Football or New Moon...Decisions, Decisions

For those of you not following the UT 4A High School Football playoffs (and that would include us), Erica's high school made it to the championship game. It happens to be today. For some odd reason, they play these games in the middle of the day on a school day. Maybe it's just because we're a 4A and not a 5A school and the 5A might play tonight. And, since they play at the U of U and there's a chance the U of U might want their team to play on the field tomorrow and not ours. Either way, the school district has this little policy that if the school can pre-sell 1000 tickets to the game, they'll cancel school for the day so all the students can go. Erica pointed out that there are very few high school students who wouldn't pay a couple of bucks to get a day off, whether they actually go to the game or not. She assures me that she did not do that, though. So, it's been an anxious week as they've waited to hear on the school status for today. The great news arrived during lunch yesterday. 1000 tickets had been sold! No school at the high school today! Erica called to tell me right then and woke me up from a nap, so I was less than excited or supportive in this wonderful turn of events.

I suddenly found myself with some quantity mother/daughter time and I changed up my plans so it could be quality time as well. She chose to sleep a bit this morning, which was fine. I walked the boys to school like normal and then planned to take Erica shopping to get the items I meant to get for her birthday (Happy Birthday!) but circumstances prevented my actually getting to the store. She had other plans and met me at the door when I got home excitedly announcing that there was a showing of "New Moon" at 10:00 this morning. We could see it and still have time for me to get back to help out with Book Club in Steven's class. Why not?! She's been pushing for this movie to be the "reward" movie for all those in the family with no cavities- which would be everyone but me. I know for a fact that Greg doesn't want to see it and no matter how much Erica tries to convince herself and them otherwise, I'm pretty sure her brothers don't want to see it either.

We picked up friend, Katie, on the way and had quite a bit of fun. The movie's better than the first- at least at following the storyline. We had to split up because we weren't three hours early for seats. I got to sit behind Erica and Katie, right next to 2 pre-teens who were skipping school and at the movies with one of their mothers. Judging by all the twittering and nervous giggles, they weren't the only ones who should have been in school and were not. Pre-teen girls should not be allowed to watch this movie. They also should not be allowed to be interested in boys. There are way too many new hormones trying to figure out where they belong and too many parts in the movie that get them all out of whack. Pre-teen boys would probably be ok, though they'd wonder why a good action flick has to be interrupted so often with all the lovey stuff. Either way, I've now seen it, Greg hasn't, the boys are off the hook, and Erica, Katie, and I had a fun morning. Thanks, football team, for making it to the championships and giving Erica the day off.

Oh, BTW, we won 35-6. We learned that from the teen-age boys in our house who went to school today and saw snatches of the game on TV there. Maybe the school district should hold school and just show the game instead of holding class. Just a thought. Of course, I wouldn't go to school to watch with Erica, so maybe this way's better in the end- quality, quantity mother/daughter/friend time. Though, showing the game and holding school would not result in my being anywhere near twittering pre-teen girls on a Friday morning. Ah, decisions, decisions!

Where Did We Go Wrong

Today was the season opener for BYU football. They played against Northern Iowa and won 41-17. (Yeah!). It was a fun game. Greg got 2 season tickets for his birthday. There are 6 home games, which worked out great. Each of the kids and I could go to a game with Greg and enjoy the BYU football experience. Perfect plan. So, what went wrong? This week was Ryans' turn to go to the game. At 3:30 I called him upstairs to get ready. He decided he didn't want to go. Steven didn't want to go. Spencer didn't want to go. Erica didn't want to go. Joseph was playing at a friends' house. I have a terrible cold and wanted to stay home, but who in their right mind passes up a chance to go to a football game?! I went and had a great time. How do Greg and I, both BYU grads who never missed a home game the whole time we were students, have children who have grown up to not want to watch BYU football? I thought is was passed along in the genome somehow! Ok, we haven't exactly lived in areas where BYU football was played-either in person or on TV. Neither are we the pay-hundreds-of-dollars-to fly-across-the-country-to-see-BYU-play type of people. But, we did watch it when we could and even traveled from CA to AZ to see them play against ASU once. I guess it's not enough. So, let us be a warning to all of you out there. Teach, teach, teach your children about the really important things in life and don't forget about BYU football. No, Keith, ASU doesn't even come close to being as important. Cosmo, Cosmo, Cosmo not Sparky, Sparky, Sparky! Next week is an away game. We have soccer and viola during the first quarter, but the kids will have a new kind of homework when we get home. Lucky for them, it involves the TV.