A Great Season

We all know how much I love my beloved Spartans, and I'm sure you can all guess how bummed I was when they lost in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. There was such high hopes from me and all Spartans that MSU would make a good run most likely to the Final Four and possibly win the National Championship. I guess it wasn't meant to be when the team that showed up in Phoenix the other night to play Louisville, wasn't the same team most of us Spartans were used to. The chemistry the team had all year didn't seem to be there, and the hopes of moving on in the tourney were nowhere in sight that night when the Spartans were on the court. Not only am I bummed as a fan, but I'm really bummed that one of the best Spartans of all time, Draymond Green, didn't get the National Championship as a Spartan. He's right up there with Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves (who both won National Championships at State) so I was really hoping it would happen for him, as well as the other seniors. Now all we can do is look forward to next year. While State is losing great players in Green and senior Austin Thornton, there's a lot of talent coming back next year, and MSU is getting one of the greatest high school basketball players from Fishers, IN. Gary Harris will be coming to MSU in the fall as a freshman and I see great things happening at State with him. It's kind of a small world sometimes. One of the UL gals from Indiana knows how much I like Spartan basketball, and her husband was Harris' high school b-ball coach. She's and IU fan, but said she will be a Spartan fan next season! So here's to great things happening for the Spartan b-ball team next season, and a congrats to the Spartan team this year for starting the season unranked and ending in the top ten and making it to the Sweet 16.

On Friday, the team returned to East Lansing after their loss to Louisville. Thanks to Twitter, I had an "inside" tip as to when they would be getting back to the Breslin Center. After school I asked Evan if he wanted to go to Breslin to welcome the team back. I knew since they lost it wouldn't be a big welcome back celebration, but I figured it was probably our only chance to get Draymond's autograph before he graduates from State. He of course wanted to go so we left early so we could stop and get a basketball to get signed. Who knew the MSU basketballs would be so hard to find. Four stores later we found one and made a mad dash to the Breslin. By the time we got there we saw the bus and some of the team getting off. Evan and I hopped out of the car and ran to the Breslin (the high school b-ball playoffs were going on so there was nowhere to park so Greg told us to hop out and he'd drive around). By the time we got up to the doors most of the players were inside and we only got to autographs. One of the coaches told us they were going in for a short meeting with Izzo and would be back out this way to get their luggage to wait there. So we did and finally after about 20 minutes they started coming out. Evan was getting lots of autographs on his basketball, and one of the players signed his shirt so then he got a few more to sign his shirt too. We still hadn't gotten Draymond's at this point because he hadn't come out yet. Finally a few minutes later he did come out and Evan was ecstatic to get his autograph and get a picture with him. Here's my boyzzzz, Evan and Draymond.


I was so glad we decided to go to Breslin, and it helped Evan cheer up after the Spartan loss! A big thanks to the players for their autographs and to Draymond for the photo. We got everyone's autographs we wanted except for Austin Thornton's. We somehow missed him when they first started coming out. He had a hat on so I guess I didn't recognize him.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

It's St. Patty's Day! I hope you wore your green today! And if it's St. Patty's Day, that means it's my birthdaaaaaay! We all know I love my birthday! Thank goodness for me (not my mom) that I was born 16 days late cuz a St. Patty's Day birthday is awesome! I couldn't have asked for a better day today weather wise! I mean really 80 degrees on March 17th in Michigan is unheard of. I believe record temps were set today in Lansing. My birthday started off with some green pancakes for breakfast. Greg made them for me. The kids thought green pancakes were pretty awesome! After a relaxing morning we went to birthday lunch at Bennigan's. I was able to enjoy my first green beer of the day and a turkey o' toole. Here's a couple pics of my leprechauns at lunch!

We headed out kid free for my birthday dinner with our friends Brenda and Keyera. We planned to go to Dublin Square a restaurant downtown E.L., but there was a cover charge to get in and it was crazy loud and busy so we ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings. It worked out good and while they were busy, we got right in and got a table. Enjoyed some more green beer and had a nice special moment when we spotted two former MSU football players Jerel Worthy and Trenton Robinson. Downtown E. Lansing was insanely crazy busy! St. Patty's Day is awesome for Spartans because we all like to wear green anyways! So between the 80 degree weather, St. Patty's Day being on a Saturday, all the green, and March Madness E. Lansing was hoppin'.

