Where have I been?

This must have been quite a week for everyone. Just a quick sports update... Arizona made quite possibly the DUMBEST play EVER to get knocked out of the NCAA tourney... You're down by one with 10 seconds... DRIVE IT TO THE FREAKIN HOOP!!!! Anyway, as for our intramural sports, we're out of the soccer tourney, and we're still undefeated in basketball... tonight was a close one. Jacob's cousin almost pulled an Arizona move that put us in OT.... good thing we pulled it off.
I bought my tix to fly out to NY today!!! I'm SO excited!! I ended up buying tickets on the same flight out as Bret, and the same one back as well.... I'll be flying into AZ on Jul 15th and spend some time with Bret before we fly out on the 19th.
Anyway... I don't know why my brain is so fried, but it is... so that's all I'll say for now.

Good Friday

Why do they call today Good Friday? Wouldn't "Bad Friday" or "Sad Friday" seem more appropriate? I know God would eventually be resurrected on Sunday, but they killed Him on Friday. Seems a little strange.

I have found the key to bliss in the March Madness. If I pick Duke to actually go to the Final Four - they LOSE! Why have I not noticed this before. You see, when I pick them to lose, they win. It is all starting to make sense to me.

This week, like most lately, seems to have passed so quickly with little to no spare time. I look forward to this weekend to chill with the fam and have fun. Tevia and I are going on a date tomorrow - and I can't wait. I'm not sure when the last time we went to dinner alone. I am looking forward to Easter because I have it on good word that the Easter Bunny is bringing the Star Wars Clone Wars DVD.

I find it funny the little things that bring so much excitement to my life: my Sole Collector magazines, the Eastbay catalog, anything Star Wars, sushi, and basketball. I could live a life full of fun and contentment with just a few of these things. The best thing? Most of these cost little to no money! The next few months will be great. Star Wars in May! Harry Potter in July! 2005 should be fun. If I were my brother, I'd delay my wedding until the opening day of Star Wars. Or maybe the day before and then after the reception we could all go to the midnight showing. It could be our bachelor party! We Mormons kinda get parafusado (Portuguese - google it!) on the whole bachelor party thing. Why should we? Instead of strippers, let's just play some ball, watch some movies, and do a scripture search. :-)

cursed

did one of you put a 'breaking curse' on us? let's see, we have 2 broken cars, a broken computer, Tom's headphones broke last night, an ethernet wire broke while we were unplugging it yesterday, our dryer door keeps popping open, and when I go down the laundry is still soaking wet, the frig isn't keeping the food cold enough, the front water spout froze and spouted water all over the front deck, and is now turned off till dad can fix it, my van makes a terrible noise, ( that is in addition to the cracked bumper and dents), Kathy can't find her glasses, and our hot water heater now doesn't let more than 2 people shower without the water getting cold. all in the last few weeks. poor dad, my fix it man. glad I have him! I guess after I complained to my fix it man that everything was breaking, I felt badly immediately, and repented, and took Bret's usual point of view: I have a hundred or more things that do work, so I should be thankful. especially for a husband who is working and works good! :)

Strange homework...

Well,
Cari and I had strange homeowrk this week from our Marriage family relations class. It was to run by our parents that we were considereing a very early baby and then observe their reactions. This was some how supposed to prepare us for the supposedly difficult parental pressure that can follow marriage. While I will not give the details from either consversation(or who they were), I will say Cari and I both predicted a different response than given. So, in conclusion, be careful when you are given strange homework! What would the rest of you have said?
~The Sore March Madness Loser

St. Patrick's Day

I can tell I have been busy because I haven't written anything in a while. Funny how busy life can get even when nothing really is going on. I am home alone as Tevia and the boys went up to Lakeside. I just got back from our Stake basketball tournament. Surprise: we lost. Actually, we should have won. We started out great as I hit my first few shots to put us up. We stayed ahead the whole game until the final 5 minutes (I was on the bench at this point). They finally had me go back in with 1 minute left (I don't mean to seem cocky, but I was on this game. I think I hit 6 three-pointers and only missed like one shot. They should have kept me in). But in the last minute, I didn't even get to touch the ball. We turned it over three times and lost by five.

March Madness has started. We'll see how well I do in our family/friends pool. I don't think I've ever won a bracket pool in my life, so chances are slim. The good news is that this year neither of my teams are in (St. John's/BYU), so I don't have the usual problem of picking the teams I want to win and not the teams that will win.

