Buckets

I wrote a lovely entry for this blog yesterday.  It was touching and funny and ended with some really sweet pictures and wise words……but them I walked away from the computer.  I intended to shut the computer so that it wouldn’t die, but then who knows what happened, probably something silly like dinner or my children came home, something that may have required some attention.  So now that we are in the middle of a delightful snow day, one that required Brandon’s clinic to also be closed (hurray!) and I have a second to download my pictures…..my entry is gone.

Oh well, it happens.

My entry was going to tell you all about Reese and Brandon’s big Man Night this past Tuesday.  This has been the year that Reese discovered sports.  Sometime around August, he found ESPN and then in October when he started on his basketball team at the JCC, he just got hooked.  When we went to Aunt Shannie’s graduation at the FedEx Forum and he discovered that the Grizzlies played there, it became a goal of his to go to an actual game.   So Brandon organized a Man Night with several of our guy friends and a few other kids.  They would be going early, to watch the “shoot around”, to get right up close to the players.  And the best part of the night, they would be getting to eat Concession Stand dinner.  Concession Stands are like a love language in this family.

They probably get that from me.

As a little girl, I have fond memories of going to the Shrine Circus with my Grandma and cousins.  It was exciting and beautiful and scary all at the same time, but one of the biggest emotions I remember feeling was lust.  I lusted after that cotton candy that the vendor people wearing money aprons carried around on wooden planks.  With every ounce of my being, I wanted nothing more than to raise up my hand and plunk over a $20 (which they would keep all of because circus snacks are ridiculously expensive) and eat every bit of that spun sugar on a stick.  This did happen a few times and it was just as magical as I had hoped.  But it wasn’t an every time sort of thing.  Looking back, I realize that the snacks that Grandma brought in her purse were WAY better than anything they could sell in a concession stand.  She would bring a gallon size Ziploc bag full of homemade cookies in her purse…..you can’t get much better than grandma cookies………

On one of Brandon and I’s first dates, we went to the movies and he asked me if I wanted anything from the snack bar.  I don’t know for certain, but I’m pretty sure I would have said yes right then had he asked me to marry him.  I don’t think he knew that I could have been bought with a plastic, disposable tray of nachos…..but it meant the world to me.  I remember telling my mom on the phone, “We went to the movies and he bought me snacks from the concession stand!” and I think that won some points for him.  My point is not to state that we are cheap dates, but instead to paint the picture that the little details aren’t lost on myself and my little people.  I have tried to instill in them that just getting to go and do whatever the activity is makes it special and all the other little extras, well they are just that, little special extras.

So the boys went and watched the giants take practice shots.

“Mama, they are all soooo tall!” Who knew basketball players are 7 ft tall?

Reese got a t-shirt like he had been hoping for….he went with #33…..I would have picked the same…..

Captivated

He cheered and he danced and he ate a funnel cake from the concession stand.

Funnel cakes are even better when they are enjoyed with live events

I texted his dad to remind him to take lots of pictures of the evening, both the camera kind and the memory kind.  This was a “bucketlist” kind of experience…..and I kind of hated that I was missing it myself.  I often flip through these little mental pictures when I think about them getting all grown up, when Reese started kindergarten and Lila stopped wearing diapers, or when they are fighting and ready to kill each other.

Happy boys

The Grizzlies ended up losing.  Reese has watched countless games here at home where his beloved Grizzlies have won, and wouldn’t you know it….the one he finally gets to go to and they lose.  Reese was convinced that they lose because of him. His dad explained that several of their best players were out for various reasons and it was probably because of him that they didn’t lose any worse.  What a good dad kind of thing to say.

The Baughman boys

It must have worked.

He came home and kissed me good night, insisting that he keep his jersey t-shirt on.  And as I finished up prayers, he told me thank you for picking a daddy who would teach him about basketball.

*Click*

I’ll tuck that one away with the others.  And for the record, I’m thankful the basketball loving daddy picked me.

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