Derek's New Calling

On Sunday Derek got released from the Bishopric and was sustained as the newest High Councilor in the Stake. It was a great meeting and although Derek is very sad to be leaving the Bishopric for our ward, he is excited about his new calling and experiences he will gain as a member of the High Council.

It is hard to believe he served just under 2 years in the Bishopric. The last year of that as the 1st counselor and about the previous year as the 2nd counselor.

Lee Ward Bishopric (L to R) 1st counselor: Derek Cullimore, Bishop Greg Ballard, 2nd counselor: Kurt Francom


Below is the Bishopric he served in when he was first called:

Lee Ward Bishopric (L to R): 1st counselor: Knut Carter, Bishop Greg Ballard, 2nd counselor: Derek Cullimore


These are great opportunities to serve. We were quite surprised when we got the call from the Stake Executive Secretary informing us of our meeting at the Stake Center. We went to the Stake Center and met with the Stake President and the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency.

Derek will be a ward advisor over another ward in the Stake and also has other areas of responsibility on the Stake level that he will oversee.

Change is never easy, but does allow us to grow. We will most likely be able to see our husband and dad a little more often than we had before. Although on Sundays he will generally be visiting the ward he oversees. But when he does come to our ward, we get to sit by him again!

BYU Wins Big Again!

Another great victory for the Cougs! The defense played great and forced some turnovers and made life really easy for the offense today.

My prediction was BYU 49 Wyoming 6

The actual final score was BYU 44 Wyoming 0

Pretty close on the prediction and another shutout by BYU! They have now outscored their opponent 103-0 in the last 2 games!

Go Cougs!

BYU Football Week 4 -- BYU Hosts the 'Boys from Laramie

BYU and Wyoming have had some really good games over the years. This version of the rivalry will not be close. BYU will dominate!

Check out this sign from last year's BYU-Wyoming game:

I think if BYU really wanted to they could win this game 77-0, but they will pull some starters and take the foot of the pedal and just watch this one go their way.

Derek's Prediction for Week 4: BYU 49 Wyoming 6

Silly Letter Stories

A - the alligator is angry because an army of ants took his adorable apple on an autumn afternoon.
B - the bear blows until she is blue in the face.
C - the caterpillar climbs carefully up a cottonwood tree and cuts and consumes leaves.
D - the dinosaur dances and dances in a diner full of daffodils and daisies until her dad says, "Stop this disco dancing and come and eat dinner."
E - the elephant exercises.
F - the flamingo is covered in frost and she is too freezing and needs to go back home.
G - the goose tells a story to her friends as she giggles about a gorilla made of gumdrops that bumps into a goat. The goat tells the gumdrop gorilla, "Gumdrops are a good treat for me!"

These are from Kindergarten. Grace comes home and is so excited to tell her little saying that she has learned. She is having so much fun and is adjusting better than I thought she would. She has had a few meltdowns from getting up earlier than normal during the summer. She loves music and P.E., but her favorite thing is recess.

Cougars Bury the Bruins

What a game! BYU 59 UCLA 0! What more can you say than that!

This was a fun game to watch, it was really fun to watch the other Cougar fans reacting as the game got more and more out of hand. I will be wrong, GLADLY, every week if BYU is going to keep punishing other teams this badly. I had predicted BYU 38 UCLA 17...I was obviously off by 21 points on the BYU side and 17 points on the UCLA side. I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THIS GAME!

Go Cougs, way to make a statement!

Max Hall was brilliant by throwing for 7 TD's in only 2 and a half quarters before they rested him in favor of the backup. Great game all around, complete domination! Next week...the pokes of Wyoming!

BYU Football Week 3 -- Cougars and Bruins Meet for 3rd Time in a Year

BYU and UCLA are facing off tomorrow for the 3rd time in 2 seasons. They faced twice last year because they met early in the year and then played again in the Las Vegas Bowl. Now UCLA is heading to Provo to take on the Cougs again.

