I love when I don't have to work on a weekend and I have lots of fun and/or productive things to do.

Friday I was only scheduled for 3 hours of work. My car was low on gas and usually when it's really close to empty and I park on the inclined driveway, the gas tilts away from wherever it's supposed to go and I can't start it. That happened Friday. Thankfully, I was leaving my house an hour before work so I could go dispute a Comcast bill. It is unfortunate that the car died and now I can't dispute the bill until next week, but, it was a beautiful 50 degree sunny day after 3 days of cloudiness and rain and snow, so I walked to work, which felt amazing. At work, I was invited to a hockey game with Chef Rich, Dave, who I have not mentioned before but he is the Marketplace Customer Service Manager and he's an awesome guy, and then three other guys I also know well. We have a contract with US Foods that makes them pretty much our food supplier, and they had a suite at a Utah Grizzlies hockey game at the Maverick Center in the Salt Lake and invited Rich and whoever he wanted to bring to come down and enjoy the game. Someone had dropped out at the last minute and since I was there and was getting off work in time to go, I decided to go with them. We had a great time, the suite was cool, the game was really good. It ended in a shootout that Utah won 4-3. It was a genuinely fun time.

Saturday morning I went over and helped Cami, her dad and brother move Cami out of her apartment. She sold her contract and will now save lots of money by staying at home. I remember the days in Texas and Kentucky when we were helping people move all the time. Out here I don't get as many opportunities to help with things like that so I was grateful to be able to help Cami move again.

Kind of a random side note here. Just thinking about liking service opportunities, I am very glad I did not spend my whole life here in Utah. I think here in Utah people get tired of things like helping someone move and whatnot. With such a huge LDS population a lot of things are kind of an accepted normal, even though many people usually dislike some of that. For me, there's nothing I love more than jumping in and helping someone move or driving someone without a car somewhere important, or making cookies or a meal for someone who is down or is stressed. I do it because it feels good and there is really no thinking twice about it. I know not everyone here is like this, but I feel like sometimes people do things more because it's the way things are rather than they have a true desire.

Anyway...it was also good to get up early and start working because I had a lot to do at my place and I was ready to go once Cami was on her way. I got home and got right to work. I started a load of laundry and then spent two hours cleaning out the garage and re-organizing it so I can start parking in there again. I do not want to spend all winter clearing my car of snow and deicing it in the frigid air. Parking in the garage just makes a whole lot more sense. You may hear people who say they are true winter folks because they clear their cars every snowfall and they endure the cold and wetness to do it and yada, yada, yada...yeah, they prolly just don't have a garage. A true hard-core winter person would keep their car safe in the garage.

Once the garage was clean and my car was parked inside, I moved indoors. Dishes, wiping counters, cleaning sinks, vacuuming floors, continuing laundry, just going room to room doing what had to be done. Another couple hours and the house was once again beautiful. I then showered, shaved, played some piano, watched some tv, worked on some upcoming events I'm hosting, had some dinner, and then around 8 went over to a friend's party. I stayed there for a bit and then came back home, tired and ready for a good night's sleep. It's stake conference this week so we'll get church over with early in the day. HURRAY!

Sunday afternoon will probably have a nap in it, I'll try to remember to email recipes to Sister Annie in South Carolina, I'll Skype home to see if the windows are boarded up for Sandy back in Virginia, I may find motivation to make cookies since I keep all the ingredients in stock most always, we'll watch the new episode of the Walking Dead, I'll put in my bleach trays for an hour, then I'll complete the successful weekend with a good night's rest to prepare me for another week.

Things to watch for this week: Pregnant sister Amelia is due to have her baby next Sunday I believe, so be watching for news on that. I will finally become an uncle. Still deciding if I'll be Colonel Uncle or Uncle Colonel. This week is also Halloween, hurray! It is the final week of election season too so I'll be watching the polls and the news as closely as ever. I generally have to go look every two hours no matter where I am or what I'm doing. Oh, and the clocks fall back next Sunday too, be aware. Alright, I think that's all I got.

The Song of the Day is from the Piano Guys. It's their Over the Rainbow/Simple Gifts mix. I think it provides a good tone for how upbeat this weekend has been.

Life continues to move along quickly this year in the Logan area. Not even Halloween yet and we have had our first major winter storm, which dumped several inches of snow across the valley with much more in the mountains. It was a very wet snow too. Generally, about one foot of snow accumulation yields one inch of liquid water. In this storm, we had between 2-3 inches of snow, containing 1.42 inches of liquid water. It has snowed on and off since the main storm hit Tuesday, but the snow is gone from the ground now. The mountains look stunning in their majestic white.

