Weekend Update

S. and R. with their  bikes and new helmets on our street today

Well, it's Sunday evening.  I hope that everyone has had a great weekend.  It was fairly relaxing for me, despite having a full day of baseball (2 games) and basketball closing social and potluck yesterday.  It was so busy that I didn't get to my workout until I did 6.2 miles last night (this morning) at 2 a.m.  Yes, I am crazy, but I really needed to get that run in.  And I was happy with my time, so maybe my preparations for Oceanside are coming along.

So without further ado, here is an update on some of the items that I've been blogging about lately:

The Parable of the Bicycle:
Remember this post?  Well, S. has loved his bicycle.  He got it on Monday night and I wasn't able to take him out for his bike riding lesson until yesterday (Saturday).  As I suspected, it took S. about 2 minutes to learn how to ride his bike.  He did great!  (And I feel a lot less guilt!)

He ran out today by himself and was doing laps on our street on his bike.  He will get more confident and faster as he gets more experience, but he is on his way.

After our lesson, I took S. and R. to our local Walmart to get them some new helmets (see above).  Mom, per your instructions, I used the birthday money you sent for S.'s new helmet.!  He didn't have one and he had a lot more confidence today now that he has a new helmet.  He was also really excited to get it last night!

I even took the rest of the kids out to go riding as well since the weather was so beautiful this afternoon:

M. really enjoyed his ride

E. was begging for me to keep doing lap after lap through the neighborhood

My brother even made a surprise visit and wanted to test out S.'s cool new bike

Baseball As Life:
R. had a game yesterday.  He was pretty nervous during batting practice beforehand, but we worked on it together and he actually put the ball in play both times he came to the plate yesterday.  I know that sounds kind of lame, but he didn't strike out and it was definitely an improvement.  I don't care whether he is the world's best baseball player or the world's worst, but I want him to learn to not give up and to keep practicing.  I'm so grateful that he made tangible progress yesterday.

I *Heart* Tyler Haws:
I've been getting my basketball fix with the March Madness tourney.  BYU (and Tyler Haws) will be playing tomorrow night at the Marriott Center.  Too bad I'm not in town.  That would have been a fun game to take the boys to watch.

The BYU women's team is also in the NIT tourney.  They advanced to the third round by beating SDSU on Saturday at the Marriott Center.  They play WCC conference opponent St. Mary's (a team that they played twice this season--beating St. Mary's at home and losing to them on the road) on Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.  Go Cougs!

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday was officially the first day of Spring and today was our firm's annual March Madness party.  I decided it was time to do some extensive cleaning of my office.  I figured that I should take some pictures to document the result.  It may never be this clean again!

I'm proud of the door to my office!

It's been a while since this much floor space and desk space was visible

I also got a couple of thing hung on the wall (finally)

The Prayer at Valley Forge - Arnold Friberg

I'm really excited about the Arnold Friberg painting of George Washington kneeling in the snow at Valley Forge.  It was a very generous gift from my sister T.  T., I want you to know that I saw at least one person at our party today going into my office to get a closer look at the painting.

My first trophy in many, many years!

The other major event last night was that I played in the Coaches Game from the Boys and Girls' Club basketball league that R. and S. played in this season.  They just did a schoolyard pick of teams, but there was a referee, a clock, and a scoreboard.  We won 96-90.  I probably had one of the best scoring games of my life.  The basket looked huge and I probably had at least half of our team's points.

I also had a ton of assists and made some really fun passes to my teammates where I threaded the needle just past the outstretched fingertips of the defender.  After the game, they awarded an MVP trophy (which was a huge surprise).  It was pretty fun.  In the parking lot, one of my teammates asked me where I'd played my college ball.  Ummmm....I didn't.  But it was still cool that he thought that I had.  It was just one of those nights where everything seemed to go down and I played way better than I deserved to.  It's just too bad that none of my family was there to see it.

I *Heart* Tyler Haws

Tyler Haws dribbles up the court

March Madness is in full swing now.  For the first time in 6 years, my team--the BYU Cougars--are not going to the Big Dance.  But they did make the NIT tournament, at least.  So their season isn't over...yet!

They played Washington Tuesday night and got only their second post season win in the past 11 years when they didn't have someone named "Jimmer" on their team.  But BYU appears to have a new superstar in the making--Tyler Haws.

Teams have to resort to faceguarding to stop him.

Tyler's line last night:

• 37 points
• 15-24 (.625 FG%) from the field
• 6-6 from the charity stripe
• 6 rebounds
• 3 assists

Yes, he is a big-time player and he's only a sophomore.  So far this season, Tyler (who is among the nation's leaders in scoring (21.4 ppg) and free throw percentage (.872)) has scored 706 points.  He is only one of 5 players in the history of BYU basketball to do so.  The others?  Only Jimmer Fredette (twice--1,068 in 2011 and 751 in 2010), Devin Durrant (866), Danny Ainge (782), and Michael Smith (765).

Not only is Tyler a great player, but he's also a great person.  He hung up his sneakers to serve a two-year mission to the Philippines where he learned Tagalog.  It makes you wonder what he can do in the next two years  now that he has "shaken off" the mission rust from his game.

I love this video about how he and his dad would go practice at their local church.  If your kids love basketball, sports, BYU, or any of the above you need to have them watch this short video (I need to have my kids watch it with me again!):

I got a chance to meet Tyler Haws last summer up at BYU basketball camp and he was so gracious and kind to all the campers.  He is the type of player that you want to root for and that you want your kids to look up to.

I still remember watching Tyler's dad, Marty Haws, play on some pretty good basketball teams at BYU in the 1980s.  I'm looking forward to seeing Tyler continue to lead BYU basketball over the next couple of years!  Go Cougs!