Update on the sickness!

Did I mention that the game Tuesday night was against the team that beat us last season in the state tournament? In overtime? On a bad call? Ummm…yeah, a big game.

And the bad call complaint? That's not just me griping because we lost…one of the officials actually made the same comment to my husband. It was that ugly.

Apparently Tuesday night wasn't a whole lot better, but dragging himself to practice must have paid off, because after being down by, well, a lot, (in the 4^th quarter, no less), we came back to win by 3. Whew.

I was home getting updates by text, thinking they'd better pull it together and win, or I was going to be really irritated that I'd put myself in that van to breathe those germs to drive him up to practice. (I was sick – I'm sure I can be excused for being slightly unkind in my thoughts! Right? Hmmm.)

Well, so anyway, I now have a happy husband…and he's got a team that's 4-0 (started a tournament today, they won the first game). It's a great start to the season! And not a half-bad way to get ready for Christmas!

(Now if my concert next week can go half as well, I will be oh-so-grateful!)

This is how we do “sick” around here…

One of those lovely bugs floating around out there has hit this house. My husband usually gets something at some point during the basketball season, but it's usually much later in the season. I'm always harping on him to get more rest, so he doesn't get hit with these things. I don't think I can blame this one on him over-doing it - it's too early in the season. Although don't imagine that he let it slow him down much!

My much-too-stubborn husband woke up sick yesterday morning, but refuses to let "sick" mean "rest." He did rest – some – he didn't have a whole lot of choice. But one of the biggest games of the season is tonight, and yesterday's practice was too important to miss. So I somehow let him talk me into driving him to the school so he could run part of practice. Are you wondering how in the world he could run a practice when he's too sick to even drive? Yeah, I thought the same, but he managed. Even managed to find some energy and temper when they weren't getting the point he was making. And then he came home and crashed, of course.

As a side note, it was really interesting to watch practice. I would enjoy it more if I weren't worried about him racing out and puking! I'll have to go back sometime, I think.

Today was all about resting up so he'd be able to go coach the game tonight. Can't let a little virus keep him away from basketball.

I'd be tempted to give him a hard time except for the fact that I got hit with the same bug last night. I've spent the whole day in bed, until T1 got off the bus (Grandma took the girls to her house today so we wouldn't have to worry about them…thank you thank you!!). All I really want to do right now is crawl back into bed…this is one miserable, achy feeling. But unless I get sick overnight again, I'll be at school tomorrow. We have a concert next Tuesday, and I can't afford to miss another day.

Hmmm….don't guess I sound too different from him, do I?

First Game of the Season!

Today is the first basketball game of the season.  It’s a big day for my husband, and most years I’ve tried to have something special for him on this day.  I usually go with food…cookies or something if it’s a home game, snacks if it’s away.  I know he rarely eats on a game day before the game, so I figure it’s good to have something ready for when the game (and the stress) is over.

This year, though, I dropped the ball.  I got nothing.  I even went grocery shopping yesterday and not once did it cross my mind to pick up a few extra snacks for him for this evening.  I can’t even come up with a decent excuse.  I had all of Thanksgiving Break to think about it.

If it were a home game, I’d grab some stuff this afternoon and get it to him this evening…he wouldn’t even want it until after the game anyway, so I’d be okay.  But of course – it’s an away game, so that won’t work.  I can’t even get a card up to him before he leaves for the game!  What a terrible wife.

So forget the food and card!  I hope he eats sometime today, because he’s on his own.

So how about this…

To the love of my life:

I am so blessed to be in this life with you.  I am constantly in awe of the way that God brought us together, and the way He continues to bless us.  I love that you have a job that you love.  I love that you are good at the job you love!  And I’m glad that even in the chaos of the season I still know that we are most important to you.  

I pray that this will be the best season you’ve had yet.  I pray that your players will work and think as a team.  I pray that all the parents will be behind you and none against you.  I pray that you have fun in what you do.

If I were a superstitious person, I would be concerned that the insanity of this particular day might be a bad sign for the season, but I choose to believe that is not the case.  May the game tonight go well.  May your players stay healthy and uninjured.  And may you get home before midnight!  (Okay, that last one might just be wishful thinking, but thought I’d throw it in there!)

Thank you for choosing me to share this life with you.  

Thank you for loving me and our kids, even when it’s difficult.

Thank you for being just who you are.  You truly are the love of my life.

Love,

Your Courtside Wife

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What, not the post you were expecting to see on the day-after-Halloween? Not to worry, a Halloween post is coming…the costume trauma is too funny not to share…but it will have to wait until I have time to deal with the pictures accompanying the trauma. (And yes, the word is “trauma,” not “drama.”)

Nope, today is about Christmas. I went grocery shopping on the way home from school today. Walked into the store and was blindsided by CHRISTMAS DISPLAYS!! Christmas? What? Already?

Oh, wait, we did just do Halloween, didn’t we. Which makes this…………ACK!!

So, after processing the realization that it truly is already November (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??), I decided to jump in wholeheartedly. The Christmas season really isn’t long enough anyway, and goes by so stinkin’ fast. Although lately, everything seems to go by so stinkin’ fast. (Except for my 2^nd period class. Molasses.)

