HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Today is my mom's birthday.  I have tons of blogging to catch up on but I wanted to wish my mom a public happy birthday since I can't really wish her one in person!! It's her 48th birthday. To a wonderful mom that set my foundations.  I miss you but know that you are watching over all of us kids! LOVE YOU!! 

A Note from Vegas

So we've had a way fun week despite the ending to yesterday's game but we still had a good time. This is just a quick check in and I definitely have even more to catch up on when we come back. We went to church today with Heather and her fam....here's a conversation that went on between Matt and Will during sacrament:

Matt-What does the bread mean?
Will-Cause Jesus ate bread
Matt-Oh, why do we drink the water?
Will-I don't know, cause we need to stay healthy

I thought it was pretty funny.....we had a dinner filled with Algers....way yummy.

We exchanged some presents....from my brother, we got a Wii remote that comes with another 8 games...we are super excited! Thanks Jimmy!

Which leads me to the presents Matt/me received from the Las Vegas Bowl:
* Wii
* Oakley watch
* $300 gift card to the mall
* new nike shoes
* nike shirt
* football signed by all the team
* 2 fancy pens

We also received our Christmas present early from Matt's parents to help us out on our Disneyland trip!! We are super grateful! Thank you Greg and Becky!!

We have been very spoiled this week with all the free meals and entertainment.....and I have totally loved it!! It has been so enjoyable to get away from school and work and all of its stresses! We look forward to more fun this week!! Tune in next time (entry) for more details....Toodles!

Behind

So life is crazy at the moment and will continue to be for awhile now.   I guess this post is for me to remember everything I need to write about that I haven't yet and so on and so forth.  I still need to catch up on the BYU v. Utah game (matt has a great pic I need to post), Thanksgiving, our adventure at Smith and Edward's on our way back home from Brigham City, our first Christmas decorations, the ward Christmas party, my company Christmas party and our winnings. Upcoming events that are keeping us so busy: Matt and I leave with the football team next Tuesday morning/afternoon to go to Vegas for the Bowl game...and finals week is of course next week so we are at the moment cramming to negotiate taking finals early and studying our little hearts out...can't wait for the different presents the team gets and all the fun things they have planned for us to do while we're down there.  We'll be staying down there after the game to have an early Christmas at Disneyland the following Monday and Tuesday with my sis, Heather, and her clan along with my bro. Michael (possible other family members will be joining).  We fly back to Utah on Christmas Eve and will then be spending Christmas with both sides hopefully.  Phew....lots to do and lots to write about...as for now........we're takin a break from blogging for awhile, that's all folks!

We did what?? Til When??....

3:30 A.M!! Making Paper Christmas Trees for the ward Christmas party. It took us 6 hours for 3 people to make 64 trees Thursday night for the party on Saturday

We FINALLY found....

Matt some pants that ACTUALLY FIT him!!

Courtesy of Smith and Edwards
(more pics to come)

Jack and Jill

Aww precious

Firsts

My first ever attempt at making pies....2 pumpkin and 1 apple (Matt helped a lot with the crust on the apple). I was pleasantly surprised with their turnout and has sparked a new adventure in cooking for me.

It was also my first Thanksgiving with the Putnams and I loved it. It was tons of fun and lots of good food!!

Twilight Zone

So flashback to last last Friday...I went to Twilight with the girls (Christy, Cassie, Emily). So...when we walked into the movie there was 2 stands next to the theatre and a lady told us that for that theatre we could take a free soda and popcorn.....(SWEET was my thought process).  And when we got inside, a lady was calling out seat numbers and handing out twilight prizes.  One of Cassie's friends was there and we came to find out that a lady had actually reserved the entire theatre for her friends and family and thats how they got tickets.....so we were thinking there must have been extra tickets so they put them back on the internet.  Well....about 5 min before the movie started Em looks at her ticket and says "Saturday".....ya Emily had bought the tickets and organized the whole thing and accidentally clicked on Saturday at 7:00 rather than Friday at 7:00.  Well...nobody ended up coming to fill the seats we were in so we went ahead and stayed (and no we didn't go back the next day to see it again...if it wasn't for the Utah game...) and watched the movie and all but talk about crashing somebody's party-we looked back and basically everyone knew each other and was jabbering away.  I enjoyed the movie though...it of course had its cheesy parts, but so does the book, and I was pleasantly happy with how the movie turned out.  

Learning Something New

So I'm switching to AP (Accounts Payable) at work. At the present I head all the customer service so.....problems. I deal a lot with FedEx (getting them to pay us when they damage/lose our packages), refund checks, customer's accounts, etc and so on. I even kinda have an assistant. But now I'm switching gears have started training on all things AP. I'm actually pretty excited because it is one of the very few things that I don't already know how to do from all the time that I've worked there. I don't know everything I'll be doing yet, but the jist is cutting all the main checks to vendors/suppliers/freight companies, paying the bills in general, etc. I'll also be dealing a lot more closely with the managers/owner, company credit card statements/reconciling....so basically all the companies money and making sure it is handled correctly and our system is right as far accountingness of the whole thing. I still have A LOT more to learn....and I've been told it's the one thing that takes the longest to train and kind of a pain to get the hang of but I think it will be a good experience and it's a big jump from where I am now so I'm looking forward to it.

