Be the ball...and now it's over!

Hudson decided at the last minute (meaning a teensy bit after the sign-up deadline) that he wanted to play basketball this year. I was really surprised because I have been asking him consistently for the last couple of years if he wanted to play and he consistently said no. I only wanted him to play because #1 it doesn't interfere with soccer, #2 he's tall, and #3 all mormon boys play basketball and I didn't want him looking like a tall kid that should play and then doesn't know how to play. Ya know what I mean?

I guess he and some friends had been playing basketball at recess and he decided it was actually fun. Anyway, we got him signed up and he got super lucky to play with his friends from school, Logan and Kaden as well as his longtime friend Josh! We got even more lucky when Josh's dad decided to assistant coach! So, basketball season...we're happy. Soccer this year...not so much! But, I'm trying really hard to be more positive so I will refrain from talking about the soccer fiasco of 08-09! Here are some pictures from basketball and I realize they aren't good.

Now by the time I got these pictures ready to go with this post...basketball season is over! I am so lame! Better late than never...right? That's my motto. They should put it on my headstone. I'll probably be late to heaven...or hell! Okay, focus! Back to the post.

Hudson and his three friends!!!

Hudson shooting a free throw

Josh shooting a free throw

Flashback Friday

This memory takes place in college maybe 1990 or so. I had to take a weights class and I was one of four girls in the entire class. You'd think that'd be cool, right. I mean good odds and all. But, no. No hot guys (in case you were wondering). And after this story you'll see why I was glad there weren't any.
The class took place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We each doubled up with partners to do the workouts we were required to do. We go to the bench press to do it for the very first time. The other two girls and then myself and my partner. The two girls each take their turns. It's all good. My partner takes her turn. That's good too. I go to take my turn. I lay my little self on the bench and grab hold of the bar with weight on it and push with all my might...grunt...the bar doesn't move! Not only doesn't it move...it doesn't even budge! The teacher takes off the weights. So, we're talking bar only...no weights. (I think it was 40-50 pounds.) I try again with all my might...grunt! The bar still.does.not.move! Then, the teacher says in partial disgust with a hint of snickering, "I'm sorry but you're going to have to use these special weights over here until you work up to benching the bar only." So...I got to start out benching like twenty pounds on the special bars. How humiliating! Not only was I the only person in class that couldn't bench the bar, but I was the only girl that couldn't bench the bar. I felt so stupid and weak and embarrassed. To my credit, I have always been small on top (and large on the bottom) and very, very weak. I have never had any upper body strength at all. So, this was actually no surprise. Also...I was only 19!

Another story from my weights class happened on a Tuesday when our teacher made my partner and I hold weights and do 300...oh ya you read it right...300 calf raises off a step. (Have you ever tried it? Don't.) The next day (was a Wednesday and we didn't have class) I couldn't get out of bed or stand without severe pain in my calves. I could barely walk. It was more like a hobble. The pain was like nothing I had experienced before. I had to pump the advil all day. But, I still got up and hobbled my butt all over campus and attended all my classes. On Thursday when we went back to weights class (with sore calves...still), my partner and I talked about how sore we both were. She was so sore that she didn't even go to school on Wednesday at all! She had to stay in bed all day. I'm gonna wager that the guy didn't know what he was doing. Shouldn't a weights teacher be some type of personal trainer or at least have a degree in exercise science or something like that?

Happy Birthday Papa Bill

Happy Birthday to my daddy! I hope he had a wonderful day! Any birthday is better than last year's birthday wherein he spent a week in the hospital and almost died ON his birthday! So, here's to another year! Love you daddy. Click here for last year's tribute.

I know. I know. Some people (cough...Summer) think it's lame that I am not doing a long birthday post of awesomeness for every person this year. But, let's face it. Unless said people are blogging and doing the other crazy things I'm doing, they can't be having an opinion. Keeping up on everything is hard. Also, I can't get pictures on here fast enough so sometimes blogging is just annoying.

