Baseball Brando

It has been a hard baseball season for Brandon.  He moved up into the Babe Ruth league and went from being an All-Star first baseman to the lowest man on the totem pole.  He has played in the outfield and not gotten many chances to bat.  His team is not very talented and quite frankly he wasn’t having fun, and the reason to play is to have fun.

We have encouraged him to just do his best and next year will be better.

Last night was a changing point.  His team came out playing hard and hitting great.

Brandon’s first highlight was on a dropped third strike where he made it to second base.  I loved it!  He just kept on running.  He got his first hit of the season and was so happy about that also.

The big moment for him was when the coach let him pitch.  His second time ever pitching in a game.  His first time was last summer during All-stars where he won the game for them.

He did awesome.  5 batters, struck out two of them and nobody walked!  We wondered if he could keep the grin off his face, he mostly did except for when the catcher signaled for a curve ball and he couldn’t hide his excitement.  I was standing near several baseball playing and coaching men who all couldn’t stop talking about how great he did.

How cute is that to have Ben Fowers umping as well.

The night was topped off by me asking him to move my car closer to the shack………………there were no other cars left by then, it was safe.  He didn’t know what was better pitching or driving the car.

So proud of him for not giving up!

Well not to brag or anything……..

ATHLETE OF THE MONTH: MELANIE EVANS

Our first "athlete of the month" comes at a bittersweet time as we are losing her unexpectedly to a hip surgery that she had originally planned for late summer. We are grateful however, that she is able to get on the road to recovery sooner than expected. Melanie Evans came to the SG almost pre-programmed to fit our mold. She is tough, humble, never complains, she works her tail off, and she improves her performance every single day that she's in the gym. She also never gives herself enough credit, ever. And to top it all off...she has been doing all this with a fracture in her hip. When Melanie started with us, I remember her saying: "I have a busted up hip, but i'll do my very best". She has lived up to her promise and then some. I know she is in pain, and particularly because I have really been emphasizing mobility with her, but she continues to push hard, she is easily coachable, and continues to get Strong(her) every day. Onto our spotlight on Mel...

Some background info about me: I am married to Bryan (obviously) and have 3 boys ages 13, 10 and 5....I always wanted all boys. I was never athletic growing up, but always loved watching and participating in sports. I started running about 9 years ago after years of just walking. I have run several half marathons, lots of Ragnar relays, organized bike rides, many sprint triathlons and one olympic triathlon. So I guess you could say I like to do challenging things and TrainSCG fits me perfectly.

I listened to Jenny (Broadhead) talk about Train for many months before I could work it into my schedule to start coming. She said I would love it and she was right! Even though I am the weakest link at the gym, I have improved a lot and feel so much stronger. When I first started at TrainSCG I had quit running due to a hip injury. I started running a few weeks ago after a 10 week break and I was amazed at how strong I was. I was able to run 4 miles the first time with no problem. Every time I have run since then I comment about how strong my back feels. I love the feeling. I know I am a much healthier athlete because of my training. I am heading into hip surgery (most likely next week!) I know I am going in much stronger than I was several months ago and my recovery will go much better because of the condition I am in. Not only do I love the conditioning and strength training we do at the gym, I love the people. I love how supportive everyone is of each other and I never feel like others are judging me by how much I can lift.

I may not ever achieve my dream of running as fast as Jenny and being as strong as her, but my dream of my back looking like Jennifer Garner's in the movie 13 Going on 30 may become a reality!

Great job Melanie, and congratulations on your progress! We all wish you well with your surgery and recovery and look forward to when you can return to the "grind" with us. Best of luck...thanks for all your strong work!!

February 2013

March is almost over and I haven’t blogged about February yet.  Oh well, I am still meeting my once a month goal!

Most of February was spent freezing cold and watching basketball games.  Brandon and Jacob played Jr Jazz as well as church ball.  Jacob got to fill in several times on the deacons team since there weren’t enough players.  Very exciting for him and fun for me to watch them play together.

The month also brought the heart wrenching move of My Foster.  OK OK, I still talk to her as much, just don’t get to see them all driving past my house several times a day.  And we don’t get to babysit Jack Jack anymore.

Jonah packed up “his” candy drawer and moved it over to the new house. 

I also got to watch my darling nephew Morrissey a couple of times as well.  I watched him all day one Friday so Yiska could get some sleep.   He was such a good boy and let me put him on a schedule so he would be easier for his Momma.  I also got to keep him overnight once while Nate was out of town.   He was a dream baby.  He went to bed at a decent time, woke up once in the night to eat and then went back to sleep until 8:00 a.m.  I never had a baby do anything like that so it was a treat for me.  He is so adorable and better remember that I am his favorite aunt!

We also got to have the Sowby’s sleepover for 2 nights.  It was such a great time for the kids.  I always go on and on about how easy it is to have these 5 extra kids.  They all get along so well and have a great time being together.

Baby continues to read at a much higher level than preschool.  His favorite things to read right now are Diary of a Whimpy Kid books and Calvin and Hobbes comic book.  He also loves anything Curious George, so he does do some age appropriate reading!

