SPEAK now ... it's gonna be a good NIGHT

just a few days ago i had made a comment that if taylor ever came back to australia i would get tickets. i didnt actually think she would come back for a year or so but i was a little surprised when i was checking my emails from ticketek and saw the alert for taylor's speak now tour so of course ... just a few minutes later two tickets were bought and ready for me to pick up.

i used to be one of the people who has quite harsh over taylor's live singing ability ... but then i actually bought her albums and listened to the lyrics of all her songs. speak now is brilliant ... you can really feel the emotion in each song and it is if you are of have experienced it yourself.

friday march 2 2012 ... it will be a good night :)

HAPPY birthday to my food intolerant CO-WORKER

there has been a little bit of change in my office at work. my previous co worker sharon transferred out down south to be closer to home and after a few weeks i had a new office roomie ... ashleigh.

we got on well from the start and its been great, especially since i can now have days off woo hoo!!

this thursday was ash's 21st birthday and as it is tradition at work we usually bake a cake and have a little morning tea ... but there is a little problem with that ... ash is allergic to all things relating to food. well thats a little bit of a stretch but she can not have wheat, gluten, sugar, yeast, apples, pears, bananas, chocolate, anything dairy and the list goes on and on and on.

so i had an idea ... buy balloons!! everybody loves balloons and lucky for me on the way back from taking theron to school we have a party supply store en route.

happy birthday ash!

HOW i learn the articles of FAITH

okay ... so i admit i do have a reasonable good memory ... even better then reasonable when it comes to anything to do with celebrity / hollywood news or meaningless trivia ... but when it comes to the Articles of Faith i just dont seem to retain it. But i found this idea of sugardoodle.net and it is amazing!

all you do is enlarge a 'word art' number ... print it out ... write the first letter of each word within the number and then laminate. it has totally helped me relearn and retain the Articles of Faith ... which is extremely important considering they are so fundamental!

what are the Articles of Faith? click here to find out more!

"WELL that was stupid ... haha NOMINATION!!"

at the start of the WABL season, lewis had a brainwave of an idea ... each week the team would nominate someone to be "Suit B***h" of the week

nominations have varied from whoever made the stupidest comment, constant uniform violations, wearing football socks instead of basketball socks, or the most harsh type of nomination ... the 'injured' nomination.

the hideous jacket was found for 50c at the local op shop and it reminds me of a male version of the 'Travelling Pants' ... the jacket really did fit everyone in the team from the three 'shorties' of the team - theron, brody and luke to the 'biggies' - cameron, jordan and jay.

well when i say fits, that doesnt mean that it didnt look huge on the 'shorties' or that it means that the sleeves didnt come up to the elbows of the 'biggies' ... but that was the best part of it!

THE awkard moment when the cat thinks he is HUMAN ...

this is schmoo ...
this is schmoo eating at the dinner table ...
this is the awkard moment when the cat thinks he is human ...

PROJECT life with becky HIGGINS

oh how i love my scrapbooking. and becky higgins is the queen of scrapbooking ... and it makes it easier because she is also a member so her ideas for family home evening and primary age kids are so user friendly!

but project life is her business right now and i have wanted to do it for months but the products have all been sold out ... until now! if you dont know what project life is ... well watch the video, becky explains it better than i will :)

so all i can say ... my pre order is in and im now waiting for it to be shipped! woo hoo!

MY constant REMINDER

this is my iphone background.

to most people it looks like nothing special, just some random wall.

to basketball people they will recognize it's wanneroo wolves.

to my family they will know that it's our 1st of 2 basketball homes ... where we feel closest to dad and where we feel welcomed.

to me ... its a reminder. a reminder of my dad, a reminder of the love and honour the wolfpack has for my dad, a reminder of the tribute weekend when the wolfpack men and women played in honour of dad, a reminder of the one minute silence they had for my dad ... a reminder that the men won by 34 points over the magic for my dad.

everytime i look at my iphone (which let's face it is quite often) i remember all these things and most important i remember my dad and love him even more than i did a minute ago.

