@ clearfield

my love/hate relationship with bountiful football continued tonight.  tonight i 'liked' it.  we played at clearfield and put together a great game.  jake played quite a bit, so that made it more fun.

this is where you get to sit between defensive possessions when you play a lot:

caroline's friends threw her another little party tonight.  before the party, she went to keva juice with her friend bethany.  unfortunately, caroline took a turn too sharply, hit a curb, and blew out her tire.  she called uncle steven and he came right down to assist. 

licensed driver

it's official. caroline is a licensed driver.  we visited the driver's license division this morning, i took caroline home to get her car and she was back at school before her first class ended.

sam had requested a yummy dinner of shepherd's pie tonight, but our water heater inconveniently went out and jorge came to fix it at dinner time, so we ordered out and all the boys had football.  the main event for caroline's birthday was obviously last night.

su-prise

we pulled one over on caroline tonight.  while she and i were a mother/daughter young women meeting, her friends were gathering at our house to wish her a happy sweet 16th birthday.  yay!  she said she didn't even suspect.

she had lots of great friends come and jake even brought some senior football players to round out the group.

webelos

between school and football and all the other things we have going on, we found time to squeeze in a little scouts tonight.

apparently, isaac took some heat for wearing a BYU shirt with red pants.  i don't understand that exactly.  just because we wear read sometimes does not mean we want to be identified with the utes in any way.  oh well, it was just good natured fun.  he got lots of awards tonight.

dum dum

the homecoming dance was saturday night.  about 48 hours ago.  apparently, though, the girls have already moved on because lots of invitations were extended tonight to the girls dance, which is coming up in a few weeks.  we hardly had two minutes to breathe between dances.  oh well, party on.

caroline asked a cute boy, who had to say no because of his muslim religion.  she seemed unaffected and moved on quickly to her next choice who, by all accounts, plans to say yes...eventually (on the normal boy schedule).

while she was out asking her date tonight, jake got asked.  it actually kind of made me laugh.  girls always seem to be on the same page.  here is jake's loot:

jake got asked by a cute girl on the soccer team, so he's in the "soccer group".  some of his friends are too, so that will make it fun.  of course, jake hasn't answer yet because he is also on the boys schedule.

bye-bye burb

we sold granslm.  i've been driving a suburban so long, i can't remember driving a smaller call on a regular basis.  i loved the burb and i loved being big on the road.  i especially loved my grill guard--made me feel boss.  but it is time to downsize.  which is kind of sad, not because i miss my suburban, but beause the suburban was kind of symbolic of times when there were seven or eight of us, now we're down to six and shrinking quickly.  i love my new, smaller, sleeker, cooler car, but i miss the things this big bad black car symbolized.

homecoming 2011

we had football games today. 

isaac's team rolled to their fourth straight win this season:

sam's team played a great game but lost in double overtime.  double.  it was pretty intense.  tough loss.

and that night was the homecoming dance.  craig and i were chaperones and it was so much fun to see all the great kids dancing and having a wonderful time.  mom even got dragged out on the dance floor by junior hamilton to dance in a circle of jake's friends while they were chanting her name.  we're so lucky that jake's an officer this year because we get to participate in so many great things.  jake and bri looked great together!

not exactly like i planned it

football season this year isn't exactly going like i planned it.  for the record, i like baseball season way more than football season.  anyway, some things are better than i thought they'd be.  some things are the same as what i thought they'd be.  some things are not as good as i thought they'd be. 

tonight was homecoming at the high school.  bountiful hosted highland, a team we were not supposed to beat.  but we did.  27-3.  so that's pretty much putting critics to rest.  jake did everything he was asked to do with great energy and skill.  i thought he would be asked to play more defense, but for reasons i won't go into here, i think things will be different for the rest of the season.  things are looking up.

of note, the officers painted the field for homecoming and it looked awesome.  i love the picture where jake looks like he is standing all alone in the middle of his handy work.  great memories.

granslm

we sold the burb today.  good 'ol "granslm".  she's been good to me and i'm gonna miss her, but i'm glad to be driving something dantier.  i'm for sure going to miss the awesome grill guard in the front of the car--made me feel like i totally owned the road.  i guess craig didn't want to put dirty lisence plates on my new car though because i opened the dishwasher to find this:

still no word out of nagoya, so i guess the missionaries are all okay.  it would be so cool to get more information than just those weekly e-mails, but what do i know?  they're only holding my child hostage over there. 

when is my officer sweater coming?