Happy Late Celebration!

So this is kinda long overdue....but we didn't exactly get the chance to celebrate Matt's birthday actually on his birthday (back on the 13th, a week from last Thursday) due to school and meetings-we were gone basically all day. We did have time to go out to dinner but that was kinda all. So.....that Saturday I suprised him (well sorta) when he came home from the game that night with a birthday cake and a little banner that saying 'Happy Birthday.' I kinda ruined the cake though ( I thought I would be all cool and wifey and make him a totally homemade chocolate cake)....didn't quite turn out as I planned....we don't exactly have wire racks so when I took them out of their pans to cool on plates-they decided to stick to the plates and then they kinda fell part and so on and so forth....so it was definitely not the prettiest cake ever (in the history of cake making) but it tasted decent....anyways off of my ramblingness....Here's the pics

Bored.....and Nothing Else Even Somewhat Productive To Do

So at the moment, I'm stuck on campus cause Matt has the keys and he's at practice-this is actually the 2nd week IN A ROW that both of us have forgotten. Except last week I walked home (10 blocks) but it's a bit colder today and I don't quite feel like it like I did then. I would be doing homework except for the fact that I didn't bring it cause I was only planning on going to my class an then going to take a midterm. Any who's....
Here's some of the random stuff that has happened in the past few days:

**Saturday** Matt had yet another great game against Air Force and came home with quite a few bumps and bruises that have yet to go away. We finally 'celebrated' his birthday when he got home that night....in a post yet to come once I'm actually at home and can upload the pics...and watched Brian Regan's new stuff-the Epitome of Hyperbole-SO FUNNY! Highly recommend. I realized that we needed a few groceries so that I could make the dessert requested for the dinner we were going to on Sunday...Matt could hardly move so I ran to the only 24 hour store close (it was only 10:30...no worries) and who did I see?? Why my cousins Jacob and Haley Hicks. By the time I got back, Matt was out like a stuffed animal on the couch and I think it took me another half hour to get him in bed

**Sunday** We ate dinner with the fam that lives below us/landlords-lasagna that Jimmy (the head of the house) has been bragging to Matt and I for about a month and a half now about how good it is...but he had a right to brag-it was DELICIOUS....I will admit is probably the best completely homemade lasagna I have ever had.

**We got Preach My Gospel to start doing Family Home Evenings together and so far I love it! Monday was the first time we used it, but it makes doing FHE between just the 2 of us a good spiritual experience and all

**Matt finished Eclipse yesterday and has already started on Breaking Dawn...he's hooked...I'm so proud

**Happy Birthday to my sister, Heather, today!! I apologize if your present from your kids doesn't fit-Billy called me yesterday asking me what size you were....I hope I was right, I atleast thought I was....if not, it's the thought that counts......right?

**Everyone at my work has been all hyped up about the game Saturday and I think I've heard the same conversation atleast 4 times from the different guys I work with:
-Is Matt excited for the game?
-Are you excited?....are you going? (and yes I am going)
-What does he think the game will be like....how close will it be...what are the odds?
-What happens if we win?
-This is his first time actually playing against Utah, right?....ooh how cool
-He's had a great season so far, we cheer really loud for him everytime he's in....57 right?
-You better be feeding him whatever he needs to get him ready for that game....pasta, meat, whatever it takes, whatever he wants.
Anyways, I just find it kinda comical and all.
And after this Saturday, I will actually have a hubby to play with on the weekends and not be bored watching movies and cleaning every Friday night.....yeah!! I think I'm probably one of the few that is excited for football to be over (disclaimer: that's the only reason I'm happy it'll be over....I love going to the games and watching him play)

**For some reason, Matt and I have been anti-grocery shopping for about the last month and a half. Besides a quick run to get the essentials-milk, bread, eggs we haven't been to the store for quite some time. It's not that we're that poor we can't afford food, but we both just haven't wanted to go, so we just make do with what we have and I've been pleasantly surprised with what we have been able to come up with for meals. We're slowly starting to run out of our supply so we may just have to succomb and grocery shopping within the next week.

**I paid $1.83 a gallon to fill up the car yesterday!!! Less than $15 to fill it up half way!! It was probably the highlight of the day.

**Fall would probably be my favorite season if it wasn't for the whole 'lets get colder at the same time.' I think that's why God made the trees so pretty changing colors and all-it's like he's softening the blow of freezingness with prettyness (good grammer, I know).

**So tonight I have to go to ward council with the Stake for the first time...I'm assistant secretary in the Relief Society Presidency. So far my duties are as follows: bring the roll/announcement binders to church and collect them afterwards. Update the announcements weekly before church on Sunday. Set up the chairs at the front of the R.S. room for the presidency before R.S. starts. And I just got put in charge of birthday cards for the sisters. I don't even go to the Presidency meetings. A little strange to anyone else?? Not trying to diss my calling, I'm happy to serve in whatever way they need me to...I just think it's a little odd that's all, especially that I'm going to a meeting with the stake when I don't even go to the regular presidency meetings.  

