.our love story-part1.

.there was always that boy in my ward who was SUCH a geek. 

.oh my.

.he was almost ALWAYS had the color red on him.

.his high stop nikes with the red swoosh. (i think he eventually got new ones...high tops with a blue nike swoosh sign, instead of red)

.this jacket that was white, blue and red.

.his red nike sweatshirt.

.thank goodness i hated the color red.

.i usually talked to him when i wanted some new music burned to a CD. or a spanish video made. anything techie. otherwise....there is no way i would talk to him. 

.we all knew he had a MAJOR crush on two girls. amy and jenny. my gosh, it was obvious. 

.and then there was 2-3 other girls who liked him SO much. drama. the boy and his geeky self was drama when it came to the girls. they all liked him. what was it about him that all the girls practically threw themselves at him it felt like. 

.sure he was cute, but he was SO geeky, always made these ridiculous jokes, and skinny--like thin as a rail, it looked like this boy NEVER ate....but i know he did because his mom packed his lunches and it they were SO big. it seemed like 3 lunches in one. 

 
(andrew in high school)

 (THE RED JACKET- the girls would FIGHT over this)

(the blue nikes.)

.who was i. 

.i was a typical high school girl. who was madly in love with her boyfriend, and i swore we were going to get married one day. we had dated on and off for 3 years. he played basketball, i played basketball. my best friend's boyfriend was his best friend. it was perfect. oh, life couldnt of been better.

.prom was just around the corner. i was so excited. i had gotten a pink dress and was having all the final details worked out. my boyfriend was going to rent a tux and wear a pink tie to match my dress. it was the week of prom. i believe a Tuesday or Wednesday, i received a text/letter (i honest dont remember) from my boyfriend.

.and than it happened. he broke up with me. i was devastated. my world crumbled around my little sophomore self. everything was going to end....or so my little-high-school-drama-self thought at the time.

.i  was done with boys for a while. sophomore year ended, my junior year started. i had gotten over my boyfriend, attended basketball camps over the summer, visited utah with my family, and went to idaho with my best friend for the first time alone, and it was a blast. we went on a double date while we were there. first "official date" for both of us. i was set up with dallas. he was cute, and a ton of fun, and we just had a really good time together. 

.junior year started up, i started my new year with the normal. playing soccer. i loved the sport, but not as much as basketball. but it kept me in shape for basketball tryouts at the end of the season, and i got such a great tan being outside practicing all the time. 

 .soccer.

 (me in high school)

(me in high school)

.one night...i was doing my homework on the computer late at night. when a chat message popped up...

.from awestensee.

."hey, whats up?"

Easter Weekend 2014

.this year, we didn't really have set plans. There was a few things we had to get done, but we were both on different schedules.

.andrew was asked to go on the "trek" for the day. He sat around most the day, and set up tables and chairs for everyone to eat pizza.... Real. "Trek" ish right? So I couldn't count on him all day. (He was gone 8:30-6). It just so happened we had traded someone days to clean the building and it was the same day as the trek. I just told Andrew I would go with the kids alone and get it done. So we woke up, ate breakfast, changed, and headed to the church to clean . Surprisingly the kids were good and allowed me to clean the small bathroom, clean windows, and set up chairs in the primary room.

.cleaning the church took a little longer than Planned. We had planned to meet Kailee, Ella and Treyden at a Easter egg hunt over by Andrews work, but I was afraid we would miss it. So I opted to run to the dollar store , grab stuff for 2 dozen eggs and lunch and went back to the church to participate with some ward families doing one. We brought a dozen eggs per kid , they were separated by age group, and each kid got to find 12 eggs . Afterwards they played outside in the field for a few hours . It was a beautiful day.

.i called another friend, and asked if she wanted to meet up still. (we had prior plans, but it didnt work out)....she said sure and drove over to my house. We decided to meet at a church beforehand and see what they had to offer for some Easter fun for our kids. I had received an invite on my door, so frankly it would be rude not to go.

.we walked into this tiny room with crafts for the kids, face painting for the lds, cookies and water, and a band/d.j. Station. The girls colored and decorated form purses and Easter eggs. Parker did wAter colors. B got her face painted, and my friend won a pre-made Easter basket in the ruffle drawing (free ). Score!

.the kids finished with an egg hint outside. Divided up in their age group. They had tons of fun. we came back to the house, let the kids play, and we relaxed and talked. it was so much fun. 

.that night andrew came home from his campout. he was WORN out. i finished up some primary stuff, and than set up easter baskets, and our bunny left footprints all over the house.

