Day 2 of the Tourney

This is the last weekend for Sarah's basketball season. They are on day 2 of their end of the season tournament - so far undefeated this season. Basketball has been a bit different this year. I've noticed that Sarah is really changing with adolescence. Sometimes her mind is just someplace else. I forgot how hard that is, the trying to keep your mind on one thing when it really wants to wander out the door, into the sunshine to daydream about boys......or puppies, at this age it could be either.

When she's done, I think we are going to find something else to do on weekends. We haven't hiked in so long. Maybe she and I can hike or go on a bike ride. She might enjoy taking the cameras out together, like Bay and I love to do. I will follow her lead. I don't want to push sports on her, because they are what I enjoy, if she'd rather do something else (something that does not involve just sitting on the computer watching Mr. Saftety videos for hours on end).

I lost one of my jobs this weeks. I knew it was coming - they let everyone go, but it's still been hard to wrap my mind around it. The loss of income sucks. I'm working on a couple of other projects, plus still writing Beauty & Fashion at Gadabout Media.com, but the structure, the daily deadline is gone and I didn't realize how much I depended on it. I have to "boss" myself now. I hope I do a good job, I need to do a good job, but I won't get fired this time.

I've learned that writing is like this - the jobs come and the jobs go. I have a problem with change and the lack of permanence. I like to know what is coming, I like structure and being able to budget my money accurately. I like the stability of working for someone else. I have to let go of that. I have to learn the business of blogging for real now. I have to learn how to write a marketing plan and to hustle sponsors and ads. I can do it, but right now, sitting here thinking about the end of the basketball season, I want to put it all away, up on the shelf, for one more day.

Good Ponytail Day

I have a pretty good view from the floor at Sarah's games. I like the way the floor shines and it's easier to pick that up when I'm sitting low. Plus, I'm a floor sitter from way back. Sarah played hard today. Her coach kept her in much longer than he normally does. The last two minutes of the game, she was off court. I could see that her red face had these patches of white - blotches. She was exhausted.

She's in the middle running here, ponytail bouncing.

There's that shiny floor. It reminds me of high school. I was so excited about high school as a freshman. That changed and later I was more interested in boyfriends than school activities. I wish I had played sports. I don't remember feeling like I could. I did tall flags and drill team when I was in the 10th grade, living down with my dad for a couple of years. I enjoyed that, but it was different from the effort that the girls put into basketball.

Why is it that the 43 year old me absolutely believes that the kid me could have done it, could have played ball just fine? There's something about my 40s that makes me feel like I can try anything. That after trying it, even if I don't master it, I will at least be able to finish it. Whatever it is.

More running. Sarah was having an awesome ponytail day, by the way. Happy weekend to you.

The End of A Long Day 365:8

Long, long day. I'm exhausted and my stomach is upset. I can't wait to get into bed with my book.

Bailey and I spent about 3 hours at the Dr. She has bronchitis. Poor kid. Her temperature was 104 and it hurt when she breathed, so she was given a pain shot. When a kid will voluntarily accept a shot, you know they feel horrible.

Basketball officially starts tomorrow. I sure hope I'm better in the morning.

I Want To Give Basketball A Hug

Today was the first day of the Winter basketball season for CARD. The kids got to watch the CSUC Men's and Women's team practice and do a dunking contest. Later, the kid's teams met and each played 2 practice games.

Sarah is my youngest and the smallest person in our family. When she's on the basketball court, she looks huge to me. She blocks and runs and waves her arms around. Her little face gets so red and if I were her, I'd probably barf from all the exercise. I am so proud of her and the effort she puts into her game.

The kids have a break until the second weekend in January. They practice but no official games until that weekend.

I'm really going to try to perfect my sports photography. I want to try to convey how exciting the girls are when they play. They put their whole heart into it, they don't care how they look, they don't worry about boys, or mean girls.

A girl's life goes like this - first they feel no limitations, they feel like they are beautiful, smart, strong, capable, then life starts to chip away at their confidence. Someone calls them ugly or fat or in some way makes them feel less or diminished. They deflate a bit. When girls play sports or sing or play an instrument, when they find something that they feel good about, it helps to inflate them again. They grow bigger, stronger, they work harder, they enjoy some success. It's a wonderful thing.

