Thursday, February 26, 2009

Basketball Part 3

Oh Boy. Newspaper clippings. Internet sports forums. We are not like normal married people. Now we are talking only in brackets. You know the ones....this team plays this team, the winner plays this one, etc. All the "what if's" and scenarios in every which direction we can think of them and how they will be played out. We are this close. The boys can taste it.



On Tuesday we scratched the idea of a bus and loaded up into comfortable car pool vehicles and drove our team North to Woodburn. We hit the factory outlet malls for some good deals and some nerve diversion therapy. Scoring good loot is always soothing to the soul, right? We arrived at Country Christian School with plenty of time for the boys to shoot around and get the nerves worked out. Their school packed one side of the gym and slowly but steadily our fans arrived. We had 63 people show up to represent our cheering squad and our voices were definitely outnumbered, but our spirit was not! The Warriors didn't start the game off too well, we quickly were down by 14 points at the first 4 minutes of the game but we picked away until we got to within 6 points of the Cougars at half time. By the middle of the 4th quarter we had tied the game. It was back and forth for a very tense 3 minutes of game time until we tied them again with 0.9 of a second remaining. We took it into overtime and won by 7! Our boys worked so hard for that win. After the game we celebrated with our loyal fans at Denny's and hit a hotel to catch some sleep before heading home Wednesday.



Now we do it all again tomorrow. Traveling north to a little town called Mowhawk. It's down to 16 teams across the state and after tomorrow, only 8 will remain and head to Baker City for the playoff games. Out of 75 teams in our class 1A division we have made it to the sweet 16. The first time in our team's history to make it to the 2nd round of Regional games. The best New Hope has ever done in basketball! Howard is so excited he can't contain himself. And if you thought he had it bad during my post about his nerves, he has only just begun! Today already, the air around him is thick with intensity. Sounds of another language being spoken during incoming calls from all over the state to his cell phone....coaches giving their advice about Mohawk and their two cents about strategy. You would think this was March Madness. Oh, wait, it will be next week!



If there was ever a time to get excited about a sports event, now is the time. It's the end of the 3rd quarter and we are heading into the 4th. This team is having the time of their life and I think Howard just might be too.



Go, Warriors, Go!



Mandy



Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Commercial Break

We won!! Now sitting at a hotel lobby waiting for my laundry to dry. Had to post that we won our first game of the State Regional Games in Salem.
We are onto the next round Friday. I will post when we get back home with all the pertinent details. Thanks for cheering!

Mandy

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Basketball Part 2

Fried bread. Hot dogs. Gatorade. Popcorn. Bubble gum. Corn nuts. Soda. Burgers. Chocolate. Nachos. Corn dogs and Quesedillas. You name it, we ate it, or sat next to someone who ate it.

Friday and Saturday were jam packed basketball days. We played our first District Tournament game on Friday and lost by 9 points. Some of the boys nerves and attitudes got the best of them and we struggled to get past some bad calls by the fellows in black and white stripes. But our boys stuck with it and learned from their mistakes. We pulled out a good win Saturday night and placed 3rd in the District Tournament. Three of our boys were awarded either tournament or all league awards or both. We are very proud of our basketball team and all that they have accomplished this season. These boys are a great bunch of kids on and off the court. Howard really loves watching these young men grow up and work hard for what they believe in. Even though there are times he would like to knock their heads together, they really are outstanding teens that are a far cry from the norm these days.

So the warriors are heading to Salem on Tuesday to play the first Regional game which is a division of the state tournament. We are playing another Christian school that we played during our pre-season. We beat them at that time but they apparently were missing a key player. Should be a good tight game and a great experience for our boys and coaching staff.

It's almost half time. Enjoy the airplane toss, 50/50 raffle and a poorly copied version of "Back in Black" while we gear up for another quarter. I'll post another basketball commentary on Wednesday when we return home from our road trip. Hopefully it's a write up on the 3rd quarter and not a final score. Say a prayer for my brave soul as I, for the first time in 5 or more years, dive head first into a bus load of teenage male athletes and their crazy fans for a long trip north. My zune will be fully charged and my novel close at hand. Hopefully these two pieces of sanity will drown out the chaos.

Now take a potty break and go eat a frito pie! It's officially half time.

Mandy

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Basketball Part 1

Oh, I never thought I would see the day when I would allow this huge portion of our life to interject itself into my blog. I thought this little corner of my world would be basketball free....but since the BB word has been dropped a few times already..... and since Howard's team is doing so well....I guess I better pay tribute where it's due. Here goes....

It's game time Warriors.

"Pink Panther" "Brick House" "Eye of the Tiger" "Na,Na,Na,Na, Hey,Hey,Hey...Goodbye" "Mission Impossible" When basketball and pep band collide...these songs become ingrained in your head at the most inconvenient times, which is often these days. Howard's basketball team is gearing up for the District Tournament this weekend. Today a practice, tonight a team dinner, Friday a school pep rally, Friday night the first big game and Saturday night the second game.

Translation: a whole lot of laundry going on in our house this weekend!

Depending on where they place in the tournament..decides if we travel on Tuesday to the Salem area or host a regional home game. A regional home game would be a first ever for us. So would a trip to the state tournament, and these boys are close. With a little more hard work, they will see it happen.

