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IISSAC Basketball Tournament! Feb. 26-28, 2010

The boys team takes first place in the IISSAC Basketball tournament. For our students, this would be equivalent to taking home the gold in district or state championship. We are so proud of both our girls and boys team...the girls came in 2nd! They showed such great sportsmanship, focus and unity as a team. Our boy's team this year was made up of 10 Seniors, 1 Junior and 2 Sophomores. Luke was one of those sophomores.

For us it was a great joy getting to see Luke play at all. After having shoulder surgery in November, we were not sure that he would really get to play basketball this school year. But the coach, Bill Webb, worked with him, allowed him to come to practice and do as much as he was able, on his time frame. In January he started playing more, shooting more and pretty soon he had his first game. That first one was a nail biter for me as i worried that he would injure his shoulder again but he was pretty protective of it and made good choices. By the time the tournament was on, he was full speed and playing great defense. In one of the games he stole the ball and went for a lay up. It was such a joy and blessing to see him playing again but especially for him to be a part of this team. Many of these guys he has known since elementary school and they are guys that he has looked up to all his life. I am so thankful that he had one more basketball season with them and to see them take the IISSAC tournament was just sheer blessing!!!

It will be hard to not see this group of guys play together again...kind of the end of an era (this senior class is the largest one to graduate from Mountainview- 30 in all and most of them boys so that is why our bball team had so many seniors). They are an awesome group of boys and i have to say again how impressed i was/am with their behavior on and off the court. When other teams were showing the pressure or frustration, our boys remained calm and just played their game. They remained focused and encouraging to one another as well as to the opposing team. I contribute a lot of this to their coach, Bill (also the superintendent of our school) who himself always remains calm and focused! I am so thankful that Luke has had the opportunity to play under his coaching the past two years! What a blessing that has been.

So...here are some pics...there are a lot more on facebook which you may have seen!

Pacitan Memories

(The pictures are not in order...i tried but i am just not savvy enough and it kept not wanting to move them or would

delete them so i just decided to go with the flow and you can figure out a bit of an order :))

Since about 1992 we have been heading to a small beach on the southeast coast of Java. We first went when Annaliese was about 8 months old. We had no idea of where we were going or what we were getting into. We went with another family in their small van and it ended up taking us about 5 hours instead of the 3 it should have taken from Yogyakarta. Then when we got there, we only had one room at this very small hotel so the guys slept in the van and the two wives and small kids slept in the room on one bed. When i woke up the next morning Annaliese was running a high fever but fortunately i had brought the right meds. to help with the fever. You would think after a start like that we would never go back to that place but as it turned out, we became very enamored with this little place and it became somewhere that we visited at least once a year when we were in town. For me it became a place of rest, listening to the ocean, being able to read novels, hanging out with friends and just an over all place of serenity for me. To the kids it was a place to hang out, be with friends, be able to run free (except by the water), and just play from sun up to sun down! For Nick, i think he enjoyed the place for resting, running, boogie boarding and just hanging out.

Now almost 18 years later and many, many trips to there and back, i feel a bit nostalgic of the memories that have been made at that place. I guess knowing that this is Anna's last year in our home, this past trip took me down memory lane a lot. When i got back i got out some of the old photos and so those are some of the ones posted here. I am thankful for this place...the sunburns...the fun...the rush of the waves...the being tossed around by the waves...listening to the ocean sounds...tempe burgers/french fries/jaffles...the simplest of bungalows...people wanting to speak english with us...sand castles....being buried in the sand and so much more. Thank you Lord for a great place to go all these years!!!