KG's Hideaway

Last night Ryan's team got off to a great start in the basketball tournament by beating Conroe 51-43. Ryan scored 24pts, had 16 rebs, 6 steals and 4 assists. I was pretty happy with her game, but there's always room for improvement! LOL

Craig and I will be hitting the outlet mall in Hillsboro either on our way back or between games. (If they win the 11am game they don't play again until 6pm) Just get me set up with a cup of coffee and I'll be ready to spend hours spending money! Yippee

Other than that, there's really nothing going on. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero.

Posted by at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Austin finally got a new job. Finally!! He'll be building radio towers, making ALOT of money. I'm floored at what they'll be paying him, and right now it's all on the ground so he won't have to climb anything unless he wants to get certified. (I vote NO on that!) He'll be making as much money as several people I know. He's really excited and is looking forward to starting next week. Personally, I'm glad he can start paying off the money he owes, but that's another story for another day.

I've got to go shopping for me neice. My sister can't afford clothes for her so I pretty much buy everything. I gave away all the baby clothes I had here because she's outgrown almost everything but I still need to go to my sister's house and go through all that stuff. Otherwise it'll just sit there and she doesn't have room at her house for stuff she doesn't need.

Today Ryan's basketball team starts another tournament. This one is in Waco, so we've got about an hour and a half drive each way, each day. Not too bad. This is usually a good tournament, so it'll just be a matter of whether or not they play well after being off for 4 days. They had a practice yesterday but Ryan didn't say how it went.

Posted by at 11:25 AM | Permalink

Today was hard. I hate days when I have to say goodbye to DeMarcus... it's just so painful. I can't describe it. It has to be done, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

The pain is evident with him as well. I always cry... always. This time I kept most of it in check because he hates it when we cry. Ryan did ok until she saw me crying then she let the tears go rolling down her cheeks.

So for right now my heart is heavy. He starts track season in two weeks (he's a high jumper at Oral Roberts Univ) so we probably won't see him until April. That sucks.

Posted by at 9:26 PM | Permalink

Christmas turned out good around here this year. No hospitals, no doctors, nothing bad. All in all, I'm a happy camper (and that doesn't happen very often!!)

We went to my mom and dad's house last night and my mother cooked her awesome spaghetti. Yeah, I know... not the typical Christmas dinner, but it's something that my brother, sister and I haven't had in a while.

My sister was a no show, but that was just because she's pissed at my mother and decided to act like a 12 year old. I'm not getting involved.

I always have pictures of the kids on here so for Christmas, it's just the dogs.

Here's Woody laying in front of the tree. From this angle the tree looks like it's falling over. Weird. Anyway, this is my baby. I loooooooooooooooove this dog. I mean, I love them both, but Woody has this eery way of understanding when people are talking. He responds to EVERYthing!

(He was finally able to relax after the first batch of presents had been handed out. Once the rest of these presents have been given out, my tree is coming down!!! Hopefully, these won't take long to find a home!)

Here's Jade. When Craig put the antlers on her she didn't even budge... didn't faze her at all. She cracks me up.

Hope everyone's having a great holiday. Peace!

Posted by at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I told Craig the other night that I'm really having trouble remembering things. It's seriously getting bad. In fact, I cracked a joke that, "I'd have been bulemic but my A.D.D. kicked in and I forgot to throw up!" He died laughing, so then I started laughing and it wasn't until about an hour later that I remembered we'd been in the middle of me talking about my forgetfulness. Pathetic.

Now, what did I want to post about?

Posted by at 4:56 PM | Permalink

I've got to buy groceries today and clean out my nasty "fridge." I hate having to do that, it just turns my stomach... no clue why. Old food, if it's more than a day old makes me want to throw up. Blech.

From this time of year all the way through July it's pretty much nothing but basketball, except for March through May also has track season going on at the same time. I love it though- I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's the team. Ryan's on the back row... far left
View image

Last night, Ryan had another big game. She scored 25 points, bringing her average to 22 points a game. That's huge, and something she really needs to keep up. The downside to it is that most of her shots are well outside the paint and because of that her rebounds are down (because offensively she isn't getting inside even when she isn't shooting). She's still posting up strong, though.

She had SIX steals last night. She fronts the press, which is NOT common at all but she's very fast, especially for a post. (It was only this past year when she stopped running hurdles in track, if that tells you anything.) Anyway, we jumped out to such a lead that the coach sat Ryan and our starting point guard, having only let them play 14 minutes of the game. We won by 46 points. Not fun. I hate games like that because I don't ever like seeing a team get beat down... it's horrible. On the flip side, all of our girls played well and it was nice to see the girls who don't get to play much spend time on the court.