I love what basketball does for Sarah. I wish I could give basketball a big hug of gratitude.

Sarah Heads To the Basket

The painters have been here all day and it's freaking my cat out. She could hear them talking and laughing as they papered and taped off the windows. They'd slide their hands down with the tape and it was a kind of creepy-sounding. You'd think we'd be used to noises in an apartment complex, but w..........

Okay, I was gone for a minute. The FedEx man just brought a huge box of Burt's Bees skin care products to review for Pretty By Nature. WooHoo! I love my job.

Oh, here's Amelia........ And I can see Greg out front. All my kids are working their way home. Sarah, too. She started choir. Max's bus. This is a busy time of day.


I took some shots of Sarah playing basketball this weekend. She played in a tournament and now it's all over until next year. I loved every minute of watching those girls. They were so bold and scrappy. I know that I've said that before, but I've watched Sarah sort of retreat into a shell this year and it's been sad to watch. Basketball was an adventure. She was Larger Than Life Sarah again.

Here's Sarah heading toward the basket. In this game they played against their "sister" team. The other Notre Dame team - one was White and one was Blue, although they look black and white here.



This is from the second game. I really don't know what I'm doing with these action shots.


Is it wrong that I'm proud of her agressiveness in this shot? The first day we were shocked by how rough the girls got. They would knock each other over and grab the ball and roll around on the floor. Sarah got more comfortable with the more physical side of the game.

Heading back to the basket...........

We are transitioning at work again. We are changing Lifestyles over to Blisstree this afternoon. This was my last official Dating Dames post. After this I will be one of the Relationships team. I think they plan on having 5 of us.

Veggie Chic was going to be gone, but somehow it's going to make it and be part of.....food, I think. I was running out of time, they were due to lock us out, so I quickly wrote about my lunch, which was so damn good. And I'm giving away some skincare at Pretty By Nature.

Now I'm off to get Bay............

On A Clear Day

Bay and I took a ton of pictures of Trin last weekend. She's so darn cute. That's Bay up at the top, taking shots of Trin skipping. I took them from the bottom of the drive. She's so cute. So bold and confident. This one has a "Keep on truckin'" posture to it. Remember that? The "Keep on truckin'" guy - I think he was a pimp or something, back when pimp did not mean dressing fancy. For some reason I have him lumped together with "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown." He was the "baddest man in the whole damn town......badder than ol' King Kong.....meaner than a junkyard dog......" How did I get started on this.........??

Sarah is getting more comfortable with the basketball every day. Here she is wearing one of the boy's hats, dribbling the ball.

And Casey takes a shot. Look how long his hair has grown. He's getting so grown-up.

And here's Sarah again. She had another game today. I wasn't able to go, I was taking care of something with Bay, but Mom went. She loves watching the girls play. Sarah says that they won. I'm in this one, can you see me?

Okay, it's late and I'm off to bed. Happy Sunday to you......it'll be Sunday in only a few minutes.

Sarah's Saturday Game

Sarah had a ballgame yesterday. She's on the left here, making a drive down the court. This time she's in the middle, at the back. She was trying to stay on her man, the girl in the black shirt in front of her. The red shorts, that girl was fast!!! She would snatch the ball away and then take off. She did this over and over and over and even though she was on the other team, it was so exciting to watch a young girl that in control of the ball.

Here the girls are coming out after a break. Sarah is in the blue shorts on the left. Next to here is Haley from our school. I sat next to Haley's mom and I heard all kinds of comments about her from the parents sitting behind us. They seemed to resent that she is tall and a good player - their child was on the other team. I try not to be judgemental, but I think that people should shut the hell up sometimes. She is an 11 year old girl and you never know who you are sitting by. The other coach kept yelling, "Get the big one! Stop the big one!" At the end of the game, she fell and skinned her knee. The Big One is still a little girl.

This little girl stayed up on these mats all game. She must be someone's little sister. Looks like a pretty good spot. :D

Look at the girl in the red below - she's so fast that she's she's see-through. Watching these games is so exciting. The ball changes hands constantly and the girls play a very dedicated and focused game. It's hard to think that these are just like the 5th graders at school. I know that when Sarah plays at school, she doesn't use this same focus. I know because her teacher came to seek me out and complain about something she did during PE the other day. (Sarah said, the boys kept saying, girls are too slow, girls are no good, so she just quit playing). I wonder if it has something to do with competition in a safe environment - no boys on the team, no worrying about how they look to others - that allows them to just go all-out and passionate. Whatever the reason, it's glorious to watch.

