No Hard Feelings

This weekend is the game.  BYU vs. Utah.  In Jeff’s family, it’s BYU all the way.  Most of my siblings and I are also rooting for my alma mater, but my sister and her husband are die-hard Utah fans.  The way I see it, BYU is sitting in a better position for this game than the Utes.  Utah is undefeated.  If, heaven forbid, BYU were to lose we can say to them, “Congrats on a perfect season.  Way to go.”  We wouldn’t ruin our at-home win streak because the game is at Utah.  And if we win?  Well, I can’t think of a better way to blow their BCS hopes.  But hey, no hard feelings.  Go Cougars!

Say What #7

I asked Savannah to call Jeff this afternoon to ask him a question.  Just as she went to dial, the phone rang.  Looking at caller ID, Savannah saw that it was Jeff.  So she answers the phone like this:  “I’m Psycho!  Uh, wait…no…I mean, I’m Psychic!”

Yeah, we’ll be laughing about that one for a while.

Say What #6

Sometimes Jeff plays Pictionary Junior with Sadie.  They don’t play it the real way.  Instead, Jeff usually tells her what to draw and she makes her best three-year-old attempt.  Some of her drawings are very cute, but my favorite part is what she calls the game.  “Daddy, will you play Pictionary Junior Mint with me?”  So cute!

A Good Night's Sleep

Jeff slept great last night.

That was to make up for the night before.

Jeff attended a conference in Louisville, KY on Saturday so Friday night he stayed in a hotel.  I won’t name any names, but it was a nice hotel.  He got in late, showered, and was anxious to get to sleep as the conference started early the next morning.  Upon pulling the covers back, he discovered body hair in the sheets.  Eeeew.  After a call to the front desk, they said they would promptly find him a new room.

New room.  Pull back the sheets.  Crumbs.

Another new room.  Pull back the sheets (this time with hotel employee still in the room).  Hair.

Exhausted, Jeff finally asked, “Do you have any clean sheets?”  Hotel Employee made a trip to the laundry room, brought up clean sheets, and he and Jeff made the bed.

Charge for the room?  $0.

Sleeping in his own bed?  Priceless.

It All Started With 2 Hot Dogs

When your 2 year old takes 2 hot dogs at dinner, holds one to his chin and pretends the other is a bow, you say, “Oh, that’s so cute.  He’s pretending to play the violin.”  When he does the same thing with 2 pencils, you say, “Hmmm, I wonder where he learned that.”  When he does it with 2 screwdrivers, you say, “I think this kid was meant to play the violin.”

Four years later, at the beginning of first grade, Sam started lessons.  While he’s a typical kid and hates to practice as much as anyone, I really think he was meant to play the violin.  He just gets it.  [As a side note, Sterling started taking lessons about 18 months ago just before he started Kindergarten.   I decided I’d take lessons right along with him.  A friend picked me up a full-sized violin at a garage sale and Sterling and I practiced together everyday.  Sterling, like Sam, just seems to get it.  He gets such a beautiful sound from his instrument and has made amazing progress in the short time he’s been taking.  Me?  I quit after 6 months.  It’s HARD!!!  It made me feel guilty for all the times I was so hard on Sam.  I had no idea how hard it is to play!  I screeched and sounded awful from the start.  I was not born to play the violin.]

Back to Sam — He’s now been playing for 6 years and recently played in 2 concerts with the University Orchestra.  There is a program here where “the exceptional Middle School and High School students” are invited to practice and perform with the University Orchestra.  It’s an amazing program and one we really appreciate, especially since there is no orchestra in the public schools in this area.  Sam has loved orchestra, has learned a lot, and has played some very hard songs -including the 1812 Overture- since he started playing with them at the beginning of the Fall ’07 school year.  Because it’s on the same night as church activities, he only participates one semester a year, but it’s an amazing opportunity.

The last concert he participated in was Fright Night where the orchestra is all dressed up in Halloween costumes and they play songs like the Theme from Harry Potter (Hedwig’s Theme) and Raider’s of the Lost Ark (those were in last year’s program) and Night on Bald Mountain and the Planets (this year).  Sam was the young King Tut this year.  Sam has had the opportunity to work with some very talented and devoted people through these experiences.

And to think it all started with a couple of hot dogs!

You know it's cold when...

…the tree in your front yard looks like this when the kids leave for school:

And like this when they get home:

Our gingko tree loses all of its leaves in one day after the first hard frost.  That day was today.  Brrrrrrrr.

Toilet Paper Service

Our church building is located between several beautiful homes in Mattoon.  The house immediately next door to the church, and the one we pass in front of each week before turning into the parking lot, was toilet papered last night.  The teenagers responsible did a thorough job and the homeowner was out front attempting to clean up the mess.  As we drove past, I thought, “We should be helping him!”  I mentioned it to Jeff, but I’m not sure he took me seriously since church was starting in 5 minutes.  I couldn’t shake the feeling so I said, “I’m going to help.”  Without another thought, I headed across his yard and was followed by 6 kids and Jeff.  I told the man, “You look like you could use some help!”  We proceeded to help him clean up his yard.  There were little bits of toilet paper that had been torn and scattered all over the sizeable yard.  It wasn’t a hard job, but would have taken quite a while if he’d had to do it alone.  It turns out he has a daughter who is a junior in High School and he said this toilet papering job was probably done in retaliation.  :)  Jeff asked him if this was the first time he’d ever been toilet papered.  He said, “I think this is the first time this year.”  Ha!  We managed to get everything up off the ground and a lot of it out of the trees, except for what we couldn’t reach.  We were there all of 10 minutes and walked into Sacrament meeting during the opening hymn.  I just felt so happy the whole time.  I was so glad the kids were helping.  I mean, isn’t that what we should be doing?  How many times have I thought, “That person looks like they could use some help,” and then continued on my way doing nothing for them?  Sure, it’s important to be at church, but if we aren’t living what we learn there, what’s the point?  We were able to do both today and it was a great experience.