Harvard at Brown

After last week's lackluster performance against 1-2 Stonybrook, I was a little worried that we might get trounced by Harvard, who is rumored to be pretty good. They were giving out free seat cushions for the first 1500 fans, so we left earlier than last week, there was also a significant chance of heavy rain thanks to then Tropical Storm, now Hurricane Kyle, so we drove the 1.2 miles to the stadium after swinging by Rite-Aid to buy Sara a youth-sized poncho and some snacks. These two choices combined to get us there about 20 minutes before kickoff and in plenty of time for free seat cushions.

Sara makes tries to blend in with the "W" in the BROWN sign while modeling her Rite-Aid youth Poncho. Sara had to tear the neck to fit her head into it because she's not 8 years old any more.

We started the game by going 3-and-out before pinning them inside their own twenty. Only to watch get a few first downs and then score on a 53 yard bomb. They missed the extra point, but the way their offense moved the ball I wasn't sure that it would matter, and least I had seen the score after missing all of them last week.  On our 2nd drive we turned it over in the Red Zone and they drove right back and went up 13-0.  Things weren't looking too good as the rain started coming down harder.  Luckily, my wife encouraged me to buy a poncho once we got to the game, it was paying off now.

Me modelling my Brown University adult-sized poncho.

On our third drive we again were moving the ball well, as we marched down the field and this time punched it into the endzone with a 25 yard TD pass. Yay! I had seen Brown score a touchdown. It had taken 4 quarters, but I'd seen us score. Sara asked me if I thought Brown could win this game, I said, "yeah if they fumble this kickoff return."

They did. But on our first play after the fumble recovery they blitzed and drilled our QB just as he released the ball that was picked off around the 10 yard line. But on Harvard's first play after the interception, they fumbled again and we recovered it. 3 plays, 3 turnovers, I know it's raining pretty hard, but I'm sure Harvard's coach is livid. We score and make the PAT to go up 14-13. The half ends that way.

At halftime, Harvard's non-marching band takes the field as their PA announcer pithily insults Brown. Then Brown's band takes the field and our PA announcer makes fun of Harvard. At this point, I remember that Brown's PA announcer did the same thing last week, making fun of the Stonybrook. Apparently, this is some kind of Ivy League tradition. Whether for the whole league or just Harvard and Brown remains to be seen, but it's kind of funny to hear the PA Announcer at a football game ripping on the opposing school because their newspaper made up a word, or their students were complaining about the new lunch policies.

In the second half we exchanged scores and we were up 24-16 until Harvard scored a TD with 1:03 making it, 24-22. How big is that missed extra point now? 

After starting out docile, the Brunonian fans got a little more into it as we started to score.  Now they're going absolutely crazy, the stadium is loud, though that could be from the sound of heavy rain drops beating on tons of umbrellas more than the cheers of the fans themselves.  Either way, it's loud as Harvard goes for two and fails.  We recovered the onside kick, downed the ball several times and everybody was cheering and happy as we exitted the rain.  Final score Brown 24, Harvard 22.

 

The teams shake hands as we file out of the stadium.

As we walked to the car I thanked my wife for being brilliant enough to insist that we drive to the stadium.  Our clothes that weren't quite covered by our ponchos are still drying out from the deluge 12 hours later.

Stonybrook 7 - Brown 17

Last Saturday, I took a little break from my studies to accompany my wife to see Brown's 2008 season opening football game against the Stonybrook Seawolves.

We were running late and so we missed the first 18 minutes of the first half. When we got there Brown was already up 17 - 0. So we thought maybe we'd see a blow-out. The stadium itself is tiny when compared to BYU or even Utah State's fields, (It seats 20,000) and I was disappointed to see that there really weren't many people there either (I'd guess around 6,000). The stadium kind of reminded me of Jefferson County Stadium where my high school team played their games, although it was quite a bit bigger than that.

