- Why did SVG bench Alston and play Nelson the whole 4th quarter? The unit may have been playing well overall, but except for that one assist to Howard, Nelson played poorly. Nelson especially played poor defense on Fisher which ultimately forced overtime. The Magic were noticeably better in transition and ball movement with Alston in. Nelson says himself he is not 100%. After our stellar Game 3 performance, I thought we had worked out our point guard situation; now, we seem back to square one. I am seriously baffled by our coach's decision, and disappointed overall with how he has managed our point guards.
- On the Lakers last possession where they forced overtime, why did we not foul once they crossed half-court? We had a foul to give, the Lakers gave us the opportunity by inbounding from the full-court instead of half-court. Instead we gave up a weakly contested 3-pointer to Derek Fisher that sent the game into overtime.
- With 4.6 seconds left, why did we not use our last timeout to get a better inbounds play? With what we got, Pietrus should have passed to Lewis to take the game-winning shot, but let's face it, we never should have inbounded the ball.
- Despite these bad decisions and the 15 turnovers, if Dwight Howard hits just 1 of his 2 free throws with 11.6 seconds left, game over, Magic win. If Hedo makes one more free throw instead of missing 3 of his last 5 in the 4th quarter, we win.
I still believe in Magic
Not sure if you watched Game 4 last night or not. That game has left a bad taste in my mouth. I still believe in my Magic. However, if the Magic lose this series, I fear Game 4 will haunt us 4 a long time.
Too Big, Too Fast
Tonight while talking with Annabelle at bedtime, we were talking about how she wants to go out into the ocean all by herself. She said that she wants to go into the water, but wants me to hold her hand. Then she said "Someday when I get big, I will have to go far away from you, but I will be okay. And Daddy would take care of you."
Seriously... she's barely three! How does she think like that?! She also went on to tell me about how when she gets big, she's going to go to the Eiffel Tower with her "old friends" (meaning the kids in her old class). I asked "Are you going to go on a school trip?" She replied telling me that when they get big, they're all going to be in big kids school together and they will all go to the Eiffel Tower, I will have to stay here and can't go with her, and that she will learn French so that she can go. Is she really already looking into the future when she'll take high school French and go on the school trip to France?! I've certainly never mentioned anything like that to her. She also asked me how to count in French, how to ask for cherry ice cream, and then decided that I could go with her so that I could speak French for her. :) I love having these bedtime conversations with my Annabelle!
Better with Age
In the fall of my freshman year of high school, I joined the cross country team. I didn't join because my parents were runners and I had it in my blood. I didn't join because I was just naturally super-fast. I didn't join because I was kissing up to the coach (although he was my Algebra teacher... but if you read my Mathematician entry, you'd know I did okay on my own in math classes). I joined because I had a huge crush on one of the guys who joined the team!
I stuck with cross country for the next 3 years of high school, and my crush dropped off of the team after his first race our freshman year. While I was never more than just a homecoming date to my crush, I don't regret joining the cross country team one bit! I made some lifelong friends while bonding over torturous practices and trips to our races. I was never really a great runner, but I kept at it and had the endurance to do the two mile races (the girls ran 2 miles, the guys ran 3). I also ran the distance races in track during the spring semesters of my freshman to junior years, participating in the 3200m (2 mi.), 1600m (1 mi.), 800m (1/2 mi.), and 4x800m (relay).
We practiced A LOT! During the season, we practiced on Monday through Thursday, then raced on Saturdays. For cross country practice, I remember running long distance practices with ridiculous hills up one particular road (Stoneway Trail), running sprints up a really steep hill, 3/4 mile loops through the Stoneridge subdivision over and over again, and the 5 mile runs to the corner of Hughes Road and Old Madison Pike in weather so cold that you couldn't feel your frozen fingers (we even ran in snow once) but you were still sweating under your sweat shirt because of the body heat that you generated during the long run.
I kept a scrapbook of the articles that were published in our local paper, The Madison County Record, about our cross country and track teams. I was also in the computer classes at the time so in addition to the articles, I have spreadsheets of my times (and my teammates' times) throughout the seasons, and I even authored some of my own articles (published only in my scrapbook). During my reorganization of the house, I just ran across that scrapbook. In the scrapbook is an article about a 5K race fund raiser that our team put on and was also forced to participate in. I finished the 5K in 30:30! I was very surprised to find that at nearly 33 years old, I'm actually significantly faster than I was at 14, 15, and 16 years old (my fastest recent 5K time was 25:46)! Guess you really can get better with age!
My 2 mile times for the cross country trails ranged from 19:15 in my very first race (which happened to be on the hardest course of the season) to 15:35 my junior year (on the easiest course). While I haven't run a 2 mile race since high school, I bet that I could beat that 15:35 time now. I would love to hit the hard course (the race was the "Vulcan City Classic" at "Magic City Running Park") and see how I would stack up against my teenage self. Unfortunately, I did a search of this park and I don't know if it even still exists. Maybe the name has changed? Or if it does still exist, I don't know if the trail is permanently marked? Either way, I'm hoping that the next time that I'm visiting my old hometown of Madison, Alabama, I will be in shape enough to tackle the Stoneway Trail route and see if I can do it. Seriously... it's so steep that you have to drive up it in a low gear. It kicks your butt! But I bet this old butt could handle it!
Green Thumb Crafting
Over a year ago when I was looking for decor idea for the barn-themed playroom, I ran across these tomato bean bags. I absolutely LOVED them, but couldn't imagine spending $240 + shipping on one, especially knowing that I would have to get at least two to avoid many fights! I quickly decided that I could totally do something like that on my own, but for MUCH cheaper. So I did...
These plain red bean bags normally sell for $20 each at Target, but since I started looking for them well over a year ago, I managed to snag 3 of them on sale for $15 each. :) I bought green fleece fabric, some batting, did some cutting, used some spray glue, spread a little fabric glue, and voila! For about $50 and some change, I have 3 of these adorable "tomatoes on steroids" bean bags for our barn playroom! They're super comfortable, were relatively easy to make (no-sew is always a bonus for me, since I don't know how to sew), very functional, and perfect!
My Mathematician
Many of you may not know this, but one of my minors in college was Mathematics. I have always loved math from the early days when I remember my mom saying that I should be a banker when I grow up because of my love for counting money all the way up to pissing off everyone in my highest level college math classes because I was always messing up the scale. While I can't even tell you what "log n" means now, I seriously rocked my Mathematics minor with a 4.0, and even had a 100 average in a couple of the classes.
Anyway, I'm thinkin' Annabelle is going to be following in Mommy's mathematical footsteps. Even at 3 years old, she seems to have the same logical mind that I do, and yesterday... she did subtraction on her own without even knowing it.
We were at Target, which has become one of our favorite places to eat chicken fingers lately (Seriously, if you haven't tried them, you're missing out! They rule! Just make sure that they cook them fresh for you!). The chicken fingers were fresh, and therefore HOT. So, the kids asked me to cut them up for them. Annabelle had 3 pieces left to eat before she could get her cookie for dessert. She looked down at her three pieces and said...
"I have 3 pieces left. But after I eat one, I will only have two pieces left. Then after I eat two of them, I will only have one piece left."
Wow! Occasionally I'll slip a simple addition lesson in here and there, but I don't really work on her with math skills.. especially not subtraction. In fact, when she said that my response was "You just did math!" And she said "Huh?" When she did all of that subtraction, she didn't even pick up the pieces to separate and count them... she just knew!
Momma's girl, indeed! She's soooo like me!
Puff the Magic Dragon
Every once in a while, I get a teary phone call from my dad. When I answer the phone he start with the usual "How are you doing?" question, then immediately with a lump in his throat tells me that he just wanted to hear my voice because he just heard "Puff the Magic Dragon" on the radio and he thought of me. I don't remember this, but he tells me that when I was little, I cried when Little Jackie Paper grew up and stopped playing with Puff, because I felt sorry for Puff. I'm sure my dad cried then too. He is, by FAR, the most soft hearted person that I know!
All grown up now, I don't really have direct memories of the song or story, and really just remembered the first few lines of the song, but have memories of it through my dad's stories. Because the song touches my dad so much, when I saw the book at the library last week, I picked it up and checked it out for Annabelle. The book comes with a CD with the title song on it, sung by "Peter" himself. And it's a darn good thing that it came with a CD because there is no way I could read the whole thing myself... due to the huge lump in my throat that snuck in there as soon as the song started! Just hearing the song makes me picture my dad and how he'd react to it, so I start crying now too. I was able to contain myself enough that Annabelle didn't notice since she was looking at the book which beautifully illustrates the story with a page for each line of the song.