Once upon a time, my college roommate and I were the first on our floor (maybe in our dorm?) to start playing Christmas music. And we didn’t usually wait until November, to be honest! And we were very generous to share our taste in music with anyone who might walk past our door. Truthfully, in college, we HAD to start Christmas early. We were required to pack up all Christmas decorations before we left for Christmas break, which was usually the second week of December, so if you were going to put stuff out, you had to get it out plenty early so you’d have time to enjoy. We typically decorated around Homecoming weekend. Ummm, don’t get too excited…we didn’t have football, so Homecoming was the second weekend or so of November!

So going by that theory, it’s almost time to get the Christmas decorations out, right? I mean, college wasn’t TOO far in the past. (Oh, hush and let me have my little fantasy…it wasn’t that long ago in my memory.)

So, on this cold cool gray day, I have Christmas music playing on my computer and a giant pot of chili going on the stove. I seem to be incapable of making small batches of chili. Anyone want to come join me in my pre-Thanksgiving Christmas celebration?? You’re only required to enjoy my music and my chili. I’ll decorate the tree later.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

It probably wasn’t big news in most households in this area. Then again, it was a pretty amazing end to a football game gone into overtime. Assuming that you stayed up late enough to watch the end. Oh wait. It wasn’t late. It was just past my mental bedtime. (You know, that time when your brain has given up and gone to sleep whether or not your body has made it to bed yet. I know I’m not the only one who has one!)

The game was Michigan State vs Notre Dame, and although my brain was a lot closer to sleep than my body was, I was aware enough to know that the fake-field-goal-turned-touchdown to win was a GREAT ending. Especially in this house. But did you hear what happened after? The Michigan State coach had a “mild” heart attack, and wound up in the hospital in surgery. Ummm…. after a WIN?

So the next day, I did some reading. I mean, it may be football instead of basketball, and college instead of high school, but the reality is that stress is stress. My husband isn’t thinking at the end of a close game, “Oh, this is just a high school game. It’s not that big a deal.” Ha. In the stress and challenge and adrenaline of a close game, you might as well call it life-and-death. (Yeah, yeah, it’s not, but do YOU want to convince him of that? And actually, to his heart, it may be.) So I’m feeling a connection to this coach and his situation. And I’m feeling fear for my husband…who came home the next day and told me it was probably good that I wasn’t reading some of the same articles about it that he was. (Maybe so, but I found some others, mister, and I’m not liking it!)

Here’s an interesting quote from Steve Spurrier, University of South Carolina (another favorite in this house): "Sometimes you can be fit and in shape, and it happens to you anyway. There are no guarantees in coaching except if you don't take care of yourself, you're almost guaranteed to have something happen. That's why I work out five days a week all year round. I've done it for as long as I've been coaching." Oh, boy, this does NOT make me feel better.

I want him to do what he loves doing. I can’t imagine asking him to quit coaching…he would be miserable. But I don’t want to lose him because of that job either. And while we’re hopefully still many years away from heart problems, you can’t count on that. So I try to make sure we eat well. And I make sure I get my workouts in, in the hope that he will be inspired also. And I hope that our life and our kids are enough of a stress reliever to him that coming home is a chance to wind down.

By the way, THAT is easier said than done! It is NOT always an easy thing to remember that I need to do what I can to relieve stress, not add to it. The coaching life is pretty tough on marriages, and I think a major contributing factor is this: that it’s awfully hard for a wife to adjust to needing to take a back seat during the season. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because his mind and time are taken up with basketball, he cares less about us. It’s not true…it’s his attention that is divided, not his love.

So I will keep my focus on keeping our house together…keeping the kids on track…keeping him healthy(?) as much as I can. And praying that the factors I have no control over will stay at a minimum.

And praying that he will always have the ability to discern between what really matters and what is only temporary.

Which is the prayer we should all have anyway, isn’t it…

Just Breathe

We had a preview yesterday of the “life of basketball season.” My husband didn’t get home until almost 6:30, and was only able to be home for about 20 minutes before he had to rush off for a meeting. We were able to eat together quickly before he left, which I’ll admit is better than most game days. Game days I’m lucky if he gets home by midnight. (And I count myself doubly lucky if he tells me that he managed to get in a single meal that entire day!) So this day was just a small reminder of what’s to come.

I really love my husband, and I am incredibly proud of what he does and how he does it. And over the years I’ve learned to really love basketball. I even get pretty excited about the first game (and many games after that).

I do NOT get excited about the beginning of “The Season.” There’s a big long stretch of late practices before the first game ever happens. Days when I don’t know for sure what time he will come home, but I do know that supper will need to be ready as soon as he walks in so we can get the kids fed before they have meltdowns. Days when I have to remember that now the kids need snacks after school, so they don’t meltdown before our late supper! And a few days where we have to just give up and eat without him.

Last year my new-school-year routine broke down completely at the beginning of The Season. It took me a while to figure out how to make things work again. I count it major progress that – for the most part – I no longer get really upset when the time I think my husband should be home isn’t the same as the time he actually finally makes it home!

I’m not complaining (well, not too much). I’m fully aware of how good I have it, and the blessings just keep coming. We have a great life, and a really good relationship as a family, even in the midst of it all. BUT…I will admit that counting down to the beginning of The Season is just a whole lot like counting down the last few (sad) days of summer. J

Take a deep breath….here we go again.