november 17-22- a birthday and a funeral

Brooke decided on a whim that she was going to try out for the basketball team. Keep in mind, she has never played basketball in her life- except maybe 2-3 times in the culdesac when we lived on sundown. She and her friend, treshawn, thought it would be a good idea to try out.  her reasoning was that she has always wanted to be in 'athletics' bc they get bigger lockers and big backpacks to carry their basketball stuff in. Good reason!

So- 25 kids can make the team and 22 tried out- so they all made it! of course this gave jeremy an excuse to buy a basketball goal for our driveway.. and he did- that weekend.  Brooke is on the B team- Treshawn is on the A team- but both teams have to wait at each others games- and practice together- so the carpooling still works out.  she has practices every day until 530 and games thursday until 7-8. add that to our list of taxi services!  brittany has practices every day right now, too, preparing for competition. thank goodness for carpools and i cannot wait for her to drive!

anyway- brooke is enjoying basketball- totally opposite of what she usually does- which is dance and cheer. her team is far from good, but they're still having fun. They have lost every game so far by a landslide- usual scores are around 40-7ish for both the A and B team. But, the coach isnt too hard on them and is happy they want to learn about basketball she says.

Brooke keeps it humorous when they loose and tells the team 'we could have won, we just didnt have enough time to score more' ha!

so the season started november 12 and ends feb 9th. before we bought a new basketball, she practiced with her volleyball- for a while she was going to try out for volleyball but then changed her mind to basketball. anything to be in athletics, and it was basketball season next. :)



november 22 was my 33 birthday. man, i am old! (one day i will look back at this and say 'wow, i was young and i thought i was old' ha!) for my birthday, i didnt do much except take justin to a birthday party it was a taekwondo party, which he really enjoyed. they got to sbar and wear the gear to punch each other, justin loved it and wants to take a class so he can be like his daddy- who takes kuk sool won. The party was in sugarland, so we will not be taking classes with his friend! After that, we went to the in laws for cake and cookie cake- my favorites! there was a yellow cake with chocolate icing and m&ms, and a cookie cake. yum! i bought myself a new lens for my rebel (the 50mm) and my in laws gave me a gift card to old navy- and my parents and grandparents gave me $$. aunt marsha gave me some good stuff, too! she always picks out good presents.

here is a pic from the party (justin is in black and jeans- he is sbarring with the birthday boy, who wore his tae kwon do uniform.



and then my birthday..





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Jeremy's Uncle Willard passed away on my birthday. He had a heart attack on friday, and was resuscitated by cpr- but was completely brain dead and only living with machines. They decided not to keep him on life support in this condition, and pulled the plug on Saturday. He went to be with G-d 10 minutes later. He was Jerry's brother-in-law. He will be missed. here is his obituary from the online newspaper. He and Aunt Winona had 2 kids, 4 grandkids, and 5 great grandkids.

Willard Cecil Gray
WILLARD CECIL GRAY, 68, of Houston went home to be with his Lord on November 22, 2008. Willard retired from Chevron after 31 years. Services are 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008 at Carter Funeral Chapel with burial to follow in Brookside Cemetery. Visitation will be Tuesday evening from 4-8:00 p.m. at Carter's.

We attended the funeral on November 26th. It was nice to see jeremy's extended family, other than the circumstances. We brought all the kids- even though the boys are a little young, jeremy's family is very kid-friendly, and there were other kids the boys could hang out with in the waiting area if the service was too intense. The kids handled it really well. After the service, we drove to the burial. He was buried at the same cemetery where jeremy's 2nd cousin, marina morris, and his grandfather (father to Jerry and his other 7 siblings) is buried. I only met granddaddy once, at Patty's (my sister-in-law) baby shower back when i was dating jeremy in high school. He was an awesome, special man. There are alot of spiritual experiences that he had that i've been told about that don't happen to the average person. Anyway, while at the cemetery , we drove over to granddaddy's grave. The cemetery was beautiful , btw. On the way home, we were starving so we stopped at jack in the box and got the biggest bag of fast food - it is kinda gross to think we ate all that junk but it was funny, nonetheless, when we got the bag that was bigger than brooke's head!



here is granddaddy's (Edwin C Turner) headstone. Jeremy's grandmother will be buried along side him when her time comes.