Trav's college football (fashion) preview

With the start of the college football season just weeks away, I'm sure everyone is clicking the refresh button on our blog in anticipation of my indispensable analysis. OK, maybe not. But I do want to comment on this...


Yeah, yeah, I'm sure the Ducks have "the firepower to shake up the BCS" -- but the SI cover story should really be titled: "How SWEET are the Ducks New Unies?!"

There are those who say, "Uniforms don't matter, winning is what really matters." And there are still others who say, "Winning doesn't matter, academic achievement in the classroom is what really matters." I have no doubt these uniforms will increase both winning and academic achievement. They are that sweet.

When the team isn't feeling very monochromatic, there's a plethera of other color and helmet combinations to choose from. The Ducks' math skills will improve just by figuring out how much a "plethera" really is. I'm bad at math, so I'll just guess "one hundred million."


Speaking of feeling monochromatic, the Ducks' opponent on September 3rd got new uniforms too.

Pretty subtle, huh. Maybe, the BSU marching band will play Eifle 65's original Italian megahit "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" and the Blue Man Group can perform at halftime.

When it comes to blue, these fellas wear it best...

Go Ducks/Cougs!


P.S. - tell me what you think about Oregon's new threads.

UPDATE

(Un)Sound Financial Advice

Recently, my children presented me with the following proposal: in exchange for being "good" all day, they would each receive a shiny penny. They no longer wished to be good for nothing. I agreed to their terms.

Before long, their business plan paid off and they quickly accumulated several pennies. When Taeg' showed me her profits, I suggested that she find a safe place to keep her money. "Under the cushions!" she beamed, quickly lifting up a seat cushion on the living room sofa and carefully depositing her coins. I tried to explain that the interest her money would accrue under the seat cushion would be negligible. But 2-year-old's don't care about compound interest -- they just want to keep their assets liquid and readily accessible.

Today I learned where the kids have directed their revenue stream -- salt water taffy.

I accompanied them to the candy store during my lunch hour. I handed Karst' a basket and told them they had sufficient funds for 8 taffies. After some deliberation, they reached their quota. The boy tentatively approached the cashier by himself and carefully handed over his basket of goods. The cashier rang up his total -- .96¢ -- whereupon Karst' silently reached into his pocket and emptied the contents onto the counter. Four quarters and a dime. Upon receiving his taffies and his change, Karst' glanced at the coins and smiled. "Yes! I'm rich again!"

In these economically uncertain times, it's nice to know that my children are so financially savvy.

SEcrEt MEsSaGe.

A few weeks ago, Primary was centered around family night and how to make them better. I successfully avoided my other responsibilities and was able to sit in the back and listen to parts of the lesson. I realized that our family nights need some help and I remembered a crafty project that I have successfully put off for YEARS.


I am proud to say, I love spray paint, I had this piece of wood sitting in the garage, I didn't need a power tool, and vinyl lettering will remain tacky after years of sitting curled up on a shelf.

Yes, I do realize that the 'things' representing the individuals in the family are lame but in my defense, I could not find what I really wanted so I just decided on making do until I find/make what I want.

We have continued with a tradition in my family, the person that is conducting is in charge of picking the pray'er' for every meal or anytime we feel the need to give thanks as a family during that week. I was the first person in charge so no biggy. Taegan just gave up her rights last night and lets just say it was a long week of hearing... "she never picks me"....."me, me, me, me"..."um, um, um, I pick, um, um, um, I pick.." We will see how this week goes, Karsten is the school bus!

I think the board has been a helpful reminder for us to not only remember who does what but also to put some time into our family night duties! There are probably halos on our heads right now.

We are over it... really!

The last post was about our DINK days, even though it has taken us over 2 weeks to post anything else, it is not because we are still reminiscing. Trust me, I can't even remember what I ate for dinner last night let alone something that happened years ago. Karsten had a great birthday and here are some pictures to prove it.

Karsten chose cupcakes so he could decorate them, hence the 16lbs of sprinkles in the middle of each cake!

Grandma & Grandpa Stoddard gave him a helmet that 'transforms' his voice into a robots'. Because it is such a pleasing sound, we will be bringing it to their house for the next visit so they can enjoy it as well!

And finally, I do not believe there is a home video that was made in the last month with better quality. I mean really, a dark orange shaky picture and plus I got to edit HTML code just to get it to work... Hollywood here I come.

No, I can not sing. I am over it and you should be too!