A House Full of Britts

We toured the North Carolina State Capitol Building with Dad - and we discovered the State Geologist room on the third floor. He was so excited!

For those of you who don't know, my brother Ben is leaving on his mission to Santiago, Chile in January. I'm so proud of him! Because we aren't going home for Christmas this year, we decided that he should visit us before he leaves. After we made the travel arrangements, word came through that Dad had some business to take care of in Washington, DC around the same time and so he decided to visit us before heading up to DC. It was so great to have them both here and to get to show them some of the highlights of life here in NC.

This is an actual piece of "art" proudly displayed on Henderson's Welcome Avenue. We thought Ben and Dad should see it.

The first highlight (and the main one in our lives) is school. Dad not only came to school with me - but he taught all of my classes all about Dinosaurs. It was so amazing. He was a great guest speaker and had the kids laughing and askin questions. That's what happens when your Dad is a world-renouned paleontologist and you happen to teach Earth Science. Thanks for sharing your great wisdom with us, Dad!

On Saturday we spent the morning playing tennis and bacci ball. It was a little chilly, but a great time. Dad got to use Andre Agassi's raquet and played like a pro! Ben showed off his tennis skills recently acquired during his Senior year. We hadn't played together since he joined the team last spring, so it was really awesome. Check out some sweet action shots!

That night we all went to a University of North Carolina basketball game. Jackson got us some "upgraded" seats at half time and we enjoyed the game in comfort.

Saying goodbye to Ben at the end of the weekend was hard, but I'm so proud of him and I know that he'll be a great missionary. I love you Ben!! Thanks for coming out and spending such a wonderful weekend with us. Dad, I hope you'll come out again soon!

EminOlsen

Teaching is a battlefield of the mind. You've got to find ways to keep the students engaged and invested in their education. If you don't, the streets will provide a Cornucopia of illegal alternatives.

So as a teacher, I've always tried to keep my material fresh, even when it comes to topics seemingly booky like the Gettysburg Address. How does one get a gang member to give a flying crap about Lincoln's tribute to a blood-soaked battlefield?

Speak their language.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

The first snowfall of the year

When we first arrived in North Carolina, I remember asking a colleague if we could expect snow during the winter.

"It hasn't snowed once in the six years that I've been here," was her reply.

Shortly thereafter, we were hit with a (child size) blizzard. Five inches of snow covered the central region of North Carolina. School was canceled for three days straight, and all the essential food items had been ransacked from the grocery stores as though the War of Revelation had begun (see our post on 2/6/10). Celeste and I didn't mind our old wintery friend snow, while those around us treated it as though it were extra-terrestrial - strange and threatening.

Fast forward to last night, when we received our first (and maybe last) snow of the season. This time it was a modest 1-2 inches, but it still kept people locked in their houses and off the streets. Needless to say, it was a lonely drive and a meager crowd at church today.

For us, we couldn't be happier. Seeing as we won't be returning to Utah for Christmas, this little skiff may be the only taste of a "White Christmas" we'll have. And call me old fashioned, but I've always had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit when it's 70-degrees outside and people are driving around with their convertible tops down like they're some kind of bigshot. Snow makes the spirit of the season come alive, and it's a joy and a privilege to build a snowman, make a snow fort, or put a snowball down your little sister's shirt. While this storm's snowfall won't last through the night, it was a baby Christmas miracle just the same.

To go along with our Winter Wonderland out here, we decided to buy a Christmas tree and decorate the crap out of it - something we didn't do last year, probably because holiday decorating seemed too luxurious and comfortable for the sweat-soaked, feverish lives we were living. This year's been much easier on the body and soul, so we drove into town and found a man selling trees he had grown on his own farm in the boonies of Carolina. He was a good ole country boy with a Southern accent as thick as a heffer. I pretended to be one too, despite the fact that I had driven up in a Honda Fit. I even brought gloves to make me look like I knew what the heck I was doing when it came to Christmas trees.

Our first North Carolina Christmas Tree

We brought the tree home, busted out the Christmas decorations, then started hanging lights and ornaments while "Elf" played in the background. We even had cookies and milk. It was on that night, during that cute little moment of tree trimming, that we finally started to feel the Spirit of Christmas.

The other major event of the week was our one-day weekend getaway to Washington, D.C. We've had plenty of these over the last year and a half, but never before to watch a Utah State sporting event. When we found out USU was going to be playing Georgetown at the Verizon Center in D.C., we couldn't help ourselves (or Celeste would say, I couldn't help myself).

The game didn't go the way we wanted, and we ended up losing by 17 points. But the game was close for the entire first half, and it was fun just to watch us play such a talented team (they were ranked 16th in the country at the time). The game also allowed us to reconnect with dozens of old friends and alumni from Utah State: Pres. Stan Albrecht, VP Ross Peterson, former VP Michael Kennedy, and my old friends David Lee, Tanner Cooley, Chris Barney, Nate Needham, Scott O'Dell, Jason Soffe, Tristan Anderson, among others. But for the game itself, we had a wonderful time. Next time we'll just have to remember to score more points.

Pregame Alumni Breakfast in downtown D.C.

If only we could have kept that lead.