Little Choices

It was nice of the Drama Queen to bail me out last night. Yeah, I was definitely tired. We knew going in that we wouldn't have Teach to play the game with us because she had not been able to get anyone to work for her and the schedules were made up long before we knew when the game would be. That took us down to six players. Then one of our ladies had a family party and although she was finished just after nine, she didn't have the address to the church and since my phone was in my coat pocket and not on my person, I didn't get her message until the game was long over.

So we were five. I had a Tupperware party across town at 6:00 and I got to my house at 18 minutes to nine. I still had to change and I hadn't eaten anything, so I grabbed one of my sweetie's green biscuits (it was Dr. Seuss day!) and headed out the door. I got to the church about 4 minutes before the game started. For a minute it looked like we might forfeit after all, but our fifth player walked in right after we had the opening prayer.

The first quarter was OK, we held it together and even though we weren't stellar, we finished the quarter 8 - 20. Things went severely downhill from there. We made one basket in each of the next three quarters and finished a dismal 37 - 14. It was pretty pathetic. I only made one shot all night and it definitely wasn't a three although it was outside the key, so I guess that's good. That also means we are out of the tournament.

I'm the one on the left with the apron jersey thing

Honestly, I wasn't even going to tell you about it, but since somebody asked...I guess at my age I probably shouldn't even be playing basketball, but I sure love the game and my body craves (and needs!) the exercise. Did I ever tell you that I played on the high school team for two years? I loved being part of the team although I could have done without the 6:00 AM practices (you know I'm not a morning person). I played my freshman and sophomore years and as part of the Junior Varsity, I got to dress for the Varsity games, although I only got to play in a couple of them.

We weren't an awesome team but we did OK. I wore the number 24. Then when I was registering for my junior year, I had a choice to make. It was to try to earn my associates degree before I graduated from high school or to continue playing basketball. Yeah, you guessed it, I went with the school route. And I did it, I graduated from Snow College and Manti High school at the same time. That was the days before they allowed classes to count for credit at both schools. I was actually on an academic scholarship and a newspaper scholarship at Snow during my senior year in high school. It was like I was a split personality. I tried really hard to keep my two lives separate and basketball just didn't fit.

#24 that's me!

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like had I chosen basketball instead of school. One thing I know for sure...I would never have met my sweetie. He would have graduated and been gone from Snow before I got there. It's good that things work out just the way there are supposed to...now if I can just figure out why we got trounced in last night's game...

Guest Blogger - Tired... by Drama Queen

Hey all, blogger world.  So, dear Mum is tired tonight.  Now, let me preface this a bit.  Remember her mentions last week about how incredibly busy she is?  My mom is not easily swayed towards heading off to bed...especially without her blog done.  Mom plays church ball.  She does it for fun...but not everybody does.  So tonight was pretty rough on her.  I think she said that they had no subs and so everyone was on their feet the whole game.

At this point in the night, I can't even quite remember if Mom has told y'all yet, but our family is in the middle of quite the challenge. From Mardi Gras to when the kids get their spring break (so five weeks) all but the three youngest of us are off treats. Now...this doesn't sound like a big deal, but we have found that it is.  And it's a good thing!  I've found my biggest weakness (aside from chocolate cravings which have yet to go away) is the snitching.  You know what I mean...making the baby a chocolate milk, if a little extra syrup spills on your finger, what do you automatically do?  Yeah.  No sneaky licks for us.

Also with that, we're all trying to exercise more.  So..enjoy these cute pics of all the kids at the park.

And maybe our next challenge will be getting more sleep, huh?

So Did We Win?

OK, I want to confess up front that if you were hoping for pictures of me playing basketball, it's just not going to happen. Nobody but the teams actually attend the women's games. All those kids would be too distracting for the moms on the floor.

Instead I'm sharing pics of my Jr. Jazz team. Crafty is on the bottom right in the pink shirt. The second pic is Scout's cute little team. She is #5.

