1st Team All League

Michael's junior season is over.

Basketball season ended this past week for our local high school team. It seemed to be about one week earlier than Michael had planned for it to be over. The season started out better than it ended with our team winning much of the preseason , but loosing all too often by small margins in league play.  

Yes, my youngest child is in love with this game of hoops, and has been from the time he was a very little boy. I remember a day when he was six years old. He came running excitedly into the house to find me. He had to show me his new dribbling trick so I went outside to watch him dribble between his little legs. Wow! I was amazed at his over the top exuberance and wanted him to keep going so I explained that really good basketball players could do that with both hands, and he said he'd start practicing. 

Well within about a week he came trotting in to me to show me another new trick and ... he could now do the cross through his legs and even more with his left hand as well.  

He has never stopped practicing and has become quite a good little ball player. He watches the NBA, especially the Kobe Lakers, and college ball on TV. Then goes outside to the hoop on our large, somewhat tilted, driveway and works on all aspects of the game.

This practice and tenatiousness has led to him playing on varsity as a sophomore last year and being a real asset to his team this year as a junior. 

This season he has had three games where he scored over 28 points and several others that are close to 20. He was ill for a week toward the end of the season and it has taken him a couple weeks to get his strength back. He is the leading scorer on the team, and plays good defense as well as continuing in having pretty good ball handling skills. 

The team finished league play last Friday night and was not invited to play in the CCS playoffs. They missed to cut off by 1 team and were dissapointed because they thought they would have a couple games left to show what they could do in the first rounds of CCS.

He will receive all-league first team honors and we are excited that he has been able to continue to love the game and improve at the same time.

Onto practicing for senior year and afterschool weights. Good luck to you Michael in your preparations for an amazing next year. 

YOU ARE A BIG DEAL!

some other Hodgpeople

We had Stake Conference at church this weekend and so my hubby "big J" has been busy with that extra thing on his plate this past week. He also had a major time sucker at work in that they were finished up with a trial, evaluating the outcome, then raising money, then laying off, all within the past 10 days. 

In the middle of it all we traveled to Utah for the celebration from my last post, our daughter made a big decision about her college life and is not going to play volleyball anymore, &  our other daughter looked for, found an apartment, and has decided to move out of our house.

I feel like even though I'm not the real busy one, I do pick up some of the slack and sometimes (poorly) keep things together around the house. 

Let me explain some of these things.

Stake Conference.  This is a half yearly (they call it semi-annual) meeting that is held in each individual stake. Our stake, for which J is the President, had an evening at the Temple in Oakland last Tuesday, then had a Saturday night session where he gave a well prepared talk about being faithful & steadfast in following the commandments of God.  "Crossing our own River Jordan" was what he called it and he gave a story about when he was on his mission in Tennessee 33 years ago. In the darkness of night he had to find a difficult path home.

He and his companion literally crossed a creek using railroad ties and headlights from the little Ford Pinto they were assigned to drive.  This, because they had gotten off the correct path and didn't know where to look for the small bridge. 

I definitely can get off the path without knowing it and I'm sure most people can relate to that. Just guess I have to keep evaluating where I am and if I'm headed in the right direction.

This morning we had the main Sunday session of our conference. It was unusual in that 68 other "Stakes" throughout Northern CA all met and heard the same message from general church authorities. Most of the men who talked were from California and were now residing in Salt Lake City where they work full time doing the Lords work for the worldwide church.

They all gave good incite and it did give J a break from preparing another talk.

He did have to replace one of his trusted counselors.  Pres. Walton and his wife are going to serve a mission in Portugal and so he had to be replaced in the Stake Presidency. I'm sure that was stressful to J the last month or so as he found and requested a replacement. Now he has to replace a Bishop from one of the wards (congregations) because he called the old Bishop to be the new counselor.  Gets kinda complicated sometimes. 

On to our kids.

Our little Stepher had a hard week deciding whether or not to continue playing volleyball in college. She has thoroughly enjoyed the team and they have had some great seasons.  She is used as a back up defensive player and it has been fun watching and keeping up with the top 20 team.  However, she has a back that has developed chronic pain and arthritis issues so she is in pain much of the time from throwing herself onto the court and repetitively landing over and over (just to retrieve a lousy ball).  She practices hard but doesn't always get in the game, so she decided it just wasn't worth the pain any longer. I think she will miss it, but know she will find other things to fill her time. She is a bright side looker and will enjoy her "new" life. She really will have a new life. If you have ever seen a schedule of a Division I NCAA sport, you will know that I am talking about. They do weights for 2 hours at 5:30am to start their day. Then after a full class load they return at 1:00 - 2:00 for another 3 -4 hours of practice. They travel about 4 days every other week in season missing all their academic classes and it is intense.