(Interject History lesson here) Our gym has been the talk of the league for a couple of decades. Sometime in an era past, someone decided that burnt orange was a great color of carpet. FOR THE GYM FLOOR. For almost 2o years our sports teams have been playing on orange industrial carpet. Rug burn and bacteria euphoria! A few years ago teams began to refuse to play at our gym. The league forced us to find another gym to host all of our home games on, which meant that we played at local churches, the boys club, and elementary and middle schools. Two seasons ago our school raised enough money with a matching grant to install a real hardwood gym floor. We have been able to host games at our gym again for the past two seasons and the crowd just keeps growing!

So with this history lesson in mind, the local newspaper decided to do a featured article on our gym and the ever growing crowd and winning season of our boys basketball team. They did a great write up and blew our cover a bit. Howard likes to lay low for the most part. He likes the surprise attack idea. Not too much attention, no ranking. Just a little swoop in and sound win. That's how he likes to roll, at least on the outside. At home, he is a bundle of nervous energy...replaying video's of past games and taking notes for upcoming practices, reading playbooks, spending countless hours on the phone. (Not countless, they show up on the cell phone bill, so someone is counting). Months of hard work, in preparation for two final weeks of post season play. My friend Michelle and her family come to watch games quite frequently. Michelle gets her entertainment out of watching Howard jump around, and the rest of her family watches the actual game. Howard can get pretty animated without realizing it during an intense game.

The air is thick around our house. You can feel the intensity and the warm up music hasn't even started. So much prep work for 32 minutes of game time. I'll update when the weekend is over.

End of 1st quarter....

Mandy

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's Day

**UPDATE**

For those wondering, you can read the comments attached to this post. Chocolate covered strawberries aren't so good 4 days later. But the construction paper and glitter card came out great. Equal to something I made in 3rd grade. It's been years since using glitter so I really did impress myself. On a side note, Howard saw this post as I was updating my blog and mocked me for a while after reading it. He said the picture looked like I was getting ready to "bite him in the neck and drag him in the weeds". But then I think he felt bad for mocking me because I found two new songs added to my zune the next morning. "I'm Still a Guy" and "Little Moments" by Brad Paisley.

Guess he loves me.



I tend to think Valentine's Day is over-rated. I don't know why, It's just not that exciting for me. Seems that it's so commercialized, but then I guess every holiday is for that matter. So I told (or asked) Howard in so many words not to get me anything. I don't really see the point in buying gifts for a holiday I think is over-rated. He said fine and we agreed that we didn't need to exchange gifts. I guess I should explain that it's possible I would feel differently about the holiday if it were not for basketball season. I can probably count on two fingers the number of Valentine's day's that we've actually spent together, alone. Most all other years, Howard is away for a basketball game or I am with him and an entire basketball team on the marked date. Today is no exception, I am home paying bills, Howard is 4 hours away in a tiny town called Powers, coaching the last game of the league season. Playoff's start next week, so the season is not over by any means.


But the real reason I started this post is to brag about my husband. Yesterday while preparing to leave for a basketball game, I walked into the bathroom to find one Dove dark chocolate bar, one wrapped red rose and two pieces of computer paper sitting on the counter. Typed out on the papers was a poem Howard wrote. Not some cheesy Valentine's poem you would find in a greeting card... but a serious, thought out, publish-in-a-book kind of poem. Seems that 3 terms of college writing classes paid off. Apparently while staying up late to finish "chemistry homework" he was actually writing. And no.... I'm not about to share it with you. For two reasons, 1) I don't have his permission and 2) It wouldn't make sense to anyone but me. His poem details only things that we would understand about our life since we met. Now I feel like a heal. I didn't even get him a card. I did try, but I waited too darn long and the only cards left were worse than not buying one at all. Valentine's cards about drinking beer are just not funny. Nor do they apply. Thank God for both.


So now it's really late. My husband is still an hour or more away from home and I am getting ready to dip strawberries in chocolate for when he gets home, if I can stay awake that much longer. I'm considering busting out the red and pink construction paper, the Elmer's glue and the glitter and making a card similar to what I made in elementary school. At least it would be original without any undertones of beer drinking. The kids are asleep and they wouldn't even know I was having construction paper fun without them. I'm off to the kitchen ....


Mandy

Love

"But God demontrates His own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:8

Monday, February 9, 2009

Dog Gone




Last Monday, Jordan was sick and stayed with my mom for the day instead of going to school. When I got to grandma's house at the end of the day to pick him up he proudly announced that he had lost a tooth. The rest of the story came out later that my mom's dog got the tooth at some point during the day and had it in his mouth, but they fished it out and rescued the tooth from Titan's jaws.


In all the moving my mom ended up with my jewelry box which she gave back to me on Monday night. Inside was our "tooth star". I painted this little jar that we call our "tooth star" several years ago when Jordan was about 4 and Grant was just a baby. When our kids lose their teeth, they put their tooth in the jar and sit it next to their bed for the tooth fairy to find. It was so exciting to have our famous jar returned on the same day Jordan's tooth fell out.


When we got home Jordan put his tooth in the jar and left it on the kitchen counter. Tuesday morning arrived but there was no dollar bill to be found. The tooth fairy doesn't look on kitchen counters we found out. Bummer. Later that night I heard a scuffle in the kitchen. When I walked in Carter had been playing on the floor with the "tooth star"and the tooth was missing. When I asked him where the tooth was he pointed at our dog and said "Warren ate it". This poor tooth was destined for a dogs mouth! I swept the whole floor but never found it. I'm sure it's long gone in the intestines of the dog, and by now the backyard. That night Jordan put the star by his bed. Here is what the tooth fairy found.....


She might not look on kitchen counters but she does make exceptions! Cha-ching. Saved by the note! I love my kids. They crack me up sometimes.

Mandy