Christmas

Christmas was great as always. It is always so nice to be with family and just relax. Well relax and eat. I told my basketball team at practice on Wednesday "I just went three hours without eating, I have not done that in a week." So, yes I ate way too much. The only bummer was that I was not in Oroville very long at all and so I didn't get to see very many friends.

Christmas dinner was amazing. My poor Mom and Aunt Nancy cooked two days straight but it was seriously delicious.

Presents. Aunt Nancy had my name so I got a present that was beautifully wrapped (well two that were beautifully wrapped but I only took a picture of this one).

Poor Olivia was teething and had a fever. She was a trooper and my Dad was happy he had someone to appreciate his train.

I am in love with this hat I got Olivia. She probably won't have the patience to wear the thing but it was so cute I couldn't pass it up. You can see how done she is in this picture. Poor little girl.

Caleb got lots of Jazz gear so of course he was pumped.

We went to Willits for a night. That was great because we got to see extended family and play games. I did a terrible job of taking pictures but I did get a few just not one of each person.

And last but not least Simba (or a scary version of Cosmo) showed up at my house to play games on Christmas Eve.

I can't believe 2010 is over. The years just seem to go so fast!

I heart Les Scwab

I got home yesterday and I had a flat tire on my car. LAME! Not totally flat but definitely low. I pumped it up but it was low again today. Anyways long story short went to Les Scwab and they fixed it for free. Seriously how nice is that. It feels like a belated Christmas present.

If I quit my job . . . .

It is official I would become a detective for a school. I am pretty good at tracking down missing things. At the start of basketball season our boys team realized they were missing two pair of shorts from their closet. They were there at the end of last year so we knew they had been stolen. Well junior high kids aren't always the brightest and I told the coach if they were actually stolen they will show up. Sure enough two months later I see this big Samoan kid at school wearing them. Don't worry I hunted him down and we got the shorts back. It turns out I am really good at intimidating people to. I think I scared him a little. News flash if you are going to steal something don't wear it to school.

Second case yesterday I see this chick wearing one of my teams bball sweatshirts. Now I designed the sweatshirt and happen to know that there were only 14 of them made. I didn't approach her at first because I wanted to talk to my players and make sure they had not loaned their sweatshirts to anyone. Well they had not. Two class periods late I tracked her down and got it back. She was a 7th grade student I have not had in class and so it was a little more challenging and I had to do a little detective work to figure out who it was. However we got it back. One of my players had left it in their math class and it was taken from there. So lesson to all junior high students IF YOU TAKE SOMETHING THAT IS NOT YOURS DON'T WEAR IT TO SCHOOL! There are other things I have tracked down as well over the years stolen jeans, the girl that flushed underwear down the toilet and clogged all the drains, ipods, cell phones . . . . if it is stolen I will try to get it back.

My back-up profession after being a detective is a doctor or athletic trainer. I dislocated my shoulder again last night and this time I layed down and put it back in place on my own. Not painful at the time but it is really sore today. I probably should take 4 weeks off but lets be honest I probably won't.

2nd Annual Taco Soup Cook Off

My siblings that live in Utah and I have started to have a taco soup cook off each year. We all cook a little different recipe and then come together to eat it. YUM!!! This year we had a steak taco soup, chicken ranch taco soup, and a pulled pork taco soup. (Sam's pulled pork soup is pictured above.) All were delicious! However none of the soups were quite as delicious as the homemade chocolate candy cane ice cream. That is to die for.

After dinner we went to Amanda's Christmas Orchestra Concert. It was really fun to listen to the Christmas music. It is always great to get together and eat yummy food and enjoy each others company.

2nd Place . . . . . Is Lame!

My team took 2nd place at our tournament this weekend. Which I am very happy about and 2nd place is really great . . . but it is also lame. If you win the tournament you get all these things . . . 2nd place gets nothing. That is lame and frustrating. I mean it is always like that and you think 2nd place is awesome but it is not 1st place so no trophy, no t-shirt, no cutting down the net (who does that in 9th grade), no bragging rights . . . nothing. My team looks really good and the are great kids. I just felt bad that after working so hard we went home completely empty handed.

