Carson Pass

Shot this picture on my way home from Carson, NV. in late November early December. About 7000 ft in elevation. FYI you can click on the pictures in the blog to make them bigger.

Merry Christmas

I hope you had a fantastic year, and Christmas.

San Francisco

The weather was absolutely perfect in S.F. while we were there. Long sleve shirt weather. The nights were chilly, but very tolerable. Both days it was clear skys as well. A veiw of the Golden Gate from where we were staying.

The Brinks

About 15 minutes after this picture was taken that table was a mess! I think Patrick counted 39 drink cups on the table when we were done. Nobody bothered to count plates, or flatware. Nobody could count that high. Except maybe Spencer, that guy can do anything.

Why is Sam Grimacing?

Just ask Sam the question "How do you find out if some one is ticklish?", and you get this pained smile.

The answer of course is: "You give them a test tickle."

He thinks that joke is sort of funny, but a bit irreverent for him I guess.

Little Miss Direct

I heard Georgia say to Sam on our way down to San Francisco yesterday: "Sam your breath stinks, and you can't sing."

Good thing Sam has a healthy level of self esteem. He just laughed her off and kept singing.

I took this picture of Georgia at a hat store that Corey, the kids, and I went to while Suzi, Cindy, and the big kids wandered around in H & M in San Francisco.

Sam Hates The Dump

I thought every boy liked going to the dump, for all kinds of crazy reasons.

Not Sam.

Me: "Hey Sam want to run with me to the dump. I've got to clean out some stuff in the garage."

Sam: (With a pained look on his face)"Ooooh, no thank you."

Me: "What? Why not?"

Sam: " THE SMELL! THE SMELL... I....I......I just don't like it. It stinks there."

You can tell it kills him to say no to me, but Sam apparently has the nose of a bloodhound. Has since he was a tiny guy. When he loves the smell of something he tells us, or hates the smell of something he tells us. He is so funny. You should see him in smelling action.

So anyhow, good help loading the car to the dump, just don't expect any help unloading.

Christmas at Temple Square

Suzi, and I made it a point to make it to Temple Square when the Christmas lights were put up. It's just part of kicking off the season for the Kelly family. It was a nice part of our trip.

Cougar Fans!

My little cougar fans. That's Alex Garces (cousin) there with Patrick and Sam. When Suzi and I lived in Provo we went to a lot of BYU games, and Patrick and Sam went a ton when they were little guys.

When Patrick was a tiny little guy still in the nursery at church, the church we attended was in the parking lot of the BYU football stadium. When we would pull in to the parking lot he would start in with the "I want to go to the game." I would explain that all the football guys were at church today and the stadium was empty. He would say "oh OK". Then he'd look over at the stadium, and start to cry "I want to go to the game". He was a hard core cougar fan at age 18 months. His nursery teacher said she would have to pull him out of the window because he would stand there crying and staring at the stadium with "I want to go to the game".

When we moved up north I took the boys to Utah games every now and then with me.
I thought when Suzi were living in Layton that I would be doing that often. However, life took a little turn and put us in Lodi. We love living in Lodi, however too bad Utah wasn't a little closer. Or how about I was richer so we could fly out PRN.

Thanksgiving

What a great bunch people. Look at all those beautiful children. More to come soon! Timmys! I don't want to hurry life along, but it's fun to imagine what this picture will look like in 10 years.

I can do that!

I love watching these guys. It's like they were born with a ball at their feet. I'm sure it was pretty close to that.

www.nikefootball.com

Kenji

I sent this message to my district earlier this year. I love this story, and thought I would paste it here. Thought you all would enjoy this too. Enjoy.

I have some neighbors who I absolutely adore. Kenji and Terri, a couple in their 80’s who have raised their kids here in the neighborhood. They have been living here in the same neighborhood since they were kids, except for the years that Kenji and Terri’s families spent in the internment camp during World War II. Kenji’s dad use to grow grapes right here in the neighborhood before it was developed.

