This weekend on our way home from OKC, we stopped in Duncan, Oklahoma to see WE’s old stompin’ grounds. When we went by the high school I noticed a picture of their school mascot on the wall that was so creepy…

I’m totally cool with calling yourself the Duncan Demons. But couldn’t they come up with a demon head that isn’t so, well you know, demonic looking?!??

that Peppermint Lifesavers that are slightly stale are much more tasty than the just-unwrapped.

I was checking out the new BYU racquetball site and it made me REALLY miss being on the team. In fact, it’s funny because when I was on the team, I played with the assistant coach (Paul) and the head coach’s brother and sister (Brady & Tawnya). Those were the days. Besides the competition and the awesome feeling of being part of an athletic team, I also just miss the workouts and being in shape all the time.

Here’s a flash back in pictures I pulled from the old team website:

The Team:

2003 Collegiate National Champions

Men’s Team

Women’s Team

Tawnya

Paul

Paige and Laura

Oliver

Mike

Marci

Eileen

Audrey

Brady and Nat

Champions! (I didn’t have a solo pic of Karen – top left)

The Workouts:

0600-0800

Running Stairs

Running Hills

Running More Hills

Personalized Coaching – Thanks Fisher!

Morning Instruction

More Morning Instruction

Lunge Walks

Line Sprints

Ladder Drills

Court Practice

Ball Toss X-Over

So, there you have it. I’ve just decided that once WE is done with school, we are going to move back to Provo, I’ll go to grad school at the Y and you guessed it – play racquetball again! There’s no age limit for competing at Nationals, you know. You just have to be a student.

Sounds like a plan stan.

WE says that I can’t lie anymore about that fact that I can’t cook.

But let me set the record straight.

Anyone can cook (especially when you have a recipe!) but it’s the fact that this took me TWO hours to make. (And I didn’t even make the bread – I refused and made WE do it since I’ve burned it all of the last 3 times tried)

Seriously, who has time for that?!?

When it comes to music or sports, I have timing. I can work it. Three seconds in the lane. Got it. Dribble and run at the same time. Got it. Sing for three measures and rest for one beat. Got it. Jump up for the header and knock the ball down to the corner of the net. Well I used to have that – maybe not so much anymore.

But this! Getting the timing right is NOT as easy.

I’m just sayin’

Just the other day, I had a discussion with my parents about what event it is in a person’s life that takes them from young adulthood and catapults them into all out Adulthood (with a capital A).

There were many ideas thrown out there: marriage, graduation from college, moving away from home for the first time, financial independence from your childhood caregivers, first child, etc.

We had quite the intriguing conversation where each person in the room told about when it was in their lives that they felt they deserved the term ‘Adult.’ The most fascinating part was that everyone’s adult-event occured at very different ages.

The fact is that people progresses through certain stages of life at such incredibly different paces. I remember when I graduated from college, I felt slightly ashamed because many of my high school peers had already graduated almost two years prior and a lot of them were already either in the work force or at prestigious schools getting an even higher degree. In my mind it was okay becasue it wasn’t like I lolly-gagged through college or anything  – I just chose to take a break for a couple years and live in Europe for awhile. But the point is that I felt behind.

But what about all those kids in grade school that were there for eighth grade graduation but then it was like they just disappeared since I don’t ever remember seeing them again in high school. It’s fair to say that I felt ahead in that instance.

Why is it then that we tend to compare? Why do we coin terms like over-achievers and slackers? Is there even such a thing???

I say – whenever you start to feel ‘behind’ just remember that there is no such thing as ‘ahead.’ Just live everyday to its fullest in whatever position you are in!!

Besides just think how much richness and diversity can come when we don’t all ‘get there’ at the same time!

Well, I have to admit this sounds very crazy. But yes, it IS true – grade school teachers are in fact human beings. I didn’t believe it at first either. But just because I now know, don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself to know it’s true.