This evening, I witnessed a heavenly sunset over the mountains. The sun had come out after more snow had blown through and there were some higher clouds hovering above the mountain. As the bright sun dipped below the peaks, it radiated a magnificent brightness off the clouds and it just looked amazing. Usually a great sunset here is because of the pinks and oranges, but this one was a beautiful bright yellow contrasted against a very blue sky and highlighted by the snow-capped mountain peaks. It was a moment I wish I could share in picture with you, though even a picture could not capture the majesty of the moment.

I do, however, have a picture of the snow.



I recently announced I was going back to school and asked for donations. As of this writing, there have still been zero donations, so, I recently began looking for a part-time night job. There isn't much out there, but I hope to find something to help alleviate the burden.

The following video I shared on Facebook and would like to share again here. I like it because I think it helps show the passion and patriotism Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have for this country that I think our current president seriously lacks. President Obama did not grow up in America. He grow up overseas seeing America differently. He does not love America and you can hear it every time he speaks. You can hear it emanate from Romney when he talks about how great we can be.



Today, the Song of the Day is "Hazy Shade of Winter" by Simon and Garfunkel.

Yep, beginning in just a month and a half, I will be returning to college at Utah State University to pursue a degree in Political Science. I am excited, nervous, freaking out, and still kind of shell shocked that I put everything together in literally a matter of just a few short days (everything was done in one day except my BYU transcript because I had to fix an administrative oversight to up my GPA before it was sent). I can't apply for federal aid or scholarships this semester, so, donations can be sent to my address here in Logan...seriously. Not. Even. Joking. Send money.


In other news, I neglected to mention that on Sunday I watched Felix Baumgartner's 24 mile skydive live. I took pictures on my phone and screen grabs on my computer throughout. It was really amazing to watch.

Also, today was Cami Appreciation Day. Let me explain. Cami has had a lot of little medical problems throughout this year. Her wisdom teeth were taken out way back in May and she has had infections and complications that continue even today. She hurt her back and has had pain from that all year. She has a little cyst on her neck and recently had a pain in her thumb diagnosed as a growth on her tendon, which may have to be cut off (the growth, not the thumb). This morning, she had to once again be inconvenienced by going to the doctor, this time at 6 am, to have her finger MRI'd. Seeing as none of these problems are quick fixes and she keeps being inconvenienced by doctors and such, I thought that she could use some positivity to distract her from all the dumb negative stuff that undoubtedly is causing her some stress. So, the other day, I decided that today would be Cami Appreciation Day. I shared the below poem with her last night, surprised her with this delivery of flowers today, and had a bunch of people at work send her picture messages of them holding signs that said "Happy Cami Appreciation Day!"

The Poem:

Boy, what a week it has been. Well, that's not really true. Most of the week was uneventful.

I spent a little time each day working on that thing I cannot formally announce quite yet, though there are now a small handful of people who are aware of it. I am awaiting an official certain something before I make my formal, official announcement to everyone.

Wednesday we did go play volleyball for 3 hours at the church. As a result, my entire body from my chest up hurt real good come Thursday morning. I took ibuprofen responsibly but frequently between Wednesday night and Friday.

Saturday I worked a bit, watched a little football, and then had an overwhelmingly joyful evening with Cami. I had not seen her in a couple weeks and had only talked to her a little. Come to find out my phone has not been sending and receiving texts very well, which led to even less communication between us. But the evening was beyond words. Cami and I began hanging out back in March and since then, with the exception of a short period, we have talked and shared things and been in close contact throughout most days. So, the past two weeks have been just excruciatingly difficult for me. I have made no secret of the close friendship we share and at times it seemed as if that was about to be lost. When you date someone and break up, it is painful. But when you share a strong relationship with a person who you care deeply about, even the thought of losing that, to me, is such an indescribable pain. I thought I was losing my best friend, and I am extraordinarily thrilled and humbled to have had the opportunity to reaffirm that friendship.

Sunday was church and rest and the season premiere of The Walking Dead. Now I have to live each week dying over the cliff hangers and trying to figure out what's going to happen next!

Today, Monday, I have the day off and am going to have my malfunctioning phone assessed, bake some zucchini bread, do laundry, clean, and provide dinner for FHE for the ward.

The song of the day is a piano version of "When I Look at You", performed by Sunny Choi. I chose it because the song has been on my mind for a couple weeks and last Monday on my day off I wanted to be able to play the song, so I sat at the piano, worked out the chords, and can now play most of it fairly decently. I like the song, but I like playing it even more. It is kind of special to me.

It was a peaceful weekend in Provo. I drove down Friday at mid-day, made good time and good gas mileage. Mike and I met up, had some dinner and headed over to the #4/#6 ranked BYU Women's Soccer match against #21 Santa Clara. It was a sluggish game for both sides, which was really taxing to watch. It ended in a 0-0 tie.

