Friday Night Play-doh

On Friday night, Kristin and I had Patten's friends Henry and Aggie over while their parents, Scott and Mieka, went on a date. We had a great time. Henry brought his super-cool helicopter to play with. Patten loved the 'copter.




In addition to the 'copter, we spent the evening playing with Play-doh. All of the kids were naturals - they made Play-doh fingers, balls, crocodiles, cows, and stars.

Kristin was the Play-doh queen. She helped the kids for an hour and a half, and made sure they got good and dirty.

Finally, a shout out to Patten's aunt Becca. She loves the U. Especially more than the Y. :)

What makes pancakes green?

This is what we had for dinner tonight - let's hear your guesses as to how the "cakes" became so green.

By the way, it was Kristin's idea, and it was delicious.

Haiti

From my sister-in-law's blog (written by my brother):

"Becca wrote beautifully yesterday about the terrible devastation in Haiti. As news reports have come to the states and been sent around the world, we've been inundated with photos like the one Becca showed yesterday as well as terrible stories of buildings lying in rubble, people trapped under the debris, and desperate relatives trying with their bare hands to move boulders and buildings to try to free those who voices they hear from under the destruction.Estimates are that tens of thousands may have died and, for those still alive, houses have disappeared and many of the hospitals are also in ruins. Luckily, there is a hospital on the outskirts of town, called "Hospital Albert Schweitzer" that is up and fully and functioning. And here's the best part: the Stanford medicine department (which is affiliated with this hospital and had lent support to it through the years) has agreed to match all donations to the hospital, up to $25,000.

"So, if you have been thinking You know, I would really love to help out somehow, or if you were touched by that photo yesterday, or if you've been touched by a story you've heard, or if you find an extra five dollars under the couch, or if you just decide you can squeeze an extra few bucks from the budget this month, please do the following:1) Go to this site (you can donate by MasterCard, American Express, Visa and Discover).2) After submitting credit card information, please click on “tribute gift.”3) Then, enter "Stanford Department of Medicine" (where it asks for matching organization) so the gift will be matched appropriately.Then, rest a little better tonight knowing that you have helped the people in Haiti just that little bit and that the money you gave was doubled. If you have a second, maybe even enter a little note here (it can be anonymous, of course) to let us know you gave.God bless.

"Back to Becca: You can also donate through LDS Humanitarian Efforts by going to this site, though I don't know of a matching pledge."

Kristin and I echo their thoughts.

Running to Victory

Bourne Ultimatum, the Natural, Sirus Marner (sp??)....

Don't call it a comeback - we've been here for years.

Missy's Wedding

Go here for pictures....

http://www.annazphotography.blogspot.com/

After 4.5 Long Years

Growing up, pretty much all I did was play basketball. Andrew Hill and I played dunkball on my driveway for hours on end. We played in the rain, the snow, before school, after school, etc. In addition to dunkball, Ty and I played ball up at the Roosevelt building. We routinely woke up at 6 am on Saturday mornings (even during the sleep-in years of highschool) to go play ball. For whatever reason, basketball never got old for me.

Then, in some strange twist of fate, during my senior year of highschool I dislocated my right shoulder. While dislocating a shoulder hurts like hades, the most painful part for me was that it kept me from playing basketball. The dislocations continued and eventually, 4 months before I left on my mission, I had rotator cuff surgery (plus a little more) on my right shoulder. I stayed away from the game for the first year of my mission. With time, however, I allowed my cravings to get the best of me and played on New Year's Day of 2003. Shortly after that I dislocated my left shoulder and continued to do so until finally in the fall of 2005 I had shoulder surgery on my left shoulder.

Considering that Kristin and I have been poor starving college students our entire 4 years of marriage (and the fact one surgery runs $6,000), I have stayed conservative and not played basketball. At all.

Until, that is, Christmas Eve of this year. The past few months I've lifted weights to strengthen my shoulders and on the 22nd of December Scott Jacobsen invited me to play basketball on Xmas Eve. I jokingly told him I'd come - to which he replied with a version of "stop getting my hopes up" (Scott has endured 4.5 long years of asking me to play and always receiving a negative response).

Kris and I got talking about the offer and came to the conclusion that the weight lifting combined with some reserved play on my part might make me basketball eligible. I mean, you can't allow a shoulder injury to hold you down forever, right? So, I played. And it was a blast. Sure, there's a bunch of rust from the 4.5 year layoff - but it was still a blast. Scott was so surprised by my appearance that he snapped an Iphone photo for proof:


Let's hope the shoulders hold together. Kristin gave me the best Xmas present of the year by pushing me out the door on Xmas Eve. If it weren't for her, I'd still be waiting to step out on the court. Thanks, Kris.

BCS

Thank you, Eric Boyd, for showing me this wonderful piece of literature.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-ncaafplayoff120709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Kind of long, but worth the read.