March 15, 2015

Bom Dia,

How are things going for everyone?  I hope things are going well!  I was chastised by my daughter Maggs for not being as descriptive as I should have been for my letter last week.  So I will do my best and try and rectify the events of this week!

It started out with Maggie going to Soccer on Monday. She still cannot play a ton due to her knee, but she was able be on the field and tell her teammates where they should be per her coaches instructions. She seemed to like that once she got on the field.   While she was at practice, Coop and I went up to a store and grabbed him some new cleats and a new glove.  He made a comp baseball team, so we will see how this experiment goes. He seems to really like it so far.

Tuesday, Sal had a relief society activity where she made a really good pulled pork dish from Hawaii (It was an international dinner.) She made some for us as well.  The kids and I brought the food over to the church while Sal was finishing up getting ready.  When we came back, she informed us that Duke maybe have eaten one of our dinners while we were gone.  Come to find out, it was my dinner that he helped himself to.  That stinker!!!

I am in the market for a new road bike. The kids and I went to a house in Syracuse and tested a bike a guy had for sale on KSL.  It was OK, but I will wait and see what else there is out there.

Coop had a play-off basketball game on Tuesday at 9:30.  We got there a few minutes before tip-off and some of his buddies were saying we were going to win by a forfeit since the other team did not know when the game was... and they were in bed anyway since the game was at 9:30 at night. 

The semi-final game was on Thursday.  Coop played well and we won to make it to the Finals!

As you can see the greeting for this week is Portuguese.  My nephew, Robby Housley, got his mission call to Brazil on Thursday.  We are way excited for him and he seems very excited as well.  Currently, we have three nephews out,with one getting home at the end of this month and then Rob leaves in July.  It is pretty awesome!

Duke was having fun playing with Maggs with the tennis ball while she was laying down.  She would put  the ball on her neck and he would grab it and then he would put it back on her stomach.  They had fun playing that game for a while.

While I am in the market for a new bike, Sal was in the market for a new couch.  She got one she liked at RC Willey Thursday night.  After she picked up the couch in her “truck” (the van fits a full length couch,) she and Cooper also picked up an odometer for my bike from our niece and nephew, Nate and Kristen.  They had a fun evening running their errands—there is another funny story  that involved Cooper, a water bottle, and having to go pee-pee on there way home.

Another fun fact happened on Friday.  A buddy from work and I were driving to SLC for a meeting and I saw a receipt from RC Willey in his passenger seat.  He and his wife had bought a mattress there. I told him my wife was there buying a couch Thursday night and he remembered seeing her there. Once we got the day and time, he remembered the fact it was a van and that the couch fit in too.  Sal likes her couch but does not like Duke sitting on it.  He will eventually learn I hope!

Coop's championship game was Friday night.  The score was 12-8 with 6 minutes left with us having a great opportunity to hit two foul shots and get the ball back. We missed both foul shots and did not score when we got the ball back.  We lost 18-11, but Coop played really hard when he was in the game and he was a good teammate.  We went to  Arctic Circle for the last game of the year tradition we do. It is weird how fries and shakes have a tendency to take some of the hurt away! :)

Sal took our old couches down to Lehi/Provo to Lisa—thanks to the use of  dad's truck.  Rob and Maddie, who is in town for a few weeks, went on a road trip to deliver the couches and see our niece, who is their sister, Marissa, who lives down in Provo.  They had lunch and seemed to have fun even though it seemed like a long day.

My buddy helped me with my bike, but we could not get it figured out.  I was able to go on a ride with a friend who moved out of our ward about 6 months ago.  We got a good ride in a week before my race.

Before I left, I was decked out in my riding gear looking pretty snazzy, or a little goofy depending on how you look at it, and I came up to Sal with my tongue firmly in my cheek, I said, ”How do you feel being married to an athlete?”  She smiled.

Maggs and I ran some errands on Saturday, including dropping my bike off at the shop to get a tune up before my race.

Today I saw a classic. There was a little family with 4 kids in our ward.  They come in right when church starts. They all walk in with the dad being the caboose.  The mom looked up and said quietly, “Where is the baby?” The dad looked and shrugged indicating he did not know.  She is about two   and was bringing up the tail end. It was just kind of funny, I have been there where I may not know where all the kids are and I hope they are behind me somewhere.

Our sacrament meeting was very good today with simple lessons and stories about the Atonement, but were very powerful.

I hope you all have a great week.

Chris