And that picture is my serious coaching face. Yikes!! We won that game by 30 points but don't worry I am all business. My assistant coach was making fun of me because we were watching another team play and I had my coaching face on and she was like relax. We are not playing we don't have to coach these girls. I watch basketball and I go straight into coaching mode. Thankfully I was not the coach over either team we were watching because they were not good and there was lots of coaching to be done.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

It is the most wonderful time of the year right? Why does it seem so crazy? Life has just been so busy. I have not even thought of getting my camera out. My house is decorated and my Christmas shopping is done but that is the only signs of the season thus far. I mean we don't even have any real snow yet.

I want time to slow down so I can enjoy the holiday season. I must be really crazy because I scheduled my team to play 11 games in 3 weeks. Bad planning on my part. That is a lot of games. I am exhausted. It is Wednesday and I feel like it should be Friday. I am already looking forward to the break. That is bad because it means the next week and a half will go very slow.

Some highlights the past week or so have been:

• I bought a poinsettia and I love it. It is so pretty and it was only $3.50 at Wal-mart.
• I bought the wise men to my nativity set.
• The bball team I coach is 4 and 1.
• The Christmas Devotional, listen here if you missed it
• Christmas dinners and parties
• I have had a student teacher (this is her last week)

Lots is going on. It is a crazy time of year but I do love it. I love that I get to spend time with family and friends. I love that people are more generous and thoughtful. I love that we have time to reflect on the Savior and His life, I love Christmas music, I love that we will get to talk to Anthony on Christmas Day. I love this time of year and it is wonderful just crazy as well.

Give Thanks!

I have so much to be grateful for. Some of the things that I give thanks for daily are: family, gospel, health, my job (I especially give thanks for this one on the weekends, holidays, and in the summer!), my home, car. I really am very very blessed.

I am also grateful for the mountains, and Sundays, and a clean house, Christmas decorations, yummy candles, a niece to buy clothes for (seriously I may never buy clothes for myself again, clothes not shoes), a brother on a mission.

I love this time of year to contemplate all the blessing in my life and remember the things that are most important. Last night I read President Monson's Conference talk: The Divine Gift of Grattitude and it made me so thankful for all that I have in my life. Especially the blessing of having a living prophet to lead and guide.

One part I really liked was:

Notice that the Savior gave thanks for what they had—and a miracle followed: “And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.”⁴

We have all experienced times when our focus is on what we lack rather than on our blessings. Said the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”⁵

I will be honest there are times when I too am guilty of focusing on righteous desires that I want but don't have. I don't feel like I do this very often but I am human and it does happen. This quote really puts things in perspective for me. I AM SO BLESSED! I have been given so much. When I look at all my blessings I can't help but thank the Lord for how generous he has been to me.

One other thing I like from the same talk is this:

This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways.

As I read this last night I thought of my students and how they are so strong and so good. I love teaching, there are hard days, but everyday I see so much good in all I come in contact with. There is so much wrong in the world but seriously I look at the youth and see so much GOOD! I am thankful for the example that these youth set for me, they make the right hard decisions everyday.

I am just so grateful for all I have. You should read President Monson's talk it was so good. I hope that I can live with an attitude of gratitude!

Two Things

Two new things have recently revolutionized my gym workouts. The first is this:

I have always loved to read at the gym but the problem is that you never know if your book will fit on the equipment. The Kindle solves that problem it is so skinny. And there is a function to enlarge the text and so not only does any book you read fit you can also make the print large enough to read while working out. I have not paid for any books yet because there are actually lots of free books, all the classics are free, and so I have had plenty to keep me entertained while working out. Maybe I should do the next commercial for the Kindle, because I think it is the greatest thing ever!

