A Year of Changes, Heartaches, and Miracles

As the 2010 year comes to a close, I reflect back on all that has happened and am amazed how much our lives change from one year to the next.  This time last year we lived somewhere different, taught at a much smaller school with perks and disadvantages, and were plagued with a horrifying thought that still creeps up on me from time to time even though God has shown me a brighter truth.  Through all the changes, we have made tons of memories and friends; which I happen to believe is what life is all about.  To some people, our lives seem chaos with all the moving from one place to the next.  (In 6 and a half years of marriage we have lived in 5 different houses, 4 different towns and 2 different states.)  To me, it’s simply the life I chose as a coach’s wife, and I LOVE IT!

This week our school hosted the Ozark Holiday Shootout Basketball Tournament…and WON!  It was amazing!  To make things even crazier, we played Charles Henderson High School, my alma mater, in the championship game last night.  As a CHHS cheerleader in the late 1990s, I never thought I’d cheer against the school I attended for 13 years, but one thing I have learned is that things change A LOT after high school!  I always tell my kids at school that although they think their lives will never change and that high school IS life…it’s not!  I remember being in high school and thinking that the boyfriend I had at the time would one day be my husband; but as the song says “thank God for unanswered prayers”.  I may be stepping on some toes here, but it pure makes me cringe to see teenagers hanging all over one another and “pretending” to be married.  If they only knew…

To get off that soapbox…the last 2 weeks of 2010 have been very busy spending time with the people who mean the most to us; and not just family.  I got to hang out with some of my former students that I will always see as my cute little ZC freshman.  Man, I love them!  I also cooked a pre-game meal for Allen’s ball players one afternoons, we had lunch with some of our dear friends, the Bowers, and got to meet the new addition to their family and last night Allen’s sister and our sweet nieces came to spend the night at Aunt An and Uncle Allen’s house.  We love the holidays!

P.S.  I know I promised a blog to come by the end of this year titled “The Journey That Defines Us”, however, you will have to wait a little longer on that one.  It’s taking more time than expected.  I was going to try and finish it today but Allen is in my ear right now forcing me to make a decision about our New Year’s Eve plans.  I hope everyone had a great 2010 and I’ll see you in 2011!  God bless!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If you’re looking for a reason to be a teacher…Christmas vacation is definitely a good one!  Although 6 of our 14 days will be spent at basketball games we still have 14 days off…what other job can beat that!?!  It’s actually bitter sweet; eating whenever and whatever I want, sleeping until lunch and as crazy as this sounds, going to the restroom on my body’s schedule and not the bell schedule is all AMAZING…but then after 2 great weeks, I’ll have to adjust back to reality or whatever you call the fast paced life of a high school teacher.  All and all…I love it!

So, it’s the Monday after Christmas.  The most appropriate time to share all the wonderful gifts we received from family and friends.  I won’t bore you with all the “normals” like socks and underwear (although we did get those); but instead share our top 5 gifts:

1.        A new TV!  Woohoo!  Thanks to mom and dad Carter our TV in our bedroom is now BIGGER than the one in our living room.  Mom rationalized it best; we spend just as much time in the bedroom as we do the living room!  It’s the truth!  Most nights of the week as soon as dinner is finished we retreat to our sanctuary, a.k.a. our bedroom, and watch our nightly shows.  When Allen begins watching “his” shows instead of “our” shows, I roll over and enter dreamland.

2.       Allen got a Ping Pong table!  That’s right!  A real ping pong table!  He is very excited…and looking for volunteers to help put this thing together!

3.       I got a clutch Bible from my wonderful mother-in-law.  She carries one in her pocketbook and I love that she always has God’s word at hand whenever needed!

4.       Uggs and skinny jeans!  Thanks to mom I am now “in” with the rest of the fashion world!  If you know me, you know how much I love fashion!  Although, I’ll have to admit, it takes me a while to buy in to the latest styles.  P.S. I promise not to wear my Uggs with sophies!

