A Day in the Life

At the end of January during my monthly lunch with them, my friends and I decided to take a picture everyday for a month to document our lives.  The pictures could be very random -- just one thing to show what I did that day.  I thought it would be an easy project, but after the first week I began to realize how much my life is the same day in and day out.  But I perservered and took pictures almost every day.  So here it is,  a day in my life...

February 1, 2011

Brandon practicing the piano

February 2, 2011

Me, doing what I do, waiting to pick up the kids.

 February 3, 2011

Time to grocery shop.



 February 4, 2011

A patio set at Sam's Club that I liked -- except it cost $1,000



 February 5, 2011

My uncle's car that I sold on KSL.com



 February 6, 2011

Earthquake Cake



 February 7, 2011

The wind tipped over the ceramic snowman on my porch and it broke.



 February 9, 2011

Gotta stay regular.



 February 10, 2011

The computers weren't working at school so the kids watched a movie.



 February 10, 2011

John's colonoscopy prep.



 February 11, 2011

The car wash

 February 12, 2011

Valentine Roses



 February 14, 2011

I polished my toenails for the first time since September because the temperatures were in the 60s.

February 16, 2011

A banged up and bandaged up Jenn



 February 17, 2011

The snowfall after the 60 degree day.

 February 18, 2011

My SEM kids were Secret Service Agents for an assembly

 February 19, 2011

We took Brandon to The Roof for his birthday and he was wearing two different shoes.



 February 20, 2011

The family February birthdays -- Anita, Brandon, Susanne, Ruth and Sam.

 February 21, 2011

Sammy's wedding dress.



 February 24, 2001

Brandon and his friends making the infamous "bullets" for history class.

 February 26, 2001

The military honors at my uncle's funeral.



It's been a very long shortest month of the year and I'm tired.

Team Sports

Many parents spend many hours watching their children compete in some type of team sport.  That has not been my experience, as Brandon does not enjoy sports that much.  But today I had the opportunity to watch him compete in a team sport, and it was every bit as intense as your common soccer or football game.

Brandon is a member of the National Academic League (NAL) team, which is a group of exceptionally bright teenagers at his school who compete against other exceptionally bright teenagers  from a different school, on various academic subjects, from math to current events. They even have team uniforms.  Today our team wore jeans and a dark blue hoodie with a Central Davis NAL logo on it.  The opposing team wore sweater vests and dress pants.  

The competition resembles a group Jeopardy game; each team has a buzzer and 30 seconds to answer very difficult "junior high" questions.  After collaborating with their team members, the "captain" would push their buzzer to answer the question.  If they got it wrong, the other team would have the time remaining of that 30 seconds to try and answer.  The questions were fired off rapidly and I felt like a character in a Charlie Brown cartoon listening to the teacher talk: "wa wa wa wa wa...."  Many of the questions were 3 parts, and required 3 answers, all of which had to be correct to get the points.  I've always considered myself an intelligent and educated person, but I tell you, I didn't even understand the questions sometimes.

Brandon and some of his teammates were given a topic with very specific criteria that had to be answered and sent to another room for 30 minutes to prepare.  They then had to come back and present their argument, including scientific facts, to the moderator in 3-5 minutes with no notes.  They are judged on fact, presentation, and how well they knew their materials.   I was very impressed.  Brandon's team got 16 out of 20 points; the other team received 9 points.

At the end of the 4th quarter, Brandon's team won 38 - 27.  They celebrated just like any other team that wins a competition.  They even gave the other team a cheer.  I was bursting with pride and realized that this was my first "team sport" moment.  Afterward, Brandon said he was nervous and it was really intense.  They took it VERY seriously.

It wasn't your typical team sport, but it was just as intense and important to these kids as soccer or basketball is to athletes.  I was grinning to myself as I watched these sometimes socially awkward kids finding their niche.  I can't wait for the next game. 

And no, I'm not an "armchair quarterback".  Brandon knows way more than I do.