Posted by at 6:24 AM | Permalink

I'm feeling SO lazy today. I've got stuff I need to do, but there's no way I'm going to. I'm just being honest with myself. Why bother lying? I'd just hate myself later. LOL

We've been busy trying to sort Ryan's college letters. I'm going out of my mind. Here's a look at them. She's on her 4th notebook full of them!! Notice the dogs laying there? ridiculous!

Tonight Ryan has a game, so I'm looking forward to that. I always do... no real surprise there. My big dilemna is trying to figure how just how lazy I want to be between now and then. She has a shoot around between 11am and noon, so I could run up to Kohl's and do some shopping I guess. I still haven't gotten Craig andthing and really don't have a clue WHAT to get him. He's getting a new golf membership courtesy of the Company so I can't even do THAT for him this year. I got him a seriously expensive set of woods a few years ago and then last year when the new N!ke drivers came out, his best friend hooked me up with a smokin' hot deal on one so I bought that for him. Basically, there's nothing new for golf I can get him... he's got it. And golf if all he cares about.

So I don't have a damn clue. It's the same way about all the kids really. Kyra won't tell anyone what she wants, Austin and Ryan want pretty much everything. Craig says he wants nothing. How the hell do you buy for people like this? Incomprehensible.

I'm going to Tulsa to pick up DeMarcus on Friday. I'm so excited to see him. He only gets to stay until Tuesday though, so that kinda sucks. I miss him when he's gone though so I'll take the three days as opposed to none. Here is a pic of him from when we took him to Chicago with us this year. He is FOREVER putting on baby lotion to keep his skin "silky smooth!"

Posted by at 9:46 AM | Permalink

We just got back from Ryan's game and OMG I don't even know what to say. She was SO upset after Tuesday's game where she only scored 10pts. It wasn't so much the points (she was high scorer) but she just played like crap... and they lost. If I'm being honest I'd have to say she played the worst of the posts (centers).

ANYway, so today they really needed a win for their second district game. Without it they'd be in hot water. Ryan came out SCREAMING. 8pts in the first 2.5 minutes. But she also got two quick fouls so the coach pulled her, then put her back in mid-way through the decond quarter. 3rd foul right off the bat. Ridiculous. I could have chewed through the chair in front of me! So she sat until the start of the 3rd quarter. She didn't get another foul until almost the end of the game but she scored 29 points! If she's have made the one free throw she missed it would have been 30. I think her previous record was 23pts.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram Awarded her a game ball in this morning's paper. Here's the article they wrote about her today... it's pretty awesome! (The picture is of the other girl though... not Ryan!)
Anyway, I'm really proud of her today. We'll see how she handles it going into Tuesday's game. That'll be really telling. We shall see!

Posted by at 8:43 PM | Permalink

I haven't felt very good lately again. I know I should go to the doctor, but I just don't want go through more MRI's and more worry and more crap... and mostly I just don't want to worry Craig. Especially if they're just doing to tell me they don't know what's wrong, just that something's wrong. Who needs that? I can tell that just by going through the day. But all in all my life is pretty damn good.

I get tripped up alot of the time by pain or frustration, or some kind of bullshit and I have to be careful about that because sometimes I get in a rut and I let it drag me down.

Craig brought home a massive box of chocolate stuff that one of his clients gave him yesterday. Bad, bad Craig.

Posted by at 7:34 AM | Permalink

I'm SO proud of Craig... you just have no idea! Craig has been waiting for a "vote" from the major bigwigs in his company to find out if he made
"Associate" in the company. He works for one of (if not THE) largest architectual and engineering firms in the nation. You have to have a degree in one of those fields PLUS be licensed.

Craig has none of that. Although he's considering going ahead and taking the 7 architectural license tests so that he can be licensed, because he's got enough work experience to allow him to take them without having the degree. I can't remember how many years you had to have but he's got them and he knows his stuff when it comes to architecture. He doesn't just manage the program... he often gets involved in the drawings even though he stopped being a CADD tech years ago.

So he was told that they don't ever accept people without those degrees when it comes to the voting. He figured they'd say no, but his program in the company is one of the most successful. (He's in charge of a VERY large pharmacy company's development) He has been training the program managers and unit managers all across the nation on their new scheduling stuff, so suffice it to say he knows what he's doing.

Anyway, he was really down last night because he knew the vote was today but he didn't think he'd hear the results until Friday when the list comes out. But two people (his boss and one of the BEST architects) sent him a congratulatory email that he got on his blackb*rry while with a new client (oops!)

I've always been impressed with his work ethic and initiative- trust me, it's like none other. I knew he'd get it... I've known it since the moment he told me he as nominated. Yay!!

