People ask all the time what I'm afraid of. I usually shrug my shoulders and tell them probably falling from a cliff. The height doesn't bother me, but the thought of what I would do in the air as I fell is a sobering and terrifying thought. However, that is not what my greatest fear is. My greatest fear is failure. Specifically, failure in making a difference in the lives of those around me.

 I have learned through my experiences that the things I do for myself bring me little joy. Yes, my home theater is fun, and yeah, it does make me happy, but if I do nothing but watch movies up there by myself, at the end of the day, I feel helplessly alone. I cannot bear the thought of not living my life for my friends and family. There is hardly a way to describe the despair and devastation I feel when I think I have failed in my goal in life. All I want is to make a positive difference, for there is where I find peace.

I have high expectations for myself and I try to live up to them. I think sometimes I try too hard to attain a goal that lies beyond my abilities. When I cannot fulfill it, I feel like I let not just myself down, but the one I was trying to help as well.

Honey Boo Boo, the Kardashians, Snooki, Kanye West, Bristol Palin, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton.

These are only a few examples of the seemingly endless ranks of high profile people who contribute to the decline of civilized society. That may seem a harsh statement, but I do not feel in any way that I am unfair in my choice of words in saying that little to nothing these celebrities do will influence your life in a positive way. In fact, I believe that the only way in which any of them could benefit your life would be if you were to live your life exactly opposite how they do.

My purpose in stating my opinion on this today is not to bash celebrities. Late night television shows and the rest of the blogosphere takes care of that. My purpose today is to share with you my deeply held belief in the extreme importance of being yourself.

In our lives, we are blessed with many people. Family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, peers, mentors, roommates, and even strangers. Each person we meet has the ability to influence our lives for the good, or the bad. For the most part, families serve as one of the main sources of positive influence. Generally, boys are molded to men by their fathers. Girls mature through the nurturing of their mothers. The core of who we are, I believe, develops from how we are raised. Though we do make choices even within our young development, most of our adolescent character is somewhat controlled and it is when we reach adulthood that it becomes entirely and more controllably up to us. Here is where I think the problem lies. In the world today, too many of us rely on what we see in the media as a guide to who we should be. Please, if you understand nothing else I say, understand this, which I say with absolute emphasis:

As you may remember (though I may not have mentioned it), at the start of summer I had a tally of all the fun things I was doing to make sure I did not waste my summer. Having successfully kept that tally, let me explain it a little more. Near the end of spring, I was down a lot and not really content with things and wanted to really pick myself up. I made a lot of changes mentally, as a few of my friends from work can attest to. Around that time, I went and played kickball with some work friends and also began weekly games of scatterball with people from church. It felt so good to go out in the warmth and sunshine and to run my heart out and wear myself down, that I began promoting more and more outdoors activities. There was that one week where every single night, we were out doing a different sport. I knew that with all the ups and downs we experience in life, I needed to document all that I did so I could remain motivated to do more, and so I could look back at the end of summer and know that I did all I could to make the most of my time and not waste precious opportunities. This tally represents the main things I did and these served as the launching point for all the other things I ended up planning.

With it being officially Autumn as of Saturday, here is the final tally.

Ultimate Frisbee-IIIIIIII (8)
Soccer-I
Scatterball-IIIIIIIII (9)
Volleyball-IIIIIIII (8)
Campfires in canyon-III
Patio Fires on porch-I
Kickball-III
Hiking-IIII
Shooting-I
Softball-I
Mini Golf-III

To this list, I would also like to add that I attended 6 demolition derbies, 2 of which I was a volunteer as a judge. I attended 2 of those derbies in Preston, 3 in Logan, and 1 at the State Fair in Salt Lake. I also want to include a few other things. I had the fantastic opportunity to go four-wheeling, we went swimming at Bear Lake, went to the drive in movies, had an outdoor movie and several indoor movie nights (which will be even more frequent in the colder months), did several small firework shows and one BIG one for the ward, grew sunflowers, and saw many, many breathtaking sunsets.

