I think a lot about things. I think about who I am. I think about where I am going. I think about lesser things like what will I do after work today? Or, which shirt would be most comfortable to sit around in? It seems that I am always thinking. Today, I have been thinking about my life and how I can stay positive all the time. So, today I am just going to free write off the top of my head about some things that make me truly happy.

Nature. Whether it be an approaching storm with billowing clouds, birds gently chirping in the trees, a glorious sunrise or majestic sunset, high mountain streams, or a campfire with friends, I always feel close to God and find raw joy in nature. All my life, I have learned to love nature; she is beautiful, majestic, fierce, dangerous, and so much more. She is true. She is pure. She is solace. I respect her. To me, she is life.

Music. There are countless styles and forms of music. From the rain dances of Africa (I love listening to Alex Boye sing and dance in African style) to the country, rock, hip-hop, and most of the genres of Western civilization, there is good music out there. I especially enjoy music that speaks with powerful emotion, or tells a story. Music with meaning is powerful to me and can help me through an array of situations in life.

Home. I have lived in many places and currently live 2,090 miles from home. That is 2,090 miles from my mom, my dad, my sisters, my dog, my piano, home cooking, constant laughter, and a feeling of peace. I love living in Utah, but I love visiting home. It rejuvenates me.

Church. Every time I am struggling, I go to church and I find peace. Sometimes when struggling with one thing, I find answers to another. I always have friends at church and I always have support at church. Whenever I am lost, I find it is usually because I have neglected my duties to God, and I immediately work to get back on track.

These are just a few of the things that bring me happiness. There are many places to find happiness if we only let ourselves find it. Often the biggest obstacle in the way of joy and happiness is our own stubbornness and neglect. If you are unhappy, look first at yourself, then ask God for help, then open your eyes to the world around you. The world is a mess, but happiness is never too far away.

Today, our Song of the Day is "You'll Never Walk Alone". I hope this inspirational song and my thoughts on happiness help you all find a bit of joy today.

The sun is setting on what has been a fantastic and fun weekend. Friday was, of course, date night. If you remember, Cami picked "yellow". Some of you guessed it...it had to do with flowers. Specifically, yellow meant a sunflower arrangement. Here is a picture of it.



You can't make out what else is in the arrangement and I am blanking on flower names right now...but I chose it because the sunflower reminds me of Cami.

The date night was very exciting and fun. I had been looking forward to it all week and I was especially happy all Friday, as some of my co-workers pointed out. Anyway...we had a good time putting through 18 holes of mini golf, which ended in a tie score. After that, we changed our plan a little and ate at Village Inn and ended up skipping dessert. We were going to join some people for a movie at my house, but no one was sure who was coming or when, so we just went to Cami's and had a nice cuddle.


There was one thing that happened before Friday I wanted to share. Cami and I came across some cupcakes we had to make. Thursday we made them. Here is a picture:









These are our sea turtle cupcakes!













Moving on to Saturday. I took a shift for a few hours Saturday from 10-4, but was done around 2. Cami had her niece staying with her for the weekend, so she brought her up to campus for lunch. We ate in the Marketplace and then went down to the bookstore...which is technically renamed the Campus Store. It is well known I am a BYU fan and while I am very happy being at USU, I am still not super fond of wearing their apparel. Through an employee recognition program we have in Dining Services that perpetuates our values, I recently earned $35 in gift cards to the Campus Store. I may have mentioned to some of you that last year I walked through the bookstore 3 or 4 times trying to buy something for the winter for myself. I could never do it and ended up just getting a jacket at Old Navy. At Christmas, I did get a $20 card I used on a water bottle for work. So, this year, as I realized I would have some gift cardage to use again, I asked Cami if she might want anything from the book/campus store. She told me she loves sweats, so Saturday I took her down and she picked out some comfortable sweats for lounging in.

After that we took her niece swimming, then packed up a picnic to take to the Preston, Idaho Demolition Derby. We picked up two more younglings at her home in Cove and headed across the border. Myles and three mutual friends from work joined us when the derby got under way and we all had a real fun time watching the "car crashes", as Cami had cutely coined it for the kids. Plenty of hard hits, one injury, tons of rednecks, and this great moment that happened not more than 50 feet in front of us:




That was one of my top moments of the night, but the best was when I was grabbing some grub for my gal and the Lion's Club fellers selling the food informed everyone that they were out of Mountain Dew. Word spread quickly through the line and I nearly died as I heard the outrage as the rednecks and hicks realized there was no more Dew!! Some people even left the line in outrage. You know you are in Preston when there's a near riot for running out of Mountain Dew. Thank goodness Cami loves Dr. Pepper!

