PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: FREE-day
PeaceLoveBasketball T-Shirt
Today is FREE-day Friday, and what does that mean? It means that YOU have a chance to win a FREE PeaceLoveBasketball Shirt! All you have to do is add your favorite motivational quote to the comments section of this FREE-day blog between now and August 15th, 2014 and you will be entered in a drawing to receive a free t-shirt!
I’ll start with one of my favorites…
“There is no limit to the goals you can attain, the success you can achieve – your possibilities are as endless as your dreams.” – D. Crowe
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Perfect Heat
My daughter and I took a road trip this weekend. We visited a college campus five hours away from our home. We drove our VW Vanagon that has no AC. It was hot. After the campus tour we drove another three hours to see my parents in Spokane. Still hot. Our return to Seattle was another four and a half hours (hotter still) to a hot gym where we played two basketball games before driving home in more heat. I hate being hot…but I had an awesome time. I love road trips in the van.
Maybe it’s because the Vanagon makes the drives more memorable. The van has lots of window and feels open, has a pop up table for snack breaks and there is heightened sense of excitement with the chance of being stranded on the side of the road. A trip in our Blue Bomber is always an adventure.
I will never forget this weekend with my daughter. The melting and suffering on the drive made the fun that we had more memorable. The campus tour, ping-pong with Oma and Opa, visiting my high school best friend and teammate, and sifting through memory lane as Oma and Opa prepared for a garage sale. All perfection encompassed by hours of heat.
And during each leg of the trip, as warm air blew in my face and I slowed my breathing and told myself I was cool and comfortable (I do this when I model in the heat, though I’m not sure how much it really helps), I would glance at my daughter in the passenger seat and smile. There will forever be a picture in my mind of her with […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: BUY in JULY
Support the West Seattle Girl’s Basketball program when you buy from www.peacelovebasketball.com.
Monday’s Pen to Paper: Good Fortune
This weekend we had a foreign exchange student from China. My daughter had asked if we could be a host, (she has been taking Chinese for several years and her teacher told her about this opportunity.) We were supposed to have a fairly quiet weekend, which is not common for our family, so I said sure.
Our exchange student brought us a beautiful red velvet decoration for our home wishing us good fortune but I was wondering if we were to have it, as our quiet schedule changed. My daughter’s basketball tournament got moved to the weekend, my son had one basketball game added to his schedule, so he had three games, I had two basketball games and my husband now had to leave town.
I was worried this would be too much for our guest, but to my surprise, and joy, our exchange student liked basketball and somehow, even with our crazy schedule, he was able to walk Alki Beach, visit the West Seattle Art Walk and Sunday Market, have good old-fashioned burgers and chocolate shakes on our back deck, get spectacular photos of the city after sunset, go to the West Seattle Seafair parade, hit China town for groceries, play some heated games of Jenga, and fall in love with our two boxer dogs Sassy and Bruno.
And my favorite part of the weekend was when our exchange student taught us how to make Chinese Dumplings and in doing so reminded us of our good fortune.
We all gathered in the kitchen, my son, daughter, her boyfriend, our exchange student and myself, and worked together to fold pork and chives into the dumpling wrappers. We boiled them over the stove and then with chopsticks in hand we dipped our dumplings in seasoned rice […]
Meet Sonya
Meet Sonya
Sonya Elliott’s memoir, Back on the Court: A Young Woman’s Triumphant Return to Life, Love & Basketball, is her story of finding hope in the wake of tragedy after she and her fiancé were hit by a train. She blogs about writing, basketball, and life and is currently working on a Young Adult Novel and a Non-Fiction Coaching book. Stories of her career as a fashion model are woven through her memoir, as both the Soloflex and Easy Spirit Shoes commercials were filmed during that time period, and this unique and intriguing business continues to be a part of her life.
Sonya played basketball at Eastern Washington University and was a starter for the Big Sky Champion team that went to the 1987 NCAA tournament. She coached for almost 25 years and was voted Seattle Times Coach of the Year, Seattle Officials Women’s Basketball Association Coach of the Year, and twice voted Metro League Coach of the Year. She loves the game of basketball and is thankful, not only for her husband and kids but for her ability to continue to get back on the court.
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Monday’s Pen to Paper: A Cool Breeze And A Good Night Of Z’s Equals Happiness
I’ve been melting lately. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a nice sunny day but when the temperature creeps up past 90 degrees in Seattle it’s just too hot for me. It’s not that bad if I can escape to the water, but that’s not alway the case, I’m often at home where our house becomes an oven.
A good friend of mine loves this type of heat. In it she’s vibrant and alive, while I, on the other hand, feel cooked and tired and grumpy. I have been fighting this tired feeling over the past few days, pushing myself to enjoy the heat some as well as get work done. But honestly, it hasn’t been easy. Then last night a cool breeze came in.
I opened every window and door in the house, I stepped outside to feel the freshness whirl around me and to hear rustling in the trees. I […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Free Fun
My mom was in town for three days. It was a chance for us girls (me, my mom and my daughter) to celebrate a belated Birthday/Mother’s day present for my mom, our Oma. I had planned to get tickets for a concert downtown and perhaps go to the theatre as well, but I didn’t find music, or an act, at the usual venues that I thought my mom would truly enjoy.
However, I did find a free concert at a local coffee shop in our neighborhood (C & P Coffee House), and on an Instagram post my daughter found Dancing Until Dusk, which involved free swing dance lessons and live music at Westlake Park. So we went for it. During my mom’s visit we also took pleasure in beach combing at low tide on Alki, spent an afternoon making jewelry, and an evening taking […]
PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Find Your Groove.
Sonya Elliott – AAU Basketball 1983
Some people have a natural shot. I’m not one of those people, but with time on the court, hard work and heart, I became a good shooter. There are better shooters for sure, but I have always been good enough to help my team and that is all that matters to me.
Learning to shoot can be a challenge. I know it has been tough for my kids because they get conflicting advise. Mom (former college basketball player and a basketball coach for 25 years) tells them one thing and Dad (former college athlete) tells them another. My daughter never wanted to do extra shooting around my husband and I, because our opinions differed. In the end it didn’t matter who was giving the correct coaching techniques for shooting (though I believe it was […]
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