Over the last year Kenji has been struggling with Kidney problems. There was a stretch of months where I didn’t see Kenji out much. He was pretty much laid up in bed.

I was out working in my yard this weekend, and my tiny, sick 85 year old friend Kenji rode by on his bike. His bike is half his height. He hollered “Hi Sean!” as he took one hand off his handle bar to wave.

He looked like a kid in the candy store. He was having a blast. I must admit when I looked up and saw him I immediately panicked. He’s always been very fit, but he still moves a little slowly these days. I thought about what would happen if he ran into the car coming toward him that he wasn’t paying attention too. Fortunately after he stopped waving he saw it, yelled “whoa” and steered his bike back over to his side of the road. I just about passed out. He then continued to ride around the neighborhood grinning ear to ear for a good 30 minutes.

The following day Kenji’s wife Terri asked my wife Suzi if she saw Kenji out riding his bike. Terri asked the question with a tone that indicated that Kenji was going to get in trouble. My wife said yes, but included that he looked like he was having “fun” hoping that would spared him somehow from Terri’s not so terrible wrath. Terri really is an absolute angel, and she was just worried about her Kenji.

Terri then told Suzi that he wasn’t supposed to be riding his bike. She reminded Suzi that he’s having Kidney problem’s, he’s lost 20 pounds on his thin 5’5” frame, is extremely low on energy, and if he took a spill it could do some serious damage.

Terri had noticed Kenji’s bike wasn’t where it was suppose to be when she had got home from a baby shower. Apparently he had decided he was going to sneak in a bike ride while his wife was away.

I love everything about that story, and there about a thousand reasons to share it with you. I share it with you for a couple reasons.

The first reason was to remind us all to enjoy the simple things in life. Life is made up of millions and millions of simple moments highlighted by a few high moments, and some low moments. Work is like any other part of life, full of simple moments. Enjoy them, make the most of them, find joy in what you do; making life better for others and do it passionately like Kenji. If you make the most of your simple moments at work I believe you will find many great high moments hidden among the simple moments. You will be an instrument in creating them.

The second reason was to remind us of how blessed we really are. We enjoy good health, we enjoy good jobs, we enjoy a great company, and great co-workers. Capitalize on your good fortune. Make more good fortune by working hard, and by working smart.

Kenji has had a many hardships growing up here, and is facing many in front of him but lives life knowing he is blessed.

Mitt for President

I was visiting my buddy of mines blog, R. Jeffrey Davis of Highland Utah, and he directed me to an interesting poll.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15936002/

I've been reading/watching how the in the news media it seems to me that they have stated in just about every article I have read about Mitt Romney that he is unelectable due to the fact he is Mormon.

Seems the only people with hang ups of that sort are the media.

Georgia

Georgia wanted to drive us to Utah for Thanksgiving. I said heck yes! Mom thought it was too dangerous. Maybe next year Georgia. Click picture to enlarge.

Whose in Charge?

Why is it every time Suzi leaves the house she has to announce to the house "All right everyone your dad is in charge!"

Drives me nuts. And don't go blaming this on me. Save it. That's just crazy talk to try and blame it on me. That's what that is crazy talk.

Ancient History

I'm sure someone thought that chandelier was just fantastic. When Suzi and I bought the house, it was the first thing I wanted to go.

However, due to it's difficulty to reach, I was unable to remove it from my home. I'm just a wee bit afraid of heights. After getting ready everyday the first thing I would see as I came down my stair case was that light staring at me. It was like it was taunting me; "look at me I'm still hanging here, and whatcha gonna do about it?".

Oh, I just wanted to jump up grab it and swing on it until it popped out of the ceiling.

When we first moved into the house I must admit that it had many more "crystals", as though that might have added some type of charm to that hanging piece of lighted poo.

I came home from work and found a football stuck up in the lamp. So I asked the boys how in the heck that ball got stuck up there. Apparently the kids used to throw things at the light to knock the crystals from the light. Then

claim the crystals were diamonds,and the girls would fashion them into some type of jewelry.

