Tennis playing and Tennis kinda-watching

We have decided to get Carter playing tennis and to see if he enjoys it. I grew up playing tennis and I started about this age so we wanted to get him going. He goes to the SportsMall and gets lessons once a week and he is loving it. He is always asking to go and he has had a lot of fun. He gets to hit the ball and run around with his cousin Necie and have a great time. So far so good. I guess though we should expect him to like it...he gets to run around with a racket and smack a tennis ball around with his best buddy and some nice women coaches. He is pretty pleased.




We went up to the University of Utah and watched the Utah tennis team play Utah State and it was a lot of fun. The kids watched for a while and then they sat down and played their DS games. Every few points though, the crowd would get a bit excited and yell out 'Go Utes' or something...Carter, while still playing would stand up, pump a fist in the air and yell, 'Go Utah.'

Only three easy payments of $29.95 if you order in the next 20 minutes

I have a love hate relationship with those stinkin' infomercials. They are all completely ridiculous but the minute they come on to the television, I become like a freakin' zombie. I sit back and I just watch and watch. With that said, we don't buy anything. Except for once. Yes, I bought something off of an infomercial. How bad is that? I bought the Miracle Blade Knives. And fwiw, we are still using those knives and they are still sharp and terrific. Now, I just have to figure out which of these following products are too good to pass up.

This looks soooo comfortable. When they came up with the name for this product, I imagine 5 guys sitting around in a boardroom, smoking cigars and trying to decide what to call it. 'So, how about Tiddy Bear?' Laughs all around. 'No way, that would never fly, well, wait, yeah, lets go for it.' Now, I have very little to add to this that won't get me in trouble. Meet the Tiddy Bear.



Yes, you too can own a commerative plate of Obama being named president. You can sit around a table with your all white friends and have a toast to this commerative plate. I love the kids around the coffee table staring at the Obama plate. You know that President Obama probably thinks its creepy as well. The saddest thing about it? They limit it to only 2 orders per caller. WHAAATTTTTT? I can't order 20 of those frakkin' awesome plates?



I have shown this video in the past...but the Hawaiin chair is about as good as it gets. I love them at the office using this chair like it is all totally normal. Nothing says professional in an office environment than doing the hula in a chair. "Yes, Steve, wait, let me turn up my Hawaiin chair to the fasting moving position...ok, that feels good, my abs are totally feeling it. Anyway, the reason that I brought you into my office is, well, you are fired. Thanks for working for us. Wow, Steve, my abs are really getting a great workout. Anyway, have your desk cleaned out by noon."





Who wouldn't buy this? You listen to this guy and I am ready to buy whatever this guy sells. He brings the energy, the smooth-ness and the 'you are an idiot if you don't buy this' attitude. Fabulous.



These are just some of the classics. I will have to post another day on some of the infomercials on ab workouts and other fitness ones. Just remember, if you wake up at 2am, there is most likely several fabulous infomercials on the tube. Sit back, enjoy and have your credit card ready.

Little boys and Legendary battles

What is it with lightsabers, you ask? Well, I will tell you. They are awesome.


Carter and Beckham will have daily battles with theirs...whether it is in the house or in the car with their seatbelts while still battling it out as we drive around town.






Their battles now join the epic lightsaber duels of Yoda and Dookue...and of the the ninja lightsaber squirrels. Don't tell any of them, but I think Carter could take them.

It is my birthday

It is totally my birthday today. It has been a nonstop party with singing, dancing, eating, clubbing, rockin', driving and other 'ings!

For some reason, some of your birthday gifts have not come yet...so if you need my address to send me gifts, let me know and I can email you our home address. Thanks and I can't wait to see what you all got me.

A new direction

Next week is inauguration. Very cool. I am excited to get in someone different and go after different things. Our country needs something different...we need a change of pace. It will be an interesting few years to see what Obama can do.

Now, with that said, I was curious to see what George W. would be up to and I found this sorta farewell from him:


Now I am excited to see how Obama and his administration do...but I also realize that nothing is a quick fix and Government has a ways of screwing things up sometimes.

