Out of Order

To get the full effect of the last 3 post you will need to read them in order. The correct order is this:

Scouting
Scouting II
Area Play-offs


Now that I am done with basketball, hopefully I will be able to get some more post up here that I have been trying to get up for a while now. Keep your fingers crossed.

Area Play-offs

On Friday evening we went to Fairfield to play Pollok Central. We knew that it was going to be a tough game. They were 29-5 coming in. We had seen them play in person ( see Scouting Post) and we had watched for of their games on film ( see Scouting II post). We knew what they wanted to do. They were going to get in a 2-2-1 press and they wanted to shoot the 3.

We didn't play very well the first half. In the first quarter we committed 10 turnovers. It didn't help that the refs were very one sided. At one point the foul count was 8-1, not in our favor. At the half we were down by 13.

We came out in the second quarter and got down by about 20. Then the kids woke up and decided to give Central a run for their money. We cut the lead back to 13 by the end of the 3rd quarter. We continued that run in the fourth quarter. We ended up scoring 29 in the fourth. The kids played their hearts out. They never gave up and just kept fighting. They did this in spite of the refs who never got any better. We tied the game up with about 25 seconds left but we just couldn't quite get over the hump. We ended up losing 74-70. Our kids played with a lot of fight in that second half. It would have been easy to fold it up and pack it in but they never did. We just ran out of time.

This was my last game as a Gatesville Hornet. It has been a great 3 years. Who knows were I will be going from here.

Scouting II

The second scouting trip trumps the first one.

We played our Bi-District Playoff game against Hutto in Burnet on Wednesday the 21st. We hung on to beat them by 6. It was not easy. They we off from the 3 point line in the second half. They had a kid that took 2 steps across half court and hit a three. It was unreal.

On the way home from that game the coaching staff was talking about who might be able to give us film on Pollok Central. We knew that the coach in Carthage would be able to give us two games and the coach in Crockett would be able to give us two games. We got back to Gatesville at around 11:30 that night. By 12:45 we were in a school van on our way to Carthage, TX. Agian, if you don't know where that is you might want to go to Yahoo Maps. This was another 4 hour one way trip.

We got into Carthage around 5:00 am. There were long stretchs on the road were we saw more deer than cars. For over an hour we saw 9-10 deer and 0 cars. Once we got to Carthage we found a little diner and had some breakfast and then we went to the high school and picked up two films. We watched these two games on our way to Palestine. In Palestine we met a coach from Crockett and picked up two more game films. We watched these two games on our way back to Gatesville. We got back to Gatesville around 11:00 am. This was just in time to get ready for our athletic period. After 5th period we tried to take a little nap on the training tables but they are about the most uncomfortable things ever.

After laying there for about an hour we got up an got ready for our after school practice. That was one of the longest days I have had in a while. We were just hoping that saying up for 40+ hours was all going to be worth it.

We played Pollok Central on Friday night in Fairfield.

Scouting

This is going to be the first of a couple of post that should have happened a while ago so prepare yourselves.

The Gatesville Hornets made the basketball playoffs this year. We ended up second in our district so we played the 3rd place team from district 18. That team ended up being Hutto. We went to watch them play a play-in game on Friday the 16th. They beat Rockdale by about 25-30. On our way home from that game we ( the coaching staff) were talking about what we were going to need to do in order to get ready for out second round opponent. Not that we were over confident but we wanted to be ready should we beat Hutto. We knew that our next opponent would be a Pollok Central. We like to pronounce it Polock but I don't that is how you really say it. Anyway, they were playing a warmup game the next day in Tatum, TX. We decided that if would be a good idea for us to have practice at 7:00 am that Saturday morning and then drive out to Tatum to watch them play Roosevelt. If you don't know where Tatum is, I suggest you look it up.(Yahoo maps) Needless to say it is nowhere near Gatesville ( 4 hours away one way).
The plan was to watch the four films that we had on Hutto on the trip out there and back. We took my 13" TV/VCR combo and a power inverter. Once we got into the van we realized that the power inverter-TV setup was not working. After the game we stopped at a Wal-mart and got another Inverter. It didn't work either. So we went back into Wal-mart and bought a power inverter that you can hook up to a car battery and we bought a car battery. We thought that this was about the most redneck thing we could think of. Once we got it out to the van it didn't work either. Just as we were about to give up, our head coach took the first inverter plugged it into the second inverter and hooked the second inverter up to the car battery. For some unknown reason this worked. We got to watch all of the video on the way home. I actually took a video of it on my phone just to make sure people believed the setup that we had going. This was just the first scouting trip we went on. I think the second one was better.