The kids loved the "car crashes" and I even got them to go out and dance during a dance off before the finals. They were about as nervous as I was but eventually they danced. The derby was a great end to a great weekend. Today it was church and rest. Tomorrow, work and pay all the bills. Such is the life we lead, but that makes the fun times we share with the ones we love that much sweeter.

It's hard to find good songs with this new format, but this one is nice and slow and I like it. It's "You are My Sunshine". It's all I could think of with the sunflowers on the page...

On this day in 1305, the Guardian of Scotland, Sir William Wallace, was hanged, drawn, and quartered. I have declared today William Wallace Day. FREEDOM!!!!


This past week has been a little bit buzzier than normal. Utah State starts school on Monday, so most everyone has been coming back this week. The Marketplace opened last Saturday so we are back to having lots of people around at work. Angela should be happy she is not already back in school, as most of Utah K-12's have already started.

This coming weekend will be a fun one. Friday, I am taking Cami mini golfing. It was supposed to be a mystery date where she answered questions throughout the week and on Friday I revealed it all, but she figured it out by Tuesday. Apparently I'm not as clever as I thought, so I will have to work on that! Here is how it went. Sunday I asked: Pink, Yellow, Red, or Blue? She chose yellow, but has not figured that one out yet and I won't reveal it either. Monday I asked: Fast or Slow? Fast meant fast food and we would eat at Chick-Fil-A. Slow meant a sit down restaurant and we would eat at a Mexican place called Cafe Sabor (which she said she likes). She chose slow, but later said she would probably rather have Chick-Fil-A...so we'll see what happens. Tuesday night she was already onto what it all meant, so I went ahead and delivered the rest of the week's questions for her to decipher. Tuesday's question was: Mini, Motion, or Machine? She figured out mini was mini golf and motion was motion picture. I told her machine was tractor pull. She really wanted mini golf and chose that. Wednesday's question was hot or cold? Hot meant we'd get pie at Village Inn, cold meant ice cream at Charlies. She deciphered cold really quick but could not figure out hot. She chose it and was pleased when I told her what is was, as she loves pie from Village Inn. Thursday was a bonus question and it was half or full? Half meant I would trim my sideburns up a little for her. She has wanted to see what they look like trimmed up for a while. Full meant they stay at my jaw line. She said full, but as a surprise, on Wednesday I trimmed them for her anyway :)

So our date is pretty much set. Tomorrow I'll reveal what yellow meant and we'll enjoy a nice evening out. For those of you who wanted to see...here's the sideburns up...which she likes by the way.



I think that's about all I have to tell for now. Tune in again soon to hear what yellow meant!

There are two Songs of the Day today. One is "In Dreams" from Lord of the Rings, the other, a William Wallace Day special: the Sons of Scotland Freedom Speech (disclaimer, it does say a** once).

The end of my week did not quite turn out how I expected. Having put 40 hours in already by mid-day Thursday and with the prep work done through Saturday, I was granted Friday off. I had no major plans besides cleaning the house and relaxing, but, of course, life had a different plan for me.

As I was cleaning Friday, the landscapers were out mowing the neighborhood. A little after they left, my roommate Aaron came and told me that something had broken a window on my car. I went out and looked and found this:


After inspecting for some time, we found areas of obvious impact (see below) where a foreign object had cracked the window. With the integrity of the glass compromised, the heat, which had caused the windows to expand, caused the entire window to fall apart. 




I made reports to insurance, police, and then contacted the Home Owners Association. The guy in charge of the HOA, who happens to live next door, told me to get it fixed and they would have to pay. So I took that car and got several estimates on a replacement. Later, the head of the landscaping company came and I showed him the damage, as well the exact rock we found that was broken on two sides and the two sides that were found at my car. With all the evidence collected, there is no doubt that a rock was hit by the mower, which shot at my car and broke the window. The landscaper said he was going to talk to his insurance and get back to me. I'm concerned they will try to refuse to fix it, at which point I will send my insurance after theirs because it is indisputable what happened.

Ultimately, I am not upset. As long as my window gets fixed, I am ok with it. Accidents happen.

Somewhat along the lines of broken car windows, tonight, Cami and I are going to a demolition derby. She was out of town for the last one, so we had to make sure she gets to go to one this year. There is another one in a month, but we know for sure she can go to this one, so we are going! This will make my third derby this year. Two as a spectator, one as an official. And hopefully I will be an official judge again next month if I do not have to work during that one.

That's the news here. Song of the Day is "Life is a Highway".

Ok, the music is fixed for real I hope...

The past week has been little more than work, stress, sleep, a trip to grandma's and grandpa's, a trip to Bingham Canyon Mine (always fun to see!), and 10 hour days this week that start around 5:30 in the morning.

