Lady Vols Basketball

Just like the signs say "Good Ol' Rocky Top" Yahoo! I have wanted to see a Lady Vols gave ever since we moved here. Vaughn surprised me with tickets the other day. I have been a fan of the head coach, Pat Summit, for as long as I can remember. Even though I never played basketball, she is an iconic woman who has pushed lady's basketball towards new heights. I watched a special on her years ago, and since that television show I have been intrigued with her methods of coaching. She is an amazing lady. I wanted to see her in action.

The Lady Vols are tough this year, and they played great defence.

Since my big reason for going to the game was to see Pat Summit you can imagine how disappointed I was to NOT see her coaching. She was diagnosed with Dementia this past year. She is now taking a back seat, when it comes to coaching, and allowing her assistant coach to basically take over. It was so disheartening to see this majestic woman sitting there with hardly an emotion on her face. I wondered if she was having a "bad day" as they call it when Dementia patients cannot remember things. Her assistant coach was jumping up and down, waving in calls, etc. while Pat just sat!

The Lady Vols seem to feed off that non emotion from their head coach because they were down most of the game.

Always a sea of orange and white. Gotta love the Tennessee fans. Vaughn and I were sporting our orange and white as well, to blend in with the natives.

There is Pat in the middle. The one in the grey suit. When they would get into a huddle, she would step off to the side with the other coaches and act lost. She must have been having a bad day.

Grey suit, walking, that is Pat.

The game went into overtime, but the Lady Vols just couldn't hit their foul shots, causing them to lose the game. Darn it! I really wanted to see them win, but at least I did get to see a game in person and catch a glimpse of Pat Summit, even if she wasn't up to par.

Stuff Of The Week

So much will happen in a few days time and I have such good intentions of writing it all down, but the next thing I know it is four days later and that hasn't happen. NOW, I am catching up.
SUNDAYAfter church on Sunday, we had our usual big Sunday lunch and then Vaughn and I take a nap for a bit while the kids play. After sleeping for an hour, here come the kids down the stairs placing a little strip of paper in each of our laps saying, "Here is your dance ticket. The dance party starts in five minutes." Vaughn and I wipe the sleep from our eyes, exchange funny looks and then head up the stairs to see what the little darlings have been up to while we were sleeping. They had transformed Taryn's room into a dance area. Vaughn and I had to sit behind the barrier of books which served as the seating area. The kids came out of the closet when the music played and began to dance for us. It was the cutest, most hilarious thing I have ever witnessed. Tyson had some rhythm and moves, and Taryn had her signature move which was going down on one knee while her left arm went into the air pointing her finger and the right arm did the opposite pointing down. Tyson did lots of "John Travolta" moves and both kids smiled and giggled as much as we did. After three songs and lots of fun, the dance show was over. I just love how they thought this whole thing up all by themselves and practiced it, then executed it for our enjoyment. LOVE IT! (the funny thing is: when I was younger and all the cousins would come to visit on Sundays back home, I would orchestrate some kind of play or dance party as entertainment for the adults after dinner. I laugh that my own kids do that very same thing now)

MONDAY

Monday was the four year mark for my dad's death. The first three years have been a little sad on this day, but today was different. I no longer mourn for my dad, but celebrate his wonderful life and relish on the fact that he is in heaven without pain or suffering from the cancer that ravaged his body. This was my turning point year. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I am not living close to home, and if I was this might be a hard day, but then again maybe not. I am a good mix of my parents, but in somethings I am very much my dad's daughter, and in being "Tough" through things I follow in his footsteps, or...at least I like to think I do. (:

TUESDAY

Back to another week of school and more work at KHS with their musical. I am almost finished with the choreography. I have one last dance to teach and I think it is the hardest yet most satisfying one. It is a ballet sequence, telling a story of a young girl's dream. Not only are most of the kids not dance trained but they haven't done any lifts of any kind. I was skeptical of how much and how far I could go with this, but they surprised me. The kids are willing to try anything and are also willing to work for it. The result is a young man performing ballet lifts quite well and two girl dancing ballet just as well. I am excited to see the final result.

WEDNESDAY (today)

School, library time, musical, homework...etc. That is a normal day for us. Vaughn is on call, hence the reason I can get my blog caught up and other things accomplished.

A Good Day to Play Outside

The weather around here has been so peculiar. It will rain, become very cold and then warm up to the 60's. Then a few days later it will be down into the low 30's. It is as if Mother Nature cannot decide weather or not she wants spring or winter. But because today was a nice day we decided to get out of the house and go to the park. We loaded up our outdoor fun gear and headed to McFee Park out in Farragut, TN.
The kids love this park for it huge playground and splash pad, and although it isn't swimming season, we could have played in the water today with all of the beautiful sunshine. Tyson has been improving on his roller blades since Christmas and can actually skate without any support from Vaughn or myself. I am so proud of him for picking it up so quickly.

The scooter girl loves her scooter and can go quite fast when she wants to. After playing for a few hours we drove into town for some lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. We don't go out very often but today was a special family day and that meant eating out.

Vaughn had to study a little bit after lunch, and so the kids and I dropped him off at home then headed to the All Saints Church for more scooter and roller blade time.

Family Night is always on Saturdays with homemade pizza and a good movie. Tonight was "Mr. Popper's Penguins". Such a funny show. I loved the fact that we were able to spend the whole day together as a family, minus an hour of studying.

Happy Valentine's Day

Yes it is Valentine's Day. I have mixed feelings about this day.

1. It is a day to tell those you love them, buy them little red, white and pink gifts , etc.

2. Why do you need a holiday to tell those, whom you care about, that you love them? Shouldn't you be doing that each and everyday?

Just my thoughts on the matter.

On a side note, I do make it a fun day for the kids, with Valentine's and all, but I tell them and Vaughn that I love them each and everyday, sometimes several times a day. Life is too precious for us to just hold it to one day.

On another note, I remember as a kid that we would kick Valentine's to other kids' doors instead of just taking them to school and putting them in a box. Funny how traditions change!

February...When Will You Be Over?

I can truly say that I don't hate many things, but I HATE the month of February. This is one of those months that so many bad things have happened in my life.

- Mom had a brain aneurysm (was in the hospital for a month)

- Dad was diagnosed with cancer

- Dad died

- Vaughn was really sick

- and the list goes on...

Who knows how much I will blog this month just because I loath it. I do try to enjoy Valentine's Day but after that it is just "how fast can the month move."