**Well....that was certainly some good blabbering going on up there....and no I have not heard from Matt yet so who knows what I will contine to do to occupy my time....but we have some good things coming up in the future that I'm sure will make for some good posts: Twilight with girls Friday night, the BYU v. Utah game Saturday, Thanksgiving next week, Company Christmas party, Fall semester almost over, and I'm sure there will be much much more excitement to come from the Putnam couple.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!

23!!! Happy Birthday 'old' man! Wow, I'm married to an old man. I'm a little late in the day getting this up here but I wouldn't go to bed without a big happy birthday broadcast to everyone :) It's basically been a normal day for him, dang it school, football, activities committee. We went out to dinner to the Training Table-thank you dad for the gift certificates!
Matt is a wonderful hubby and I am grateful that I have him to call mine. He's just absolutely great and I can't believe I am so lucky. It's by far the best part of my day when I get to see him and be with him. I don't even really know what to say besides that he is amazing and I am so thankful for him and everything he does for me. Thank you sweetheart, I LOVE YOU and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Putnam Makes His Mark Again!!

Another great game #57!! Matt played a wonderful game Saturday against San Diego State. He got the 'Geneva Rock Hard Hit of the Game' off of one his tackles on the kickoff. After the game he got to go ring the 'victory bell'. I got to tag along as the wife an it was quite entertaining. We rode up to it on a golf cart (along with Matt Bauman) (they were still in their uniforms too) and we got all sorts of cheers from people in cars and the sidewalks, it was great. At the bell-it's basically those die-hard fans who just love BYU football so much....almost all of them had their faces painted and were so excited to see the 2 Matts. He signed a lot of autographs and got asked about a bajillion times by the little kids if they could have his wristband (but he always told em no cause they were lucky so he couldn't give em away). There was even a girl (atleast high school/college age) who asked me to take a picture of her with 'the players'...a little awkward taking a picture of another girl with MY husband-but good job Matt for not even touching her when she went and stood by him. It was a whole process of about 15 min. but it was a pretty entertaining 15 min if you ask me.

Our ward has also now discovered 'Matt Putnam' so he has become quite famous at church. We remained practically anonymous for 3 months. The elder's quorum president just loves Matt. He always ends up apologizing for how excited he gets whenever he sees Matt and starts talking about the game and how well he did. It's pretty comical to watch when you're not the one being bombarded....sorry Matt...that's what you get for being practically famous.

The Significance of One

I've been thinking. I find it amazing how the world materializes, manufactures, and produces so many things that are duplications. You walk into a store and there is 10 things of the exact same thing lined up in a row and you know they have more in the back. But that's only how a man's world works. Everything about nature and in nature is unique. Anything that is natural has some unique characteristic....sure there are things that are considered to be the 'same' but when carefully examined they aren't completely identical. Take a step back, and consider God's world and man's world. Every tree and leaf is so different. Just look outside, fall is like the personality of nature. The 'same' trees show different personalities-one's leaves are pink, orange, and yellow whereas another's seems to still be holding onto all the green it can with only a few yellow leaves here and there and then you see the ones that must have been happy to be rid of all their leaves cause they are already completely off and the tree is as bare and can be. A single leaf can represent many different things just by looking at it: life, change, death. A single tree brought Adam and Eve to fall. Just ONE. It's not like their was a meadow of knowledge trees-just a single tree. Every snowflake is said to be entirely unique. The symbolism is amazing. If it wasn't important, you would think that God would have made a cookie cutter for all snowflakes. A single tear in someone's eye can represent complete joy or sadness. No storm is the same, no plant, no flower. And look at the importance 'just one' has had on every single one us. If you zoom out of Utah, you may see a lot of houses, parks, roads....but to a family a specific house is their home, their safe place, their little temple. Rock Canyon park may just a park to everyone else, but for me it's where I got engaged-which basically makes it the best park ever made. A person may just be someone they pass on street, but another individual that person may be their special someone-someone life isn't worth living if they aren't with them. Someone that has completely changed their life for their better eternally...my husband. There is ONE book that has changed my life in its entirety and has changed many thousands of others...the Book of Mormon. Look at the power that one book has had on this world. The power ONE man had in making sure this book was brought forth and everything he did. We have ONE prophet. The world has tried to make cookie cutters out of humans with celebrities and models, but it just doesn't work that way. Every person is unique, individual, original. The nature of a human is so powerful, I think most of us just don't grasp our own complexity. That's kind of a bold thing to say but when you think of it in a similar way of nature and trying to see God's perspective, it makes it a little easier. So back to nature, I think it is often something we take for granted or don't really think about cause it is always there. But the fact that it is always there is something to consider. Always a reminder of beauty, uniqueness, and something of worth....like us. The changing fall leaves are like a reminder to show our personalities and let them shine. For atleast one time in the year. Their leaves fall off and you can see the tree for what it is, all the branches, the winding and curving it had to do to make the leaves look so pretty when those branches were full before. Their are certain people that do that for each one of us-but usually only specific people, or maybe just ONE. We so often compare to everyone else, but why? I know that I do it quite a lot and sometimes I wonder why. Take a moment and appreciate what you do have-those little individual things that make you happy. You're favorite chair-there's only ONE of them. You're favorite hairdo, perfume, teddy bear, pillow, color. Can you imagine life without all of those little simple things of just ONE that seem to influence you everyday. There has been just ONE perfect man to ever live this earth, only ONE man who sacrificed his life for every single person that has ever lived and will ever live. ONE man's atonement makes it possible for every one of us to make it back to our Heavenly Father for eternity. Amazing, isn't it? I don't know if I was even able to sort of get my point across but I do need to go to bed.

