Ode to Basketball

I'm pretty sure that this should not be my favorite thing I do in a week, but it is. About twice a week, I get to play basketball at the church. Everyday I do, I go home on a high. There is nothing like this sport, and I feel so lucky that I get to play. I know what you're thinking, 'woah, it is just basketball, you might be a little obsessed'. You moms out there know about the monotony of our lives. Maybe I shouldn't generalize. I feel the monotony of my life. Yes it is busy, and I have three kids that are constantly being funny, naughty, cute, amazing, annoying, etc. They keep me on my toes, but sometimes the days can blend together of making food, cleaning up food, and doing laundry. I'm not complaining. I wouldn't trade my life for any other. The thing that breaks my days up is basketball. I get to spend an hour using my brain in a completely different way. I get to push myself, sweat, be rough and strong (although recently I was accused of not having any effect when I foul someone). I get to be aggressive and competitive, and it is an hour just for me. I don't think about how I'm going to get Gabriel to eat something other than cereal, or how to get Emma to talk without an attitude. Really, how lucky am I that I get to do my most favorite thing twice a week? To clarify - I am not saying I am really good, especially compared to the men, I'm just saying I love it. I sometimes wonder where other women get this kind of thrill and enjoyment. I know that I am an anomaly when it comes to this. When I was in high school, my mom always said that I would never be able to use basketball later in life, and a much smarter choice would be to become a piano player, because I could teach and play all my life. Sorry Mom, but basketball has brought a joy to my life found nowhere else. It is who I am. I am a mover - an athlete.

Gabrielson Family Reunion

I have a few pictures others took, but none of my own. I was having way too much fun to get my camera.


Highlights (and lowlights) of the Gabrielson Family Reunion (from my perspective), and in no particular order.


- Chris taking a bite of pie with a huge nasty Caterpillar in his whipped cream.

- Getting to see aunt Carol - a rarity

- Aunt Carol decides to try running in the "Olympics" only to pull a hamstring after 3 steps.

- Staying up until 4:30 am talking with brothers and sisters, and finding out all the horrible things we did as kids.

- Brian's amazing flipper running skills

- Chris losing his hearing from a balloon JJ popped

- Laura(Gunnar's girlfriend) meets the family, and Aaron makes the entire room uncomfortable with his "try a different brother" bit. Unknown to us, she already asked out Brian 2 months ago.

-Guitar Hero













- Swimming in warm St. George weather pretty much whenever I wanted

- The best of The Colbert Report

- Sand Volleyball

- Lisa scaring all bystanders at a park by screaming her lungs out, as she is trapped by JJ and Brian in a spinny thing.

- Watching many of the adults spend hours doing the kids crafts - well, mostly Mark did this.



- Watching JJ as a parent. It is so neat to see him as such a attentive and fun dad.



- Playing Boogieman for the first time with my kids. It was so fun, and weird. One of those, "oh, I'm a grown up now" moments

- Gunnar's sprint into a concrete wall head first while playing boogieman.

- The good food - mostly prepared by Mom and Jen.


I'm sure there are many other things that I've already forgotten. The best thing was being able to spend time with everyone. We all have our own very busy lives, and it was so enjoyable to talk, laugh, and play with each other. I am blessed to be part of such a smart, fun, and real family. It was a very relaxing, and relatively peaceful vacation/reunion.

Originally, I wanted to write a blog every week, but as I am thinking about the week, I am realizing, I didn't take any pictures. Hopefully, blogging will help me with my lack of picture taking. I'm not sure if it is bad blogging etiquette not to include pictures. If so, oh well, here we go.

Saturday, I tried to potty-train Koda. Yes, it is amazing that I would volunteer to potty train someone who is not my child. I actually didn't mind. These days, I enjoy serving where I can, and I know that a potty trained child is a great treasure. So, since this is something that I can do, (unlike bringing a nice homemade dinner over to people - I'm sorry if you are ever sick, and I show up at your door) and Koda wasn't responding well to Heather and Dan's efforts, I decided to give it a try. Mark took all the kids over to Dan and Heather's. It was nice focusing on just one child for a whole day. It went okay, not as good as I'd hoped, but we are definitely on the right track, and I think it will take about another week or so until he is totally potty trained.

Sunday, we watched conference at Dan and Heather's, and pretty much hung out there all day. It was a little hard for me to focus on the talks, but what I did catch, I very much enjoyed. Things that I really needed to hear, like living in the moment, and enjoying our days right now. Also, I really liked the quote, "The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare." I know there was a bigger point to it, but I really needed to hear that if I am going to run a half-marathon in a month :) Sunday night, we played a new game called Elfenland. It was pretty fun, except I didn't win. Dang.

Oh, a funny quote from Emma. I printed off a conference packet for her, and the front page had a line for name and date. Emma came up to me and said, "I don't know what to put for date because I have never been on a date." It was funny.

The rest of the week was filled with pretty normal things. Abigail had her one year check up. She is weighing in at 17 pounds, which puts her in the fifth percentile. It is fun having such a little baby. I spent some time helping in Emma's class, which is always fun. Although the things they have her do are so easy. She could have done this stuff 2 years ago. Thursday, Chantel let us play with her dogs and kids for a while. That was a lot of fun, because my kids LOVE dogs. It was so nice for them to get to play with one for a few hours, and it was also nice to realize that I don't want one. :) I'm glad Emma and Hailey got to play together too. They are such cute friends. Thursday, we also got flu shots. Me, Gabe, and Abigail had ours with very little fuss. Emma was a different story. Holy Cow. She was screaming, "No! NO! I don't want it! NO!" We had to physically hold her down to get it done. Afterwards it was no big deal. I love to compare things that happen in my kids lives to things that happen in my own. This makes me think about things that God know are good for me, but might be just a tiny bit hard, and I freak about it. I might put up a huge fight, and if I'd just listen to the spirit and have faith, I'd be much happier.

Now, I have to go get ready for our week long family reunion in St. George. It should be a blast.