April 7th through 10th, 2011 - 118th through 121st Days

After riding hard with Kerry on Wednesday, it luckily rained on Thursday, so I got a bit of a reprieve.   By Friday the wind was howling and it was 40 degrees outside.  We had to go to a soccer game that night, and it was cold.  When I say cold, I'm not talking St. George cold, I'm talking real cold, like Canada cold (OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was very cold)!  We brought a little propane heater to the game and sat it on the ground in front of us.  I was afraid that someone was going to touch it, burn their skin off, and sue me for $100 (well, at least that's all they'd be able to get out of me at the moment!)    It definitely provided some warmth, but it was so cold that Kerry and Kim bought pizza from Costco and you had to take it out of the box quickly, and eat it like a jack rabbit (I'm assuming jack rabbits eat pizza very quickly).   Pineview dominated in the game, I think we shot 5,000 times and missed all but once.   Snow Canyon, however, shot 4 times, and made two of them.  The result?  Snow Canyon 2, PineView 1.   I think maybe our guys eyelids were frozen shut and they couldn't see the goal.  Either that, or we're just not very good.  I'm going to go with the eylids frozen shut.   After the game, I was so cold I had to go home, make a hot bath, and thaw out.  I must have pinched a nerve or something because my back was killing me!  I'd never had sympathy for people with back pain before.  Now I do.  I couldn't even roll over without moaning and groaning.  I think my wife must have been thinking, "Good thing he didn't have to have the babies!"  I took three ibuprofens and rubbed that Bengay stuff on my back, and I still woke up at 2:30.   Then, I tried to roll over on my stomach, and it felt like someone stabbed me with a very sharp needle.  On Saturday, I woke up to clean the garage and I couldn't even bend over to pick anything up.  I kept having to ask my boys to pick up anything heavier than a screwdriver.  I felt like one of those city managers who lean on their shovels and tell the other guys to get to work.   By Saturday afternoon I was feeling a little better.  I went to the state baptism at 5:00 and there were 700 people there!  It wasn't bad, however, and I was only there about an hour 1/2.  At 6:30 Nicole and I went to the HP party and they had baked potatoes and salad.  We then had a counselor, Mark Clayton, come in and talk to us about communication.  It was fun, and I actually learned something about communicating, which I wasn't expecting to.

On Sunday I had a dream about my mission president and his wife.  I woke up and it was 2:30 in the morning.  I decided I needed to plan the 25 year mission reunion.  So, what did I do?  I planned the entire reunion from 2:30 to 3:45.  Then, I went back to bed until 5:15.  Guess what?  When I woke up, my ideas weren't near as great as I thought they were at 2:30 in the morning.  Why is it that ideas that seem so fantastic at 2:30 seem so dumb at 6:00?   Well, the rest of the day was great, and I made salsa for Bishop Walker and Brother Neilson.  After delivering the salsa, we went home, played some games and went to bed.  Four more days until Kaylee is home!  In the last four days, I was nice to everyone I met, and didn't even feel like getting grumpy, so it was a good weekend.