Turn and Shoot

So Brooke may turn out to be the most athletic child in our family. Anything sports she LOOOVES! We had a White Elephant party at Christmas and I opened a deflated football from Uncle Patrick. Pretty soon it was inflated and Brooke was playing catch with Uncle Patrick in the family room. She couldn't get enough of it.

Well now that Brooke is six, she is old enough to play basketball through the Rec. Center. She had two practices last week and her first game was on Saturday. At this age the girls need to be "coached" about the most simple things, like which way to run and several reminders about dribbling and not just running around with the ball. The other team had one girl that could really shoot and she seemed to have the ball most of the time and most of the time when she shot the ball she made it. Brooke was one of the point guards and would take the ball down the court. We were impressed that she was sharing the ball and passing to her team mates (she doesn't like to pass when we play as a family).

During the last quarter we still hadn't made a basket and you could tell the girls were discouraged. We were on our end of the court and something was called on the other team. Like I said the girls can get confused and before we knew it both teams had run to the other end of the court. Brooke's teammate threw her the ball and then took off to the other end. A light when on in Brooke's little mind. She looked at the stands where everyone was yelling, "Shoot, Shooot, Shooooooot!!!" She smiled and turned to the basket and shot the ball. AND SHE MADE IT! I really wish that I would have got it on video. It was so perfect!

At one point during the game Brooke came over to tell us that they hadn't scored yet. Rex started to quiz her, "Does your coach want you to pass the ball when you get down to your side?" Then he gave her just a bit of fatherly advice: I think you should bring the ball down and just go straight to the basket and shoot it.

Later that day we saw Brooke's coach (she's good friend and a member of the church) and she let us know that when she was talking to girls during a halftime she encouraged them to find someone who is open and pass to them. Brooke said, "My dad says that I don't need to pass that I should just shoot the ball." Neither of us knew quite what to say, but we did learn that no secret is safe with Brooke.

Forty Fabulous Memories from my Fortieth Birthday

1. I rolled over in bed and realized that Brooke's stomach must be feeling better and despite waking me up several times during the night to ask for a drink, she hadn't thrown up again.

2. Breakfast in bed: Carnitas breakfast burrito from Santiagos and a yogurt parfait.

3. Erin telling dad that he couldn't give me just fruit for breakfast. They had to make me a yogurt parfait - yogurt, fruit and granola.

4. Feeling stuffed after the burrito and offering the parfait to Erin. She happily at the whole thing.

5. A handwritten birthday greeting from Erin.

6. A phone call in between classes from Jacob to wish me a Happy Birthday.

7. A card from Rex telling me to put my feet up, today was my day.

8. Being chauffeured to my 9:00 a.m. massage.

9. A nice 75 minute massage with only a few uncomfortable moments when I should have said the pressure is a little much. The masseuse found some really tender spots on my scalp - OUCH!

10. Brooke and Rex greeting me in the waiting area to take me to my next appointment.

11. Crocodile tears from Brooke that she couldn't go to school because she was afraid the lunch ladies would make her eat ALL her lunch and what if her tummy didn't feel like it.

12. Consoling Brooke in the back seat while we were chauffeured to my next appointment.

13. Brooke spilling the beans: you're getting your nails painted AND your toes!

14. A manicure with paraffin hand dip

15. Dark purple nail polish.

16. A pedicure downstairs at Rumors - wow, their basement it nice.

17. A nice, relaxed conversation with the gal doing my pedicure.

18. Being asked by the nice girl what my secret is to nearly 19 years of marriage.

19. Wearing funky, cheap flip-flops outside when there is still snow on the ground. A man can't think of EVERYTHING.

20. A sonic diet coke with fresh lime.

21. Walking into a clean house with the carpets freshly vacuumed.

22. Four cell phone messages - two friends actually singing to me!!

23. Lunch out with my hubby at The Olive Garden.

24. Chicken Gnocchi Spinach soup

25. Shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond for new pillows and threatening to buy his and hers comforters. I have been recently accused of stealing the comforter.

26. Brooke's first basketball practice.

27. Brooke begging to eat at Qdoba instead of Mimi's

28. Kids fighting in the car which caused me to change my dinner request from Mimi's to Chili's (it's closer).

20. Dinner at Chili's where soooooo many things went right over my head!

30. Entering my house and KNOWING that someone had been there.

31. Candles flickering in the darkness.

32. Wonderful friends snuck in my house to surprise me!

33. Having "Happy Birthday" sung to me - hasn't happened in a long while

34. Costco Cake and ice cream!

35. Wii "Just Dance" - I have pictures to prove that so many people danced for me including Bishop Ackerman.

36. Presents along with two cards that were exactly the same.

37. One present: vintage Diet Coke

38. A present from Brooke that she wrapped herself: a half-eaten box of Tic Tacs

39. Brooke's last words as I tucked her in, "Mom, I think you had the best birthday for a grown-up." I think so, too!

40. Climbing into my Sleep Number Bed a 40 year old woman who is blessed beyond measure.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Just a few more things to do before my head hits the pillow. Oh, I can't wait!

Today was filled with a few last minute shopping trips, a trip to the grocery store and cleaning up the mess when Brooke took a bottle of Eucerin lotion into the bath she was sharing with Erin. I thought Brooke was done making messes with bottles of lotion, but I guess I was wrong. I had to wash her hair four times in order to get all the grease out.

We enjoyed a prime rib dinner as a family and Erin made snickers pie for dessert - so rich and yummy! We read the Christmas story together and discussed what a true gift our Heavenly Father gave us with the birth of Jesus Christ. We are so thankful!

Sleep tight and Merry Christmas to all!


Is the prime rib done yet?! It's become a Christmas tradition to set off the smoke alarms when I'm searing the prime rib - happened again this year!

Brooke and Erin Sunday before church. Michael and Jacob sang in the choir and had to leave early, so I didn't get a picture of them.

Take a guess...

So how much food do you think a group of 24 LDS missionaries can eat?

Well, from our experience this morning they ate the following:

3 lbs. clementine oranges
2 bunches of bananas
44 biscuits
one pan sausage gravy (made with 3 lbs. of sausage and a half of a gallon of milk)
3 lbs. of bacon
24 extra large scrambled eggs
many cups of hot chocolate
and a few grits (we made some for an Elder from South Carolina, he took the leftovers home in a Tupperware.)

Yes, they ate it ALL! They would have eaten more. In the future I guess we'll make more. :)

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween on Saturday. I also love it when Halloween occurs before the time change.

We relaxed most of day and then leisurely put on the girls' costumes about 5:30. I've grown lazy in my old age and I don't sew costumes anymore. We picked this year's costumes out at Target. I begged Brooke to be Super Girl, but she would have nothing to do with it. We settled on Bat Girl for Brooke and a 60's girl for Erin. Erin loved the way I did her hair and asked if I would do it for church tomorrow.

The girl's buckets were full after only 45 minutes and they were content to head back home. The weather was so nice which is surprising since two days ago school was cancelled and we had a foot of snow in the front yard.

I've been accused recently of favoring certain children on my blog, so I forced Michael and Jacob to join in a group photo. We laughed when Rex suggested that they dress up like each other this year.

Hope Halloween was great for everyone!

Totally Wicked!

On October 10th a group of twenty friends and family went to see Wicked in Denver. It was a fabulous night that started at the Cheesecake Factory and ended in a standing ovation for the cast. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance despite the fact that Elpheba was played by the "stand-by."

Some of our group

About a week later my friend Candice called to see if we had seen the performance and I said we had. She was looking to get tickets for her daughter's birthday. The website makes it very hard to find open dates, so I suggested that she called the Box Office directly. She called me a few minutes later to tell me that the were sold out except for a few seats with obstructed views. She then asked if I had heard about the lottery. I hadn't. She proceeded to explain that 2 1/2 hours before each performance they hold a drawing for 20 tickets. All of these tickets are GREAT seats and only cost $25 compared to nearly $100. WOW! We made plans to head down with our families on Tuesday night to see if we could get tickets for her and her daughter. I couldn't get Wicked off my mind and suggested to my SIL, Suzi, that we try and get tickets on Saturday night. Unfortunately, there were about 60 other people there on Saturday and our names weren't called.

All day Tuesday I thought about how exciting it would be to have our names called and surely between 12 of us we could get 4-6 seats. We thought our chances would be even better with it being a Tuesday night that was cold and rainy. There were still at least 60 people who had the same idea, but weren't we happy when the first name called was Michael Johnson?! We listened as 9 other names were called (each person was allowed to buy two tickets, so only 10 were called). Not one of these names did we recognize. We were disappointed to say the least. We had hoped to get at least 4. We had already seen the show so we insisted that Candice take Michael's tickets. We discussed it back and forth for quite awhile outside the theater. We really wanted her to take the tickets and enjoy the show and she didn't know if she could enjoy the show knowing she had taken Michael's tickets. The man who drew the names then approached us and said that there were a couple of seats in the Mezzanine that had opened up and we should head to the box office. When we got to the box office there were four tickets left in the Mezzanine two together and two single seats. Candice bought the two together and gave me back Michael's tickets. I called Suzi and told her to get ready and come down to see the show. After the call I started to feel the same way Candice had felt. I looked at Michael. He said with a smile he was fine and he wanted us to take the tickets, but something continued to nag at me. So in a last minute decision we made the show sell out. We bought the two single tickets for Suzi and myself and Jacob and Michael took the tickets Michael justly WON. These two tickets just happened to be on the second row. When the boys were seated Jacob called and said they wouldn't feel good about taking the seats unless we agreed to use them during the second act. Suzi and I went to the second row for the second act and it was AMAZING. The costumes were beautiful, the facial expressions (especially from Glinda) were fabulous and we were able to see that many actors spit A LOT.

Overall, what a great night. We went to the Stage Door afterwards and saw many of the actors (no Elpheba) and had our picture taken with the Wizard, AKA Larry (Richard Kline) from Three's Company.

Our picture with the Wizard, Richard Kline, aka Larry, Jack Tripper's friend

Newest Halloween Decor

My sister Liz turned me on to a great "crafty" website:
www.theidearoom.blogspot.com/.

This gal has some really cute ideas, one of which I HAD to copy!! It took a few days to complete as well as a few trips to several different store to get the bottles, but I'm so happy with the way my newest Halloween decorations turned out.

See the orginial idea here:
www.theidearoom.blogspot.com/2009/09/creepy-halloween-apothecary.html

Print out your own labels here: www.flickr.com/photos/lovemanor/sets/72157602788222231/

Welcome October!