I'm not sure what else has even happened this week. It just seems like it is almost over and I had no time to do anything. Oh yeah, I was called to be the "assistant Blazer Scout leader" - at least I think so. The counselor wasn't quite sure. We'll see what I'm set apart for on Sunday. So I'll be spending Wednesday nights with 11 year old boys. I should fit in well.

I still haven't cut my hair - I think it has been four months. It is LONG. My mom would love it. I change it up. Some days it is messy and curly like Seth Cohen's on the OC. Other days I slick it back. It is funny the reactions. Some people absolutely love it messy/curly. Others love it slicked back. And usually people only like it the one way. I'm sure it won't last much longer, as it will start to get warm soon. But it has been a fun experiment, though Tevia has only braided it a couple of times. I would say it is a good 4 inches long on top. We'll see how long this experiment lasts. It will probably last until the week before I head out to NY in the summer. :-)

Of life and leisure

I agree with Tevs... So sad to hear when others can't find anything worthwhile in life... and that sadness is only amplified when the ones you love are the ones complaining of misery in life. I know so many people right now that view life from both perspectives. There are those who seem to be able to find something (at least) good in everything and those that make sure to point out the bad in everything. I think I was once a pessimist myself. Very cynical and negative. However, I've been learning lately that either I have changed my disposition, or everyone else has just become more pessimistic than me. My friends and coworkers have expressed to me that I am so positive. Sure I have my off days, usually when I haven't eaten, but other than that, I do consider myself a fairly content and happy person. I guess it comes down to HOW you look at your situation rather than WHAT your situation is. Also, it doesn't hurt to have an escape, (or as my therapist put it, coping mechanism)... (the difference being how what you do affects other people). Anyway... mine are sports, dates, music, making meals for my roommates or friends, and my personal favorite... CLEANING!!!
But Tevs is right, finding good in life is something that comes from within. I think that for so much of my life I was SO unhappy because I kept expecting my happiness to be found in, or determined by, other people. And although I don't let the lack of one consume me with unhappiness in the present, I look forward to finding more happiness in an eternal companion someday... and don't worry Tevs, I will.... I'm working on it. :)

Wicked and Happiness

So I finished the book Wicked. I ended up really liking it and it gave me a lot to think about. I also went to the library and checked out the movie The Wizard of Oz, just to watch it and see that side of it. (I plan on reading the book too) My sister was over last night and she had read it about six months ago and so we talked a little about it. She was very negative towards it and didn't really have a lot of nice things to say about it. She had got from the book that it just brings out all of the bad, negative aspects of humanity and society, and that it was totally a liberal book telling everyone that is conservative that their beliefs and morals are dumb. She read into it so many things that I just didn't see. She is currently really hating our society and life in general, which made me very sad because she thinks that everything in this life is horrible. She is depressed and says there is no point to life because everyone is bad and everything will just continue to get worse. I was a little concerned to hear her say this, because I find so much joy and happiness and goodness in this life, partly because I know the joy of eternal life and families, partly because there is still so much good and happiness in this life. She makes me sad because I feel like no matter what she does, she will not be happy because she doesn't choose to find the things that bring true joy. I love her, and feel sorry for her. I tell her what I believe makes us happy, but she will ultimatley have to find it and make it part of her life. Why is it that even when people have the plan of happiness, the joys of going to the temple, family and light and truth, someone can still not see the big picture? How sad and how discouraging. I am glad that I am basically a happy person, and I can find happiness where ever I am. Life is Beautiful.

fendeer benders

well, I had the nicest looking car in the family. after Kathy managed to dent in and scratch the one back end, we decided not to get it fixed. last night, we had the sister missionaries, the elders, and a family of 5 all over for salad and pizza so they would have a place to do the interviews for this sunday's baptisms. somehow the elders, even though there is a rule that they can't back up without the other missionary being out of the car and backing them up, still managed to hit the other side of my car. I haven't seen it yet, and it is 6:35 am and I let Kathy take it, so I won't see it till later. dad said the bumper is messed up in 3 places. we hate to turn them in, cause won't they take away their driving priveleges? poor elders. I was already up in bed reading, but dad said they looked like young, forlorn teenagers and all their brightness was out of them when they came and knocked on the door and told us. lucky for me I don't really care all that much what cars look like. and..... dad didn't get mad. he just actually felt bad for the missionaries.