The nice thing about there being few fans was that we could sit wherever we wanted. We decided to sit at the 50 yard line, about half-way up the bleachers for a better view for the first half. When halftime started we moved up to the top row so we'd have back support and the view was even better from up there. The stadium is surrounded by tall pine trees so that even from the top of the bleachers where we were, you can't really see any of the neighborhood around you. It makes it feel like you're playing in the middle of the woods, sort of a lumberjack's field of dreams. There is no jumbo-tron, nor any-kind-o-tron, and if it weren't for the fact that you can watch Brown Football on the Internet I'd question whether there were any cameras aside from those used for football film reviews. The scoreboard does actually display the name of the visiting school instead of just "Visitor" though, so I we're not totally technologically starved. And without the technology you get to enjoy the little things more, like the bell behind the end zone that gets rung every time we score, the Ivy League flag blowing in the wind, the little bits of Ivy intertwined with the big "B" at midfield, and of course the beautiful forest setting.

But back to the game. With just minute left in the first half, Stonybrook had a First and goal from Brown's 2 yard line. Brown stuffed them on 1st and 2nd down run attempts, and then on 3rd down Stonybrook's Quarterback rolled out and tried to dive into the end zone, leaping into the air with the ball held out, only to be smacked right in the chest by a Brown defender. The hit led to a fumble and the end of Stonybrook's scoring chances, and end the half at 17-0.

At halftime we watched Stonybrook's marching band perform while Sara told me how USU's marching band moved around so much more. She also told me that Stonybrook's flag team was tamer than her sister's winter guard routines when they were in elementary school. I always thought of the colorguard as something to be ignored so I hadn't even noticed that they did almost nothing during the performance. (The fact that I think this way of colorguard probably dooms me to have kids in the colorguard some day, so perhaps I'll pay more attention so as to avoid that experience later.) But Brown's band wasn't even a marching band, they ran out onto the field and played their songs without marching, but they were pretty good.

The Brown non-marching band acts silly on the B.

The third quarter was evenly played with neither offense really able to move the ball too well. Brown drove down the field a couple times only to stall inside the 30 and give up the ball after going for it on 4th down or turning it over. At the end of the third I went in search of food but only found ice-cream as everything had already shut down. But being the dutiful husband that I am, I brought that ice-cream, an Awful-Awful (milkshake) and a Super-Chipper (ice cream sandwich made out of cookies) to my wife at the top of the stadium. After I sat down I realized that it was now 17-7. Sara informed me that Stonybrook intercepted a pass and ran it back for the TD. The rest of the quarter resulted in zero points and so I saw my new team win their first game without seeing any scoring in a 17-7 game.

We didn't look too good in that game, and Stonybrook (a State Univerisity of New York school located on Long Island) had just moved up to Division 1-AA last year, so I'm a little worried about our homecoming game Sept 27th against rival Harvard.

Albuquerque and Auntie K

This past Spring, my sisters began talking about a road trip to visit our Auntie K in Albuquerque (this makes me want to play that alphabet game where you say... my name is Auntie K, I am from Albuquerque and I sell asthma inhalers... my name is Bertha, I am from Bermuda and I sell brains... ... ...). I invited myself along and then, we invited our Grandma Rudd to join us. It may not have been what Megan and Becca originally had in mind, but we had a wonderful trip and hopefully it will be the beginning of many girls' trips to come. (Coming to the beach next summer ladies?)

I arrived first in Albuquerque (from DC) and picked up the rental car. Then, I talked the Delta reps to let me go back through security to help my sister who was traveling (from SLC) with her baby and our grandmother. I met Becca, Sam and Grandma at the gate and we successfully found all of the luggage and made it to the car. Megan should have arrived right about then as well (from SLC) as well, but her flight was delayed. We found Auntie K's beautiful house and unloaded, then went back for Megan a little later. From the second we arrived, the hostessing was amazing. Almost as amazing as the food. I was introduced quickly to two of my new favorite treats - apples with hummus and Hansen all natural sodas.

As I was writing this post, I realized that Becca had the nicer camera and got the better pictures of this trip. But, enjoy my highlights and the pictures that I do have. The greatest highlight, for me (probably no suprise) was the amazing food. DC lacks excellent Mexican food and the New Mexican cuisine treated me very well. Another great was playing the Wii with Grandma Rudd. She is quite the bowler.

