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Well, any day now they will be announcing the top 100 McDonald's All American. They finally put the full list of nominees out and its a longshot for Ryan to make the short list. (see Texas) She's played against alot of these girls and they are all AMAZING. Four kids from the Crowley ISD made it, but all the other 3 are boys and they go to North Crowley. (blech)
Its so cliche to say that its an honor just to be nominated, but that's what she said!!
Christ Almighty, my mouth hurts! I had four teeth worked on yesterday and one of them is below the root canal that the dentist had to refund my money on, so when those two teeth meet I just can't stand it!
I tried to make myself feel better yesterday by doing some shopping. It helped, but not a whole lot. I got a CUTE shirt, pair of slacks, a pair of cropped yoga pants, and a pair of jeans. Last week I bought a pair of shoes, two shirts and some bras, so I'm really done shopping for now. (Like for a month, maybe!)
Ryan's game went ok Tuesday night, but it was almost a disaster. Cleburne is the ONE team who has beatenus this year so even though they were sitting in third place we really wanted to beat them and clinch 1st place. We came out pretty slow but had a slight lead through the first half. Ryan only had 5 points at the end of the half and her limping was noticeable. I started wondering if the coach should have let her play. When they came out for the second hald Ryan was on fire both defensively and offensively. BUT we were only up 4 points with three minutes to go when our coach went into a stall. One of our girls fouled them and made one of her free throws, leaving us up by 3. With only 5 seconds to go they inbounded the ball, the girl turned and threw up a shot from about 6 ft behind the three point line AND MADE IT.
Holy shit, even OUR fans had to applaud that shot. So it was overtime and we ended up winning it because of our free throws. Those are the only points we scored in the 3 minute overtime period. Ryan ended up with a team high 17pts. Not her highest but it was alright, especially in light of her injury. She was hurting pretty bad last night though so I'm worried about Friday. We have already won first place in the district so maybe he'll sit her some for the last 3 games to get her healthy for the playoffs.
I woke up feeling like crap this morning- surely from the teeth- so I'm taking Ryan to school and coming home to lay down. Actually, after I drop her off I'm going to get some Whataburger taquitos THEN coming home to lay down. I've been craving those damn things like CRAZY!
Craig is playing golf with some of his clients today so we're just going to slum it for dinner tonight. Something frozen I think.
Speaking of crazy, the stuff with poor Britney Spears just gets worse and worse. I feel really bad for that girl.
Ryan came home from practice last night and it was obvious she'd been crying. When I asked her what was wrong she was fighting back tears and said she had really bad cramps. Uh, ok but what ELSE is wrong?
(Ryan) I tripped going down the stairs and shattered my cell phone.
(Me) Hmmmmmmmm ok, but I don't think that'd make you cry. You have others in your drawer, just get one of those. What made you trip?
And this is where you find out what's REALLY wrong.
(Ryan) I pulled my groin muscle today.
(Me) Are you serious?
(Ryan) Yeah, but I'm still gonna play tomorrow. I already told Coach.
Great
This just adds to the start of an already crappy week. My allergies are kicking my ass. Kyra is back to her old tricks. Not to mention I had a root canal done late last year but it appears that the dentist didn't get all of it done before she closed it so now my mouth is really swolen on the roof and feels like it's bruised (it isn't, it just feels that way). So I can choose to have root canal therapy on it where they basicall re-do it but it cost about twice as much as the original and you have to go to a specialist. No thanks. I've already got to get a wisdom tooth pulled so I'll just have them pull it, too. Its in the back and the crown in front of it and the crown in back (got both of them 25yrs ago) need to be replaced so I can just have a bridge put in. (btw the dentist gave me a refund when I showed her the x-ray my new dentist did)
But It hurts so bad that it feel like someone's drilling into my cheek from the inside out and makes me feel sort of dizzy. Then, the dizziness make me feel sick. It actually scares me to drive! So I'm just in a sort of "blah" mood!!
I think I'm going to drop my classes and just go back in the fall.