5.       Clothes, clothes and more clothes!  Allen especially; and boy did he need them!  I guess I buy myself clothes all through the year and forget about my poor hubby.  But man, he racks up at Christmas!  And by the way-most of his new clothes have a big AU on them…even his new socks! J

I want to share one more Christmas break story with you before I close.  Try to picture this as you read.  It’s Thursday, December 23^rd and we are getting ready to visit family for the next 2 nights.  Allen needs to run to Dothan to get my Christmas gift (I got a Tomtom btw!) and I am busy cooking my famous (well my mother-in-law’s famous) pound cakes.  I had 4 cakes to make before we left the next day and wanted to tan before we began our visiting.  Allen leaves and I put a cake in the oven, set the timer for 1 hour 15 minutes, lock up Molly and Christian and head to the gym to jump in the tanning bed.  Before I leave, I make sure to unplug the Christmas tree and blow out my Christmas candle.  After all, I don’t want to burn our house down!  I go tan and head back home.  I’ve only been gone about 45 minutes.  That’s perfect timing; just about the right time to take a peek at the cake and make sure its rising to perfection.  I pull in the garage, get out and begin to unlock the door.  Hmmm….something smells like its burning!  Oh no!  I’m probably burning my cake!  I rush in the door and look around the corner and MY OVEN IS ON FIRE!  Literally!  There are flames coming out the top of my oven!  I panicked!  I go over and open the oven door and the flames multiply!  The house is filled with smoke!  Molly and Christian have busted out of the laundry room and are running around barking like crazy and the smoke alarm is singing as loud as she can!  I call Allen and tell him the oven is on fire.  Luckily, he is almost home.  When he gets here he calls my dad who in all his wisdom tells Allen to throw baking powder on the flames.  The fire finally goes out.  Allen was so mad he used an ugly word towards me.  I busted in to tears.  I was so upset!  Thankfully, there was not much damage…other than a very badly burned pound cake, 3 hours of wasted time and a near Christmas divorce.  Allen finally forgave me.  BTW, he also had to forgive me for clogging the kitchen drain and having to pay a plumber $80.50 the SAME day.  Man, he must really love me!

I hope you’re Christmas was as wonderful and eventful as ours!  Most of all, I hope you had time in all the craziness of the holiday to spend time with the real “reason for the season”…Jesus Christ, our Savior!

P.S.  I am working on a blog post to come soon that should be a pretty good read. It’s called “The Journey That Defines Us”.  I started it a couple of weeks ago and my goal is to have it finished by 2011.  It may be more of a short story than a post and more of therapy for me than entertainment for you but I’m really excited about it!  Hope you’ll come back to visit soon!

'Tis The Season...For Basketball

In my first blog post I hinted at the topic that Allen and I lead…hectic…lives.  Here’s the living, breathing proof.  In the next 21 days we have 9…yes 9 basketball games!  Crazy…I know!  We played tonight at Houston County, we play Friday night at home vs. Headland, in a Christmas tournament Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the week before Christmas, and we are hosting a tournament the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after Christmas!  Holy smoke…thank goodness I love basketball!

Let me share a little bit of background with you that got us to Carroll High School.  When Allen and I got married we moved to Covington, GA where Allen coached at Eastside High School for 1 year.  He coached varsity football and GIRLS basketball.  It was by far the WORST coaching experience we have been through.  And I do mean WE!  (All coaches wives, or husbands, will testify to the fact that coaching is not done just by one person, but by their spouse also!)  He was at football practice until 9 o’clock every night of the week and had to go to the school to watch film on Saturday and Sundays.  Then, watching Allen coach girls was like watching….I don’t know….you fill in the most frustrating seen you can imagine!  It was horrible!

After that year we moved to Dawson, GA and Allen coached at Terrell Academy.  In Dawson, we made TONS of friends that we will cherish the rest of our lives!  The coaching was pretty good too.  Allen was an assistant varsity football coach, the head junior high football coach and the head varsity boys basketball coach.  TA is the place where Allen learned he liked coaching basketball more than football.  However, he had to do a lot of “teaching” basketball at TA instead of coaching.  The boys had not won a game in years when we got there.  Over the 2 years that we were in Dawson, the boys improved greatly and won a couple of games, including a nail biter over SGA, a school that Allen and I interviewed at before moving to Dawson.  We both became homesick for the great state of AL and began looking for jobs closer to home.  We were also very enticed by AL teachers insurance for infertility treatments. 

