Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 is over so I better write something...

Well when we left you last, It was summer and we had returned from one last vacation, complete with baseball, beaches and stingrays. Since then we have pretty much been on cruise control with no major hiccups! There has been Disneyland again, new jobs, school, football, basketball, parties, holidays and more. So I will do my best to recap some of the highlights...

When school time fell upon us Jane started her teaching job. She works at two schools, Orem Jr and Willow Creek Middle School in Lehi. It's a bummer she has to split between the two, but a full-time contract will make us feel better. After one semester now it has been about as smooth sailing as we could ask for. I can't remember more than one or two breakdowns for Jane over the semester, and very few nervous nights. She has done such a terrific job and has really enjoyed teaching. However, just like the students, the teachers look forward to the breaks just as much, if not more! I think all of the hard work Jane puts into her preparation for the classroom has really paid off and one of the biggest reasons she has done so well, and one of the reasons she has such a great job.

I worked some of the summer and have continued this semester at BYU Athletic Communications working as the sports information director for men's cross country and men's track. I have also been helping out for football and basketball, along with soccer and a few other sports. It has been a blast, I love my co-workers at the office and getting to work with coaches and athletes from BYU. You can see the office, as well as us sitting on the BYU bench, waiting to get put into a game one of these days...Getting to attend and work at all the games has been so fun despite the somewhat disappointing season, with a terrific turnaround however. Getting to know players and people that work with different teams, writing stories and other stuff has been a great experience. I am looking forward to next season and really enjoying basketball season right now. Track is about to start so I will be a lot busier for the next few months, which is good. I finished the fall semester with straight A's, I think the first time that has happened in college...it helps when you only have one or two classes that really matter. The highlight was my capstone PR course, where the class is split into four teams and we have a real client and have to develop a strategic campaign over the entire semester to compete to see who has the best one. We worked with the Department of Transportation, specifically the Zero Fatalties program, focusing on cell phone use in the car. Our main goal was to stop people from doing it of course. Glad to say that our group took home the victory. The victory unfortunately doesn't include a full-time job or money or anything like that...just glory and a gift bag. Oh well, it sounds good in a job interview.

Sprinkled in the semester was a trip to California to go to Disneyland (again...it is Jane's new favorite place) Only this time we spent two days at the parks and got to do a lot more stuff. Are new favorite thing is Turtle Talk with Crush. Supposedly it is for little kids but Jane and I may or may not have watched the show three to four times...

We also had some Halloween fun. At our separate work parties, I went as teen pop sensation Justin Bieber!!! (teenage readers, drool now.) And Jane went as Jimmer Fredette (BYU single ladies, drool now.) Of course for a party with our friends we mixed it up a bit, and I went as Jimmer and Jane went as Jimmer's biggest fan...see photo.

Much of the fall semester was spent playing intramurals. My team was comprised most of my best friends, old freshmen roommates and the majority of the best people from Boise, Idaho. It was a lot of fun and our team was pretty good too. The Mustangs made it to the sweet 16 of tournament, the deepest run of any of our previous intramural teams. Here you see coach giving us some tips...We are looking forward to basketball now.

We had Thanksgiving with the Cox Family. Let's just say it was packed (literally, 38 people or something like that at one time) with lots of fun, lots of kids and noise, but the good noise of course. I was really looking forward to seeing so many siblings and glad so many could come. Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting everyone destroy the house for a week.

And of course, Christmas has now come and gone. Jane has been pouting as she puts away all of our decorations and the holidays are coming to a close. Jane's mom and dad came out here for Christmas and we spent most of the break with them along with Jane's sister Kate and her family. We had a fun Christmas Eve party with the Decker's, (Jane's uncle) and Christmas Day at Kate's. We got all sorts of great stuff too! Jane got some more running gear and her favorite present, the Zumba Wii Fitness game. I am secretly going to post a video on here when Jane isn't around. It is pretty hilarious, but she works up a good sweat and loves it. I got lots of camping stuff and some movies as well. We also did some serious bowling. I wish my intensity translated to high scores...Thanks to John and Brenda for coming out here over the holidays and being so good to Jane and I, we love you!

Well 2010 is pretty much done, I'd say it has been a success. Jane and I are approaching our third anniversary in April now, Wow! We had a great year and look forward to another in 2011.