I had an extraordinarily fun summer, but what matters most about all these things is that in these activities, in sharing these moments with friends and neighbors, I grew tremendously as a person and as a friend. And it would be an immeasurable mistake if I did not thank my best friend this summer, Cami Nicole Bodily, for allowing me to recapture the qualities in my life that I had lost. Cami is an especially sweet girl who makes you want to be the best you can. It is no surprise that everywhere she goes, she sees friends and family who are excited to see her. Thank you Cami, for all you did this summer to make it memorable. 




Several of these activities will continue into the fall, such as indoor volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and fires. My goal remains to make sure I continue to do fun things year-round, so as of today, I have started my fall tally.

For any of you who may sometimes think you have wasted your time, I recommend starting your own tally. I promise you that if you make the effort to track the positive things in your life, you will gain more than just fun times and fond memories, you will gain a passion for all the good things you need to find joy.

Today, I have a few songs for the Song of the Day. All of them revolve around friendship. First is "That's What Friends are For" from Disney's Robin Hood. Next up is James Taylor with "You've Got a Friend", and to round it out, "I'll Stand by You" by the Pretenders.

My family knows better than anyone how much I love this country. I can't think of a time in my life when I didn't. I have visited national parks coast to coast from the towering sequoias of California to the humble battleground of Gettysburg. I stop at historical markers on the side of the road just to learn what historical significance the area I am driving through has. Just today I came across a former Shoshone Indian encampment from the 1800s that was the site of a massacre 30 miles north of Logan in Idaho. I follow the ever changing politics of this nation and each night I thank God that I live in the land of the free. It is difficult to express how deeply I love America, but there is just something about this country that gives me the greatest feeling in the world.

Today, I watched a video about Mitt Romney and I realized that a lot of why I like him is because he is as deeply moved by this country as I am and I know without a doubt that he will wake up every morning as president and work nonstop to restore America to her greatness.

I paid $85 ($3.82 a gallon) to fill my car with gas today. The cheapest I can get whole milk is around $2.62 per gallon and the rest of groceries are so costly I prepare approximately 2 meals a month at home. My landlord recently told me how much value his properties across the nation have lost. He is glad he has people willing to rent so he won't have to take a huge hit if he has to sell any of his properties. I live in Utah where the economy is doing ok and housing is not as bad, but even I can tell you without hesitation that the last 4 years have done little to nothing to spark the economy and get this country churning again.

Watch the video I watched. This man is not a secretive person; he is a humble person. This man is not an evil business lord; he is a successful and practical business man. He made his money legally and on his own and he pays his taxes legally and gives generously to charity. Mitt Romney has core values of honesty and integrity that will enable him to take charge of a lost and confused government and allow him to work with the best to fix this mess.

I regret to report that I have no exciting news to tell. I took no exotic trips. I bought no fancy toys. I did not win any raffles. I worked another week, paid another bill, and went over my budget. I can guarantee you there is little to be excited about in that.

Today, we had a linger longer again at church. We fed them a baked potato bar. I managed to slice my finger open on, of all things, a stupid aluminum foil box. I was grabbing something from next to it and apparently my coordination is off because my finger went right across the jagged metal teeth of death and it cut it clean as if it was a knife cut. It was deep enough to produce a lot of blood. I slowed the blood flow then used a fingertip bandage to hold the ends together to stop the bleeding and hopefully allow the two flaps of skin to re-bond. I re-opened it this evening to examine and it was a good few millimeters deep. It has that unique sting to it when you mess with it, so I put another fingertip bandage on it. I might glue it shut if it don't close by tomorrow.

Cami is at home in Cove for the week, so it will be a rather drab week. I work a lot, have to drive to Rexburg alone Tuesday, and it's really going to be a rather long week, despite the holiday.

I have napped a lot this weekend but I am still pretty tired.

Song of the Day is "Ob La Di Ob La Da" sung by Ken Lazarus. It's a fitting song because it's pretty much how I feel this week:

Here's some bored animals...