Katz and her little family have been living in our outside pool house for the past 8 months and have decided it's time to move out. Her hubby has decided to pursue his masters education in his field of work, so they will live in the area for a couple years. We are very excited they will be close for longer than they had planned, but it won't nearly be as close as going outside and knocking on their door to see that cute little baby. They will move in a couple of weeks.  I am helping her reupholster their dining chairs, and I'm sure we will do some planning this week for their move.

Valentines all around.

This weekend I went with my hubby John to visit his parents in celebration of their 60 years of marriage.

Wow SIXTY years is a long time. They are soooo cute together.

Grandpa is very forgetful these days, but never fails to be a gentleman and open the door for her, thank her for breakfast, etc.  

"Old habits die hard."

Grandma takes care of him in a fashion that he has become accustomed to and she is happy to do it. So patient and loving all the time.

John's sister Toni made all the arrangements for a nice dinner at a restaurant, and we were joined by some of the grand kids. It was a very nice, cold, snowy day. I guess similar to the day they were married in St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Ogden 60 years ago.  

They had known each other for just a couple of weeks after Ken's brother and Muriel's sister, Bruce and Bernice, introduced them.  She came "out west" with him from Massachusetts then immediately got married. 

Congrats to MOM and DAD Hodgman for 60 big years of marriage.  

On to me.....

It was a fun valentines for me too, and 30 years from the dad my sweetheart asked me to marry him.

Thirty years ago it started by waking me up at 6 am to begin out our valentines together.  (I should have known that he would be an early riser and wake me many more times through my lifetime.)  He gave me a very BIG card with a proposal and called my Mom and Dad to ask them what they thought about it.  Cute.

We shopped for a ring that day traveling from Salt Lake City where we lived to Ogden where his sister knew a jeweler.

We visited his parents and gave them the news and had a fun day about town.

Oh, by the way....I said yes! 

John has been in my life now for over 30 years and he is still my love and best friend. We have now been together half as long as our parents. Onward to 60 my love!!!

Love Through Time

I think the hardest thing about writing about what goes on in my life is actually choosing what to add each time I decide to post.

This week I had an ordinary week and got a few projects completed. 

I smocked and sewed a new little day gown for Ellery, finished a lacy mauve/pink sweater for her as well, walked the hill, bowled, cooked some awesome soft bread sticks found on a cooking blog that is in my faves, made chili con carne to go with the sticks, blew up balloons at my friends house for the LGHS senior basketball night decorations, made valentine boxes filled with chocolates for my "Beehives", and drove to the airport a few times.

Here I post a couple of pictures of my projects and will expound on them a little for those interested.

First is the old fashioned "Day Gown". I learned how to smock and do fancy work called "heirloom sewing" when I lived in Portland.

Stephanie and Kathryn were about 6 and 8 years old at the time so were almost too old for the little smocked and french lace dresses that I learned how to make. After making 2 or 3 for Kathryn, and 5 or 6 for Stephanie, they definitely outgrew this type of sewing and I just said I'd have to do it when and if I ever had granddaughters.

In the ensuing years I have used these skills to make a "blessing day" dress or our little Sophie friend, a "temple dress" for Kathryn, along with just a few other little things. Now that I have granddaughter's I can make a few more of these "heirlooms".

In the Southern States many little girls as well as boys wear this type of dress and it is really big "down under" in Australia and New Zealand. The magazines that feature these beautiful dresses and the materials for them I have had to locate on the Internet. 

Another thing that makes it nice to sew these dresses is that little girls of today wear less dresses than in years past and so it is a bit difficult to find church clothes. We go to church where people tend to dress up a bit and this will hopefully give my granddaughters another option.

Kathryn really wanted a yellow baby dress so we found this white fabric with machine embroidered pastel flowers. I smocked it with a geometric solid yellow and added yellow piping at the bodice and scalloped hem line. Puffed sleeves and straight sleeve bands compliment the simplicity of the design.

The knitted lace sweater is made with a cotton milk protein blend

yarn in a dk weight. It was kind of fun to make as the lace was knitted separately and then added to the stockinette body and sleeves. A picot edging was added to finish off the edges.

I do enjoy the making of items for my loved ones and friends. I think this is the main way I show my love to them. I share my time and expertise.