Brownie Updates

Brownie Updates
this is the life

Sunday, March 16, 2014

RaMbLiNgS

Life just doesn't seem to slow down at all these days. This week was filled with work, conferences, exercise, cleaning, and lots of other little things. The weather has been amazing and that has truly been so nice. I was able to get outside everyday this week. Whether it was to hike or bike it is just nice to be in the fresh air for at least an hour everyday.

Thursday I did a lot of exercise. I biked 27 miles and played in a basketball game. I was super sore on Friday. It was nice to feel that sore, it has been a while. It also helped my confidence that I could play an entire game of basketball without a sub. My workouts were lacking this winter but since basketball has ended I have been able to get in some longer workouts. Nice to know they are paying off.

I love this picture of Moki sadly watching me leave on my bike. Poor puppy!

This week my dog trailer came! A trailer that I can attach to my bike and pull Moki on longer rides. I tried it on Friday and I wish I had pictures, actually video would be better. It was a little disastrous. She ended up jumping out and getting her foot run over by the trailer (she jumped out 2x only got run over 1x). She knocked the bike over on me a different time and I cut my leg. It was a learning experience. When we finally got settled she whined the entire time. A very obnoxious high pitch whine so it was a short little 5 mile ride. Not bad for the first time, but not what I would really consider a success either.

On Tuesday we hiked above the Y with Amber. It was a beautiful sunny day when we started. However it had snowed an inch that morning that had melted off. It had been a crazy day, but the sun was out and the roads were dry so we could not be kept away. We followed a trail that heads south up above the Y. There were some great views.
 We turned around when we ran into snow on the trail. It was still quite steep and hiking down a snow covered trail in tennis shoes did not seem fun. As we were descending the weather turned on us and before we knew it we were running in the snow.
We were running because it was cold. Utah spring weather is CRAZY!!! It was still a great hike.

This is my fun fortune for the week. I love it.
I have already started to plan some really exciting adventures for this summer. I can't wait.

I spent the last two days at the University of Utah at the annual PE conference (UAPHERD). It was a good conference except the part that it was on a Saturday. That was LAME! This morning the guest speaker was Coach Wells. The football coach at Utah State. He did an awesome job. He was worth driving all the way to Salt Lake on a Saturday.

I have been doing my cleaning everyday. Just one area. This week I have cleaned the pantry closet, the pantry washer/dryer shelf, the hall closet by my front door, the closet in my TV room, the entire spare bedroom and every surface in my bedroom: dresser, desk, and headboard. I am loving this challenge. I have thrown a lot of stuff away but organized even more stuff. It is great to finally have time to deal with piles that have been ignored pretty much since basketball started. This evening after hiking and running errands I hand a chance to clean pretty much the entire down stairs. I LOVE HAVING A CLEAN HOUSE! I have cleaned most the easy spots so the next three weeks will be fun. Two spots on my list for sure are the bathroom closet (that will need to be a Saturday) and behind the washer and dryer. It has been really good to spend a little time each day cleaning/organizing. It makes the task much more doable.

One last picture of Moki looking innocent.
Don't be fooled!!! Lately she has lived up to what the vet told me on our very first visit when Moki was just 12 weeks and 15 pounds. She said, "You will love having a dog. They are so fun. Most of the time it will be amazing but be prepared that there will be times you will want to kill her." It took a long time before I wanted to kill her but she has had a few of those days now. Mostly she does awesome, but occasionally she has what we can call a melt down. Seriously that advice was golden. This particular day she had chewed up my bike helmet. Not one of her better moments. She was banned to the luvsac without being acknowledged when I got home from work. I ignored her until the mess was clean. She hates that! But I love how cute she looks even though I was ticked.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Catching Up

After a long winter of feeling like I was falling behind in everything I was doing I am now trying to play catch up. Last week was AMAZING!!! Coming home after school is my favorite. Moki and I hiked the Y every day last week (Monday-Saturday), I slept in two mornings instead of jogging, I went to the temple, I biked 30 miles on Saturday, I cleaned my house on Wednesday. I was able to do things all week long which made Saturday so much more enjoyable.