Running Ragged

I know that it is just part of life, but this week has been super busy. It seems that the older my kids get, the more places I have to be and the earlier I have to get up! I honestly don't know how mother's with more children and less space between them do it! Maybe you just learn to adapt and become an atomoton for the next 18-25 years!!!! In any case, I have a great respect for women who can do that. Today is the first day all week that I don't have anything on my calendar. No running to downtown phoenix, no running to PT, no meetings(lucky me!) Nothing except getting Jarek to school. I think I will work outside today as the weather is so beautiful. Malik will like playing in the dirt.

Back to the point, I am glad that I am busy and have the life I have. It would be far less rewarding to me if all I had to do was get up and go to a dull job every day. At least my children give me the satisfaction of creating, building and nurturing. I am grateful to be a mother even if I do get a little ragged by the end of the week.

The Zoo, Culture Change and Meetings

This past Monday I took a volunteer day from work and went on a field trip with Jarek's class to the zoo (not the Phoenix Zoo, but the Wildlife Zoo out by Luke AFB). We had to be at the school by 7:40 in order to get on the bus by 8:45 or so. The adults were given a few students to be in charge of. My group consisted of Jarek, Brennan, and Michael. We got on the bus and took the 45 minute drive out to LA (or so it seemed).

In case you have forgotten, or maybe have never had the experience, school buses are not very comfortable. I sat by Brennan, one of the boys in Jarek's class that has some issues. I mean, this is the kid that actually got Jarek so upset that he bit him! Another day when I took Jarek to school, this was the boy that arrived, threw his backpack on the ground and burst into tears. I felt bad for him, so was happy to have him sit by me and talk endlessly in my ear. In the row across from us were two Vietnamese girls: Julie and Selena. They told me they were sisters, but since they both had different family names, I suspected otherwise. I was right; they are cousins. They were fun to talk to as I asked them how to count in Vietnamese and they were willing to have full conversations with me in their language even though I understood little but smiled and nodded.

One of the coolest things about the bus ride was passing Luke AFB and seeing all of the F16s take off and land. They would fly right over our bus just a few hundred feet above us. It was cool. At the zoo we were given a whole hour to take our kids through the zoo before meeting back for lunch. I let the boyz decide where to go. We saw the jaguars (Jarek and my favorite), the baby white tigers (would have been Kathy's favorite), penguins, etc. I let the boyz ride on the carrousel and offered to give them a riverboat ride - but Michael was afraid.

We had a lot of fun and it was a great opportunity to take a free day off of work and spend time with Jarek and see him interact with his peers. On the bus ride home, the Vietnamese girls decided to hang all over Jarek and I. Jarek didn't really like the attention, which was fine since he is only 5. I would have enjoyed it more had they been 20 years older and not nearly as annoying. But it was fun.

Last week I was "chosen" to be part of a new culture initiative in our company. The president of our company called me and wanted me to be involved due to my leadership and influence in the company. 12 of us were chosen - coincidence? - and were forced to meet today for 6 hours to discuss our corporate culture. I had to get out of a few other meetings, but in the end I am excited about this. I truly believe we need a culture shift and am happy to provide my two cents and be a part of the solution.

But this is a perfect example of how people try to take too much of my time with meetings. I bet this week I spent 75% of my days in meetings and the rest at my desk or at my team. I can not stand meetings, and most are completely inefficient and a waste of time. Tomorrow I only have 2 for two hours and it feels like a vacation already. I need the time at my desk to do my work and help my team. I feel like I have abandoned my team this week, and I can sense they feel the same way. Hopefully things will calm down, but I have a feeling that this is pattern that will continue throughout my career. I think most managers just like meetings. I guess they must have nothing else to do, so they justify their time and money by sitting in meetings.

I guess we have seen the survivors of the blog. Congrats mom, Jake Webb, and Tevia for hanging in there. That is more than I thought would last. I honestly thought it would just be me and my mom (love you mom!).