And bored people....

Hahahaha....have a great Labor Day everyone!

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.

I literally have had hardly a spare moment in the past few days. It has been from one place to the next almost without fail since Saturday.

Saturday morning we dragged, cut, loaded, hauled, and stacked 2 loads of wood for our summer campfires. Before we could even unload we were off to Salt Lake to pick up some things for our linger longer we were doing on Sunday. Once home, we ran to a few stores to get supplies for our campfire, then I stopped in quick at Home Depot to look into the cowboy grill, then we went and had a campfire. Oh, and we opted to not get the grill. We love it and would love to have it, but Jeff at work is building a fire pit and said we could have his old metal one. So, we're getting that and if that works out well, we won't need to buy one. That means we can instead get some decent chairs for the back porch. Hopefully, by week's end we will have our back patio all decked out and we'll have an inaugural steak grilling and fire.

Sunday was church and linger longer. Later that night we were slated to watch Work and the Glory 3 (we've been doing Sunday night church movies), but ended up not watching it and I just watched Just for Laughs gags instead. Hilarious!

Monday, I worked 6-6, got home, changed and headed to FHE, where we played Ultimate Frisbee. Afterwards we went to Sonic for drinks with a group, then brought 'em all over and watched Secondhand Lions. Love that show...

Today (Tuesday), I worked 10-6, then changed at home and headed to play soccer at 6:30. On the way home Myles called and said some work friends wanted to do a campfire, so we swung by home, changed, grabbed s'more stuff, grabbed a bite to eat and headed up the canyon.

Tomorrow, I will work 9-7, change at work and head straight to Stake Sport's night, which is every Wednesday. We will play volleyball and softball. After that I'm going with some friends to see the Avengers again.

Thursday, I work 7:30-6, after which I will go play soccer at 6:30 and our weekly game of scatter ball at 9.

Friday, I work 7-6, then I'm playing Ultimate Frisbee and hopefully that night we will have our patio inaugural event, which will prolly be eating steak, having a fire, then watching a movie.

Saturday, I'll be out in the fields throwing hay bales onto a truck at 7 am. At 11 am, we are playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee with work friends. Then, I will probably pass out for a few hours before we head up the road to Preston, Idaho for a Father's Day weekend demolition derby that night.

On top of all this, we have an FHE dinner to plan for Monday. We are doing foil dinners and s'mores at the bishop's cabin. We will also play volleyball there again.

As you can see, my plan to make this summer jam packed with fun is in full effect. If every week is even half as packed as this one, which looks to be the case with weekly soccer, scatter ball, and volleyball/softball games planned for the rest of summer, it will be one heck of an awesome summer, and I'll prolly be in the best shape of my life.

More important than all of that though, my lil' sister Annie is now Sister Meier serving in the Washington DC South mission for the next 3 months. If all goes well with her health, she will be re-assigned after that time for a full-time mission elsewhere.

Tonight we had a big work party. It was a pig roast. This morning we seasoned up a whole 150 lb. pig and it was buried in the ground. Then, tonight, at about 6, people from all over dining services gathered at a park in the township of Hyde Park to eat it. Sadly, the pig was not done cooking in time, so they had to butcher it into steaks and grill them...it was still good though.

More fun than the pig, however, was the stuff we did. With the exception of a couple people, my interaction with people at work is pretty much "Jon, how many chafers do we need?" or "Hey, where is the fruit tray for my party?" and the most frequent: "Is our hot food ready yet?" For the most part, people at work think weird things about me. Lots of people think I'm always angry, some think I hate people, pretty much everyone thinks something that is contrary to who I am. At work, I'm in work mode. Tonight it was really fun to play Ultimate Frisbee and volleyball with a lot of my co-workers. I had a blast and I hope they all did too. Some of them want to set up games during the week throughout summer now, which would be awesome. Mostly, I just want people to realize I am not a mean person and dispel some rumors that go around about me.