Tag!! I'm it!!

Another wonderful tag....also from Kylar...I guess this is the easy way of getting my thoughts ou there

**10 TV shows I LOVE to watch**
1. The Office
2. America's Next Top Model
3. Mythbusters
4. How it's Made
5. Home Improvement
6. Fresh Prince of BelAir
7. Extreme Home Makeover
8. Price is Right
9. Random game shows
It's a shame we don't exactly get tv (we get 2 channels at this point in time...5 and 13)

**10 of my FAVORITE restaurants**
1. Brick Oven
2. Diego's
3. Cheesecake Factory
4. Applebees
5. Chili's
6. Tucanos
7. P.F. Changs
8. Pizza Factory
9. Los Harmonos
10. Tepanyaki

**10 things that happened YESTERDAY**
1. Arrived at school....almost on time (I would have been on time if my professor hadn't moved our class to a completely different building)
2. Searched Disneyland many hours of the day when I should have been doing homework
3. Attended D&C, Stats, and my Physical Science lab
4. Ate dinner at Legends Grille
5. Went to Walmart and got bunny ears for our tv....Yeah for channels 5 and 13!!!
6. Watched Obama's 'Sweet, I'm the next president' speech
7. Made a chocolate cake
8. Talked to my sis on the phone for quite a long time
9. Decided that I really, really want to go to Disneyland
10. Ran into my brother at Walmart

**10 Things I am Looking forward to**
1. Football season being over....for the sole reason of having Matt home on the weekends and our Saturdays not being totally taken over
2. Physical Science being done
3. Going to Disneyland with Matt (at some time or another)
4. This semester being done
5. Christmas vacation....especially Christmas
6. Owning a set of living furniture that actually matches
7. Owning a house
8. Having all of our thank you notes written and sent out
9. The Bowl game (I get to go too)
10. Eternal Life with Matt

**10 Things on my WISH List**
1. Go to Disneyworld and Paris
2. Write another song on my cello
3. Be rich and not have to worry about money
4. Make a difference in someone's life
5. Go an entire day without my back hurting
6. Be as strong as Matt so I could actually take him on when he starts tickling me
7. Make up a super good super tastey and famous recipe
8. Always have a smile on my face
9. Become remarkably amazing at my cello
10. To go on a totally random and spontaneous adventure

**10 People that I TAG**
1. Brad/Jessie
2. Angie
3. Jenny Marie 
4. Heather
5. Gwen
6. Ashlee
And that's all the friends I have...

Tag - 10 Years Ago

A tag from Kylar:

**5 things I was doing 10 years ago**
1. Karate
2. Living in Las Vegas
3. It was the beginning of 4th grade
4. Playing softball all the time
5. Swimming in our pool

**5 things to do on my list today** (we'll say tomorrow since today is practically over)
1. School
2. Work
3. Clean the apt/do the dishes
4. Start an essay for my anthropology class
5. Figure out what's for dinner

**5 snacks I enjoy**
1. Fruit snacks definitely
2. Granola bars
3. anything chocolate
4. Fruit juice
5. Brownies

**5 things I would do if I were a millionare**
1. Buy a house
2. Invest
3. Buy more shoes
4. Jump into a big pile of my money and swim around in it for a bit
5. Help out those in need

**5 places I've lived**
1. Las Vegas
2. Pleasant Grove
3. Highland
4. Provo (Glenwood apts)
5. Provo (our house/apt now)

**5 jobs I've had**
1. Dad's secretary/bookeeperish
2. Bagger-Kohler's grocery store
3. Accounting clerk-Emergency Essentials
4. Student
5. Babysitter ?