Just a post

It's been a while since I've been able to get online and even look at these. Bret, you scoring machine you! I wish I could play more often. Even though I'm on an intramural team, we only get to play once every other week. The regular season was at least off set by me having a coed soccer game on alternating weeks from basketball, so I had at least something going on pretty much every week. Jacob knows what I'm talking about... we're on the same team for both sports. Our soccer team got ranked in the 2nd division. I really don't think we're that good, so we may not last long in the tournament... we'll see. Our basketball team got put in the 3rd division and I feel a little better about that. We're really not that great as a team even though we have some good skill as individual players... I think as a team we've been improving, so maybe we'll get somewhere in the tourney... maybe even get a T-shirt out of it, I hope.... If not... I have at least been getting one dunk, (sometimes more) per game. To me, that just makes my week... expecially when I dunk over someone!
Anyway... Sorry to hear about Kathy's accident, but I'm glad to hear she's still alive. :) I can't help but laugh thinking about what she must have looked like preparing for death that day. (as sad as that may have been for her at the time, I hope she can laugh about it someday too).
I can't believe little Malik is off to school already!! I feel like such a shmuck sometimes. Here my nefews are growing up without any cousins, and it feels like it's my fault... although I really think I'm doing all I can to remmedy that. I'm currently interested in my roommates' cousin... We'll see what comes of that. She was born in Utah, but grew up in Memphis... so she meets my new prerequisit of not being from west of the Rockies. Dumb rule I know, but I haven't had any luck with west coast girls thus far. Plus she has really cool relatives! (my roommates)... that's always a plus, good in-laws.
Anyway... That's Provo for me in a nut shell. Hope each of you are having a great day!

Malik goes to school

Well Malik is growing up. He started his first day of preschool today. He was very excited and walked right into the classroom without even turning back once. It feels a little strange not having him here with Jarek and I in the morning, but I am sure he is having a wonderful time. I am glad that he gets to go to preschool and make some new frineds. Next school year it will be even stranger as both Jarek and Malik will be gone in the morning! Maybe I will start writing that book I have been thinking about!

kathy's fender bender

Kathy had another little backing up accident yesterday,. she managed to hit my car with her vn as she was leaving for school at 6:30 am. she blames it on not feeling well, but I think she was starting to get overconfident in her driving skills and starting to back out of the driveway in the morning like a crazy woman. both vehicles are damaged, she swung around and hit my back fender with her front wheel area. dad was fuming all day, but he never did yell at her. wow! he did give her hours of worrying and fright, the whole 'daddy's going to kill Kathy' thing went on all day. she came home from school, ( I had made her go after she hit the car), feeling nauseous and crying within an hour after getting there. she laid around all day in a daze. she sat at dinner waiting for the kill. he finally just said, " did you learn something from this?" we haven't decided how to fix it yet. we probably won't go thru insurance, but we can't leave them like they are. they are home today, as it is a major snowstorm,. the weather messed up a bit, and said rain till noon, then turn to snow gradually as the cold front came in. I went shopping at 9 am, to 3 stores, to get home by 11 and beat the snow. I didn't. it was already 2" by then. the schools were late getting their elementary kids home. ours got home at noon. it was a nice treat for them, as they are really busy with science fair, work, and tennis. tennis was cancelled, Kathy's not driving in to work, and we can all relax tonight.
and by the way, the family of 4 girls and their mom from the D. Republic that we have been driving to church from Beacon and having over, etc. are all getting baptized in 2 weeks! cool! the 15 year old girl adores Kathy, and loves to be with her. they had her over for dinner on sunday. they made a huge fuss over her. kiss the boys for me, mom

Basketball - the comeback

As I have mentioned on this blog before, my ward basketball has been an interesting experience. This week they wanted to practice on Wednesday - the same night that I play out in Scottsdale, and have for years. I told them I would commit to come if they promised me they would have 10 players since I want to play full court if I am going to sacrifice the good ball in the East Valley. Well, I flew in from Pittsburgh Wednesday night and after seeing that my family was in good order and the kids were in bed, I immediately went up to the church. There were 5 players. So when I arrived we had six. Needless to say we played half court. I was disappointed but played. It was funny, since our team weekness is defense I was able to basically score at will. They kept saying, "why don't you play like this in our games?" I didn't want to say because people actually play defense on me in games!

Well, last night we had another game. Lo and behold, we only had five players show up! This was great news to me, since I knew I would be able to play the whole game. The other good news was that the rest of the team had practiced on Wednesday and so basically they gave me the greenlight to shoot whenever I wanted to. And...can you believe it? We won. I scored like 30 points and we won by 10. It was a lot of fun. I guess the 15 players didn't really help us much in the previous games. Now we'll see if we can keep that number down.

