Losing sucks!!!

So, at the request of a friend, I have decided to finally update my blog. It's not been easy to get on here because there's so much going on. As you can tell from the title of this blog, basketball has not been going so well. We actually won our first game and won it by 21 points. Since then, it's not been pleasant. Our closest game was this past Friday where we lost by a mere 24 points. In Delaware, girls sports in public schools are at a real disadvantage. I knew that when I started but I'm really starting to see now to what extent it is. Here, private schools rule most sports, especially the girls sports. Two public school teams have not met in the state championship for girls' basketball since 1977. The middle schools in our school district don't even have athletics. Even if they did, I'm not allowed to go talk to them about coming to play basketball at our high school. This is very backwards compared to Texas. On the other hand, the private schools get all their girls from the youth programs and all have middle school athletics. Not only are they not restricted as far as a school district, they can have students come to their school from other states (Some of these schools are mere minutes from New Jersey and Pennsylvania). The talent that doesn't come up through their programs, they give scholarships so that they eventually end up in their programs. In a public school, I don't even have a budget. Everything that I think we need, I have to fund-raise in order to get the money for it. It's definitely an uphill battle that I'm fighting. If I'm going to turn things around, it's going to take time and a lot of work outside the season to try and build a foundation in downtown Wilmington among the girls that don't have the same advantages that the rich girls have. Of course, the good ones will end up at the private schools anyway. The task is a little bit daunting. Maybe I'll go teach/coach in Pennsylvania.

SNOW!!!!!!!!

So, there's not a lot of things that are better about Delware compared to Texas. But, I do really like the weather here. My students were amazed when I told them last year that I thought it was the first time I could remember seeing actual snow more than twice in the same season. It has snowed three times in the last week here. Today, there was a light covering of snow in our backyard and on our cars when we woke up. It has pretty consistantly snowed all morning. The only problem today is that it's barely down to 32 degrees. So, the snow that was on the ground has already melted even though the snow keeps coming down. Oh well, the people around here are saying it's a sign that we're going to have a "heavy snow" year. It apparently hasn't done that for a few years so they feel we're due.

And the wall falls down

So, have you ever built a wall out of those little wooden ABC-blocks? It's not exactly sturdy. So, once you get it up to a certain height, it doesn't take more than a stiff breeze to knock it over. You get it to that point and you're watching to make sure nobody comes to close cause it took you so long to build it and don't want it to fall over. After a while, though, you start looking at the wall and you start thinking about what it would take to make it fall. You figure out that all it takes to destroy the whole thing is to disturb one little block and the whole thing comes crashing down. After that, you knock over the rest of it and have to start over again. Last night, I disturbed one of my blocks. It was careless and now I get to start all over.

25 hours

It's just 25 hours till my departure to the "Big Apple." I'm anxious with anticipation. More than anything, I'll be really glad to take a 4-day holiday from my students that doesn't involve teacher in-service. I'm looking forward to basketball and great Asian food. I'm looking forward to getting places without having to actually drive. I'm even looking forward to doing a substantial amount of people-watching on the subway. I'm hoping to even find a place to watch the big Anderson Silva, UFC fight on Friday night. Maybe I'll even go to a museum and take in a little culture.

New York City!

I am totally jazzed about going to New York City this weekend. I'm taking a sick day (cough, cough) off from school and leaving as soon as I get out on Thursday. I get to play a bunch of basketball and sleep late a couple of days and just walk around and be a tourist if I feel like it. I'm not even sure what all I'm going to do. I've got Thursday night and Friday morning all booked up. From there, as long as I can still walk after all the basektball, it's totally up in the air. There are a few things I'm wanting to see but I don't know if I'll be able to fit it all in. I have until Sunday so I'm hoping to get most of it in. I might try to see a Broadway show but I know those can be a little pricey so that may not happen. Anyway, I'm really excited!