From there we hustled to the football stadium and watched BYU defeat Utah State 6-3. It was a late game and we got out of the stadium near midnight. Hungry and cold from hours of outdoor sports, we ducked into Denny's and enjoyed a hot meal. Finally around 1 in the morning we got to bed.

Saturday morning dawned and we streamed conference. We were surprised as everyone else to hear the changes to the missionary ages. We watched the two Saturday sessions. I may have dozed for a minute here or there, but caught the vast majority of it.

After the two sessions, we actually got up, showered, and got ready for priesthood session. With some time to kill before it began, we drove around town a little and saw all the changes that have been made in the past year and a half. The Provo Tabernacle, soon to be the Provo City Center Temple, has the spires off as the work to secure the shell of the building. New housing on campus is under aggressive construction, with some buildings open and several more to be finished in the coming year. Seven Peaks Water Park added one small slide, but has tons of locations under their new brand that includes several Trafalgas and other water parks in the wasatch region. Most things are the same and I had fond memories of fun times past as we drove around the area I lived for 3 years.

Priesthood session was good and we rewarded ourselves for staying through the prayer in the Marriott Center with a pizza. Then we watched some of the always hilarious Hogan's Heroes and turned in.

Sunday was two more sessions of conference, a Skype session with all of the family that lives out East, and me packing up and heading back to Logan. I have Monday off, but decided to come back Sunday night so I could get some things done in Logan.

This week is rather uneventful. I work during the days and will fill the evenings with activities as they come. I have some very time sensitive things to take care of concerning something I am working on, though I cannot elaborate any further than that at this time.

I did come up with a motto for life this weekend. I was reflecting on some things and this just came to my mind:

Man, life has flown by so quickly lately. It seems like it was just yesterday I took the big step to move from the security of my Provo life to the uncharted waters of true independence. Now a year and a half later, here I am in North Logan, completely amazed at all that has happened.

The wonders of this life never cease to amaze me. In the year and a half since I left Provo I have learned so much, experienced amazing things, and been blessed beyond measure.

Today, I want to dedicate this post to everyone I have met since moving from Provo. There are far too many to list, but there are a few who's impact deserves sharing with you all.

Taylor Smith from Zion Ponderosa. Life is always an adventure with Taylor and the friendship we have is great. I am always intrigued to hear what new things she has done and even now I am waiting to hear her report on her latest adventure working in the Cedar City area this summer.

Katie Kapp. I am not a hugger as pretty much everyone knows, but Katie has somehow broken past my wall and has the unique privilege of giving me a hug every now and again. You could say that she hugs me on behalf of everyone else. But, Katie is an excellent person who cares about people and I am glad to be counted amongst her friends.

Myles Hopkins. I find it really funny that Myles and I are such good friends. Myles hated me when I started here. So much so that you can actually credit him with me being moved to my current job in catering. But, as time went on, we became friends. Now we are roommates. I feel kind of like we were meant to be brothers. We grew up watching the same old-timey shows and listening to the same music. Our interests are very similar and even the family loves seeing him on Skype each week.

Corey Cozzens. He doesn't know it, but he has been a mentor to me, both in work and in personal life. Sometimes, I wish he didn't work in food though, because I think he has far too much potential and the kitchen life is a brutal one that can rob a man of his destiny. But he loves what he does and I can't argue with that.

Cami Nicole Bodily. I mentioned Cami in a recent post, but I cannot say enough good things about her. I wish that everyone could meet Cami and just spend a day around her. Only then would you be able to better understand why she is such an important person to me. I could try all day to say what I feel in my heart about Cami, but the words would still fall flat.

To all of you who I have met and who have helped make a difference in my life and who have allowed me to make a difference in yours over the past eighteen months, thank you. I want you all to know that I fall to my knees every night and call upon the powers of heaven to grant you the blessings you need in your lives.

Thanks again for being my friend.

I am 23 years old. To some, I am an old guy. To others, I'm still a baby. In my eyes, I am older than I want to be and younger than I think I am. In my 23 years, I have learned important life lessons, then new experiences have come along and changed what I thought I knew. I call this development. I will probably never know everything as well as I might want to, but therein lies the reason that I am even here.

Today, I didn't really have much to say, but I thought I had better share something. After all, an opportunity not taken is an opportunity missed, so, I want to briefly share something I have learned in this life that made a big difference to me this past weekend.

There is a God. Not just a God though, but a living God. He did not create the Earth and then kick back and leave us to figure everything out ourselves. He is there every day; watching us, guiding us, helping us, encouraging us, and listening to and answering us. He knows our feelings and our desires. He knows what makes us happy, what makes us sad. He knows where we want to go in life, and when we are wrong, he takes us to where we need to be. The following video is a new favorite of mine about this and is the main thing I wanted to share today. I hope you will watch it and also share it.