How to Sled Without a Sled

My sister and her two little girls stayed with my wife and I this week for Thanksgiving. They are from AZ and hardly ever see snow. Since it snowed this week here in town, the girls wanted to play outside. Behind our apartment building is a small hill--ideal for sledding if you are a kid. Unfortunately, my wife and I do not have any sleds. However, we were able to be creative and did find a couple substitutes.

We first used a lid from one of our plastic storage bins. It worked alright, but wasn't able to go very fast. Our second idea worked a lot better. We used cardboard display signs that were glossy-smooth on both sides. The smooth surfaces allowed the girls to slide further than the bumpy and grooved storage bin lid. To improve our make-shift sled even further, we used a rope to tug the girls down the hill, making their ride even faster and farther.

So there you have it. If you ever find yourself up a hill without a sled, you know what you can use.

First Tournament of the Season

BYU's wrestling team traveled to Fort Collins, CO to wrestle at a tournament hosted by Colorado State University this weekend. About 10 teams were there to compete. A few Utah schools were there, including Dixie State and Utah State University. Some other schools that came to compete were Air Force Prep Academy, University of Arizona, Wayne State College, and Colorado University of Boulder.

This was our team's first competition of the season. Our coach, Brannon Warner, who is also a team member, told us before hand that he was confident our conditioning would be better than all of the competition. He was right. Our team won the tournament in overall points and had wrestlers place in the top 3 of each weight class. Two of us were first in our weight classes, including myself and Gage our heavyweight.

We don't compete again for about another month. However, we now know where stand against the competition this season. We are off to a great start!

Online Interview

In my Business Writing and Communications class recently we have been learning about interviewing skills. We had two neat mock interview assignments this week. One of the assignments was done in class in groups of three. The other assignment was done online.

I conducted my online interview through FaceTime. FaceTime is a reliable and simple method for a video chat. However, I learned two important lessons to keep in mind for future online interviews. The first lesson has to do with internet reception. I don't know if it was my internet or my partners, but I was unable to hear 75 percent of what he said. The poor reception made the interview nearly pointless--he could hear my questions but I didn't hear any of his responses. So, in the future, make sure your internet connection is strong! Second, I learned that I have a difficult time keeping my answers short. The interviewer asked great questions, but I rambled in my responses. From now on I will keep my interview responses short and concise. I believe that will increase the effectiveness of my interviews.

Here's a funny interview scene from the office.
https://youtu.be/k4z_xTEWbLU

Wrestling Season Begins

BYU now has a club wrestling team. This is the new club's third official season; about 30 guys are on the team. We practice Mon-Thur nights at 7:30 at Provo High School's wrestling room. Two students, Brannon and Tyler, lead the group by organizing practices and setting up our schedule this year.

Despite the club being small and relatively unofficial, our goal is to become an extramural sport next season. The university has told us that if we comply with their requirements we will receive this promotion.

Being an extramural sport would give us more credibility along with privileges to BYU exercise facilities. As far as the teams we wrestling, not much would change--we wrestle other teams in the NCWA (National Club Wrestling Association).

Practices for the club started two weeks ago. Our first matches won't be for another month at least though. If you know anyone who wrestled in high school and wants to compete, tell them about BYU's club team!

How to Make a Mummy

My ward hosted a fall party this week. The theme was Halloween and Ice-Scream!!! Haha

We had a lot of great desserts, but the funniest part of the activity were the games and activities we played. My wife and I earned a second place prize for the best toilet-paper wrapped mummy. My wife had to stand still while I unraveled a roll of toilet paper around her to create a mummy. We weren't the first couple finished, but we were the best quality wrap. Therefore, we earned second place!

A word of caution, if you ever try wrapping a toilet-paper mummy, you will get very dizzy from going around and around and around your partner with the roll of TP. 😖

Women are Sensitive

I've been married for a little over a month now. During the past month I've learned several lessons. Most recently, I've learned that women are very sensitive, especially when compared with men.