The pics on this post are mine, but the videos are not. So there.
OMG, last night was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!! This was, by far, my favorite VanHalen concert EVER. Craig was preparing to hate it. He won't admit that, but he will admit that he was only "looking forward to it." Austin was stoked. He'd never been to a rock concert.
Last night was Eddie's birthday so of course the entire arena sang Happy Birthday to him. (he's 53!) Most of the night, you could hear everyone around you singing OUT LOUD to every song.
Before I start into this long post, let me just tell you that the encore was Jump and it was phenomenal! Here it is... this isn't my video, but it is from last night's show!
It was so wierd to realize that I am 41 (WTF? When did that happen?) and my very first "celebrity crush" still rocks my socks!!!
When I bought the tickets I went ahead and bought a parking pass. So we were just across the street. We were able to go in, get our shirts, take them back to the car, then head back in and watch the opening act.
This had to be the strangest crowd for a concert that I have ever seen. Just in the area we were sitting in there were pre-teens and 50 year olds. But the funniest thing EVER (or the most shocking) was what went on two rows in front of us.
As I said, I've been to a shit load of concerts (close to 30) of all kinds, but mostly rock. I've seen plenty of pot smoking at concerts... back in the 80's. But I NEVER expected to see it in the American Airlines Center in 2008. And the dude HAD to be 50 years old! WTF is he thinking? The attendant kept coming down and shining her flashlight, but he'd somehow get it out and out of sight before she could catch him. And it started before VanHalen even came out. Craig had gone to get a drink so Austin and I were just sitting there talking. He was telling me some long story about he and his girlfriend and I had to interrupt him because the smell was OBVIOUS.
I kept telling him I smelled it, but he thought it was just my imagination. Finally, he said, "OMG not only are you right about the weed, but its RIGHT THERE!" Sure enough, the guy was firing it up. I started laughing and and I couldn't stop! Its really pathetic but funny. To me.
I had to take my little camera, so the pics aren't great but here they are. The best part of the night was the solos, without a doubt. Alex beat the shit out of his massive drum set and just blew us away. I started thinking that Eddie wasn't going to do his solo, but about 3/4 of the way through it he started. He ripped it to shreds... Eruption was just out of control. It was slightly modified and I loved it! I really wanted a picture of his hands on the guitar, but this is as good as they got.
(Just in case you don't know what I'm talking about, here is a youtube clip of Eddie's Solo. This isn't from the Dallas concert, its Philly, back in October)
The house lights came on for The Cradle Will Rock and the crowd went crazy!!!!
Alex's solo...
Here is a clip of Alex's solo from back in December.
They come back to Dallas on March 5, and I think I'm going!
It was so great to relive a little bit of my youth, but I really was tired at the end of the night!
Great game tonight. It started off ugly. Joshua went on a 10-0 run against us and it seemed we just couldn't get started. When we finally did, the girls went on a serious tear!
We've got 3 regular season games left and a 3 game lead on the 2nd place team so all we have to do is win one of the 3 and we'll clinch 1st place. That guarantees us a first round bye in the playoffs.
Ryan is having to play in some of her other basketball shoes because her team shoes STINK! I swear, they smell like kitty litter! Blech She has soooo many pairs of their team shoes, so I don't know why she's wearing her summer team's nikes. And it's not just those shoes... LOOK AT HER SOCKS!!!
Look at the team unity- and this is just during the national anthem.
Look how far her arms and legs extend! That's crazy!
That big number 44 had elbowed Ryan all night. As you can see, Ryan's elbow was clearly headed for that girl's nose, but luckily she got her temper in check before making contact!
I can't wait til tomorrow night. Wooooooot!!!
Over the last several weeks, a few months really, I've just had a really good feeling about things. I've got one holdout (more on that in a moment) but overall, I feel extremely positive about things.
Ryan has had several different friends here at the house over the last few days, and I've actually enjoyed all of them. Some of them are girls that play against her but they are just a group of really sweet girls... likeable girls. Ryan and I have also spent alot of time talking lately. We talk alot all the time but our talks had more substance to them and sort of focused on some long term goals... or at least laying the groundwork for setting them.
