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.

BECCA WISHES SANTA CLAUDE ERIC A HAPPY HOLIDAY

Becca sends her heartfelt Christmas wishes to Uncle (Santa) Claude Eric. Enjoy.
(P.S. Daddy learned a new trick! More to follow!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008

As Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, we want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas season. This picture seemed so pertinent, especially with the early snowfall we have experienced (and are experiencing!).

We had our pictures taken at a fundraiser for the Marshall County Historical Society. We have come to enjoy the Indiana winters, but can do without the Lake Effect snow/rain.

We hope you are all warm and snuggly and wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Ratliffs of Plymouth, Indiana

WILL YOU JUST PUSH ME ALREADY!

Daddy didn't have the heart to take Becca to her preschool on a day when he and Mommy had off. So, we went to Wal-Mart, picked out a toboggan and off we went to Magnetic Park, which has a short hill where little kids can sled safely.

Of course, the snow was so deep Daddy had to sled first and create some runs so Becca could enjoy her sledding experience (oh, my achin' back!).

MAGNETIC PARK UNDER SNOW

Becca and Daddy walked to Magnetic Park for some snow sledding and this is what greeted them. The wind was picking up, the clouds dissipating and the sun peaking through in places.

Charles forgot his camera and had to snap these images (above and below) with his cell phone. We hope they come through OK on your end.

FIRST MAJOR SNOWFALL OF THE SEASON

Earlier in the week, we recieved about 2 inches of Lake Effect snow, which didn't seem to do much and melted away within hours. That changed Thursday night as a blast of Arctic wind shot down from the north, crossing a much warmer Lake Michigan and dumping nearly 8 inches of Lake Effect snow on the region.

This posed a problem. As you can see, D.D. had quite the interesting morning Friday trying to find a place to go potty. We did discover, however, that she is quite the snow dog and has no problem plowing through the snow (or under it!).

So, with the massive snow fall and wet, slippery roads, school was canceled Friday giving us an extra three-day weekend. Becca awoke to the massive blanket covering her backyard and went right out to make her first snow angel of the year.

We hope you all are enjoying the warm weather as we are enjoying winter's first visit to northern Indiana.

Claude and Kasey send a wonderful gift for Rebecca. After the screaming stoped, she jumped right in the tub with her new bathtub duck. It even glows in the dark!

BECCA DANCES THE ELECTRIC SLIDE!

One of the things about the Monster Mash is that Becca enjoys dancing to the sounds of the D.J. Here, Becca grooves with one of Daddy's teacher aides, Mrs. King. Becca was expecting her daycare friend (and son of one of Daddy's teaching colleagues) Cameron, but he never showed.

Of course, I did explain to Becca that Cameron had a brand new baby brother - born just last week - and his family was probably taking a rest.

She informed us that Cameron was still her friend! She added that she was going to let him have it at school tomorrow!

NOTE: For pictures of Becca and Cameron at last year's Monster Mash, go into the archives into the November 2007 posts.