CENSUS TIME!!

i LOVE the census ... well in reality i LOVE forms!! as soon as i see a form needing to be filled out my heart literally skips a beat. i dont care whether the form is mine or someone else's i will fill it out for them. nothing really seems more fun in my warped mindset then sitting there and filling out the little boxes, ticking the little boxes and then the feeling of accomplishment when i sign it and sent it in.

i never said that i was normal ... and im alright with that :)

FIRST pinker in a cast EVER

yeah ... i think we have all established that 2011 is not a good year for the pinker family. with only 8 weeks until WABL grand finals and 2 months until state tryouts theron has fractured his ankle and damaged his tendons ... not good.

it happened during his normal monday night game at joondalup ... he went up for a layup, landed on the opposition's foot, heard a snap, tried to walk it off and crumpled to the ground. we didnt think it was too bad but we did go to hospital and lucky we did because out theron comes in a cast and with an appointment with the facture specialist for the next day :(

the good thing to come out of the whole night ... theron is cared about. we had not only his teammates run over to him but his WABL teammates who were playing on the next court came running over during their game to see if he was okay.

our goal now ... lets just pray for a miracle ready for WABL grand finals!!

ONE of the hardest days YET

today was the day that we all were looking forward to ... with a heavy heart and bucketloads of nerves.

it was the last NITP camp of the year ... and the first that we have gone to without dad. the first camp without dad was just a few weeks after the funeral and we just couldnt do it. this camp theron was running with the squad and i was going to coach ... something i havent done in years and not at this level ... this was state level ... come on now people ... state level ... i can barely follow the plays that the wolves play ... as you can probably tell i was stressing.

in the end ... the day was fantastic. theron had a little hiccup about lunch time and i had a little attack just before the drills started but we were there in honour of dad and everything he had laid the foundation for this ... for theron and i to continue his work ...

LADY antebellum ... just a kiss official video ... AWESOME

i absolutely love lady antebellum. hillary and charles individually have very strong voices and together they just seem to complement each other so well and with dave he seems to just harmonize the two of them together, not to mention dave is a kickass guitarist and pianist. 

not a day goes by that i dont listen to at least one lady a song ... whether im feeling sad, angry at the world, jumping for joy, laughing my head off or just sitting and watching the world pass by ... lady a has a song for each moment and the lyrics are meaning something. 

top 5 lady a songs (at the moment)

1) home is where the heart is (lady antebellum)

2) just a kiss (own the night)

3) last night last (need you now)

4) american honey (need you now)

5) love don't live here (lady antebellum)

bring on sept 13 ... 'own the night' is released and i have more lady a songs to choose from :)

MY third HOME ...

its true ... i spend just as much at this desk as i do at home or at any basketball court in perth. i am truly blessed with my job, my bosses has been amazing over the past few months and i love my job. there i said it, i love my job. i love the paperwork, the endless stationery supply, the fact i can listen to my music all day, the problems that pop up, the solutions i can work out, the improvement on my ability to work with numbers) and most of all the fact that it has the tendency to challenge me every day.

i dont mind admitting i love my job ... although not as much as my bed and any basketball court :)

A good night OUT

my wallet and bag are FULL of these little ticket stubs. i honestly think all the sports stadiums in perth have a supply agreement with the company.

everytime i see one of these little ticket stubs i have so many good memories to look back on. all the hawks, wolves, senators, marlins, royals, tigers, tuart hill, heat games from the past several years ... all of them involving the people that mean the most to me ... my family and our teams.

these tickets are from the last WABL game at stirling this season ... good times :)

IT'S all about the BROMANCE

theron's mates have become part of the family since dad's passing. our home (even though it is at least half hour away -one way- from woodvale) has someone over nearly every weekend and when they are over the lounge room gets turned into the 'boys cave'.

today theron had blake over and after a rather heated playfight they seem just to tire themselves out or as they later put it 'they had a power nap'.

no matter how old they get, they just dont seem to change at all ... they are still my little brothers :)

I love RAIN

i absolutely love rain!

i was born in the middle of summer so therefore i should be a true summer baby right? wrong! so very very wrong! i am a winter girl through and through.

i love wearing layers, jeans and hoodies.
i love the thunderstorms, the hail and the lightning.
i love the heater being on, candles being lit and wrapping myself up into a huge doona.
i love the fact there are puddles everywhere, the skies going darker by the minute and the bottom of my jeans staying wet due to the puddles being everywhere!!

A wicked GIFT

glen bought the family tickets to wicked and it was simply AMAZING!! darrio and taui had already seen it with friends but for mum, theron and i it was a new experience and we are totally, wickedly hooked!

i had 'wikipedia' the storyline of wicked and i dont think i read the ending right. i didnt like what i had read that elphaba and fiyero didnt even up together and as much as i was looking forward to the show i was a little disappointed ... that was until i saw the ACTUAL ending ... where they did end up together and happily ever after!

the stage and the costumes were amazing and the actors were so talented. lucy durack (glinda), jemma rix (elphaba), david harris (fiyero) and bert newton (the wizard) were all simply awesome as actors and i want to go back again and again ... i seriously can not get enough of wicked plus i think i have a slight crush on david harris :) darrio, taui and i have the wicked soundtrack playing non stop and darrio has memorized the words perfectly.

ps ... darrio and i are ADDICTED to the wickedly green mocktails!!