Paul Ryan was named Romney's VP pick. I approve and support them. It has been questioned if Obama's VP (he sure ain't mine) should remain on the ticket for the election. Joe Biden thinks Romney will put people back in chains (he said that to a heavily African-american crowd), believes we live in the 20th century, thought he was in North Carolina when he was in Virginia, and referred to Paul Ryan as governor...and that was just one day of gaffes. To see just how great he is, here are Joe Biden's Greatest Hits:



One final thing to share, it's a fantastic letter we need to mass produce and send out to everyone. In 1959, Judge Philip B. Gilliam of Denver, Colorado, published a letter in the Pierce County Tribune in North Dakota. That letter has recently gone viral. The story is here, but I would suggest just reading the letter below because the automatic-playing video is done by the annoying Knowles-it-all girl...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/judge-words-wisdom-teens-tweens-goes-viral-180634774.html

I think half the reason I stopped posting on here was because I was upset that playlist.com stopped supporting playlists on blogs. They revamped their website and with the changes, I got a message on my blog simply stating that playback was only available at playlist.com. I tried to get music back, but to no avail. Recently, however, I had important things to share, so I began looking again for an outlet for the Song of the Day. This time, I found it, and lo and behold, both the posts and the music are back!!

It has been a busy summer with lots of work and lots of play. As the summer winds down, there is still a long list of things for us to do before we transition into our fall plans. Our summer to-do list includes going to Bear Lake, going to Lagoon, more sports, and a couple end of year bashes, including a Pyro Fest in Wyoming! Tonight, we are having an outdoor movie and at the end of the week we are going up for a cook-out at a little lake in Idaho.

Anywho, the blog is back, the music too, so thanks for coming back to read and I hope you keep following as I deliver News from the Colonel: Life in Logan.

Song of the Day is Thin Lizzy singing "The Boys are Back in Town."

This week all the news is about the Olympics. Well, that's all anyone expected to be in the news right now, but, recently, Dan Cathy, the head of my favorite fast food, Chick-Fil-A, reiterated a long known stance that he stands firmly in support of traditional marriage, as does his Christian-values based food chain. His public and very firm statement resonated throughout the nation, inciting an onslaught of negativity from the LGBT community, which started (or, really, renewed) a boycott on Chick-Fil-A and the organization of public protests set for Friday, August 3rd.

A quick history on the boycott. A few years back the news reported that Chick-Fil-A's charity organization, WinShape, donated money towards institutions and groups that fight to keep marriage between one man and one woman. Back then, many in the LGBT community decided that since that charity receives funds from company profits, they would not spend money at Chick-Fil-A due to the possibility that their money would end up going towards fighting for beliefs contrary to their own. 

Fast forward again to now, when Dan Cathy's interview goes out to the world. This time, the charity donation part is not even reported again yet and a boycott is called for and carried out. Negativity floods the airwaves and internet. Then, good ol' Mike Huckabee says on his show that we ought to support Chick-Fil-A and all go and eat there on August 1st. News of that spreads quickly and that is what I want to focus my message on today.

At 8:50 in the evening on August 1st (1 hour before closing), 3 friends and myself walked into Chick-Fil-A in Logan, Utah to show our support. We expected any flux of crowds for the day would have died down and we could enjoy a quick meal. Instead, we were met with an inspiring sight. Through the door, we encountered a long line that extended from the front of the store to the back and snaked its way back again towards the front. Outside, cars were lined up to the furthest entrances of the shopping center block. Overwhelmed by the capacity, we took our place at the back of the line. As we waited in line, we listened to the conversations of those who brought friends explaining why they came and I talked politics with my roommates. The line moved quickly and within a half hour, we had our seats and soon after, our food. As we ate, the management moved through the tables asking people to order any more food they would want for the evening as they would be closing the registers once the line ended. The doors had been locked soon after our arrival because they were running low on food. We heard a lady ask how the day had gone and found that some employees had been their since opening at 5 am. They anticipated a small bump in sales that day, but no one expected the lines to be through the building all day. They were in unbelief at the amazing amount of people that came in support of the company and even more surprised at how many customers had to be turned away at the end of the night. As we finished our meal, I overheard a little girl at the table next to us talking to her mother. "Mommy", she asked, "Why are we at Chick-Fil-A?" "Well, we are here because we chose to stand up for what believe today." I could not help but smile proudly. That was why we were all there. That was why hundreds upon hundreds of thousands, if not over a million people, waited patiently in lines across the country to eat a piece of chicken. It wasn't for the chicken. It wasn't (entirely) for the fresh lemonade. It was to stand shoulder to shoulder with a company who is not afraid to stand boldly for a belief that is heavily under fire. I proudly stand with Chick-Fil-A. We stand with God for traditional marriage.