Laura Winkler, RN

Yes, it's true, I passed boards and I am unofficially an RN (something about the Texas Board of Nurse Examiners verifying it before it's official, bureaucratic red tape). I will have RN on my badge for work soon and I can keep my job with babies! I've come to love the royal blue scrubs of Presby.

MyHeritage Fun

I ran across this website, MyHeritage, that matches pictures with celebrities (Thanks, Whitney). They are pretty entertaining.

Here's mine (I laughed pretty hard that Queen Latifah and I are a 60% match):

Thomas, I promise I don't see Jessica Simpson when I look at you...
And then I thought it would be fun to try the mustache picture of Thomas, hoping Jessica Simpson would be eliminated:

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures. The valuable time you have wasted does not compare to the time I have wasted putting these together. Have a good one!

PS: Someone needs to bug Thomas to post pictures of his Christmas excitement (sitting in an Apache helicopter and playing a basketball game at the American Airlines Center).

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year! We ended up continuing the Christmas celebration until New Year's Eve and loved every minute of it. We spend Christmas Eve in Dallas and went to the Children's Mass at St. Bernard (I always enjoy watching the kids in there angel and shepard costumes). Here's a family picture and one with Lorie and Matt.

Festivities in Walburg began with fireworks by Jason on Jan 30th and then Christmas with the Winkler's New Year's Eve. It is always fun opening presents and ducking so you don't get pegged in the head with a ball of wrapping paper (Thanks Thomas and Jason!!). We then got a little creative with the plethora of Toyata vehicles parked in the garage and driveway. (I'm not sure who came up with the idea but it was a good one) Someone needs to foward these picture to the marketing people at Toyota, anybody know someone?

We continued New Year's Eve with the Walburg fireworks show and homemade waffles afterward. We may have to make a tradition of holiday waffles, they sure were good! 2007 has already brought us good memories and great opportunities. We hope there are many more for us, our family and friends. Bob emailed me this New Year's Wish and I thought it was great:

My Wish for You in 2007

May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires and may happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had, forget your home address!
In simple words ............May 2007 be the best year of your life!!!

Laura Catherine Winkler, BSN

I'm finally done with undergrad! It flew by and, man, was it hard but worth every minute. I was pinned by the school of nursing on Dec 15th and graduated from UMHB on Dec 16th and finally posting the good news almost a month later. The picture below is my nursing school pin and cords. I was so glad to have my family there for the celebration.

Here's many of my classmates after graduation. And my friend Katie, who graduated from A&M and got her second bachelor's too.

Needless to say, things have been a little crazy since the end of school. But we made it through the holidays and basketball tournament are here now and I will be starting my new job at Presbyterian tomorrow. I will be working with the babies in the Special Care and Admission Nurseries. I am very excited about beginning the internship, working with babies and the paycheck will be nice.

Movie Wish List

As most people know, we have an extensive movie collection. Well, the DVD shelf is beginning to overflow and the VHS's are just collecting dust. We've decided to get rid of the VHS and slowly replace them with DVD. The list of these movies and movies that we want is below. I'm going to try to have a permanent link to this post and keep the list updated. So, if there is ever a question of what to get Thomas and I for a gift, just come here and you know we'll be happy.

Here's the list (*= replacing VHS campaign):

10 Things I Hate About You*

America's Sweethearts*

Animal House*

Armageddon*

As Good As it Gets*

Beaches*

Blazing Saddles*

Cocktail*

Coyote Ugly*

Cruel Intentions*

The Cutting Edge*

Double jeopardy*

Empire Records*

Enemy at the Gates*

A Fish Called Wanda*

Heart & Souls*

Jerry Maguire*

Legally Blond*

The Little Rascals*

The Mask of Zorro*

Maverick*

Monty Python and the Holy Grail*

Newsies*

Notting Hill*

Pay it Forward*

Playing by Heart*

Rules of Engagement*

The Saint*

The Sixth Sense*

Smoky and the Bandit*

Thomas Crown Affair*

The Wedding Planner*

When Harry Met Sally*

The Usual Suspects*

Defense

We played Elgin on Monday night and it was ugly. The JV lost by about 15-20. It was some of the worst defense that I have ever seen. We had no effort and not heart. I felt like it was last year again. Then the Varsity came out and were down 16-0 in the first 4 minutes. They fought back and ending up losing by 3 in overtime. The battled hard but came up just short.

