Rocket's Teacher of the Game

As you may or may not know, we are HUGE fans of the Houston Rockets! They are a basketball team, for those of you not familiar. We are such BIG fans that we record EVERY game and try to see at least one game a year in person. I even asked John for tickets to the game for my birthday this year...but unfortunately, due to finances, we decided that getting tickets wasn't going to happen this year. That was until Friday night...

Here's how it went down:

I received a message from a woman named Hai. "Hi Jamie Anderson, my name is Hai and I am with the Houston Rockets. Would you please call me back at..." Now you have to picture what is going through my mind at this point. WHY would the Rockets be calling me? Do they need someone to fill Yao's shoes? Do they want to name me as 6th (wo)man of the year? Am I being invited to the All-Star games? Despite my wild imagination, I called her back.

I was so worried that she wouldn't answer when I called back and I would have to wait all weekend to know why she called...but SHE DID!! Our conversation went like this, "Hi Jamie I am from the Houston Rockets. Do you have any idea why I am calling you?" "No." "Would you like to take a guess?" "No because if I am wrong I will be super sad!" "Why don't you try." "Does it have to do with teaching?" "Yes." At that point I started crying!! "It's ok you don't have to cry. You have been chosen as our Devon Energy/Houston Rocket's Teacher of the Game. You have won 2 tickets to a Rocket's home game, a 100 dollar gift certificate, a t-shirt and a plaque. I will call you next week to compare schedules so you can choose which game you would like to attend."

I was soooo overwhelmed by everything that I seriously thought I was going to faint! I screamed to John that he needed to come into the bathroom (he probably thought someone had died...or been brought back to life because I was WAY to happy for someone to have died!)

This weekend has been such a huge blessing/rejuvination time for John and me. I have really been struggling with whether or not to continue teaching now that I am a mother, but due to our finances it just hasn't been something I could do. Isn't it amazing how well God knows us? I mean come on, Teacher of the Game? You couldn't combine two things like that and not be a perfect God! I feel renewed in my place as a teacher, and hope that this will help me cope better with the fact that I am not staying at home with Hailey. Don't get me wrong, that is what I want to do with my life, but since that is not within our ability right now, I am satisfied being Teacher of the Game!!!

My school picture! ;-) They never get any better do they!

Oh Snap!! It IS ME!!

So this is what a HUGE fan I am...Oh yes!! That is a LIFESIZED painting of Yao Ming in my classroom! One of my students knew how much I LOVED the Rockets so she painted it for me...All 7 feet 6 inches!

I know in this picture I don't have a Rocket's jersey on...but John does and that counts! I don't like the way basketball jerseys look on me...they make me look chunky! ;-)

I love you all so much! And to the friends and family members that nominated me...
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING MY DREAMS COME TRUE