of the game. Beside having the capacity to actually get the ball into the basket, the other team had some big guys and were strong on defense. Instead of giving up, Justin kept at it and started to make some baskets. I think our enthusiastic cheering and horn blowing was key.

The end score was 42-29. Not as bad as usual. But the very fun thing was that my kid scored sixteen of those points. Once he got over the disappointment about the game (about mid-way through the after game snack), he was able to be happy about how he played.

I think I'm proud because he did this when they were losing. There was never really any hope that they would pull this off.

And the ski report--Anna had a blast skiing!

Basketball Stress

Our team ahead by one point.

After last Saturday's match, I don't know if my heart can take many more basketball games. 

Background info. If you go here, you can see a picture of Justin's team. If you scroll down you can see how the season is going. It's a long and sad tale. The worst was the 73 to 16 game. Sigh.

Justin hasn't been able to play since the beginning of December when he broke his wrist. His team prevailed in one game during this time. When Justin got the text announcing the win, he assumed that it was a joke. When assured that they really did win, he said, "Wow, the other team must be really bad."

On doctor's orders, he didn't play in January even once he got the cast off. But even though he still had a week to go of prescribed wrist rest, we gave in last week and let him practice and then play Saturday's game. The doctor had said the reason was to make sure he didn't fall on the wrist again, so I instructed Justin to avoid falling as much as possible and to stick out his right arm if he needed to take a tumble. This sounds flippant, but he REALLY wanted to play, and I gave in.

Still ahead 23 to 15.

Of course, consistently losing has been hard on the boys, but it's way harder for the parents.

Parents vacillate between joking around, yelling encouragement at the team, shouting advice to the team, taking a break to smoke outside to relieve stress, mild cursing, threatening to take back Christmas presents, and sometimes just leaving for a while to get perspective and air before returning to the benches. There's a feeling of camaraderie among us as we walk this road together.

Justy with the ball.

So, when we saw that the opposing team this Saturday showed up with only five kids, we were hopeful. Hopeful that they would cave in to exhaustion by the end of the match, allowing our boys to eke out a win. Our guys were all there and healthy for the first time in months.

To help encourage our team, we had two very loud noisemakers. First time for me to ever see this kind of thing in France, but the parents are desperate.

So, the match began as these things typically do; with the other team leading right away four to zero. But, our guys rallied, and were soon in the lead. I was not the only parent to quickly snap a picture of the scoreboard. Every lead is to be celebrated and recorded.

Our group grew increasingly excited as the lead continued. The parents from the other team likely thought we were insane, but Scott pointed out that they probably figured that we were used to losing  the moment we all took pictures of the scoreboard when we first were in the lead.

All looked good going into the fourth quarter. The boys were ahead 39 to 30. The other team was getting tired. Their coach was turning pink in his frustration. It all looked good. And then...the lead was eaten up basket by basket as the opposing team rallied.

They nailed their shots. They made some free throws. Their coach's color returned to normal.

39 to 35. Yikes.

And we looked on with mounting anxiety and heart rates.

Here's a picture of the final time out. There are twelve seconds left. Our team has scored zero points in the last quarter. The score is 39 to 38, our lead.

This is our coach, telling the boys,"If you lose this one, your parents are going to be seriously mad," or whatever coaches say in these situations. I don't really know. I never was a basketball player.

Here are the final twelve seconds of the match. 

My goodness. It took me about an hour to feel calm again.

And the final score. Phew. 

We were good sports and clapped for the other team. They were incredibly resilient and just about pulled it off. 

But I'm so glad they didn't. It would have been demoralizing for us. 

And for the boys too.

Basketball Report

This post was to be all about how Justin and his team finally won a basketball game. How after a four game losing streak, we cheered him to victory Saturday afternoon. Alas, (as Anna has been saying a lot lately), it was not to be.

Justin has a spy friend who plays in the same club as the opposing team. He had informed Justin last week that they were definitely beatable. At practice on Friday, the boys were upbeat and hopeful. Even as the teams were warming up pre-game, things looked good. Unfortunately, Justin's friend was a double agent underestimating his club-mates' skills.

It was bad. Not only the ending score--65 to 16, I think, but Justin was angry. He had played hard, and received all manner of bumps and bruises for his effort (the worst was the knees to the head as he was going for a ball).  The coach even took us aside after the game to recommend a homeopathic pain-reliever/bruise preventer for him.