Today we went to Cameron. They are just as athletic as Elgin was. The JV jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead. I thought that maybe we would be alright. Before I knew it we were down by 10. We got down by 16 in the third and were down 12 at the end of the third. It was more of the same from Monday. We just were not giving any effort on the defensive end. There was one point in the third quarter that I didn't see that game for about 45 seconds because I had my head in my hands. IT WAS BAD. In the 4th quarter something clicked with our kids. They started getting after Cameron and we outscored them 23-5 in the 4th. They didn't even have a field goal in the quarter. Just 5 free throws. We ended up winning by 6. It was awesome but I think it took a year off my life. That last quarter was about as hard as I have ever coached. I was physically drained after the game. Then I had to go to the Varsity game and help coach that one as well. They handled Cameron pretty easily. They ended up winning by 14. Next Tuesday we have to go to Glen Rose. Last year they beat our Varsity by about 30. Hopefully we will play a little bit better this year.

Enough for now...

We don't want to cause eye strain for any of our fans by having to read too many new posts. Hopefully it will not be another 3 months before we post again. I've got 27 days until I get pinned and 28 days until I graduate! If the house is a rockin', don't bother knockin', just come on in!

Basketball season

Well it is that time of year again. Basketball season is here. There were times during football that I thought it would never come. We kicked of the season this weekend with a sub-varsity tournament in Whitney. I was not sure what kind of team I was going to have but I thought anything would be better than last year.
I thought that our first game was supposed to be against a team from a juvenile detention facility but it turned out that we had to play Fairfield instead. We were down most of the game but the kids fought back and we ended up winning 46-42. The next day we played Stephenville. We got down early in this game as well. In the third quarter we were down by 14. Once again the kids fought back but we ran out of time. We ended up losing by 48-47. Our game on Saturday was supposed to be and easy win. We played Whitney and during the whole tournament their Varsity coach kept telling me how bad their JV was. He was right. We jumped out to a ten point lead. In the 4th quarter the whole thing fell apart. We were outscored 23-8 in the 4th. According to dad the fans were wanted me throw out of the last game after I was arguing with the ref about his decision to eject one of my players after a hard foul. Overall, it was a rough weekend for Gatesville basketball. Hopefully the season gets better as it goes on.

Dad's 60th Birthday Party

Happy Pirate Party, Dad!
It was a good time, that will never be repeated (really, it won't, the building burned down the following Monday).

Lake Day at Dawn's

I know everyone is worried that nursing students are all work and no play, well this post shows we do take a break every once in a while. My friend Dawn's parents have a house on Lake Travis (we think) and occasionally we get down there and relax.
From left to right: Shannon, Alan, Katie Childress, Tricia and Dawn (we will excuse the burnt orange on the website just this once)











They stuck all the Aggies together. Lance and Katie are on the right and we're on the left (yes, that's an Aggie joke...)



Lance, this one's for you. I hope you enjoyed it because you surely got in trouble for getting back in the boat wet.

State Fair of Texas

Thomas, Jason, Bethany, my mom and dad and I went to the State Fair. We ate everything we couldfind that was fried (PB&J&banana sandwich, Coke, Corn Dog, Texas Twisters, Donkey Tail (hot dog in a tortilla)). We then walked it off (well, some of it) by watching the knife salesman and all the "As seen on TV" things you can't live without and looking at the new cars we wish we could have. We skipped the livestock because we can see all of the animals we need at the Winkler Farm. Jason and I rode one ride and it was a blast, it left us not knowing top from bottom.










We also crammed into the big ferris wheel. The view is always cool regardless of how many times you ride.

Graham at 4 months, 3 months ago

It sure had been a busy fall for the Winkler's. I did not even remeber taking these pictures of Graham. He's already sitting up on his own and eating real food instead of his hands.

I'm sure he does ask every once in a while if he could have some "Thomas fingers" for a snack.

Pretty Flower

Mom, here's a picture of a flower on the plant you sent to tropical Temple, TX for a vacation for some rest and relaxation. We're taking good care of it at Hotel Winkler.

Mustache

A while ago I had a little facial hair. I liked it and Laura was very much against it(along with my mother). I decided that I would make her happy and shave it. However, I wanted to see how a little mustache would look first. This is the result of that little experiment.

Sully

Well something has happened to Bob. The man who swore he would never have an animal in the house went out and bought a puppy that he is going to keep in the house. I think it is because he is going to miss Cheryl's cat when she moves to Madison. He will probably tell you that is not the case. Anyway here are a couple pictures of said dog. His full name is Lawerence Sullivan Ross Winkler. He is a little blond beagle.

The Hornets are Rollin'

The Fightin' Hornet football team is on a roll. We beat up on the Taylor Ducks this past Friday. Sorry Mark, but I had no idea we would play that well. We were missing several players and still managed a 49-10 win. Our guys played their second best game all year. The best was against Cameron. We start district play this Friday. We visit the Lorena Leopards this coming Friday. We should blow them out but who knows.