Three Days And Counting...

Memorial Day is bitter sweet for the Keene family. Its the last "quiet" weekend until July for this basketball foursome. Okay, I can't remember the last "quiet" weekend we have had. For weeks and weeks now we have had something on the calendar. What I wouldn't give just to stay home and relax for two whole days. But, I must say, the words--Relax-- and--Children--do not mix.

Camp starts Tuesday, and along with camp comes, a serious schedule conflict for two kids and a working mother. This year we not only have our mothers on the inventory of help, but we also have hired another set of hands. Coach is working with the high school team every day and the Jr. high players two nights a week. Not to mention weekend shootouts and that week long trip to North Carolina to wrap up the month of June. Ahh, the joys of being married to a man who loves a game more then some love their families. We lucked out. He loves us both or he does a great job at faking one. So, how did I find time to blog tonight? Well, finally got the kids to sleep after a long day outside in the sun. Figured Coach and I would watch a movie or just relax on the couch. Guess again. As I sit here and type, he is watching a video on UCONN and taking notes like a stenographer in a courtroom. Gino is teaching some crap about dribble drive whatever. Anyhoo...I will leave coaching to him and all the rest of the success of the organization to me.

I am beat tonight. Thinking about going to sleep. After looking at the stack of DVD's Coach has sitting next to him on the table, it looks like he may be awhile....Speaking of bedtime, Justice told me last night, right before he went to bed, "Mom, I love you more than Wal-Mart." WOW, Wal-mart. That's gotta make a girl feel special, don't ya think?

Flying At 23 Million Feet

Aunt Ashley and Tyler made a surprise visit the other night to the house to play. After Justice gave Tyler a full

tour of his room and John Deere Tractors he says, "WHO wants to go get in the van?" Yep, Justice was the pilot and the flight attendant. He only serves Reese's on his plane. Justice was in rare form showing off for our new guest. Little Keene did some, shall we say Aunt Ashley induced, embarrassing things to get a few laughs. Can you tell in this picture that it took Zach and I three hours to get this kid to calm down and go to sleep that night....PARENTHOOD. Someone forgot to tell me when kids came along you never get to rest...NEVER!

Where does the time go, Jasa Price is THREE! Justice said, "Yeah, shes my girlfriend, until I go to pre-school!" haha

Birthday Party Fun...made for a GREAT NIGHTS sleep! Go Prices!!! Whoo Hooo...great idea!

At Jasa's TUMBLING PARTY...Daddy and Cam in the foam pit. We honestly need one of these in our basement!

NO Justice, we are NOT getting a Dog! Mugsey, his great-aunts dog, did some tricks and JC told everyone we went to a DOG SHOW :)

Does This Kid Look MEAN or What?

Yes, Papa was on a field trip in Macomb. Had to swing by with the bus... Justice was in heaven!!

If Its Good Enough For My Brother...Then Its MY Turn!

On The Road Again...

Green Acres Is the Place To Be.....Farm Living Is the Life For Me...NOT! This is as close as the Keene's will ever get to a field haha!

Brotherly Love...

Me Love You Long Time TV...

Good-Bye TV...Me love you long time!

Isn't it hilarious when junk week rolls around in Macomb. I remember when we lived on Calhoun, when Justice was in diapers, we had quite an experience. This family pulls up, with a massive trailer of crap and asks us if we have anything in our trash cans. Coach says, "Just a ton of dirty diapers." The guy says, "I'll be the judge of that!" Proceeds to pull apart our black hefty trash bags. Diapers and trash go all over our yard. They don't pick it up, just get back into their rusted out truck and stop at the next junk pile. I felt violated. So Coach and I had to pick up all the nastiness scattered over the curb and put it back into the green trash bin. The nerve of some people....SPEAKING of NERVE. Get this one. So our TV is out at the curb. FYI-4 people tried to push that thing into the back of their SUV...we just watched inside the house and died laughing. Yeah, we need to get a life, this was the highlight of my week. Like it was gonna fit people... Anyhoo. Tuesday AM, a very wealthy old scrooge that lives down the road from me pulled in and asked my mother-in-law if the TV worked. He then, somehow, convinces my father-in-law to load the tv in his truck and deliver it to his house. OMG! No, not finished yet, it gets better. That same night this idiot comes back to the house asking Coach for the manual and "just exactly" whats the problem with it. We told him a fuse blew. --yeah, when our kid peed into it-- This guy then has the nerve to tell Coach to go look for all manual again. And says, "I've did my research, its a 2003. When did you buy it." DUH--2003. Asks if we still have the receipt and wants to know who worked on it. Now, its a good thing I was not home. I would have told this guy where to go. When I was coaching out at WIU this particular man made me cry, yes cry, at least 3 different times. Just a real jerk. I am waiting. He will be back. Guaranteed!