MR popular, that's HIM

every school holidays means one thing ... wildcats camp. theron started wildcats camp as a camper when he was only 7 years old, so four times a year he would sign up and learn from some of the best players in the state. when he turned 13, theron became too old for the camp but he had been there longer than any of the wildcat players themselves ... he had outlasted all of them.

theron then became a camp helper at the tender age of 13 ... he would go down a few days before camp started and he would pack up the bags, pump all the balls and help with the registrations of the campers. at the age of 15, theron upgraded to being a camp coach where he was now coaching the campers with the wildcat players.

the funniest part of the camp is when its autograph time and all the coaches line up and theron is amongst the wildcat players having kids lining up and asking him for his autograph and even asking him for a photo or two. its even funnier when we go to the wildcat games and you see kids from the camp wearing their signed shirts and you can see theron's signature on their shirts!

ALL aboard to HOGWARTS

the final midnight session. the final movie. the final time to see harry, hermione, ron, neville, snape and the handsome weasley twins fred and george and the rest of the gang. harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 has been one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of 2011 .... and it didn't disappoint.

the movie was magically, absurdly, stunningly brilliant. it was definitely the perfect tribute to harry, who i have grown up with over the past decade.

i laughed hysterically when neville went looking for luna, then cried openly when snape was killed, then shed more tears when we all saw fred, lupin and tonks in the great hall and then finally sat there content that the journey had reached the end and harry and ginny were waving goodbye to their kids on the hogwarts express.

i knew it was going to be emotionally ... and it was. and i was alright with that.

3 months to the day ... the bad and the GOOD

its been 3 months to the day that dad passed away ... 3 long, long months filled with tears, laugter, fights, angry words, basketball, tributes, cards, flowers, lawyers, coroner letters, legal issues, bills, paperwork, changing details, hugs, dirty looks, slapping his picture down, pulling his picture back up, sharing our story and most importantly trying to just keep living with our matriarch and the priesthood holder no longer here.

there are moments when i wish i could just speak to him, like last saturday when i was coaching the heat and i just couldnt remember the rule about 'fill in' players. there are moments when i wish i could just slap him across the back of the head for not filling out paperwork when he should have. there are moments when i just wish it never happened ... but then i think about the reason why he was taken. heavenly father has a plan for each of us and the plan was for dad to go and to continue the work up there. there is a lesson that i learnt in young womens ... nothing happens to us that we can not handle. heavenly father will never test us with something we are not strong enough to deal with and i have faith in that.

monday was a tough day, i had a horrible morning to the point that i just played the song dad always loved to sing with darrio 'big girls dont cry' by fergie all morning and when my boss walked in i burst into tears. HOWEVER that evening i got the BEST news ever ... i was officially an aunt to the most cutest child EVER ...

miss madeline beth. i havent yet been able to see or hold madeline ... or even been able to tell her the nickname i have for her that no-one else can use ... but she means the world to me because she got me out of my dark mood. she had spent time with my dad up there and im pretty sure he pushed her along so that she was born on the 11th ... im sure of it.

KNIGHTS grand final = CHAMPIONS

l to r jamie, tom, nelson, benjamin, theron

all season long the knight's have won every game ... and by a decent margin. an entire undefeated season rests on one game ... as it did last season. however this season would be different. the boys were not going to lose in the grand final even though they were going to be without mike their coach and the other player on the team, jeremy.

despite not having a coach, the boys still had the mothers all encouraging (if not yelling a little loudly) them on and after a well meaning rocket up their bum speech at half time, the boys went on to play seriously and in the end, win the game.

hilarious side note to the game: the opposition was theron's best friends team ... so not only were we cheering for the knights but we were also cheering for the opposition (just as loudly) and getting shouted down by our own mothers haha

the game was filled with theron and josh going up against each other, a lot of butt taps between each team and a sign for the opposition's point guard on the knights bench (that was me)

SHOES are the symbols of LOVE

since you've been gone (ha did you get the kelly clarkson shoutout then ... hmmm probably not lol), we have had more boys in this home then ever before.

as much as the boys need to be here with the family, we need them here to fill just a tiny bit of the massive hole that is left. it helps them as much as it helps us ...