Please note that only one light bulb worked on the light. That's because for the last 2 plus years I've been thinking "I'm going to pull it down any second now, why change the light bulb". So our entry way has always been rather dark.

Well we finally found a nice light to replace the old light. It got hung, and I think it looks great.

However, something odd has happened. I see the old foe who use to greet me every day, the old foe that took punishing blow with footballs, broomsticks, and other object to steal it's prized gems. The old foe who made me cringe every time I turned it on and was only greeted with a tiny bit of light, and I feel sad to see it siting in a box in my front room ready to be tossed in the garbage.

I have decided to send it out of our house in a glorious Kelly fashion. Suzi, and I are deep in planning to decide whose front yard tree this lamp will soon grace. Once we get it hung with care pictures will follow on the blog. As long as there is trash, there will always be yard trashing.

Quote of the Day

We were out on a walk after church. I'll let you guess who said it. I love it because it is just so perfectly her.

"Hold on Mom. Hold my purse so I can throw the football."

Graffiti

We dropped by the Pie take out in Salt Lake to pick up some pizza before the Utah vs. BYU football game.

I don't know what came over my wife but she started writing on the walls.

We ate with Doug, Angie, Raul, Steff, and Alex.























The Lodi gang: Sean, Suzi, Patrick, Sam, Hannah, and Georgia.









Of course the boys are going to want to do what Mom is doing. Sam's brick is in red on the top. Patrick's brick in in red on the bottom.

The Pie & The U!

Can there be a better pizza on the planet?

When I moved to Utah my truck broke down a couple of days after I arrived. I remember driving into the Salt Lake Valley. My little Dotsun pickup was going about 35 mph as I flew past tooele on I-80. When I arrived at my new basement apartment I had less than $100 after paying for my first months rent and deposit. I certainly didn't have enough money to pay to get my truck fixed. FYI, that truck never ran again.

That limited my ability to find a job. I had my bike, and my legs. I looked all over downtown, and there wasn't a job to be found.

I remember begging to wash dishes at the Sizzler. I mean I begged the manager for a job washing dishes. The manager said there just wasn't enough work, and he had enough people. He said it was summer and he was fully staffed. Not a lot of work with the students being gone, and lots of people looking for work. I tried every fast food place in town. I almost had a job at a gift shop in a hotel down town until she asked if I had a car. I said I had transportation. She pressed so I finally I admited it was my bike, and that was the end of that. She was worried I wouldn't be able to make it out to the airport where the other gift shop was, and what was I going to do when winter came?

These were the guys working the register at the take out Pie the day we dropped in before the Utah vs. BYU game.

I was probably in town over a week before I found a job. I'm telling you I searched everyday all day on my bike with a white shirt and tie on. That was all the clothing I had. I had just got home from my mission a few months earlier, and really didn't buy too many new clothes. I saved my money to move to Utah. My clothes from before my mission didn't fit. I had grown from 5'7" to 5'11", and from 135 to 160 lbs. So all I had were old white shirts and a bunch of old ties.

I was running out of money, and knew I wasn't going to be able to pay my next month rent if I didn't hurry up and find a job. I was eatting as cheap as possilbe. I could buy 33 cent hot dogs at the gas station around the corner from my place. I ate a lot of those. Even after I found a job. Free mustard came with the hot dog! Woohoo! Mmmmm free mustard.

I was walking toward campus, and there was a sign for a pizza place called "The Pie", but I didn't see where it was. (Go to the link there. Watch the front page of the Pie's website. It will show the outside of the Pie and you can see the sign I kept walking past, and see how I missed the stairs that lead down below the pharmacy. fun!) I must have walked by the Pie about 20 times my first week in town before I noticed it. The Pie is located in the basement of an old brick building under a pharmacy just across the street from the U on the westside of the U of U campus. I had been a pizza cook at Rico's, Domino's, and Little Cesars in California. It seemed rather divine to me that day. They hired me and I started that night I think. You'd think I had won the lottery I was so excited! I worked nights until 12 on weekdays, and 1-2 am on weekends.