We don't know what it all means except that instead of two bonuses a year he gets 4 and they'll pay for his membership to the country club so he can take clients. I'll take that. That alone will save us TONS! lol

Posted by at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So I cleared out alot of the baby clothes this weekend that don't fit the baby (I don't have a baby, it's for my neice- but I buy most of her clothes) and started organizing the "new" sizes and getting some of the stuff ready to take over to my sister's house and I get a lovely "uh oh" from my son.... "L" thinks she could be pregnant. Crap.

So they go get a test, and it came up negative but I'm not convinced. I told them that it could very easily be a false negative and they need to check it again soon. They both seemed relieved but I bet they won't be relieved enough to make SURE we're not back here again soon.

:sigh:: If I'm honest, I have to say the only reason I'd hate it would be for them. For me, I'd love it but having a baby at this time in their lives could be more than they're able to understand at this age (both around 19... a little over, a little under). Oh well, it'll be whatever it'll be.

Speaking of babies, here's one I found of me as a baby. Holy Crap, where are my eyes? And that joke that baby Suri (Tom and Katie Cruie) could be asian? I bet my parents caught hell, then! Sheesh. Still, the nose is present... 3 posts in a row, THERE it is. ACK!

Craig is out on the golf course today. What an excercise in futulity.

Posted by at 10:02 AM | Permalink

My back hurts a little, but really it just feel like it needs to pop. Maybe if it did then I can go back to sleep. Blah.

I'm having fun with all the old pictures. This one is my mom. This looks like someone from the Little Rascal's or something, IMO. The picture looks SO old but my mom isn't (she's 63- I'm 40 gah!!!) so that's kind of weird. But I love this picture.

And this is a picture of my dad taking a serious pot shot not long before winning the G+lden Gloves Light Heavy Weight Championship. I think my mom said this was either the second or third time he won it. He fought for the T*rrant Country Sherrif's Posse. My Dad's 63 and I guarantee you he could still drop many a guy with his punch. He hits HARD even now. (see where I get my nose? LOok at my picture in the previous post and you'll see!!! Just my luck)
Quick funny story about my dad... in 10 years of serious boxing he NEVER once broke his nose. But he did break it as a kid jumping on a bed. Goober!

Look at his face! He knew it was going to hurt and maybe he was thinking, "Hey, this looks like I'm going to have to try and do it without at LEAST one of my nuts!" I'm going to have fun with my dad's boxing pictures and stuff. There are TONS of newspaper clippings and professional pictures that my grandfather stored away in a box. I have some of my dad's trophies (the rest are in their attic) and then each of us kids has at least once of his championship jackets. But there are so many other things that I'm going to put together for my dad so he'll have it and I'm also going to scan it all in so there'll be digital copies. I'm really excited about all my projects now that my house is in order!

Posted by at 5:07 AM | Permalink

I've been in the process of scanning a bunch of old (OLD) family pictures so that we have a digital copy of them. My mom is giving them to me after I'm done because she knows I'm interested in that stuff and she's happy knowing she can access them whenever she wants and as long as she can at least have a digital copy she's good.

In the process, I stumbled across these two pictures. My Grandparents took us on (at least) two vacations every year. The first was ALWAYS to Rockport, Texas. We called it Goose Island. It's near Corpus Christi if I remember correctly, and we LOVED it because it had this increidibly long pier that we'd go out on with our crab nets (with chicken tied into) and catch crabs. My grandfather (seen in the second picture) would fish while we'd crab, and when we were done we'd head back to the motor home to boil the crabs and fry the fish. Yum! We loved this trip. I'd love to take my kids down there, but I've heard the pier is gone.

Thank God my teeth didn't stay like this... and it didn't even take braces to straighten them out. Who'd have guessed that? I think I must have been about 7 or 8 here.

In the picture below- My brother is the one in the tank top and I'm in the yellow shirt. His 'fro KILLS me!!! My Grandfather's just chillin' with his pipe and his fishin' poles. He was the coolest grandfather ever! He got his leg cut off when he was 10 by hopping a train with his friends, so he had a wooden leg, but it never slowed him down. He rode motorcycles, he built things... he was Superman. I guess I was about 11 or 12 in this picture... it's hard to tell. Just looking at the pictures brings back so many memories. Lord, how I miss my grandparents. They were the BEST and left me with a world of wonderful memories!

Posted by at 2:37 PM | Permalink

Normally, I'm not into cheap shoes. Don't get me wrong, I don't have to have top of the line stuff... unless it's sneakers. Then, I'll only wear Nike$ (and I do own one pair of Adida$) But I'm not big on Payle$$. Most of the time I think they make your feet sweaty, if Ryan and Kyra's feet are any indication, so I won't buy them for myself. I buy mid-range stuff as far as price is concerned when I'm looking at dress shoes ($40-100)

But I'm going to get these for myself today. I saw them yesterday on a poster at Payle$$ when I went to T@rget and I have to have them! The website doesn't do them justice. They are SO pretty, but they didn't have them in my size at this store so they're holding them at another store and I'm going to get them today. Yay! They also have a matching purse. God, I love $hoe$ and accesories!!