We applied and interviewed at several schools in AL and were pumped when we found out that Allen had gotten a job at Zion Chapel High School in Jack, AL as the head boys basketball coach.  Again, we were going to a school where the boys had not won a game in years but we were excited about moving back to AL and were very encouraged by the progress Allen had made with the boys at TA.  At Zion we didn’t just find lifelong friends, but a family.  Again, Allen began the grueling task of building a basketball program.  Not only did he coach the varsity boys, but he also began a little league basketball program a Zion that would help build at the varsity level eventually.  After 3 years of ups and downs and 1 VERY memorable night in Poplar Springs, FL, we decided it was time again to move on. 

This time we decided that maybe Allen would move up in classification and down in leadership to gain more knowledge of coaching on a larger scale.  Which brings us to Carroll High School….Allen is the assistant varsity basketball coach and the head JV coach.  After tonight’s game his JV team is 6-1!  We couldn’t be more excited.  It’s like all the sleepless nights of trying to figure out how to teach the game of basketball; Allen is finally getting the opportunity to coach the sport.  That’s not to say that we have not loved MOST every moment that has gotten us here, or to say that he has not coached some very athletic boys…it’s just so nice to sit back and watch as all the hard work pays off.  I am always amazed at the impact that my husband has on his players.  He loves all of them very much and it is very evident how much they love him too!  I always knew I wanted to marry a coach….I can’t imagine it being any better than being Coach Maness’ wife.  I love every minute of it!

Meet the Maness'

Hello world!  After thoroughly enjoying reading a sweet friend’s blog, I have decided that we would FINALLY join the 21^st century and start a blog about our wonderfully hectic lives!  I’m not exactly sure if there is a “right” way to start this, so I’ll begin with the basics.  Here’s a little about us…..I hope you enjoy!

Allen and I (also known as Coach Maness and Mrs. Maness) have been married for 6 and a half years and WOW has the time flown.  We met in college where Allen completely swept me off my feet.  He was the “seasoned” FH frat boy that I thought I would never have a shot at and I was the “fresh meat” newly initiated Chi Omega sorority girl.  I’ll have to share some of our early encounters with you in the future.  They are quite humorous!  We are both school teachers and YES…..we are always taking donations at the end of the month.  Allen coaches football and basketball and I coach cheerleading, although I have recently decided to step away for the remainder of this year.  I’m sure there will be more to come about my love of the sport and why I needed to take break in the future.  Our children include our two dogs, Molly and Christian, and our sweet baby Cam, who God decided to take home to Heaven to spend eternity with Him after 8 and a half short weeks in mommy’s tummy.  (more to come about ALL our babies in the near future)

I am going to conclude this first post with a list of 10 things that will help you get to know us…The Maness’.  I hope you enjoy!

1.  We were both born and raised in Alabama.  Allen is PROUDLY from Camden (he loves to tell people where he is from…..it’s so cute) and I am from Troy.

2.  Although both of us graduated from Troy STATE University (it was still STATE when we graduated), we are both HUGE Auburn University sports fanatics.  And yes…..we are both on the Cam Newton bandwagon.

3.  As I mentioned earlier, we are both teachers.  Allen is a middle school PE teacher and I teach high school math.

4.  On the weekends you will usually find us at a high school sporting event of some kind….whether Allen is coaching or not.  We live for them!

5.  We both have high school “claim to fame” events.  Allen won a state championship in football and I won a national championship in cheerleading.  Both were accomplished our junior years.

6.  Our favorite TV shows include: American Idol, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, Mike and Molly, The Defenders, Survivor, Wheel of Fortune (I always beat him!), and our all time favorite…Friends!  (We have the entire sitcom on DVD and have watched every episode more times than I can count)

7.  Allen loves Chinese food while my favorite is Italian food.  However, we usually settle on Mexican…and neither one of us ever complains about that!

8.   I LOVE LOVE LOVE to read Christian books (Francine Rivers is my fav!) and Allen LOVES LOVES LOVES to watch ESPN and read ANYTHING about AU sports.

9.  Allen’s favorite music genres are country (new and old), old rap, old rock and southern gospel.  Mine are contemporary Christian (southern gospel has really grown on me the past few years) and alternative.  I love Sister Hazel!

10.  The loss of our baby Cam is still very fresh.  We found out on October 15^th that we were expecting and on November 22^nd that baby Cam would never be born in to this world, but in to the hands of our Father, Christ Jesus.