Pay it forward!

I saw this post on my sister-in-law's blog and thought it sounded like fun. When I saw that I had 365 days to actually do it I figured it was totally do-able. Can't wait to make something fun and creative (ha! we'll see how that turns out...don't get too excited)

{The Rules}

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! SO, REMEMBER...Pay it forward!

P.S. If you are one of the first three and don't have a blog to post on I have come up with a wonderful idea. Take the next three friends that call you just to chat and Pay It Forward to them! Then challenge them to do the same :)

Let's help make this a wonderful world to live in and show our friends how much we care for them :)

Utes were sugarific, baby!!!

We watched the sugar bowl with our favorite Ute fans. This time there were a ton of Marchants. Kyle's three sisters, a brother and sister-in-law, a brother-in-law and some nieces and nephews. Oh ya, Deann, Brianna, Zoe, Austin and the Morgans were there too.

I ran to the grocery store and when I came back, Mikaela had helped the boys do this to their faces. Now that's Ute spirit!

Here's a picture of the food table. We had homemade cafe rio for dinner. Tamra strategically placed the hand sanitizer at the beginning of the table. She had high hopes. I've mentioned before that Tamra and I compliment each other well. I asked her what I could bring to this little shin dig and she, of course, wanted me to bring nothing. I got an idea late in the day to make homemade guacamole because they don't really like avocados at their house and I figured that would be something they wouldn't have. I had no idea what was on the menu and when I arrived she did have guacamole but it was store bought and Austin had complained a tiny bit about it. So, I showed up with the homemade stuff and it complimented her meal well. She went to a lot of work and it was delish!


Josh and Hudson

Jen and Josh

Just a portion of the peeps

More peeps...

The rest of the peeps

Elyssa, Mikaela, Zoe, and Kennedy

Keslee, Tamra, and Larissa

Keslee and Larissa

Kath and Bella

Mike and Kyle

Deann and Brianna

The girls were goofing off for quite a while. I don't think they watched much of the game.

I love being one of those people that ruins the shot and you don't find out till later. Awesome!

And then they migrated outside to play...

barefoot...

Crazy cold!

Warming back up!

So tired...

The U wins...AGAIN! Rock on!

The after-party... party!!!

Flashback Friday...it's back!

So, I have been slacking on the Flashback Friday thing. Instead of letting it go altogether I figured I would bring it back. Better late than never! So, here goes:

This memory dates back to 8th grade. Must be 1984-ish. I was in middle school and I was one of those very shy and quiet kids that no one knew existed, but I was really good with names and faces so I knew a lot of people. There were a couple of adorable, sweet and very popular girls and I just happened to have a class with one of them. I actually sat right in front of her. I never talked to her and we weren't friends, but one day I was at home going through my box of "treasures" that my mom had kept for me. In that box was a newspaper clipping of baby pictures. They were pictures of babies that were turning one! I was included in said newspaper clipping and I noticed another baby with the same name as this girl who sat behind me. Her name was Kari (said like Carrie). Somewhat an unusual spelling for her name so I figured maybe it was her. I took the clipping to school and then during our class together I turned around and showed it to her and the only thing I said was, "is this you?" She said, "yes! oh my gosh!" with excitement and a smile. She had never seen it before and had no idea it existed. That was the ice breaker we needed to begin a very long and wonderful friendship. To this day, we are still friends. She is there for me no matter what and no matter how much time passes. We can go without contact for a time and pick right up where we started. We have so much history together. We cheered in high school together. We took driver's ed together and actually drove with each other. We took the handicapped kids on activities together. She was my rock when my parents divorced. We lived/worked/went to school together freshman year in college. We both became paralegals. She moved to Idaho and met her husband and then moved back to Utah. She hosted and helped me celebrate Don's 30th party. We both got married and had babies one month apart from each other. I moved to Iowa and then back to Utah. We had second children six months apart from each other. Our kids went to preschool together. We had our third babies a year apart from each other. She moved up to Logan. She was my rock when I got divorced. She has always been there for me and I love her to death! I am so glad that I made that first move (which was totally out of my comfort zone - btw) and that she is so sweet and kind that she actually befriended me despite my nerdy and borderline stalker approach. The Lord puts people into our lives when we need them and I am so glad he brought us together. Thanks Kari for everything and thanks for the funny memories.

