march madness

I have always loved watching and playing sports, and the NCAA tournament is one of the highlights of my year. My heart races as I fill out a bracket and my eyes are glued to the television from the tip off of the first game until the clock expires in the final showdown. College sports are so fun to watch! It's funny to think how a lot of these players are my age or even younger now. You can see the nerves they are experiencing and the heart they bring to the court/field. The another part about college basketball that I love is the upsets. I love hearing the commentators make all these predictions before the tourney begins then....surprise! Some other team shows up and blows a #1 seed out of the water. Oh and it's even better when you watch the pregame show and they are discussing the two teams and who is favored. They will say something like, "Louisville is the team favored to win this game--they are faster, better at defense, and have a higher shot percentage. However, if MSU can slow them down they might be able to steal the win away from the Cards." It's like David and Goliath or something--oh and I love how they say "steal the win away" because the game hasn't even started but apparently a 2 seed could never compare to a 1 seed...hmm. I'm a Michigan fan personally, but I root for all the big ten teams as long as they're not playing the Wolverines.

So, here's my hats off to all the great basketball played so far this year...I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

...that is all. :)

childhood books

Alright..so...I like to read. I don't really think that's a secret or anything. I mean I did get my degree in English Education, so it seems fairly obvious that I don't hate it. Back when I was in high school I would read all the time. Usually just during my free time at school, and sometimes the books were way over my head, and I had no idea what I was even reading. Did you ever do that? You know...read a book when you were younger that you didn't understand, but you wanted to put it down on your "books I've read" list. I laugh about it now because I've run into a few of those when I work in high schools and I see myself 8 years ago. Well, lately I've taken the opposite route. I've been rereading those books from middle school basically...maybe even a few from 4th and 5th grade too. I usually can knock one out during one subbing gig. Some of these youthful reads are: "The Giver," "The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler," "Maniac Magee," "Lord of the Flies," and I'm reading all the Harry Potter books for the second time too. It's so much fun to take a trip down memory lane through reading. It reminds me why I fell in love with books in the first place. I owe a lot of that to my mom. We used to read together at night. I can still remember climbing onto the couch with her and reading the American Girl series on Molly. I then read the others by myself: Samantha, Felicity, Addy, and Kirsten. I used to climb into my bed and read until I fell asleep. Sometimes I would hold my eyes open..literally, so I could finish the next chapter. I miss those simple days when I had nothing but time to read, especially during the summers when night came, and I had to stop playing outside.
So, I encourage you to pick up a book you read as a child and revisit it...that is all. :)