And he was not only physically battered, but truly disappointed this time. It matters to him, which is what makes him a great player. He doesn't give up.

 I offered to make him whatever he wanted when we came home, so made our standard no-egg chocolate cake with marzipan paste rolled out on top. It helped some.

He was still under the weather Sunday morning, but had recovered by the afternoon. He had some strange pain behind his ear tonight, which momentarily freaked me out as I figured we had missed a concussion and he was now in real danger. But it looks like he got some kind of bite and a dab of cream did the trick.

Thank goodness the child doesn't play rugby.

Farm Pictures

Anna and I went to a birthday party way out of town Saturday. It was a gorgeous day, and I took lots of pictures. The kids happily fed, brushed, and held animals all afternoon.

 They started by feeding the goats. There were cute little signs like this everywhere.

 We were at the donkey/cow enclosure for a long time. One of the girls dropped her ring while feeding a donkey, so the kids kept looking for something shiny in the hay long after the ring had likely settled into a farm animal's stomach.

 Here's the rabbit hutch and the chicken/duck/geese coop. There were guinea pigs in with the rabbits, and the kids spent lots and lots of time in here--maybe forty-five minutes.

 Anna with one guinea pig.

 Anna with two guinea pigs.

 Feeding the geese and ducks.

 No translation needed.

Justin's basketball match on Saturday--final score eighty something to twenty something. Justin's team had the twenty something score. The other team had twelve kids, one of whom was, according to Justin, a two meter giant. This could be a slight exaggeration since two meters is six foot six. Justin's team had six kids. And no giants. 

Justin's first basketball game

Justin's team played their first game of the season Saturday. Scott went with the camera as I took the bus to the airport to pick up our new team member. Throughout the game, I received text updates of the score.

At 2:25 pm. "Losing 19 to 8."

 At 2:43 pm, "37 to 18."

At 3:13 it was 47 to 27.

 

Final score at 3:38--68 to 36.

Scott said the coach was upbeat, and that the team played a good game. The other team was simply too big, as in physically big, and older than our guys.
I love the passion and determination in these shots, and it was fun to fiddle with the editing. These games will be our Saturday afternoon activity throughout the year. Since I am a  Hoosier at heart, I'm looking forward to it.

Inventions

There are other things going on in our lives besides Anna's new school. Some are worthy of a blog post--like Justin playing on a basketball team this year (first practice was last night). Others not so much.  For example, my battle this week against the tartar build-up in our toilet and the replacement of the toilet seat (it looks so much better already) are a part of my daily life and could lead to sharing of anti-tartar build-up suggestions  and other helpful house cleaning tips.

But for today, the post once again is about the new school. 

Here's what happened last Thursday.

Anna had briefly met the French teacher and seen the school last June, but I wanted her to meet her English teacher and have time to look around. 

Scott called to set it up since I was sure they would say no since teachers are busy and of course don't have time for this kind of thing two days before school. 

It was a yes, come anytime.

So, we headed down to the school Thursday morning. As she road her bike beside me, Anna started asking about inventions. She loves science. In fact, she loves it so much that she burst into tears last night when she saw Justin's lab coat that he needed for chemistry. We'll be making one for her. 

Her birthday party this year had a science theme. The kids created their own robots out of boxes, buttons, bottle tops and lots of aluminum foil. We mixed up cornstarch and water and made a huge, lovely mess on the outside table. The kids formed it into to balls, dropped them on the table, and watched the ball turn to liquid. It was a very cool birthday party.

Anyway, back to Thursday, she said she wanted to invent something and happily prattled on about it. She wanted to know if inventing something is hard and decided that she wants to make her own invention.

We arrived at the school and went up to the classroom with Miss Helen, who started to tell us about what they'll be studying this year--grammar, the human body, etc. Then she enthusiastically said that the big project that the class will be working on throughout the year will be--inventions. 

Within the context of what Anna went through with school last year and both of our jitters about the beginning of school this year, this felt like way more than a happy coincidence. It felt like a large, beautifully wrapped, hand-delivered gift from God to Anna.

The class has started already by working together on an invention this week. As Anna tells it, it's a robot that is supposed take ones' glasses off. They are hoping to be able to make it talk. It was missing two large nails that someone is bringing in today.

Justin, who is definitely a product of the French school system, doesn't quite believe her. He can imagine no scenario in which this kind of activity could occur in the first week of school. Then again, sailing is a part of his physical education curriculum this year.  And he gets to wear a cool lab coat on Fridays.