Friendship

I was just thinking today about making friends. It seems like there's two general kinds of people when it comes to this. There are people who make lots of friends. Those tend to be the people that are really nice and outgoing. They may have a few really good friends but, in general, they have lots of people that they communicate with on a regular basis or hang out with or something like that. Then there are the people who don't really go out looking for friends. They tend to have just a few really good friends and everyone else is more like an aquaintance they speak to when they are around them. I'm more like the latter of the two. I have a handful of what I call best friends that are actually more like my brothers. I talk to people at work when I'm at work but not really outside of work. I don't really know a whole lot of people outside of these few friends and the people I work with. It's been a little hard for me here, in Delware because it's the first place I've ever lived that I didn't have friends around that I could just call and go hang out with. I'm going to have to work on that.

1,000 lbs.

Right now, things aren't perfect in life. Not even close. The wonderful thing is, we have all of these people praying for us. I know they are because they tell us on a regular basis that they are praying for us. I don't want to stomp on that. We really need that. But right now, I just feel a little discouraged. Today, it feels like someone has dumped 1,000 lbs. on my back. All around, I have these people saying, "You don't have to take it very far," "We know you can do it!" "We're praying for you that you'll be able to hold it up!" The problem is, I'm holding 1,000 lbs. on my back. So, I'm told to give that weight over to God. So I'm praying to God, "Please, can you help me out here? I'm willing to carry a big load but 1,000 lbs. is definitely more than I can carry." No answer. In fact, it's like someone decided that they could go ahead and dump another couple of hundred lbs. on because, for some reason, they feel I'm pretty strong and I'll be able to carry that, too. The fact is, I'm being crushed. So, I'm praying with all of my heart that God will come along and take some of the weight off, that he'll provide some sort of miracle that will just give even a little bit of release. Nothing. I'm starting to feel like Job. I'm thinking, "I don't understand! I didn't do anything to deserve this!" Others are telling me exactly what went wrong and what I should do but the fact is, they're not helping! You see someone with a 1,000 lbs. on their back on TV and you wish you could help them and you can call them on the phone and say that you're praying for them or you're telling them to be careful but, in the end, you don't truly know what it's like to carry that weight until you've done it yourself! Pray for me!! Pray that God, like he did for Job, will turn things around. Pray that I will be patient. Pray that I will understand. Pray for someone who's having trouble praying for themself. Please, just pray.

Bogged Down

I'm feeling a little bogged down these days. I try not to complain too much about school but I'm really feeling punished by my workload. I currently have 220 students that regularly attend my class. That's not all the students that are actually listed on my roster. It makes for a pretty rough week. Last year was a little bit of a shock because I had right at about 200 students. My last year teaching in TX, I only had 99. Of the 200 students I had last year, only about 80% came to class regularly so that dropped me down to more like 160. Right now, 220 actually come to my class. It some respects, I hope that they don't stop coming. I don't want any of my students to fail but there are days when I will have 5+ students missing for a class and it's sort of a relief. It's also made the head coaching position a little more crazy because I have so much more to deal with because I do have that responsibility, as well. That's why, in TX, head coaches have a reduced class load. I could only dream of that happening for me here. In fact, we're probably going to hire another Spanish teacher for our school and they're not necessarily going to reduce the amount of students I have. The administration says that we should just be patient because we're going to get another teacher but the counselors have said that they will fill that person's classes first with all the students who wanted Spanish this year and didn't get it. If it's going to be like this again next year, I'm likely to go teach in Pennsylvania. I hear the grass is greener there.

How you doin?

This is a phrase that Irene and I found very comical when we first moved to DE. It's just so stereotypical. It brings thoughts of Joey from "Friends" with his smooth smile and even smoother pick-up line, "How you doin?" Anyway, in poking fun of it, it has now become a regular part of my vocabulary but lately I really have to think about it when someone asks. Things haven't been great here and when someone asks me how I'm doing I really think to myself, "How am I doing?" My most common response right now has become, "I'm surving another day." And if further inquiry ensues I simply say, "I'm taking one breath at a time." More and more I'm concentrating on today because it's the only thing I can control. Maybe that's the lesson God's trying to teach me right now. Maybe I've been looking so far down the road that I haven't been concentrating enough on today. Well, I don't even want to think about tomorrow because the possibilities of what could happen tomorrow are too overwhelming. I'm just surviving today. At times, I'm even stopping to make sure I'm actually breathing and take a second to intentionally breathe. So far, today is fine and tomorrow is an eternity away!