The girls have lots only one district game and are ranked #2 in the area and #4 in the state. Thats AWESOME!!!
After Tuesday night's game Ryan went out with some friends of hers so I took Kyra to dinner just so I could spend some time with her. We had a fantastic time laughing and cutting up, but I could tell she was waiting on me to tell her what I really wanted to talk about, so I took a deep breath and just tossed it out there. I told her that I'd had a horrible dream the night before in which her father passed away. She had really sad look on her face, so I reassured her that it was JUST a dream, that her dad was in great health and had no plans of leaving any time soon. She relaxed and cracked some silly joke (like, do I at least get all of dad's money?" or something like that) and seemed back to normal.
After we joked I told her that I really wanted to talk to her about what could/would happen if he DID die. I asked her if she would want to continue living with me if that were to ever happen and she, without skipping a single beat, said, "Oh YEAH!! It was a very difficult conversation because I had to explain to her that even though I feel like she belongs with me (father or not) but that if anything ever happened to him I would probably have a tough time retaining custody over her mother. Although her mother has no part of her life, I do believe she loves her. When I told Kyra this she said, "Yeah, I guess she does but she's not "my mom! Youre my mom!"
While that means the world to me, it might very well mean squat to a court. Hopefully, I'll never have to find out but it was really nice to see/hear that from her, especially when there was no particular reason for having the conversation. Kyra says shes actually happy these days.
Holy Crap! I think, if I did my math right, that means that ALL FIVE MEMBERS OF THIS FAMILY ARE HAPPY AT THE SAME TIME!!! Surely the grim reaper is on his way now!!!
In all seriousness, I have a horrible upper respiratory infaction, $6grand worth of dental work to be done over the next two months and about another $20grand worth of house remodling to go along with that $15grand we've already done. But its GOOD.... REALLY! Isn't that wierd?
Three or four months ago I settled my work comp case for a big ol chunk of change, Craig got two raises in three months adding about $80k a year to his salary. We've gotten trips, gifts, all kinds of little perks from this company so I'm not complaining about this!!!
The only negative blip on my radar is my claustrophobia/anxiety issues are starting to crop up. I'll elaborate more later.
Here is a GREAT piece in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram about our team, but mostly about Ryan. (The picture posted with the article isn't Ryan) She had a HUGE game tonight, but what really matters is that the team played so good and just really moved the ball around well.
Taylor Hayes, who plays for the "other team" is spending the night tonight with Ryan. I had joked that she couldnt spend the night if her team won, but now I feel kinda bad! She's being recruited by some pretty big schools. Really talented kid.
Here are a few pictures from tonight.
This is Ryan and Taylor. Ryan won the tipoff this time!
When Aledo started slacking off on defense Ryan started driving the lane. Very successful!
When the other team slipped a girl right through our defense, Ryan got lucky and blocked the shot from behind without a foul.
After spending upwards of $2k in November on my new DeII (I love her!!) I got a shocking gift in the mail today. A $200 gift card... FROM DELL! And it couldn't have been a more timely gift. You see, after spending around a grand on my new camera (I love her, too!!!) my Sony (which was only 14 months old) crapped the bed. It could probably be fixed (the lense is stuck open) but I found it I could buy a new one for around the same amount it would take to fix it. So I wasn't really in a hurry to do it, even though I do miss being able to just whip out a little camera (my new Cannon digital isn't made to fit in my purse, ya know?)
Anyway, I went onto the DeII website and presto-chango, I've got a new camera! Yay!!!
Isn't she pretty?
The best part of the whole thing isn't JUST the free $200, its that the camera was marked down by $40 bucks AND the shipping was even free so the whole camera only cost me $17. Even Craig can't complain about this. He was counting on being able to use my Sony for site visits because it was better than the ones they check out from work. I'm still going to fix my Sony, and depending on how good or bad this camera I'll have to decide which one to keep. I like having my big camera... I really do. But I also miss just always having my little one in my purse so that I could grab it if I saw something that caught my attention.