The rest of this week holds more adventures. We were invited on a moon-lit night hike tomorrow (Tuesday), then Thursday is scatterball, we have to plan a Linger Longer for Sunday, I have to finalize new car insurance, and who knows what else we'll add on as the week continues.

Well...that's about it. The playlist.com widget has been discontinued, so I gotta find a new way to do Song of the Day. I like that feature.

Intense game of scatter ball Thursday night. I won several rounds, ran a lot, jumped a lot, fell a lot, and had a lot of fun.

Got home at 11 from scatter ball. In bed around 11:15. Fell asleep maybe at 1:15.

Woke up at 5:30. In at work at 6 am. Scheduled until 7 pm, but we managed to get done sooner. I was out around 5:30ish. I hurt all over throughout the day: my feet, my head, my eyes, my arms, my back, my soul...ok, not my soul...but you get the picture.

After work I helped unload a horse trailer of logs/wood. Then I weeded Corey's garden. In exchange for helping keep the garden nice, I get food from the garden. Lettuce, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, corn, pumpkins, cucumber, carrots...good stuff.

Right now, I'm feeling the burn. I love it, but technically it is pain. And exhaustion.

Playlist.com says I can't play songs back on my blog anymore. If that is the case, I will be very upset. I'll look into it later, I have to collapse/pass out into a good Friday night sleep...

For now, hum the song "I'm a Little Tea Pot" to yourself and call it the song of the day.

I went up to Preston, Idaho this evening to do a little training with the National Weather Service and to register to be a local weather spotter with the SKYWARN program. If I explained it, I would tell all sorts of lies that made me sound much cooler than I am, so here is an exact quote from the SKYWARN website:

"Although SKYWARN® spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, the main responsibility of a SKYWARN® spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms."

 We can send reports during or after weather events that help the National Weather Service with various things, such as understanding certain weather events better or help get information out quick about weather events. They make reports on things that they use for all sorts of other things, so, ambiguously speaking, we help the NWS do important things. We can report via phone, internet, or on a HAM radio. Already on our list of things to do this summer is to become HAM radio licensed, so, we hope to watch some serious weather at some point and be able to report it.

On a side note on radios...we also want to get CB radios rigged in our vehicle...but don't worry, our finances have their priorities...

Oh, and if you want to become a weather spotter for your area, you can read up on it here: SKYWARN
(there would be more to spot and report back east)

That is the most exciting thing I've done this week. We have been doing some work on the exterior of our house to beautify it and keep the bug population down. They fixed some pipes when we moved in, digging up part of the front lawn. There have been 2 big mounds of dirt since, so, rather than wait a year or so for the clay to finally settle down, we shoveled it into Myles' truck and hauled it off. If it finally sinks this year, we'll find someone getting rid of dirt and fill 'er in again and re-seed it. But, our yard looks WAY better without the big eyesore mounds that even the neighbors wanted removed. We have a bit more dirt to move, then I'm going to spray down the siding of the house, cleaning it and removing lots of spider webs and such. The shrubbery is growing a lot too, so that'll be trimmed back a bit eventually. It ain't much, but there's enough work to keep me satisfied.

Pretty standard week. Scatterball Thursday again. Hoping to do our first campfire up the canyon this Saturday. Yep. Livin' the life.

Song of the Day is a fun one I really like and the name is quite a mouthful. It is "Notturna la musica delle strade di Madrid no. 6" by: Luigi Boccherini. If you have seen the awesome movie Master and Commander, then you might recognize it. I love that movie and I love hearing this song in it. Enjoy!

What a ridiculously fantastic week it has been. I cannot remember a week where I did more (aside from when I was home vacationing). The week was such a whirlwind of awesome I am not sure I could even recount everything. I will do my best to point out the highlights.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Monday we had a great night at FHE and then at Sonic. Now, I feel the need to point out that part of why I am so confused about all that went on this week is because from Monday on, I literally thought every day was Friday. That threw me off so much that when Friday finally came around, I thought it was Saturday. I can tell you that due to this re-occurring discombobulation, I had several disappointing moments during the week, as I realized it was only Tuesday, then Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday.

