Thursday, July 31, 2008

Baseball



Gavin finally finished his baseball season. They played hard, but struggled. They ended up in a Super League tournament and that totally sucked for the team! Gavin had a pretty great last game, considering. The team lost 16 (or so) to 0, which wasn't cool, but Gavin caught 6 fly balls out in center field. They played a total of 4 innings, so Gavin made 1/2 of the outs! Totally awesome! He was also one of 2 boys to get on base, though neither of them made it home. Trent & I are so proud of him. He worked hard, did his best and had fun. What more could a parent ask for? He finished up just in time to go to his first scout camp, which is where he is now. 




Finals are looming in the near future for me. I can't wait to be finished with Chemistry. I'm sure that Trent is anxious for that time as much or more than I am. (I whine and complain about it a LOT.) My new semester starts on August 20th. Not much of a break, but I'm getting closer to my goal, so I guess we'll survive.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Life's Hurdles

Trent & I like to take the kids to the high school, so that we can run/walk the track and they can just hang out and get some fresh air. We went this morning before Trent took the kids to Castle Dale to hang out with his family. Gavin walked with me for a few minutes and we talked about jumping the hurdles. I told him how to jump them (with the front leg straight and the back leg bent) and tried to convince him to try it. So, when I was done, we went over by the hurdles that were set up on the hard, unforgiving asphalt. He ran and jumped over one, but jumped with both legs bent. I clearly had to show him how jumping hurdles is done. (Not sure why I thought I was such an expert. I don't think I could even do it when I was in my teens, let alone now.) Regardless, I gave it a shot. I actually cleared the hurdle, but my landing was really rough. I'm pretty sure that my feet didn't even touch the ground. I was suddenly laying on the ground, trying really hard not to cry in front of my kids. I pounded my right shoulder pretty hard. I have scrapes and/or bruises on my left knee, right elbow, right hip, right shoulder and both palms, not to mention my wounded pride. I don't remember the last time that I got hurt like this, but I'm pretty sure that I got to cry, whenever it was. They should really be called "Hurtles".


I got to come home and spend my WHOLE day studying chemistry. I really hate chemistry. I think it's really cool the way everything works together, I just don't particularly enjoy learning about it. Maybe it's because, like an idiot, I decided to take it online instead of in an actual classroom. I think I would understand it better if I were taking it in an actual classroom setting. Chemistry is the biggest hurdle in my life right now. After reading all of Chapter 8 today, I had to take the quiz. I was feeling really great about the quiz while taking it, but something must be screwed up in my brain because I totally sucked at this one. I got 2 out of 5 questions right. This professor likes to really mess with us and it sucks. A few weeks ago I took a 40 question quiz. Almost every question had choices from A-O (that's a total of 15 choices) and the answer for O was "the correct answer is not listed". I clicked O eight times. That's 20% of the time. I was certain that I was bombing the quiz because what kind of a teacher gives you 15 choices and doesn't even list the right answer? I ended up with a 39 out of 40 and I only missed one because I accidently clicked the wrong answer. It is messed up! Anyway, that is my rant about chemistry. Thankfully there are only 2 weeks left in this semester. Hopefully, I will pass this class and not have to retake it, because I think that I would seriously have to consider changing career goals and that would suck, but not as much as taking this class again! I am looking forward to clearing this hurdle, hoping that I manage to land on my feet. (BTW, my anatomy class is fascinating and I love it! Trent is getting annoyed by my constant references to all things anatomical, like the fact that my palms hurt the most and bled the least because the thick skin on your hands is highly innervated but doesn't have a lot of blood supply. Wow, that is annoying!)

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

All Stars

I have to brag about my totally AWESOME All-Star, Gavin. The team played a double header on Saturday. Gavin pitched the majority of the first game and pitched NO balls. Meaning that they were either perfect strikes or the batter swung at them. He had a great pitching game, not so great on the batting end. He struck out 3 times in a row and for each of those he didn't swing at the final strike. I don't think there is anything worse for a baseball player than to strike out because you didn't swing. (Okay, that wasn't bragging, I realize, but it makes the next part better.) They won that game by a landslide. I'm not going to get into the second game on Saturday because we lost by a landslide. But, we had a really great game last night. Gavin was the starting pitcher, he walked a few kids, but still did a great job. He had two great hits and scored 2 of our 4 runs. He played 2nd base for the second half of the game and made a really cool double play. He caught a line drive and immediately threw the ball to 3rd base for another out. I love it when he does cool stuff like that! I know that I am normally not a big (or even a little) sports fan, but watching your own kids play and succeed is totally different and I am kind of a crazy fan. 

On a side note, I dissected a cow's eyeball today. It was really squishy and cool! Last week we dissected a sheep's brain.