Life Lesson #912 if there are items outside of the Keene house on junk week, they were either destroyed by our children or do not work...

The GOOD China

Justice has been helping me set the table lately. "Mom, lets eat on the good china." I guess when you are a basketball coaches kid anytime you can eat off of the NCAA full court plates.....it must be the "good china". Kinda funny, we have almost became accustomed to having them at the table. My cute little pier one plates have been switched for these dollar bin deals from Target. Oh yeah, we have the matching serving bowls and tray. High Class, don't ya think. A few weeks ago we were at Target in Burlington and Justice spotted basketball napkins just like the plates. "Mom, we gotta get these!" Perfect example, it dosent take much to make us simple-tons happy. Yeah, I know. Probably should have washed the plates before the pic, but owell.

Building a Foundation....Nice! There parents must be so proud ;)

He Shoots...He SCORES!

Cameron Wants to Play TOOOO...

Justice....working on the "press" with two lovely ladies!

Working on the Press......on all fours, is that legal?

Have You Seen My Swagger?

Come out, come out, where ever you are.......This week I lost my swagger.

Ten short years ago I met Coach. Well, I had talked with him a few times on the Internet when I lived in Mississippi. He was an ICQ junkie, remember that chat line..uh-oh! Looking back, I was giving him love advice about this girl he liked. Yikes, good thing I gave bad advice. Anyhoo...we met face to face at a party. I thought he was the biggest jerk I had ever met, along with his cocky attitude. Honestly, wanted to slap him. Somehow, like a few days later, I decided it wasn't cocky, it was confidence. And I kinda had alittle of that swagger myself. Match made in heaven, basketball heaven! I am pretty sure I see that swagger in Justice, almost daily. Sometimes, alittle TOO much swagger, it gets him a nice paddle on the behind!

So this week, in light of my new job, I think I have lost my swagger. I was watching a show that talked about making sure the pirate always kept the sword pointed at the opponent. You gotta make sure the sword never comes to your side. Recapping my week of many tears, getting lost more times than I remember, leaving my house some days before the sun came up, blanking in front of a customer and too much more to type....I need to pull myself out of the lower deck of the ship and point my sword at the opponent again. Coach Keene's, sometimes very annoying swagger, never leaves--even when the chips are down. I let my world get the best of me this week and KEENE's don't back down--they only dig in and push harder.

Gotta say, June is a very stressful month at the Keene Compound. Summer basketball begins. I am already nervous. Although Coach has assured me, things will be fine, only if we are organized. It all goes back to his type A crazy personality...I reminded him, this is no normal summer schedule. Practice from 8-10, weights 10-11 and the Jr. High from 4-6. A week long trip to North Carolina and a few shootouts intermixed in there as well. Go big or go home. On a side bar--the last few years Coach has took a few on the chin because his "numbers" after the convergence have not been very large for participation. Well, guess what...34 kids this summer in the high school and 17 of them are F-R-E-S-H-M-A-N! Nice...if you build it, they will come--Swagger...people want it. I just need to find mine---I think its waiting for me in the mini-van.....with the Virginia plates. ^%!#$%^(^$@!, OKAY, enough...

Clear For Take-Off

"Look at me mom, I am heading to the clothes pin!" Justice squealed this EARLY this morning while wheeling my small blue suitcase through the house. "Justice, don't you mean the hanger?" "Yeah, whatever. The place where the planes sleep, geeze, get with the program." Ever since I came home, Justice has been playing airport, pilot, shuttle bus driver, air traffic control, traveler, and anything else he can think of that is seen in or around the terminal.

Have I mentioned my coolness factor also hit an all time low a week ago today? Give up...My "new" company car is a beat up 2008 mini-van fully equipped with dents, scratches and stains all over the inside. Its a real treat. I am only 15,000 miles away from something new, I will hit that in no time! On the other hand, Justice loves it! When I leave for work every morning he asks, "Are you coming home with the van?" and every night when I get home, "Can we go play airplane in the van?". Tonight, while I was the pilot, he served box juices to his doll, Sally Mae and Bear, Mo Mo in the back seat of the van and reminded them to buckle up the plane may hit a bird!

Saturday will be a busy day at Keene-ville. I have tons of laundry, need to clean up the house-get organized for another week and Coach has a basketball fundraiser. Coach Keene + 15 high school basketball players +20 grade school girls + 1 overnight camp = no sleep for Coach Keene and an extremely grouchy husband on Sunday. Honestly, I hate this event. Justice will cry because he cant spend the night in the gym. I will have both kids alone. I hate being home alone, little noises freak me out! BUT--The girls love it. A sleep over in the gym with games, snacks, movies and lots of laughs, but as for Coach Keene, I think he loses more hair every year once this thing is over...and he swears he could never have girls! Good thing, because he would have to talk that over with his next wife :)

Well, Friday Night Lights is on....time for me to chill on the couch and let the weekend begin! Its been a rough week.....to say the least....

