Year of Friendships – Year in Review: 2007

 

This is my third Year in Review blog entry. You can read all about years 2005 and 2006 by clicking on the respective years.

 

Two-double-oh-seven (never start a sentence with a number), or 2007, was a calm, yet eventful year with nothing too dramatic taking place – unlike the years of 2005 (Lis’ diagnosis) and 2006 (the sudden death of the late, great Uncle Jeff).

 

If I had to give 2007 a “The Year of…” tag I’d probably name it the “Year of Good Friendships”. We made new friends – Canadians’ Graham, Sarah and their son Hudson and Brazilians’ Alexandre, Jackie and their daughter Iasmin. And our old friendships grew stronger. One of my favorite highlights of the year will be getting together with our friends in our backyard having a barbecue and hanging out. Our friends came out in full support being with us at the ACS Relay for Life and my surprise 30th birthday party.

 

Towards the end of the year we began attending a small group within our church and have since made some solid friendships with that group.

 

I thought I would try something different with this entry. Rather than listing highlights of each month (because there wasn’t any) I’ve decided to list the top 10 highlights of 2007. Okay, so they are not all highlights, maybe I should rephrase by saying the top nine highlights with one lowlight mixed in.

 

Without further ado let me begin…

 

No. 10 – Super Colts

 

Okay, so I’m not the biggest of all Colts fans, but I do own a blue No. 18 Peyton Manning home jersey and I do proudly state that Manning is my Man-Crush. So watching Manning and the boys in blue play solid defense throughout the AFC playoffs and then watching them win on the biggest stage on a wet and sloppy field in Miami was quite the highlight for a sports fan that has never seen any of his favorite teams win any sort of championship. The 2007 Colts did what I had long wished the 1998 San Diego Padres and the 1992-93 Phoenix Suns would do – win a world championship!

 

Plus Manning’s Super Bowl title and Super Bowl MVP allowed him to host Saturday Night Live and produce this hilarious clip.

 

No. 9 – That Small Group Thing

 

I know, lately I’ve been totally bragging on how much Lis and I love meeting in our church small group, but really it’s been really great for us. Not only has it got us going to church every weekend but it’s also given us a chance to build friendships within our church family. Something we’ve ignored to do the last two years. Our group consists of about seven people, five around our age. Every Monday we meet, eat snacks, talk about our weeks, lay down some prayer requests, joke and get to know each other. We’ve gone out to dinner, a couple from our group came over for Casino Night, and we went over to another gal’s house to watch the Seahawks game a few weeks back. Its felt great getting to know everybody and making friends that share in the same belief that we do. I look forward to continuing to grow in the group and my faith in the upcoming year.

 

No. 8 – The Golden Gal

 

We started off by thinking of some way to have a kick butt surprise party for my Mom’s 50th birthday. That quickly ended when we realized we were never going to be able to surprise my Mom. So instead we asked her what she wanted to do and she replied with, “I want to go clubbin’”. So we be clubbin’. We gathered some of our closest friends, jumped into the motor home and spent a night out on the town in Seattle.

 

No. 7 – A Season to Remember

 

I have been playing organized basketball for close to seven years straight now and in those years I’ve never had a season like the one I played in last year. We started off horribly losing our first game by 20-plus points but come playoff time we were rolling. We dropped our first playoff game then took a 3-hour break by having a barbecue at the Bashford’s house. The camaraderie must have helped as we won our next game and stayed alive for another weekend. That’s when the fun kicked in. And now I will quote my entry from March 28…

 

“We got up quickly by nine points before we let the other team climb back into the game. After trading baskets a bit I threw a crappy pass that lead to two more points and with 30 seconds remaining we trailed 38-37. Earlier I told Mike that a rather large and hefty (aka fat) dude was guarding me and that even with my turtle-like speed, I could still lose him by cutting through the key and ending up on the other side of the court. Mike’s a good listener because with 17 seconds remaining I did just that, cutting through the defense and Mike found me in the corner for a wide-open 3-point attempt. I caught the ball, got the right feel of it and swished it in for a 40-38 lead. It was the greatest shot I ever made. Of course, I never played high school, college or professional and have been pretty much stuck playing in men’s leagues the past few years, but still I had never made a basket that had put us ahead so late in a game.

