Christmas Eve . . .

We have had an extremely busy fall, hence the lack of postings. We apologize for that.

Everyone arrived for Christmas week and we held Christmas Eve at Yellow House. In this photo (from left) Leslie, Biz and Mom, with Becca standing in front, have their picture taken in the new Addition with the Pastor Peyton light in the background. Bizzy has had the light for years and has not had a chance to hang in nine years, sitting instead on top of her piano, both in Bullhead City and in Plymouth, IN. Now, we have managed to hang it.

Rebecca Ratliff, Kindergartner

We now have our Kindergarten pictures. Here's Rebecca - doesn't she take a great picture? Becca has been having a wonderful year, and, recently, begun to sprout again. She has slimmed down (due to loss of appetite prior to a spurt) and now seems to be - in our eyes - an inch taller. Her hair has gotten slightly longer in the back (this picture was taken in late September) and her face has lost some of its puffiness.

We can hardly wait for Christmas pics!

Enjoy!

Off to a great start!

We got off to a great start with school. We cannot believe it's October already! Becca started Kindergarten and loves it! After the first few weeks, Daddy had to go off to a three-day conference and Mommy took Becca to school and, to get her to the elementary on time, she put Becca on the bus in front of the high school so that she could ride over with the rest of the kids. After that she decided riding the bus was really cool. Now, Becca gets up an extra half hour early and rides the bus in from Yellow House (two miles exactly from the front of the high school).

The weather is starting to cool. It was wet most of last week with temps in the 40s and 50s, just in time for Homecoming. At the football game Friday night, Knox beat Bremen 13-7. The Redskins are now 2-4 having won two games in a row. They have one or two more games left to play, so we'll see how the rest of the season goes.

Dance of the Halloween Mask

Becca loves to dance and perform for the family. Here she's showing off one of the Halloween/Opera Masks Bizzy found at Richard's of Toto. Becca thinks she might wear the mask with her witch outfit.

Enjoy!

Becca goes Blueberry Festival Again!

Even though we moved from Plymouth, we still love to attend the Labor Day weekend Blueberry Festival. For those of you who love to watch the morning news shows, Good Morning America named the Blueberry one of the 10 best Labor Day weekend festivals in the country. More than 300,000 people attend over the course of four days.

Yellow House loaded to the Rafters!

"Must expand!" says Bizzy!

After spending much of the summer (July) moving from Plymouth House to Yellow House, we discovered that Yellow House was smaller by 250 square feet. We poured the back patio with the intent of expanding on the back, pouring the concrete with footers, etc. The idea was to build on next year.

After moving, however, we decided it was necessary to expand this year. As you can see in this picture, the walls were just going up in early September, right after Labor Day. We are now close, with roof done, drywall and siding nearly completed and only final trim out on the electric and flooring to be completed in the next couple of weeks.

This will give us nearly 500 added square feet, taking our little cottage from 1550, to 2030 square feet. As Bizzy says, "We needed the extra cushion against the cold Indiana winters!" Yes, Bizzy's gas stove will be installed in the back corner to better warm the room.

More completed pictures to follow.

BECCA RIDES HER BIKE!

Becca showed her Mommy and Daddy a new trick today. With Grandpa's help, Becca took her first ride on a bike without training wheels. After several days of chasing Becca in a golf cart around the lake, Grandpa decided Becca was ready to ride without the help of the extra wheels (which were bent upwards anyways!).

Next thing you know, Becca will be riding her bike off the end of the pier!

Dr. Elizabeth "Biz Sanders Ratliff named principal of Knox High School

After serving three years as assistant principal at Plymouth High School, Biz bade farewell to her students and faculty after being named last week as Principal of Knox High School.

Knox is 23 miles west of Plymouth, and is the community in which much of her family resides. Her father, Claude Sanders, graduated from Knox (Class of 1956); he and Biz's Uncle Bill are both members of the Knox Athletic Hall of Fame; Bass Lake is 5 miles south of Knox and is home to Biz's parents. Yellow House lies on the outskirts of Knox, only 2 miles from the high school. She is very excited about taking on this new responsibility.

Charles has also been offered a position at the elementary school, with a possibility of moving to middle school language arts within a couple of years. He is looking forward to beginning his new position and getting Becca settled into Kindergarten. He and Leslie have begun book 2 of "The Bass Lake Bunch" and have a full slate of signings scheduled for this summer.

Biz begins her new job July 1, so there won't be much of a vacation this summer. We are in the process of moving to Yellow House permanently and have spent a lot of afternoons swimming, boating and, oh yes, moving furniture, much to Charles' chagrin and aching muscles (hehehe:)!

BECCA GRADUATES PRESCHOOL!

We are proud to announce that Becca finished preschool and has been pronounced ready for Kindergarten! Here she receives an achievement award for most improved reader.

We were trying to decide where to enroll her for Kindergarten: in Plymouth or in Knox. After much discussion and a recent change in events, Becca will be attending Kindergarten in Knox with her Sanders cousins!

TIME FOR PEPPERS

With the advent of spring, we planted a variety of peppers at Yellow House to add to our stock for the delicious fajitas Bizzy makes. Here Becca does the planting for her dad. Along the fence row we put in Mexicali Bells, Jalapenos, sweet Yellow Bells and others.

