sad. i am sad.

soooo sad.

BYU lost last night in overtime.  I wasn't even nervous about the game and then it started and we just struggled to keep up the entire game.

Well, BYU Basketball -

I have loved this season!  I am sad it is over, but I would be sad no matter when it ended and we sure had a good run.  I still think we should have won last night - there were some terrible calls and we were the better team, but sometimes I just felt that Florida wanted it more.

I gave so much to this season and I have loved it, but it has taken its toll on me...physically, emotionally, and mentally.  It is amazing how much I put into making sure that I was sitting front row to watch you guys play and then figuring things out so that I could follow you to Vegas and it is amazing that I was able to successfully teach at the same time!  I would do it for this season all over again, but here is my sad news...I think this was my last season of camping out.  It was a wonderful four year run of sleeping in tents for the entire basketball season.  When I started putting up a tent, it was only 2 or 3 nights before game, but look what we have started!  Tents are up a week before and you easily get 100+ tents the night before.  Insane!

Thank you for all the fun memories and silly pictures and fun adventures.  Thank you for my basketball crushes: Burgess, Lloyd, Archie, Cummard, Keena Young!, Lamont(I still am getting over Lamont!)  Oh and of course I have loved Jimmer.  I have seen him play all four years and I almost feel more like a mother...proud to see that he has done so well and always think he just looks so adorable out there and worrying when he gets hurt or when I see him upset.  Proud that we both bleed blue.  Proud that he represents BYU so well. 

But, most of all, I have to thank you, BYU basketball,  for helping me unite with fellow fans that have become good friends.  I love them.  Melanie and I met through basketball.  Yes, we were in the same ward, but I think basketball really brought us together!  Rosie and Josh are the world's greatest, sweetest couple and I love spending time with them.  Eric and Holly have gone through so much as a young married couple and they constantly amaze me.  Brittany and Brady are so fun!  I love dancing with Brittany and they are great to laugh with.  Eric and Brady are the original boys that Aubrey and I made friends with when we put our tent up behind them.  That camping experience was one of my favorite.  Robby.  Robby. Robby.  He created our home at the Marriott.  He organized everything and I feel like I owe my basketball exprience to him!  Trent, he is a big deal, that's all I have to say :)  Jeff - my favorite friend that I made this year.  Of course there is Preston, but he had his marketing internship this season and that kept him on the court, doing cool things for most of the games - but he is why I have my sports pass and he is one of my favorites to watch basketball with. 

So I love you BYU Basketball and I always will.  It was hard accepting that I am done running down the stairs of the Marriott for front row seats or trying to figure out my schedule so that I can stay at our tent for a few hours here and there.  I will miss being that crazy fanatic - but on we go to Cougar Club seats (weird that I can do that!).

Love forever and always,

  A true blue fan

how sweet it is

My BYU COUGARS have made it to the SWEET 16!! yeeeahhhh son!  Watching them play tonight was amazing.  SO AMAZING!  They gave the game everything they had and I didn't have to stress about losing at all during the game.  I love close games, but not when we play.  I want us to always be up by at least 5 the whole game...then I can really enjoy it without stressing about losing.  I wish I had been able to go to Denver and I wish even more that I had enough money to fly myself to New Orleans.

So remember that my boy are playing at 5:27 on Thursday.  Make sure that you are watching and cheering us on!

And now, here is a Vegas MWC Tourney trip photo collage...

MARCH MADNESS

So, tomorrow it STARTS!

I filled out my first ever bracket tonight and I sort of hate it.  I already put so much into my own BYU, but now I feel fully invested in the teams that I have picked!  Normally, I just don't fill one out...that way I don't have to be competitive and I can just enjoy watching basketball.

Either way,  I love this time of year!  I love basketball!  And I am so excited to watch the Cougars play tomorrow!!!

(pictures from my Vegas weekend will be coming soon)

the joys of special ed

I came across this amazing blog called Autism - Day by Day.  She is a single mother raising two kids, one of which has autism.  I don't remember how I found it, but she goes through so much and stays so positive, it is absolutely amazing to me!  I am often in awe at the parents of my students, just as I am in awe of Donna.

She wrote a post yesterday that made me so happy.  Read it.  It is one of my favorite things that I see in my classroom.  It is something I didn't see much at my high school growing up, but something I wish I can someday bring to my home.  It is all over Utah.  My kids are so cool at school!  I loved seeing it last year and it is just as great this year.

