Suns End of Year Party

Before Christmas we were praying for one win, and we ended the season with a winning record of 7-3. It was better than any one of us could expected - especially after that first practice when we had more boys sprawled out on the gym floor after tripping over each other's feet than we did actually playing basketball.

Evan won the prized top scorer with 51 points, and if you would have asked me if I thought that possible back in December, I would have laughed. Evan constantly surprises me.

I asked Coach Tim and Coach Cody if they would be interested in coaching the Suns again next winter, and tonight they asked, "Winter? What about the fall and football?"

Guys after my own heart I tell ya.

See you then, Coaches!

Anthistamine High

There is nothing like a day of living high on antihistamines and cough syrup. I have been lucky enough to have two of these days this week. Although I'm not completely healthy today, I am better than on Wednesday when I was one or two steps away from death. I could blame the sickness on the bad air I inhaled during my flight to Texas last Friday, but I actually think I was the one who brought the diseased air to the plane. I knew something was wrong Friday night when my Whataburger from the I-30 Rockwall location didn't make me want to kiss the Texas soil. 

On another note, the Suns were officially uninvited to Monday's championship game. I don't know how anyone, except for those teams that beat us, could possibly have a better record than us. I have decided the Suns will live on, and next winter the same team, minus five or six players, (okay that would make a new team of three) will rejoin to beat the Nuggets. I know I was pushing the meds pretty hard Thursday night, but I think Evan really did score in the double digits. I even videod the game with my new phone, and then learned I didn't have a data plan that allowed the sharing of videos. I just can't win.

Last, I think we can expect something really big in the coming weeks. I may even go so far as to predict the end times because after four years of fighting the forces that be in the government, my school actually got new air conditioning units. These don't blow mold spores throughout the building. I was even asked if my desk, the desk that only has three legs and sits propped up against a wall with a prayer and roll of masking tape, could be replaced.

My very last point, this week STAR students were announced at the boys' schools. Neither boy has been chosen all year. When I asked Evan why he had not been chosen, he told me the teacher is "trying to pick kids who don't have good homes first so that they feel better about themselves," and Keagan told me, "Don't worry, Mom. Mrs. Banks has to get through all the good kids first, and then it's MY turn."

If I weren't so high on antihistamines and cough syrup, that last statement would worry me.

Narrative Writing

I am posting this so that in June when we are deep into summer vacation, and I pull out the summer vacation journals and require the boys to write, I will have something to remind myself that the torture I'm about to endure with the endless whining, thrown pencils, and desperate cries of "I can't!" does payoff in the long run. This is a story that Evan wrote after the teacher gave him a story starter. It was posted on the teacher's blog in November, and I found it today.

http://maspinwall.blogspot.com/p/podcasts.html

I was so shocked that this was his story, even though I could hear his little voice read it, that I asked, "Evan, are you sure this is a story you wrote? Because copying a story from another book is not writing."

He assures me this is his ending to the story starter, and after he wrote a one sentence essay this week for homework that read, "There are no good leaders in our country," I'm having a hard time believing he has a story with a beginning, middle and end.

Summer journal writing will be taken to a whole nother level come June. 

It's the Lack of Emetrol

This weekend I decided my parenting skills could be called into question when I found all of these events transpired in one week.

1. One of my children, he will remain nameless, spent the entire day Saturday wearing no underwear. It was not by choice; he had nothing clean to wear.

2. At Thursday night's basketball game, I found Keagan's Henry and Mudge book was book marked with a tag from my last bottle of wine. You can read the entire story just a few entries down.

3. At this same basketball game, I clapped and cheered when Evan got his first foul because I felt like his skills as a defensive player far outshined any free throw shots an eight year old could make.

4. My boys downed 12 cups of Itailan ice is 18 hours, and I justified it by claiming the mango flavoring was our fruit for the day.

5. I served Sonic for dinner not once but for two nights this week. The second night, as we awaited our food, Keagan said, "Oh, I know that guy on skates. He served us on our date night, Mom." Yeah, we frequent the Sonic a lot.

I could blame it all on my lack of Emetrol, but I would be remiss if I did not admit that this is pretty much the norm in our house. At this point, my biggest worry, is trying to calculate the soonest date I can stop at Sonic again this week and not have the boy on skates label me as one of his regulars. 

He Said It

This year for Christmas the boys received the new Super Mario Wii game, and when they aren't in the middle of a heavily contested Madden football game, then the boys will play Mario. Tonight Keagan ran into my room with the most serious look on his face and pleaded, "Mom, come pway with us so that we can beat Browser Junior's Brother and move to the next level!"

I replied, "You mean PLLLLAY? Oh, Keagan. You know I don't a thing about playing those games. I would pop your bubble and you would die for sure."

"Mom, I didn't say play. I know you aren't good at the Wii. I said PRRRRRAY. Pray that God would help us defeat the enemy just like we pray at church." 

Emetrol, Reisling, and Book Marks

It's all a bit hazy for me now that it is fifteen years after the fact, but when I was a junior in college, I was under so much stress that I would drink bottles of Emetrol to help ease the queasiness and flu-like symptoms that persited that year. Today I am fairly certain that I had an ulcer, but I had no idea then that you could be 21 and walking around a college campus with stomach ulcers. I mean that was something reserved for fifty something year olds that drank too much and had some high powered position with some top performing company. Or so I thought.

During that year, maybe a couple of times a day, I would guzzle a swig of Emetrol, pop three Advil, and chase them with a swig of diet soda. And the pains ended until they started again.

This week I have longed for a swig or two of Emetrol. I have no idea why the queasiness has returned when life is relatively calm for us right now, but I think my younger son's collection of girls' phone numbers might be one reason. It might also involve that termite inspection bill I received in the mail this week. After that five minute walk-through of my house, I learned pest control businesses must rank in the top ten of top hourly pay. No doubt the inspector is livin' it up right now on some beach without any thoughts of bottles of Emetrol.

With a non-existant supply of meds, I decided a bottle of wine would do the trick. This past weekend I emptied the bottle myself and felt much more relaxed. That was until I noticed Keagan was using the label from my bottle of wine as a book mark in his library book! I shudder to think what his teacher thought this week when he came to school with a bookmark extolling the virtues of a nice Riesling.

Oh my goodness! You guessed it...the queasiness...it has returned. 

Another One Bites the Dust

I almost hate to post this. My superstitions have me believing that if I do, then our winning streak in basketball will come to an end. Just a few weeks ago I prayed for one win; I have since begun to pray about the championship game. This is because I believe in the impossible. I think my encouragement from the sidelines and my constant screams of "Hands Up!" might be the key to our success. We are on a roll with four wins, and I just can't give it all up so easily.

Therefore, my screams of "man up" will continue for at least two more weeks.

Evan's double over time winning shot taken in the last 52 seconds of tonight's game was not captured on film. You may be surprised to learn that in my excitement I had the camera pointing at the court's floor and not on the winning play. One really nice lady offered to share her footage with me, and she even agreed to post the video this evening on facebook. "Friend me," she said over her shoulder. The only problem is I have no idea who she is.

This will have to do for now - until we win our spot in the championship game that is.