Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day and it was fun to be able to celebrate this holiday for the second time as a mother. As far as being a relaxing day for mom, that didn't quite happen. With Jared in the bishopbric, I made breakfast, wrestled with Kennedy during church, made lunch and even drove to my parents house and back (2 hours round trip). Jared did make up for it with a great gift from Kennedy and himself. They gave me a fun book that has tons of cute pictures of Kennedy from her first year and the Five for Fighting cd. (Good music)

We spent most of the day on the run, but it was worthwhile. We were able to spend a couple of hours with my parents in Mapleton. We went down early, so we didn't see any of the rest of my family. Don't tell them, but it was kind of nice having some quiet time with just my parents. Kennedy played on the swing, tried to pet the horses and had fun playing with her Grandma and Grandpa Houtz.

After visting my parents, we headed back to Salt Lake for dinner with Jared's family. As always, Kennedy loved playing with her cousins in their backyard and hanging out with her nana and papa. All in all, I think all the moms in our family had a good day and felt appreciated.

Late Nite Confession

I am typing this in the dark so no one can know my horrible secret. Earlier tonight we went to dinner with my family. Nothing out of the ordinary - my parents were in town for the week and we wanted to get together. After dinner I suggested we go back to my house and play croquet. I told Tara we could stop by Target and pick up a set pretty quickly. So off to Target we went. One problem - Target was out of croquet sets. The 16-year-old helping us said, "I don't think we've had any of those thingies since like August." Strange considering there was an add in the paper two weeks ago with croquet sets on sale at Target. Needless to say, we were forced to make a decision: go home without a croquet set, ruining the evening for my family or stop by the only other store nearby - walmart (I can barely type the word..ughhh).


Tara and I engaged in brief exchange in which we debated who should go into the mart and I wound up losing. I crept into the store praying that I wouldn't be seen by anyone who's heard me talk about ***Mart and rushed to the area I thought I'd find croquet sets. I don't even want to think about everything I saw while I was in there. As my blood pressure raised from the thought that I was in a Wal****, I quickly realized that they didn't carry any croquet sets either. In a small sense I was saved. I would not have to purchase anything from the mart. I ran from the store, rushed home and took a shower. It's late in the night and I had to get this off my chest. Please don't tell anyone.

The Amazing Race

In spite of my addiction to reality TV, this post is not about the show on CBS. However, that program played a vital role in what I did for work yesterday. I've been training the Geography teachers in the Jordan School District how to use GPS units and we decided to create an all day event for them called the Jordan District Amazing Race. It was so fun!!!!!

The race took them all over the southern half of the valley and had teachers participating in tons of different challenges and events. One of my personal favorites was a culture challenge in which teams had to pick a physical event or academic event dealing with the Philippines. Most picked the physical challenge which involved downing a tin of sardines in less than a minute. I don't think I could have done it, but the participants wolfed those fish down in record time!

It was such a fun day for the teachers (and for me) and it was a great way to help schools learn more about GPS technology and how they can use it with their students. In fact, the three winning schools all received a classroom set of GPS units. How cool is that! There are some days that I can't believe I get paid for my job, and yesterday was certainly one of those. Come on, I spent all day participating in a giant GPS obstacle course!

Diary of a Red Sox Fan

Last night was another example of the bad karma I'm bringing to the Sox. I was out at Mutual for the first couple hours of the game, during which time Boston had battled back to tie the game 6-6 going into the ninth inning. This is when I turned on the TV. No sooner had I sat down on the couch, than the Blue Jays rally began. It ended with the Sox down one and my closer giving up the lead. There was a little excitement in the home half of the ninth, with a runner reaching third, but it was all for naught as he was stranded there while V-Tek watched the third strike.

Maybe I should stay away from the games altogether. Monday night the Sox played awesome and beat the Yankees on a Big Papi homerun. Of course it's because I was at work and couldn't watch the game on TV. We'll have to see if I can break the Covili Curse tonight, since I am planning on watching the game while Tara is at work. I'll just rub a rabbit's foot during the first inning for luck....

Playing Tag

Since it was a rather slow weekend for covili family news, I've decided to take up a challenge and play a little tag with my friend Annie. Hence I will open up my private life with some personal confessions.

Four Jobs I've Had
1. Technology Trainer for the Utah Education network. Playing with cool gadgets and teaching others how to use them. Awesome!
2. High School English teacher, where I convinced 17-year-old boys to write poetry and share their feelings
3. Legal Assistant for a bankruptcy law firm. Talk about a barrell full of laughs.
4. County Rec Basketball Scorekeeper. It's hard to believe but I've been doing this for over 15 years. Seems like a long time, yet I get paid to watch hoops and talk with friends.

Four Movies I never get sick of
1. Hoosiers
2. Braveheart
3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off- "Ferris, you're my hero."
4. Remember the Titans

Four places I have lived
1. SLC/Cottonwood/Holladay - come on I still live in the same house!
2. 9th and 9th - a world all it's own.
3. Capas, Munoz, Cabanatuan, Mayantoc - cool stops in the Philippines
4. (Isn't it sad that I don't have a fourth!)

Four TV shows I can't miss
1. Survivor - remember, I'm a reality TV junkie
2. The Apprentice
3. ESPN News - I know it's not really a show, but I watch it too often
4. Red Sox Baseball on NESN

Four favorite foods
1. Pepperoni/Mushroom Pizza from Connie's
2. Pork Salad with house dressing from Cafe Rio
3. Ice Cream
4. Kung Pao Chicken from New Dragon Diner

Four sites I visit daily
1. Fantasy Baseball
2. ESPN.com
3. Bill Simmons
4. Geocaching

Four places I'd rather be right now
1. Home with Kennedy and Tara
2. Fenway Park
3. Some remote part of Utah, either the mountains or the desert.
4. Out Cachin'

People I am tagging (even though they probably won't participate)
1. Tara (Let's see if she'll blog about this!)
2. Chappo and Michelle
3. Bryan
4. Brant
5. Jason