and the way that you can tell that someone is here is by the shoe collection at the door ... and this was just a slow day haha

to us the shoes are symbols of love ... the love they have for the family, the love we have for them and the love we both have for you

HIDE and SEEK

i am a self confessed stationery freak. i need at least 10 pens at all times in my pen holder and they must be the blue staedtler medium point pens and curse the person who touches my pens without permission ... they are like my children!!

then here comes friday morning when i walk into my office and my entire stationery tray has been taken and hidden. Explaination: my boss and i have a war of the minds going on ... whoever has the best hiding spot wins.

as you can see, my boss didnt put too much thought into the hiding spot as it was one of the worst (therefore easiest) hiding spot on the entire first floor.

game on buddy!!

JIMMERMANIA has hit SACRAMENTO

jimmer has a home and he is playing in my beloved #7 ... im purple during football season and now im purple in basketball season ... well im always a boston baby but im a boston kings baby now :)

THE last GOODBYE

after nearly two very very long years american idol season 7 winner david cook finally released his first single from his sophmore album "this loud morning".

the song is called "the last goodbye" and it literally sent the wordnerd community into overdrive. not only was david out of hiberation but it meant something so much more than just a song ... the album is just around the corner!!

WOLVES @ the PALACE

the match of the two undefeated teams ...

the match of the best offence against the best defence ...

the match was intense from the tip off and was really close, which is something that both teams havent experienced this season. the hawks have been together as a core for nearly 3 years straight and the wolves were (literally loving) handpicked by you and lewis just a few months ago.

in the end your boys pulled away in the 3rd quarter and handed the hawks their first defeat of the season. during the final quarter the game had lost control and there were tech fouls being called here there and everywhere. the hawks coach lost his rag (as usual), the wolves coach acting cool, calm and collected (as usual) and the boys will just chilling on the court while the game was still going!!

the final score wolves 76 - hawks 64

COUNTDOWN: one month until A-DAY

its one month until david releases the most awaited album ever ...

well for me anyway ... 

PARTY with the BIEBS

i had bought these tickets for justin last november for darrio's christmas present. 3 rows from the front just to the right hand side of the stage ... epic for darrio.

both mom and i think that darrio might had used the concert as a distraction from you just a little bit ... she had something to look forward to and to forget about the world and just be all about the biebs.

the concert was one of the best i have been to and im not ashamed to admit that ... justin sang, danced, flirted, shook the hair and made the whole audience feel apart of the show and everyone walked out of the dome just buzzing.

darrio loved the night and didnt want it to end and i was just happy and grateful to see her happy after a month of devestation.

THE ROSE

we received so many tributes, cards and flowers for you. our home smelled like a florist for nearly three weeks!!

one of the most touching floral tributes we received was a white box full (and i mean full) of blood red roses from the perth wildcats head office.

the wildcats have always opened their arms to theron and included him as apart of the family but with this simple gesture we know now that it was never just theron they included but it is the entire family.

WOLVES tribute match NIGHT

you and theron (and the family) had only moved to the wolfpack during the off season but because of your commitment to basketball across the state and theron being a hononary wolfpack since he started at woodvale we always felt at home at the den.

that weekend after you had gone the wolfpack held their home games against mandurah magic in honour of you. both the womens and mens wore black armbands and they even had a minute silence just before the mens game.

the wolves definitely know how to honour someone special in the pack :) 

the womens won 80-60 and the mens won 115-81. 

THEY did it for YOU

just days after you passed daddy your boys played their hearts out, with honour in their game and their heads held high.

all the tears, the sweat, the fouls, the layups, the missed layups, the timeouts, the blocks, the 3 pointers, the black armbands, the minute silences, the grand final ... everything was for you.

your boys did you proud daddy.

MARLINS v ROYALS

it was only 4 days since you had passed and it was theron's friday night grand final.

you would have loved this game ... the game of the season ... the grand final ... marlins v royals. this meant of course that out of the 13 boys playing 10 had either been coached directly by you at some point or they were close to you through theron.

the game got physical and tempers flared but they flared because it was for you ... these boys were playing with the raw emotion that they just couldn't deal with in any other way but fight for the ball and fight for the win.

but you would have been proud, the marlins won and they played and won for you.

WE are BYU

we shared the trimuphs. we shared the defeats. their victories are our victories. their pain is our pain. countless unseen, united by a common hertiage and by passion. we stand, we cheer, we believe. across the nation, around the world. in the stands and in our homes. we rise and we shout. one path. one hope. one team.

we are BYU.