Meeting Marcus!!

Lattimore, that is!! On Saturday, December 11th, between the Christmas Parade and looking at lights at Roper Mountain, our family had the honor of meeting Marcus Lattimore!! He is an SEC running back and he just so happens to play for my favorite team - University of South Carolina Gamecocks!! He attended high school about 20 minutes from where we live and I was thrilled to find out he would be attending USC - my Alma mater this year!! He has since been named Freshman of the year for his accomplishments this year as a Gamecock!!

Lattimore is a super nice guy - even Craig said so, and that's a lot coming from a Clemson fan. He happened to be at a church here in our community as he was attending a youth basketball camp. One of my friends called (while Drew was napping) to tell me that he was there - she knew he was my favorite and she said her son and husband had just come from there and got his autograph. As soon as we got there, we asked some friends if he would mind if we walked over, and their response was "no - he's been doing it all day"! As soon as we walked up to him, he stood up, shook our hands and hugged us. Craig said he acted as if he had known us our whole lives. He was very mannerly, and went out of his way to talk with us. I also found out during the time that we spent with him that he had been shooting hoops with the boys on the court a little, too! He took time to talk with our family, take some photographs, and he even signed a football for Drew! Craig told him that I had been wanting to put him in our Christmas card, and I told him I tell people I want him to be our "Michael Oher" - he said that would be okay to both of those. We all just laughed!!

The football that he signed for our boy!! A lady tried to buy it from Drew on the way out, saying "you wouldn't want to sale that would you?" Drew said "no ma'am"! Then we heard another guy talking as we were walking out the door that they were going for 800 dollars on the Internet. The Internet will never see this football - for sale that is! This is one that our son will treasure for his whole life!!

This was an incredible experience for our family, and it was so nice meeting a "local sporting celebrity" to find out that he is the awesome person we knew he was all along!!