We got Jimmered

I must tell you I really just don't care about sports. 4 years at BYU and I never even bought an allsports pass. Brad still married me even though he is an extreme sports fanatic, and he knew, I made sure. This year the combo of being in the Hagen family and becoming fascinated by the Jimmer completely changed me. The Hagens got these *amazing* season tickets for Jimmer's last year so we enjoyed a lot of awesome games with awesome seats- here we are at the SDSU game:

We were going to the games up until just before the babies came, by end sitting for that long w/o my feet up did become very uncomfortable- my back would ache and my feet would swell up and hurt. But I still wanted to go. We got a free meal, and I got to see the Jimmer. I actually enjoyed watching him. Plus, basketball makes way more sense than other sports. Jimmer completely changed me. My dad and brothers loved that I cared about basketball. It wasn't just me though, my mom and sisters were known to watch the games...home...alone. This was unheard of in our family before. That boy seriously converted a nation.

Brad made sure that Lyla and June jumped on the bandwagon, they are the cutest little Jimmer fans in the whole world!

Brad even left us to go watch their sweet 16 moment in New Orleans, it was a bit disappointing...but I think they still had a good time. I got the girls dressed up and we all missed daddy.

I must say it was a privilege to watch him play. I'm talking about basketball as a privilege. Weird.
Oh Jimmer, we had such good times.  Thanks for helping me understand how fun basketball can be!

All this being said, I still watched a lot of ESPN this month that I could have done without, and I did it while nursing. So, my new family tradition that I began last year still applies- please see here for a refresher. (Brad: please review!) :)

April Madness!

I can’t wait for April to arrive, especially this year. If you happen to not be a sports fanatic, but have loved ones who are, you know what I mean. I just can’t wait for April madness! You probably haven’t heard of it because I just made it up. As a (soon to be) march madness veteran I recognize the need to balance things out, even out the playing field if you will. I declare April the month of nonsports fans. It’s a great month anyways: Easter, General Conference, and more predictably springy weather. Beyond this, the month should also include home improvement projects, yard work, and plenty of HGTV and the food network. If you don’t enjoy it, you should pretend to because you realize how important it is, and after all, it’s just once a year! This is the month to spend that $20-30 dollars on a Vietnamese pedicure guilt free. It might be the month to buy a full priced item from Anthro (or your preferred store where you don’t dare glance anywhere else but the sale rack). It’s the time to go to your favorite gourmet store (be it William & Sonoma, Orson Gygi, Sur le Table, or Spoons & Spice) and get that new kitchen gadget you’ve been pining for. Your loved one should even change the channel away from PTI when they sense a strong urge coming from you to slap those yelling men, without being prompted they should say "hmm…maybe its time to watch 'what not to wear'”. Now that's an April attitude! So sportsfans, soak it up like a sponge while you can, because before you know it, the NCAA tournament will be over... and after March, comes April.
From a month of this:

 to this:

Good riddens March, HELLO April!

Brad’s big 30 Birthday!

He’s just so wonderful, and I want to make sure you understand why.

Top 10 things about Brad: (Just in the order I happened to come up with them, not ranked by importance)

1. He is all my nieces and nephew’s rockstar, he is going to be such an amazing dad. Associated with this one is his ability to give my babies real Latin blood.

2. He is literally young at heart…okay, not literally, but seriously. He has the sense of humor of a little boy most of the time, and most of the time…it’s actually pretty funny.

3. He’s not satisfied with ordinary. In any aspect of his life- work, school…(although this one might not be a good thing), church, romance (hello, he proposed under the Brooklyn bridge without so much as asking me if I might be interested in marrying him at some point). He’s passionate about life, me too. I love that!

4. He’s smart. He called me from work once and just said “I thought you should know you married a really smart guy. I’m smart.” And he can do that, because he IS smart. Not just nerdy book smart, but street smart and all aspects of smart. I have confidence that this is the year he will earn his degree, this may never affect his success, but it’s still important, and I know he’ll do it. : )

5. He’s adventurous. Who else gets arrested in China while scalping tickets at the Beijing olymics, sneaks into Cuba with his future wife, and takes her to ride camels in Morocco for their honeymoon? I’m sure one day we’ll do some normal vacation, a cruise or something, but we both have the same desires to get off the beaten track when we travel, and I love that.

6. He’s smooth. He somehow managed to convince me he didn’t mind “just being friends” at the beginning of our dating relationship, I was so surprised by it, it made me want him.

7. He’s confident. Did I also mention after saying he was cool just being friends that he told me I’d one day realize what an awesome guy he was and want to date only him, and that he would wait around as long as it took me to figure that out? Because I was worth it? This goes back to the smooth one. But he’s so confident, without being cocky or trying to bring down others.

8. He’s a guy. Look up the definition of guy, it is synonymous with Brad. Loves to play sports, loves to watch sports, loves to watch other guys argue about sports. Leaves the toilet seat up. Is entertained when I accidentally sit into the inner rim of toilet because of this. Thinks logically, easily disconnecting emotion from decisions and conversation. Is perplexed when I am upset by his logical answers and statements. Thinks it's okay to lightly rinse his cereal bowl with water and use it for weeks.
I’m still getting used to living with a guy, and even though sometimes it makes me want to scream and go find some girls to eat chocolate with, shop, intimately discuss our lives and offer one another laughs and emotional support because we know just how each other feels, I’d have it no other way. Obviously, because I like guys. And brad is one of them. The best one, really. In my opinion. It’s a learning and growing process for us both and it’s fun. I live with a boy. It’s the way nature intended it to be, you see, we balance each other out. Together we make one awesome human being.

9. He’s a hustler. He’s got some of that red personality in him that makes him a leader. He makes things happen. (check out Zinch, he's a founder.) He’s not afraid to talk to anyone, about anything. He’d defend me if I wanted him to, even if I didn’t deserve it. I think this is important to me because its how my dad is and it’s awesome. When guys aren’t like that it makes them seem so wussy to me.

10. He’s cool AND spiritual. I was always looking for that. Not the "cool guy" RM who reverts back to lame highschool ways while forgetting everything learned in the mission. Maybe fun, but the clearly skewed priorities are a problem. Not the good-but-ultra-nerdy BYU boy with khaki cargo shorts, high white socks with tennis shoes, and a BYUSA t-shirt. A good guy, but not outside of the box enough for me. Brad- just right. Takes the gospel seriously, but still cool and fun. My vocab has gotten way less nerdy since marrying him. “I’m down with that.” (yeah, I'm a nerd...)

Happy Birthday mi Amor! I can’t believe I found someone with all the qualities I need in a guy to keep me happy forever. You know how to put up with me and my crazy ways, and that makes you a saint. You deserve an awesome birthday, and I will give that to you the best way I know how, with food mostly. : )

Fever Pitch

I married a sports addict. It's not a big shocker for me, but I'm still getting used to it. Luckily Brad's a good sport about evening it out with plenty of chick flicks. Tonight we were due for a chick flick. When we started Brad sacrificed the end of a baseball game in the 8th inning. After the movie ends on comes ESPN again, and the game is STILL going on. Disgusting. I told Brad if I were one of the players I'd just let the other team score so I could go home. I can't believe not everyone would agree after 5 hours running around a field hitting a ball. Sometimes the idea of sports really makes me laugh, I think about how it's what little kids do and somehow it ends up being this big deal and people are making tons of money, it's people's jobs. It's weird to me when I think about it.
All that being said, Go Yankees! It looked cold and it must have been fun to win and get shaving cream shoved in your face. (although if I were in charge I'd certainly use whipped cream)