We Got Jimmered

March Madness is my favorite sporting event of the year. It's great basketball, no matter who your favorite team is. I, like many, have suffered year after year watching BYU earn its way to the tournament only to be rewarded with a double-digit seed, followed by a first round exit. Last year's double overtime victory over FL and close loss to Kansas State were so exciting. With all of the Jimmermania surrounding the team this year, we were excited for the possibility of another run in the tournament. I streamed many of the conference games, often staying up until 2 am to soak in as much of this season as I could.

When Brandon Davies made a mistake, I didn't despair. I defended the team against the fair weather fans that thought we were done. The announcers thought that was it after we went 3-2 to finish the regular season... while not mentioning that 1 loss was in the immediate aftermath of Davies' loss, and the other was to a top 7 team in the Mountain West Conference tournament finals. We took the 3 seed in the Southeast Region of the NCAA tournament, our best seed ever. I was so excited. We took care of Wofford. While I thought we could beat Gonzaga, I had no idea we would pummel them.

My analysis of BYU athletics, however, has remained consistent over the years in football and basketball. For some reason, we don't bring the necessary energy to the big games... somehow believing that it's enough to just be there. BYU fans were unexpectedly shown a rarity in the first 5 minutes of the second half of the Gonzaga game where BYU came out like they wanted to win. Unfortunately, that energy was nowhere to be found against Florida. It was really the first game I've watched where it looked like Jimmer was hogging the ball (just my opinion). While he has hoisted many shots in many games, he was digging deep against Florida and it was painful to watch. I was relieved the game went to OT. I thought we could have won it, and we came out dead in OT.

Now I don't say that to rail on Jimmertime at all, as there is no way to have such an enjoyable season without The Jimmer, only to point out that it was tough to watch The Jimmer Show end on such an off night with a spot in the Elite Eight on the line. Oh well. Thanks for the great season Jimmer, Jackson, Charles, Brandon, Logan, Chris, Kyle, James, Stephen, Noah, and the rest of the benchwarmers.

Our last two weekends have been planned pending BYU games, and we were successful. With the time difference, all of their games were in prime time after the kids were in bed. Couldn't have asked for more.

We had a birthday party for Claire this past week (her birthday is the 30th, but her best friend in Argentina's birthday was last week as well). We rented a big blowup bounce house, which is something really common down here. I was hesitant cause it seemed like it would be a lot of work with the insurance information, deposit, waivers, setup, etc... Well, if you remember my post about the horse back riding, safety and waivers are virtually non-existent here, for good or for bad. So I queried my neighbor (who recently had a bounce house for a party) how much it was, and she said about 150 - 200 for the day. For a birthday party and hours of entertainment, 150-200 dollars didn't sound totally outrageous. Imagine our surprise and joy when she corrected me that it was 150-200 pesos... which is 40-50 dollars... SOLD! The place dropped off the house about noon on Thursday and picked it up Friday morning... 210 pesos. Wow. We'll definitely be doing that again some time.

Later in the week, our ward had a campout planned at a Church-owned campsite about 45 minutes from Buenos Aires. While our kids are little and we didn't think the baby would do so well overnight, we spent about 4 hours up there playing with everyone. It was a great time. Now for those of you who served in soccer-dominant countries, you remember how goofy you looked, or felt, playing soccer when the 10 year olds would run circles around you. Well, we took up a few footballs, bats, mitts, and baseballs for the group of American families to play with... and when the Argentine members of our ward got involved... believe me... it made me realize what I must look like playing soccer. It's hard to imagine 14-15 year olds that have never thrown a football... or don't know how to swing a bat. Well, we found plenty.

The funniest thing about the campout was getting there. It was right off a freeway... but to get there, you passed under an overpass of an exit (intersection with another major road) and then turned off the freeway onto a dirt road running parallel to the freeway, then into the neighborhood where the campsite is. No street names... not listed on the maps... When the directions said, turn off onto the dirt road... it made me realize how we were growing accustomed to life here when I didn't think anything of it. I just said, "OK, I've got to look for the dirt road access point." Awesome.

Lastly, Claire played a funny trick on Caroline the other day. Caroline (almost 11 months) is still wearing the one-piece pajamas. As Caroline was crawling around the upstairs around the toys, Claire would drop a toy inside her pajamas. She was clicking around the upstairs. She knew something was in there and would shake her leg, and then just move on. It was hilarious. Claire has turned into quite the jokester, pulling all kinds of faces to make Caroline and Sam laugh all of the time.

We've got a busy week coming and hopefully there will be some good things to report next Sunday.

Another Hurdle

Quote of the week: "Going to church is easy. All you have to do is eat and color." - Claire

There's nothing to it.

This week was up and down for us. As I mentioned last week, the 16th was Lily's birthday. I took the day off and we spent the day together. We had cake, sang Happy Birthday, and watched home videos in the evening. Claire still often misses Lily and Sam will ask, "Where's Lily?" Sam will usually ask that around dinner time where we now always have an empty chair.