Tis the Season.....Summer Basketball is right around the Corner...Now its MY TURN to be a single parent :)

FYI-When they tell you they will hold the gate, they are lying! I was only 10 feet from making my flight into P-Town. I flew from Newark to O'Hare, then supposed to be on to Peoria. My American flight was only 15 short yards from the terminal, when we had no gate available to deplane. I was this close to the door! I wanted to scream or jump. This gives the saying, "close, but no cigar" a whole new meaning. When I deplaned the lady at the counter yelled, "I'll call your gate to hold the flight, just GOOO!" I seriously OJ Simpson-ed it across the airport 4 terminals down only to see my plane pulling away from the gate. Myself and another traveler were officially stranded in Chicago at 11:00pm. Fortunately, this other castaway was a doctor I called on in Peoria! Small world...we ended up getting a "reduced rate" hotel (separate rooms), which I still feel should have been FREE. At 1AM I laid down, in my same clothes I had one since 5:30am eastern time, and closed my eyes for 4 hours. No make-up, not even a comb, but the hotel did give me a toothbrush. Had that going for me. Back on the shuttle at 5:45am, through security and yet again at the famous gate I had cried in front of yesterday...only to find out, YET AGAIN, my plane was now delayed.....needless to say, I made it home. Tired. Dirty. With my luggage. And Really missing my boys! Although, had a really cool conversation with the doctor I was stranded with. Super nice man. Almost a fateful meeting. I honestly think our paths will cross again, maybe sooner than later....Fate or was I supposed to miss that flight? I could have did without the scary woman at midnight begging me for money in the dark parking garage while waiting for the hotel shuttle.

Glad to be home...I will leave Pharma before I put myself and my family through another 2 weeks of training...

Two Weeks, 96 Trainees, and these four walls is enough to drive an OUTSIDE SALESPERSON mad, yep sat in the FRONT row..I am a nerd!~and a suck up...

Drinking the Kool-Aid in Class....Big $!!

New York City...

There is no “I” in Team, especially Team Keene. I must tip my hat to my husband; he is doing a great job. Coach Keene is not only a great leader on the court, but he has proved himself this week at home to be an excellent chief behind the scenes. The first five days he has juggled two kids, hardly any sleep, cooking, diapers, cleaning, laundry, bath times and even a trip to the library with Justice and Cameron to get a few new books for bedtime. Super dad is more like it. I called him today--at the park playing on the jungle gym. Unbelievable. I am beginning to wonder if he is the Keene with the patience’s for parenthood. Although, he did share, “He only misses me at night, the kids wont sleep at the same time; he is fine during the day.” I guess THAT at least gives me SOME job security. I have to ask myself, will I be as calm as he is in June when Coach goes to North Carolina for a week and I am home. Highly doubt it…

So my first five days have been extremely eventful. Class is a killer!! Twelve hour days with only a thirty minute lunch break. Guess what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? On another note; One car bomb in Time Square, my hotel caught on fire-yes, fire trucks and all, and there was and M&M collectable show at our hotel with some REALLY odd participants. I did get one free day this weekend, which I took full advantage of. I got a massage, manicure & pedicure and followed that up with some power shopping at the mall across the street. Almost felt guilty, but enjoyed the quiet time. Yes, I had to get Justice a prize too. GMS-Guilty Mother Syndrome and the fact he asks on every phone conversation, “What are you bringing me?” I mailed him a card too, he should get that Tuesday. He loves mail. Boy, Coach has shared some interesting stories that have came out of that little mans mouth this week. Every time I call home he declares, “When you get home mommy, I am punching you in face. You have been gone to long.” I guess in Justice terms, that means I love you.

Speaking of love, I think Carrie Bradshaw is on to something about New York City. (She is the character from Sex and the City—if you live in a cave) Carrie writes a column about finding love in New York City and constructing that life into an immense love story. I think true love can be found in any short story or epic novel. Just go to the library, there are shelves of people who made it. You can have love stories within other love stories too. But, the finest lesson I have learned this week (besides the importance that I better move my numbers and sell), one exit away from New York City, is that my classic love tale is in Macomb. If Coach and I could bottle the cooperation and teamwork we have and sell it on the shelves it would be priceless. It’s like magic in a bottle or a bad accident you can’t take your eyes off of. Both ways, people want it, along with Carrie Bradshaw, and I have it-and wont share! One week down, one to go…Appreciate my husband to the upmost peak today!