today was a homecoming pow wow at the school.  jake was in charge of it, so that means i had to help.  i really didn't have to do much compared to lots of people, but still.  i reported for duty and was assigned to deep fry like a million scones.  i totally smelled like cooking oil when i got home.  luckily, i was warned by jake that i might be cooking so i brought my apron and everyone copy-catted me after they saw the apron.  this cute boy right here was the deejay:

today he is back to black (hair) and better than ever.  he's such a great kid.

typhoon roke

i was resting with my foot propped up today during the noon news.  this is what i saw:

these are pictures of a city in japan called NAGOYA.  yep, that's right where evan is.  because of the limited missionary communication other than weekly e-mails (no communication between weekly e-mails), i have been a-wondering today what my boy is up to.  craig thinks it's an adventure.  i think adventures are overrated.  i guess we'll find out in five more days.

i was minding my own business this evening making yummy homemade bean and ham soup.  i was even making enough to take to a sick neighbor.  while the soup was heating i decided to open the new skillet i bought at costco today.  it's one of those heavy skillets modeled after the french le creuset pans.  i love them.  and it's such a pretty red color:

unfortunately, the lids are very, very heavy.  and when you drop them from counter height with the sharp side down, right on your foot, this is what happens:

luckily, it's not broken, i only bruised the bone, but after that experience, i don't want to know what it feels like to have a broken foot, because it hurt really, really bad. 

so if you are going to drop a pan lid on your foot, i recommend dropping a lighter one.

p-days are emotional

we love to hear from evan on sunday nights, but it's sad when they end because i know it will be another week before we hear from him again.  two years and thousands of miles...

we were excited to hear that he baptized an investigator this week, but he says he's struggling with the language, so we're going to pray extra hard this week.  feel free to join in.

oly and a beat down

our little league games were at olympus this week.  they have some tough teams.  sam's team, which is very good, lost by two touchdowns.  a lot of people got yelled at, but sam wasn't really in the doghouse.  tough loss.  sam called it the first part of the worst day in sports history.  isaac's team (defending champions) traded touchdowns with oly for awhile before pulling away.  olympus made it close at the end, but we prevailed 26-20.  isaac was great!  here he is on kick-off.  big #99.

the day didn't end well.  this is the boys before the annual byu-utah game started.  we like to call this photo "happier times--before the game":

no "after" picture could do justice to the 54-10 smackdown of utah over byu.  not a good day for cougar fans.  the boys left early in the fourth quarter and utah scored 24 points after they left.  ugly is the only word, but it was fun to spend time with brothers and dad.  and caroline and i got pedicures. 

allergies, football & repeat performances

today was busy.  caroline returned to the allergist to find out what things she was allergic to.  we always expect bad news at the allergist.  she's only allergic to one food:  hazel nuts.  of all the nuts, this is the one most easily done without.  but the number of grasses and trees caroline was highly allergic to was huge.  so allergy shots for her.  good thing she'll be driving soon. 

isaac and i loved joseph so much, we went again today.  they added a matinee performance at 4:00, so we grabbed two of the last tickets, enjoyed the show one more time then drove to cyprus for the high school game.  ironically, cyprus high school was directly west of hale center.

bountiful finally put together a decent game and we beat cyprus soundly.  jake played quite a bit.  jake played well.  and apparently football can be fun.

ordinary week

this has pretty much been an ordinary week.  {yawn}.  i like exciting weeks, but my house likes it when it's an ordinary week because it gets organized and cleaned.  current projects:  my closet and the sewing room (which is used by my children as a dump).  caroline volunteered at the hospital today.  highlights there included a "code pink", which is the abduction code.  she wasn't sure what to do in an abduction scenario so she stayed put in the gift shop while others guarded the exits and then the code pink was canceled.  she also gave someone too much change--$1 so i had to bring her a dollar to balance the till. 

right now isaac is showing me all his bruises from football and telling me what he named them. 

jake came home from football at 7:45, asked me if i could do a load of wash, used the bathroom and then left again. 

i made a yummy dinner of sloppy joes and then realized that caroline was at the hospital, craig had a meeting and the boys were at football, so i went for a walk.

i guess even ordinary weeks have a lot going on.

go-go-go-joseph

tonight for family night we went to joseph and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat at hale center theater.  when i bought the tickets several months ago, i didn't get jake one because i was positive that with football and sbo and school he would be too busy to go.  however, when the time came he was insistent that he had time.  because the show has been so wildly popular, i had to buy a general admission ticket, which i used. 

it was hands down the best show i've ever seen at hale center.  so entertaining.  in fact, the time sped by so fast, i couldn't believe it when it ended.  at intermission, isaac came and sat in an empty seat next to me and when they were wrapping up the story he kept saying, "i hope it's not over--it's not over yet is it?--i want to see it again".  i felt the same way.  it was amazing. 

and when it ended, jake said, "i can't believe you thought you were going to see it without me." 