The first time that I "read" the story, it tore me up so much that I didn't really encourage Annabelle to read it again. I was happy with the just memory of how it affected me because of my dad, and didn't want to relive the lump in my throat again. But tonight, Annabelle insisted on reading it again. So we did.
This time I tried to just not really think about it and explained what was happening in children's terms because Annabelle had lots of questions like "What's a Honalee?" But when it got to the part where Little Jackie Paper grew up and stopped visiting Puff because he was too big for imaginary play anymore, that lump snuck back into my throat. This time it was because I was now thinking of the story from the position of being a parent realizing that before I know it my little ones will be big enough that their imaginary stories will start to disappear. I know Corgan's stories haven't really started yet, but Annabelle's have and it breaks my heart to think about that innocence disappearing and being replaced with the harsh realities of life. So now, just like my dad, I'm sure any time I hear this song in the future, I'm going to be crying too!
On Being a New Mom
One of my favorite kid-focused blogs linked to this article about what a new mommy really needs after a baby is born. A lot of it references not really having any visitors for a while. Maybe it was because I've been so lucky to have my mom with me doing all of those wonderful house things like cooking, cleaning, and caring for the rest of the family, but I never once wished that someone hadn't stopped by for a visit. I always love to have visitors... especially when there's a new baby to show off! As long as the visitor is understanding that my boob might have the baby attached to it for a little while while they are there (covered, of course), I don't care who sees me all slobbish. I'm sure any visitor would understand. I loved having visitors in the hospital too, whether they called ahead or not.
Am I the only previously-new mom who felt like that?
More on the First Day of Summer School
So... I was talking to Annabelle tonight while she was lying in bed and while she didn't cry or anything, it sounds like she didn't enjoy her first day as much as I thought she did. She said no one was her friend, and that when she tried to stand next to Zander (one of the little boys from her spring class), he just kept hitting her in the head. She said none of her old friends played with her, so she just played by herself. When I picked her up, the teacher had told me that Annabelle complained that everyone was too loud so she wanted to sit by herself. The teacher also mentioned on Annabelle's status card that she was "a big helper." While I know that Annabelle likes to help, I wonder if she wasn't helping the teacher more than usual because of feeling left out among her classmates. That makes me so sad for her. :(
My plan is to talk to the teacher in the morning and ask her to encourage a couple of the girls to play with her. Even though just about every girl in the class was in her class last year (as in a year ago, not this past fall and spring), she doesn't really remember any of them. Believe it or not, Annabelle is actually a little shy when she first meets someone so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. It still makes me sad though. Also, there are 2 girls from her spring class who are in this class too, but they're only going on Thursday and Friday. One of them, Annabelle likes, but I have a feeling that little girl is going to be crying a bit because she doesn't do well in new environments without her mom (her mom told me that and it was confirmed by it taking months before she didn't cry in Annabelle's last class) and the other is not really a nice girl. I never really liked the "not nice" girl just because I had a bad feeling about her, but tonight Annabelle confirmed that she really is mean. She was telling me about a couple of things that she had done before and told me some disgusting things that she does too. I can totally see this girl being a bully as she gets older. When Annabelle told me one of the things that the girl does, I laughed in disgust, and Belle said "That's not funny Mommy! It's gross!" She also said "I really don't like her. Halle likes her, but only a little... not very much." I can just imagine Annabelle and Halle sitting on the playground making birthday cakes out of sand and discussing this other girl. :)
Anyway, after school we went over to the Konicki's to play on their water slide. Both Annabelle and Corgan had a BLAST! Corgan took a little while to even give trying it a thought, but once he saw how much fun Annabelle was having, he wanted to try it too. See pictures of the fun on Nikki's website. When it was time to go, both kids threw a fit... but especially Annabelle.
So, we headed home for naptime before the kids having their first swimming lessons. I had high hopes for both kids' lessons. Annabelle was going to have her first teacher-led class (since ISR, which she doesn't even remember anymore), so I was a little nervous about her swimming with a stranger (not because I didn't trust the stranger, but because I didn't think she would trust the stranger). Corgan's class is parent led, so he did okay. He seemed a little weirded out with some of the stuff that I thought he would like (the group singing and bouncing around the pool), and also didn't care for the floating exercise, but he did really good with kicking, blowing bubbles, and jumping in the water. I was especially impressed with him trying to retrieve the ring from the bottom of the pool (where it was only about 2 feet deep). Annabelle on the other hand...