We have learned so much from this experience. It is really hard that life continues on as we still struggle to adjust to our new life. In a recent conversation I was asked how we were doing. It was asked in a superficial way, so I gave the superficial "We're doing OK" answer. My interlocutor then responded with, "Yeah, now that some time has passed..." One thing that we have learned that is that nothing prepares you for these types of conversations. Unless it has happened to you, the feelings of sadness and pain are incomprehensible. For us, it is not easier now that "some time has passed."

If anything, Candace and I have often discussed that it is harder now. Since the sickness came so quickly, it is perfectly accurate to say we were in shock for the first few months. Now that the shock to our systems is finally starting to wear off, we are able to start the mourning process. It has been 5 1/2 months since Lily died. A terrible 5 1/2 months, and yet we continue to put one foot in front of the other. We cannot shut down. We have faith that we will see Lily again and so we don't stop living. The difficulty is in the fact that while we continue to live, and others see us living, there may be some confusion that us living means that we are OK.

This is not to say that we are not mostly OK, we are. We are back in a routine and that is good. When talking about Lily, though, our hearts have gaping holes. Our family is down 1. Those wounds have not yet begun to heal.

We so much appreciate the continued thoughts and prayers in our direction. We have needed them all and continue to need them all.

There's Nothing to See Here

While this was a week with a two-day local holiday, I'm not really motivated to put together a comprehensive post. We have been both excited and scared about BYU's NCAA prospects without Brandon Davies, and have been pleased at the positive press reporting about the Honor Code.

Claire is an example to the kids in primary by learning the practice songs in English and in Spanish. She gets right up in front and belts out the songs in both languages. The American kids don't even know the words in English, and the Argentine kids don't know the words in Spanish. So Claire is getting an inside track for American Idol season 19 tryouts.

Sam grew two new appendages this week in the form of a musical Nemo book, and an I SPY book. He won't go anywhere without them, and asks non-stop for Candace or me to accompany the music (nursery rhymes set to story lines within Finding Nemo). Sometimes we look at him and think he's so big and talking so well, and yet he'll be two for four more months. Sometimes I think that he'll eat the other kids in nursery for a snack.

Caroline is about to be trouble. She's full-on crawling now and its too big for her carseat. It's time to move her out to the next one, but that switch brings with it many terrible adjustments... the most terriblest being that then we have to start carrying her everywhere... and not having a place to put her at church.

As for Candace and I, it's been a rough patch. Lily's birthday is March 16th and this is the first one without her. There's nothing I can say to adequately relay our sadness.

Current Events

This was a fun weekend for us.

Every place we have lived, we have gotten into a groove of restaurants we like, and activities to do with the kids. We would become members of the closest zoo and children's museum, and knew where all the local parks were. Candace would have an activity planned every day which would also include trips to story time at the library. Here in South America, things are not as easy as they were, but we are discovering some great things.

Restaurants: Our first move was to Virginia where we were exposed to what we thought were nicer restaurants and options than the normal Utah County fare. We latched on to an Italian place called Maggiano's. While our income increased, we broadened our horizons away from Outback Steakhouse to places like Ruth's Chris and found that you really do get what you pay for. We decided that instead of paying $30 every couple of weeks for TGIF, we would go out less often and eat better food. Let me tell you, it made a huge difference in our date nights.

In Chicago, we had tons of wonderful options, both inside the city and out. While Sweet Tomatoes was a family regular, we were exposed to wonderful pizza (Giordanos) and upscale dining. In Denver, Sweet Tomatoes was still on the docket (and really really close to our house), but we didn't get out as much with the young kids.

We have gone out to mostly steak places here (for obvious reasons), but have recently experienced some good Thai food, a good Mexican Place, and this weekend, we had some EXCELLENT seafood (www.crizia.com.ar). We can always have good steak, and you don't have to go looking around for it, but finding great alternatives is always welcome.

ACTIVITIES: I think I have mentioned some of the problems with the public areas here (not well kept, doggy poopie, clientele), but we got together with a group of friends and went to an Estancia (Ranch) yesterday (www.rodiziocampo.com.ar). It had a great playground, pool, soccer field, ping pong, horses to ride, other animals, bikes, drinks, lunch included, etc etc. It was a great time. We are experiencing a four-day weekend due to a local holiday so we were trying to get out of the house. The place was about an hour from the city in the heard of my mission.

It's nice to find new fun things to do. Still making plans for some soccer games and theater. Week old pictures of the kids below.

On a more serious note, Candace and I would like to thank all those who continue to reach out and support us. Sometimes it's hard to talk openly about the loss of Lily, and while we strive to move forward and put on happy faces, the pain is still very much a part of our lives. We still need your thoughts and prayers.