A little later I got a day job at the University of Utah bookstore. I wasn't making much more than minimum wage, but I didn't have many bills.

I fell in love with that pizza place, and the U during that time period. They were my life savers.

Didn't leave a lot of time for Suzi, and I to date. But those two jobs were anwers to some pretty intense prayers.

I remeber walking up to the U bookstore through president's circle in the morning. I didn't have enough money to go to school, but I wanted to be going to school there. I loved it. Such a beautiful campus. After the bookstore I walked down to the Pie, and worked there late just about every night.

I have no idea why Suzi continued to date a pizza making, bookstore working, no car having, no money having, no school going, living in Salt Lake bum like me.

I worked at those two places until Suzi, and I got married.

Communication seems so easy

That's my beautiful one there on the end of the bench next to the gaurd rail.

She sure did do a lot of trash talking there at the Utah vs. BYU football game for one sitting so high and close to the rail.

She came into my office a bit ago and put down the kitchen garbage can. "I'm not taking out the garbage" she said and walked away. Clearly it was full. I said as she walked away laughing "I don't know why you told me, you've got two boys".

Patrick happened to walk by a less than 30 seconds later, and of course he was assigned the task of taking it out. Appearently I wasn't clear with the instructions. I said "Patrick get that garbage out of here."

He interpreted that as most 11 year old boys would. He picked it up, walked it back to the KITCHEN, and put it away.....full.

I guess I have be real clear. FYI, he did take it out without complaint when asked correctly.

Soccer!

We had a great season! The 3 that played had a great time. Patrick, and Sam are playing on the city all star team. Both are great, smart players. I'm sure Hannah will be an all star when she is old enough. Don't about Georgi girl, she is busy with her gymnastics! She'll start Soccer next year. Patrick's team was undefeated and won the city championship. They handled every team they played easily. Watching his team play was fantastic. They were great.

Sam's team played a great year as well. I think they had 2 or 3 losses. Sam has got to be the hardest working kids in soccer. Very fast, and relentless.
I coached Hannah team again. I'm telling you my girls make soccer beautiful. I loved coaching them. The played a great season, and was so proud as I watched them play this year. Hated to watch it end.
This is my Georgi girl. She and I had lunch together today. I loved it. She has so much to say, and so many great opinions about so many things. If you want a great lunch date she's the girl.

Sam

When Sam was born I remember thinking "he's perfect!" I also remember arguing with the nurse about whether Sam was a red head or not. I was right.

After living with Sam for 9 year's I'm still certain he's perfect and one of God's greatest creations. (Of course I feel this way about all my children) He's angelic, and I'm absolutely certain he was created for greatness.

The responsibility of raising 4 great children scares me. Suzi and I were talking about it the other night on our date. I'm sure every parent (I hope) feels this burden, and blessing.

Life is so good.

I love Suzi!

Suzi, and I got to bed early last night ago. We were both so excited to be in bed early! It had been a long day, and the bed was clean with new sheets. Suprisinzingly the kids were quite quickly too.

Our room was a little cool, and the bed was perfectly comfortable. Suzi, and I were talking about how great it was too be in bed. She had just commented on the how nice it was to be in bed with the bed just being made when out of the blue she said "I love you." And of course I responded with "I love my bed." Whoops.

Well that didn't go over to well. I tried to explain it was an accident, and that she just can't throw in a "I love you" when we were just talking about the bed, and I started to fade out to sleep, and perfectly snugged up in my bed, and then expect me to respond to a change of conversational gears like that! Well, actually she actually does expect me to handle a change of conversation like that. Doesn't seem right to catch me off guard like that.

Well I've been getting my butt kick all day! Stuff like:
Me: "Suz that was a great dinner thanks"
Her: "I love my bed".

Or, Me: "I'm going to run to Ace hardware OK?"
Her: "I love my bed".

Or, Me " You want me to get the phone?"
Her: "I love my bed."