I hope that Sarah continues with her love of basketball. This is the most fun I've ever had watching a sport and I want to celebrate with her, celebrate her effort and the skills that she is learning. I want her to know that I see real improvement each time she plays or practices and to see that much improvement in only one month of learning something is huge.

I think she's going to love these photos. I hope she loves these photos.

Sarah and Basketball

There's an intersection about a half mile from my house where the birds hang out. They sit on the wires, then will all of a sudden fly off in a group, quickly switch directions - it's like they get some sort of signal, then swoop, swooping, swooping, then switch again, and finally land. How do the birds know when to change direction?

It's pretty cool and fairly entertaining, which is good, because I end up waiting for the light at this intersection frequently. It's on the way to Greg's house, among other places. I drive back and forth between our house and Greg's house about 12 times a day. Or at least 4. It feels like 12, though. Yesterday, Max and I took Sarah to basketball practice. She belongs to a team that is from the Notre Dame Catholic school. The school is blocks from downtown, near the college - California State University Chico. It's an older part of town. The trees are full and stately. The sun was setting in the distance and I tried to catch it here.

This tree is located in the parking lot. It is HUGE. That's my little white van right next to it. You can see Haley running on the left. She is on Sarah's team and like Sarah, she's not a student at Notre Dame. She goes to our school. She is a really good player - very aggressive and fast. I see Sarah watching her on the court. Sarah is not aggressive. She is good at shooting, but stealing the ball, getting in someone's face, that does not come naturally to her. She'll learn in time.

Today was the first official game and I forgot my memory card. No game photos!!! I was so mad. The game was exciting and the light in there was really good. Oh well. Next time.

For now I'll show you what I got from practice yesterday. Max and I waited in the van, but I walked her to the door and flashed the coach. Sorry coach. Earlier today I took a photo at the Farmer's Market and there's a lady pointing at me in one of the shots. I imagine she's saying, "Hey look, that woman is taking our picture." Or possibly, "Hey look at that gorgeous woman taking our picture. Aren't we lucky?" I'm a dreamer, you know.

I love the way it looks inside an old gym. All that gleaming wood. The gym from today had alligators hanging from the ceiling supports. Sarah loved that. It's a new gym - only 10 years old - and it's the school where Sarah will attend jr high in a couple of years.

Here's my beautiful b-baller dribbling in to practice. I'm very proud of her. She is such a bold kid. I wish I was more like that.

New TTV Box, Mall Security, and Photos

I built a new box for my Duaflex yesterday. I took it outside and got this............ and this, which reminds me, I haven't shot any baskets in forever. I think I'll see if Sarah wants to do that today.
I could feel my neighbors watching me when I took this one. I ignored it, got down in the grass and tried to catch my favorite clover flowers. I got a flare, too. I like a flare. I think that this was the point that I changed to the other camera. It has a more silvery look to it. I prefer it.
More of my Japanese Maple that I introduced in yesterday's post.
In the evening, there was a beautiful sunset. I grabbed my camera and drove over to the mall where there's a wider shot of it available. I got out, focused, then ...........nothing. My memory card was still in my computer. I drove backhome, got it, drove back, took a couple of shots, then Mall security drove up and he told me that I could not take photos of the building. I said, "You can see that I'm pointed away from the mall, at the sunset, can't you?" I could not believe that it's against the law to take photos of the stores signs. I could feel my inner rebellious child wanting to sass this guy. Every once in awhile, that kid pushes me to be a bit stupid.

Anyway, I got this shot - the mall is behind me, but I'm shooting over the top of Kohls. The lights did something here. I don't know what makes them do that. Someday I will. Anyway, it was too late to get any of the pink. Thanks Mall guy and 41-almost-42 year old brain that does things like forget the memory card in the computer. My timing was a little bit off.

After I got home, I looked it up and it is indeed against the law to take photos inside the mall. I read an account of a woman who was chased by mall security (not my mall) and a janitor. Odd. It was a seriously empty mall, too - nothing espionage-y at all.

I'm very glad that my world is much larger than the mall.