Change of Venue?

http://www.shawnandlaurenalspaugh.blogspot.com/

So I haven't posted in a long time, and one reason why is the above link. Apparently the wife thinks we need to have a joint blog, so there it is. Most (all?) of my posting will be done there, would be my guess....

Something New

No, not getting married, although that's less than a month away, and definitely will be new and a shock to the system.

Rather, I'm about to take a short vacation with my family that's been planned for a long time. Which means, for the next couple weeks, I'm not going to see my fiancee. Now, we've spent close to a week apart before, but not really since we've been engaged, at least not in the last month.

So how does one deal with the time apart? Well, I'm sure we're going to talk some on the phone, but other than that, it will be quite the adjustment. I'm looking to really try to grow with God during this time, too, some "last minute lessons, so to speak."

Two weeks without being able to hold her, though? Most definitely be something new...

I'm engaged!!!

So, I know I haven't posted here much lately, but there's a reason for that. Her name is Lauren. Apparently, when you talk to someone every night, you need to do less thinking and debriefing online, and you also seem to have much less time to do so.

Anyway, I'm crazy about her, and last Sunday felt the time was right to propose to my lovely Lauren.



She's pretty. :)

But I digress....before I get so mushy I throw up in my mouth a little bit...

It was a fun outdoor event involving fire and, of course, Peanut!



If you don't know Peanut, you're missing out...

Anyway, for all you ladies out there, it's not a great picture, but it's all I got right now, if you want to see:

The "joys" of March Madness

So, my bracket made it through 1.5 days. On Thursday I went 11-5, which isn't great, but I lost no Sweet Sixteen teams, so I was feeling pretty good. Then, on Friday afternoon, I was a perfect 8-0. Sitting pretty....

...then the evening came. It was not a nice night for me. I missed four games of the eight games, and of the four, two were going to the Sweet Sixteen, and one was going to the Final Four. So, I'm pretty much done. Excellent. :(

By the way, I was a perfect 0-4 on picking the 7/10 games. What can I say? It's a gift...

Maybe I'm not that old

A couple weekends ago, I was out scouting with a couple of the other basketball coaches. These guys are 40-year-old balding men, mind you. Also, I hadn't shaved in over a day. We decided to eat at BW3's before the game, and had to sit in the bar to get a seat. So what immediately happens? I get carded.

I've been getting grief about this ever since. I mean, come on...

Anyway, we've gotten a ton of snow dumped on us the past couple of days. I shoveled twice yesterday, and have just as much snow--if not more--to move today, just to get out of my garage. The one cool things has been that the local cardinal population seems to love the tree outside my kitchen window--yesterday there were seven male cardinals on it, plus a bunch of females. That's a lot of birds!

My first T

Last Saturday at Greencastle I got my first ever technical called on me. And the ironic thing is I'd been sick--I had no voice. I still have trouble talking. But still I managed to get T'd up. Go figure.

So here's the setting. We're down by about 11 or so in the fourth quarter. We hadn't played well at all, except for the second quarter which we won 12-0 (how do you shut a team out in a quarter and lose the game by double digits?). We just didn't have good defensive intensity, and offensively we played frantic and unintelligently. I was frustrated.

Right in front of our bench, there was a scrum for the ball, and it very obviously went off the leg of a Greencastle guy. I ended up catching the ball as it went out of bounds, telling my guys it's alright, good hustle, because it's still our ball. The official, who hadn't been very good, gave the ball to Greencastle. My reaction was to just pound the ball into the ground, maybe shouting no. The official didn't like that at all. As the walked by when Greencastle had the ball, one of my assistants was really yelling at him pretty good. Then, as he was about to cross half court, I mentioned (as loud as I could, which was not very) that "everyone in the gym saw that but you."

Apparently, that crossed the line. I knew it before he turned around or blew his whistle. My assistants than start laughing and cheering, congratulating me on my first one. I don't think laughing is supposed to be your response to getting T'd up, but that's what the other coaches were making me do. But it does feel like I've now entered some kind of coaching club now. My brother would be proud (he has like 4 or 5 T's)!

A Tale of Two Weekends

I didn't realize how much I use and enjoy my weekends until the past ten days or so. Last weekend, I went to a men's retreat in Wisconsin. I had late basketball conditioning the Thursday beforehand, and left on Friday morning (first ever personal day from school!) to head north. I did not arrive back home until about 11pm on Sunday night. Can we say long weekend? Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing weekend, but it was incredibly taxing--physically (I was actually sore the next couple days), emotionally, mentally, spiritually... Oh yeah, and I gave a test to 60-some kids the Friday I was gone. So, all of last week was catching up on sleep, grading, and lots of laundry. It was a long week, though, with all of that, and starting basketball season. So, sleep didn't happen. At all. Except for the day I slept through my alarm...

Fast forward to this weekend. I decided to stay in Friday night instead of swing dancing, then some friends came to visit me on Saturday, so I got to stay at home all day as well. Throw in some church (woohoo!) on Sunday, and I was back home with no stuff to do by 8:15. I feel rested and ready to start the week.

To a teacher, weekends are beautiful things, and I didn't realize how much until now.

Just over a week until basketball games start!