 

I kept cool for a bit but after looking at the score and realizing what just happened, I looked the other way and cracked a smile from ear to ear.

 

Chris would block a shot the next time the other team came down court and one of the dude’s would lose his cool and kick a chair resulting in a technical foul and an automatic two points for us. Just like that we had our first winning streak of the season and lived to play another game.

 

An hour later we started our second game.

 

The other team jumped ahead and at one point led by nine before we began to make our ascent.

 

Behind the amazing play by Graham and tough baskets by Josh, we were able to climb back into the game and tie the score at 50-50 with less than a minute remaining. Graham had to have scored about 10 or 12 points just from out-leaping the opposition and putting offensive rebounds back into the basket. The dude, who stands about 5-foot-9, was about equal with the rim half of those times and made the rest of us 6-footers look silly. The bench erupted every time the Canadian scored. Graham had been silent the entire season but had reached his comfort zone just in the right time. As Mike was being hounded by defenders, Graham was busy cleaning up the misses with offensive put backs.

 

The other team had two opportunities to take the lead. But with about 10 seconds remaining Chris once again put his hand in the way of a shot and Josh saved it and ended up kicking the ball back to Mike. With 5.5 seconds remaining Mike wisely called a timeout and we went to the bench trying to think of a play.

 

Being the 3-point specialist I am (I had made two earlier in the game but won’t mention how many I failed to make) I checked into the game and got myself prepared for a possible chance at another game-winning shot. I came up with a play where Josh and I would set a double screen for Mike at the top of the key. If the screens work Mike would turn away and take a shot. I would set a screen on the opposite side of Josh and then peel away for a possible shot attempt.

 

Of course we didn’t design a play to inbound the ball to Mike. Mike thought I was going to get the ball. Aaron thought I was supposed to get the ball. But I thought Mike should get the ball and make it work.

 

We were still able to get the ball into Mike. He stumbled near mid-court but didn’t stop his dribble. Josh and I moved into position but the play didn’t even come close to working. Mike was double-teamed and as I ran over to set a screen he let fly a shot with two defenders on him and one pursuing him. I watched as he released the ball over the defenders and watched as the ball swished through the basket as the buzzer went off.

 

At these times, no matter what level of play you’re playing in, NBA, NCAA whatever, you go to your top player in a situation like this. We went to Mike and he delivered.

 

I lifted my hands in the air and screamed like a girl. I then turned to Mike who had his hands up and was running my way. He leapt up and I grabbed him and hugged him. The other eight players on our team came running up to us. The next two minutes were an emotional blur. I had never been part of a game that ended on a buzzer-beater.

 

The other team congratulated us on a great game and said that though they weren’t happy that they lost, it made them feel better to lose on a play like that. We were the only game going on at that moment so people had congregated to our court. When the shot fell you heard a loud roar of the crowd. It was the greatest game I had ever been a part of. Later I would joke that Mike stole my thunder from my first game dramatics.

 

It was an amazing end to two thrilling games. Back-to-back last minute game-winners. A team that came in ranked 14out of 16 teams had now won three straight and made it into the “Super Six”. It was the top five teams in our division and us.”

 

No. 6 – Surprise!

 

Please see No. 2, but not without reading Nos. 5 and 4 first.

 

No. 5 – Over the Hill?

 

My Mom’s 50th birthday wasn’t the only milestone birthday we had in 2007. Lis and I both celebrated our 30th birthdays in ’07. Unfortunately, with moving into a new house (oops, let’s not skip ahead) we didn’t get to celebrate Lis’ 30th the way I would’ve liked but we did have a barbecue with some of our close friends. I did make a slideshow for her birthday though! I also made a slideshow for my birthday too! And Lis threw a surprise party for me. I was surprised that she organized the birthday for me. Unfortunately I asked some of the people that day to come over for my party. For a complete rundown of the best birthday I can remember click here.