**I Tag**
1. Brad and Jessie
2. Angie
3. Ashlee Reeder (sorry if I spelled that wrong)
4. Jenny Marie
5. Gwen

Rules: Each person answers the questions themselves. At the end, tag 5 people and post their names

Recap

So another highlight recap of this past week:
Last Saturday....obviously there was the UNLV game where Matt did amazing. Matt's parents along with his sister, Wendy, and brother Nate (who came directly from the airport after flying from Virginia) all came to the game. After the game, we all went and visited Matt's Grandpa Putnam, he's super nice and has a great spirit about him. He's getting old and losing his hearing and mobility but still cracks a joke and makes everyone laugh. We made a shopping trip spree to Bed, Bath and Beyond and used up all of our gift cards-They have a deal of 10% off anything on your registry that you didn't get, but you have to use it within the first 3 months....and seeing how last Saturday was exactly the 3 month anniversary mark we kinda didn't have a choice but to go there if we wanted to save a little bit of money. Speaking of 3 months....we've been married for over 3 months now!! Crazy how time flies...but it only flies if you're having fun, right? So we are still happily married and our relationship is still progressing, which I am very happy about. Continuing on...
Sunday....we went to one of my old friend's farewells, he's off to chile this wednesday. Matt didn't quite enjoy the morning so much but I don't blame him. We immediately headed up to Brigham City to see his fam. Nate and his family moved back for a few months from Virginia and seeing as how I had never met any of them besides Nate, and even Matt had never met their youngest boy, Owen. It was fun to meet em and spend some time getting to know them. We went to church with them and here comes the good stories. Matt is pretty much famous up there-everyone knows who he is without a doubt so before church even started he shook a lot of hands of congratulations for his good game. In the middle of sacrament meeting a man came up behind us asking Matt if he would be willing to speak to his young women....Matt said sure and then the man said, "now if you'll just follow me"....it was for a completely different ward!! and the man pulled us out of the middle of a guy's talk in sacrament meeting!! can you say hilarious?! So we went in and girls were basically gawking at him and couldn't believe that was really Matt Putnam. Who knows how they even found out he was in the building....I thought it was quite comical. They asked him a few football questions and we added a few words going along with their lesson and that was basically it. It still made it one of the highlights of the day....Matt is the new upcoming celebrity of BYU football (which I am proud of him for). There was a big get together after church where all the Putnams were they except for Jeff and his family who live in Alaska so I think they had a good excuse. It was definitely a good time-lots of stories and laughing. All the nieces and nephews running around and great dinner. And I learned something new...Matt's celebration move (as seen in pictures below) apparently runs in the family....passed down from his dad. It was great to hear all his bros and sis making fun of him for that one. I can't wait for that one to get passed down to our boys. :) The Putnams are a great group of people to be surrounded with. I am grateful that I get to consider myself a part of em. We headed back to Provo that night-school, work, and football were waiting for us the next day.

The beginning of the week was just filled with the usual school, work and football, been watching a lot of The Office on netflix. We did do some major cleaning in our apt-very happy....nothing really exciting though until Halloween...

And so Friday, October 31...Matt was gone to Colorado before long and it turned out to be a pretty typical Friday besides the fact of dressing up. I was the easiest thing possible....the road

After work I went with my best girl, Alyssa, and we saw High School Musical 3...and yes I thoroughly enjoyed it (I probably just embarrassed Matt by saying that) and we sat in the car catching up on girly talk for almost 2 hours after-good times. Not much of a Halloween but that's fine by me....I've never been much of a Halloween girl-I hate all things scary in any way shape or form...so for me it was the perfect way to spend Halloween night.

Saturday...lots of folding laundry and cleaning....I watched Becoming Jane while I did most of it-highly recommend. I went up to my parent's house to watch the game. Came home and did more cleaning while I waited for Matt to get home. It's always exciting for me when he comes home after game...it feels like a reunion after a week or something.

And today...very happy sleeping in this morning. Went to church as always and our ward had a linger longer afterwards with breakfast for dinner...very good (but of course it didn't fill Matt up, so we came home and made spaghetti to top it off) Matt is just finishing New Moon-he bought it before heading up to Colorado (so he read it in 3 days....I'm so proud). And I think that's basically everything....sorry it's so long....I don't seem to be able to leave out all the worthless information. Thanks for reading!

Yeahoo!!!

Once again I'm a little late getting this up here but last Saturday against UNLV Matt played an awesome game!! (He also had a good game yesterday against Colorado State). He played well the entire game and then decided to step it up a notch again at the end. For those of you who didn't watch the game-the second to last play of the game Matt sacked the quarterback when it was definitely needed cause we had to keep them for scoring a touchdown in order to win. And Matt's sack was basically amazing!! Coach Mendenhall named it as the play of the game! He got interviewed about 4 different times by different newspapers including the salt lake tribune and ksl (he doesn't know who the other reporters were). Well here's all the pics of his amazing sack from the game! Good Job Hubby!!

The now famous celebration move :)

And here's a little section from one of the Tribune's newspaper articles:
Putnam's play
Cougar defensive end Matt Putnam made the biggest play of the game for BYU's defense, sacking UNLV quarterback Omar Clayton with seven seconds remaining to put the Rebels back at the 25-yard-line.
The freshman from Brigham City's Box Elder High said he was fresh from rotating most of the day with Jan Jorgensen and Brett Denney.
"He pumped faked a couple of times, but I just stayed on him and he slowed down just enough for me to catch him," Putnam said. "I just tried to make the play when I had a chance."

Here's the KSL interview after the game-if you go to the UNLV game and it's the postgame 1-he goes on at about 37 min into it

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=3450679&nid=276

Matt's Article

So I'm a little late getting this up here but it's an article in a newspaper up in Brigham City that did a special on Matt...his first real full on newspaper interview and all that jazz. It was printed sometime just before the TCU game.
Here's the link if you have the desire to read it from the site itself: http://www.standard.net/live/sports/145764/

Reaching potential: Ex-Bee Putnam shining in Cougars' defense
There are 2 comments for this page [ View ]Tuesday, October 14, 2008By TRENT TOONEStandard-Examiner staff
PROVO -- For a guy who didn't really know what he wanted after high school, things sure have fallen into place quite nicely for Matt Putnam.
Believe it or not, there was a time not long ago when the towering 6-foot-6, 237-pound defensive end for the No. 9 BYU Cougars wasn't sure if he had a shot at playing college football.
"I don't know that I even had a dream. I was amazed I got scholarship offers," said Putnam, who was recruited by the likes of Stanford, Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Utah State. "I didn't really see myself playing in a big game, probably because I was in little Brigham City and didn't even know what was going on in the rest of the state. Little did I know I was one of the best prospects in the state."
Turns out the former Box Elder High athlete had potential after all.
Fast-forward through an LDS mission to McAllen, Texas, and a redshirt season at BYU, and now Putnam is one of coach Bronco Mendanhall's rising young stars on the Cougars' defense.
After a year of work with the practice squad, the freshman didn't start to see serious playing time until he impressed coaches in the lopsided win over UCLA. He hadn't anticipated playing against the Bruins, but got the nod with BYU up 44 points in the second half.
"It was just crazy. I came off (the bench) and made a few plays. I got an interception," Putnam said. "The coaches were willing to trust me a lot more, willing to throw me out there and see what I could do."
Going into Thursday's game at TCU, Putnam has recorded 13 tackles, two sacks and helped to cause all manner of chaos and confusion for opposing quarterbacks, but hopes his best efforts are yet to come.
Considering the condition of his body following his mission, Putnam is counting his blessing to be performing so well. The Brigham City native said he was 60 pounds too healthy when he returned home from Texas after two years of proselyting for the LDS Church.
"Getting back in shape is not exactly the easiest thing when you are 60 pounds over weight," he said. "But at BYU they take care of us."
Returning to top form wasn't impossible, Putnam said, because the program has worked with so many returned missionaries over the years that they have the process down to a scientific formula.
"BYU has really figured out how to do transform bodies without people getting injured," he said. "They take it easy on us until the body is ready and strong enough, and when we are ready for it, they go full bore."
Even so, until this season, Putnam hadn't played in a football game since leaving Box Elder in 2004, where he helped the Bees to an 18-4 record in his final two seasons and earned all-American honors.
He was prepared for the college game, however, because grew up watching two of his older brothers. One brother, Jeff, played at Air Force and another brother, Nate, played at Utah State.
"(Nate) was one of the hardest workers on the team," Matt said. "He told me to work hard, but didn't give me much more advice. But I knew what to do because I watched him play at USU."
Thus coming back to Romney Stadium two weeks ago was a bit nostalgic for No. 57. He said it was a little strange to be there and not be pulling for the Aggies.
"I kind of grew up an Aggie," he said. "I remember it getting loud and rowdy, so I was ready for that. I knew they wouldn't give up."
The Cougars won the game, 34-14, and Putnam said he almost feels like a seasoned veteran now. He says he can handle the attention that comes with wearing the BYU uniform, the big stadiums, the fan frenzy, the juggling act of school work and taking care of his wife, Jill.
"I am used to it now. Getting playing time has helped it come back," Putnam said. "Sometimes it's surreal. When we are in a huge game with tons of people screaming and all the stuff we get, I'm just like 'wow, from little Brigham City all the way to this.' It's amazing to take advantage of that."

Football, Football, and More Football!

K here it goes....all the many tons of pictures of Matt from all the games so far. Enjoy! Sorry it's taken me so long to get em up and sorry about the quality of the ones that were taken by me or Alyssa....it's pretty easy to tell if it's one of our pics compaed to the professionals.
P.S. Matt's #57

V. Northern Iowa

His first game ever playing for BYU!! YEAH!!

And his very first play he got the tackle!....How many guys can say that? Ha

He's on the left

His very first huddle....how precious

Warmups...I probably should have put these ones first....oh well

He's in there somewhere....it's just kinda a cool pic
Please appreciate Matt's face on the sideline (the top left of the picture)
And here's a close up-by far my favorite pic of them all


V. UCLA (the ones I haven't already posted)

Interception!!....just look at the determination on his face :)



V. Wyoming

He's the manly one on top


V. Utah State

V. New Mexico

He's on the left tackling the guy....he looks so strong huh
He's the third one in


Me with my best girlies.....so cute

Updating!

Well, I've certainly got quite a bit of updating to do although I don't know if there's really that much to say. Life has been busy as usual. Matt has played great at the last couple games, as usual, and despite this last week's loss Matt still played a good game. It has been super nice to have Matt for the whole weekend since this week's game was on Thursday. It's been the first time in awhile that it really felt like a weekend and we were able to get quite a bit done. For the TCU game, I went and watched the game with all the other wives in the football teamroom (wives club). It was quite an intense game to be sitting there with Max Hall's wife along with Dennis Pitta's wife and all the rest of em. They are all darling girls but it was a stressful game in the first place to be watching and then to be with all those guy's wives, you could just feel how they were hurting in the room. It was kind of comical at the same time as well though. We actually had a guy filming us during the whole game just to get our reactions....kinda awkward. Matt seemed ok with the loss-he hasn't been super depressed all weekend which I am very happy about. Saturday night, we had our ward chili cook-off. Matt and I are on the activities committee and our duty was making a bean bag toss. We made a pumpkin out of cardboard with the face as the holes for the kids to throw the bean bags into-I wish we would have taken a picture of it cause it did end up looking pretty cool and it turned out to be quite the hit with all the little kids.
For a little over the last week, we've done the netflix 2 week free trial (and then we're cancelling it so we don't have to pay :) so we've been watching lots of the office and movies to get the best out these 2 weeks we have free.
Last Sunday, we went up for the blessing of Angie and Mat's twins, Leo and Jack. They are absolutey adorable and just so precious. Raising 2 sets of twins-very impressive, I definitely don't think I could do it. It was so fun to visit with all of Matt's family. I really love the relaxing feeling of Matt's family, they are really fun people to surround yourself with. We stopped by my parent's house on the way back home (the blessing was in Taylorsville) which was also fun to see my fam since it's been awhile.
Here's some of my random thoughts from these last few weeks:
I am grateful for having both of our families semi close to us cause of the reason from up above-we are able to go and try and support whatever event is happening in either fam. I have really liked getting to know Matt's family better and it has been tons helpful since we have gone up there a twice this last month plus the baby blessing this last Sunday. I wouldn't be able to get to know them so quickly if it weren't for a semi short distance that we are able to travel and still be ok money wise.
I am grateful for the job I have these days-I work at the corporate office for an emergency preparedness company, so while the economy and a lot of businesses are struggling-we happen to be doing quite well. I have also been there for awhile and sorta established myself in the company so that I really don't have any worries of layoffs or that sort. And while all the other companies are firing at the moment, our company is hiring because it so happens that we have been dramatically getting more business ever since the summer.
I am grateful that Matt is on the football team and for his scholarship. I don't know what we would be doing money wise if it wasn't for his full-ride scholarship, it really helps us out a lot and for that I am very grateful. And although I hate it when Matt has to be away at a hotel atleast one night out of the week I think it helps me appreciate him more. Every time he leaves and I have to come home to an empty apt after work it puts me in check again and I realize how much I lean on him. He is great.
And I am just happy to be married-no dealing with all the social dramas of single life and everything that comes with that. The only roommate I have is my best friend and husband. I have done a lot better in school since we've been married-and that's definitely a good thing. Plus it's just nice to always have someone there you can babble to...I do that quite a lot I think.
Well I think that's about all the updates as far as our lives go for the moment. I'll be back with more soon!

Random Updates

Well, there's not a whole lot to say that's new. School is pretty crazy-Just finishing up midterms....always fun...almost. Football is going very well for Matt. Last weekend (the 26th-28th) was the football team's bye week. I was so happy to have Matt on a Friday night and not have to be alone in our apt. Friday, we went out to eat at Diego's and then went to the dollar theatre and saw Kung Fu Panda-very funny...I recommend it. It was so fun to go on a date-it's been awhile just cause life has been crazy and he's gone every weekend so it makes that area a little difficult sometimes. Quick Rewind-The Thursday before that The Office started back up!! I'm so excited it's back on-I love it!! We went over to Brad and Jessie's to watch it (we don't have cable) and it was a lot of fun. Saturday (the 27th) we went up to Brigham City and spent some time with Greg and Becky. David and Stephanie blessed their newborn Aria on Sunday-it was so sweet and Aria is the cutest little baby!! We came back home that night but it was a fun little vacation even so. And then this last week was pretty much just filled with midterms, school,work, and football practices. While Matt was gone in Ogden on Thursday, I went over to Alyssa's and made sugar cookies with her and Lara Mann and Jenna Garrett. It's fun to catch up and talk to girls sometimes :). I got work off Friday so I could go to the game and cleaned like crazy before I left to go up to Logan....and the rest is on the next entry. That's all....I think.

