May 09, 2014

Basketball game

Yesterday, it ended up getting up to about 90 degrees--that's 120 degrees hotter than it was on Eli's birthday in January! ;)  We went to the basketball game last night, and it ended up being a lot of fun! I didn't really know any details about the game other than what my brother, Nathan, told me. He called just a couple of hours before the game to tell me that I should take the kids.

The Fraternal Order of Police was playing a charity game against six players from the Detroit Lions football team. My kids like sports, so I knew they'd have fun. Nathan's friend was the one who organized the whole thing, and he asked Nathan to play on the FOP team.

We got there about a half hour before it started, so I could talk to Nathan before the game. There weren't a ton of people there, which was good--it felt hot in the gym. I didn't know this until I got there, but the main purpose of the event is to support special needs children. I saw a lot of people with special needs there to watch the game, and it made me wish that Mark was around, because he would have loved to go!

I can't tell you who the Lions players were, because even if the greatest football or basketball player of all-time came up to me and introduced himself, I still wouldn't know who he was (I hate sports!). But anyway, they introduced all the players, and then started the game. It was a very non-serious game, which actually made it very fun to watch! Any time the ball went out of bounds, it was always called against the Lions; the Lions randomly grabbed kids from the bleachers and brought them down to play for a minute; they really interacted with the kids a lot, which I liked.

All of the Lions' players were current players of the team, except for one man named Cory Schlesinger (I looked him up because I really liked him), who retired in 2009 (I think). He was my favorite part of the whole game--he was amazing in his interaction with kids. I wish I could hire him for a kids' birthday party or something ;)

Anyway, I tried to get some pictures of Nathan playing, but they all wound up looking like this:


My brother is the yellow blur in the middle of the other blurs, between the two blue blurs who are about twice as tall as he is ;) My iPhone doesn't do so well with action shots, as you can see.

Noah was really excited to get autographs from the Lions' players, who were really great about signing, and taking photos. He got five of their autographs during intermission, and was really hoping to get the last one before we left. Noah is VERY shy (I wonder where he gets that? ha) and he was really nervous to go up on his own and ask for an autograph. I told him he just needs to be bold and go ask, because the players were really nice. I was so proud of him when he did it!


I'm glad we ended up going to the game. The kids really enjoyed it, and I (surprisingly) did, too. I think it's awesome that the players were so great with the kids.


This morning, it was already 70 degrees when I woke up. Lately, I've been preferring to run in the late morning, after I get the kids on the bus, eat breakfast, have a couple of cups of tea, respond to emails, etc. I'm probably going to have to start going first thing in the morning if it's going to be this warm outside, though.

I had a five-mile easy run on the schedule, and I headed out a little before 10:00. I did a run around the neighborhoods, and felt a little tired, but good.


I checked my Fitbit to see the accuracy of the distance. It was spot on today, showing that I ran five miles. Yesterday, it was off by about 0.6 miles (it showed that I ran 5.4 miles instead of 6). I think that was because I ran faster yesterday, and my stride was longer than today's easy run. Yesterday, my stride length was 1.07 meters, and today it was 0.97. I set my stride length on my Fitbit to be 1.0 meters for running (that's about average for me), so I think it's pretty accurate for the calibration I set it at. I like that you can input your stride length for walking and for running. I think that's why the Wii U Fit Meter was so inaccurate in distance; it counted all of my running as walking.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing evening reading my book tonight. I love it when I find a book that I get really into, and it's hard to put down. A lot of my reader suggested I try reading Harlan Coben, and I'm glad I did! I'm currently reading Hold Tight, and it has me hooked :)

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 10, 2014

    Looks like Thomas and I have some work to do to make you into a sports fan :) And...today I lost my FitBit! I'm so bummed! I have had it for over 1.5 years but I must have knocked it off my waistband at some point today - a day when I had probably close to 12,000 steps before doing my run. Maybe I can put in a late Mother's Day gift request :)

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  2. Jerica388May 10, 2014

    It's funny, the longer I read your blog, the more I realize we have tons of things in common. I love Harlan Coben - he is one of my favorite authors. I have read everything he has written so far, and I always get through his books really quickly. I wore a Fitbit for two years and enjoyed it, but it became a hassle because I was wearing it and a pedometer for the fitness program at work. Whenever I would go for a run I had both of those, my phone, my watch, and my HRM with chest strap. I felt like I was covered in gadgets! I just found out that the work fitness program will now accept Fitbit data, so I think it's time to dust that thing off and ditch the dinky inaccurate pedometer I got from work!

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  3. Loved reading about the basketball game. I used to take my boys to charity BB games like that, only in Lincoln, it was a team of local celebrities, playing against a team of Nebraska Cornhusker football players. We don't have any pro teams in this state! I'm glad you liked Cory Schlesinger, he's an ex-Husker! In 1995 (I think), he caught a couple passes in a game that won us the national championship, so he's still a hero here!

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  4. I have read almost all of Harlan Coben's books and he is a fabulous writer. Just finished his latest, "Missing You" and absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it. Thanks for your blog posts. I look forward to reading them daily.

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