Soccer…

 Soccer is both extremely fun and extremely annoying. Snow, rain, cold, you get the picture.  Plus the fact that there are two games a week… PER CHILD. Yeah. Soccer season pretty much runs your life for the 8 weeks your involved in it.

Here is a cute picture of Paige, Natalie and Mason. Paige is my friend Metta’s daughter. I watch her three times a week and Metta watches Natalie twice a week. This arrangement has worked really well for us. Metta was able to go to school, and I was able to work. Plus Paige and Nat are like best friends now.

BTW… Natalie is OLDER than Paige. Natalie got my “short” gene. /sigh

Here is a picture of Mason. I am so proud of him this year. He is suddenly quite a good soccer player. He even scores the most goals on his team. Unfortunately his team usually loses. Hopefully they can win one.

 Here is a picture of Natalie running. Until last week she has been timid in soccer. She still hasn’t got a goal, but hopefully she will. The girl running with her on the other hand got 7 goals today. All by herself. She is in Natalie’s class and a good friend of Nats.

 Isn’t Natalie’s coach cute? Natalie is lucky enough this year to have her daddy be the coach. He is a great coach. All of the parents love him. All of the kids really like him. Thank you Max!

Bridge

The Pinewood Derby!

Mason is in scouts… as in Cub Scouts. I can hardly believe he is 8 years old.

I am an only child, and thus pretty new to scouts. I have heard all sorts of stories from my husband about throwing cans of mosquito spray in the fire and watching it explode, of starting fires, of playing with knives, of almost dying… Um, yeah. My son is in scouts… Yeah!

Can you tell I am scared?

Anyways, Max is the Cub Scout Assistant Leader. If he can’t keep my son in line, no one can. (insert scary music here)

The pinewood derby race is really popular in scouts. Until Mason came home with the kit I had NO IDEA what it was.  Neither did my friend Jessica. This is a picture she took and what she had to say about it,

“um, does that resemble a car at all???? i about shat myself when i opened the box. i need a fully equipped wood shop to make this project happen. O.M.G!!!!! i need a band saw, a dremel, a power sander, a screwdriver, a hammer and an airbrush. i also need a college degree in engineering!! and here’s the kicker – the BOYS are supposed to do MOST of the work themselves.”

I totally agree with her. Luckily my husband already knew what all this was about. Mason and his dad worked on the car for a few weeks. I helped Mason pick out the paint, and this is what he designed…

(The red and gold car with the fin is Mason’s)

Not only did his car not come in first, but it came in last in every race it ran. Next year we will totally design it different. This year was for looks. Next year will be for speed.

(#14 was my sons in case you still didn’t know.)

(Here is the race track and my son in his cute scout uniform!)

All sorts of friends and family came to see Mason’s car race.

• Both of his grandpas
• Both of his grandmas
• His parents
• His sister
• His Uncle Nick and Aunt Jasmine from AUSTRALIA!
• His cousins Isis and Phoenix from AUSTRALIA!

Good job Mason! I am so proud of you!

MOM (BRIDGE)

What REALLY happened at the 5K.

Charie, Roxy and Danette… you have already read this post. I am just posting it here so my family can read it too!
(Danette, Bridge, Roxy [30 weeks pregnant], & Charie)

Close to a month ago I participated in the 5K of the Salt Lake City Marathon. I am proud of myself. I had multiple occasions to bail out on participating, but I didn’t.

Reasons I had to bail:

• I hurt my knee pretty bad in February in a skiing accident that happened when I avoided crashing into a small child who cut me off, and I had to stop training.
• I hate running. Puke Puke Puke!
• Both my son and daughter had soccer games at 9:00 AM and my husband had to coach my daughter. Who was going to watch my son?
• I had to wake up at 4:00 FREAKING AM to get to SLC. I am NOT a morning person.
• Did I mention I hate running?
• I almost ran out of gas on the way there.
• A cop passed me in a 55 mph zone when I was going 80 on my way to SLC. Construction zone I might add.

Why I didn’t bail:

• I miss my college roomies.
• Because I am NOT a wimp even though my husband calls me one.
• Because I got my mom to watch my son at his game so he had someone to cheer him on. He made TWO goals!
• Because Nyquil and 3 beers lets you go to bed at 9 PM if you take them together. Even if you usually go to bed at midnight. (I do not recommend this! Whatever… I totally do. Um, maybe I don’t? HEHE.)
• I drive a Toyota Corolla (1994 Yeah!) and it will drive forever on fumes.
• The cop passed me, whew, and then I followed it! /wink
• I REALLY miss my college roomies.

So how did I actually do?

I ran 2 of the 3.1 miles. Next time I will run all 3.1.
I finished in less than the 45 minutes I had hoped for. I have no idea on my time… I just know it was less than 45 minutes.
I was REALLY sore right for about 4 days. I had a hard time walking down stairs. This wouldn’t have been a problem if I would have trained for it more. My poor husband rubbed my legs on HIS birthday.

