Oh the Joy of Having a Boy

Prom night, the one night in his life besides graduation that his mom gets to see him dressed up. She can't wait to see him with his hair brushed and wearing something other than basketball shorts and a Nike t-shirt. As he gets his tux on and gasp! brushes his hair, she asks where everyone is meeting so she can take pictures. He tells her they're all meeting in Forest Park.

"Where in Forest Park? You may as well say 'Central Park'!"

"I'll call and tell you where as soon as I know," he says, and races out the door with barely a wave. Chasing after him with the corsage he forgot, she says, "Can I at least take one picture of you?"

"No mom. I have to go. They're waiting for me."

She'll have to wait too.

And wait.

She calls him a half hour later thinking they must be gathered by now. She can jump in the car and be there in 10 minutes.

"Hello? Where in Forest Park are you?"

"Oh, hi Mom. Sorry I didn't call. We were going to be late to prom so we just took a few pictures and left."

Thank goodness my friend Julie was taking pictures of Amanda at the hotel where the prom was so I could see my son dressed up.

Oh well, there's always graduation.

P.S. I never even saw his date.

Patrick, Eric, Amanda and Andy

Amanda and Eric

The picture below was on the website The Patch, a local news site...

"DeSmet juniors Patrick Sanner and Eric Moeller, and Brentwood seniors Amanda Dee and Andy Dreyer, grew up together on the same street near Mark Twain Elementary School." Credit: Doug Miner

Eric was supposed to have an out of town basketball tournament this past weekend, but it turned out to be a good thing he didn't...My dad was in town scouting the Cardinals game and we got to see him.  He was also able to watch Eric play in a practice game.  I like this picture of them:

 

Below:  Marlys (Brian's wife), Eric and my dad
Marlys forgot to wear her high heels that day :)

I guess you heard we had a tornado the other night.  My dad flew in to St. Louis' Lambert Airport just a couple of hours before it hit there

The neighborhood near the airport was devastated

And where was I during the tornado?  Fifteen minutes away from where it touched down - at Stray Rescue - in the vet clinic where we took shelter.

And had some pizza.

And beer.

And Big Frank (below) waited out the storm for his walk, which he did finally get, along with all 180 of the other dogs that night.  You know you've volunteered at Stray Rescue too long when they put you in charge of an entire room of cleaning and walking dogs (70 of them).  And what a night to be in charge.  The volunteers were coming in saying..."The tornado sirens are going off like crazy" and "It's hailing now" and "The dogs are freaking out!"  I was just glad volunteers showed up to help at all :)

Isn't he cute...and quite large?

I sent this to some of you but wanted to share with everyone.  I don't know whose dogs these are, but the picture cracks me up...

Eric and I are headed to a tournament in Lawrence, Kansas, on Friday and will be back on Sunday.

That's all for now!

Fashion Show / Basketball / Dogs, Cats and Apes

In case you couldn't see him, Eric is #30 :)  When he saw the picture he said, "I didn't know I was that much taller than Nolan (20)."  I actually didn't either.  Despite the Moeller uncles telling Eric to list himself as 7'5," he's now officially listed on the roster as 6'10", 200 pounds.

Some people couldn't open the link I sent for the blurb on Earl Austin, Jr's website - http://earlaustinjr.com, so here it is:

Team Swish advanced to the semifinals with a big and imposing lineup that got a lot of productivity throughout the weekend. I was also impressed with 6’9” center Eric Moeller of DeSmet. Moeller is long and thin, but he has some nice skills as well as a excellent shooting touch around the basket. Moeller had 20 points in one game and 19 points in another game. He played very little during the season at DeSmet because the Spartans were deep up front. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a big off-season for Moeller, who can find himself on some Division I recruiting lists this summer. Team Swish also has a nice 6’7” swingman in Connor Fleming from Westminster. He is a versatile young man with excellent size.


My friend Julie's daughter Amanda was in a fashion show last weekend.  Taylor came home from college and their grandparents came in from out of town. It was nice to see everyone, and Amanda, with her bubbly personality, did a fantastic job.  Julie joined in at the end for the mother-daughter portion of the show. They both did great.

I forgot to bring my telephoto lens, so this one and a lot of the others turned out blurry.  Bummer, because this is such a cute picture.

Work it, girl!

Taylor and Julie

Of course I had to include a picture of my girls.  This is where Stella sits when I drive:

And - so indicative of their personalities - this is where KC sits:

KC sits in the yard looking so sweet and demure, but she really isn't.

My mom sent me this of her cat Cabo and dog Coco.  When Coco first arrived, she would not let Cabo on the bed.  Now look at them!

So proud...my first dog bite from volunteering.  I never told anyone because I didn't want them to make the dog a "red collar" (staff only) dog.  He didn't bite me because he's mean; he's dog aggressive and he bit me when we were walking out of the building because he wanted to get at another dog.  Once he's out of the shelter he's fine.

My friend Katie took her husband Jeff to the zoo and out to lunch for his birthday.  I absolutely LOVE this picture she took of him and his "friend."

(Honey, note to self:  Take your wife to the zoo for her birthday.  She would love it!)

Coming up:  Eric is going to the Prom this Friday (with a friend), so I'll post pictures asap. 

First AAU Tournament and Can Your Dog Do This?

Six games in three days. Eric hasn't played that much basketball since AAU last year. He did pretty well, though. He scored 8, 13, 19, 10, 18, and 4. He scored the 4 points in the last game and I think it had something to do with the triple steakburger he ate 1/2 hour before the game and/or the fact that it was his 6th game in three days.

After the last game a ref came up to him, shook his hand and said, "I really enjoyed watching you play. You play very fundamentally sound, and I look forward to watching you play at the next level." That despite scoring only 4 points. I thought that was nice.

Here's a short clip of a play E made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh6aEEGxYvw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

And here's a clip of his dunk in a game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAzDhhxnDb0
They did well in their first tournament considering these boys haven't played together, except for four of the DeSmet boys, and they're not used to that many games in a row. Also, AAU ball is different than high school. It's so rough!  In the end, they lost in the semi-finals to a very big, physical and talented team...one of the best in the area. We have a good team, though, so it should be a fun year. It's really fun to be able to watch Eric actually get to PLAY.

And just so you know...

Eric isn't the only one with talent in the family...

Stella can lick the couch in the shape of a heart

She can also pick out certain kibble from her food and leave it for KC to eat.  Apparently she doesn't like whatever it is :)

Pret-ty talented, eh?