Oh, the Mad, Mad Month of March...

AJ and Chelsey's brackets shot from 10th to the top over the weekend as they held up under scrutiny! The competition is sifting the wheat and the tares. I'm just starting to wish there were money involved...:)

More March fun:


The Madness of March basketball has even gotten to the sisters...


(Bekah is on the left, Abby is on the right during most of this clip.)

So while the Cougars didn't make it to the Elite Eight as was my hope of all hopes, Memphis came through for me and my NCAA bracket is still in the game. It has been fun to keep up with others' brackets. Jonny is riding high, but not for long, I'm afraid. Good to see P. Risen (squalldude) rising in the ranks. And I'm sure AJ is quacking happily right now.

So you all heard about our "March Madness" basketball hoop upgrade (the hoop has since been moved to a much taller setting!)...



... but we also upgraded the musicality of our home by moving a piano into our family room.



Our friends had it in the garage, and won't be using it anytime soon (thank you Rowleys!). So in the meantime, we dusted it off and Paul is putting it to mighty good use!



Michael thinks it is mighty nifty to have his dad play all of his favorite Primary songs... and I, myself, find it mighty fine to be serenaded at all hours of the day. So while this piano probably won't make the move with us in 2.3 years, at present we are using the piano more than the mountain bike! (But who's counting??)

game on...

a fun little diversion while we wait for the games to start this weekend. who knew?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 10 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

the second round toppled the leaderboard. the deej and jonny bravely made their way to the top of the list riding the backs of unlv, pittsburgh and others.
a nice juxtaposition of the newly marrieds at the top.











matt continues to languish with michael near the bottom of the bracket, but don't count him out. this plucky new mexican will rise to ride another day.



michael is nevertheless undaunted and winning our household bracket by playing for his wins:



when the first round was completed...

the top two spots belonged to tracy and paul.



be not deceived however, the first round is more like trivia. the next round's picks are worth double the point and matt's bracket still has a lot of upside. poor michael however, is doomed. he picked with much regional and family loyalty (any team with oregon, new mexico or byu in the name advanced?) he was the only one in the bracket to pick well below the level of 50% chance...

the bottom two spots after the first round? michael and matt.




the tournament begins! you can get onto the family bracket to follow the scores in our group. there a bunch of cool features that let you check out your current standing and forecast who would win by choosing different teams to the championship game.

there are only three true fans who picked BYU to go all the way--dad, libby and michael.

there is only one member who picked BYU to lose in the first round...aj :( however, jonny has oregon advancing the furthest. that makes jonny the true duck :)

let the games begin!

You say it's your Birthday...

Happy Birthday to my mom... who, I can't believe, is closer to 100 than to 1.

She's been such a motivation and support to me.



Loving and loyal...



...her kindness and concern have touched and changed so many lives.



Her greatest gift to me is her example.



Her testimony and faith is a true light that pierces through the dark.

I love you, mom!

tournament pool...

will the cougars get past the first round? the seeds were made public today. the mountain west conference only got two teams and their teams were seeded well below what their rpi dictated.

oh well, the dance begins. i set up a bracket for all readers of our blog to join in on. here's the info:

go to this link.
before clicking the 'join group' button (see below) you will need to sign up for a yahoo account. it's pretty easy and quick. i just used the same user id and password from my hotmail account. it is a bit inconvenient, but well worth the interactivity of the bracket we get to use...after getting your yahoo id and password then follow the next three steps:
click on "join group" button.
group id#: 85242
password: cutestevie

good times...

for whom would you vote...

i want to start by reminding you of my prediction for the election result. there were doubters among you, but he has taken some big steps in recent weeks. even ann coulter agrees--and i would take her word over jon stewart's anyday. my newest caviat is that romney will beat clinton. he probably wouldn't beat several of the other democratic candidates that won't win the democratic primary.

so, todays exercise is one some of you may be uncomfortable with. pretend you are democrat. don't take this lightly; really delve in. if the democratic primary were held today and you feel the current president (a liar, unilateralist, polluter, bigot, oil stealing, gun wielding and stupid white man--among his finer points) has brought our nation to the brink of destruction (not a religious, armageddon destruction. religion is for weak, unintelligent people. it is a bigoted and hateful relic of the dark ages. this destruction will be a pragmatic response of reasonable muslims who have been bullied by a big texan).

DISCLAIMER: if you really are a democrat, please realize the paragraph above was just a joke and i don't believe you personally believe what i just wrote. and who's to say i'm not a democrat at heart?

anyway, whatever your reasons, you are democrat through and through and you get to pick from one of the candidates below. do you know any of them? whom do you know? for whom would you vote?

(i'll give you 50 green house gas credits if you can name them all right now without google--in order, by number)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

is it time for a new party in the white house? what are the issues that are most important to you? is there one issue that means so much that it would cause you not to vote for a candidate? are there reasons you would or wouldn't want a mormon in office? do you feel our country is headed in the right or wrong direction?