Valentines Day was as crazy as I always make it.  I didn’t even help at the school, made the cookie dough early and still stood in the kitchen all day and frantically got cookies delivered before bedtime.  Something has to change.

Well that is all I can remember!

January 2013

I figure if I can blog at least once a month than I won’t forget what has been happening.  I may still forget things, but it is better than nothing!

Back to school came far too early.  The break was far too short for me.  We had two lucky days in January.  One day of school cancelled due to the snow and the snow and the more snow we got.

2 feet on the trampoline.  Luckily I got on it and shoveled it all off!

About two weeks after the 3 feet of snow storm we had an ice storm.  Crazy thing for us here.  The city looked like it had a layer of glaze on everything.  It was so pretty, but not possible to capture the beauty with my camera.  School wasn’t cancelled for the day, but started 2 hours late, what a perfect morning!

Jacob and Eli used their time wisely. Ice skating down the neighbors driveway!

In between those storms we enjoyed a very wonderful and warm trip to Arizona.  We took advantage of 2 days off school and drove down.  Pretty much we played in the sun and ate good mexican food.  It is amazing how good 70 degrees can feel!

The boys actually complained that it was too hot to keep playing basketball.

Jonah thought it was perfect no shirt weather.

On Janury10th we were blessed with a new baby in the family.  Morrissey Dox Julian was born to Nate and Aliska.  It is so exciting to have him here.  We love him!  He is adorable and looks so much like Nate.  Yiska did a great job getting him here.

He loves his favorite aunt to come and hold him. 

On that same day he was born, I took the boys to Emilee Dahl’s salon to get their haircut.  I needed to run to the store so I dropped them off and came back shorty.  Once I arrived I was told to wait in the lobby, that was my first clue I should not have left!  Good thing we love Emilee so much.  I was a bit mad at first, but really it is hair.  The boys loved it and it grows quickly.

A full on bleached mullet for Jacob and a semi mohawk for Brandon.  Jacob’s was disgusting, but I let him keep it for 2 weeks.  Brandon’s wasn’t too bad and grew out quickly. 

It was a bitter cold January and like I said, lots of snow.  I loved the snow part, but not the cold.  I had to take 3 months off of running to try to repair torn cartilage in my hip.  I spent many many hours in physical therapy, which is so nice!  It was probably the best winter to not be able to run because the temperatures were in the single digits and lots of ice on the roads.

Christmas 2012

Yep, I never blogged about Christmas.  I know I can’t put into words or pictures these events that are so great so I don’t do anything.  Today I will do something!

Christmas Eve was an off year with my family, but that means we still have the Bleazard’s and my Dad and Judi.  We simplified the meal a bit so it wasn’t as much work.

Poor baby threw up non stop for the first 7 hours of the day.

A very unorganized re-creation of the nativity took place.  As well as Brandon starting to feel sick….started to throw up at 11:00 p.m.

Oh the excitement of Christmas morning!  Only two semi feeling sick kids at this point.

More presents than necessary, but hey that is ok.

The one thing he really really wanted and was surprised we actually bought him a current video game!  The new golf clubs and clothes were alright as well.

 

Jacob is so easy to please.  New catchers gear, a  Titans jersery, clothes…just what he wanted.

Baby is so easy to please as well (ok they all are).

His very own golf clubs.

I “made” them each a fleece blanket.

And a car mat “just like Drew’s”.  I spent many many hours on it and finished it at 12:20 a.m. Christmas morning.  I love giving gifts that have a little love put into them.

I of course always have a fabulous day!  I may or may not always have the largest gift pile.

Bryan doesn’t get off as well as I do, but he wouldn’t ever complain.

We then enjoyed an afternoon/evening of fun and lots of laughter with all my family over.

It was another successful and fun Christmas day for us.

Tree Hunting

I can’t believe in my blog catching up I forgot about my blessed tree hunt!  Absolutely one of my most favorite days in the year, right up there with my birthday, the last day of school and every day of summer.  Anyways the day after Thanksgiving was the day of the annual Julian Christmas Tree Hunt.  It just added to the wonderful Thanksgiving we had.

We got a little delayed start since we forgot our permit at home and had to head back to get it, Bryan didn’t want to risk the up to $10,000 fine!  Luckily we were still in Salt Lake when we realized we had forgotten it.

It was a gorgeous sunny and quite warm day on the mountain. 

Everyone enjoyed sledding and playing in the snow.

Bryan put me on a time limit to find my perfect tree.  I managed to find one in the nick of time.

Chopped it down, with some help from Bryan.

And pushed it over to the ground, so much fun.  I didn’t get a picture of me then hauling it out of the mountain and down to the car.

Lots of fun times eating and sledding.

And listening to baby cry from the car that he was cold and hungry.  I think he and Yiska always end up in the car together.

The fun filled Julian weekend was topped off on Saturday with Nate and Aliska sealed in the Logan temple.  I have no picture to prove it, but I was there and it really happened.