Valentines Day in September???

This morning I opened up my office to find it decorated to the max with balloons, steamers, banners and notes! My desk girls are so cute! It's been "bubble week" and I'm sure decorating my office was funner than cleaning so I cant say I blame them.

My favorite gift was the drawing

that Rachel drew for me.

Notice the photos on the wall that she drew of my cat & dog and Me & Adam. Thanks a ton Rachel, your very talented! Michaun bought me flowers and Brittany gave me some "Loose"berry Jam - Yum, Yum. And I cant forget to mention the personalized notes from all the girls plastered all over my door! Thanks a ton everyone, I dont deserve your kindness! Now get back to work!

Football, Football & more Football!

Right now our lives completly revolve around football. The kids have practices 3-5 times a week (both at differnt fields and different times), we attend games 2 times a week, plus we plan our our weekends around all U of U & Patriots games. Both the boys are both doing very well.

AJ's team has played 3 games, winning all of them thus far. Last week their victory was 60-0 over Timpanogos -needless to say, AJ got a lot of playing time that game. He is still proud to say that he has still not missed, been late or left early from one practice since practices started in May! He is very dedicated and hopefully his hard work will pay off soon! It's been fun to watch his team play on the high school football fields this year. There is something about playing under the big lights and having each game announced. Another bonus is that the scoreboards work so we always know how much time is left in each quarter and what the score is. It adds a whole new dimension to the game, it's been very exciting to watch each game even if AJ doesnt get much playing time some games.

Mike has played 2 games thus far and they have won 1. He still continues to suprise us with his natural abilities at this game. He is a great asset to his team and it's not unusual for them the use him on offensive line, defensive line and special teams all in the same game. Mike is also proud to say that he has not missed, been late or left early from any of his practices either. His coaches are really positive and seem to keep it fun and enjoyable for the kids which is hard to find these days in competitive leagues.

Here are some short video clips of the boys. The first clip is Michael (wearing red #56 ). At the end of the play he is on the left hand side of the frame. The second clip is one of AJ (wearing red #69) he is in the center of the screen sacking the quarter back. AJ's clip is washed out so unfortunatly you cant see it very clearly. To help you find him, he is the one that hits his chest at the very end of the play with the black socks.

Good job boys, keep up the hard work!

Biking to Shaker Heights, Ohio

OK - this might sound cheesy but its keeping us motivated to exercise each morning. First some background info... At the beginning of this summer, Adam & I bought some road bikes and would bike for 45 minutes every morning before work. Our motto was "5 miles before 5am". It might sound like torture, but it actually wasn't that bad. The air was nice & cool, the streets were very quite and everything is very peaceful that early in the morning (although barking dogs and hissing sprinklers can be quite un-nerving that early in the morning). Anyway, a couple weeks ago we purchased some indoor bikes so we could continue our biking routine without fearing death or injury. If you have traveled the roads of American Fork lately, you'll know what I mean. Every road is torn up and under construction for the pressurized irrigation project. (I have a feeling it will soon be the subject of "things that annoy me" on Adam's blog - just wait and see.) If you ask me, falling into a trench at 4:30 in the morning would not be a good way to start the day. Adam has admitted that there are some mornings that he sleeps through most of the route so there was a very good possibility that I could have been missing for hours before he ever noticed that I was gone. Well, enough on that... Anyway, one day I was curious about how many miles it was from our house to Ali & Kolby's. In case you are wondering, it is 1,763 miles. It gave me the idea that we should set a goal to "bike" to Ali & Kolby's house. So I made a chart and every morning we log our miles and track our progress to Shaker Heights, Ohio. Right now we are averaging about 17 miles a day combined. As soon as I get my "heart condition" figured out, I should be able to contribute more but until then, Adam has to work out extra hard to compensate for my minimal contributions. So far we have logged 168 miles... only 1,595 miles to go! Our goal is to bike all 1,763 by the end of the year. In order to achieve that, we are going to have to step up our game! Look out Ali & Kolby - here we come slowly but surely.