I know that this might sound crazy, but I think I get sick the same time every year. I appreciate that I only get sick once a year on average, but could it really be possible that I get sick after the same event every year?When I was in 7th grade I played football. After the final game of the season I developed a sinus infection with a post nasal drip. This was easily cured by a visit to the pediatrician and a simple ‘Z-Pak’ prescription. Since my 7th grade illness, I have noticed a trend. Every year since then on the last week of the football season I get sick. It is always cured by a visit to the doctor and a ‘Z-Pak’. It happened in high school, during my mission, last year, and it is happening right now. I know I may sound crazy, but I really think that my body has an annually scheduled maintenance for the last week of the football season.

What is even stranger is that when a football season would go longer in high school my illness would be delayed sufficiently to allow for the conclusion of the season. Therefore it is logical to assume that there is some internal mechanism which knows when to send my body into a sinus tailspin and it somehow is always correlated with high school football.

Now if you can figure that out maybe you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, since it is apparently easy to do now that Al Gore has won one for doing a voice over in a documentary. But seriously, I want to know if I am crazy or not. Is this totally mental or am I just going mental?

Let me know!

Yesterday we went to the BYU vs. Utah football game at Lavell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah. This game was amazing. Andrea and I got tickets for her parents and all four of us went to the game. Last year BYU won the game up in Salt Lake in the last few seconds with a pass from John Beck to Johnny Harline. That reception catapulted BYU into the lead and secured the victory.

This year both teams were coming in with 7 game winning streaks and it was going to be a good game. As the game progressed in its early stages, it was apparent that it was going to be a defensive struggle and a game of field position, and would likely be decided in the final few minutes. As it turns out that is exactly what happened.

If you didn’t see the game, you need to. It was a great game. There was tons of emotion both by the players and the fans. At one point, the Ute’s were deep in our territory, and we were dangerously close to the getting a safety. The stands were louder than I have ever heard. I had both my ears plugged and I was whistling as loud as I could (my voice was already gone) and the Ute’s had two consecutive false starts. Now that is what we call home field advantage! It was a great game to be at and the first game I can ever remember where the stands were still packed as time expired.

The victory was made possible by a fourth and eighteen pass from Max Hall to Austin Collie. That was the defining play in this game because it allowed BYU some additional downs and placed them in long field goal range. Luckily we got a few breaks and then Harvey Unga ran the ball in from 11 yards out to get BYU in the lead. There were still 40 seconds on the clock and the Ute’s had 3 timeouts so the game was far from over. There was a big defensive stand and the Cougars pulled away with the victory. The best part may have been seeing the fans rush the field and carry the players on their shoulders. That always gives me goosebumps and this time was no different. What a great game for my last BYU home football game as a student. GO COUGS!

Watch the BYU slideshow from the game. BYU v Utah

One of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving Holiday is going to movies. I don’t really remember when it started but, I think it was when we went to the Adams Family back in good old 1991. This Thanksgiving we went to 2 movies and they were both great.

First we went to August Rush. This is a movie about a young man who is raised by the state of New York. He is constantly teased by the other boys in the orphanage because he says he can hear his parents in the world around him. He eventually runs away and ends up in New York City. The rest of the movie focuses on his amazing musical talent and how that brings him back to his parents. Some may argue, and rightly so, that the movie is predictable, and too sweet, but I thought the movie was wonderful. I enjoy going to movies that make you feel good. They invite you to lose yourself in the film and take you on a two hour journey. In my opinion this was exactly what August Rush did. The movie is entertaining and the music is great. This is one of the best movies of the year.

The other movie that we saw this weekend was Dan in Real Life. This was another good film about a widowed father and his struggles to raise his 3 daughters and take care of his own life. After returning to his boyhood home with all of his siblings and their children, Dan finds himself in a series of peculiar situations. The movie is fun and entertaining. One thing that amazed me is Steve Carrell is totally believable in his character and is totally different from his character Michael in The Office. Also all of the casting for the movie was done well. I can see myself in a few of Dan’s situations later in life and that scares me a little, but oh well we will just have to see. The moral of the story is nice and is really applicable to real life.

It was a great weekend and they were both excellent movies. Although the rest of the year has had some major box office disappointments, these were the exceptions to the norm. Go out and see both of these movies. Then leave a comment with your own reviews!

Today we embarked on a journey that many have conquered, but we have shied away from in our 5 years here at BYU.  We took the hike up to the Y. We had a group of about 15, with my parents, sister, uncle and some cousins.  Although not all of us could run the entire way, we made it to the top in a respectable time.  It was a struggle to scale the rocky and steep terrain, but the fact that almost every freshman at BYU has made the trek motivated us to get all the way to the top.  A few times, we counted our blessings that in Texas there are no mountains as high as this one.  And now we can say that we’ve done it, which means we are under no obligation to ever do it again.  However, I, for one, felt awesome once we finished, because the view and the sense of accomplishment was all worth it!  And we also felt empathy for the contestants on The Biggest Loser, who are forced to hike up the California mountains on occasion. And they are in worse shape than us! But altogether I’m glad we did it! Here are some pics of our journey. Happy Thanksgiving!

So yesterday the weather turned cold.  This wasn’t that big of a deal because it is almost December.  Today we skipped right past Thanksgiving.  This morning we went to Home Depot to buy some outdoor lights, to put on the front of our house.  This simple shopping trip shortly turned into a Christmas festival, we ended up buying a 7 foot Noble Fir.  We strapped it to the car and took it home and got it set up. It looks so good!  We also decorated the house and it looks nice as well.  We are the first house on the street to have Christmas Lights up!  And we listened to Christmas Music all day!

We also went ice skating today.  I had never gone ice skating before so I was a little nervous.   Andrea helped me and I was surprised at how quickly I get accustomed to it.  I used to Rollerblade a lot so that helped.  It was a really fun day, but maybe we skipped Thanksgiving too quickly.  I am going to leave some photos here of ice skating trip.

I never get awesome deals. I would love to be a bargain shopper, but it seems I am just not in the right place at the right time to get awesome things for cheap. This weekend my luck changed. My favorite scrapbooking company, which shall remain nameless, has really cute paper and stickers, and I would own more of it if it weren’t so expensive. But Friday I was reading in the Daily Universe (BYU’s award winning campus newspaper) and saw an ad for a “Huge Scrapbook Warehouse Sale” for this company. I was so excited! I immediately visited this warehouse (which was pretty scary from the outside)and went crazy! (Picture of warehouse)

After my first visit, I knew I needed to share this jackpot with others, so I called my friend Nicole, and she and her neighbor came with me the next day. I ended up with 5 pounds of scrapbooking goodies, and my husband was happy that I only spent $15 and am now set for at least a year. Here is a picture of my spoils: