NCAA picks

Every year, my husband's family plays the NCAA men's basketball tournament brackets. They've encouraged me to play along, but I don't know ANYTHING about college basketball, so it's never seemed like fun. This year, I came up with a strategy: Samuel and I are playing together. Samuel is in charge of picking teams, and I am the secretary.

Over milk and pretzels this afternoon we made our picks. Except for my sentimental faves of Wisconsin, University of Louisville, and Duke, all the choices were Samuel's. According to the family rules, each round is chosen separately. These are picks for the first round. If Mississippi Valley (#16) beats UCLA (#1), I may have to take Samuel to Vegas.

East

North Carolina

Arkansas
Notre Dame

Washington

Oklahoma

Louisville

Butler (Selection announced while swallowing milk. "That's a hard word to say when you're drinking.")

Tennessee

Midwest

Kansas

Kent St.

Clemson

Vanderbilt

Kansas St.

Wisconsin

Davidson

Georgetown

South

Memphis

Oregon

Temple

Pittsburgh

Marquette

Stanford

St. Mary's

Texas

West

Mississippi Valley

BYU

Drake

San Diego

Purdue

Xavier

West Virginia

Duke

Oh Susannah?

After church today, Samuel and I were talking about the children's sermon. I was asking Samuel if he remembered the special word the pastor talked about: Hosanna. I suggested that was probably a new word for him. He disagreed. "I know a song with that word! Hooooosanna, oh don't you cry for me!"

Juno

Last week Ben and I got to go on a date! We didn't have any family visiting to watch the kids; we got a real live teenager to babysit and went to the movies. It was very exciting.

Juno felt perfect to me. I was startled by how aptly it captured the emotions of the relationships in an adoption. So funny, so sweet, so sad. I haven't talked to any of our sons' birthparents about it. I'll be curious whether any of them choose to see it and/or like it. I give it 4 gold stars.