We do love our peppers with our fajitas!

OUR LITTLE GLOBETROTTER!



Becca is having so much fun at Winter League basketball. She sports her new uniform t-shirt, her number is 3, and holds on to her "Harlem Globetrotter" basketball. She took her warm-up shots before the two games and her warm-down shots after the game. She sports her red IU game shorts proudly! Sorry, Grandpa! (ISU!) and wanted to know when the third game would be. We told her next week.

"You ready to go, kiddo?" asked Daddy!

"NO!" Becca emphatically shouts. "I'm never leaving this gym! I love basketball and I want to keep playing!"

"But, Becca, we have to go get something to eat!"

"I'm not hungry!"

As she starts to dribble toward the basket, Daddy says, "I'll make you a hamburger and french fries."

"Awright!" and off we go, heading for the car. Daddies always know how to get their daughters moving in the right direction.

Right?

WAITING FOR THAT REBOUND!

Becca keeps up with her teammates during the second game. Somewhere between the first and second matches, Becca learned that if she goes for the rebound, she just might get the ball!

After losing their first game (who's really keeping score anyway?) Becca's team played very well during their second match . . . Becca even scored a goal! Way to go, Becca! Just not during the footage you see here. Becca was in the right spot under the far goal and one of the girls threw the inbound pass to Becca and with Daddy shouting "Shoot!" very loudly, Becca heard and tossed the round ball into the round hoop!

We're having so much fun! We only hope that Becca has fun, runs a lot! And, she makes lots of new friends. As our high school girls defend their state championship title, we are reminded that many of them started right here . . . at Winter League camp. This year, more than 90 K-1-2 grade girls came out and formed teams, not to mention the other 250 in grades 3 through 6 playing in the other two gyms at PHS.

GET READY FOR THAT REBOUND2!

Becca got the hang of waiting for that rebound shot that I had to run this one, too! Becca's team plays again next two Sundays with the final match coming March 15, the weekend Grandpa Sanders comes to town. Becca assures us she'll be playing like Colton by the time her grandfather gets to see her play . . . er, maybe.:)

BECCA'S AFTER GAME WARM-DOWNS

After playing two games, Becca refuses to leave the gym and continues taking shots at the hoop. Becca is getting really good at this, once she puts her mind to it. She's even better when she shoots with her "Harlem Globetrotter" basketball we found at Bailey's!

On Sunday, Becca started playing in the Plymouth High School Lady Pilgrims Little Kids Basketball Camp (Becca is the one in the blue shorts). The goal is for the girls to come out and have fun playing, and learning how to play, basketball. The organizers - coaches at the various levels in the school system - broke the girls - more than 300 0f them - down by grade. More than 80 participated in the K-2 group where Becca played.

You're saying, wait! Becca isn't in Kindergarten yet. Well, Becca has been seen by several of the coaches at the basketball games and when we asked about her participating this year, they all immediately said, "Sign her up!" You see, Becca stands nearly a head taller than 90 percent of the kindergarten girls in Plymouth, although there are some tall ones playing in this league, let me tell ya!

In the video, Becca and the other girls work on shooting drills. After that, they broke down into practice teams and played a few minutes of 5-on-5.

Becca shows how much she's learned after an hour practicing some basics of basketball. Here she guards a girl during a practice game. Becca loved being at the camp and will be placed on a team and will practice one night at week and play in as many as five games.

DO I HAVE TO GIVE UP MY BALL?

Becca holds on to a basketball while waiting for her turn to dribble. She had fun with more than 80 kids in grades K-2 learning some basics about baskeball.

IT'S TIME I LEARNED HOW TO SHOVEL!

After a couple of recent snow stormstorms, Daddy used his brand new snow blower to clear the patio and wlakways. The snow blower, however, won't work on minor accumulation of less than inch.

That's where Becca comes in. She asked Daddy for the shovel the other day and began clearing off the patio. She did a great job!

We hope everybody out west is keeping warm! We've had a few days of sub-zero temperatures and we're hunkering down in the house cuddling next to the gas fireplace.

CHRISTMAS AT GRANDMA'S AND GRANDPA'S!

We spent Christmas and New Year's with family in Bullhead City/Laughlin. We decided to fly this year into Las Vegas, but weather was horrible the weekend we were supposed to leave. The last school day of the year, Friday, Dec. 19, turned out to be a snow day.

We finally made it to Bullhead City, via Las Vegas, after weather delays caused our flight to go out a day later than than usual. We spent the Christmas holidays at Grandma's and Grandpa's house and saw the family there.

After Christmas, we made a short trip to Phoenix and spent some time with Russ and Lee. We also got a chance to visit with Uncle Ken and Aunt Fran.

After New Year's we went to Las Vegas for a couple of days before flying back out to South Bend. We enjoyed the weather in Arizona and Nevada and enjoyed seeing our families.

We wish everyone a wonderful, happy New Year!

TWO GENERATIONS OF RATLIFFS!

Over the Christmas holidays, we managed to make if to Phoenix for a brief visit with the brothers. We had breakfast together at Cracker Barrel. Here, the boys and their kids pose for posterity: from left, Larry, Caius and Ailey; Charles and Becca; Russ and Evan; and Lee and Ashley.