{love}

9/11

today is the tenth anniversary of september 11.  that day changed our world forever.  i remember waking up to get my kids off to school and turning on the today show like i always do.  ick was a baby.  while the older kids ate, i fed isaac a bottle and watched the tv in horror.  it's something you never forget.

today we went to church and then watched various programs commemorating the tenth anniversary.  several baseball and football games were played in the new york city area and they were especially emotional.  this is the beginning of sunday night baseball between the mets and the cubs in queens.  pretty crappy thing to have to commemorate, but pretty cool memorials.

skyline & texas

isaac and sam's teams played skyline today.  sam's age group has never beaten skyline.  so we expected a tough game.  and we werent' disappointed.

in the first half, we gave up a touchdown to skyline.  6-0 skyline.  with about 40 seconds left in the first half, our super-interceptor-cornerback picked off a skyline pass and returned it 30 yards, setting us up to score a touchdown before halftime.  7-6 bountiful.  here's a picture of our super-interceptor-cornerback who has a streak now of two games with important interceptions:

and here's that cool kid running back the interception.  i can just make out "parry" on the back of his jersey.

final score:  14-6 bountiful.  sam got the coach's vote for mvp of the game and one of the dads said to keep paying him because he's worth it.

isaac's team had an easier time beating skyline.  the score was around 28-0.  i stopped counting when the referee told everyone at the game that he had heard enough out of me.  sheesh.  he was a moron.  he couldn't even count to three (number of time outs we get a half).  isaac played great at center and had some hard hits on defense.

"huddle.  huddle."  it's isaac's job to get everyone in the offensive huddle.

big #99 hiking the ball to little #9.

after our games, we went to provo to watch byu play texas.  we had a yummy dinner at our friends the murrays.  before the game, the boys swam:

unfortunately, the cougars came up one point short.  we shoulda won.

it was almost a perfect day.

disappointing loss

bountiful played viewmont this weekend at home.  it was a fairly exciting game, with bountiful winning 13-3 with about two minutes left.  it's always good to beat one of your cross-town rivals.  even though we had struggled to score 13 points and haven't played up to our potential all season, we were sorta counting our chickens. 

with two minutes left, viewmont took over, picked our defense apart and scored twice to win.  it kinda left you speechless.

jake is a major special teams stud, which is fun.  special teams isn't exactly what he was promised when coach wall "promoted" him from backer to defensive end, but we're trying to make lemonade out of lemons.  and jake seems genuinely happy.

for me, it's another year of football at bountiful that hasn't turned out like we thought it would.

crime scene

jake and his friends asked cute girls to homecoming by creating crime scenes with chalk outlines of their bodies.  cute idea and i guess this would be the obligatory way to answer.  a chalked tombstone in the driveway. 

i don't have time for this

i for sure don't have time for this:

i went to the foot doctor to have my plantar fascitis "needled", but i had no idea i would come home in a boot.  and i'm annoyed about it.  don't get me wrong, i am delighted to have the constant pain in my heel gone.  it's hurt for like three years.  i just hate the boot.  i hate it so much, i don't think i'm going to wear it until friday.  we did get a FREE MEAL (picture the workers at cafe rio yelling that) from one of my besties, so that makes it woth it.

labor day

three day weekends aren't that great if you can't leave town.  football.  another reason not to play.  we hung around here and used our "free day" to get some stuff done around here.  i had the flu that isaac so kindly gave me.  caroline went down to provo with linda and sara to visit mackynzie.  sam went golfing (of course).  isaac hung around.  jake did homework.  and craig did this:

he trimmed stuff in the yard.  a totally good use of his time and something we needed to do.  but when i went out to check on the yard, i had to remember that craig lives here too and should have a say in how much to trim trees and bushes.  i'm just not sure how i'm going to cover the leftover ground now this late in the season.  :-|

the barf artist

isaac has always been our resident barfer.  he's always been able to produce barf at an instant's notice.  and he's really good at barfing on sundays.  he couldn't have been faking it today.  he was pretty much laid out flat by a stomach bug.  in the afternoon he felt well enough to play ticket to ride with the mama.

he beat me twice and i never let people win, so i don't know what's up with that.

we got our weekly e-mail from evan.  he was able to make it to the internet cafe in the middle of a typhoon.  but i decided i'm totally over missions now.  it was fun to get him ready, find out where he'd been called, and even get a few pictures from japan, but i'm ready for him to come home now.  so over it.

view from a member's house:

this is apparently typhoon gear:

 and yes, evan was able to polish off this huge bowl of rice and meat: