Ben and Jerry join the family in SLC

There's a B & J place in SLC. This fact was brought to our attention Saturday night after we'd all consumed more pizza than was good for us. At first we thought we weren't quite up for it, but LUCKILY we came to our senses. And fortunately for us, so did Jim, Peter and Syd. That meant that we could go for nothing less than the mother of all B and J treats- the Vermonster -

20 scoops of your favorite ice cream, bunches of sliced bananas, mounds of melt-in-your-mouth brownies, layers of hot fudge and sweet caramel sauce, not to mention sprinkles and whipped cream (we got a discount 'cause they were out of that). There was no way we could pass it up.

We had to wait longer than we wanted for the ice cream scooper guy to run down to storage and return with the famous gallon bucket (It had been a while since anyone had ordered one).

Then we had to decide on what flavors we wanted, wait some more while the scooper cooked it just right, line up all the spoons and napkins and then just go for it.

And wow - yes it was worth the wait. We all agreed that we did a really good job decimating the contents of that bucket. Another magical B and J memory...:)

Oilers clinch last place

It was extremely disappointing to come back to Edmonton and then come to terms with the fact that the Oilers, who I didn't stop following while in the UK, are having their worst season ever. Literally the worst. I don't think they have ever finished in last place in the league in their history but in the Edmonton journal this morning I noticed the headline "Oilers clinch last place." I thought it was an ironic title and a few of us in the office got a laugh from it - the irony being that the Oilers have had nothing to play for in the last few weeks apart from avoiding finishing dead last in the league. Now that they have "clinched" last place their only consolation is that they have the best chance at getting the number one draft pick this summer. But it's hardly a consolation after returning to Edmonton and being welcomed by a team that will likely have a few more gruelling seasons ahead before climbing out of the bottom standings.

My Other Family

I just want to take a minute to talk about my other family here at BYU. My FHE family! Being at college can be lonely at times. You're a lot more independent and have your own schedule and time to do things. That's why you need friends and people to help you along your way and make it more fun and enjoyable! Anyways, the group of people who have really helped with that, especially recently, is my FHE family. We've had a lot of fun activities and times together! Ice skating, a bake-off competition, going to Temple Square at Christmastime, going to the Bean Science Museum, etc. Most recently (last night), we decorated Easter eggs. Pretty typical activity for this time of year. However, it took a bit of a turn when we decided to go outside and throw them at each other. This was all in good fun, since hard boiled eggs aren't TOO messy and disgusting, until my FHE brother Forrest decided to run up to his apartment to get a RAW EGG and throw it at me. It got all over my sweatshirt and in my hair, and needless to say it was not a particularly pleasant experience! I tried to get back at him but sadly nothing could top what he did.
Anyways, we do have a lot of fun together! Here's a few photos of our recent activities.

MARCH MADNESS

Thanks to the generosity and connections of Uncle Jim and Peter, David and I were able to watch the Western Regional Tournament of the NCAA men's basketball playoff, commonly known as "March Madness". It was held at Energy Solutions Arena in SLC.

We saw teams and players with breathtaking skill and determination. We saw Kansas State defeat Xavier in double overtime, which hadn't happened in over 20 years in this tournament. The team from Butler University in Indianapolis won the tournament and the right to advance to the Final Four, which is the next and final round of the tournament. Butler is not one of the noted powerhouses in college basketball - it has only 4000 students and plays in one of the lesser known conferences, but through teamwork and sheer determination they were able to
defeat Syracuse, the number 1 seed, and Kansas State, the number 2 seed. Both the teams they defeated had players with greater individual talent, but their coaching and teamwork were not as good. Five players working together can overcome many challenges. I think this is a good lesson for all of us.
Luv,

Gramps

Connie's Song

The last few posts of song and nature remind me of Connie's Song by Xavier Rudd. Listening to it makes me feel peaceful and refreshed. I especially love the words:

...........a new gift with each new sun
Green green and sacred from all its drink
And all its love
Connie stands with pride here
She offers thanks with all her heart
For here in this garden beneath these trees
She is at one, She is at one........
.......But spirit grows as time moves on
With each breath of wind his presence felt
Smiling down, Smiling down

Baptist Choirs can SING

My ward is pretty gregarious and just began a partnership with a Baptist congregation in South Central LA. We are going to do service projects alongside eachother! Our Bishop knows one of the members of their congregation well, and that's how this started. To kick off the partnered service work, we celebrated Palm Sunday with them tonight by having a concert together! It was totally amazing! My favorite moments were when we all sang together. We did a neat arrangement of 'I Know that My Redeemer Lives,' and 'He Decided to Die.'

Here's a youtube 'cut and paste' address to see a recording of 'He Decided to Die.' It was really fun learning it with them to perform today because they don't really read music, they just learn by ear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqsLMPmya9k&feature=email

It was such a cool experience to sing Gospel Music! We had a blast up there on stage with them! I also felt the spirit and another joyful style of worship!

G and G Walk Through Washington

As we all know, G and G love their daily walks. And they've been able to find some pretty cool ones this past month. Here's just a sample -

Madison Falls - Olympic Peninsula
Tradition Lake - at the foot of Tiger Mountain
University of Washington Arboretum

It's been pretty tough keeping up with them this month, especially Grandpa with his new walking stick. He's going twice as fast now. Keep showing us the way, G and G!

Edmonton River Valley

I've written in the past about how much I loved hiking and exploring near our flat in the UK but one thing I'm glad to come home to is the famous river valley in Edmonton. We had 1.00 church today so thought that we would go for a stroll in the morning before church started. Even in the early spring in Edmonton, when almost everything is still brown, I was amazed by how beautiful the river valley thought about how I missed walking (and rafting) through it after all of these years. With a bit of luck and good fortune though some of those fond rafting memories and enjoyment of the river valley can be resurrected and relived.

