USU in The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

On Friday I officially started my winter vacation from both jobs, packed my bags and headed out for my first adventure to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, ID. I drove up with my boss (Heather), the assistant gymnastics coach (Janet) and an academic advisor from athletics (Amber Rae). We stayed at the same hotel as the team and administration, which was right in the heart of downtown Boise! The game was on Saturday with Utah State losing to Ohio in the last 13 seconds 24-23. It was....sad...so sad. As an alumni of Utah State, and never watching an alma mater in a bowl game, it was actually a lot of fun to cheer on my team both as an alumni and an employee! :) At the game I saw two girls I coached in soccer at Lone Peak High School who are sisters. One is playing softball at Ohio and the other is playing Rugby at Utah State! Their parents came over with them to say hi (each wearing a half Ohio/half USU shirt on.....very clever). It is always so fun to see kids I've coached and catch up on what they are doing! We arrive back late last night.....after running out of gas right at the Garland/Tremonton exit! Heather and I stayed in the car while Janet and Amber Rae walked to the gas station just on the other side of the freeway to get gas! The trip as a whole was a lot of fun. I'm glad I went to support my Aggies!

Sweet reminders

So there's a student I work with who can say some words, but they are very long and drawn out...you learn a lot of patience waiting to hear what he is trying to say, but with his deep voice, it is actually really cute. For example, if I ask him, "are you having fun cooking?" He looks at me, smiles and says, "yyyyyyyyeeeeeeessssssssssss"....I really wish I could record his voice but that might be illegal. He loves to do his work, he loves to cook, he loves schools...and he LOVES girls! My job is to bring him in from the bus, help him put his stuff in his locker and get him ready to "wwwwwwooorrrrrrrrrrrrk" as he would say. My favorite is cheese..."eeeeeeeeese." Yesterday, a pretty girl walked by us and he bee-lined it for her just so he could walk up to her, get right up face to face with her and smile at her. I pulled him back to his locker and here was our short but sweet conversation...

Marla: you like girls don't you?
Student: yyyeeeesssssss
Marla: Do you like the pretty girls?
Student: yyyeessssssssss
Marla: Am I a pretty girl?
Student (with no hesitation and a BIG smile: yyeeeessssssss

I'm really glad he chose to respond because I was running late yesterday morning and just threw on clothes, threw my hair up in a ponytail and walked out the door!! :) It made my day!