All it takes is one perusal of facebook and you’ll find at least one of your very own classmates (who of course is a normal human being with kids and a family and feelings and everything!) that now teaches Math at the middle school you once attended. That’s how I came to know and you can too.

Quite odd, actually, that for all those years I never really saw the human-ness behind the desk. In fact, mere memories of almost robotic-like rhetoric masked the naivety of my youth.

Seriously, ever wonder why your 8th-grade English teacher hated you so much and why she always sent you to the hall even when everyone else was acting up just like you. Maybe it’s because she was human, she could see right through your cover, and she could tell that you had been taught better. Or maybe she was actually acting in revenge because she once dated your dad and then he dumped her.

Either way, I have an entirely newly-found outlook (and respect) for the human beings that were my teachers.

Here’s an idea:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906u/romney-run-gm

I completely agree with the author that:

1) GM does not need more money and/or time! And certainly not from the government.

2) The republican party has no clue what it stands for

And to the Romney proposal…

I say “What the heck, why not?!?”

Since the government didn’t give in and didn’t stop trying to resuscitate a dead horse with MY money, then at least send in someone to allow Obama and Henderson the political buffer so that they can do whatever is necessary and forget all the political crap.

So WE and I discovered the coolest thing ever in Ryland Home history!

After a long and annoying search for a new dining room table, spanning numerous websites and multitudes of over-anxious sales people – we found the perfect solution…

(more…)

On Saturday I hugged a lady in the driveway. She was a complete stranger that had stopped to chat with me as I was working out in the yard. Well, okay…she had actually stopped to give me a pamphlet that she was evangelizing. But she was nice enough and I was fine to listen. As I have replayed the conversation in my mind, I still haven’t quite figured out why in the world I felt the urge to hug that woman. (I mean come on…the fact that I was gross/sweaty and she was nicely dressed didn’t even stop me!) Maybe a part of me saw myself in what she was doing and just instinctively assumed that she needed a hug (like I so often did!)? Maybe I got so jazzed up about the article in the pamphlet about Bulgaria that I was just wanted to hug someone because that brought back so many good memories? Maybe I’m just a freak? Seriously, who hugs the Mormon missionaries for no reason when they interrupt your life to give you something that you weren’t asking for (or at least that you don’t even yet know that you want)? No one!

But that’s not all. I actually took the pamphlet (the front page article was about abortion…an issue that I was interested in reading more about anyway) and then when she asked I said that she could come back if she really wanted. She knows I’m a Mormon so we’ll see if she actually does – but still! I’ve never been one to back down from a good discussion on religion – but then I also wonder if any good would come of this. When I was told “I’m Orthodox, go away” I always got so irritated that they didn’t even take the time to listen to know what they were bypassing. I would be upset because I couldn’t see why they didn’t get the fact that learning more about religions other that your own can only do one of two things: 1) convert you to theirs or 2) make you stronger in your own. But even if I do take the time to listen I’m sure that we’ll come to disagreements. And since at least one of the two parties will be in an evangelizing role, won’t those disagreements just bring defensiveness or awkwardness? Then what?

So here’s my question of the day: Is it even possible to have mutually beneficial inter-faith discussions? And further, if one or both of the parties involved are evangelizing, can it be done? And if so, how?

I guess that’s more than one question for the day! Good luck. I’ll expect your hand-written, 500-word responses by next Friday

Last night, WE and I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Can I just say, I LOVED it! I thought it was delightful. And not to mention completely fascinating to watch Brad Pitt age backwards. I give David Fincher major props for that (and of course the film’s no-namer-technology guru).

So…if you decide to watch the movie you’ll find Big Fish-esque storytelling, an interesting perspective on time and how we use it, a not sad but not your typical happy ending love story, and of course a beautiful tribute to mothers.

Hence my post today.

Some people give their lives to give birth. Some people sacrifice all to care for others. Some people love you no matter how different you are. Some people are always right there watching/cheering at your most triumphal moments. These people have Mother hearts.

[Benjamin learns to walk with his mother looking on]

Thank for “making a dent” in my life, Mom! ILYPTM…