How do you take your Bananas?

I know that this is very dorky, but I love the way that Christian eats his bananas. It cracks me up every time because he's so serious about it. He opens his mouth really wide so he can cram as much in as possible, and he shoves it with an open palm for maximum leverage. He chews with a massively full mouth, and he's always got some sticking on his lip. He likes to stop and look at it a lot too, just to see if anything changed with it since he last looked at it. And whenever he catches me looking at him he gives me a "Wad you lookin at lady?" before giving me a huge smile.

Curling

So recently with the Olympics and all and having had the opportunity to play I've REALLY gotten into curling. I don't get it I always thought of curling more as a "game" than a sport sort of like dodgeball or ultimate frisbee ya know fun games but not really sports. But man i've got the curling bug hard. I think what it is is I just love the strategy and trying to analyze the risk and reward for the different shots that the teams can try. I've also had the opportunity to play a few times with FHE friends with connections and other stuff so it's been a lot of fun. Sadly I can't even come close to successfully mimicking the amazing shots I've seen at the Scottie Tournament of Hearts, the Olympics and the Tim Hortons Brier but I think that I have improved a lot. I think it may be something that I get into more I just really get a kick out of it. PS-if anyone has any questions about why they brush how the curling part of curling works or what a raise back, a hit and curl, a raise back double take out, a peel .... just let me know I would love to share my new found knowledge

P!NK

I love pink. I realized that as I packed my transportable office to get to my student teaching position.

Coaching Jr. High School Boys

So recently my friend Dave asked if I would help him coach a jr. high school jr. boys team. At first I thought I'd be too busy and wasn't sure if it would be a good idea because I didn't know exactly what I was doing but I thought it would be fun and Dave and I rarely get to see each other these days so I decided to do it. .......

And I'm not going to lie when I went to the 1st tryout I remember thinking man did I suck this bad when I was younger because this might be a long season kids everywhere you turned were committing carries, hacks, double dribbles, travelling violations(even more blatant than what you see in the NBA), air balls, dropped passes etc. despite it all I got kinda attached to the kids after they started calling me "coach Schneider" and asking me how to play. It was then that I realized that even though I had very limited coaching experience I sure knew loads more than I thought I did. And, not to be boastful, I could probably teach these kids a thing or two or three of four .....

After the second tryout the cuts were hard. Some of course were easy (see above) but the kids that you got to know and were close to making the team it was tough. I also gained a much greater respect for my school and community league coaches for their patience and time that they volunteered (something you don't really appreciate as a kid).

Anyways, it definitely had its ups and downs and games got really intense for me there were times I would literally be almost pulling my hair out because stuff we had worked on for entire practices would not get down come game time but I would also cheer when they actually did do stuff you showed them. Overall it was a fantastic experience, unfortunately, we were eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs we lost 49-47 in a really see-saw battle that saw us go up by ten then with 7 minutes left go down by 14 and then in the final two minutes erase a ten point deficit only to come up just a little short. I think I might do it again next year

Ain't nothin' like the real thing baby...

(I hope to post some pics of the boys soon...not sure where the camera cords are yet)

Recently I have fallen in love with Cheecha lime potato puffs. We met at my Mom's house in Rocky and the affair has been passionate. One day I was thinking about how much I love those Cheecha lime puffs and also thinking how absolutely fantastic/brilliant it was of Cheecha to come up with a snack that tastes SO MUCH like lime. I'm crazy about lime, I love it. Then it dawned on me - WHY NOT JUST EAT REAL LIME? These potato puffs are pretty nutrient deficient; they taste like a lime, they are sour in your mouth like a lime - but they will never be a lime.

There are so many artificial stand ins that pass for the real deal but ultimately never satisfy like the real deal would. Like cereal that sparsely throws in dehydrated processed berries that feel like they were made of cardboard - advertised "real fruit!" Why not just buy your own real berries???

This principle of course extends to other stand ins like when you are tired and you need rest in order to restore your energy. The real deal would be to rest, perhaps go to sleep early, whereas the stand ins (caffeine, sugar, adrenaline) only offer an artificial restoration of your energy. Or if you feel sad, lonely or hurt - there are loads of ways to artificially deal with your emotions but again why reach for the Cheecha lime puffs when you could make Cilantro-Lime Chicken Fajitas? Choosing anything but the real deal leaves your body/mind/spirit still craving and needing the real deal; perhaps passified for a moment but never truly satisfied.

Go Clippers!!

So Spencer got tix from work for another Clippers game! It was great! This time our V.I.P seats were even closer and we were given a valet parking pass so we didn't have to walk far at all to get into the Staples Center. It was a treat! Nice way to spend Friday eve. Once again, we enjoyed the half time show, watching audience members caught on camera up on the screen, and of course the thrill of seeing a live bball game up close. The Clippers played Oklahoma, who I guess are the old Seattle Super Sonics. Kevin Durant was something else.





It was also a real treat to see Em and Aunt Karyn, Uncle Jim and Andrew this week!!

Double Trouble

These shirts were a gift from Nana for Jack and Christian. I think their expressions in these photos are priceless!

Olympics - Goal Setting

I thought it was great that Canada was able to set a record for the most gold medals by one country. They set a goal to win the most medals, and set up several programs to accomplish this. Although the US won the most overall medals, Canada was close behind, and won the most gold and most they had ever won in a winter Olympics.

I think this shows the importance of planning and goal setting. We can all learn from this, and set long and short term goals to get from where we are now to where we want to be.

Luv to all,

Gramps