A team sport

We wanted Madeleine to participate in a team sport, so she played soccer for a couple of years until she asked to not play anymore (too much running, she said). Last spring she tried softball (too hot, she said). This winter she played basketball for the first time. She knew a few of her teammates and made new friends with the others. It was really neat to see the team begin to trust one another as they began to pass more and depend on each other to be where they were supposed to be. I learned that it is pretty difficult for 2nd graders to make a basket (even with it lowered) and that the games were all very low scoring. We saw the end of one game that had to go into overtime because the score was 2 to 2!

Madeleine did learn the rules and more importantly always had a great time playing. Her team, the Red Hots, was 3 and 6 (3 wins and 6 losses) and 11th out of 13 teams at the end of the season. This past weekend they had a tournament and if you lost your game you were out of the tournament. They played at 11 am on Saturday and won! They played at 2 pm on Saturday and won! That is 2 games in 1 day! They played at 2 pm on Sunday and won! They were now in the championship game against the only undefeated team (they had won all 9 of their games in the regular season). They played at 5 pm on Sunday. This was our team's 4th game in 2 days! And... they won! It was 13 to 10 and I was so proud of how the girls worked together. They really played as a team! My favorite moments were in the 2nd game on Saturday when one of the girls who had not scored at all in the regular season made her first basket. I was so proud of her! My other favorite moment was when the end of game buzzer sounded and Madeleine realized that her team had won the tournament. She jumped up and down and was so excited!

The Red Hots, the champions! Madeleine is number 21, her cousin Sydney is number 2.

Madeleine with her basketball trophy.

The next team sport is t-ball for Everett! He is beyond excited.

Girl Scout Cookies

This is Madeleine's 2nd year in Girl Scouting and as a brownie she is now able to sell Girl Scout cookies! She set her goal as 2012 so that she could win the prize of a Nook. She figured out for herself soon after many days of knocking on neighbor's doors that 2012 might be too high of a goal. But when she had sold 568 boxes and there were still 2 more weeks before the orders were due, 1000 became the new goal. She was the one going out every day after school to a different street, she knocked on every door and rang every doorbell, but I did help too. I think that I asked every single person at church if they would buy cookies and bless their hearts, our church family bought 383 boxes of cookies! When the order forms were due Madeleine had sold 1006 boxes of cookies! That is 84 cases of cookies!

Her big prize is a night at the Gaylord Texan Hotel with herself and 3 others (we have told her that will be her mom, dad, and brother).

The cookies... 84 cases worth...

Oh, and the thin mints!

My favorite delivery story is when we went to delivery some cookies and the nice man who answered the door took about 5 minutes trying to find cash and then he wrote a check. When we finally gave him the cookies and were walking away, he said, "umm, my wife is allergic to peanuts and I do not think that she ordered these cookies." So, I looked at the order form and though the address I had was correct the name was not! The person had ordered from an email that I sent out to our neighborhood moms group. When I went home and looked at the email that she had sent me, it was the correct address. So, I had to search the Dallas Appraisal District and found she had written the incorrect address. We were able to deliver her cookies and sold 2 more (I guess that makes the total 1008)! The man at the house that we went to had written a check so he asked us to bring him 2 more boxes of cookies without peanuts in them. This might be a good strategy, knock on people's doors and say that they ordered cookies even if they did not!

Selling 1006 boxes of cookies took a lot of time and energy, but delivering and collecting the money for those cookies is way harder! The money is due next week and we still have more than a few deliveries to make but we can do it ($600 more dollars to collect)! I am so proud of Madeleine for sticking with her goal and so incredibly thankful for friends and family (born into and church) that helped her to achieve her goal!

She has already said that next year she only wants to sell 300 boxes... that sounds so easy!

One Person Makes a Difference

This morning we celebrated the life of an amazing man at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. Bryan Clark was 19 years old when he stormed the beach at Iwo Jima as a marine. He was there when five marines raised the flag over Iwo Jima, a moment that was later memorialized forever. Bryan was one of 3 men from his unit who returned uninjured from Iwo Jima. There were 165 marines in Bryan's unit, 80 were killed. Nearly 7,000 Americans and 20,000 Japanese soldiers died at Iwo Jima.

Another amazing thing about Bryan is that he served as a volunteer with Methodist Hospital's Auxiliary for 24 years. Every Thursday for 24 years he and his wife Reba would run the gift shop at Methodist Hospital.

I knew Bryan at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church as the friendliest greeter ever. He greeted me the first time that I attended the church and later when I served as an Intern he served as my Intern Committee Chair. He encouraged me, supported me, and helped to make me a better pastor. Bryan taught me that one person can make a difference because he made a difference in so many people's lives. There are so many people who attribute their membership at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church to Bryan Clark. He made people feel at home and he noticed when you were gone. He made everyone feel welcome.

After the celebration of Bryan's life this morning, I took Madeleine to her basketball game. Madeleine's team was down 0-12 and in 2 quarters only one shot had been made towards the basket by her team. I was feeling pretty hopeless for Madeleine's team when their star player came racing into the gym. She had been at another event. This one player propelled Madeleine's team forward so that by the end of the game they were ahead 17-12. One person can make a difference.

As I listened to the words that were said about Bryan this morning I looked around at the congregation, filled with people who had become a part of the church because of Bryan. One person had made the difference in welcoming them so that they wanted to become a part of the church.

One person can make a difference.

#41 Thing to Do in Dallas with Kids

Storytime at Northpark Mall with "The Real Santa." Seriously, this Santa is amazing. Storytime is everyday at 10:30 am and is wonderful. "The Real Santa" has a degree in child psychology and is incredibly engaging.
Here is our annual picture with Santa, previous pictures can be found in last year's blog post found here,
http://leeandkerry.blogspot.com/2010/12/pictures-with-santa.html

Madeleine at 7 1/2, Everett at 4. December 2011

#40 Thing to Do in Dallas with Kids

Lowe's Build and Grow Kid's Clinic. I wrote about the Home Depot clinic as my #19 Thing to Do in Dallas with Kids, but they are on different Saturdays so it is worth mentioning both! My kids love these events! You have to preregister and arrive right on time (10 am). This is a wonderful free kid activity!

#39 Thing to Do in Dallas with Kids

Attend Tuba Christmas. This event is held throughout the world, you can find one close to you here. I found out about Tuba Christmas last year after Christmas and since it was on Christmas Eve here in Dallas last year I thought it would be on Christmas Eve again. Unfortunately, since Christmas Eve was on Saturday, it was on Friday! So, I missed it. But I will be ready for it next Christmas at Thanksgiving Square downtown! You can watch the 2007 Tuba Christmas in Dallas on youtube here.

#38 Thing to Do in Dallas with Kids

Visit Santa's Village in Richardson. This free event is awesome, though I have not yet figured out the time to go when it is not busy...

This year the kids (mine and my sister's) loved the sleigh rides! These wonderful volunteers ran them up and down the sidewalk in this sleigh. The kids did this 3 times!

Cousin picture with a Christmas... duck???

And the girls wrote letters to Santa. The photo above is the letter from my niece, it says, "Dear Santa, I want my two front teeth for Christmas. P.S. Are you really real?"