Sundance '08

Why does it say 08? Because...that's when we went to Sundance. I didn't go this year because no one really wanted to and it was freakin' freezing! Last year we went to Park City and hung out but I never posted my pictures so I decided to do it now. Just pretend this is from 09. You would have assumed it anyway, if I hadn't told you.

Danielle, Mom, Billy and I went to Park City to hang out. We took some pictures and froze to death. But...it was still fun. We didn't see any movies while we were there, we just hung out. All of my siblings saw a movie the day Summer and I were supposed to celebrate our birthdays. That's another story.

We saw Adrian Grenier after a suh-weet day of skiing and some postal shopping. (I'm quite sure he was sending postcards!) We saw a few other celebs that weren't very well known. Only Danielle could tell who they were because she is so good at spotting celebs. I swear she can spot anyone. Literally. Then, Danielle and I went to Park City on another day to hang out again. We tried to catch a shot of Charlize Theron but alas she was too quick for us and escaped out a side door of a restaurant and into a car and drove off. It was very James Bond-like!

I did an interview for a small station on t.v. It was pretty ridiculous actually. I sounded like an blubbering idiot in front of the camera with a bunch of crew members staring at me. I was just thankful that I had on a snow hat, sunglasses and scarf. I'm pretty incognito and no one actually watches that station. I figured they wouldn't use it because it was so awful, but Derrek said they probably will because they usually like dumb people. You know like Jay Leno's stupid "Jay Walkers." Um...crap.

We saw Nick Cannon, Josie Moran and Tommy Davidson (who is very short and smiley). Josie let us take a picture but I think Danielle has it. We also ran into Bart Johnson. Bart is an old friend of Danielle's from our college days at UVSC. He played the part of Troy's dad in High School Musical. Danielle took our picture for the kids because we thought they would be interested...a little. They weren't. They didn't really care. It may be because he looks so raggedy. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. But not enough fun to do it again in 09. Derrek did work the Kenneth Cole Black party this year. He was in charge of the swag. Maybe he'll post his pictures on his blog but if not, you can check em out on his facebook. I hyper-linked everyone to their IMDB page just FYI cuz I'm sweet like that.

Me and Bart

Mom, Billy, me and Dani

Adrian Grenier - Entourage hottie

Aquarium Time

Suzanne, Nick, Cham and I decided to take the kiddos to the Acquarium on January 2nd. The kids enjoyed it and it was pretty cool to see. At one point, they allow the kids to touch the stingrays. They informed the kids that there were two rules: 1) touch them gently and 2) use only two fingers. I told the other adults to listen and they would probably hear Dalton (who just happens to be a total "rule follower") discipline someone at some point. After about 5 minutes, I hear my little Dalton say about three different times, "two fingers!" He takes after his momma. Too afraid to break any rules but hating the fact that others do! We didn't get great pictures but here are a few.

All six kiddos -Ari, Dalton, Macie, Loren, Mikaela and Hudson

The Big 3-0!!!

Happy 30th to Summer! Since I am also another year older and a teeny bit more lazy I think I will link you to last year's birthday posts instead of doing up a new birthday post this year. It's basically the same. No one's really changed much and I'd just be repeatin' mostly anyways!

Love ya!

Just so ya'll know...

I did not do that last post for my own birthday. I mean...I like myself but NOT that much! Thanks Summer and Dani for doing it. Loves!

Thanks to Val for posting this picture collage and birthday wish for both Summer and I on the lawn!