1 year in the books

I am currently sitting in my classroom watching as my last final exam of the school year is being taken. The first year at a new school is always the hardest. It's especially been hard because: 1. It's a completely different state. 2. I went from a 7-period/day schedule to a block schedule. 3. I am teaching from a completely different textbook. 4. I teach one more section than I did last year. 5. My class sizes are about 75% larger than last year. 6. There's no in-school athletics. 7. I am teaching three different levels of class compared to teaching just one level last year.

Needless to say, it's been an adjustment. The good thing is, I am really looking forward to next basketball season because I have been offered the position of head girls basketball coach and accepted, of course. That's a goal I reached about 2 years earlier than expected.

It's nice to get this year out of the way! Thank God for summer vacations!

Autism Treatment?

You should go to this website www.ageofautism.com and read the latest entry. I regularly read the blog of John Elder Robison and can recall about a month ago when he talked about starting this experimental treatment. It's really exciting to me that there might be some true possibilities coming out of it. Mr. Robison is someone who is very intelligent and, although aspergian, can truly express himself, at least in the written word. This makes for a good test subject because he can relay the differences he feels with accuracy. I'm always excited to hear about possible treatments for autism and hope that one day we can afford some of them.

Right and Wrong

This, as a teacher, is something I deal with in different degrees on a daily basis. For instance, I had a student today offer me a 62" plasma TV if I would give him an "A" in my class. A couple of years ago, a student offered me $150 or some "good drugs" just to pass him. Lately, I've been talking to a few of my students about the O.J. Mayo situation. In case you don't know, this is a college basketball player who allegedly has been receiving money under the table from a sports agent since he was a sophomore in high school. One student in particular told me that, through playing AAU basketball, he has met lots of players who are receiving money and gifts from agents and college coaches. He went as far as to say that, if they were offering it to him, he'd take it, too. I discussed with him why this is wrong and what can happen. In the end, like in the case of O. J. Mayo, there may not be a lot of consequences for anyone except for the school that he has just left to join the NBA (he just declared representation by the sports agent that had allegedly been giving him money). My student responded by talking about what you should do if you're really poor. I told him that doing the right thing isn't easy, it's just right. I truly believe this and try really hard to stick to it. A lot of people don't like Bobby Knight because of the way he coaches. I don't like the way he coaches, either. There are two things I respect about him, though. In 40 years of coaching, few coaches compare to him when it comes to graduation rate of players. Also, he has never come under question for violating any rules. Those are two things I hope that can be said about me when my time coaching is done. How might things change if people weren't so driven by the almighty dollar? Ethics seem to be no more than a college class taken only because it is required for some degrees. It seems to be one of those that you do just enough to pass and forget it all when you're done.

Going to Texas?

So, a couple of months ago, we told our oldest, James, that we were probably going to Texas this summer for a visit. This was before gas cost $4/gallon. We thought we might even make a road trip of it. Now, we're reconsidering this idea but his brain has run with it. He's been telling other people that we're going to visit Texas this summer as I've been telling Irene that we may have to rethink taking this trip. In fact, I really don't see how we would be able to afford this trip. Travel cost is ridiculous right now and we're not exactly rich. So, how do you tell a 9-year-old that has problems with fixation on certain things (TV shows, comic book characters, trips to TX) that we may not be able to take that trip? Ugh! I'm not looking forward to that conversation.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

I was reminded to day of a friend of ours when Irene and I were still in college. We were already married and we had some friends that were engaged and now have been married for about ten years. At the time, we would all four go out together to eat dinner or see a movie or just, whatever. As was typical of that time also, Irene and I would have small disagreements and, sometimes, not as small disagreements. This would happen with our friends sitting in the backseat. Our friend, Brian (a.k.a.-The Goat), thought these skirmishes were funny and would consistently interject, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" This usually resulted in an immediate difusion of the situation. I always appreciated that, especially because I win very few arguments. This usually left it at a "draw".

Putting the F-U-N in FUNDRAISING!

