2011 in REVIEW

well ... from when i stopped blogging.

27th aug ... sbl grand final (wolves v hawks)

as guests from bwa we were lucky to attend the sbl grand final between the wolves (our team and lewis as a player) and the hawks (our old team and joe-alan as a player). it was a great game and against all odds the wolves won!

11th sept ... the final wicked in australia

due to aeronny not being able to go darrio and i were able to attend the final performance of wicked in australia! thanks aeronny!!

25th sept ... wabl u18/2 grand final (wolves v hawks)

we had been undefeated ALL season ... and losing was NOT an option. we were versing perry lakes hawks which 1) were undefeated except for the two losses we handed them 2) they were theron and dad's old team from last season and they hadnt changed at all.

not only that theron was still in a moon boot and it was NOT an option for him not to play ... boot or no boot. thankfully the doctor gave him the clean bill of health except NO training or playing for 6 more weeks ... yeah that lasted 2 days. well even less than that, theron was told wednesday afternoon he didnt need the boot and exactly 12 hours later he was at training and that sunday he was suited up for the grand final.

after a VERY stressful game ... WE WON!!! the boys won by 1 and it was dad who worked his magic from above. as soon as the final siren went the boys scream and ran into the huddle, tears flowing freely. mum was in tears and i was losing myself, screaming, hollering, cheering, crying and then mum and i both looked up. walking across the court with his hair sticking up straight, the biggest smile on his face and tears in his eyes was lewis. he came straight to me and gave me the biggest hug and then cried into mum's shoulder. he had done it. he had coached an undefeated season and brought home the championship for daddy.

l to r: lewis, theron, luke

october ... the one direction obsession begins

l to r: zayn, harry, louis, niall, liam

one direction is a band from the uk which was formed on the x factor by simon cowell ... which is laman's term means ... they will be a worldwide sensation. little did we know that in october when darrio first discovered them on youtube and there started. now ill admit it ... im partial to the old boybands - westlife, nsync, backstreet boys, human nature, boyzone, take that ... and these boys are pretty good. simon cowell is a genius.

december ... the 1st christmas without daddy

we spent christmas eve with the dowes and celebrating terry's birthday and it was an awesome night with theron and darrio both enjoying themselves with noah and oscar and even taui popping in and having dinner with us.

for christmas day we spent the day with our family ... the dales and tonys extended family. tony did not want us to be alone on christmas and because we are apart of his family ... we were welcomed with open arms. the day was amazing ... taui came and actually spent the day with us, darrio had fun in the pool, theron and joe acted more like brothers with every passing second and the day ended with taui and darrio providing the music to a christmas and one direction sing along :)

our christmas tree ... with the black bird (for dad) and the white bird (for mum)

our gifts from the dales ... the only one that was fooled was theron ... somehow that didnt surprise us!

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.

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 ...

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.

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

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.