Club Volleyball Directors and Player

 Last spring our 8th grade volleyball coach took the varsity coaching position for this school year.  I asked her if she was going to run a club program. She said yes, but she wanted someone else to take on the role of director.  We talked a few more times about the job, and eventually I committed to being the director.   We (Zach and I) started in the fall with designing a website, recruiting coaches, organizing tryouts, ordering jerseys, designing apparel, reserving gyms, etc.  All of this work we expected.  We quickly realized, however, that there were legal steps that needed to be taken to do this correctly.  We had to hire an attorney and an accountant.  We had to become a non-profit organization with the state and IRS.  We had to have a board and take minutes.  The learning curve was huge!  We didn't have anyone to lean on, so we just had to figure it all out as we went.  Practices started in January and tournaments started at the end of February.  We had 9 teams, 11 coaches, and 78 players.  Overall it was a positive experience.  When people ask me if I am doing it again, I answer yes.  That was too much work to put in for just a year.  And, I think the difficult part is past.  Next year, we'll have some idea of what we're doing.

Monroe had a great year playing club volleyball.  She was coached by the varsity coach, which was a positive experience.

Emalyn came with us to two different tournaments

Monroe got a lot of opportunities to hit this year, which was new

Her jump serve is so consistent

Final team meeting

Club volleyball 2025 was a success!  Here's to more great years!

Snow day without power

 

On March 18th, our district called off school at 3:00 for the following day's expected storm.  It was kind of funny because the 18th was gorgeous out.  We wondered if we would get what was forecasted.  The storm that night was loud!  There was rain, hail, sleet, thunder, and so much wind.  Our power went out at 5:30 am.  It wasn't back on when we get out of bed a couple hours later.  We checked the outage map, and this is what the town of Hastings looked like:

Every window on all sides of the house looked like this.  We couldn't see out on any side.

It is amazing how many things in our daily lives require electricity.  All day, we kept forgetting, and then we'd realize another thing we couldn't do.  No coffee was definitely the worst part.  We have a gas fireplace, so we had some heat, and we all stayed in the living room most of the day.    

The power finally came back on at 2:30.  9 hours later!  It was too late for me to have coffee.

There were sticks covering our whole yard.

It was a filthy snow.  This was that afternoon, and it all looks gray.  

Later, when everything melted, our porch, deck, and driveway were caked in dirt.

Snow days are my favorite.  A snow day without power was awful.  I hope to not repeat that experience for a long time.

The next day, we had a 10:00 late start.  There were still some areas around Hastings without power.  I thoroughly enjoyed my coffee the next morning.

Spring Break

 

The boys came home from school with a flyer about a Mario party put on by Parks and Rec.  They were really insistent that they go.  So, we invited a couple friends to go with them.

This was probably the best event I have been to with my kids.  They had so many fun, well-planned activities.  These boys had a blast!

This was blowup soccer.  So fun!

This activity was cool.  They got to look at these pipes and rope for a minute.  Then, they closed the curtain, and the groups tried to duplicate it. 

Our boys got it exactly!

Human hungry hippos

We didn't have much going on over spring break, so we decided to get away for a couple days.  Originally, we were thinking Omaha, but most of the things we wanted to do weren't open on Mondays and Tuesdays.  We ended up going to Kearney instead.  We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

There was quite a bit of water volleyball played.

It was a gorgeous day, so we spent much of the day at Kearney's great parks.

Can you see them?

We went out for local ice cream and cupcakes.  The girls wanted cupcakes and the boys wanted ice cream.  

The kids all wanted to go to the Archway museum, so we wrapped up the day there.

It was a nice little getaway.

We celebrated Huxley's gotcha day on March 11th.  We don't know his actual birthday, so we decided to celebrate his gotcha day instead.  We got him some fun treats, but we did not let him eat all of them at once.

He even got to eat on the table with the rest of us!

We love this sweet dog so much!  Getting him was the best decision!

The boys had their last swim practice.  It was a fun one.  This is the whole team throwing balls at Pierce as he jumped off the board.

Did I mention the weather was gorgeous?  I love when spring break feels like spring.

Wrapped up the week with a friend's birthday party.