Yet another greatest highlight was definitely spending time corrupting my nephew, Sam. I taught him how to go in and out of Sheba's dog door (much to her chagrin). I gave him a sucker, ice cream, and all types of other bad things for him against Becca's will. I also helped him learn how to go down stairs, effectively erasing his fear of stairs, creating a new fear for his mommy. Thanks Becca!

And, some highlights with pictures:

Friday morning we took the tram (longest in the world) up to the top of Sandia Peak. It was amazing other than the fact that Grandma was both scared and dizzy. Who knew there were such mountains in the desert that is Albuquerque?


Saturday, Auntie K took us on quite the tour. We went to Bandelier National Park where we hiked all over Native American cliff dwellings, to Los Alamos (home of the National Lab) and to Santa Fe jewelry shopping. It was amazing and by the end, we were worn out!

Bandelier National Monument

Sunday, we went to church, stopped by the temple, and then went on a drive to Madrid, NM. Madrid is the city where the movie Wild Hogs was filmed and it was one of the most eclectic places I've been. We got in touch with our inner hippies there. And (of course, back to the food), Sunday evening Sandy and Auntie K put on an amazing barbecue for us.

I know this picture at the temple doesn't look like me, but it does show how long my hair is (even longer since then).

On the way to Madrid, we saw a Mormon Battalion Monument. I had to include this picture because I have very few with Auntie K. I need to steal some from Becca.

And, on Monday morning before we flew out, we visited the Albuquerque zoo which was exceptional. I highly recommend it if you're visiting Albuquerque. One fabulous thing about it is the amount of shade. It was planned very well. My favorites had to be the bears, the apes, and, of course, the hippos.

Here I am with Sambino and the hippo! (thanks Becs for the photo)

CTR 5A

When we moved into the Falls Church, Virginia Ward shortly following our marriage, we were told that because of the large ward numbers (780+ prior to some boundary changes last month) and the transient nature of our ward (a lot of student and foreign service families) we probably would not get a calling for a while. With everything going on in our lives at that time, we probably sighed our sigh of relief a little too loudly because two weeks later we received a calling.

(For readers that don't attend the LDS church, I apologize for the LDS-lingo-heavy post.)

We were called to teach CTR 5A which is sunday school for four-year-old kiddos turning five during the calendar year. I was very excited to work with children and Will was, to put it lightly, nervous about teaching little ones. We started teaching in January and by the time we left, the children we taught were some of our best friends. We didn't know many adults in the ward, but couldn't have had better friends.

During the eight months, we had between eight and ten children in our class, each with very unique personalities and a ton of energy. Our hearts were broken watching the hard life of one young girl living with struggles way beyond her age. We watched in amazement at the teaching and training done by the parents of these brilliant children. I was blown away with Will's teaching skills and the way he related to and paid individual attention to each child in the class. He was also extremely patient with my procrastination in preparing lessons. We didn't have church until 1, so Sunday morning was perfect prep time for me.

It was such a blessing to help our children learn more about our Heavenly Father's love for each of us and that choosing the right does make us happy. Will and I also learned a lot from lessons such as "I can make right choices," "We have special families," "I can share," "I can show gratitude," and "Jesus Christ loves me." The truths of the gospel are so simple. Teaching four-year-olds was a great reminder of that. We loved it when parents told us stories of the kids sharing what they had learned and when they remembered things from lessons long past. One lesson that came up over and over was the nature of the Holy Ghost. One child was riding in the car with his parents and shouted "Stop!" When his parents asked him why, he said, "The Holy Ghost is hear with us, right now!" He was very excited and I think they all learned that the Holy Ghost is one ghost that a) is not scary and b) we want to be in our room at night. Another favorite was acting out the parables of Jesus. We built boats out of the chairs in our room more than once and acted out the parable of the good Samaritan enough times for all eight children to be the good Samaritan (and so each could be the donkey that the good Samaritan used to take the sick man to the inn).