 

No. 4 – Cover Boy

 

I had my proudest moment of my 12-year work career in 2007. It didn’t come from my full-time job at the insurance office, though I did become an agent earlier that year. It came from my part-time gig at the Everett Herald newspaper. I was working on the high school baseball preview. I had emailed all the coaches and asked if any of them had an interesting story. The coach from South Whidbey High School emailed me the next day to tell me about a junior varsity player that was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The player, Colton Wilson, was granted a wish by the Make-A-Wish foundation. His wish was selfless: To redo the baseball field that he and his teammates play on. I worked hard on the story for a month and a half. I, along with my own cancer survivor wife Lis, went to Children’s Hospital to interview the Mom. We, along with our soon-to-be baseball-loving son Lukas, took the ferry to interview the coach. I talked on the phone numerous times with the Make-A-Wish coordinator. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. And I got rewarded by it by getting my story on the front cover of the newspaper. Here is a photo of that cover and you can click here for the story.

 

No. 3 – Team Force! What! What!

 

The third time was a charm for Team Force. In our third year at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life we raised our highest amount of money (over $2,000) and won the Team Spirit competition. Randy won the Mr. Relay 2007 competition and the karaoke competition. We got great support from our friends and family and it was also the first time I had stayed up the entire 24-plus hours for our walk. Team Force came up with a new battle cry “What! What!” and we became the team that everyone wanted to party with. We had a total blast and I’m already looking forward to next year. Again, you can read more about that special day here.

 

 

 

No. 2 – Cancer Strikes Again

 

It’s not easy hearing the words “I’ve got cancer”. It happened once with my wife and happened again in June of last year when one of my best friends, Dennis, told me that he had lymphoma. It shocked me. He had been ill for a few months, being hospitalized for stomach problems and losing 30 pounds. Once I heard the news I knew that he needed to have some support. Something to get his mind off of things and to show him that his friends up north were thinking about him. So I talked to my other best friend, Josh, and we made a plan to fly down to Burbank, meet up with Randy and then drive down to San Diego and surprise him (this was No. 6 on my list).

 

You can read all about our surprise visit here. You can read all about my buddy Dennis and our friendship here.

 

No. 1 – Home Sweet Home

 

I apologize, it’s taken me a week to finish this entry so many of the entries were short and referred back to when I originally wrote about them. Anyway, the No. 1 highlight of 2007 was the buying of our first home. We spent a couple frustrating months looking at places that we thought we could afford but I knew I didn’t want to live there. Old run down mobile homes up in the woods with moss on one side of the roof and a muddy slope on the other. Nothing looked good and it was frustrating the heck out of us. I wanted a porch and a backyard I could have a barbecue and have my friends and family over.

 

We decided to check with a mortgage company to see how much we really could afford. Found out it was a lot more than the price range we were looking at. We looked for another month before finally finding two homes that we wanted to get. We talked it over, made a list of the plus and minuses of each home then decided to go with the one with a porch and a nice size backyard. We got it! And in May we moved into our very own place. For a tour of our house, in Portuguese, click here.

 

It’s been seven months since we first moved into our house and I love it. During the summer we had quite a few barbecues and I was able to chill out on the porch. This winter we put up Christmas lights and I even cleaned out our gutters! And now Lis and I can cruise Lowe’s and she can talk about how she wants to redo the kitchen floor and put in hardwood floors and I can dream of getting that flat-screen HDTV.

 

That’s my 2007 Year in Review. There were other fun moments. I loved playing softball on Sunday summer afternoons, Lis and I got addicted to “American Idol” and we both watched as Lukas grew up an independent. He takes a leak by himself, he gets dressed by himself (most of the time), he throws really long temper tantrums, he talks a lot, he’s funny and I love him (most of the time…hehe). Here’s hoping 2008 is just as good, if not better, than 2007.