Jerry Sloan

After 27 years with the Utah Jazz, 22 of them as Head Coach, Jerry Sloan has retired. I'm posting about this because Sloan has been the Jazz's coach since I started playing and following basketball, and I have always loved his coaching style. I wish I could have seen him play with the Bulls back in the day. While it's tough to see him leave, I wish him the best and thank him for the great coach and example of hard work he has been. Win or lose, he always saw room for improvement, which to me is a great message to all of us to never get complacent with anything we do, but to always try to be better. Sloan has always been Old School, and that style of ball has been dying for a awhile now. I honestly think it officially died today with his retirement. 40 current NBA ball players weren't even born when Sloan started coaching, and while he's been the coach of the Jazz there have been 245 head coaching changes in the NBA! The dude is a legend.

You're the man Jerry!

It's January for crying out loud!

So I Checked our blog and realized that our last post was our “Merry Christmas” post! Holy smokes man! I mean, I know we try to keep Christmas all through the year but this is just ridiculous. If we expect people to have their Christmas trees and lights down by now (which we do – take them down, ok people?), then we should be moving on from our Christmas post by now I think.

I think to fill any huge blog gaps, I will be dedicating blog posts to the great Jack Handey from SNL by posting some of his Deep Thoughts. Megan and I have been reading some of my mission letters that I have saved, and I found a list of Deep Thoughts that I would occasionally get from friends and family. They are each a stroke of genius, so buckle up.

Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

"As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way."

Merry Christmas!

So we've been without a camera for awhile, and we usually only post on our blog when we've got cool pictures to prove how much fun we have. We've had our fun for the past couple of months, but just no photos to show for it. But now we have a camera again! So, we thought we'd post a few festive fotos to break it in. So here's a peek at our decked out halls.

Megan working on our Charlie Brown Christmas puzzle

Merry Christmas!

A plumbing we will go

So, Alec and I have been missing in action for a while, and all for a very good reason. Just recently Alec had his Colon removed. Yep! That’s right! His colon. Around the time of his transplant we learned that Alec had Ulcerative colitis. It has been controlled for about 2 years now, but after a recent colonoscopy, the results showed a potential threat for colon cancer. We are just grateful for colonoscopies! (I never thought I would utter those words in my lifetime) So, a plumbing we will go, a plumbing we will go, Hi-ho the derriere-eoh a plumbing we will go.

Anyhow, the poor kid has had to go through a lot! We are thankful for his Surgeon Dr. Brent Christensen who is just amazing. After shopping around for different docs, Dr. Christensen just seemed like the guy to do it. We completely felt comforted and guided to him and we are so happy that we listened to the promptings of the spirit. . and my grandfather for suggesting him. Thanks Grandpa!

This procedure is a two step process, therefore 2 surgeries. His first operation went well. After removing his large intestine, the Dr created a J-pouch with his small intestine. He has had to wear an illeostomoy bag for the past 6 weeks Poor Alec. He has gone through so much!

His second surgery is taking place at this moment. Step 2 is eliminating the need for an illeostomy bag by reconnecting the small intestine back to its original plumbing. Yahoo! Right now Mama and Papa Rampton and I got the news that his surgery just finished. The Doc let us know that everything worked out perfectly. Like always, Alec was a champ during surgery.

For Christmas, my parents gave us tickets to go see the Lion King. It is absolutely amazing, I was crying it was so good! Anyways, my favorite part is when puma tries to cheer up Simba and says, “at times like this, my buddy Timon here says “You gotta put your behind in your past!” Of course he quoted his own friend wrong, (something I would do) and so Timon corrects him, “It’s you gotta put your past behind you.”

(A little play on words given Alec’s recent surgery.)we both want to move forward, we expect no more health surprises but ya never know.

People always joke with Alec telling him he needs to gain some weight. A few even offer him their own love handles and saddlebags! Politely I say, “NO THANKS!” If he’s taking anyone’s “fluff,” it’s mine.

To Alec’s credit, how can you gain any weight if people are taking out all of your organs? My poor man. . .he used to be 175 when we got married, now, with all of his surgeries and gluten free livin life he is 137. YIKES! I promise I feed him!

Well, Anyways, Alec is great, I am great, we will be in the hospital for a few days until he recovers. We thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts! We love you All! D Megan

Hip Hop Halloween

We don't really get in to Halloween all that much, but we love these videos you can make. A special thanks to some of the cousins for starring in the show, even though they never agreed to do it.

Happy Halloween!

High Five

So this morning I was sitting outside eating some breakfast and enjoying how warm it was for a mid-September day. The temperature, breeze and feeling took me back five years ago to the day when Megan and I were married. It was a beautiful almost summer-like day then as well, and I remember waking up in our apartment (I was staying there because we were already paying rent and I didn't want to feel like I was wasting that rent money, because, I'm cheap) around ten in the a.m. and heading down to the temple to meet Megan. It was one of the most amazing feelings I've ever had. I draw on this memory when others ask me how I knew that Megan was the one I was supposed to marry. I always tell people that "it just felt right, and never felt wrong." I was so calm that day. I am guilty of being a complete under-thinker, meaning I never invest too much thought into things in life. Call it a strength or a weakness, I just don't think things through, so as to not psyche myself out I guess. Megan, on the other hand, can be a little more analytical, which is a definite strength of hers. It helps us out of sticky situations I get us into by under-thinking. Anyway, I also ramble on excessively. I still love to dwell on the feeling I had on our wedding day, because Megan and I getting married seemed so natural. I could say that I was under-thinking, but I'd be lying. We both knew exactly what we were doing. I remember dating her and praying about our relationship and taking all of those steps I thought important, but when it came down to it, Megan and I being together was just right, period. So when I think about how calm we both were that morning and entire day, and how natural everything felt, and has felt since, I am reassured of our love and happiness together.

Now, after five years, Megan and I have been through enough to prove those sound feelings to be true. We have had our ups and downs, but overall we keep moving up, and I owe so much of that to Megan and her happy, positive attitude and just the way that she makes life so fun.

So here's to the last five sweet years, and to many more. Love you Megs. Happy Fifth.