Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, There is actually a song called " Basketball John " which I first heard from my aunt as a young kid. While I know little to nothing about his actual basketball career, for some reason I always think about John Stockton when I hear the phrase, "follow your shot." John Stockton was on the shorter side of Basketball players, standing at 6'1". This means he would not stand up very well right under the hoop against taller centers. However, any quick guy like Stockton learns very fast that shooting from 3-point land or long 2-pointers means having to shoot the ball and then run after it in case of a miss in order to grab the rebound. That is what is means to "follow your shot" in basketball. It is the same concept in basketball, soccer and several other sports. However, the idea of "follow your shot" comes into play in many other circumstances in life outside of sports. To say it another way, "follow your shot" r...

Dear Reader, Today I cheated. Instead of thinking of a song I knew about traveling or seeing the world, I searched for one. Yes, Google was my assistant. The result was finding this song by Dar Williams, " I Have Been Around the World ." I have never heard of her and I know nothing about her. The song was cool, so I decided to use the title. So sue me. I am going to change it to "I Have Been Around Spain." Because that is what our group has been doing. A lot. This past weekend we took a trip to Avila and Salamanca, returned to Madrid for a Futbol game, and then finished off the weekend with a farewell concert for a missionary couple on Temple Square in Madrid. It was quite an adventure. Of course I'll share some pictures with you! The majority of our group  This week's trip included stops in Ávila and Salamanca. We really couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Taking off from Madrid Friday morning, we spent the morning in Ávila looking at...

Dear Reader, Some of you may know about the girls I have kissed. I am not going to go through the stories of all of them, although some of them are awesome stories. No, today is to show how much fun it is to make a fool of yourself while running around at the Utah State Fairgrounds. My brother gave me the idea of wearing a kissing booth costume to a race called the "Hit and Run 5K." There were many awkward looks and I only received 2.5 kisses, the half coming from Curtis. Go team! Curtis wanted to get out early on the starting line.  The obstacles were relatively hard...especially when you are wearing either a penguin or Kissing booth costume.  With a zoom view, I look pretty epic in this picture.  I don't look so epic in this one.  Mom was very supportive. Curtis and I were having a blast.  It was a race well-run. We had a blast being fit as a family and being crazy individually. Yay for the Hit and Run 5K! ...

Dear Reader, Have I ever mentioned how great my dad is? I am certainly lucky to have him. My father follows in the footsteps of my grandparents as a person who is incredibly patient, intellectual, talented and bald (See photo above). Seriously, I can only remember a handful of times where he has lost control of his emotions. Actually the only I can think of off the top of my head is a certain basketball game during a stake tournament. Even then, he wasn't playing. He was the referee and had to raise his voice to a player who was out of line. I feel the need to emphasize that the player was WAY out of line. The main point is that my dad a very patient man.  He is also very intellectual. He may not seem like it because he doesn't talk a lot, but he is very logical when he thinks and can make a good argument on just about any topic. There was one night that we discussed at length (about 30 minutes) the quality of the numbers 2 and 3. We were trying to determine which...

Dear Reader, Today is a short entry. I simply want to point out the correlation between being physically active and the ability to dance/sing. This connection didn't really sink in until the past couple weeks when rehearsing with my Barbershop Quartet. The past couple weeks, I have been noticing that my breathing has been off and it has been harder to sing. Then, a couple weeks ago, my roommates and I went running. Back in high school, I was on the cross-country team and ran all the time. With that in mind, I figured running a couple of miles wouldn't be that hard. WRONG. I felt like it was the most difficult run in my life! However, I noticed that a couple days after that run, my singing started to improve. That is when I realized that I need to be more active. This summer I have not been doing anything. I dance during the school year and run from class to class. However, during the summer all I do is meander to work every day and then come home and sit on my rear-end. ...