Posts Tagged ‘Sports’

By Michaela, Contributor, Mama Michie’s Musings (@MamaMichie)

My husband and I had been talking about changing our cable for years. At first he wanted to switch over to satellite… he drooled over the sports packages that they offered. Year after year passed though and we were still with our cable provider.

When Noah was born we contemplated cutting cable all together. We had become Netflix fans and were watching a lot of movies… the thing that stopped us from doing that though was the sports. My husband just couldn’t imagine not being able to watch his beloved football, hockey and baseball games. I’ll admit that I was happy that I wouldn’t be losing my TLC and HGTV either.

Fast forward 19 months… we now have two children that need out attention. We also have upgraded our TV and have bought a Blu-Ray player that streams Netflix… by this point we are complete Netflix junkies and loved that we could watch movies without having to wait for new disks to be sent. We were still considering canceling cable, but 1) Noah was hooked on the Sprout channel and 2) it was the end of hockey season and our team had a good chance to make it into the playoffs.  There was no way we would cancel now… or so I thought.

I was driving home from my mom’s house one day when Ray broke the news to me over the phone. That night would be our last night with cable… but not just any cable… with HD cable. I was speechless! How could that happen? What did he do? Forget about the sports, how could we live without Sprout? Didn’t my husband know that that one channel was the only thing that helped keep me sane some days?!?

It seems that he had not intended on canceling our cable when he called, but one thing led to another and that’s exactly what happened. We had been downgraded to the most basic of basic programs and nothing more. Even though we don’t watch much TV here in the house, I was still a little sad to see it go… mainly because I knew that I could count on Sprout to keep Noah calm when he woke at 6am… he would sit and watch while Ray was driving home from work and I was cooking… you get the picture.

It’s been almost four weeks since we’ve down-graded and I have to admit that I don’t miss cable nearly as much as I thought I would. We are utilizing the streaming feature of Netflix to get Noah his daily “Sprout” fix. They have many of the shows he used to watch on there, which is great. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t odd not having the guide to let us know what show is playing on which channel… but then again we don’t have as large of a selection of channels available, so it’s not that hard to just channel surf.

In the end, I think my husband made the right decision… just don’t tell him that I said that!

By Megan

I watched the NFL draft last month – did you?

It’s funny, actually, because at least a couple of my Mommyhood co-writers were, um, under-impressed. I saw such tweets from the gals (who will remain nameless to protect them from unsportsmanlike conduct) as:

I think watching a spelling bee is more entertaining to watch than the NFL Draft.

Which garnered the following response:

Or watching grass grow!

I giggled. I get it, not everyone is in to it. It would likely kill them all to know that I’ve never, not EVER, watched a single episode of “Dancing With The Stars”. I’ve not seen “Glee”, either. They just aren’t my thing.

The Draft? Yep, I was all over it. (You were too, weren’t you, Elizabeth?) (note from the editor: yes, Megan, I watched all 7 rounds, basically in their entirety!) I sat on pins and needles, waiting to see who my Colts selected. I watched for the kids from my Hoosiers team to get the chance to hear their name called. I watched the trades, listened to Gruden have a series of mini-strokes, enjoyed the process of team development.

Sports are one of the things my family really bonds over. My mom, sometimes my brothers, and frequently my neighbors hang in my living room with us on football Sundays, where we eat lots of food and scream at the television. My father is a Tennessee Titans season ticket holder, and we (lovingly) trade some pretty snide text messages when we face off. I grew up on Indiana Basketball. Our mutual love of sports was one of the things that brought my husband and me closer together early in our relationship.

I thought it would be interesting to know what, if any, sports interested some of you! My list, in no particular order, includes professional and collegiate football, collegiate basketball, and auto racing (NASCAR, Indy Car and Sprints). I was never, however, an athlete on any level, although I still tell my husband regularly that I’m gonna be a NASCAR driver when I grow up! I’ve always just been a (reeeeally loud) fan.

What sports did/do you play, and what ones do you most enjoy watching?

Megan shares snippets of her life and random, well caffeinated thoughts as a working mom of three on her blog, All A Bunch of Momsense. Family, food, and fun at your fingertips!