.in the morning, the kids came down and found their baskets, and played with their stuff all morning. we had breakfast. went to church, came home and ate leftovers (yes, you read that right...leftovers....i didnt do anything fancy over here.) we dyed easter eggs (kids first time) but my kids REFUSED to eat a hard boiled egg. lol. 

.it was a great easter. i was worn out, but it was a ton of fun, and i loved how my hubby doesnt expect anything all fancy, because i just wasnt feeling it. instead we rocked our p.j.s almost the entire day and let the kids destroy the house while we relaxed. 

 puffy apple pancakes...we added dye to ours...

 .best of brooklynn....easter 2014.

the best of parker....easter 2014

 .b took this selfie of her and parker.

 .best of these two together....easter 2014.

.easter is exhausting, 

.love and basketball.

.i love basketball.

.especially now, that im a mom.

.its my out. my MUCH needed out.

.in high school i began to develop a hate for basketball.

.part of it, was the drama between my best friend and me. part of it was my baby sister being better than me and taking my spot. part of it was just not being fun anymore.

.i was offered a scholarship to a local college. and i was too stubborn to take it. i was in my high school snobby/drama days and when senior year came around, i didnt really have a love for basketball anymore. so a scholarship wasnt even appealing to me.

.i could never pin the real reason i went from being a die heart ball player, so absolutely hating it my senior year. loosing a friendship over it for many years was definitely a factor, and my baby sister playing over me really sucked...but what made it drastically change.

.sunday night- i was beat. i was so tired, and could not wait for bedtime. when the time finally came i fell into a deep sleep. it felt so good. and my dream had me wake up in tears.

.there i was living life, when she visited me from heaven.

.my best friend, petey.

.she was still beautiful as i remembered, and still bouncing off the walls with her bubbly personality. we hung out all day long and talked and talked, just like old times. it became dark, and there we were just talking and catching up when she asked "why did you stop playing basketball? why did you not pursue the sport you loved so much?"

.i sat in silence. why, would she ask that? why would we waste our time talking about that?"

."tash. common, why do you not love basketball anymore? what made you grow to hate it?"

.i sat there for a minute, with tears running down my face.

.and than it hit me.

.some of my favorite memories of basketball, was with her.

.and now....she was gone.

.as i expressed this to petey, you could see the hurt in her eyes.

"tash, thats not a reason to stop. that should give you a reason to continue with it. it should give you a reason to play harder, and love it more. because everytime you play it, you love it. and it brings back memories of some of the best times."

.and than i woke up.

.she was right.

.finally. it all made sense.

.it felt "wrong" to play without her. 

.it was on that court, where i met petey for the first time. the basketball court was where we played many many games. and had many many practices. we also stayed up too many nights working on our t-shirts to wear at the boys basketball games. to cheer on our boyfriends at the time. we spent a lot of our summers together as basketball camp, after basketball camp. basketball was a ton of fun because she was apart of it, and so were a ton of our memories.

.there was one time we were at the back of the bus (after she had passed) and my best friend was complaining that coach still had not got her a movie she asked him to put together of her highlights....he told her that he was working on putting together a video of petey playing, for her parents.

.after he walked back to the front of the bus, i wont ever forget what she said next..."

"why does he care about getting that video together? she is dead and i am alive, and i need the video now."

.the words struck and stung SO bad, and for many many years. i was pissed. and our friendship grew far apart. and with that distance, basketball was more drama than anything, and i hated it.

.i coached the freshman team for a year. i absolutely loved it. it was the first time in a LONG time, i started to start falling in love with basketball again. it almost felt like i was living through the girls, as they learned how to correctly shoot, how to dribble, how to break a press, and how correctly running a play will put points up on the scoreboard. but more than that, i LOVED seeing the friendships they created. the close knit "family" they were. i saw many "miracles" through this basketball team. and they taught me how important it is to forgive, to forget and to move forward. basketball started becoming important again in my life.

.and than we moved to rexburg. my sister talked me into playing basketball once a week for the rec teams. and guess who i invited to play on our team with us. my best friend, who i grew distant to for almost 3 years. and we had a total blast. and i continued to play with her for a years following. and every time i played i fell more and more in love with basketball. 

.basketball was more than a sport for me. it was somewhere i learned the value of hard work. where i learned about teamwork. it was a somewhere i met my best friend, and shared some of my most valued memories with her. basketball was where i saw God work many miracles for my freshman team, and when Petey passed away. basketball allowed me to teach my young freshman not only how to dribble, and shoot. but more importantly, how important it was to create a team, who would rely on each other, and create friendships that would last a lifetime. basketball taught me to forgive, and to love again.