It's so random too. She doesn't do it all the time. Most times she's just perfect Suzi, talking all normal and stuff, and then wham! "I love my bed."

So this is just a note to all my boys out there. You might want to stay on your "A game" when it comes to your wife tossing around the "I love you" hand grenade. If you don't toss it right back it's going to blow up in your face. Then you'll be paying for it for days with no real good way to make up for it. She says a multi-carrot diamond ring could help. It's going to be a while.

Hannah

Matthew 8:1 When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

"What did they want his autograph or something?"

Change is always certain.

I told my boss that "I wouldn't have written the story this way." However, it wasn't my story to write.

On this past Monday Kos announced that they had be bought by Abbott. It caught myself, and everyone I work with a little off guard. I expected Kos as an organization to stick around for three or four more years. A little sad for many of us at Kos.

With that being said hopefully the transition will go well, and everything will be for the positive.

The Wife

"No man achieves the supernal exalting status of worthy fatherhood except as a gift from his wife." - President Boyd K. Packer - Ensign, May 1998, 73

ipod

Hours of entertainment.

Who?

Sam and I were watching the Cardinals play the Mets recently. Sam is a big Cardinal fan. Cut out the Cards line up in the news paper and keeps it close to him when they are playing. Wore his Cardinals hat, and shirt to school on Jersey day. Usually they have to wear their school uniform.

I said to Sam "My Uncle Jim maybe at the game. He's a big Cardinal fan too." Sam said "Really?" I said "Yeah, Uncle Jim loves them, and I think he goes often."

Georgia was standing next to me, and she said "WHAT?" With a big confused looking face. So I explained again that my Uncle Jim is a Cards fan, and maybe he's at the game. She says confidently "no he's not!" Straight faced, and clear. It made me laugh because it caught me so off guard. I thought why does she have such a strong opinion on the matter.

I love when Georgia disagrees with something. She's so sure of herself. I don't even try to argue with her. She's made up her mind.

So I said "I don't know for sure if he's there, or not. I just know he's a big fan and he lives in the area." She said "well I thought Uncle Jim was in Heaven", and she said it with a tone like I didn't know what the crap I was talking about.

We were of course talking about two different Uncle Jim's.

Ben Stein

I got this forwarded email from a very beautiful friend of mine. Apparently it is making it's way around the internet. It was a writing from Ben Stein. Something he had read on the CBS Sunday Morning News. Very interesting, but something was a little off in the article. In the beginning it was written in a fairly mellow questioning tone like Ben Stein, but got very aggressive in the end. So I went a did 5 seconds of research on the internet and found out the second half of the article that was forwarded to me was added to Ben Steins original article. Here are his original comments:

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

How well do you know Apu?

http://www.beliefnet.com/section/quiz/index.asp?sectionID=600&surveyID=141

I got 13 out of 15 on this Apu quiz. If you don't know Apu, you don't know Apu.

Patrick

Patrick is looking like quite the little man these days. Suzi and I were talking about how our babies are looking big. Sad, and beautiful at the same time.

Garces Cousins

The Garces Family was in town this week. We all had a great time. Reminded us of how we all use to spend all of our free time playing together. Loved having them here. Kids all had a tough time saying bye for a month. We'll see them in Nov in Utah. Cute bunch. Amazing how quickly the years fly.

Inquisitive Sam

We started the New Testament today as a family tonight. Gave up on the Old Testament. We wanted to finish it by the end of December. No chance so were starting early on the NT to get a jump on it to see if we can finish it as a family by Dec 07.

We started with Matthew. Suzi was reading and I was doing commentary for the kids. If I read Suzi does commentary. Suzi was reading the 2nd chapter which covers the conception of Mary. I was explaining that Joseph and Mary were going to be married, when Mary got pregnant with Jesus. I explained that it was a bit of a problem in those days if you got pregnant and you weren't married at the time. So Joseph took care of Mary during that time.

