World Cup for Beginners - Elimination Round

Due to the overwhelming response from my previous World Cup post (please note sarcasm), I thought I'd post a follow-up. Now that the group round is over, the top two teams in each group advance to a single elimination round. Team 1 from Group A plays team 2 from Group B, team 2 from Group A plays team 1 from Group B and so on. Below is a graph for the elimination round.

GO USA! (and Argentina, my sentimental favorite who is playing amazingly right now).

And just in case you're curious, here are the results from the group round.

Just the Two of Us

It had been almost 2 1/2 years since David and I spent a night alone. We decided that before we move and lose our free babysitting, we should take advantage and get away just the two of us. We returned to our wedding location - Manti, Utah - and relived some of our fun memories.

We decided to stay in Spring City at a bed and breakfast called the Osborne Inn. It was a great little place. Spring City is well known for having more historic homes than any other city in Utah. It's listed on the national registry of historic places.

Our B&B - The Osborne Inn

The largest upstairs room in the home served as a jail for a time. Tradition has it that this stair rail was built by a prisoner of the jail in order to repay the lady of the house for cooking his meals.

The balcony to our room.

Our room.

Detail on the window to our balcony.

The inn has bikes free to use to tour the historic homes of the little town. David talked me into going on a bike ride and it turned out to be a blast. I don't remember the last time I was on a bike. My bike was one of those beach cruiser types and I loved it. I think I need one of those.

While riding, we saw these deer in a yard. They jumped a high fence and were just looking at us. It was pretty cool.

Orson Hyde home

School house and fire house

Gas station

School house

We went to the Manti Pageant, just like we did the night before we got married. We ate Navajo tacos, which we did back then too. One thing that was new were the protestors. It was all very peaceful, but strange. There were a lot of policemen making sure things stayed calm.

The Manti temple is beautiful, especially at night. This picture looks like daytime, but it was completely dark when we took it, the temple was all lit up.

The next morning we went to the temple and went inside. It is so beautiful. There are remarkable murals painted by Minerva Teichert.

On the way home, a semi hauling a load of hay caught on fire. (This can happen if hay is baled while it's wet.) It was pretty wild.

The best part of all was just being with David. It was nice to just be the two of us, talking and laughing and remembering what it was like when we had time for each other. I think we'll have to do this at least once a year in the future. I sure love my husband!

So Glad It's a Happy Father's Day

My dad is a great babysitter.

For most of my life, I have thought my dad was pretty close to perfect. I am bull headed and so is he, so we but heads from time to time; however most of the time I think he's amazing and I want to be more like him. My dad knows what is true and what is right. He never hesitates to stand by his convictions, whether or not they are popular. He never leaves a game until the clock shows 0:00, no matter what. He is a true friend and does not talk about people behind their backs. He has devoted his life to trying to bring out the best in young people and helping them see their potential, without judging them for being kids. I think sometimes it frustrates David that I always want to know my dad's opinion and tend to go along with it. I trust him implicitly.

He will hate that I blog about this, but earlier this week my dad gave us a bit of a scare. He had a heart procedure performed and now has to be very careful about what he does. It's come as a surprise since my dad has always been very strong and active (see previous posts about him running three triathlons last year). He's also lost a lot of weight and works out regularly. He joined Weight Watchers with me and has put me to shame. So, we didn't expect to have this happen. It's been very hard for him to not do all the things he's used to doing. If my mom suffers from John Wayne syndrome (thinking you can do everything on your own), I think my dad suffers from Superman syndrome (thinking you're invinceble and can lift three times your body weight).

I'm so grateful that my dad is okay and that my mom is annoying him by making him take care of himself. I would much rather have a dad that can't help me move heavy boxes than no dad at all.

Little Cowboys

My kids are so lucky to have David for a Dad. He is a goofball and a kid at heart. He loves to get down on their level and play, sing, read, color, make a mess, etc. I love how Baylie's face lights up when she hears his keys in the door. David sees the best in every one and every situation. It is rare to hear him complain. He is non-judgemental and supportive. (He even puts up with my periodic late nights - like tonight when it's 1:00 a.m. and I'm blogging instead of working on my talk for church tomorrow.) He is so easy to live with and the best husband and father our family could possibly have.

I am richly blessed to have two such wonderful fathers in my life.

Happy Father's Day!