In addition to teaching them, we played with the kids. Instead of bringing treats to class as reinforcement for reverent behavior, we filled up a "reverence" chart with stickers. I was amazed that it worked as well as it did, but the kids worked hard to put a sticker on the chart. They filled up all 32 spots in mid-June (1 chart worked for six months!). The prize they chose to earn was a pizza and brownie party at our apartment. And party we did! Seven kids came and the favorite activity was definitely swimming in our hot tub. It's amazing how long they entertained themselves in so little water. But, they had fun. We also ate pizza and brownies and played a few games.


It was such a fun time that when we found out we were moving, we had another party that was also very fun. (Those pictures are on my camera which I need to pick up at the post office tomorrow from it's little jaunt west. Thank you Meg!)

And, just in case you're doubting Will's enthusiasm for CTR 5A, I give you proof:

We miss the children and our ward, but are having fun getting to know people in our new ward, which is much smaller and much more diverse. We like it!

Providence/Boston/Albany/Syracuse/Palmyra/Ithaca Weekend Trip

When Will found out that he was accepted and received a scholarship to Syracuse University, we decided that a road trip was in order so that we could check SU out. While at Will's parents' house for the Fourth of July, we discovered that one weekend that worked out for us was a weekend of the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Will's dad, Bill, served his mission in the Eastern States and participated in the pageant, but neither Will nor his mom, Marie, had seen the pageant. So, we decided to plan our trip for that weekend and that Marie would come with us.

We had planned to depart on a Thursday, stay Thursday night at Bill and Marie's and then drive to Syracuse Friday morning. But, the Tuesday before we were to leave, Will received notification that he had been accepted to Brown. So, we quickly called Brown and changed our travel plans.

(A little tangent - it was a really crazy week for us because Will had lasik eye surgery on Tuesday. I think he ended up working a day and half and I worked one day that week. It was a little tricky because he hadn't told anyone at his job yet that he was thinking about leaving to go to school.)

Here is the summary of our jam-packed weekend (most of the pictures are going to have to come in subsequent posts or I'm going to have to figure out a slide show or something because there are a lot):

Wednesday

• After work, drove from Falls Church to New Hope, PA (188 miles, 3.5 hours) - went to bed late at the Bill and Marie Bed and Breakfast
  

Thursday

• Woke up at 3:45 to leave New Hope at 4:30 am to drive to Providence, RI (251 miles, 4.5 hours)
• Toured Brown University, Will met with professors and grad students in the CS Department
  

• Drove to Boston, MA, (52 miles, 1 hour) strolled through Faneuil Hall Market, ate at Legal Seafood, and looked at the boats

• Received a speeding ticket 6 miles from our hotel in...
  
• ...Albany, NY (169 miles, 3 hours)where we slept well but not nearly long enough

Friday

• Drove from Albany, NY to Syracuse, NY (146 miles, 2.5 hours)where we toured campus. Highlights included the Computer Science Department labyrinth and Carrier Dome
  

• Drove from Syracuse, NY to Palmyra, NY (69 miles, 1 hour)
• Attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant

Saturday

• Toured the Joseph Smith home and Sacred Grove
• Did a session at the Palmyra New York Temple

• Visited the Grandin Bookstore and downtown Palmyra as well as the Whitmer Farm and home
  
• Drove from Palmyra, NY to Ithaca, NY (78 miles, 2 hours) where we drove around Cornell University in the rain (Will wasn't considering going to school there, but at that point we were having university campus withdrawal)

• Drove from Ithaca, NY to New Hope, PA (219 miles, 4 hours) where we slept for a few hours

Sunday

• Drove from New Hope, PA to Falls Church, VA (188 miles, 3.5 hours) in time to teach primary

Just in case you're counting, we were in nine states (VA, MD, DE, PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA) and drove 1,356 miles (25 hours) in 3 1/2 days. And, partially because Will had just had eye surgery, but mostly because I'm stubborn, I drove the entire way.

My Amazing Husband

Not long after Will and I met, he started talking about wanting to go back to school. As I am a strong advocate of education, I encouraged such talk. As our relationship progressed and we began to plan for a future together, he started to talk a little more about going back to school sooner rather than later... Not long after we were married he started looking at schools. I of course encouraged him but tried not to be too pushy. Honestly, I thought it would happen, but not this year. And, that opinion was reinforced when we moved into late Spring and Will still hadn't applied to any graduate schools.