When I bought that Sony last spring I gave my older Sony to my parents. My camcorder is also a Sony so I really like their products but I don't know what happened on this one. Maybe it'll be no big deal.
Last night was the first game of the second half of the district season. We played well and won by 20. Ryan played fantastic so I don't have much to say.
When we were driving home Craig got a voicemail from Kyra's geometry teacher, telling him she was failing her class...and it's only 3 days until the end of the 6 weeks AND semester. To top it off, Kyra made a 57 on her last test so the teacher told her she could re-take the test as long as she brought the other one home and had us sign it. Kyra told her that she didn't want to re-take it. Great! So Craig laid into her when she got home from the game, then talked to her teacher this morning and I guess they came up with a plan so that she wouldn't fail. Whew!
Anyway, here are a few shots from last nights game. Oh yeah, Ryan played the entire game with a Hello Kitty bandaid on her forehead because a teammate inadvertantly scratched her. Then, midway through the second quarter, Ryan pulled down a rebound and as she spun around to avoid having the ball taken from her a girl from the other team was "right there" and Ryan ended up hitting that girl on the back of the head with her closed mouth, knocking one of her front teeth. Lucily, it just bruised and there is no damage to the tooth.
This girl was trying to defend Ryan from behind. It wasn't just stupid, it was entirely unsuccessful.
Ryan pulled a rebound, then went right back up for the shot.
This was taken during a timeout. Notice the bandaid?
This was a common sight. Ryan, doubleteamed.
Where did it go? I feel like I should still be in bed on Saturday morning!
We went to the UNT basketball game on Saturday afternoon, then went to go see "The Bucket List." It was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are both amazing and were so believable. Of course I cried!! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!
After the UNT game Ryan stayed to spend the night with Yari, who is one of the girls from the team so we had a big dinner last night when she brought Ryan home. She stayed to watch the end of the Cowboys' game (don't get me started) then headed back to Denton.
We discovered a setting on the camera that allowed for much better pictures. Hopefully that means I'll be able to take some better ones of Ryan. Here are a couple from Saturday.
This is Yari. She's from Puerto Rico.
This is Brittany James- also known as "BJ"
Did you hear about this? WOW!!!
Moving on...
The games against Everm@n High School are always interesting. Especially when we go to their school. It's only about 20 minutes from Crowley but they are very gang oriented and there is always a fight either during the game (in the gym) or afterwards in the parking lot. The girls sometimes even fight! It's crazy there. Its bad enough that our school sends several administrators and even a few of our cops to help keep the peace.
So the girls won last night and we decided to stay and watch the boys game (we almost always do). During the 2nd quarter of the boys game there was some type of fight going on in their stands. I knew something was coming because I saw several of our students leave our stands and re-enter the gym on the other side. The game stopped for about a minute while cops rushed into the gym but the kids settled down and everything seemed alright.
We decided to leave at the end of the third quarter so that we wouldn't have to endure getting caught up in the inevitable fight after the game. What a way to spend a Friday night, right?
I didn't take very man pictures because we had my niece with us but this one caught my attention when I was sorting them. Look at Ryan's eyes!! She looks like that creepy moth-man thing from the movie. You know what I'm talking about? Ew!!
I've really been irritated lately when reading some blogs. I'll be the first to admit that there are PLENTY of grammatical and spelling errors on my blog. But there are two things I really can't stand and I'm seeing them more and more lately.
Why is it that some people write "more then" rather than "more than?" It's driving me nuts!!! Also, people who (try to) make words plural by using an apostrophe s rather than "ies" or whatever the appropriate way is?
People, PLEASE!!!!
So last nights game was awesome! We won AND Ryan played fantastic. She was high scorer with 18pts, but she had several assists, 6 blocked shots and some (not alot) rebounds.
This is Ryan and Megan before the game. (Ryan is on the right)
Ryan won the tip-off.
