Upward Basketball

About 3 months ago I volunteered to be the head coach for an Upward Basketball team. At first I was nervous about being the head coach, becasue I wasn't confident that I knew enough about basketball to be the head coach. Nonetheless I was assigned to be the head coach of a Kindergarten team and we were going to be called the Hilltoppers (after Western Kentucky University).

We had one practice in December before the holidays and then our season was in full swing after the new year. We had two more practices before our first game on January 15th. The season was eight games long and luckily we didn't have to cancel any of our games due to bad weather!

I had five kindergarten boys on my team who ranged from no basketball experience to one boy who plays basketball everyday and is quite good (watch out he might just be playing for UK one day!)

We had practice every Monday with another kindergarten team. It was fun to practice with another team, because that meant we had 4 coaches (more help!) and got to know 10 kids.

This past Saturday was our last game and I have to say that I am sad to see the season end. Mid-way through the season I was counting down the games until it was all over. But now that it truly is over and I will not see the boys on my team anymore I am sad that the eight weeks went by so quickly!

Our game on Saturday was the best game we had all season. It was so cool to see how far the players have come. They all scored!! And they started passing the ball to each other when they were being double teamed. Upward doesn't keep score on the kindergarten teams, but if they did I am positive we would have gone undefeated!!

So here is my shout out to the Hilltoppers (McKean, Anderson, Clay, Landon and Chase) for their excellent season! And I hope that we are able to see each other soon!

2.21.09

So you might be asking yourself what the significance of the date in the title is? Well that my friends is the date that I met Aaron for the first time in St. Louis, MO. We were both so nervous the first time we met, but who wouldn't be. I remember, we met at the hotel to leave one car. Then we started trying to navigate around this foreign city. I knew right then and there driving around this city that I was going to marry him! I just knew that if we could work together to find our way around that we could get through anything in life together. And from that day on we have been together. Not always physically together, but together in heart.


Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary and we spent the weekend in Gatlinburg, TN. It was so nice to have a weekend away to just be with each other and have nothing do to. We ate at some great restaurants, did a little shopping and of course took in all the sights that Gatlinburg has to offer (if you've never been just imagine Branson on steroids!!). It was great to reminisce on our first trip together meeting in St. Louis. Here we are at the top of the arch. This is the first thing we did after we met!



We have now been married almost 7 months and it is amazing to think how far we have come. Every time I think there is no way I could love Aaron any more than I do right now, he does something to make my love grow even stronger. I know this is going to sound cheesy, but the Brad Paisley song truly says it...I thought I loved you then!

I love you Aaron Samson, you're the best thing that ever happened to me!!

From this moment...
E

C-A-T-S! Cats, Cats, Cats

In November I was fortunate enough to score some extremely cheap lower arena tickets to the UK vs. Tennessee basketball game. Once I got the tickets I decided to make the tickets Aaron's Christmas present. I had the tickets for almost a month before he got them and let me tell you keeping them a secret was really hard! I am not very good at keeping secrets...I love to share good news! So here is Aaron on Christmas morning after he opened his tickets. He was very surprised!!

So last week it was finally time for the game. Oh I forgot to mention this was going to be my first experience attending a UK game. For those of you who don't know anything about sports or basketball. Kentucky basketball is like football to Texans! Kentucky fans love their Wildcats especially when they are winning. When UK lost to West Virgina last year in the NCAA tournament you would have thought someone had died. The next day at church everyone was walking around with their sad faces on!! Needless to say UK basketball is a BIG deal and this was going to be a first for me! I was excited!! Here we are before the game started. I am sporting my blue with a UK face tattoo!

The atmosphere at the game is electric and contagious. I had no affiliation to UK until I met Aaron, but let me tell you, it is easy to get wrapped up in all the excitement of basketball! I cheered when Josh Harrelson dunked on a Tennessee guys face and yelled when the refs made a horrible call. I think my favorite thing about being at the game was all of the things that go on that you don't see on TV. From the cheerleaders and dance team to the reporters on the court there is so much to see during time outs. We had a special treat for this game! In the second half during a time out the cheerleaders spell out Kentucky with their bodies on the floor. They always have someone special come out and be the "Y". At this particular game John Wall (famous Cat from last year who was picked #1 by the Washington Wizards) was in attendance and he was the "Y". The crowd when wild when he came out as the "Y". It was pretty awesome!!