I know you are just dying to find out about the tournament, right? So half my team got lost on the way to the church. The woman in charge actually called me when we were about 3 minutes away and asked me if we were coming...

I assured her that we should probably stay home, but we would definitely be there before 8:00. And we were...we walked in the door at 7:58. They nicely gave us a couple of extra minutes to put together our roster and warm up. Six of us were there. The only one missing was Bossy. She and I have been sharing the point guard position this year, so that was not a good thing.

We got out on the floor and the Daybreak team took the toss. Things were not looking good. By the end of the 1st quarter we had only thrown three shots and none of them went in. The score was 10 - 0. That's about the time Bossy walked in.

We decided to play the second quarter with both of us on the floor. The first shot she put up missed the mark but I got the rebound and tossed it in. The next two possessions were the same. Then she threw in an awesome three-pointer from about six feet outside the line! I think that shook them up a bit. Suddenly they were only up by three at the half.

Bossy and I met up quickly in the restroom during the break. We might actually be able to win this game, but then we would have to forfeit tomorrow night's game for sure. Teach had to work and I had a Tupperware party at 6:00. That left only five players and that was assuming every one else would be able to come.

The rest of the team didn't realize the dilemma we were in. We played the third quarter with the same intensity except for "yours truly" was the one to throw in the amazing three-pointer! (I think I was more surprised than anyone else...I've never made a three-pointer in a real game before.)

We finished up the third quarter still down by 3. I took a quick breather and Teach racked up a total of six points. With three minutes to go, the game was still close. I called for a time-out and subbed myself back in. That's when Bossy pulled us all into a close huddle and explained the situation...that a win would likely mean a forfeit Friday night.

Always loyal, my team dropped it down a notch and we lost 31 - 22. But the game was so fun! If you remember my whining from yesterday, I expected us to take a beating and it wasn't like that at all. And these ladies were good sports too. The only dose of humble pie for me was when I was fouled on the shot and totally missed both foul shots.

I'll let you know how things work out tomorrow. I may even think to ask Bossy to snap a pic on her cell phone...but I probably won't, that's what I love about basketball, when I'm playing the game, I don't have enough brain cells to think about anything else.

Basketball Tournaments

Today is the start of our Women's Church Basketball tournament. In past years when we've been pretty competitive, I've been very excited about this day. This year I'm just dreading it. Maybe it's my age or maybe it's just that I'm pretty heavy, but the idea of playing a bunch of 20-something-year-olds is just not all that appealing.

As luck would have it, our first game is with the very best team in the league, Daybreak A. We only have 7 players from our entire stake. They have three full teams (at least!) that made it to the playoffs. Now I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because this is not what I wanted to tell you about. I wanted to talk about another basketball tournament when I was a little younger...OK, I was a lot younger...

That's me on the left...the humble one.

It was 1979. I was 14 years old and it was about this time of year. We didn't really have youth basketball except what was sponsored by 4H. My dad was all about basketball, so I thought maybe he would like me a little better if I decided to enter the tournament. I showed up early in the morning at the Activity Center ready to compete in the one-on-one tournament.

I was excited and nervous. I had played some church ball and playground ball with my brothers, but I had never been on a team. I pulled on my shirt and headed for the gym with a girl named Robyn who was a year younger than me. We messed around for a bit, shooting hoops and waiting for the other girls to arrive. She was a much better shooter than I was...

After about half an hour, it became evident that no one else was coming. The 4H ladies crowned us the champs and the newspaper snapped our picture. Robyn and I just sort of looked at each other. Winning had been a little easier than we had expected...

The next weekend we were scheduled to play with the champs from the other towns in our area. The girl from Gunnison had about 6 inches on me and she had actually PLAYED basketball. I didn't stand a chance. In fact, I'm pretty sure I went down scoreless. Nothing like a big dose of humility...

I'll have to remember that lesson later tonight.