On Saturday the 2018 season of Upward basketball kicked off in terms of the first games for most of the teams. Due to snow/ice we received during the night, the 4th-6th grade girls' games were cancelled that morning. Nadia's game was to have been at 8:00AM. This will be her fifth season of playing Upward Basketball, Ian's third season, and Oliver's first. It's Nadia's first time playing full court basketball with only girls. The K/1st and 2nd/3rd grade teams are co-ed. The K/1st grade teams play 3 on 3. The 2nd/3rd grade teams play 4 on 4. Both of the boys' games were rather decisive victories. Oliver's team (Dragons) won by a large margin (which had absolutely nothing to do with Oliver), and Ian's team (Buffaloes) was definitely the underdog in their matchup. The boys' games were back to back (1:00 and 2:00) which was very convenient for us. Paul took two days off (Saturday/Sunday) after working eighteen days straight. He came home from Baltimore on Friday evening. We hadn't seen him since Sunday. Nadia read during both games. Ian read during Oliver's game. Nadia and Oliver each used some of their money to buy soft pretzels during Ian's game.
It was obvious that Oliver was totally clueless when he was on the court. He played during two of the six 6 minute periods. At one point (while he was supposed to be playing on the court), he came to the sideline for a drink of water. Generally he was on the wrong side of the court all by himself while all the other kids (from both teams) were on the opposite side. They tried to give him the ball a couple of times. Once he didn't catch the bounce pass and so the other team stole the ball. Another time he did dribble it a little bit. He definitely needs to work on learning how to dribble. Ian was always in the correct place, except for sometimes he crossed the half-court line too early when playing defense. He never dribbled the ball (although he does know how). He attempted one basket, but he wasn't close. The hoop is higher up for 2/3rd grade than K/1, and I don't think he's made the adjustment yet. He was so focused on guarding his player that he was still trying to do that even when his team had the ball. There are eight kids on Ian's team, so each child played for three of the six 6 minute periods.
Sunday morning I found out that a family I am friends with at church found out that a couple of days earlier than their eight-year-old daughter has cancer. This past fall the parents were in the same Sunday School class that I was, and Nadia and their older daughter are playing on the same basketball team right now. Hannah had a surgery in November to remove a mass that had just been discovered that had spread to her lymph nodes. The surgery was done at a local hospital after CHOP (Children's Hospital in Philadelphia) had told them they didn't think it was cancerous. The local hospital's pathology report was that it wasn't cancer. We were thrilled to hear that news but then almost two months later they got the second pathology report (from CHOP) that there was some cancer in the mass. Hannah is having tests and such at CHOP today to see if the cancer had spread and also to begin to develop a plan of action (chemo, etc.). I was in tears during the prayer portion of the worship service. I have spent time on all but one floor of our local children's hospital. The NICU is on one floor, the PICU is on another floor, the general area for children is up another floor, etc. The top floor is for the oncology patients. I have been to that floor because that is where the shower is located for parents to use if their children are in the NICU or PICU, but I hope and pray I never have a child as a patient on that floor. The kids and I have been praying for Hannah and her family multiple times a day. Even Oliver has been praying for "Hannah to feel better."
I was already in a very sober mood from this news, and then I watched portions of a pitiful football game. It was such an awful game that I left the room and did schoolwork for large portions of it. Of course football is totally and completely unimportant compared to a child's health, but I do get emotionally involved in my team's games, having cheered for this team my whole life. When it comes to football I don't care to watch any more games this season. As far as who wins the Superbowl, I have one wish - that any team EXCEPT the Patriots wins. As long as the Patriots don't win, I'll be happy with whatever the outcome is of this year's Superbowl. Usually we disconnect the cable once the season is over for both of our teams (sometimes that's been as early as December if neither of our teams made the Playoffs), but I plan to keep it on a little longer this year and disconnect it after the Winter Olympics are over. Years ago they didn't charge us any fee to have it turned on/off, but now they charge us around $50 each time. It's annoying to pay a little over $100/year just to have the cable turned off and then on again, but we still save money by not having cable for 6-8 months a year. The cable company provides us with our internet service so we use one of their services 12 months a year.
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