That title is not really true. In fact, it is the exact opposite of how I feel. I live in a state that we shall call Delaware(instead of where I truly think I am, at times). In this state, public schools scarcely fund their extracurricular programs. Especially in the district where I am, where they had a $13 million budget crisis a couple of years ago, they limit funding to "necessary" items only. This means that, if I want to run a girls basketball program and do it well, I am going to have to do a ton of fundraising. I will have to do this year-round! This sucks! When I was growing up, I was the kid that never won anything during fundraisers because I DID NOT DO the fundraiser. I was okay with that. Now, it has become a MUST. So, periodically over the last few weeks I've been going out and asking people to give money to a program that has only won 2 games over the last two years. It hasn't been easy but I've got to do what I've got to do, right. We expected our players this year to pay dues as part of being on the team. I think it's a travesty to come to that point in a public school program. When I was in school, I was supplied everything I ever needed to play in the program from Freshman year to Senior, from my jockstrap to our varsity warm-ups. I never paid one cent and never fundraised one either. That's how it should be!

Why?

I was reading Irene's blog today which has addressed the fact that we have not been very faithful about going to church on Sunday mornings. We do occassionally but have not gone much lately. This is a huge difference compared to when we lived in Texas. We were very faithful about going to church and those times were highlights of our week. We had even gotten to the point that we were attending regularly on Wednesday evenings for the first time in years. Since arriving in Delaware, we have not been as dedicated. It's very disheartening for us but there are reasons for this; even if they're not very good reasons. The best way to explain this is to describe our church experiences from TX and DE. So, let me elaborate.

TX: Large church, lots of options for adult Sunday School classes, all of the kids had Sunday School classes to attend (even John), large assemblies filled with lots of kids which means John's voice stims are less noticed, lots of friends who were encouraging about having us in church with John, wonderful Care Groups that changed each year allowing us to make friends with lots of people within the church, always a feeling of edification.

DE: Smaller church, not many options for Sunday School, James's Sunday School has kids 2-3 years older than him, there's no Sunday School for John, smaller assembly makes John's voice stims feel like every person is turning to look at us, fewer friends, Life Groups that don't ever seem to change (you're in one group for life), not feeling very edified.

These are no excuse for not being faithful to attending. I've realized, the older I've gotten, that there is a specific reason behind God calling us to meet together. It's not because we can't be saved unless we go to church every Sunday. It's because we need that constant encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ in order to be able to face the world around us. Also, as parents, it's our responsibility to put our children in a routine of meeting with other Christians. They don't pick that up on their own. If we're not going to church, we're less likely to give that encouragement to our kids. We notice that, when we're not in the routine, James is very aversive to going. Back in Texas, there were times that he didn't want to go but when we were going regularly, it became an expectation. That's a good habit! I pray that God will help us settle in and become a part of a church here. In the meantime, we dearly miss our friends and family at the A&M Church of Christ!

Madness Udate

So, out of the 60 games that have taken place in the NCAA Tournament, I picked 35 of them correctly. I also picked 3 out of 4 that are in the Final Four. The one I didn't pick was UCLA. I picked my Aggies to beat them for more reason than the fact that I graduated from Texas A&M. I picked them because they match up well with UCLA and they proved that. In fact, they really should have won that game. They had it right up until the last. Kevin Love is incredible!

There's been more madness in March in my household besides basketball. Last week, I got sick. I started throwing up; and not just food. Yes. That's right. I threw up blood! It wasn't just a few drops of blood, either. It was more than just streaks. I threw up a bunch of blood. It was a little scary. The scarier thing was that I went to the closest emergency room, sat there with Irene for 6 1/2 hours and never saw a doctor. It was 5:30, Thursday morning and my stomach had finally stopped hurting enough that I could rest. So, I told Irene we could just go home and I would call my doctor later. Well, I saw my doctor Thursday afternoon and the conclusion is that I have an ulcer. The nurse asked, "Do you have a lot of stress in your life?" I didn't really respond. The list is probably longer than she needed to hear. I'm really trying to hand a lot of it over to God. It's not easy! I get so worried about things and just kind of shut down. It's my defense mechanism. Well, the advantage to this is that the weight-loss incurred sent me down to the 180's. I am now about 188 lbs. I haven't seen this weight in probably 10+ years. I still have about 10-12 to reach my goal. Hopefully, once I can start working out, I'll drop the weight pretty easily.