If any of you are following the Cats this season you will know that they are not having the greatest season. The are 1-5 on the road in SEC games. They play really well at home which was great for us to be in attendance at this game. UK dominated Tennessee and came away with a big "W". I must say that my first experience at a UK game was a great one!! Go CATS!!!

West Virginia

Aaron and I headed up to West Virginia to have Christmas with Aaron's parents on Friday after Aaron got home from work. We left Lexington around 8 p.m. and were driving to Hurricane in on again, off again snow with Mic and Murry. I was a little worrried the roads were going to get bad, but we made it there safe and sound. My brother-in-law and his fiance (Ryan and Jordan) were already there.

Saturday we all slept late and took our time getting ready for our family pictures that were at 1:00 p.m. I forgot to add that the snow finally caught up to us and it snowed about 4" during the night!! For our family pictures we took all 4 dogs to the park and met the photographer for one picture with everyone and the dogs in the snow...it was freezing, but hopefully we got a cute picture. Then we dropped the dogs off at the house and went to the studio to take the rest of the pictures. This family session was our gift to Bob and Gail for Christmas.

Later Saturday evening both sides of Aaron and Ryan's family all came over for dinner. Just to give you a mental image there were about 16 people and 4 dogs. Needless to say it was kind of like a circus. So much so that our little 19 lb. dog, Murry, who has everyone fooled to believe he is the sweetest thing ever, bit Aaron's 10 year old cousin, Abby on the leg so hard that she had 4 little bruise marks from his fangs!! After some tears and Aaron and I feeling so bad we banished Murry to his crate, we continued on with a game of Scategories. Murry cried the entire time he was in his crate. I think he knew he was in trouble. Abby came back over on Sunday, she and Murry made up, he felt bad :)

We went to church, ate lunch and then headed home on Sunday in just enough time to start some laundry, clean up the house and make some cookies for our college bible study that we host on Sunday nights. It was a fast and furious weekend, but it was nice to see Aaron's family.

The pictures up above are of Aaron and Ryan with their 93 year old grandfather, Pa-Pa. And me and Jordan with him too! He is such a sweet man. Everytime he see's me he tells me I'm waiting on that Samson girl. There has not been a Samson girl in almost 70 years and he thinks it's about time for one. I just say Aaron and I will see what we can do!

Happy Monday!

Back on the saddle again

So I gave blogging a chance early last year, but I wasn't the best at keeping up with it. I was blogging about my travels with my job, but a lot of times I found it hard to keep up with the blogging while I was on the road. Then in September I got a new job that does not require me to travel.

Now that Aaron and I have been married for 5 monts I thought it would be a good idea to start documenting the rest of our first year of marriage and all the years to come. And I promise to keep up with this blog and maybe I can even get Aaron to make a couple of posts as well.

With the beginning of a New Year and 360 days left in 2011 Aaron, Mic, Murry and myself have a lot of exciting days ahead of us. So here's wishing you and yours a Happy New Year!!

~Erin

4:15 am is way too early!

On the road again, I'm on the road again...

My travel schedule has officially started up and I am in full swing. I just finished a trip to Dallas. I'll be in Abilene next week and then back to Lexington for a week. This trip to Dallas was very good. I met with some great alumni of the University as well as I got to see some friends in the evening.

However, my trip did not start out the greatest. I had to get up at 4:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning to make my 6:50 a.m. flight. There are no mid-morning flights to DFW from LEX. There is 6:50 a.m. or 1:00 p.m., so there you have it...I guess better get use to getting up at 4:15 a.m. huh? Once I am up and showered I am good to go, although I crashed pretty early on Tuesday night.