The second thing is this. I didn't want to put a picture of a sports bra on my blog, but seriously this sports bra is awesome. I needed a new sports bra and I decided to try one that is more expensive, to see if there is a difference. I can report that there is a huge difference. It was $45 but it was so worth it. Hopefully is lasts a long time.

In other news my legs are just so tired every night. I have not quite adjusted to being on my feet two and a half extra hours a day. On a happier note I am really pumped about my team this year. And seriously is it already Thanksgiving I have not even started thinking about Christmas shopping?

Weekend O Fun

This weekend was really busy. Thank goodness there was an extra hour of sleep Saturday night because I sure needed it. Friday I took a half day at work and hung out with Jana and Erica, then played soccer, and then stayed up until one am eating homemade ice cream and watching Toy Story 3. I can not do late nights I don't know what I was thinking.

Saturday started off with a 5K in honor of one of my former students who is battling cancer. The weather was great and the run wasn't too terrible.

I am sad to say that Sam's sprint to the finish edged me out. I will beat him next time:)

We hurried back to my house after the run and got ready for the BYU game. My aunt and uncle got us a free tickets so we obviously could not turn them down. The weather was so great and BYU played so great so it was a good afternoon.

We love our cougars.

Afterwords Dan made us a yummy dinner. I wrapped the evening up by cleaning house and doing laundry. I can't believe it is November. Basketball starts tomorrow. Can you believe it? I am so excited for my team this year. The girls are really good but they are so fun as well. I feel like it is going to be a great season.

I can't believe the holidays are approaching so fast. This year has flown by. Time just goes faster and faster the older I get. Crazy!

update

Well I am fired as far as blogging goes. I have done some fun things in the past three weeks but I have not had my camera with me so there are no pictures to show for it. I must admit that sometimes I feel in a rut. It is like my weeks are the exact same. Work, rest, some sports, working out, church, hanging out with friends and then repeat.

I did enjoy our fall break last week. It was so nice to sleep in, catch up on some house work, pursue a couple of hobbies, rollerblade, go shopping (during the day, I know exciting), and just relax. I was sure sad when Sunday night rolled around and I knew I had to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

I have been obsessed with the movie North and South, not about the Civil War. It is so good. Michelle Rotar introduced it to me years ago but I fear I did not fully appreciate it until recently. I just finished the book which was also very good. I may just have to purchase the movie soon.

Other then that I am enjoying my last couple of weeks of freedom before basketball starts. Can you believe it is that time already? Oh and first term ends next week so crazy.

I will say I am so proud of one of my seventh grade classes, every student in the class has an A- or better. In all my MANY years of teaching I have yet to have class do that. I am so excited for them. They have one more test and I totally promised them all doughnuts if they all get an A on their reports card (great PE teacher right). I know nothing like extrinsic motivation, but seriously they are so great. It is a class of 26 students and they are just so sweet and try so hard. Love them! And I want to say that they have all the same assignments as my other 7th grade classes they are just a small class and work so hard. So there is my life recently in a nutshell.

Bake Sale

As I returned to school this year I learned that one of my former students had been diagnosed with Leukemia. She is only 16. A great student and a great athlete. She also comes from a great family and the whole situation just really breaks your heart. Well tomorrow they are having a bake sale for her in Orem so me, some aunts (Loralie and Nancy), cousins (Melissa and Heather), and family (Sam and Amanda) all got together and made some treats for the bake sale. It was a fun evening and seriously there are so many treats in my house right now.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

cupcakes made by the less talented

yummy peanut butter brownies and lemon bars

strawberry cupcakes made by someone a little more talented (Heather)

And some really cute cupcakes also made by Heather.

Also some banana bread not pictured

All the treats went through Sam Brown quality assurance testing and the tests came back with excellent results. He took his self assigned job very seriously. So if you live in the area make your way over to the bake sale tomorrow I am sure there will be lots of yummy treats (800 South Geneva Rd at an LDS chapel).

Here is her blog if you want to learn more about her. And thanks to all of my family who helped I really appreciate it.