March Madness

So, this is a huge time of year in our household. I can remember back a few years ago when Juan Dixon was playing for Maryland and they won the National Championship. Irene and I sat right next to each other watching all but maybe one or two of the televised games. We both really get into it. We both like to see close games and we both enjoy seeing the underdog win. One thing I've never done is actually fill out a bracket, beforehand. I just never cared whether I could predict the wins. I just like to see the teams play well. This year, I filled one out. Nobody will know but me whether I picked the wins or not. In the end, I'll probably say how many I called but I did pick a lot of upsets. Even so, I picked three #1 seeds to make the Final Four. I don't know how that happened and I'm not going to say which ones either. I just couldn't see the games going any other way. So, we'll see how it goes. I expect lots of close, hard-fought games. I'm anxious for tomorrow!

Anger

This is an interesting topic that I had a brief discussion about on another blog. It is related to my previous blog on losing faith. It seems that many people lose their faith because they are angry at God. The debate was/is, is it okay to be angry at God. The other blogger's thoughts and many of the comments were a resounding, "Yes!" My thoughts, not really. I think anger is a dangerous poison to mess around with. Now, I DO get angry. I DO have a bad temper, at times. The thing is, even though life really sucks sometimes, I'm very careful about blaming God and being angry at Him. One of the commenters on the other blog mentioned the end of Job when God spoke to Job through a storm. The commenter said that God justifies Job for being angry, if I remember correctly. I went back yesterday and read this story to see exactly what God said. Now, Job tends to be known as that guy in the bible that was tested to the extreme and never doubted God. Actually, at the end of Job, he starts reaching the end of his rope and begins to question God for all the bad things that had happened. He is worked up even more by some of his friends. Then, God appears in a storm and speaks. In a nutshell, God says, "Who do you think you are to question what I do? Were you around when the world was made? Did you put barriers on the oceans? Do you have the power to feed all the beings of the earth?" He pretty much tells Job that he has a purpose for everything he does and is not one to be questioned. So, I don't think it's okay to be angry at God. In fact, we know that God didn't make all the bad stuff happen to Job. He merely allowed it to happen. There's a difference. Job's response to God, "Sorry!"

Losing Faith

I read a blog yesterday that told of a man who was once a preacher and teacher at a seminary. This man has lost his faith in God. He has lost faith that God could exist in a world filled with so much pain and suffering. In fact, he's even written at least one book talking about this very thing.
There's so many ways Christians can explain why God does or does not allow things to happen. I heard a very good sermon by Foree Grove years ago. He talked about the fact that we live in a "thorny" world. This imagery stuck with me for a long time and has developed quite a bit in my brain. I even came up with my own analogy for some atheists that I discussed this with when I studied in Mexico. To me, God is like a clock-maker. He made the world like a clock. He put all the essential pieces together and made them work in harmony. He wound it up and let it go. Sometimes the watch goes too fast and He has to reset it. At times it starts to slow down and He has to wind it up. The pieces, at times, break and have to be repaired or replaced but, for the most part, it runs on it's own. The clock maker checks on it regularly and does what needs to be done when He feels it's necessary. You may agree or disagree with this analogy. Leave a comment. I'd love to hear it!
In the end, is the world perfect? No. Do bad things happen to good people? Yes. I see God work through many of these occurences and He gives us plenty of opportunity to glorify his name through all of these things. We just have to be on the lookout for the part He wants us to play. Most importantly, we have to act on what that part is. That's the hard part!

Surgery

Surgery seemed to go pretty well on Friday. In fact, I felt almost good enough to walk on Friday and most of the day Saturday. The problem started Saturday night. In absence of taking anti-inflammatories, my knee continued to swell on Saturday evening and became quite uncomfortable. I say this is because of not taking the anti-inflammatories but I don't know this for sure. Today, my knee is still extremely swollen and I have quite a bit of difficulty walking on it without crutches. I hope that things will get better quickly but I plan to be coaching our last practice and game on crutches.

