Tulum

On our third day of vacation, we had the opportunity to visit some Mayan Ruins called "Tulum" It was absolutely breathtaking. We learned about how Tulum was a Mayan shipping port and that it was one of the smaller Mayan towns. Tulum has high walls on three sides and the fourth side is on the ocean and the town was protected with it's high cliffs.

We also spent a significant amount of time talking about the Mayan calendar and all of the speculation that the world is "ending" on December 25, 2012. Apparantly there has been some misinterpretation of the word "ending". The Mayan calendar which uses a lunar calendar along with the gestational calendar or some combination (I had a hard time understanding our guide sometimes). The Mayans believe that the "ending" really means starting over so...they didn't necessarily believe that God would come again or that the earth itself would cease to exist but that they were to start over and many times they would demolish buildings, temples, etc...and rebuild after the "ending" of thier calendar.

Debriefing to follow

In keeping with the New Year's Resolution (Except for the last week), here's my post for the day. We are officially on dry ground. I still sometimes feel as if the room is moving but that is slowly subsiding. I met some wonderful people on our cruise and really enjoyed getting to travel with my hubby and brother and sister-in law. They are too funny. We had much relaxation and all of us read quite a bit. We picked up a new game, Pit, and can't wait to play at home. As for who I met along the way, do you recognize anyone in this picture? Comment if you do.

66, 79, 72

In 5 days this is where we will be....

and RIGHT NOW the temps are 66,79,72 not too shabby when its 33 here.

And they all fell down

Today Eli and I ventured to our first wrestling meet. I know as a sports enthusiast that may seem shocking but I had never been to a wrestling meet before. Brandon, Rachael's fiance is the head coach of the Clay Center Tigers. Rachael really wanted my Mom and I to come and I debated about taking Eli. I thought he would probably run around and not be interested in watching and doing typical on the go toddler behavior. Boy was I Wrong!

Eli loved wrestling. After all, they all fall down. At least that was his impression he told John all about and apparantly he noticed that they like to take thier shirts off. He tried several times to take his shirt off AT the wrestling meet because he wanted to be like them. I admittedly am shocked that he loved wrestling so much. It's good that Eli is being exposed to sports that I have really no experience in.

The highlight of today was when Brandon actually took Eli on the mat while Brandon was coaching. Eli was so excited to get that close and watch. I think that future Uncle Brandon was just as excited to see a future pupil! I guess we'll see where the wrestling things goes in the future.

Some Christmas pictures

Holy Batman these are good!

So I must admit I have a whole bag of delightfully wonderful, dark chocolaty, peanut buttery things on my desk. I've got large tasks to get done at work and a wonderful co-worker saw my desperate need for.....BATMANS! Batmans are my downfall people!

My lovely mentioned above co-worker loves to keep her candy jar stocked full of wonderful chocolate goodness. Awhile ago, when the newest Batman movie came out they were selling promotional batman reese's peanut butter cups. They are dark chocolate and OH SO GOOD! After the whole office went through such Batmans (they were shaped like the batman logo) we all obsessed about finding the batmans at other stores. To our knowledge the Topeka Target was the only location selling such delightfulness. It was a very sad candy jar for awhile. No batmans existed anywhere but alas.....Two months ago I noticed that Walmart starting carrying dark chocolate peanut butter cups (not shaped like batmans). We still call them batmans though. If one asks for a batman around here...all know one is seeking a dark chocolate reese's peanut butter cup.

Did I mention that these little nuggets of goodness are my downfall? I love them. They have taken over Kit Kat as my favorite chocolate candy treat. I will need my bag of batmans for the next couple of weeks. And then dear readers....I'm off to warmer climates. That is not hard in the 1 degree temperatures we are having in Kansas...Ahhhh 75 degree weather does sound delightful, although it will melt my batmans.

Did Mike Leach go to far?

The Mike Leach/Mark Mangino controversies have been the conversation between my husband and I lately. When has a coach gone to far and when is a coach just motivating and trying to get his players to be a part of team?

On the face it seems that putting an injured player in a confined space for several hours has no value other than to humiliate and send a message to a player. When I first heard the details Adam James gave to the media about being locked in a dark shed for several hours where he was required to stand, I thought it was outrageous and no coach in their right mind would allow that. Then I starting thinking about other situations in which hazing (which some members of the media have called this) is not only condoned but encouraged.

I thought about my dear husband who used to be an Army guy (or whatever the correct term is). We've often talked late at night about what was required of him during basic training and some of those things seem just as pointless and humiliating to me. I asked him if he thought those things were humiliating and unnecessary. He said he felt stupid at the time but looking back it built character and a team oriented mindset. I've also watched on the Discovery Channel the training Navy Seals do. They are probably the biggest studs I've ever seen in my life. They can stand in the surf (ocean) for like hours and by hours I mean 8, 9, 10, 14 hours holding HEAVY boats and logs. I thought how humiliating for them to stand there and get yelled at while holding LOGS for hours. However it prepares them for the teamwork it will require to be successful at the hardest missions given to any military person and allows and individual to see where their limits lie. Now before you start screaming at this post, I'm not comparing college football players to Navy Seals. However, I do think some of the same tactics can apply to both things maybe just to a lesser degree. If Adam James (the Tech Player) wasn't caused any physical damage had it really gone too far?

I'm not sure the even Tech thinks Leach went to far. I think it's a lot more complicated then that. I think that the administrations didn't really like Leach, didn't want to pay him and had a media father very upset. I think this incident made a perfect storm for them to get rid of Leach. I think that after the Mark Mangino firing at KU that this will be the new way to get rid of coaches who aren't performing to the standards required. You watch...you'll see much more "player abuse" on teams who are underperforming.

So what do you think about the Mike Leach firing?

Happy New Decade

I've be waiting several weeks to break my New Year's resolution on my blog. See I've been really thinking about a goal I can set that is do-able but up to this point had not been done. So here it is...READY? My goal for 2010? To blog more often. I love to read other blogs. Ask any of my friends and I am up to date on several nationally known blogs but I am TERRIBLE at updating my own blog. So I've been asking myself "Why don't I blog more often?" I think it's because I don't think that I have any breaking news or anything super exciting. However, many of the other blogs that I read/follow don't often have anything exciting or new going on. It's just people who have a need to share the daily grinds of mothering, working, or being a faith based person. So my attempt will be to share those same things with you.

So with that resolution...let the 2010 blogging begin!