Conference Weekend and More

Friday night was the BYU v. USU game and BYU won 34-14 and Matt played awesome! He got a lot of playing time this game and got a little beat up at the same time. He got 4 tackles and a sack! I drove up after school to go to the game and ended up picking Michael up along the way as well (he was in Bountiful and called me and we decided to carpool the rest of the way). I sat with Greg and Becky (Matt's parents). My family ended up coming up/down to the game as well-Alger's, Maxwell's, and Garrard's. It was fun to see all of them.
We stayed the night at Greg and Becky's and watched all of Saturday's conference up there. In between sessions, we went over to Dave and Stephanie's and Matt helped Dave out in the yard so that their house didn't flood-it had been pouring rain all day. Luckily, no water got inside their house and they were able to reroute all the water to drain out to the street. On our way home that night the gas gauge in our car decided to break and we ran out of gas on the freeway right before the exit we had to take to get home (it still said we had 27 miles left). It was absolutely pouring rain. After a few minutes the car actually started up again and we were able to get off the exit and then it stopped running again. Matt walked in pouring rain to the gas station that was about 300 yards away from where we were and got a gas can for our car. To make it shorter-we were able to get home but the gas gauge kept going back and forth deciding when to work and when not to...so who knows what happened there. It made for an adventure on our way home yesterday and it reminded me of Elder Wirthlin's talk during conference about laughing when bad things happen rather than getting angry-it was the absolute perfect situation for that talk to come into play and we had a good laugh about it.
Today we went up to my parent's house and watched conference up there. We also discovered this morning that you can watch conference live on the internet so we had a little bit of fun with that one. We went through all of my old things that I had still had kept at their house...so fun. We had a really yummy dinner and Michael came over as well as Tom Polley and his friend. We also got our wedding pictures from our photographer!!! I was so excited. We don't have them on cd (we're working on that one) so we'll have to see about how to get them on here soon. Well, I think that about sums up this weekend-I have a bit more of catching up on all the other random things that have happened in the last little bit.

Photo & Quirks Tag

So Heather tagged me to do this....the rules are you have to take pictures of the following things AS IS. NO STRAIGHTENING UP first! I took the pictures a few days ago but haven't gotten around to actually posting it all but here it goes:

The kitchen sink

The fridge-with the pictures Will and Pammie colored at the temple while we were getting married and the drawing Thad did for me when he couldn't come with his mom to my bridal shower

The toilet (that's our shower curtain on the right)

So I was supposed to take a picture of my favorite room in the house but seeing as how we only have 3 rooms total, it's not like I've got much choice, so I decided to do my favorite parts of each of the rooms/my favorite decorations/setups

That's our entertainment center with a picture of Christ and a couple figurine up on top with the matching clock-one of the only places where everything actually matches

I love these old keys that Aunt Dawn gave to us-they won't be here for long....we still have yet to hang all of our pictures and then they will be next to a picture that has a picture of old keys like these with a quote that says "Prayer is the key to heaven"

The doorway between the living room and the kitchen-I like the symmetry :)

I like to think of it as Matt and me

This is in our bedroom on top of one of the dressers by our bed-don't mind the Finding Nemo dvd. The frame has almost all of the tickets from movies or different things Matt and I went to when we were dating (Notice the bright yellow wall in the background-that's what our whole bedroom is like)

I hadn't heard this quote

or seen a

board with this on it until we got it as one of our wedding presents and it makes me happy

My cinderella clock from Jimmy....I just love

Our closet-there's not much to say there

It's supposed to be pictures of your kids but seeing as how we don't have any...Matt has to do

And a self portrait-my nose was bright red
cause I had a cold for quite some time

last week....so I covered it up

My Dream Vacation:

Well, my dream vacation would have to have a few qualifications: quite long, all expenses paid(meaning we wouldn't have to pay anything), and no huge responsibilities to come home to that would have built up while we were gone (such as a huge homework assignment/paper or something like that cause then there would be no worries and just full enjoyment). I would probably have to say that our honeymoon was pretty dang close to my dream vacation besides Matt getting sick and the car breaking down. It was so fun to just relax and have no obligations and we could do whatever we wanted. I've always dreamt of going to Disneyworld, so throw a few days there just having a blast and a night at a fancy restaurant and I think that about would do it. Oh, and Matt would have to be with me or it would be no fun at all.

And the 6 quirks about myself:

1. When I brush my teeth I have to floss too or it will drive me crazy until I do

2. I have a bulging disc in my lower back...I've had back pain since the beginning of high school but we didn't discover what it was until the summer after my senior year

3. During scary/intense movies I shake....I can't help it and I don't know why but once I get into the movie I can't stop (it's like the shake you get when it's really cold)

4. If I can't sleep I watch/listen to Finding Nemo. I love the music but it's kind of ironic that I watch a movie about a fish who gets separated from his dad and that calms me down. Heather bought me the soundtrack for my birthday a couple years ago because everytime I babysat her kids, she would come home to me alseep on the couch and Finding Nemo on (this was of course after I put the kids to bed).

5. My toenails always have to be painted....even during the winter when the only thing I wear are closed toed shoes....they just have to be painted or it will drive me nuts.

I'll finish this later after my class....to be contined

6. My handwriting changes with my mood. If you look through my notebook each page/paragraph has different handwriting. I change my style of handwriting and even how I hold a pen quite frequently throughout the day.

I am tagging:

Kylar Jones

Brad and Jessie Griffits

You are the only other people besides Heather who has a blog that I know of :)