One day last week Moki just wanted to cuddle after work. It was funny because she sleeps most the day but it was nice to get to relax for awhile.
 She still seems really small sometimes. She can be super cute when she is not being super obnoxious!

Easter candy is out. These things will be the death of me.
How are they so delicious?

Friday night I got to hang with Andrew. I was going through withdrawals. He is so fun to be around. He surprised me and ate a ton of Chinese noodles. I love his face in this picture.
I busted out Moki's St. Patrick's Day bandana. I love the material on this one. It is so cute. I love this shot of her. This was Saturday night. We had a pretty active week and were both pretty exhausted.
Yesterday we had the family over for dinner. The secretary at my work was talking about grilling burgers one day last week and I have been wanting one ever since. Dan was kind enough to come grill. Sam, Amanda, Anthony, and Andrew came as well. We had awesome burgers, some yummy potatoes, and a delicious fruit salad. It was a great dinner. The weather was so nice so Andrew and I played outside for quite a while. We did lots of bubbles and lots of running.
I love seeing the excitement in his eyes and his laugh is to die for.

This week has started well. I saw a Facebook challenge to get rid of 40 bags of junk in 40 days. It is supposed to be associated with Lent. I am joining the party a little late but I am really excited. It is just a spot a day, not necessarily an entire room. Today I did my guest room. It is small and really just has one area that needed attention. I threw a lot out. Today it all went to the garbage but I will have some garbage, some donation stuff, and some stuff to give away in my other rooms/spots. I am excited to see how it changes my house. One spot a day is very doable. I usually save projects like this for the summer but this will be a good after school chore.

















Saturday, March 1, 2014

State Playoffs

It has been an exhausting week!!! Mentally, physically, and emotionally. It has been long. Really it has been a long season but it ended with a week of even more craziness.

Utah is so different than California. There are a lot less schools and geographically it is a lot smaller. 16 out of roughly 28 schools in 4A make state. It is not as hard to make state here. Yet none of our players had ever played in a state playoff game before. The program has just struggled the past few years. I mention this because we were NERVOUS!!! It was very hard to make a shot. Luckily we play great defense. We beat Mountain Crest on Monday night by 2 points at the buzzer. We were behind the entire game and just couldn't make a shot. But we played great defense and we made the one that mattered most:)
 It was a tense game. The girls looked scared the entire time. Heck I was nervous the entire time.
 As a coaching staff we naively thought that by our second game Wednesday we would be in a better place mentally. WRONG! We still struggled. We still missed so many easy shots. We were down the entire first half. Finally half way through the third we made a run. The fourth quarter we took care of business. We looked much more like our team normally looks. We beat Wasatch by ten propelling us into the quarter finals. As the picture below demonstrates we were ecstatic.
I was worthless for pretty much anything besides basketball this week. I could not sit still at work. I was anxious,  nervous, excited, and so many other things all at once. I knew we were good enough too compete for the state championship but had never been on this stage before.

 Making the the semi finals is a big deal. We felt like we were in a great place. We had previously played all three teams in the semi finals, we had previously beaten each team as well. Our team is small compared to every other team in the state. We play amazing defense and win a lot of games but don't get a lot of media attention, mainly because we don't have a superstar. In my opinion we have 17 of them, but we don't have one player that gets talked about over and over, no one players that scores 15-20 points a game. We have many players that work together but we lack a super star. We are the only team that does not have a 6ft something post. We battle and we battle hard.

Last night we played Skyline and we still struggled to make baskets. Defensively our team played the game perfectly. We kept a high scoring team to under 50 points. Unfortunately we could not make a basket. It was a struggle offensively. We lost by 7 points.
I know our girls were disappointed but as a coach I could not have been more proud. They bought into our vision for the team. They worked so hard every. single. day. We have played so much basketball since June 1st. It has been a ride. I loved loved loved working with girls I had coached previously. It was so fun to work with older girls as well. It was so fun to be an assistant again and get to learn from other coaches. I actually loved not being in charge!!!! We ended the season 18 and 4. We got Mountain View girls basketball team back on the map. It was a pleasure to make history with girls and coaches I love and respect.

Audrey's Dance Recital

 How do you win the hearts of all the Brown's? Have the cutest niece ever perform in a dance recital. It was so fun to watch Audreys lit...