This is the time of year that there really isn't anything but basketball going on around here. I finally finished putting the finishing touches on the bathroom we remodeled and now we're moving on to the front bathroom. Lots of work to be done in there. Everything is being ripped out and all new stuff put in. Its fun and it really sucks all at the same time.
That's all for now!
OMG we had the BEST time last night!!! All three kids laughed their asses off. Craig and I have seen all three of them before (Greater Tuna, A Tuna Christmas, and Red White and Tuna) but this time we could see where they'd start laughing when they weren't supposed to... and it became evident to the crowd, so the crowd started laughing and then nobody could stop!
Even Kyra had a good time. (and btw she looked soooooooo cute! Pics to come soon!)
We had FANTASTIC seats right behind the orchestra pit, center stage, so Austin, Ryan and Craig could stretch their legs. Kyra and I don't really have to worry about that! Kyra is SHORT... but I'm 5'9, so I don't need lots of leg room.
There's a new Tuna coming out- "Tuna Does Vegas" and we are sooooooo going!
Ok, so Ryan had a fantastic game. She REALLY did. 16pts and 17 rebs. Even I can't complain about that. Regardless, we lost. By 2 pts. The entire side of the gym we were on was screaming at the coach to call a time out all through the 2nd half, but he ended up waiting too late and the game ended with us still having 2 left. We got beat by ONE girl. She scored 22pts in the second quarter ALONE. Our coach didn't start our press until there was only 5 minutes left IN THE GAME!!! WTF?
Ryan is in purple in the middle
We are in one of the toughest districts in the state. There are 5 teams good enough to make the playoffs but only 3 make it. THere are 8 teams in our district. It's very tough. Ryan is the 5th highest point scorer in the district, but I care more about our win-loss record than whether she's the top player or not. However, win or lose I want her to be the best. Know what I mean?
Anyway, here is what was in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram today. Blah.
Cleburne 54, Crowley 52
Chandler, Holmes lead Cleburne in win
By CARLOS MENDEZ
cmendez@star-telegram.com
CLEBURNE -- The Cleburne girls made themselves a contender for the District 8-4A championship Friday night.
But then, any team with Jacqueline Chandler and Secret Holmes at guard can be considered a contender -- in any district.
The Cleburne guards combined for 40 points in a 54-52 victory against Crowley, leaving the teams tied at the top of the 8-4A standings. For Crowley (20-4, 4-1), a regional semifinalist last season, it was the first district loss.
Chandler and Holmes did their damage on every part of the court for Cleburne (16-6, 4-1).
They made steals at the top of the key. They hit 3-pointers. They drove the lane. They rebounded. Chandler finished with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including three 3-pointers, and three steals.
Holmes had 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, making one 3-pointer, with three steals and three assists.
Their performances helped the Yellow Jackets rally from a 27-20 first-half deficit, leading a rally that became a 44-33 lead late in the third quarter.
Chandler began it with two free throws with 1:58 left in the first half that cut the lead to 27-22. Chandler made a steal and a layup.
After Tayla Vaughn’s basket for Crowley, Holmes hit a 3-pointer, Chandler made a steal and a layup, then after a Crowley miss, Chandler hit a 3-pointer with six seconds left for a 32-29 halftime lead.
Then they combined for 10 points, a steal and three assists in the third quarter for a 46-35 lead.
“You know they’re going to hit some 3s,” Crowley coach Alan Neff said. “You try not to give them anything too easy. One thing you don’t want to do is foul them on the way to the basket, but we’re good at that.”
Crowley, led by Ryan Green’s 16 points and 17 rebounds, rallied and gave itself a chance to tie.
Down 52-44, the Eagles came out of a timeout into full-court pressure and forced three turnovers. A baskets from Jessica Thomas and two from Jennie Thomas got the Eagles within 52-50 with 1:20 left. But Crowley’s next three three possessions ended with no points, despite two offensive rebounds on each one.
Jennie Thomas and Megan Dell each finished with 11 points for Crowley.