Let Me Introduce You

Let me introduce you to someone.  This is Riley Nelson. 

Oh yes, hello.  Could you please go back to this haircut?  Thanks.  

Riley is backup quarterback for BYU.  Tonight he rocked out a trick play that was BEAUTIFUL.  Not the point of this post.  Moving on. 

Looky, even though baby Jakey took his job they are nicey nice to each other (I have nothing against baby Jakey, by the way).  

Right now he's grown his hair out long.  I prefer it short, but it's growing at me.  He seems to keep it clean.  Still, not the point of the post.  

Want to hear a little known fact about good old Riley Nelson?  Let's talk about what Riley wears under his football pants.  Is it A) Underarmor shorts B) briefs C) athletic shorts D) nothing.

Did you choose an answer?  

If you chose D you are right!  Our seats being on the third row and all we see the team up close and personal and let me tell you, you can see RIGHT through those white pants and you can tell that Riley is all skin color under there. 

Also, you can see the whatever the leg strap parts are called on his jock strap.  That part's not my favorite. 

Is it bad that I don't mind my view much?  In fact, I really like it.  At the Utah game the most interesting thing on the field was Riley Nelson's backside.  

Men look good in football pants.  Riley looks especially good in football pants.  Riley apparently has something against underclothing.  

I'll stop there.  I promised Sarah I would try to keep this post relatively tame because her mom reads my blog.  

P.S. New football love?  Daniel Sorensen.  Yum.  

A Great Video

Listen, just go watch this now because it's so funny at the end in my opinion.  I giggled out loud to myself.

Graduation

Oh yeah, this happened...

No, I'm not really ready to talk about it yet.

Brandon Davies (you had to know this was coming)

Since the dust has settled a little bit I thought I would share my thoughts on the whole Brandon Davies thing.

In case you've been living under a rock, here's the story. Basically about two weeks ago BYU's starting forward Brandon Davies got kicked off the team (we're talking men's basketball here) for an Honor Code violation. We proceeded to lose (badly) the next game to an unranked team. The word is that his girlfriend is pregnant and campus (and the media) have been in kind of an uproar.

My Initial Reaction: PISSED

Davies should have been thinking less about himself and more about his team. Losing him affected all of the guys (who should be his brothers) in a bad way. Don't get me wrong, BYU was in the right here. He broke the rules and he gets to pay the price. I think, though, that if he was going to break the rules he should have continued to lie through the rest of the season at least (2 games and post-season). I know any of you reading this that are ultra-righteous are judgine me for saying that. I don't care. He'd already done the deed. Not a big deal if he lies for a few more weeks and doesn't screw over his teammates in the process. In for a dime, in for a dollar.

On the Student Section

Signs that say "Davies we forgive you" and "We still *heart* you "Davies" are out of line. First of all, he doesn't need forgiveness from the student section. Secondly, why rub in his face that we all know his personal business? Not to mention the sign makers don't speak for the whole group here and I was still mad when I saw those signs. Chants of "we want Davies" seem to be another way, in my opinion, of rubbing in the fact that he can't play. Think before you speak/act, student section (I know, you're shocked to have that come from me).

On Davies Being Courtside

I thought it was classy and thoughtful for [I'm assuming] Coach Rose to let Davies sit with the team for the last home game. He spent almost all season as a part of the team. He's dealing with a lot already and I think it's great that they let him offer his support to his brothers. Ditto letting him cut the net. Davies' actions as he cut the net (head bowed, without reacting to the thunderous applause) paint the very picture of remorse. For me that was both sad and appreciated. I know I expressed my displeasure with the actions of the student section, but I thought the applause was appropriate (though a bit long/excessive in execution).

Where I Stand Now

Davies definitely screwed up and that's his burden to carry. I still see the action as selfish and thoughtless. But. Yes, there's a but. He's been through a lot already. Everyone and their dog have heard all of his personal business and raked him across the coals. It was his mistake that caused this so I don't feel too bad for him, but let's move on. I'm ready to look to my team for some excellent post season play. And if Davies can get his life together by next season, fantastic. I'll welcome him back with open arms and cheer for him just like I would had none of this happened.

If you've made it through this lengthy post I'm extremely impressed. Don't fret. I [most likely] won't devote any more blog space to this topic. The Mountain West Conference tournament starts tomorrow, so LET'S GO COUGARS!

BYU Mentors

My students have mentoring every Friday up on BYU campus. Today we were in the Garden Court at the Wilk for a presentation by the Break-Dance club. The kids thought David Dekker was my boyfriend because I gave him a hug. I miss BYU so much it hurts my heart.

Student Work

Today I was finishing a lesson on word choice and making sure to include sensory details in writing. I had the students pick an event or place and then fill out a chart of what they could see, hear, smell, and feel. Finally they had to use the details to write a paragraph. Here are two of my favorites from a pair of my boys. I have corrected spelling, but not grammar.

The Mall

It was late Friday night and I just arrived at the mall to see a scary movie. In the mall there was two girls next to me and my brother. They were hot and pretty. The girls screamed.

As you can probably tell I stopped them after a time limit so some didn't quite finish and that particular student is one of my low-level students anyway.

BYU Basketball Game

When I went to the BYU basketball game I was excited. I could see the players but before they started they sung the national anthem. I heard everyone singing along and then they brought down the big white sheet and then they showed a video on the sheet of people playing basketball and turned off the light. Then dropped the sheet and started the game. It was crazy everybody yelling in my ear and I hear the ball bouncing on the court. I also see the players running toward the ball and make it into the hoop. Everybody started screaming yelling and I could see people spilling their drinks because they were cheering on BYU. I felt lots of excitement and happy that BYU was winning then they finally won.

Touching Moment

BYU played tonight. It was the game against Utah so it was of course a big deal. Sadly, Jimmer was off and only had 8 points in the first half. Really unfortunate. The second half didn't start any better for our home-boy Jimmer and it looked to be a tragic win for the Cougars. I don't know what sparked it, but the crowd began all at once to chant "Jimmer, Jimmer, Jimmer" repeatedly to show our devotion to him despite his lack of success on this evening.

No one will ever know if it was this cheering that pumped him up, but Jimmer went on to get 12 more points in the next couple minutes (maybe three or four) and 23 on the night and you could tell he was excited. He did the Jimmer yelling face and the Jimmer screaming face and ended the game with my personal favorite, the Jimmer happy face.

How cute is this picture? Lovely. I think it's fantastic.

The thought that maybe it was the crowd showing their devotion that kept Jimmer going and turned his game around really was touching to me and I'm not being sarcastic.

Oh yeah, let's not forget how much of a BAMF Jackson Emery is and how awesome Charles Abouo played tonight.