Sam stopped the reading and asked "how do you get pregnant? Do you just pray real hard?" I said with a big smile on my face "well that certainly helps, but there is a whole bunch more to it."
I looked over at Patrick and he had his scriptures over his face, and he was trying to fight back a laugh I could tell. Patrick had the talk last year, so he is in on the know. So I said "Patrick he's gonna wish he hadn't asked that question when I give him the answer, huh?"

All the kids understand how the baby comes out, we just save the "how does the baby get in there?" stuff until they ask. Well Sam asked, and he is most likely going to get the answer.

He did try to get the cliff notes version before he went to bed. He asked Mom in the kitchen as he was headed upstairs for bed "does it just pop in there?" There is no stopping him now. He stumbled on to something.

Like I said to Patrick he's gonna wish he hadn't asked.

Front Yard Baseball

It's time for the baseball playoffs. So of course every boy in the country finds time to play a little baseball. Even if it's just in your front yard with one other player.

I found the boys playing a game in the front yard. I asked for an explanation of the rules. Here They are:

Home plate is in the flower bed Sam is standing in. First base is the tree. Second the tall grass. Third the shoe on the side walk (barely visable).

Home run is the a fly ball into the street. Ground rule double is anything that bounces into the street or gets caught/lost in a bush in fair play.

An out is anything that is caught. Doesn't matter if it makes contact with something. For example a fly ball out of the tree or bouncing off the house or a car that is caught is an out. An out is also tagging out the ghost runner or the runner themself.

Lots of ghost runners if there is only two players.

Each player gets two outs.

I noticed it wasn't easy to get a home run. The tree is in the way. It takes a hard shot above the fielders shoulders, but below the tree limbs. Love it.

Uncle Jim would love that Sam is of course wearing his beloved St. Louis Cardinals Hat. I brought him the hat after a trip to St L. And he loved it. Never takes it off when it comes to baseball time. I've tried to make him a Padres fan Dad. He would say, "sure I like the Padres", doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Way to Long

Wow, time flies. We've been extremely busy here at the Kelly house with school, sports, scouting, gymnastics, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Everyone is getting taller, and faster. Patrick, Sam, and I were out playing football in the street in front of the house. It finally has happened. I have boys who can play a great game of soccer, football, or any other sport, when we feel like playing. We stayed out under the street lights playing football until late. It only takes 3 guys to play a game. One quarterback, one receiver, and one defensive back. Everyone is pretty quick, and everyone can throw well, and everyone can catch well. It's a blast! It's like a dream come true to have these guys right here willing to play anytime I'm ready. Love it.

Funny thing. Georgia is always in the bathroom when mom and I are getting ready. She usually doesn't have to get ready as early as the other kids so she hangs out in the bathroom with us when we're getting ready. Here is two things I've heard from her lately.

1. Her:Dad! What are you doing? Me: I'm cutting my nose hairs. Her: Ohhhh ugh. Well you need to, cuz I can see them........ It's gross. Me: Yeah, well that's why I cut them.
2. Her: Mom, what are you doing? Mom: pulling out my eye brows. Her: Why? Mom: I don't need any extra hair on my face. Her: Oh.....You want to be beautiful like me huh.

Love it. Well Suzi picked up some In & Out for dinner. Protein style for me. Don't tell Wendy. (little inside joke there)

Love to all.

Labor Day Weekend

Wow I've been busy. Still waiting for life to slow down a little. As I edge into Sep. I expect to have a little more time near the end of the month to write a little about what is going on around in the Kelly house.

We had a fantastic Weekend. We loved having Grandpa & Grandma Smith out to our house here in Lodi! We rarely get vistors. Lodi is a great town to live in, but not a great vacation destination. Glad they came out to hang with us.

The kids spent today up at Hogan Lake riding 4 wheelers, and seadoos at the Hazelhofer's place. I missed out on the fun, but got a bunch of work done.

The only downer was the U & the Y losing their football games.

Everyone Wins!

It was a great soccer Saturday. Hannah had a game at 10am, Sam had a game at 10am, and Patrick had a game at 10:30am.

I'm coaching Hannah's team again this year. We are going to be very good. It's not too often I had said that. I have coached a lot of teams. I use to coach Patrick and Sam's teams during the same seasons. I've probably coached 16 seasons of soccer. One year in Layton I had a team that couldn't be touched. They would win by double digits every game.

Hannah's team is very good. How good I don't know, but they are going to be good.

So here is a good story for you. The one loss we had last season was to the team we played this morning.

Last year they beat us good the first time we played them. Something like 6 to 2. I didn't coach the game because I was out sick. My assistant coach Peter talked to me after the game and said that the other team was a nasty group of people. He got yelled at during the game, and after the game. The parents, of the other team were out of control.

When we played them the last game of the season last year it was a doosey. At half we were behind by 2 goals. I still had parents from their team come up to me to complain about my players and the way they played. They felt like we were shoving too much. They had 3 dads running the sidelines yelling at the players. I could tell it was bothering my girls. They were scary. I understood what Peter was talking about. I told two of the mom's when they talked to me "your little girls are going to fall down playing soccer, they'll be okay." Oh they didn't like me.

Here is the real problem. That team was usually killing people by half time. They were hoping for a undefeated season, and all they had to do is beat us a second time. We were looking to finish with one loss and tie them up for 1st place. That game was nuts to say the least. I could make a movie about that game. It's funny that I remember that game clear as a bell from last year.

After the half they scored right as the half began. They were up by 3 goals. They had parents jumping and cheering and running up and down the side lines. I guess it's ok, it just seemed a little over the top.

At that point I walked off the field, and sat down next to Suzi. I said something like, that team is crazy. The coach was complaining to me at that point that his parents are telling him to talk to me about my team shoving. I'll be the first to admit that I had one girl who ran with her elbows up, but I told him "I'll talk to her if you talk to the three that you have who play that way as well." He just smiled, and let it go from there. The parents were yelling at my players, and they were up by 3 goals. I said Suzi "I'm done with that team." I literally sat down in a chair.

She said "don't you quit on your team. You get your butt up, and go tell them to win."

I called them over as we were sub-ing in a few players and I huddled them. I didn't say anything all that profound. Just a "lets beat these guys, we have 5 minutes to score 4 goals, lets get it done."

We scored 4 goals in five minutes. It was the most amazing come back I've ever coached. The last goal came with under 30 seconds. It was great!

We started our season againts them this morning. Not the team I wanted to face right off the bat. I really wanted to score first to make them play from behind. I don't think they have ever had to do that. As a player it feels different to play from behind than to play with a lead. I'm not sure why, but it does. I started with 5 forwards, and one fullback. We scored two goals in the first 5 minutes. After that I dropped two back to fullbacks, and played 3 forwards, and 3 fullbacks. They scored to make it 2-1, and we went into half time with that score.

After the half we scored to make it 3-1. They scored next 3-2. It stayed 3-2 for a long time. I had 3 super players that I usually play as forwards, and I kept them as fullbacks. I keep the forwards fresh by subbing in and out quickly. The forward players never got tired. The other team was running out of gas. At that point I put in fresh legs in at defense, and moved my super players up at forwards again and finish them off with two more goals. Final 5-2. It was a much closer game than the final score says. Hannah had one goal, and her friend in the picture above had 3. It was a great game.

Hannah's team is going to be good. Here is the thing about coaching kids Hannah's age. People think under 8 there isn't much you can do with them. Just go have a good time. With kids under 8 I don't think I've ever had more than two losses in a season. Kids this age can learn a ton about the game too make them good, and they can have fun. So look out for the Lodi Blue Flames. They are dangerous.

Sam's game apparently was a close one. 1-0. His team won. I didn't get to see it. Sam time as Hannah's.


I got to watch most of Patricks game. They won 3-0. Patrick had a goal too! His team maybe a very good team like Hannah's. He has the same team as last year. They were young last year, and they played great. This year they look like stars. It looked like it was their first game. The score should have been higher, they just made some first game errors. Great looking team.