I am stalling as I try to remember the days I did things...though it just occurred to me that this is a blog and I do not need to stall...so, let's just forget the days and focus on the activities.

We went shooting this week. I got off work around 7 pm one day and we drove into the mountains, found a good secluded area with a good hill, and proceeded to shoot cans and targets. It was a nice, cool evening and though there was cloud cover, we had enough light to continue shooting through 9 pm. We are already trying to plan another shooting excursion.

We also went to Wyoming this week. As is customary with me, we drove to the border to stock up on fireworks for the coming holidays. As is also customary with me, we got ridiculously good deals. I deemed this the best week to go because there were 3 great coupons for the week. One got us a nice $200 mortar kit for $80. Another got us a $40 200-gram repeater for $10. The other got us $140 of free, bonus 500-gram repeater and reloadables for spending at least $159. We also used a year-round coupon where we get a $60 item for driving at least a certain distance to the showroom and purchasing at least $25 in gas to get there. I spent $50 on gas and got a $60 item, which makes me happy. All in all, we left with nearly $830 of merchandise for a grand total of $268.71. A very successful trip!!!

Scatterball at the church Thursday was also a blast. There are lots of rules, but essentially, it is an every man for himself version of dodgeball. I managed to win one round, and in dramatic fashion too, so it was a good night for me.

I am so glad it is almost summer time. The past week has kind of kick started our summer fun. We (we being my roommates and I) went and fed the ducks, went hiking, got callings at church, I made dinner for someone ;) , and tonight at FHE we had dutch oven food, played a couple hours of ultimate frisbee, and then went over to sonic with a few people we met. All in all, it has been a great week.

The coming weeks have lots of fun planned as well. Thursday we're going to play scatter ball (some form of dodge ball I guess), Memorial Day we're having a pig roast, we're going to Wyoming to stock up on fireworks, heading down south to pick up a canoe and visit the resort, and we have lots of hiking and other things to plan as well...It's going to be a great summer.

With all that's going on, I'll do my best to keep up on here. There are always great stories to tell from all these adventures, like seeing or meeting funny people, or embarrassing moments, so I'll be sure to make note of those.

Well...I'm tired, so it is sleepy time for me.

Song of the day...it's gotta be Mungo Jerry with his wicked sideburns singing "In the Summertime."

My family knows what I did after Gettysburg during my week at home, but the rest of you don't, so I better recap it all for you.

Wednesday morning we just moseyed around at home until the afternoon, when my sisters Angela and Annie, brother Mike, and mama 'Lizbeth and I (and the dog) went to the Great Falls of the Potomac. We enjoyed the views and had a nice walk along a trail, as well as a fun time scurrying around on the rocks down by the river.

This is Great Falls

This is Angela and I being weird...

Thursday was a longer day. Mike and I went into DC on the Metro and saw some sights. Originally, we were going to see the bathrooms of the Library of Congress (laugh all you want, but they are very, very, very nice and last time they were closed so I did not see them), then we were going to spend the day at the Smithsonian and other museums. That did not happen. We saw the House of Reps getting out so we watched them leave, then saw the bathrooms and the actual Library of Congress, then took a tour of the Capitol, then walked down and got some grub from a street vendor on our way to the White House, stopping to see various buildings like the FBI Building. We saw both sides of the White House, then noticed that the president's motorcade was getting ready to leave, so we waited to watch. That ended up taking an hour, but was still neat. By then we were almost out of time. We walked around the Washington Monument, which is still closed from the earthquake. Speaking of the quake, I have a great story. As we were walking around the base of the Washington Monument, we were reading a little informational marker about the earthquake. As we read, some ladies came over and one exclaimed to the other, "Oh, that's why it's closed! The Great Washington-New York Earthquake of 2011." My brother and I walked away trying not to laugh out loud...the Great Washington-New York Earthquake of 2011...oh man. Here's my favorite reminder of that quake:





Everyone does these kind of shots, so I thought, what the heck...here's me holding up the Washington Monument...