Before the class started, they asked the parents what type of swimming skills the kid has so that they can group them with other kids with similar skills. I was very honest... Annabelle can swim 3-4 arm lengths on her own, but can't come up to breathe. She's fine with being under the water and will open her eyes. She'll gladly jump in on her own. So, she was put in a class with other kids who will do the same thing. At first, Annabelle was all excited about having a teacher and finding out who her teacher was. When I saw the four choices for teachers, Annabelle ended up with the one who I would have chosen for her. So far, so good. When they called her name, I walked her over to her group. She then started to seem a bit nervous. She reluctantly followed her class to the other side of the pool, but got a little distracted and ended up separated from the group. I'm not sure if it was because of the water slide that she wanted to go on or if she was looking for me... or both. Anyway, another girl came and led Belle over to her class and Annabelle started to lose it. She didn't want to even sit on the side of the pool with the other kids. She wouldn't splash with her feet in the water. She ended up in the pool with a death grip around the neck of the teacher. She was crying. I was with Corgan about 8 feet from her, so she kept looking to me. She wasn't really yelling for "Mommy!", just acting like she was terrified of the water... which she is NOT! The lady who split the kids into the classes walked over and I heard her say to the teacher, "Well... this girl needs to go into the starfish class (the beginner class) and we have a girl in there who definitely isn't a starfish so we'll just switch them." Sigh. I don't care that my kid is in a beginner class, except that now I'm afraid that she isn't going to really learn anything this summer. When they took her over to the "starfish" class, she was just being grumpy and still didn't really want to do what they were doing. They gave her a baby toy, and she kinda just played with that. She joined in to do some splashing, and I did see her dunking under the water with the teacher so she at least seemed to get more comfortable with that class. As soon as the class was over, they said that the kids could go get on the little water slide if they wanted to. Annabelle ran right over to it and went on it over and over again, until I made her leave.
I was so frustrated and didn't know how to handle the situation. The main thing that I want Annabelle to get out of the class is to learn to take breaths while swimming, and I don't think she's going to get this in this class. And she's in that class all because she was just nervous. I'm a bit frustrated that they gave up on her so easily. I totally understand that there were 3 other kids in the class and they needed attention too (although none of them seemed to have any problem doing what the teacher asked of them), but there was also another teacher standing there with that class and she could have tried to calm Annabelle down a little. I really believe she just needed to warm up and was still a bit freaked out about all of the changes at school that day too. I never had a chance to talk to either of her teachers because I had Corgan there. His class started right at the same time that Belle's did, so I didn't get to talk to her first teacher, and his class didn't end until Annabelle was released from her final class. Keith is out of town this week, so I can't even bring him with me to have him take care of Corgan in his class while I keep an eye on Annabelle. I guess I'll just have to try to talk to Annabelle's new teacher on Wednesday to explain the situation and see if she can at least encourage Annabelle to learn to breathe on her own.
As far as Annabelle is concerned though, looking back, I think I was a bit tough on her. I was really frustrated so I told her that I was sad that she wouldn't do the things that he teacher asked her to do. At that time, I didn't realize that her first day of school had been so stressful because all I knew was that she thought her classmates were too loud. She started crying and wouldn't stop. I had told her before the class that I would take them for ice cream if she did good, but I didn't take her. At that point, I thought that would be my only bargaining chip for getting her to really participate during the next class. When we walked out to the car, she wouldn't stop whining and kept grunting "No!" at me. She loves to pick up "rockies" (the name she's had for rocks that she picks up every since she began picking up rocks), and had asked to pick one up in the parking lot on the way in. I told her she could get one when we left, but because she wouldn't stop crying, I told her she couldn't have one until she calmed down so that I could talk to her. I promise I TRIED to be patient with her, and tried to calm her down by talking quietly, but she just wouldn't stop. I saw there with her softly encouraging her to calm down for at least 10 minutes with the promise of getting to pick up a "rocky". She finally stopped (or at least slowed enough), so I got her out of the car and let her get one. She just stood there looking at the ground. I was so incredibly frustrated by that point, so I told her she had until the count of 3 to pick one up. She didn't. So I put her back in the car to screams of "I'll be good!" and cries of "I'm not crying anymore!" said through tears of crying! I had to take LOTS of deep breaths.
By the time that we got home, she had pretty much calmed down. She was still upset that she couldn't get ice cream, but had accepted that it wasn't going to happen. Honestly, the whole ride home I wanted to go back on my word and take her to get ice cream, but it had gone too far and I couldn't roll over at that point or I was afraid that I wouldn't be taken seriously in the future. I had already threatened to not let her go to Pump It Up with Halle the next day, which I didn't intend on following through with (when we got home, I made her clean up the playroom to earn that right back... and she gladly did it).