Then, Memorial Day weekend happened. We spent the weekend at Will's parents house in Pennsylvania. The night before we left, I decided to buy (literally) into the trend and purchased the three Stephanie Myer novels in the Twilight series. While I read away the weekend (three books in three days), Will, out of frustration for my lack of attention or otherwise, applied to eight graduate schools. Yup, you read that right, my amazing husband completed applications to eight graduate schools in one weekend. The next week was a flurry of requesting transcripts and recommendations and then we waited... and waited... and waited. While exciting, it seemed a little unreal because it happened so fast.

By July we started to hear back from schools. My amazing husband got into seven of the eight he applied to and the eighth didn't even wait for the complete application, so it appears that there were no spots left. He also received scholarships at at least three of the schools.

In mid-July, we visited two schools, Syracuse and Brown Universities (more details of the packed weekend road trip coming in the Providence/Boston/Albany/Syracuse/Palmyra/Ithaca Weekend Trip post). After visiting the programs, the right choice was pretty clear to us (even though I still pushed for USU). With less than a month to get ready and move, Will decided to attend Brown University.


Brown University, an Ivy League school, was founded in 1764. At the time, it was the only one that welcomed students of all religious persuasions (following the example of Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island in 1636 on the same principle). Brown remains dedicated to diversity and intellectual freedom. The unique curriculum harks back to a philosophy shaped by Brown President Francis Wayland. In 1850, he wrote: “The various courses should be so arranged that, insofar as practicable, every student might study what he chose, all that he chose, and nothing but what he chose.” That means that Will doesn't have a set program of study and gets to choose his coursework, along with every other student at Brown.

Attending Brown University is an amazing experience for an amazing man. I will let him post about the excitement of returning to school after five years in the working world and how "shopping" for classes is going.

Race Like There's Nobody Watching

On June 7th, a group of friends and colleagues of Lois Taylor, my "DC mom" and former boss, gathered on one of the hottest and most humid days of the summer to walk 5K in the National Race for the Cure. We walked as Team Lois' Legacy. Our team was 41 strong and we raised $6,308.00. A special thanks to my family and friends that helped me raise my piece of that. The race was a neat experience and it was wonderful to do it with Will. It's amazing to see how Lois continues to bring people together and create a spirit of unity among her friends and colleagues even from beyond this earthly life. I miss her.

Here are some pictures from the fun (and humid) morning:

Hrach, Judy, Patty, Bobbi and I

Bobbi and I showing off our Lois' Legacy tshirts (that I designed on zazzle.com)

This picture is to show two things - the massive numbers of people (10,000+) and the humidity (so bad there was limited visibility)

Jim, Ruth, Meredith and Dre

Sheryl with Frank, trying to keep everyone together (before we gave up)

Sheila and Susan

Larry and Kristen

And, last but definitely not least, Will and I.

Posting these pictures tugged a little on my heart as I probably won't be seeing these wonderful friends and colleagues for a while. It's starting to sink in that we've moved and while I'm excited for our new adventures, I will miss the people that were my DC family for five years. I'm grateful to be able to keep their friendships with me.

Blogging

While my mom and Megan were here this past week they pointed out multiple times what a horrible blogger I've been. I had to agree with them. In an effort to motivate myself to be a better blogger (or maybe just to spend time blogging without really blogging), I worked on the layout tonight and even started a few (non tag/survey) posts. My big excuse for this weekend is that I accidentally sent my camera to Utah (in Megan's purse) so I don't have pictures of the move. But, the truth is that I have a lot of pictures on my computer that I haven't posted yet. So, posts to come in the next few days include:

Race for the Cure
My Amazing Husband
Providence/Boston/Albany/Syracuse/Palmyra/Ithaca Weekend Trip
CTR 5A
Albuquerque
Houseguests
Best of DC
Lancaster PA
New Hope w/Brett
Farewell to DC
Welcome to Providence, RI

Okay, maybe I'm over committing myself for the next few days, but I really do have a lot to blog about, so check back often.