Pictures

I have not done much this past week. So I have nothing to report on the blogging front. I have been looking through old pictures and here are some shots from a ghost town in Wyoming that I liked. I took them last summer.


And some pictures of my cousin Heather's daughters. The are so cute. As I was looking at older pictures I was shocked at how much they have changed in a years time.

And really why are skinny jeans back in style. They do look cute on little skinny girls but they are definitely not my favorite.

did you know . . . . .

They make computers that are all inside the screen. I didn't until today. Went to Best Buy to look at laptops came home with this

first glance you think what a nice computer screen, but don't worry the computers built somewhere inside. And it is a touch screen. It is pretty much the coolest thing ever. My only requirements for a new computer were that it could hold lots of photos and music. I really wanted a netbook that I could hook up to my TV when I wanted to use photoshop, so it would be nice and big. But I took Dan shopping (never agood thing when it involves computers) and he convinced me that my life is so boring I don't even need a mobile computer, which is true. And then I saw the screen computers and I just love it because it does not take up any space, no tower needed. I really really love that about it. So yea that is the most exciting thing that happened in my life this week.

Labor Day

This weekend was just really nice and pretty relaxing. It is always AWESOME when you know you don't have to work on Monday. Mikila and the Than & Erica Hancock family were in town. It was fun to spend the first part of the weekend hanging out with friends from Oroville. Dinner at Sam and Amanda's was also a highlight.

I was supposed to hike Timp on Saturday but my sprained ankle was still too huge so I had to postpone until Monday. It was a great day to hike. The weather was nice and cool, actually it was pretty chilly until the last two hours of the hike, and it was not crowded. I have hiked Timp on Labor Day a few times and it is always crazy but yesterday it really wasn't.

We stayed on top long enough to sign the book and snap this picture it was too cold.

Now it is back to the grind and no more three day weekends until UEA. Bummer!

Tik Tok

So I might really like the song Tik Tok by Keisha. Is it an appropriate song? NOPE! I was first introduced to the song last year by my basketball team. They always listened to it on the bus. I had never heard it and finally I searched it out downloaded the song and listened to the lyrics. YIKES!! These little innocent girls should not be listening to that song. And neither should I but, seriously it has such a good beat. You know


Pedicure on my toes . . toes


I had my first pedicure on Saturday with Emily. It was lots of fun and I kept singing this verse of Tik Tok to the lady, she is so lucky.

I was advised by a sibling, he who will not be named, that boys actually do look at toes when they notice girls. Well ok now my toes are about the cutest thing ever so come on boys:)

(Dan killed my computer so I could not photoshop this picture so you could actually see the cute flowers)

Back to Tik Tok


Trying on all our clothes . . . clothes


I only dress up on the weekends now that I teach but anyone that has ever lived with me knows I always try on lots of different outfits in the morning to decide what to wear. Not so much now that I teach PE. On the weekends I sometimes fall back into this old habit. It usually results in a very messy bedroom.


Boys blowing up our phones . . . phones


Um not really one of my problems. Wish it was more of a problem but it was the last little phrase in the most tame verse of Tik Tok.


See I can really relate to that song now that I got a pedicure.


Today our combined 5th Sunday meeting was so good. It was on the vision of the tree of life and particularly on overcoming our personal mists of darkness. Do you think that I shouldn't listen to that song anymore? Probably not but I just love it.

Life Lesson

Never ever go to the movies without eating dinner first. Enough said.

Preparation

Can you believe I have to go back to work in three days? LAME!! I am so bummed. I always have a mini depression as I watch summer come to a close and school start again. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my job and I LOVE the school I work at but I also LOVE free time.

This week has not been too exciting I have just been doing all the little things to get ready for nine months of no free time. You know, the dentist (no cavities), the doctor (1st physical in 9 years still look healthy), the house cleaning, the house organizing, the lunches with friends, the long bike rides, the hiking, the sleeping in, the nap taking, all good things that will be forgotten in a few days.

