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 :)

2 Month Anniversary

2 months-kinda a random anniversary to be mentioning but I need to give a shout out of thanks to my husband. For his understanding and kindness and always trying to help me out. He always tries to help out with dinner/breakfast/any meal and has helped with dishes on quite a few occassions(we don't have a dishwasher, so that's a pretty big deal) and much more-Thank you. I take him for granted more often than I should (well I never should really) especially since we've been married-he's always there and kinda stuck with me, but I'm certainly grateful for it cause I'm sure there's been times when he's wanted to run away from me :). It always tends to hit Friday nights when he's gone away at the hotel and I come home to an empty house knowing he won't be coming home at all that night and I miss him like crazy and realize how I am nothing without him. He's one of a kind and I got the best husband around. Happy Anniversary. Thank you for everything Matt, I love you forever.