Go Little Pumas!

Basketball season is underway for the Little Pumas! Emmy is playing on a team with eleven other players that are ages 5 and 6. Daddy is the coach again this year, with a couple other dads that help at practices and games. Boomer is thankful for the help, since he otherwise would have his hands full! Practices are every Thursday, and while Daddy and Emmy are at practice, Eli and I run errands or start on the bedtime routine. The Little Pumas have had two games already, and we have noticed that Emmy's confidence is much higher than last year. Her strengths are still passing the ball in to play or dribbling it down the court, and in Saturday's game, she had a few rebounds and even a basket! Wow! Of course I missed filming it...because Eli had locked my phone [sigh] There are six more Saturdays of games so hopefully I will catch a basket before the end of the season. Go Little Pumas!

I have to brag on my wonderful husband. In addition to coaching his daughter's basketball team, he also is teaching a class at Wake Forest this semester. He had his first class last week, and I can tell he is excited to be back on the campus of his alma mater. It is a lot of work though, and he has spent many hours making his syllabus, creating PowerPoints, outlining his class on Canvas, and coming up with assignments and discussions. 

Our friend Josh sent us this picture from the South Stokes yearbook. We think it was from 2012, Boomer's first year as an assistant principal. We all got a laugh out of his phone clipped to his waist! Even looking like a total dork, I'm still so proud of him! 

This weekend was a three-day weekend for the MLK Holiday. With our day off today, we went to the High Point Children's Museum. It was our second visit there, and the kids had so much fun exploring all the rooms and exhibits. Despite chilly temperatures, we spent the most time outside in the sand pit uncovering dinosaur bones. Emmy says that she now wants to be an archeologist when she grows up. 

Besides our weekend adventures, it has been back to the grind of work and school. I've been loving my Christmas gifts: my new calendar from Boomer and my iced coffee koozie. At Emmy's school this week, she was on their Facebook page (thanks to Aunt Megan!) when they had snow cones for "Reading is SNOW much fun!" day. 

Ending this post on a sad note, we got word on Sunday that Boomer's grandfather passed away. Known by "Randy" or "Tall Man," the story goes that he thought he was too young to be called Grandpa and wanted to be called by his first name instead. We last saw him in June when we made the trip up to  Woodstock at the beginning of the summer. We sat with him at the table in the barn, and it was a good visit. Since we stayed in North Carolina this Thanksgiving, I'm glad we have these last memories with him. We found out on Tuesday, the 10th that he had had a fall at home because of lightheadedness and difficulty breathing. They discovered he had COVID, and then while he was in the hospital, he had a heart attack. The last few days were back and forth with good spells and bad spells. He passed away this Sunday. One of the cousins shared this collage of photos of him. He was a proud, strong southern man that loved his family. He was especially proud of his grandchildren and their education. He thought college and hard work were very important. We will miss you, Tall Man.