I have to say that I had so much fun running the 5k. I actually started crying the second we started running. I was so happy just to be a included again with these friends.

Let me tell you why…

During my sophomore year in college I moved out and moved in with some roomies I worked with. Well the first roomies were NOT good roomies to live with. One got pregnant within a few months, and one was “dealing” out of our house. Let’s just say I didn’t live there long. My boyfriend (now husband) suggested I move in with these girls I had gone to high school with. I didn’t think they would want me to live with them considering I considered them very popular while I was not. I was totally surprised when they said yes. Not only did I get along with them, but they accepted me as I was.

I live in Utah. I drink alcohol and coffee. I am usually NOT accepted by a majority of the population.

Yet I was.

So anyways, I started crying at the beginning of the race, and tonight when I thought of how thankful I am that these girls were in my life. I am so excited that they have all started their own blogs and I can now enjoy reading about their families.

Charie: Thank you for always being nice to me and for accepting me as I am. From the first time I met you I always felt accepted.

Roxy: Thank you for showing me how one can take hard decisions and make your life better for it. I need to make decisions like you do.

Danette: Thank you for being shy. From you I learned a lot of how to make people feel welcome and safe. This sounds weird… but thank you.

Sarah: Even though you were missing from the 5k… I want to tell you that I appreciated you for teaching me that one can love entirely.

You can read about their takes on the 5k here, here and here!

These are some of the comments I received from my roomies! In no particular order.

Danette:

Oh Brigitte what can I say your the best! You did have a lot of obstacles working against you but you did it and I’m so glad you were there! It was a great time!

Your post is so great (sniff, sniff) I still have a lump in my throat from all the kind words. That was a special time in all of our lives and I wouldn’t change any of it. We were all learning how to be independent responsible adults. So glad I went through that learning curve in such good company and I’m so glad we share those memories and friendships. You should know it took a dose of acceptance on your part as well to live with us, that’s just part of the game when you live with people. You and Max spiced things up and were a crucial ingredient to our collective mix of roommate madness. Thanks for that and for teaching us a few things along the way as well.

PS we could start up a Spice Girl type group

Charie= nice spice
Rox= decider spice (not like dubaya though aka George Bush)
Sarah= lovely spice
Danette= shy spice
Brigitte= spicy spice

Love you!

Roxy:

Hey how did miss out on this post. I havn’t checked my hotmail account in forever and had an email about your post. I always check your family one and figured you were not going to post about it.
I was so impressed with you Brigitte! What a dedicated friend you are. I thought it was so great that you came although you had things that could have gotten in the way.
I loved talking and laughing at subway as we looked back on our roomie days. What fun memories. I hope you know that you are amazing and I have learned a lot from you as well. You better watch out I come to Utah all the time for races and I will hit you up again! Love ya.

Charie:

Okay Danette I agree 100% with your comments! Laughed so hard about the spice girls HAA HAA although I am not sure I am so nice anymore…I try but uhh I think Rox has talked about my evolution being married to Jonathan…I am much more assertive now

Bridg…you made me choked up reading that too! I feel the same way about you. I am so glad you didn’t find me too stuffy or conservative and wanted to live with us. You made college SOOO much fun and besides just cracking me up all the time you were always there for me when I needed a compassionate friend. I wouldn’t have traded living with you for anything and I am so happy to have had the experience to run with you. YOu ROCKED it! I really will never forget starting out with you and feeling like I was 10 years younger again because you were there. So I guess we are both babies because I cried the entire race

I only wish we could have pulled an all nighter talking and laughing…not enough time!

I just love you…thanks for making my day with this post! I feel the love and it is completely mutual!

ps. JEss she would have had to speed because we talked to her when she left and there was no possible way to make it to SLC in an hour and 15 min. without going WAY too fast!

Sara:

GO BRIDGET!!! You totally rock. I am so proud of all of you guys. Still very sad I missed out on the 5k!! I still really say we need to plan our next reunion trip. A fun girl vacation. And when are we meeting for lunch??? I’ll e-mail you!

Loved this post…the spice girls huh?

 

My Mothers Day Present!

This year is different than usual. I usually plant flowers on Mothers Day. Unfortunately this year is too cold. Instead of planting, we are making planter boxes. These are going to be my garden!

I am not sure exactly what I will plant in these boxes. I have such a small yard and a garden isn’t really practical. I plan on planting pumpkins and corn out at my moms, but would love to plant tomatoes and a few other veggies in here. Depends on what looks good when I shop I guess. Yum tomatoes…

(This is what this side of our garage looked like before we started.)

(Don’t let my kids fool you! The left and played shortly after these photos. I will admit they helped for about an hour.) 