Surviving the Seven year Itch

Eight years ago today, David and I were married in Manti, Utah. It's amazing to think it has been eight years. It has gone by so quickly and yet so much has happened during that time. Here are some of my favorite memories:

• Our wedding day - everything went perfectly. I wouldn't change anything about the day. It was just how I always wanted.
• Our honeymoon to see Les Miserables on Broadway, Niagara Falls and Palmyra, New York.
• Our first anniversary trip to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
• Trips to San Francisco, Paris, Italy, Brussels, London, Mexico City and Monterrey.
• 5-year anniversary Caribbean cruise and night in New Orleans.
• Buying our first house.
• Going to the opera, symphony, TUTS musicals, Astros, rodeo, Miller Outdoor theater.
• Reading books together in the car.
• Camping in the rain in New Mexico - even though I tried to talk him into just going to a hotel.
• Watching a movie, seeing the torrents of rain outside, and turning back around to watch another movie.
• Dancing at home - I actually prefer just watching David dance.

And of course, two of the very best memories:

• March 21, 2008 - bringing home Baylie
• January 21, 2010 - bringing home Jalen

Marriage is such a gamble and no matter how much you think you know about a person, there are always surprises after you get married. I got very lucky with David. He is so good to me. He loves me unconditionally and there's no place I'd rather be than home with him. He's a fantastic Dad and I just watch the clock waiting for him to come home each day. I also love that he says things like "fixin," "ya'all," "bro," "dude," "babe," without sounding fake.

Love you, Babe! (It does sound fake when I say it.)

Seriously, I married a child! Look how young David looks - and how much hair he has.

World Cup for Beginners - Round 1

I am not a huge soccer fan, but I am a huge sports fan. Soccer being a sport and the fact that I hate the Lakers means I'm watching a lot of soccer right now. Also, I will watch Argentina or Brasil (their spelling) play anytime. It's truly artistic.

Side rant: I can't believe Argentina picked Maradona to be their coach. Maradona is arguably the best soccer player ever, tying with Pele for the FIFA Player of the Centry Award. When I lived in Argentina, there were all kinds of candy named after him (think Baby Ruth candy bar in the U.S.). However, his record on staying clean leaves much to be desired (plus he's a supporter of Castro and Chavez). In the 1994 World Cup, he was sent home for using ephedrine and the Argentine national team wasn't able to recompose themselves, playing erratically and losing after his departure. Supposedly he has overcome his addiction. I hope that is true for his sake and for that of the national team. I'll always cheer for the U.S., but Argentina is my best hope for a win (they've one it twice and been the runner up twice).

As a 'gringo' I used to get very confused about how the brackets work in international soccer and how it was determined which teams would advance. It wasn't until I was living in Mexico during a World Cup that I learned how to keep track. So, for those of you who are also new to the sport, here are some guidelines.

• For the first round, the countries are grouped into eight groups of four teams each.
• Each team in the group plays every other team in the group (round robin).
• Teams earn points based on whether they win, lose or draw. This is more important than the actual score of the game, although the score can come into play if there is a tie in the points earned.
• A win = 3 points, a draw = 1 point, a loss earns no points.
• If two teams have the same number of points, the goal differential (points scored minus points scored against) is used to determine which team advances.
• The top two teams from each group advance to the second round.

If you would like to keep track of the points in the first round, here's an unofficial score sheet I made for my own use (three separate pages). To post them here, I had to convert them to images, but if you want it in excel or .pdf format, just post your e-mail and I'll send them to you.

Disclaimer: Like I said, I am not a huge soccer fan and am not an expert at all. So if anything in this post is wrong, feel free to kindly correct me.

Shout out to my brother Erik who is actually in South Africa watching the World Cup. He's a soccer coach and, unlike me, does know what he's talking about.

Adoption Fundraiser - Yard Sale - UPDATE

Our yard sale went much better than planned, especially considering the weather was pretty ominous.

We'll be doing follow up sales the next two weekends. Next week we'll be in Provo or Pleasant Grove and the final week we'll be at our house in Orem. We sold TONS of clothes and you can't even tell we sold any. Baylie has so many clothes it's crazy.

Here's our "before" picture of my parent's garage. I think Baylie said it best when she said, "Oh, a couch....and garbage."

P.S. It wasn't really garbage (at least not all of it). For example, among other things we sold: the couch, a coffee table, a saw table, a pappasan, snow boards, home decor, a weight bench, an electric guitar and COOKIES! There's still lots of stuff left, hence the follow up sales.

Spaghetti, first haircut and Cascade Springs

Baylie really likes to slurp her spaghetti.

Not sure where she gets that from.

Jalen has had a little fuzzy patch of hair on the crown of his head. We decided to trim it to match the rest of his head. What a handsome dude!

For my nephew's birthday, we went to Cascade Springs - a beautiful spot up above Sundance in Provo Canyon. (I'm not sure why when I finally get a picture of me with both my kids, one looks scared and the other looks perturbed.)

After hiking around the spring, we found a shady spot a short distance away to eat lunch and wade in the Provo River. Baylie, of course, loved the water and I had to keep her from floating downstream. She wanted to wade, sit and swim in the freezing water.

Even Jalen got in on the action.