Seriously this summer was great and I really do love being on a schedule and so that is the great thing about work. I also spend way less money when I am working, there another perk. I have not taken a nap the last two days, gotta break myself in. Prepare myself mentally for what is to come. So there you have it.

Don't worry my last two days of freedom will be spent biking, swimming with Jana and kids, dinner with the brothers and sister in law, playing basketball, one more doctor visit, a little more cleaning, some more hiking, hopefully some kayaking, and NO MORE MONEY SPENDING!!

Thanks for the picture Angelee!

Recovery Week . . . . Kind Of

I needed some downtime after the past six weeks. I have been on the go all summer and I am ready to sleep, a lot. This week my family was in town. I meant to take more pictures but it didn't happen. They came to celebrate Dan's graduation. Yea Dan! We went to Tucanos for lunch to celebrate. I will say I think I am one of the few people that does not love Tucanos. I just don't love meat and so I never feel like it is worth the money even for lunch. Ok I am a little cheap as well.

We also played games, went shopping in Park City, and hung out. But I have no pictures of all of those things. Ben and Katie also happened to be in town. They stayed at my house. It was fun having them around. They let me watch Olivia one day so of course I have pictures of that.

My cousin Katie and I took our nieces swimming. Olivia loves the water and she loved having so many girls playing with her.

Don't worry I am a terrible aunt. Right after I took the picture Olivia lunged for me and fell right in to the pool. It was a dive. She did so good to hold her breath and she didn't even cry. I was scared though.

Here is proof that she still had fun after the falling in experience.

And seriously if you have kids you need an underwater camera they are so fun.

The baby section was closed off so Olivia had to take a little break on the side because the water was a tad chilly. She did her favorite thing: eat sandals, YUM!

Then she let poop leak out all over the pool deck and I couldn't claim her as my own. Ummm call her parents to come clean it up. SICK. Who poops through the swimmy and the $6 plastic pants? Oh well we had lots of fun. She loves the water so it is so fun to swim with her.

I also decided to ride in the ULCER again this year. This definitely didn't go as planned. I signed up to do 111 miles but like the crazy person I am I played two soccer games last night (I even scored some goals just to prove to my team that they missed me on my 6 week vacation) and so this morning I was exhausted. Not necassarily a bad thing until I got off my bike 27 miles in and could barely walk. We are talking pain everywhere from the hips down. That sealed the deal and I decided 60 miles would have to be enough for today. I rode 60 and came home and slept for two and a half hours. And I am still very very sore. Maybe ready for another nap.

So this next week with all my family gone I plan on resting more and getting my house in order before I go back to work. Oh and I am sure I will bike a little and play basketball and soccer.

498.5

Last week I biked 498.5 miles. I must say that is an all time high for me and it was great fun. I participated in RAGBRAI, the registers annual great bike ride across Iowa. The ride is held every year and every year there is a different route. They accept 10,000 participants. But then there are anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 additional riders that join on each day. The weather cooperated, it only rained one day, and the ride itself was very nice. I have to laugh because I actually was really excited on the days we biked 60 miles. 60 became my new 25 as I biked across Iowa.

The ride started in Sioux City so we went and checked out all the pre-ride events. Let me tell you if you like to eat pork in all of its varieties this is the ride for you.

Each year the bikers bike from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River. So it is tradition to dip your back bike tire in the Missouri and when you finish your front tire in the Mississippi!


The ride itself is like being a part of one huge parade. Each town you ride through throws a huge party for you. The ride is also known as the party on wheels. There is lots of biking and beer to get all the bikers to each town. I would say for me it was the ice cream that got me from town to town. YUM!

There is no picture or words that can be used to describe what camp looked like each night. One policeman told us he had counted over 16,000 riders on a particular day. Well all those riders are sleeping in town at different parks and colleges. This is a picture of our camp on the first night in Sioux City. Never ending tents.

There were so many tents and they were all so close. People started to wake-up between 4:30 and 5 am each morning. You would hear cell phone alarms, tents zippers, and the portable toilet doors shutting. I could not sleep through this and so I decided I would be an early morning biker. The official start time is 6am and I was pretty close to starting at that time every day. The great thing about starting early was that I was done biking before the weather was too hot and I was a little ahead of the main crowd.

I got good at taking self portraits while biking. Not safe but FUN!

There was one day that we had the option to ride a century instead of the 81 mile ride. Amber and I did that and so that helped my mileage get closer to 500. The crazy thing is there were a handful of bikers that rode 100 miles everyday. They would finish the ride and then do it backwards until they would have the mileage. PSYCHO!! However I think that would be a great challenge now that I know my body responds well to biking so many miles.

All the towns had different themes for their parties and they all had unique picture opportunities.

My Uncle Lou and I planned our trip together. It was a lot of fun. And I felt safe knowing I had some protection in case someone got out of hand. We were excited to be done.

Some of my favorite things were:

• The Arkansas crew that pulled me 10 miles one day in a head wind and let me camp with them under the only covered picnic area on the day it rained. So nice. I seriously could have hugged them.
• Reading all the different team names. You can sign-up with a team and some of the names were so creative. My favorites were Team Donner Party "We eat the slow ones." A little inappropriate but hilarious. Team Buffalo, "Blowing wind since 1512." Team Sloughs. Team Too Slow. The list could go on and on but I can't remember them all.
• The beautiful landscape. It is so crazy to have no mountains in sight. So different from Utah but still so beautiful.
• Talking and meeting so many new people. Learning where they were from, what they do, why they love to bike.
• Being humbled. I thought I was doing pretty good to get over 2000 miles a year on my bike. It turns out that I am not at all a serious biker. I met a lady in her sixties that bikes over 30,000 miles a year and has for many many years.

All my gear for the week. It really was a great experience. I would definitely do it again.

It is so great to be home. I have slept in a tent a ton this summer but it has been a great summer.

Trinity Alps

40 miles in 4 days = One stinky girl (and some sore calves)

I have never backpacked in California so I was really excited. My Uncle Lou escorted me on a beautiful hike. We were next to a river the entire way which made it really nice. The temperatures were warm but overall it was a great trip.

My first time using my new tent. And I LOVE it!! I researched a lot before I bought a tent and found the best deal I could and I am not sorry it is so easy to set-up and roomy enough for a backpacking tent.

The second day we came to a cabin built in 1937. The man lived here on and off his entire adult life. It was a really neat cabin with a corral for his animals and a small tool shop that had caved in. The cabin was about 8 miles in. Quite a ways.

We hiked around 14 miles on day two. By 2:00pm I was exhausted. I just layed down and took some pictures from that position. I really enjoyed all the tall tall trees. There are so many variety of trees in Northern California. It really is beautiful.

Our destination Grizzly Meadows. The lake at the top of the waterfall is the water supply for the river we hiked along. The first sight of the falls is three miles away. When I saw it I thought you have got to be kidding me. Knowing deep down I still had a lot of hiking to do.

There were some firsts for me on this trip. First time I brought a book to read which was really nice, first time I saw a rattlesnake on the trail, first time I slipped an fell hard on a trail (big bruises on my shoulder to prove it), first time I crossed rivers (above the knee deep) and most importantly first time I saw a BEAR while backpacking. I saw two!!! Very nerve racking the first time because I was about 20 yards away and it had its back to me but very exciting.

The other crazy thing was that in four days on the trail I saw eight other people. It was really nice.

Super fun trip. Very hot but very fun. I was sure glad to take a shower when I got home. Hair should be washed more than once every four days.

I'm In Love . . . . .

with this little girl.

She is at the perfect age. She giggles and laughs and is so stink'n' cute! It has been so fun to be around her. I just can't get enough of her cute personality. Oh and when she laughs I love it!

I put up a few pictures because it is so much easier than emailing pictures to family. Seriously why can't you email lots of pictures at once.

And if you wonder who she looks like when she laughs wonder no more:)