Anyway, here is to a great future 4 years with Obama. I really believe we are going to see some good things happening. It is going to be Obamarific!

Nope, not for me

Now, I have no problem with men trying to look fabulous. Whether its stylish jeans, hip hair styles, or whatever. I have tried to convince Brodi for years that I am a metrosexual but my 10 year old clothes and crummy hair say otherwise. But, I am working on it.

Now, with all that said...I can't convince myself to take the big metrosexy step--that step is wearing pantyhose, or should we say, MANtyhose. I guess its the current big thing now. Yes, guys are now wearing it so that they look slimmer and I don't know, more comfortable? I have to say, I won't be making that move. I don't care how buff or handsome you are as a male, these tights/pantyhose are not a flattering look on a dude.




I will say though, I would not be adverse to wearing a good girdle. Bring that stomach in a bit. Yep, a good girdle, or should I say man-rdle.

Snow, Fire and the Death of a Car

Story time: So, it was the winter of my first year of college. We had a Christmas time fraternity dance. A friend of mine, Matt, said that he would drive his date and me and my date up to the dance. It was up in Park City. And it was the middle of December.

We started driving up the canyon and it was a pretty good snowstorm going on. Matt had his parents' Subaru Outback. OK, here is when the story gets a bit interesting...we are about .5 miles away from reaching the summit and we hear a snap (Like a rope snapping). Matt lets out a sigh and says, "I think my fanbelt just broke." He then proceeds to decelerate. He just wants to get to the summit and coast down and we can call some friends to pick us up. Well, right when we get to the summit, flames start curling up and around the hood. Yeah, we started freaking out.

We jumped out of the car and pushed the ladies to safety (that was the gentlemanly thing to do) and then we popped open the trunk and grabbed our bags out of it. All during this time, the flames are all over the front of the car. A lot of things go thru your mind when your car is on fire...first and foremost, you are thinking it is going to BLOW UP! I kept picturing the car going kaboom and the four of us being thrown a hundred yards away and falling into a snowbank. Alas, the car did not blow up. But we wandered away from the car in the frakkin' blizzard as we tried to decide if we would walk down to the Gas Station.

But a car quickly pulled up next to us and a lady screamed for us to jump in the car. We climbed in and she drove us to the gas station just off the exit ramp. I still remember Matt's phone call to his parents though and though I am paraphrasing, it was very close to this:
Matt: Hey Mom, how are you?
pause
Matt: Yeah, we are having fun, but we had a little problem.
Pause
Matt: Your car is at the summit and it is on fire but we are OK and we are going to go to the dance now. Sorry.
Pause
Matt: Yeah, its just on fire.
Pause
Matt: Maybe we can go up there tomorrow and pick it up.
Pause
Matt: OK, love you too. See you when I get home.

Seriously, that was the conversation. It was like he was talking about the weather. His car was on FRAKKIN' fire!

So, we called our friends to come and pick us up and they did and took us to the dance. At the dance, other people kept talking about the car that was on fire at the top of the summit. Uh, yeah, thats Matt's car. All I know is, the girls were very impressed...its not every day that they get to go to a dance, see a car burned down and walk around in a blizzard just outside of Park City. We enjoyed the dance and the next day Matt went up and looked at their car which was now a burned out shell and had it towed.

Moral of the story--if you ever have a fanbelt snap, it is probably best to just pull over immediately. And, if you happen to wait too long and your car is engulfed in flames, take it easy, smile and laugh it off.

Eating too much food all of the time can cause you to gain weight? True or False?

BYU recently came out with a fascinating study on gaining weight: The result? If you do not show restraint when eating food, you will gain weight. Yes, you read that correctly. If you do not show restraint when eating food, you will gain weight.

And if you didn't know what restraint was, they tell you: Restrained eating is choosing not to eat as much as you'd like. And then more explanation, 'You need to restrain from unhealthy foods, from high caolorie food. If you don't, you will gain weight.'

Shocking. So, now I can remember this study when I go out to eat and I order a triple cheeseburger, supersized fries with cheese all over it that I am not showing enough restraint and that I will probably gain weight. Before reading that study, I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why I was gaining weight. Now I know.

