Basketball, Training, and a Baby Update

Then end of the week came faster than I thought it would. The last two days of my training class went well. We had to take tests to pass the class on Wednesday and Thursday. I got all of them right on Wednesday and only missed one on Thursday. I'll take that all day. Just in case you were wondering, a cumulative score of 80% was required for passing. Most people passed, but a guy on my team from Marietta didn't pass. This class was all about acquisition strategy and you were required to work in teams with people from various career fields and services (Army, Navy, Air Force, contractors). Overall our team was very good, except for that one guy. Each lesson you were presented with a scenario, had to weigh a bunch of choices, make a decision, brief it to the class and defend your choice. According to the instructors we the correct choice every time, which was rewarding. It was also challenging, because there were times where we were the only group (out of 6) that made that choice and having to defend it against their questions was difficult, especially when they all think are right. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and actually learned a lot, which is much better than some of the previous training classes I have been too.

Thursday night I played basketball again. It's becoming an every week thing and I'm really enjoying it. I played the best this week that I have so far. I led the team in scoring all 3 games and we won all 3 games. We played with a new ball and it was very slick, so I wasn't handling the ball as well as normal because it was tough to keep it on your fingertips when dribbling. The 1st game was my worst game. It took a minute to get my legs under me, mainly due to the fact that I ate Waffle House 10 minutes before playing, which was a bad mistake on many levels because that grease was bothering me the whole 1st game and half of the 2nd game. Still, I felt I played OK and was shooting really well despite tasting my hash browns the entire time. The third game was epic. We won the first two by decent margins, but the third game was close. A guy on our team sat out the last game and his nephew, who is probably 13 or 14, played the last game with us. He had to guard a guy that was a foot taller and 60lbs heavier. Of course it was a huge mismatch, but everyone else was bigger, faster, or quicker so it was the only choice. We had to play a lot help defense and it caused our guys to get open shots. Despite that, we hung in there throughout the game.

We play to 24 by 2's and 3's and you have to win by 2 baskets. I don't know why 24, that's just what they play to. We were down 22-20 and they had the ball. We made a good stop and I scored on a lay-up to tie it. After that point we went back and forth for what felt like hours. We probably had 12 times where we tied the score both ways. Noone could get ahead by 2 baskets. Finally, with the score tied, I make a good drive and score in traffic. On defense we make a good read and a teammate makes the steal. 3 on 2 break, I'm on the right wing. The ball gets passed to me. I pump fake my defender, dribble left, pull up and shoot right as a trailing defender tried to block my shot. Swish. Ball game. Love that shot. Love that feeling. Even though it's just a pick-up basketball game it's a great feeling to nail the game-winning shot. Especially in someone's face. Of course next game someone will do that to me - that's how it goes.

We've been over to the Grizzard's house a few times to check out the progress. The den (I called it the living room earlier - I was mistaken because that's the other room, apparently) looks completely different, but in a good way. The sheetrock is up on the walls and has been mudded and sanded to fit properly. I think this weekend they will be painting the walls and I believe the upcoming week will result in the demolition of their current back porch and a new deck will be built in it's place. New french doors have already replaced the previous sliding glass doors that led fro the den to the porch. It's going to look awesome when they get finished with it.


Christi has still been very sick. We thought Wednesday night we she was going to make it all day and not get sick, but right as she was going to bed it hit her - bad. We've tried everything people have told us to do. The strange thing is that it's a night sickness and everyone else has had morning sickness, so it's just not working for whatever reason. I'm still working on getting Christi to post. I know she can provide insight, humor, and details into the things she is going through that I honestly just can't convey. All I can give you is my viewpoint, which right now seems helpless because I can't do anything to help her not be sick and it's a horrible feeling, to be honest.

The baby now has graduated from blueberry size and is up to a large raspberry. We have both of those berries in the fridge right now and it's crazy to look at them and know that is the size of the baby. Incredible. Christi has actually lost weight, but a baby bump is starting to show. She's tired and only wants to go to sleep or relax on the couch. At first she was having cravings for Asian food, but now that she's been sick she doesn't want to eat anything because she knows it's coming back up. Still, she tries to eat foods that are supposed to be easy on your stomach, but nothing is staying down. Any ideas are much appreciated because we're running out of foods.

That's all for today. I'm not sure what we are going to do today, but it's 12 on a beautiful Saturday and I want to go outside and do something. Have a great weekend!