I have the world's greatest job and I think I forget that from time to time.  It is hard, don't get me wrong.  I get stressed and worn and pulled and torn, but I teach kids who change the lives of everyone they meet.  They have definitely changed mine.  They even change hearts, soften them, make them grow bigger than we thought our hearts could get!  It takes someone really special to have the power to change a person's heart.  I love them.

MWC Tournament!

Tomorrow I pick Aubrey up in Vegas for our FOURTH year of cheering on BYU in the MWC tournament!  I cannot even believe it has been four years.  I love it.  I love love love it!

year ONE!

year TWO!

year THREE!

Pictures from this year will be coming shortly.  I can't wait to see Aubrey again!  Vegas is sure in for a treat when Mel, Aubrey, and I join forces! 

 Come on Cougars!!!

Life get's crazy.  I always think it will calm down eventually, but mom has always told me that the older I get, the crazier it gets.  Why does she always have to be right and how is it possible that it can get any crazier!?!

Sometimes I just have to take a break and remember when life was a little bit simpler...

These pictures just made me happy.  Sometimes I just like to look through my millions of photos...I could do it all day.  Notice that most of my pictures involve the sun or beach? hmmm

another post about how I hate...

DRIVING IN THE SNOW.

So, my favorite Natalie was flying into SLC tonight and of course I wanted to pick her up - it has been wwwaaaayyy too long since I last saw her face, and I really miss that face.

After school, I decided to just get an oil change, since it was needed and I am leaving for Vegas on Thursday.  Cami picked me up from the dealership and we got dinner and had a wonderful chat.  When my car was done, we went to Cami's to hang out before I picked up Nat...turns out the snow was so bad that Natalie was just going to go to her in-laws in Centerville.  I ended up leaving Cami's a little after 9:00 and had a good 8ish inches of snow on my car!  Gross.  And the roads were terrible.  It was a nasty drive until about point of the mountain and even then, I didn't like the roads until about Lindon area.  My hands are still shaking from the drive.  My least favorite part is when the big semi's come rolling on down in the fast lanes and then their huge wheels just gush slush onto your car and for a few seconds, you are blind.  Or trying to stay in the tracks of the car in front of you, otherwise you feel like you're driving a car at Autopia, except that the bumping back and forth in the snow can lead to a serious accident!  Gosh...did I say that I don't like driving in the snow?

but here is some super exciting good news.

Cami and I are going on a cruise down the Mexican Riviera during Spring Break!!!  We have been talking about it and today I was just looking around and saw that I could get a pretty good deal with Carnival since I still have my CA license...There was just one balcony room left.  Cami said we just need to go for it.  AND boom!  A spontaneous cruise search has turned into a 7-day spring break vacation!

Kelly Marie

I don't normally do Happy Birthday posts for my friends, but I have been thinking about Kelly a lot recently.

Today is her birthday.  She has been a huge part of my life.  The Larsens moved to San Marcos and the fabulous TOV ward my freshman year of high school.  We became best friends almost immediately.  I remember the first thing we did together, me, Lauren, and Kelly...we watched Chasing Papi at the San Marcos theater (such a good movie by the way!) and it was a total blast.

I have more memories than I can count with Kelly.  We spent countless nights at Killer Pizza From Mars.  Many nights toilet-papering our favorite twins in San Marcos.  One priceless night locked out of a car in Emerald Heights.  A whole season of swim team... My first day spent in LA and the greatest concert of my life (Kelly, do you still have pictures from that day?  My computer crashed like three times over the course of my time at BYU and I lost them at one point. Sad). One night making a music video to Say Something by Mariah Carey and meeting friends that have stayed close to me every since.  A summer of lifeguarding.  Death Cab for Cutie on the beach while drinking all of Kelsey's cranberry juice.  Mae concert. One Easter spent together and getting eggs full of black jelly beans.  Football my freshman year (so which color are we?).  Getting lost hike back from Stewart falls.  Learning Madonna dances. Getting into all sorts of trouble...so much fun!

She got married in March of '09 and is my first friend to be expecting a baby!  The little boy is coming to us in April and I am so excited!

Well, Kelly, I want to get this to you before your birthday is over.  I have been looking through picture after picture to find the right ones to put up.  Happy birthday.  I love you.  I love you so much.  I can't wait to be an aunt to your lucky boy and I am so grateful for you and the influence you have been in my life.  I am glad that we have made it through the ups and downs of life together and I look forward to everything we have left to experience.  I love you.