(This picture will show you how much work actually went into making these boxes. Weed, measure, dig, level, add sand, add bricks…)

(This is the last shot of the day. It ended up being too cold and dark so we stopped. Then the next day we had soccer. I will post photos after it is officially done, but this should give you a good idea of what it will look like!) 

I need to thank Max for building these. He is amazing. I came up with the idea and he has built them for me. He is sore. He is cut. He is AMAZING!

Thank you Max.  For everything!

Bridge

 

Mothers Day from my son Mason

I have to share this. My son made the cutest card for me at school.

All week long he would ask me questions. He even tried to be all sneaky about it. It is part of the job description of being a mom to sometimes act like you don’t know what is going on. It ends up being totally worth it.

He forgot the card at school on Friday so he gave it to me on Monday. I couldn’t help but cry when I read it.

Here is the card…

(This is where I started crying.)

 

(My favorite food in gnocci. Notice that “food is good for you.”)

(I am intelligent, beautiful and nice! Plus he loves that I mop the floor! And on his list that is “my climbing skills.” How cute is that?)

(Look at that drawing of the Eiffle Tower! Just amazing!!!)

(In the picture on the right there were heads at the bottom. Why we are hanging upside down I still don’t know.)

Bridge

 

 

Lets Go Jazz!

Here is some pictures of the first playoff game the Jazz played against Houston.

This first picture is of the protesters outside of the Energy Solutions Arena. They were protesting about the FLDS children in Texas. Thankfully they were peaceful.

I love this picture. Look at the smile on my sons face. Just priceless. He is the one on the bottom left in case you didn’t know.

Here are the creations the clowns made for my kids. My daughter’s creation was a bird. Apparently a parrot that was perched on her shoulder.

Here is my mom getting her face painted for the game. Go Jazz!

My daughters “parrot” died… so the clown made her another one. It is amazing that he remembered her and knew what she had.

This is the best picture I got of myself the entire time. I had someone else take one of us and it was completely blurry. Normally I would never take a photo looking down. I was brave.

Fireworks… it is why you go to playoff games. Man are these games loud!

If only they would have won. I am just glad they won the series. Hopefuly they can beat the Lakers!

Bridge

Funniest Picture EVER!

Big Air at Beaver Mountain is crazy fun. They build a huge jump and people compete for prizes. Unfortunately three people had to be taken to the hospital that day. One of them by Life Flight. I still have no idea if they are alright.

Big Air was on March 29th… yes this post is WAY LATE.

Here is an overview of Beaver Mountain and you can see the jumps.

 

Here is the funniest picture ever. I really wanted to have my picture taken with a banana and a beer. Go figure!  The girl on the far left is my friend Taryn. Everyone else… I have no idea. I just loved their costumes.

Bridge

I need to post something…

I’ve really neglected this blog. BADLY.

Let me explain why.

• My brother-in-law and sister-in-law and family are visiting from Austrailia.
• I am currently redoing my business website. It should finally get updated today.
• Soccer. For anyone who has kids in soccer… you totally understand.
• Ballet. Yep, this makes me busy as well.
• Wedding season. I can’t believe how many weddings happen in the month of May.

Well there you go. No reasons why I really SHOULDN’T post, but reasons why I haven’t. Get ready for tons of posts.

Easter… the real post!

Easter is a holiday that I like to have a dinner at my house. This year was no exception. You will see from the pictures that we had a lot of people over. Eleven adults and twelve children to be exact.

My parents.

My in-laws

My sister-in-law and family

My best friend Jess and family.

My friend Denise and her girls.

Plus Max, the kids, and I. 

 /whew

 I hope you all had a very happy Easter!

 

What is your new job again?

I have been asked several times about what I do for a living now.  Many of you know that I no longer work for New Dawn – it’s actually almost been a year now.  I had fun building a tiny software company into a profitable small company, but I butted heads a few too many times with the primary shareholder.  So last year I took a job with a local company called Spiricon. 

They were recently bought by a company from Israel, and are now called Ophir-Spiricon.  We create laser beam analysis equipment.  They have been doing it for about 20 years, and it’s time to update their primary software application.  It’s nerdy, and actually very cutting edge technology wise, so I love it .  We basically shoot laser beams into a digital cameras and tell the pepople who make and use lasers all sorts of things about them.  We sell mostly to laser manufacturers, university and other research facilities, and of course the government and military; they like to blow things up with lasers.

I’m working on rendering the laser beam on the screen, and setting up the user interface.  Here’s a screen-shot of what it looks like so far (this is an image of a laser pointer):

 

You can see I get to play with a lot of graphics – it’s almost like writing a video game.  Anyway, it’s a really fun job with almost no responsibility (other than doing a good job) and people here really notice that I do a good job.  It’s nice for a change.

-Max