After dinner we headed to Lou Ha's and met up with my friend Jess. They had a DJ playing and it was so loud and packed. Lots of interesting people watching! We enjoyed a few drinks and stayed for a couple hours and then headed back to the house to hang out. We got to enjoy my yummy birthday cupcakes Brenda made me. She told me to pick out something from Pinterest so I chose Thin Mint Cupcakes. They were fabulous. I'll have to post the recipe soon. Yummy!

It was a perfect day for a birthday. Thanks to Brenda and Jess for the birthday goodies and celebrating with me. Thanks to my hubby for putting up with me loving my birthday so much all day. :) I'm now officially 37.

Also thanks to my mom for coming to visit on Friday and taking me out for birthday lunch at Hall of Fame Cafe, and to Greg's mom for birthday dinner Friday night at UKAI.

I've Been MIA

Yes, here I am! I've been a little MIA for the past month. Gosh it doesn't even seem like it's been that long. No excuses for not blogging, just life gets in the way of things sometimes. I'm not even gonna try to catch up. I can barely remember yesterday sometimes let alone a month ago. We've had Evan's conferences at school which were fantastic! He's above and beyond where he should be in first grade! So proud of that little guy. I had a UL party that was great. I love seeing how excited people get about the product and the ideas they have of where they're gonna put UL in their homes! I sold some more things on the UL pages I told you about which is good. Emme's clothes are a hot item! We also attended the last women's basketball game of the regular season. Which not only resulted with a Spartan win, but Evan also got to meet one of the football players that was there, Will Gholston, as well as former MSU b-ball player Mateen Cleaves. He even got his basketball signed by Mateen which was really exciting. And we took the kids to the Tom Izzo show a couple weeks ago. Evan had been asking to go all season, and we finally made it to the last show. The kids got their pics with Izzo and Evan got his basketball signed. A perfect addition to his Spartan room.

To top all that off over the last month, Evan was sick for about a week! It was a long week too! He woke up sick on a Tuesday morning and missed a couple days of school. He was fine Thursday and most of last Friday and then it all returned Friday night. It was off and on, and looking at him you wouldn't know it because he was running around playing until he ate and then the poor little guy couldn't keep his food in. He ended up missing four days of school, and finally Thursday he was back to himself and eating regularly. Now Greg is sick with a sore throat and congestion. Here's hoping Em and I can avoid any sickness. Thank goodness for the nice weather that is in store for this week!

Now here it is March, and we all know March is my favorite month! It really is one of the best months out of the year for five reasons!
#5- March is Reading Month (that's the teacher in me)
#4- Spring (that's the I hate winter in me... bye bye heavy coats and boots)
#2/3- March Madness (that's the sports fan in me... I love b-ball tournament time)
#2/3- St. Patty's Day/Green beer (that's the holiday birthday in me) #2 & #3 are tied
#1- My Birthday (that's of course just me! I love my birthday!)

It's a great time of year! I love it! I especially love it when my Spartans are shining in March! After a disappointing loss to OSU last weekend, MSU fought hard this weekend in the Big Ten Tourney! Spartans clinched the win today in a rematch with OSU beating them and claiming the Big Ten Tournament Title! That gave them a #1 seed in the NCAA Tourney! Yay Spartans! Looking forward to the start of the tourney this week and watching the Spartans play Friday! This team deserves it, and I hope they can make it all the way! Let's do it boyzzzzzz! Go State!

On a final note! Our neighbors Jim and Kate were due on Monday with their first baby. That didn't happen though and come Friday after going to the doctor they found out Kate would be induced on the 15th. We were over to their house Friday night watching some b-ball and chatting about it all. Kate was really hoping she'd have the baby by now and had her fingers crossed he would come before Thursday. Before we left I told her she better have that baby tomorrow (Sat.) because that's the day I picked (they did a baby pool). I got a text from Jim Saturday morning, that low and behold Kate's water broke and they were at the hospital. I was a little stir crazy all day and at about 8:30pm I text Jim for an update. No baby yet, but he was pretty sure she was going to have it before the day was over. About 11:45pm I decided to head up to bed since I was going to be losing an hour of sleep. Figured at that point I'd have to wait and hear the baby news in the morning. Five minutes later I got the text from Jim... little Dominick Anthony was born at 10:23pm. Yay! I did get the date right after all! He's such a cutie! Can't wait to meet him! Congrats to the LaPorte family!