BYU lost on the road last year, but redeemed themselves in the Vegas Bowl...anyone remember this fun BLOCK below?

I think BYU has got to be playing with a little bit of a chip on their shoulders after last week's game and how everyone is irresponsibly covering the penalty by Washington late in the game. I honestly believe that BYU will play a clean game and impress anyone watching.

If UCLA keys in on Unga like they did in the last 2 match ups, Hall will have the presence of mind to find short dump offs to his receivers and I look for Pitta to have another strong game. The thing I worry about is BYU's defense, but if they can get pressure on Craft (the UCLA QB) then that will help.

I think we will get 2 interceptions from Craft and those turnovers will result in scores. BYU will roll in a game that many think will be very close.

Here it is: BYU 38 UCLA 17

GO COUGS!!!

Ryan's new tricks

After changing Ryan's diaper he ran away before I could put clothing back on him. After crawling for the past couple months he has gotten quite fast. He crawled to the table pulled the baby monitor off and then found the tissue box. He pulled most of the tissue out of the box.

He was so proud of himself when I asked him what he did.

Ryan is so much fun and has really started to explore everything around him. My little boy is growing up way too fast!!

Hello Kindergarten...Here I come!

Grace started school last Thursday. My baby is all grown. I cannot believe that she is big enough to go to school. She loves her teacher. Grace told me that she looks like a nice teacher so she will be a nice teacher.

It is amazing the relief I felt when Grace came out of school and nothing bad had happened. There were so many variables. What can I say I am a worrier.

I was probably more excited to see her than she was to see me.

Grace's best friend Mason goes to the same school, but they are in a different class.

They have a bulletin board with the birthdays on it. Grace was excited to know that they had remembered her birthday.

During the first day they had a field trip around the school following a bear. They went to the library, the playground and a couple other places. In class they made masks. When Grace got home she dressed all in brown, made a forest and wore her mask. While I was making dinner she laid down in the corner and told me that she is hibernating.

She is so creative and so cute!!

Cougars Down Huskies!

BYU edges Washington 28-27! What a game!

My prediction was BYU 31 Washington 27, so I was right on with the Washington score and only 3 off on the BYU side. I did not see it going the way it did, though, with all of the crazy end of game stuff that took place.

BYU blocked an extra point attempt that would have put the game into overtime.

I also mentioned that Harvey Unga needed to have at least 115 yards rushing, which he exceeded. He had a monster game. He had 136 yards rushing and 39 more receiving yards. Also, I said BYU would be in big trouble if they turned the ball over more than twice...they had 2 turnovers and anymore would surely have resulted in trouble for the Cougs!

It was an exciting finish and keeps BYU undefeated so far at 2-0. They have a huge test next week when they face UCLA in Provo. UCLA is currently ranked in the top 25 in both polls and is 1-0 with a big win over #18 Tennessee.

Max Hall had another great game to keep the Cougs perfect. He threw for 338 yards and 3 touchdowns. What a game!

BYU Football Week 2 -- Cougars Take on Huskies

Well, we move on to week 2!

The Cougars have a much, much stiffer test this week than they dealt with last week. Washington hails from the Pac-10 and will be a good barometer for the Cougs.

We need to make sure to clean up our ball security and we should be fine. The Huskies have a very talented QB, Jake Locker, who could give the defense fits!

BYU and Washington have faced off 6 times with BYU only winning 2 of those. The last time BYU was up there in Seattle they fell 20-10, but that was back many years ago (1998).

Hopefully Bronco has the crew focused and ready to go. We have not won a non-conference road game since 2001, kind of crazy it has been that long. We are much better now and should do well.

Although, this will not be an easy test.

I am sure Washington will really try to focus on stopping Pitta, so we need Unga to have a 115 yard rushing performance. We also need to keep our turnovers down, if we have more than 2 turnovers we are in trouble!

Derek's week 2 prediction: BYU 31 Washington 27

GO COUGS!!!