Saturday, March 10, 2012

Basketball Vandy style

Commodores, Chicken-clothes and Winning!



I love basketball.  It's the one sport I could never play well that I tried so hard TOO play!  I blame it on being short. lol  It seriously has always amazed me to watch the players make the baskets with such ease.  Geesh...give me the ball and I can make a foul shot or a granny-shot if I'm lucky!  To watch a 3 pointer gently leave the tips of a players fingers....watch it glide through the air with only a push of momentum holding it in flight,  it finds its way to the hoop and WHOOSH...there it is.  ahhhh...if only!

Watching the games at Vanderbilt are so full of energy!  Gotta love the spirit of the SEC!  As I sit here they are playing live in New Orleans against Georgia.

This brings me to my point....

 It's funny as I sit here on a Friday night, alone, with the game playing.  Just a few years back I would have been rushing from game/practice/game between the kids.  Wow...how did I do it?  Really??  Each season, each one of them played that seasons sport.  Baseball/Softball, Football/Cheerleading, Basketball.  I often have reflected back to those crazy, fun years of rushing to leave work to pick them up and head to practice or a game.  How I LOVED and I do mean LOVED those crazy fun days! Dinner was all too often fast-food, a hotdog or hamburger or pizza at the ballfield.  Poor kids!  I know that's why breakfast was always so important to me during the week and especially on the weekends.  You think they remember that all they ate was fast-food?  lol  You think they remember how crazy it would be if we couldn't find the right socks or pair of baseball pants?  I wonder if they remember all the plastic sandwich bags of apples, oranges and veggies?  The countless boxes of wet-wipes we bought and kept in the van?  (Keep in mind we lived in the country so running back to the house was not a option...)  The things we put ourselves and our kids through!!


I remember one mother commenting after a game.  It was pouring down and I made them come out of their uniforms and red-clay muddy shoes at the back of the van and place their wet clothes in a tote.  They always had dry, extra clothes in the van.  This particular mother asked me how I did it.  I can so recall this conversation.  She laughed at how organized I was.  Me??  Organized?  okay, so I was a little crazy about things being a certain way.....but..... My van stayed cleaner then than my truck does now.  How is that???  Funny the things we remember.  I just really wonder what all they remember.  What stories will they pass down to their kids while taking them to ball practice, dance or cheerleading?  

which brings me to:

Stephanie use to crack me up.  The child would NOT wear pants FOREVER!!  It was dresses and leotards for years with one exception.  Her chicken-clothes!  How and when this one adorable,yellow gingham short set became so tattered and labeled her Chicken clothes is still a mystery to me. Well, the name came from feeding the many animals on the farm...but why this specific outfit, who knows.   One thing was certain in our household.  The moment the Misses was picked up from school she would make record time in putting on this outfit, even with her seat-belt on!  I cant imagine how many washing that outfit must have endured!


not the exact dress but very similar!

wow...now you see how my mind works.  LoL.  Jumping from one thing to the next.  There is usually a common thread.  This one...memories of my kids and our countless Friday night games.  Great memories for Mom here!  I may be alone watching Vanderbilt play this game but my memories are taking me back to games that were much more important that any SEC playoff or Tournament game in years past!  I hope my words were always encouraging and that I saw the great moves and complimented you on them more than trying to constantly coach you.  I hope you know your Mom was your biggest fan! Homeruns, cheers, strike outs, foul-shots, touchdowns and tackles.  I hope you know that spending those days and nights with you guys was high times for me!  I cannot imagine our lives without sports.  It's really true to a point that we live our lives through our kids in some ways.  Thanks kiddos for teaching me that it's not winning or losing but sticking it out and playing our best!  As a family...we certainly won in many, many ways!  

oh....yeehaw!!  Vandy just beat Georgia!!

night all~

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