My wife hurt her back this week while we were working out at the gym. The next day she cut her knuckle on a cheese grater. Ever since then, I've been tending to her needs while she is "incapacitated."

Being a guy, my instinctive reaction to her pleas for help and care is "Suck it up! Its only a scratch. And just stretch your back. You'll be fine!" However, I know better. I try to show empathy and change her band aid with fresh Neosporin each day. I even went with her to a physical therapist to get her back looked at.

My wife will be fine. No serious harm has been done. While she recuperates though, I need to be understanding that women deal with pain differently than men.

Spiritual Lessons

The Saturday sessions of Conference were amazing as always. I'll share my favorite principle learned.

This principle was shared in the second talk of the Priesthood session by a member of the Seventy (I don't remember his name). A story introduced the principle: 

A Russian YSA was on a train on his way to the temple. He saw a beautiful woman sitting across from him. He was impressed with her bright countenance. Wanting to share the gospel with her, but being to shy to make a bold move, he pulled out his copy of the Book of Mormon and started reading. He hoped she would notice and comment. Ironically, she was also LDS and thought the exact same thing about him! She pulled out her copy of the Book of Mormon hoping he would notice also. They both noticed and long story short got sealed in the temple.

The principle here is that when we put forth faith and effort, the Lord puts forth even more on our behalf. In other words, we give an inch, he gives a mile!

Mountain Man

I went camping this weekend with my wife and a couple of friends. My wife and I had been wanting to go so we decided to jump into it sooner rather than later. It turned out to be a huge success! We made tin-foil dinners at the apartment before we left so our meal would be quick and simple at the camp site. Our tent was easy to set up. Sleeping soundly through the night was difficult--we slept on a slope that caused us to slide down our sleeping mat throughout the night. Other than that, however, we had a blast! We look forward to at least a few more camping trips this semester. Soon we'll be qualified mountain man and woman!

$800 lesson

This week I learned a very expensive lesson: DO NOT be less than 40 minutes early to an airport when catching a flight!

My wife and I were leaving on our honeymoon last Saturday when we decided we would grab a quick bite to eat with my wife's mother. The airport we were flying out of was small (3 gates) so we wouldn't need to be super early. We came strolling into the airport 36 minutes before our flight was scheduled for take off. The lady behind the check-in counter informed us, without much sympathy, that it was too late to to check-in or check luggage. We would have to get another flight.

After a lot of frustration and $800 later, we had two new plane tickets leaving later that evening to Los Angeles so we could go on our honeymoon. Not a great way to start a honeymoon, but a very valuable lesson learned...

That's HOT

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in my first session of hot yoga. It was with my mother-in-law. She's an avid yoga-doer (not sure what the term is for that). I have not been to a gym or done any type of intense workout in nearly 6 months. Needless to say, it was an hour and fifteen minutes of hot, sweaty, scrutinizing pain! 

Fortunately, my body was in need of this sort of readjustment and I was grateful to have participated. My muscles feel more relaxed than they did before. My back feels better than it has in months too! Therefore, I have learned that hot yoga is not a fad to be overlooked. I'm very seriously considering finding a hot yoga place near campus to start going regularly myself. Hopefully I can get my wife to attend with me. This way we can enjoy a more relaxed and healthy lifestyle together.

Today I completed my third day of classes in this new semester. While I have already learned many things, one lesson stands out the most. On Monday, day one of classes, all I brought with me was my laptop. No paper. Not even a pen or pencil. I thought I could use my laptop for any note taking I would need to do. While I may have been able to make it work, note taking on a laptop was not effective for me. On day two of classes, I decided I would try the original method of taking notes in class. Boy what a difference it made. It seemed that by virtue alone of having my paper and pen ready at the start of class, my mind was ready to start learning. Day three of utilizing the same note taking method was equally as effective.
This is important because I am not just taking these classes to go through the motions and get a grade. On the contrary, I am taking these classes to internalize the concepts to jumpstart my career. I really don't have much concern for the letter grade i Receive at the end of the semester. Therefore, because of this lesson learned, I will always begin each class period with my notebook and pen ready.