The most exciting news of the month was the victory of BYU's basketball team over the #2 team in the nation, Gonzaga. We were in attendance at that game in the Marriott Center on Saturday night, February 22. We went to the game hoping that BYU could at least make a decent showing with no expectations of a win. The arena was filled to capacity, 22,000, with the students being 6,000 strong. The noise was deafening, especially as BYU took a decisive lead in the last three minutes of the game. We have waited for this moment for years - a home court win over Gonzaga. As one friend put it, 'This win makes all the thousands of dollars spent on season tickets in the past, worth it.' Needless to say the crowd was so excited. After the game, the students stormed the floor to celebrate with the players. To make the night complete - the senior basketball players were honored before the game, the Qualtrice half court shot went in the basketball hoop for an $8,000 prize to the shooter, and Cosmos successfully dunked the basketball after sailing through the legs of a member of the school's dunk team doing a handstand on another person's back. Quite and amazing evening. |
| I had to take this picture of the half time score to show we were at least ahead of Gonzaga at this time of the game. Oh ye of little faith....that's me!!! |
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| The final score. An amazing win!!! |
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| And the students went wild....all 6000 stormed the court. |
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| Charlotte, the rabbit |
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| Charlotte also had a bit part as a police officer |
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| Notice the little bunnies on Charlotte's legs. Those were her children |
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| A darling play with some original music sprinkled in. Charlotte was right in character every time she was on stage. Such talent!! |
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| The finale |
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| After the performance |
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| With Grandpa and Grandma |
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| The Westover family and friend after breakfast |
The month actually started out with our attending the BYU football signing luncheon. We attend this most every year. We are served the same lasagna lunch every time but it's a fun break in our usual routine to attend. The coaches talk about all the new recruits that have pledged to come to BYU. The only problem is that 80% of them are coming after their missions in two years. That makes for a real interesting challenge for the recruiting team. After the lunch, we walked into the stadium so Paul could check out the seat arrangement. For the past 4 years, we have bought ticket on the fifty yard line which are wonderful seats but very expensive. He wanted to see what the less expensive seats were like. There have been years that we have spent upwards to $150 a seat (and we buy 2) and have left at half time because the team was doing so poorly. Each year is a gamble as to how well they will do. The deadline for seat selection is coming up at the first of next month so he'll have to make a decision soon.
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| The big choice...seats with hard backs and arm rests on the 50 yard line or narrower seats with no arm rests on the 30 yard line, |
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| Paul checking out the different options |
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| Paul showing Deon and Gary where the new cottages and recreational facility will be built. |
The next week, Deon and Gary came to town. Their granddaughter, Marlee, had her missionary farewell, and they were here to be a part of it. We don't get to have them stay at our home anymore because both Garrett and Kacee are living in Heber now, but we did see them a couple of times. They are looking to move here to Heber and are trying to find the right place to live. They are wanting to get out of California and Heber seems to be the right place for them. We showed them the area where Tracey, our developer, is going to start building cottages this summer and they were real excited about that possibility. The cottages will be nice homes (larger than what they have in California) but built on smaller lots which the HOA maintains. That seems perfect for them.
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| Beautiful Marlee |
That Sunday, Marlee Allred gave her farewell talk which was wonderful. She quoted from testimonies of both her grandfathers which were special to hear. She'll make a great missionary in the Spokane Washington Mission, speaking Spanish. She'll do her language training at the MTC in Mexico. After sacrament meeting, we attended an open house at the Allred's home. They served barbecue beef sandwiches with chips, vegetables, fruit, and desserts. I took over a large tray of homemade cookies. It was a good weekend and always fun to spend some time with Deon and Gary.
Something that February always brings in a rewards check from Costco. We always take that money and update our year's supply with the food we've used over the past year and haven't replaced. This year was no different. We love that particular trip to Costco because it's like you are walking out of the store with free food. This year we cashed the check and put the Costco food bill on our credit card but the end result is the same - free food. We also love the look of our shelves in our storage room downstairs when we get all the food put away.
A project Paul and I took on this month was to organize files. Paul went through his files in the storage area of our basement and threw away many outdated items, like his Mom's tax returns. He finally decided to get rid of old bank statements from years back and other miscellaneous records from years ago. I tackled my files in the office downstairs. I first went through the smaller two drawer files. I threw away all my old lesson plans from when I taught seminary, institute, and gospel doctrine classes. I figured that with the new curriculum, even if I was ever asked to teach, I wouldn't use those lessons plans. I did save some of the generic visual aids and put them in a separate file drawer. I then got rid of all my records from teaching school for 12 years. I saved school pictures but that was about all. I organized the keepsake file drawer with a file for each of our family members. Then I turned my attention to the church file drawers - 3 in all. I went through each file individually and tossed anything I hadn't used. I still had handouts from my college religion classes. The end result was decreasing the files from three drawers to one. The downstairs office is now incredibly organized with only essentials still taking up space. Boy does that feel good.
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| The, now organized, files in our office downstairs. The one open drawer contains the church files, down from three drawers. |
One of the last things that we did this month was attend a Jackie Evanco concert. This was a Christmas present from Todd and Kailee and Ryan and Katie. Paul has always loved her as a singer, especially when she was a young girl. She is now 20 but still is an amazing singer. Her vocal range is unreal. We loved her performance, especially because she sang several songs from Broadway and the movies. She performed in the Eccles center in Salt Lake City, which is a beautiful facility. |
| Waiting to go into the performance |
On a sad note, Paul got a call from Irene, his sister-in-law. She called to tell him that his brother, Derrill, is showing signs of dementia and had to quit working in the temple because he was making too many mistakes and couldn't remember making them. The MRI taken of his brain doesn't show the protein build up associated with Alzheimers but he is showing signs of short term memory loss. We hope this doesn't develop into full blown Alzheimers but there is a family history of that disease. Paul's dad had it as did his sister, Yvonne. Paul is convinced that he only has a few more years before he gets it, too. The difference from him and his brother, is that Derrill has been on a depression medication for 20 plus years and that adds to the probability of dementia.
Just a few pictures of Aria and Avery taken this month.
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| Aria cut her bangs this month - luckily she didn't cut them too short so it was easy to blend them into the rest of her hair |
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| Avery loving her brownie sundae - especially the pink sprinkles she kept pouring onto her plate. |
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| Aria and Todd singing 'Into the Unknown,' from the new Frozen movie. Each time the chorus came on they would raise their arms. |
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| This is Avery copying Todd and raising her arms with the chorus |
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| Aria loves going into the hot tub on Sundays when they come up for dinner. |
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| Avery has adopted my soft and cuddly blanket as well as my chair. |
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