Back To School

Its back to school time! The three big kids have been in school for 3 weeks now. Georgia starts this week.
Hannah is our big second grader.Sam is in 4th grade, and is back in the swing of it.
Patrick is the big 6th grader this year.

Soccer season has started too. Notice the two balls in the back ground. There are 3 more balls in the yard that you can't see in this picture. I love soccer, but it's hard on my grass, flowers, and plants. But as the saying goes, "I'm raising kids right now, I'll worry about raising grass later."

Sac Temple 5-O

I thought I had better give you the update on when Suzi and I did our security detail at the open house of the new Sacramento Temple. The Sacramento temple is the one there on the top.

The one on the bottom here is the Manti, Utah Temple where Suzi, and I were married 14 years ago.

We showed up to our assignment in the security office. It was a group of about 25 people. All of them men with the exception of Suzi, and one other woman.

Most of the other men were either police officers or retired police officers. I'm not kidding CIA, FBI, deputies, city police, CHP, a drug rep, and 2 home makers. "One of these things is not like the other."

However, it was a ton of fun! I did get a cool radio! All of us in Security, First Aid, and Facilities were given radios. They security radios wired into our ears and if someone really wasn't looking for it they probably wouldn't notice I was wearing one. All the wiring was under my coat.

There was a command center that all of us radioed into, but we could hear all of the radio dialog as well. Not too much nuttiness going on during our shift. A little, but nothing worth mentioning. It does amaze me that we needed that much security, but it was needed for the nut jobs that do decide to come and create trouble. The nuttiness gets handled quickly and discretely.

Here in Sacramento there are over 6,000 visitors a day, and so you could imagine with those kinds of numbers there are going to be a nut or two.

Oh, and I did get a badge of sorts too! There must be close to 500 volunteers at the temple at any moment. All of us wearing ID tags. With administration, and security we wear pretty large lapel pins. The best part of the pins is it gave us license to walk any around anywhere. That was kind of fun.

Suzi, and I had an awesome "assignment." Our first assignment was to cover the temple grounds. So we didn't' have a posted assignment. We didn't have to watch anyone piticular door, room, or space. We got to wander with the roaming security. That was fun because we got to go all over.

So Suzi and I had been working for about 6 hours when we bumped into Ben and Whitney. They came out and offered us a cookie. I grab the cookie, because well......Heck who am I to turn down a cookie. Suzi says "no thank you".

Well as I'm working on my cookie Suz says, "Your not suppose to be eating while your working." I say "I didn't hear anything about that this morning." She says "because they didn't say it this morning, they said it at the meeting a week ago that you missed!" I say "Oh." I'm not kidding, as soon as I say "oh" my ear piece says "Sean Kelly to the Command Center."

Of course I'm thinking, "quick hide the cookie". I say "Suzi hold my cookie!" She said "HECK NO! Hold your own cookie." I stuff the cookie in my mouth as I walk toward the command center, and realize I was standing 10 feet in front of the command center window while I was eating that dang cookie. Hello.

Well I walk into the Sgt, or Lt. Or whoever the heck makes assignments and I say with cookie crumbs all over my face and coat "how can I help you?" He tells me in the nicest way "we are reassigning you, would you mind covering the south east temple grounds." I say "absolutely! Glad to do it." I look at my map on my way out the door, and realize I've been sent to watch the volunteer parking lot.

I got moved from the sweetest assignment to the parking lot. I guess someone has to it. Glad to do my part. Glad to stand in the sun with no shade in a black suit in the dirt parking lot listening to all of the fun stuff back at the temple 300 yards away.

It really wasn't that big of a deal, but it was funny! That dang cookie. Curse you irresistible giant sized chocolate chip cookie!

We Rock!

The Kelly's at the Kelly Clarkson concert last year. We had a great time. Notice our seats couldn't be any farther from the stage. That's ok it was easier to dance that way. We had a great time. "Since you've been gone" cetainly seemed to be the favorite among the kids.