My Afternoon

Half a mile is a lot longer when you are carrying two kids, two bikes, and all their gear. I think that's all I'll say.

I'm a nerd

I've been tutoring a girl in my neighborhood for a while now. I started a few years ago, when she was in high school and have done it off and on since. Now she's a sophomore in college and I've been tutoring her twice a week in math and biology for the last few months.
Anyway, today she arranged for me to do a Biology Review session for her study group. They have a test on Monday so they wanted me to help them get ready for it by clarifying things and making sure they understand everything correctly.
Well, I had such a blast. It was so much fun getting to spend 2 hours talking about the parts of the cell, transcription and translation, cellular respiration, photosynthesis, etc. I love helping them think of ways to remember things by drawing pictures or making up weird analogies. I feel like such a nerd, but I seriously had so much fun. (And I think they did too)
I ended up making so much more money than usual, since they all paid me, but seriously I would've done it for free. Sometimes I forget how much I love just sitting around talking about science.

50 Nifty United States!

For a while now, I've had a goal to visit all of the 50 states. Thanks, to my grandparents and several long cross country roadtrips, I've almost accomplished that. I found this website that makes a map for you of the states you've visited. I thought it was pretty cool. And it gave me a good visual of the regions that I still need to visit. It looks like it shouldn't be too hard--4 or 5 more trips and I should have it covered.

The Moon is Smiling

The past two days when I went out in the morning to go jogging and walking, the moon was just amazing. It was just the smallest little sliver right along the bottom. So, it looked like the moon was smiling at me. It was great. I hope it's like that again tomorrow!

Singing in the Shower

Britton has decided that he only likes to take showers now. He decided this when he realized that his friend Kyler who lives in our basement takes showers everyday. Kyler's almost 6, so Britton thinks everything he does is so cool.
Last night he was taking a shower and Jason and I were in the back room watching TV. We heard what I thought was Britton yelling for us, so we ran to see what he needed. When we got closer, though, we realized that he was just singing really loud. He was singing "Unbreak my Heart" from that Indentity Theft commercial. It was hilarious.

Rise and Shout, the Cougars Are Out!

Saturday was the first BYU home game and I couldn't have been happier with the game. It was a nice day and we got there right before the game started. It was fun to see all the people that we sit by again. We have the same seats (my grandparent's old seats) every year and so do all the people that sit around us. Everyone was so happy and excited.
The game went really well and we ended up winning 49 to 24. Here are some of my favorite things about the game:
--my favorite play was when John Beck passed to Curtis Brown and then Brown had the most amazing run, he broke through three different tackles and ran about 60 yards for a touchdown, he just never gave up, even when a couple of guys were holding onto him, he just kept running until he broke through, it was quite impressive
--there was a down pour--the kind that rarely happen in Utah where there are really big rain drops and you get completely drenched in seconds, the game got put on lightning delay which I don't think has ever happened here
--something that was unexpected, but nice, was that I got very nostalgic about my grandpa, this is the first football game since he passed away, I found myself thinking a lot about him and even getting choked up during the fight song remembering how he always belted it out at games, seeing all the older people stick it out through the rain also reminded me of him because I don't think there was much that could keep him from watching a game

I love the rain

This morning I got to go jogging in the rain. It was delightful.

Soccer--Part Two

I think Britton is getting worse at soccer instead of better. It's frustrating. It doesn't help that the games are in the evenings and he falls asleep on the way there. So, he's exhausted and grumpy and whiney by the time the game starts.
Yesterday he ran around chasing Jason, trying to get him to carry him for the game. He would grab onto his leg everytime he got close enough.
At one point, he was doing something with his hands all twisted up behind his back, I'm not really sure what it was. Maybe it was to ensure that he didn't touch the ball with his hands. But, more likely, it had nothing at all to do with the actual soccer game.
Towards the end, it looked like he was getting more into it because he was running and kicking, but when I looked closer, I realized he was just trying to kick all the other boys in the shins (he's really fascinated by shin guards).
The funny part of it all is that he practices in our yard almost every night with Jason. He's actually got skills and is quite good. He talks about his games and how much he loves it, etc. But, you'd never guess that when you actually watch him play (or not play, as the case may be).

Birds

Last night I asked Britton what his favorite kind of bird was. He immediately replied, "the Speckled Warbler". I was shocked, and then a little proud. A few months ago, we had had a preschool about birds and, although I couldn't remember it specifically, I knew we had talked about all sorts of birds. I was sitting there just thinking about what a great job I was doing teaching my little genius when he said, "I learned about it on 'Max and Ruby' ". Great, again I'm one-upped by the television.