Stolen Game

I have a hard time blaming anyone but myself and my team for losing games. I especially don't like to blame referrees. They have a tough job and I don't make it any easier on them. Thursday, I can truly say that the refs stole the game from my team. We lost by 4 points. We made some mistakes down the stretch. But, when I asked a ref in the second quarter why she wasn't calling the other team for certain fouls, her response was that both teams were doing it. The problem was, at that point in the game the foul-count was 8-2 against us. In the 3rd quarter, they didn't call a single foul against the team we were playing and called 6 against us. The final count for the second half was 11-4. To put this in perspective, let me throw out a few figures from the game. The other team's leading scorer (14 points) had 4 fouls. The other team's post player had no fouls. One of my starters fouled out. We shot less than half as many free throws as they did. I had one girl get pushed down on her face right in front of the ref in the last 2 minutes of the game and he didn't call anything. I just about lost my mind!!

In my heart of hearts, we won that game. The score just didn't show it. The more disappointing thing is that, in my girls' hearts, all our hard work and progress over the last four weeks was voided by that 4-point loss. I just pray that they can bring it together and try to get a win in our last game tomorrow.

Arthroscopic Meniscectomy

Tomorrow, I go in for my knee surgery. I'm praying that the procedure is quick, successful and that there is very little damage. I'm due to be off my feet for a couple of days but am hoping that I feel good enough to at least go sit and watch practice on Saturday. Our last game is next Wednesday and we can't practice on Monday because of President's Day. So, I'll at least be able to run practice on Tuesday and be at the game on Wednesday.

I was thinking about MY expectations of what the surgery will do. I guess, I really don't have any expectations but mainly hopes. I hope that the doctor finds very little damage. I hope that what damage exists, he will be able to repair it. I hope that my recovery is short and I'm able to be out running around quickly. Tuesday will definitely be one of the hardest practices of the year since I will not likely be able to actually get on the court and do anything with the teams. Lately, because of a lack of numbers, it's been important that I act as part of the practice team. Our JV is just not at a level that they can help out the varsity much, competition-wise.

I leave it all for God to take care of!

Basketball Update

So, we didn't win on Tuesday night. In fact, considering the weather, we shouldn't have even played the game. As soon as we got to Middletown to play our game (about 45 minutes away) someone from their school walked in and said everything was cancelled and told us we had to leave. Then, after we worked out the fact that the JV game would be cancelled and we would only play the varsity game, we found out the second referee was stuck in traffic. Then, both of our athletic directors wanted us to start the game with one ref (not a good idea). Eventually, we were able to hold off until the second ref arrived. In the end, we were outmatched. We had a girl that was 5' 6" guarding a girl that was 6'4". We did have some successes, though. First, we scored 3 1/2 times as many points as we did the first game against this team, we had fewer turnovers and no traveling or double dribble calls against us. We're improving!

Pat on the Back

A lot of times, the only "pat on the back" that we get is a "self-pat." You know, the one where you reach back over your opposite shoulder and give yourself a couple of taps. Well, lately, I haven't had to do that very much. I've been getting plenty from other people and I feel a little mixed up about it. It has to do with taking over the basketball team. Since I took over 2 1/2 weeks ago, we have gone 0-7. That's right, we haven't won a single game. We came close with a 6-point loss last Thursday that turned out to be a real "barn-burner." Sadly, in the end, we haven't gotten over the hump. Strangely, through all the losses, I have received nothing but praise from parents, administrators and even people I don't know. They come up and tell me what a good job I'm doing and how much better the girls have looked since I took over. Even one of the girls told me that she feels they've learned more in the last couple of weeks than they learned the entire rest of the season. I'm ecstatic to hear it. It's just hard to feel too good about it when we still haven't won a game. Tomorrow, we face a team that, just 3 weeks ago, beat us 61-8. I pray that the girls keep their heads up and remember their roles on the court. If they can do that, we should make a game of it.

Exercising My Rights

I exercised my right not to vote today. I know you're thinking poorly of me because I didn't vote. The problem really is that, when they asked me at the DMV if I wanted to be registered to vote, I said, "Yes." Then, they asked what party I belonged to. I answered, "Ha! Neither!" It actually works out pretty well for me right now. I am a true Independent. There are too many choices for me to really select either primary to vote in. Come November, I'll be in a booth. Today, Delaware has decided that my independence has negated my ability to vote in a primary.

Breaking 200!