I have also heard that there is a ground breaking study on how if you do not exercise then you will be out of shape.

Here is the genius study
As sidenote--before anyone ever does a study like this again, will you please contact me and let me know because I would do a study like this for HALF of what others are charging and I would come up with the same conclusion...simply by using common sense.

Troublemaker Beckham turns 3

Beckham. He is our crazy little funny independent boy. Every day goes by with us laughing with him, laughing at his crazy little stunts, pulling our hair out as he hits his crazy 2 and 3 year old stages.







He has had his health issues. While Carter has had broken bones and stitches, Beckham has had health problems. Just three weeks old, he was struggling with his breathing and he came down with RSV and was hospitalized for over 10 days. Nothing worse than seeing your tiny little guy with tubes all over his body.





He hit a point where he wasn't eating, he was always itching himself and he was just looking like a pale sickly boy when he was around 2 years old. After some doctors visit, we figured him out--He has a severe peanut allergy and really dry skin. So, we opened up our own little pharmacy and he is doing great now.




He is a pretty picky eater...unless it is chicken nuggets, spaghetti, chicken noodle soup, cake, bread, graham crackers, cheesey goldfish and Chex cereal . He can eat those things at anytime anywhere. One bonus is that he is not really a candy eater. He doesn't have much interest in it...like I said, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is a great eater, but he doesn't eat candy.






He is a rascal. If you gave him 3 things in life, he would be happy for hours--blankets so he can climb inside and roll around and play in them for hours...and dvds which he loves to throw off the top of the staircase, flip them around like little frisbees and put them face down on the wood floor and push them along...and a bucket full of tennis balls for him to throw around and chase.






He is a great kid because he is our independent soul. He wants to do things his own way on his own schedule. We could fight him for 30 minutes and try to force him to put on his pants or we can show him his pants and have him walk away and then 5 minutes later he will come back and put them on himself. He won't put on his socks and shoes until we are walking out the door and he asks for help before then, it will be war! He loves being tickled. Kisses on the neck or rolling around on the ground, well, he could do that for hours. And he expects you to be able to do it for hours.


He loves his brother Carter. He teases him and he drives him crazy, but the two dig each other and get bored quickly if the other one is not around.

Happy Birthday Beckham. You are our awesome little boy.

Random holiday stuff

We had a fabulous New Years Eve party at my sisters house where we eat food, we watch our nieces and nephews showing off their skills in a talent show and then we watch a real bad mormon cheesy movie. Mission Accomplished and it was a great time as usual.


So, I got a call from my buddy Brandon two weeks ago asking me to play in an open doubles Tennis tournament. I said yes simply because Brandon is a great player and I thought he would be able to carry me to glory. Well, we played in it and we won the tourney! We had some tough matches and we won the finals 6-4, 7-5. The biggest disappointment was not getting a Championship belt like they give in wrestling. I was wanting to wear one to work and around the house. I have put the trophy we won on display above our fireplace if any of you are wanting to come by and touch it though.

If anyone is interested, we would be happy to loan to you a 3-year old. The plan would be to loan him to you for about a year and then you could give him back to us when he turns 4. The other option is that we could drop him off at your house at 8am and then you could return him back to us around 7pm. If interested, give me a call.

My brother Josh and his family surprised the family by doing the 42 straight hour drive from DC and just showed up at my mom and dad's house announced. Fun to have them in town. Crazy of them to drive straight through.

After one of our matches, we went out with Brandon and Alissa to an ice cream place a few nights ago. Let me give you a couple of tips on when you should turn around and leave an ice cream store without ordering:

• Nobody is there and its only 8pm.
• You break out into a sweat when you enter the store because it is probably 95 degrees in there.
• They serve mexican food. Yes, it is an ice cream store that will also whip you up a burrito.
• Nobody is there and its only 8pm.

Yeah, we left without ordering anything.

Christmas with 27 nieces and nephews and 14 adults...well, lets just say, it was wild. There have been sleepovers, sledding excursions, games and other stuff. We need to all take a break now.

It is fun to see the Utes get to a big BCS bowl game and they play in the Sugar Bowl game tonight. Go Utes!