I brought Jarek with me to the game. He plays with the other kids and really enjoys himself. Of course, he doesn't watch me play, but that is okay. On the way home he told me he really likes spending time with me. It was cute.

Jarek's little ER visit

Sorry I haven't blogged more, but I have been a little busy with kids! Sorry for not telling everyone Jarek was almost appendectimized, but the following day Malik was not feeling so well and just wanted me to hold him all day. Which he rarely does. That is how I know he isn't feeling too hot! Basically, Jarek had all the classic symptoms of Appendicitis(sp?) and both my dad and his doctor's office said I should take him in. We were there for about five hours and he had to have an IV, blood work and CAT scan. Needless to say, we were glad to find out it wasn't anything serious. He was a little trooper and I was so grateful for my friend Kathy who came and rescued Malik from and afternoon of complete boredom!! She is a great friend. All in all, we are starting to get back to normal life. I admit, I am not quite so eloquent, or complimentary as bret, but I say what I need to and that is that. Oh, when bret called from the airplane the first thing that crossed my mind was "oh great, his plane is getting hijacked or crashing because why else in the world would he call from the plane". Goes to show how paranoid I am. But I am glad he called and it made me feel good knowing that he was willing to fork out the bucks to make sure his child was well. He is a wonderful guy. That is all for now. Except, I want to hear how the IKEA trip went.

Pittsburgh and the scare

Well life has been pretty crazy lately. Especially work life. Last week was our company meeting, so I was rarely in the office and rarely at home. This week I was asked to go Pittsburgh, PA to visit a potential client - Heinz (yes, the ketchup company). I flew in Tuesday night. I arrived around 10:30 PM and took a taxi to the hotel. I stayed at the Westin Conference Center Hotel, which was quite nice. Since I arrived so late, there were no restaurants open and I could not justify the exorbitant prices for room service. All I had eaten for dinner was peanuts. It took a few hours to fall asleep, as I was still on PHX time. I woke up a few hours later to get ready for our 7 AM meeting.

The Heinz office was very nice - on the 59th floor of the USX (US Steel) building. I would have to say that I was pretty impressed with Pittsburgh. It may be that the 6 inches of snow on the ground made it look much more romantic or clean, but it seemed a great city with a neat mixture of new and old buildings. The meetings went well. It was interrupted by a fantastic lunch where I indulged in Sea Scallops with rice and corn. After telling them about our services and answering any lingering questions they had, I headed back to the airport with the two other Pru people: Mike Cahill and Kathy Morris.

Anxious to get back to PHX, I called work to see how things were going in the office only to get a call from Tevia. I called her back to find out she was calling from the Emergency Room. My heart jumped as she told me she had taken Jarek in since he was showing all the signs of appendicitis. They were getting ready to take blood tests and do a CAT scan. I was comforted to know that my child was in the competent hands of my beautiful wife. I said some prayers and hoped for the best. As I was in the sky, I knew the flight would be long (4 hours), so I decided to use the Sky Phone. I have never called anyone from the air before, and it was kinda cool to be able to call Tevia from 30,000 feet. I figure if the charges were ridiculous I could just charge them to Prudential - but I also felt any knowledge of my child was worth the price, no matter how high.

In the end the doctors sent Jarek home with his appendix. It was not appendicitis. Tevia told me a few hours later Jarek said he was feeling fine - and the whole family was there to pick me up by the time I landed in PHX. I was glad to be home with a healthy family and be close to them again.

As I flew and thought of Jarek possibly undergoing surgery, I thought about what a wonderful world we live in. I am currently reading the book "Year of Wonder" about the Plague - and could not help but draw parallels to a parent suffering while watching their child sick. We live in a world where so much can be done to stop pain and suffering. A world I can fly home from across the country in a few hours to be close. A world where God has given me a family, a home, health, and a great job. A world where I can feel the despair of a fragile child - and thus the joy of a healthy one. I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me.

journal worthy

ok, why do all my blogs have 'edit' next to them? and do all the subjects for the blogs have to be Bret's 'journal worthy'? :) Bret, I wish I could have chatted with you from Pittsburg. if anyone cares, we got 11" yesterdy, a fun, pretty snow day. Daisy loves the snow, and leaps though it like a rabbit.