The rest of the night, Annabelle was actually unusually good. She ate every bite of her dinner, cleaned up everything she messed up, did lots of art and proudly showed it to me, helped me organize the play food in their kitchen, and even shared with her brother more than usual. I'm not sure if it was because of her fear of not getting to go to Pump It Up or her fear of disappointing me again... probably both. When she went to bed and we talked about her day, everything really started to make sense. I really believe everything is going to be okay though. I really stressed how proud of her I was for holding her breath and going under the water with her teacher. She told me that she's excited about swimming lessons on Wednesday and doing really good so that she can get ice cream, which made me feel much better about not giving in to ice cream earlier. She even cracked up at the idea of telling her teacher that she's a fishy and surprising her by swimming all by herself (she came up with that scenario all on her own). And at school, I think all it will take is talking to the teacher and having her encourage some of the other girls (who have all been in the same class so naturally they all play together) to include Annabelle in a couple of activities and she'll be fine there too. Just takes a little warming up. What a long day my little girl has had! :(
My "CORGAN" Craft
Again, I've had this one in my head for a long time, but have been waiting for all of the right letters to execute it. Now that I finally have them all and have them hung, I LOVE it!
C
The "C" was bought at Urban Outfitters. It came as bare wood, so the kids and I painted it white, then brown, then green and sanded it down so that all of the colors showed through.
O
The "O" is an orange Smashing Pumpkin's record. I had been looking all over for a colorful record to use for O when I all of the sudden realized that Keith had a framed Siamese Dream album cover that Fancy had given him a long time ago, and I decided to look in it to see if the record was actually in it too. And it was! And it was orange, one of the colors of Corgan's room! Even though you can't see it in person because the record is up so high, I chose to display the side with "Cherub Rock" (because Corgan is my little rockstar cherub) and "Hummer" (one of Keith's favorite Pumpkin's songs).
R
The "R" is an ebay buy. I don't know much about it except that it looks cool. :)
G
The "G" is also from Urban Outfitters. When I saw it I knew it was the perfect color green for Corgan's room, and I love the metal with enamel. It looks like a real letter that you would see outside of a shop.
A
The "A" is a rusty metal star. I chose a star to go with the whole "rockstar" theme. I had seen these letters before, but as soon as I started looking for them, I couldn't find them in stores anymore. Of course, after I bought this one on eBay, I started seeing them in stores again. Oh well. At least I got what I wanted.
N
The "N" is an actual letter from an exit ramp sign in NYC. I got it on eBay. It is white enamel, complete with reflectors.
I really couldn't be happier with how it turned out!
Here's a look at it in relation to the rest of the room. It really stands out and makes your eye go to it when you first walk in the room, even though it's up 10 feet. As soon as Annabelle saw it she said "I want my name in my room too!"
First Day of Summer School
Although they're going to the same school, both kids have new teachers and mostly new classmates for summer school, but I was SOOOO pleasantly surprised at how easily they both seem to have adjusted to the change already! They both went right to their new rooms with their new teachers. I've been talking to Annabelle about her new class and about having a new teacher for a couple of weeks, since she was so resistant to change classes earlier this semester. When we walked in the door to school this morning, as soon as Annabelle heard the lady at the front desk say what room her class is in, she ran to that room on her own. I took Corgan to his new class. Fortunately, they start out the day in the same room that he was in before so that transition wasn't bad. There's only one student from his other class in there, and he wasn't one of the kids who Corgan played with much. Corgan didn't cry at all though, and even after I had gone to Annabelle's class to meet her teacher and tell Annabelle goodbye, he was still doing okay.
I think Annabelle is going to do really great in her new class. There are lots of kids from her class from last summer in there, and the teacher seems really nice. Corgan's teacher was raved about by everyone who mentioned her. The only thing that worries me is that Corgan's class is ALL BOYS! I guess that's not a big deal, but I know Corgan likes to play with the ladies too, and I don't want him getting all testosterone and starting the pushing, biting, etc. stuff. I know this is about the age that they really start that too. I can't imagine the craziness that the teacher is going to have with all of those boys in there!
Here's a pic that I snapped as the kids were sitting at the bottom of our steps waiting to put on their shoes this morning before school.
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