Tonight is Craig's company Christmas party. It's at a country club, but this is a game night for Ryan (we never miss!!!) so we're going to her game dressed for the party. This ought to be interesting. Oh well, it is Texas so maybe people think this is just how we do it sometimes!

Y'all have a good weekend! And go buy those shoes.

Posted by at 8:50 AM | Permalink

We lost our game last night and other than Ryan's 19pts, it sucked. Then Craig found this in the Dallas Morning News. (They had Ryan listed as 6ft 0in, so I changed it in here) Anyway, here's the link and the story...

News

E-mail dlance@dallasnews.com
Below is the article from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram... (I couldn't find it online so I took a digital pic of it then posted it here)

That's the kind of crap that will start trouble among team mates. The girls on the team already get pissed off, saying that Ryan is Coach Neff's favorite. She just does what he tells her to do and says "yes sir, and no sir" but they consider that ass kissin'.

Still, I don't like them making it appear as though Ryan is shouldering all the weight for the team. We have a great little point guard (Ashley Stamp) and a pretty decent little shooting guard so surely they can say something nice about them. I was really impressed with one of the twins that never gets to play but who started yesterday and did fine. Maybe we'll have a good year!!!

Posted by at 3:38 PM | Permalink

I fell asleep for a little while after the Cowboy's game. Is it just me or is anyone else noticing how damn cute Tony Romo is? yummm.

Anyway, so now I'm awake at 1:30am because I've got too much on my mind and can't shut it off. It's mostly about Ryan and what to do about the schools wanting her to commit. It'd sure be easy to it done now, but I just think she'll be better off if she waits. No matter what, it's worrying me. A big part of this thing is timing. If we wait too long they may move on to another player. But we want to make sure that we're not getting her sent to a college where there are several players on the team in her position. You have to take into account who they have and how long they'll have them, where they play... and who they're recruiting, so it gets REALLY confusing.

Of course if she doesn't bring up her physics grade that might be a moot point.

Personally, I think she could be holding out for Kansas State. IF they still want her. They send a truckload of letters every week and they say they want her but you never really know. And I need to KNOW... that's the biggest part of why I'm not sleeping well. (Among a few other things)

I'm feeling restless and even lonely though Craig is just a few feet from me. I feel a billion miles away from him right now. I should probably just open up and talk to him about it but when I get like this I seem to clam up. And to top it off, this feeling came out of nowhere. Everything was fine up until about Thursday, then I started getting this restless feeling and find myself waking up in the middle of the night. Bah!

Posted by at 1:44 AM | Permalink

Ryan got a text message from the coach at UNT asking her to call them today. I didn't really think she'd do it because sometimes she can be a little shy, but she came to get my cell phone and call them. When the coach answered Ryan kinda did that, "Ummmmm" so the coach said, "Is this Ryan Green?" So that broke the ice and Ryan spent about half an hour talking to her.

We're going to watch them play SMU at SMU Saturday but they want to get Ryan to UNT before the February game that we're planning to go to. She can use an official visit for it and get out of school but she really wants to see them play at home and see what kind of crowd shows up.

I don't want her to use an official visit for that. UNT is an hour from us, so there shouldn't be any rush. God, I don't know... this is turning into a "Ryan" blog.

In other news this weekend... when I was signing Ryan out after the last game (so she wouldn't have to ride the bus home) I accidentally signed my last name as"Green" instead of Rush. Oops.

Posted by at 4:04 PM | Permalink

They split the games today, too. They won the first one by 25 then lost the second one by 4. Ryan scored 70pts over the four games this weekend scoring more than half of her team's points.

Personally, I'm just glad it's over. One more week til district starts.

Posted by at 5:19 PM | Permalink

Today was the start of the NE Lions basketball tournament that Ryan's school team is in. She knew that UNT and SMU were coming to watch her and she needed to produce... and she came through!

The first game was against Haltom. Ryan had 12pts, 10rebs. Not bad. But in the second game against McKinney she went off! SHe had 22pts! I don't know the rest of her stats to be honest. We were just really excited to see how she reacted on the court. In the first game she was only off the court for the 1st minute of the 4th quater... other than that she was not just playing bur fronting the press. The second game she just played with so much excitement it was hard not to see how much she enjoyed what she was doing.

I talked briefly to the UNT coach but I didn't see SMU today. They may have been there and just not wearing any identifying gear, or it could be that they'll be there tomorrow. I just hope she keeps the energy level up. It was great to watch!

Posted by at 9:16 PM | Permalink