This is actually the opposite of what you might think, as far as "breaking" a number is concerned. When I graduated high school, I only weighed about 150 lbs. Over the few years after high school, I actually was able to gain some muscle and got up to about 165 lbs. Then, my metabolism slowed down and my eating did not. Many factors contributed to this but for the last couple of years I have fluctuated between about 215-225 lbs. When the new year began, I turned off the switch. The "switch" I'm speaking of is the one that drives me to eat till I am full. I turned it off. Last week, I weighed myself on the scale used by the wrestling team (has to be accurate). I weighed 199.1 lbs. I'm still losing. My goal is to get under 180 lbs. We'll see how it goes.

Winds of Change

They are a blowing! For those of you that have kept up with the fact that I'm frustrated with our basketball program, things have happened. On Friday, right before we play four games in a row (Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday) our head coach was suspended and I was named as the interim head coach for our girls basketball program. It's actually a frustrating situation to be in. I now feel like I'm coaching with my hands tied behind my back because we're not doing anything I would want to do. I just have to coach a broken system as best I can. I'll get my first practice since taking over on Wednesday.

The hardest part about all of this happening is being the messenger. I had to be the one to tell the girls and just as difficult was being the one to tell the parents after the games last night (The head coach was out of town and didn't find out till yesterday right before the JV game).

The nice thing has been that everyone has been very supportive. In fact, I received an email yesterday, pre-knowledge of the change, from a parent who wanted to express his support and appreciation and his encouragement to apply for the head coaching job next year. After finding out, he emailed me back and said that, if I wanted him to, he would get the other parents to send a letter to the athletic director saying that they would like me to be the head coach next year, as well. That feels really good; the confidence and the support!

I just hope at this point to get through the rest of this season with one or two more wins.

Then, I'll think about next year.

Sick (Not for those with weak stomachs)

I'm not sure if anyone can empathize with this but I truly hate throwing up. It is not just unpleasant for me but tends to be one of the most painful occurrences when I get really sick. Over the past week, my family, one-by-one, has gotten a stomach bug. The nece thing has been that it was a short-lived bug. All three kids had it first and were done throwing up within 6 hours, or so. Irene got it next, in fact, just about an hour after Rosemary had finished, Irene started. I think it lasted longer with her because she was up all night with Rosemary so she was already worn out before she got sick. She tends to be a real trooper when she gets sick. There are times that she has to be left alone but for the most part, she tries to help when I need it. After the other 4 got this bug, I was just waiting. Then, when I got up yesterday, I felt it coming. I put in for a substitute teacher and went back to bed. Within a few minutes of that, I went to the bathroom to do the deed. I don't know if other people are like this, but when I throw up, it's like a whole body kind of action. Every muscle tenses up and I am not allowed to stop until I am completely empty. I once threw up so hard that it tore the lining of my throat and I started throwing up blood. Most of you probably don't want to hear about this, I'm sure. I just felt like getting it off my chest. I only threw up twice and both times were horrible. Today, I'm better!

Going under the knife!

It's really not as bad as it sounds. Yesterday, my orthopaedist told me that I needed to go ahead and have arthroscopic surgery on my knee. The official term is, arthroscopic meniscectomy. Sounds fancy, huh! Anyway, he had wanted me to baby it and try to stay off of it and that turned out to not be conducive to my lifestyle (chasing after 3 kids upstairs and downstairs during most nights and weekends, teaching all day during the week, oh yeah, and trying to help out a struggling basketball team). So, my knee has improved some over the last month but not enough. The nice thing is that I can do it on my own time. We're going to wait until after basketball season is done. I'll go in on a Friday and be back to work on Monday. He also said I should be back to full, regular activity (not necessarily running) within a week. So, I guess I can live with that.

As far as basketball, our girls lost a couple of close ones last week. That brings our varsity's record to 1-9. We weren't outplayed, simply outcoached. What's more disappointing than the losses, especially the one on Friday, is to have to listen to the coach put the blame all on the players. It's a hard pill to swallow for me and I'm sure it is for them, too. It's not all their fault. They played their hearts out. Unfortunately, the team we play Friday, just beat a team we lost to last week. Wait, they didn't beat them, they pummeled them by 50 points. These girls of ours have some surprises but it's not looking good this week.