Good and Bad Happenings

Once again, it has been too long since I wrote. A lot has happened since. Let's see: first, I went down to Moab with a bunch of guys from work and rode a trail called The Whole Enchilada. It is a 30 mile trail that goes along the red rocks in Moab. Given the fact that I have only ridden a few times and the trail was really technical, I got beat up. By the time I got down I was so tired that I could barely move. Even with the toughness, I still had a blast. It made me want to get better at mountain biking, and it made me want to get a slightly better bike (I am riding a hardtail with rim brakes...not so fun). I'll attach some pictures.

The next little bit is not so exciting, but I wanted to report that my hockey team is 6-0! We are averaging around 7 goals for us and less than 2 goals against us. That isn't to brag about my play, which has been pretty good but not great, but to brag about my team's defense. We have been playing together for a year and a half, so they know me and I know them, what they are going to do and everything. It sure makes it easier knowing that I can trust them.

Finally, a bit of sad news. My grandfather passed away last week at the age of 87. He was an inspiration to all his family and will be missed. It is so comforting to know that I will see him again and that he is no longer in pain.

Well, that about sums up the last few weeks for me! Enjoy!

Long time...

So it has been a really long time since my last post. I hate making excuses, but I will. School has become way busy for both me and Ashley. I have just had a lot of projects to work on. One in particular has been very interesting. I am taking a personal and family finance class this semester, and love it! I would recommend that everyone take a similar class if they can. If you are interested, I can tell you about some of the things that we are studying. It is great!

On another note, we started our hockey season! My team looks pretty good, I only took about 10-12 shots against me the entire game. I did have something funny happen: the puck got pushed into our zone ahead of a breakaway. It was pretty far out, but I probably could have gotten there if I hadn't hesitated. As it was, by the time I was a quarter of the way to the puck, the other team was closing in. I tried to stop and get back into the net, but I tripped and landed HARD on my butt. The other guy's eyes went all big, but I flailed and got my pad on the puck and stopped his shot and cleared it out. My wife says it looked hilarious, but at least I stopped it! My butt is still sore, though.

BYU FOOTBALL!

Just got back from the BYU football game, and I tell you what, BYU looked GOOD! Two straight shutouts, even after coming out a little flat today against Wyoming. Our defense was supposedly our weak spot, yet we have forced I think 9 turnovers in the last two games. Max Hall should be getting serious Heisman consideration, I think right now he is a top-5 player in the nation. I am not one of those guys that hates Utah just because I go to BYU. I will cheer for Utah as long as they aren't playing BYU, so it was also good to see them win against Air Force. I tell you what, it is going to be a good battle if we both are undefeated when we play the last week of the season!

New hockey season

So Wednesday was my team's first hockey practice of the season. For some reason, we only have two practices all season, and one of them is towards the end. Whatever. Our team is actually looking pretty good, even though we only had about 8 guys there. As for me, I was a little rusty after not playing since the end of April, but I picked it up pretty fast. I am liking my new leg pads, they are pretty nice. I picked them up on eBay at the beginning of the summer. My next project will be to build a drying rack for my equipment. Anyone have any ideas? Let me know!

Seven Habits

For one of my classes I am currently reading Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I am not far into it, but I am loving this book! I have been thinking a lot lately about success and how people achieve it, and I find it very interesting how much stock people place on personality traits rather than character traits. To me, our personality is how we view ourselves and how others view us, whereas our character is who we really are. It is what drives us to display our personality. Anyway, Covey talks a lot about the same thing (which I must admit influenced some of my thinking). He encourages developing character traits first and letting your personality traits come after. Some of the traits he discusses are:

• integrity
• humility
• fidelity
• industry
• honesty
• service
• quality
• potential
• growth

These are in no particular order and aren't all that Covey talks about, but are some of the traits that I find most valued in society. Anyway, if you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend picking up a copy!

Welcome to my new blog!

After two mostly unsuccessful ventures into the blogging world, I decided it was time to start over and make one freaking awesome blog! This is a blog about sports (especially hockey and football - college and the NFL), hobbies (like mountain biking and just playing), and life in general! It is meant to be a lighthearted look at a newlywed guy with no money and too many hobbies. Take a look around and check out my blog on creating DVD slideshows!