Happy Winds-day

It was a really windy day here on Saturday. The sun was shining and it was getting warm (much better than the snow we had a few days earlier) so we wanted to go play. And what is the best way to play in the wind? To fly a kite of course.

First we chose a less than optimal spot to fly them. We went down to the Ogden River Parkway, at the botanical gardens, and the wind was much less there because we were in a little valley. Matt bought some 2 for a dollar kites last year, and that is what we had to work with. I got mine up with relative ease (I know, I am amazing!) while Matt was untangeling the string of the kite we used last year, but he finally got it put together and the moment his was up in the air mine flew over to it and wrapped all around the string. Of course the wind had picked up by now and we had a great time getting them apart. My kite still has a knot in the string the size of my fist that I couldn't get out.

But we were having a great time when some other people came to fly kites there too. They had a big expensive Butterfly kite, and an airfoil kite. I am proud to say that our little kites out-flew those expensive kites! They were up soaring in the air while the other folks couldn't get their kites off the ground. Not that I am proud of this or anything.

So after that we went to the baseball diamond near our house and had some real kite flying. The wind was going CRAZY by this time and we were able to streatch those kites to their limits. It was fun.

Here are some pictures of Matt flying his kite at the river parkway.

What a good Saturday

We had a really good day on Saturday. It was my Grandma’s birthday. Yep, she turned 39 again (it said so on her cake). Happy Birthday Grandma!!! We had a party at her house, which went great. I was really happy to see my aunt Linda in from California, and my aunt and uncle Janice and Scott in from Oregon. It isn’t that often that we are all together. We were extra lucky in that it was a beautiful day outside. One of the first really good sit-outside days we have had this year. So we were able to take the party outside and have a good time. The food was good, the cake was good, and it was fun. I remember when we used to get together all the time, but it really doesn’t happen much anymore, so it is great to see everyone. Of course we took the opportunity to take family pictures. We got a big one of everyone there, and then broke into smaller families and took those. I got off easy since my family really didn’t have that good of a showing (only 2 of the 5 kids were there) so we didn’t have to do a picture with us. But it was great to see everyone. Jeremy and Stephani (my cousin and his wife) had their new little baby there (such a sweet little thing) and I love their toddler Ross. He is the sweetest cutest little guy. He is a year and a half and was happy to show everyone his shoes. Very cute. We played some bacci ball in the front yard, and I must say that Matt and I beat my brother-in-law Preston and my dad. Yep, we won :-) we were pretty proud of ourselves. I was more amazed than proud! I ended up with a nice sunburn on my hands and some on my face. Matt had a nice red forehead and neck (yep, I am now married to a redneck)

After the party Matt and I set off to Salt Lake to go to the Jazz game. I no longer have the connections I used to, so we actually had to buy these tickets (Sad, I know). Which also means that we are sitting WAY up in the top! But that is where the real fans sit – but anyway – we left from my Grandma’s and we went to the Crown Burger. We have found that it is best to get there before six, then you can park there, eat your combo (they are up to requiring $14 in food! That is a lot!) and still have a lot of time to get to the game. We made it with time to spare and walked over to the Gateway to walk around and watch people before the game. Then we went to the ESA and had to climb way up to the tippy top to watch the game. But it was fun. (made more fun by the fact that the Jazz actually won). We did have this guy behind us that was one of those loud-mouth annoying guys that keeps yelling even when you are pretty sure he has no idea what he is talking about. But there was a funny moment when the little Jr. Jazz Dancers came out to dance, and he got all excited and said “Yeah, this is my favorite part of the game!” then he realized they were like 10 and 11 year olds and had to take back all that he said about them. I thought that was funny.

It was a fun day, a fun party, and a fun game. I was ready for sleep when we got home.

Diet Coke Makes You Smart

I recently decided that it was time to put a stop to my obsessive diet coke drinking. I was up to where I was having at least 20 ounces a day, if not more (usually more). It wasn't out of the ordinary for me to drink a 2 liter in a day, and go back for more. I also noticed that I had been getting more than my fair share of headaches lately, and some nice heartburn, both of which could be attributed to my excessive guzzling of my liquid bliss. So I decided it was time, and I was going to go off the drink.

This all started last week, and I decided, to avoid causing myself certain death, that I would wean myself off and go down to one can a day. I guessed that that would be enough to keep the edge off. Boy was I wrong! I had one can on Monday, and was doing great. I had one can on Tuesday, and by the time I was driving home from work I had one of the worst headaches I have ever had. It felt like someone was driving a pick into the top of my head. I took some Advil (I know they have caffeine in them, but I couldn't help it) and that helped a bit. Day 3 was worse. I woke up with the pick ax in my head, and it never got better. I am pretty sure that I wasted almost the entire day at work, because I was just sitting here, staring at my computer, trying to make my head stop hurting! Oh yeah, it was a bad day. I got home and I just died on the couch. Matt was great and he ran to the store and got me some Caffeine Free Diet Coke, hoping that some sort of placebo effect would take place.

But it was on this day that I realized that I had become stupid without my diet coke. I was trying to make myself a warm delight brownie (I know, that is cheating too, but I needed it) and I was trying to add my teaspoon of water, and I couldn't understand why the water wasn't staying in the spoon. Then I realized (after three tries) that I was holding the spoon upside-down and trying to fill up the bottom. Oh yeah. No diet coke made me stupid!

By Thursday I was feeling better, and I am now on day 2 of absolutely no coke. And I am feeling pretty good about that.

Hey Maestro

I just want to share a story that Matt told me yesterday. He taught at the same Middle School for 2 days this week, so he had the same kids a couple of times. One of the classes he was teaching is ESL (English as a Second Language). So in this class some of the kids speak English OK, others are still really struggling with it. Anyway, the assignment for the kids was that they were making a Power Point slide show to show their parents at parent teacher conference. The slide show included things like “what is your favorite color”, “tell me about your pets” and “favorite teacher at school”. One of the kids in Matt’s class put that Senor Clark was his favorite teacher. Cute huh? So here is a picture of their favorite teacher. (Don't worry, he wore a sweater over that short tie!)

Chase You Matt

Last night we headed down to my sister Chrystie's house to play. Her husband Preston is out of town on business and we thought maybe Chrystie and her little girl Arden would like a break from each other. So we went down, and Chrys bought us some pizza for dinner. We both had a good time. I was suffering a mighty caffeine withdrawal headache (I am trying to kick my habit, and it sucks) so Matt did most of the active playing. Arden loved to throw the big ball and Matt's head and watch it bounce off. Hopefully she only does it with the big ball and doesn't start throwing other items at people's heads. But we played for a long time and at the end Arden was on the rocking chair in her room reading a book to all her toys. We had a lot of fun.