October 17, 2005

Dear Family,

This is going to have to be fairly short because it is a little difficult for me to type. So, please excuse any misspellings, grammatical errors, etc. I, in an attempt to continue to feel young, was playing intramural flag football at BYU with some girls in Chad’s single’s ward. On the last play of the game, I intercepted a ball, but didn’t catch it cleanly and thus broke my finger. Then, not knowing it was broken, I hurried down to Spanish Fork to play in our coed softball doubleheader. Not the smartest move!! I have a feeling that my recovery time will be a little longer than expected due to the fact that I haven’t slowed down much to let it heal. Some things never change I guess! I also started teaching a Math for Elementary Teachers class again this fall at BYU. My class is about twice the size of the class I had last semester, but they are a fun bunch of kids and I am really enjoying it. It’s also nice to get some adult conversations in during the day.

Chad is also trying to pretend he is younger than he is by all of the sports that he is playing. Besides playing coed softball, he also played in a men’s softball league (they won their fall league division and won the championship game 28-3), as well as playing with some of my family members on a BYU intramural flag football team. They seem to be pretty successful, and they are certainly entertaining to watch. In his spare time (all 30 minutes of it a week!), he also helped coach my nephew’s flag football team that just won the league championship a week ago with a record of 8-0-1. It was the most physical flag football game we have ever seen and the final score was 6-0. He really enjoys practicing his football coaching for when Cole gets old enough. So far he has behaved well enough to still be able to coach Cole later on. (We decided coaching my nephew would be a test!) As always, the first 2 months of the semester are busy ones in BYU wards because they have to fill about 90% of their callings again. So, he has spent lots of time in Bishopric meetings, training meetings, and interviews. He’s grateful that the BYU women’s volleyball and soccer teams are having great years, and the football team has won two straight so he at least has something to cheer about in BYU sports this fall.

And then there is Cole. What to say about a kid who is always on the go. Up to about a month ago, he used to enjoy naptime and bedtime. Now, it has turned into a major fight every time. Apparently he has decided that he has too much to do to stop and sleep!! Thankfully this is a fight that his Mom and Dad still win! Cole’s vocabulary is rapidly growing, with most words revolving around sports. He’s the only 18-month-old that I know that likes to read the sports page! (Or at least point out the pictures of football, baseball, and basketball in that section.) His vocabulary also includes Cosmo (the BYU mascot), helmet, “Y” (And he recognizes the letter), football when he sees Lavell Edwards Stadium, and other related sports and BYU items. Finally, Cole has become a very social child. When I teach, he loves to go play with his friends. He knows all of their names and gets mad when we go to their houses and he can’t stay and play. He got particularly upset this fall when we would go watch his cousins Morgan and Mason (and several of their friends, who Cole thinks are also his friends) play soccer. Cole did not understand why they got to be out on the field and he didn’t. He would try to kick the ball out there, just so he could play too.

We are gearing up for a long plane trip to Chicago with Cole to go see the BYU-Notre Dame football game in later this week. We’re hoping we can keep him entertained for at least part of the flight. I guess we’ll see how many passengers are still speaking to us when we get there! We hope Cole actually likes sports since this will be the fourth football game this year he has attended. Although Chad has been looking forward to the football game and letting Cole experience Notre Dame on Gameday, it will be a great trip to let Cole visit and play with his grandparents (assuming Lorna lets Chuck have any time with Cole) and also visit Matt and Lori and family in South Bend.

We hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for the newsletters and pictures. We really enjoy having everything on the website because it keeps us in the loop of what is happening with each family.

Love,

Chad, Becky , and Cole