So I got to the airport and was going through security when I took my shoes off and went down to pick them up and realized they were BROWN!! I was wearing black pants and a hound’s-tooth sweater...yikes!! I have two pair of the same shoes, one brown and one black. You see what happened is I didn’t want to wake Aaron up so I spent most of my time getting ready in the dark, so it is easy to see how it happened. Luckily I had a pair of zebra flats with me. The hound’s-tooth and zebra prints probably looked horrible together, but I guess it's better than brown shoes with a black outfit :)

When I got to Dallas I stood off to the side of the jet bridge to pick up my suitcase which I gate checked in Lexington. I grab my bag and took off up the jet bridge when I'm thinking to myself, "Man, my suitcase sure is hard to pull!" About that time I hear a man behind me saying, "Miss, Miss, you lost your wheel." Sure enough one of my wheels fell off of my suitcase. I am quite certain that I looked ridiculous trying to balance my suitcase on the other 3 wheels and roll it through the airport. I made a quick trip to TJ Maxx to get a new suitcase and I was off again.

Like I said I did not have the best start to my trip to the Big D, but after I got going it ended up being a very successful trip.

Tune in next week as my life on the road takes me to Abilene!

Erin

Oh and just a side note: Aaron and are getting married in less than 5 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bobby Humphrey

Note to self...do not blog about your travel experiences until you trip is complete!

I had a very exciting experience on the plane ride home last night. Well...exiciting for me because I love football!! I was sitting in my seat on the airplane and a man sat down next to me (across the isle) and asked me if I was an Alabama fan. I said no I was rooting for the Longhorns. He said, "Oh I thought because of your crimson coat you were a fan." I said, "No I just like red." We began to make small talk and I asked him if he had gone to the game and he said he had. After he told me that he was from Birmingham, AL I asked why he was going to Lexington. He told me that his son and family were at University of Kentucky because his son is being recruited to play football. I asked what his son's last name was so that if he did come to UK I would look out for him. He said it's Humphrey.

At this point in the conversation I had a feeling this guy was a football player. So I asked if he played and he told me he played for Alabama. Then I asked if he played pro and he told me he did and that he was taken in the first round by the Denver Broncos in 1989.

For all of you football fans out there here are few statics about Bobby Humphrey. In his four seasons playing for the Crimson Tide, Humphrey rushed for 3,420 yards, caught 60 passes for 523 yards, and scored 40 touchdowns. He made the College Football All-America Team in 1986 and 1987. In 1986, he set a school record with 1,471 rushing yards. In 1987, he was voted as UPI's offensive player of the year and finished 10th in the Heisman Trophy balloting. During his rookie season in the NFL, he rushed for 1,151 yards and seven touchdowns for the Broncos as they qualified for Super Bowl XXIV, but were defeated 55-10 by the San Francisco 49ers. Humphrey, however, played well, finishing the game as the Broncos leader in both rushing (61 yards) and receiving (31 yards). He followed his impressive rookie performance with a Pro Bowl selection in 1990, rushing for 1,202 yards and seven touchdowns in 1990. He played in 1992 and 1993 for the Miami Dolphins. Pretty cool huh?!?!?

Bobby and I talked the entire 2 hours and 5 minutes of the flight about everything in life from his wife and five children (3 boys and 2 girls), my upcoming marriage, our jobs, religion, football and more! Bobby shared with me his run in with drugs, alcohol, the law and getting shot while playing for the Miami Dolphins and how he nearly lost his wife during that time. He told me that when the drugs and alcohol could not fulfill him anymore he turned to the Lord and got his life back on track. He and his wife have started a non-profit organization in Birmingham called Speed City to get inner city kids involved in a track program.

At the end of the flight Bobby and I exchanged business cards. I told him that if his son chose to go to school at Kentucky that we would love to have he and his family over for dinner. Since I gate checked my bag I had to wait in the jet bridge for it. Bobby actually waited for me in the terminal so we could walk out together. I saw that as a prime opportunity to go ahead and get his autograph, which I'm sure made his day!!

I learned something very valuable during my flight home last night. Always be willing to have a conversation with the person seated next to you on an airplane...you never know what kind of story you will have to tell.