Mike at the Supreme Court...





Me at the Supreme Court...














Me at the White House...




I was trying to keep the cold off of me before I finally went under...




This is a mole crab we dug up...he just wanted to go back in his hole...




First time at the Atlantic Ocean! Now I've been to all of them here... Pacific, Atlantic, and the Gulf...










Horse just chillin' on the side of the road...

As I'm sure most of you are aware, I snuck over to Virginia in the dead of night Saturday and surprised my family with a week-long visit. Here's what has happened since then.

Saturday at 11:59 pm I took off from Salt Lake International. Four hours later, at 6 am (time change), I landed in Charlotte, North Carolina. I ate a cinnamon roll and boarded my flight to Baltimore. In Baltimore, I was stranded for an hour at the rental car place due to a little drama involving fees I was not informed of and limited money. Finally, Avis Rental saved me and I made my way from Baltimore to my hometown of Nokesville, Virginia. The family was about to head to church, so I waited in the next town over while having lunch at Cracker Barrel. Fully fed, I rolled up to the farm to the less than thrilled welcome of our female beagle, Shilo. She never remembers me and it sometimes takes her a day or two to warm up to me again. She and I walked around the farm as she followed the scents of rabbits, groundhogs and other animals we have here. Then we sprawled out for naps on the living room floor, before it finally came about time for the family to arrive home from church. I had gone through at least 20 different scenarios for surprising them ranging from hitchhiking on our street to Skyping from the front lawn. The humidity was murderous Sunday, so I opted for a simple plan. Sit out on the lawn and wait to see their confused looks. Here is a picture of what I did, though the umbrella was in the middle behind me when they drove up...and the dog is not going potty as it may appear.



So when the family did drive up, the dog was running around in front of them. They saw her first and wondered why and how the dog was out. Then they see me to the side and had the classic: "Wait...what?" look. According to sources in the car, my mother wondered aloud if I had maybe lost my job. Angela did exactly as I predicted, jumping from the moving vehicle to run and hug me. Camilla also did as I expected, saying things such as "What the? You didn't even tell us!?" Mike knew so he just laughed. Annie was not home but when I tagged her in my reveal on Facebook she called from where she was babysitting and asked what I was doing here.

Monday, I returned my rental to an Avis Rental close to home, had Chick-Fil-A, played through my old songbooks and sheet music on piano, and awaited the arrival of Amelia and brother-in-law Max, who I only ever saw once before briefly at the wedding. They came down for dinner and family night to see me since they live up by Baltimore and won't have much time later this week. We all had a joyous time Monday night.

This morning, Tuesday, mom, Mike, Camilla, and I drove 2 hours up to Gettysburg and took an audio tour of the battleground. It was really cool driving along the actual lines of battle, standing where soldiers stood, seeing how the entire battle played out from all angles. I uploaded all the pictures to Facebook, but here is one anyway.


The rest of the week is yet to be fully planned, but, I will go into DC to see the Smithsonians at some point, see the Avengers in Imax 3D, do some shopping, go to the beach, and see as much as I can before I have to head back to reality, where next week, a heavy load of work awaits.

Song of the day is an easy choice. It's "Back Home Again" by John Denver.

It was a fairly typical weekend. Worked a bit Saturday. Hung out with friends. Rested Sunday. Skyped the family.

Saturday was a particularly great day though. I worked from 9 till about 3...well, I worked from 9 till about 2:30, then we kind of goofed off a bit. For those of you who missed them on Facebook, here are the pictures and videos from our hard work.

There are 2 videos:
http://socialcam.com/u/owTQc0IV

Plus a couple pictures...






































I also have 2 funny stories to share that I told my family today. First, I scared the heck outta my roommate Myles. As good friends and roommates do, we try to scare each other frequently. Myles and myself are a bit harder to scare and you have to get us when we are completely distracted or relaxed (such as right after I pee when I open the bathroom door). After work Saturday I was playing the xbox for a bit and he was on his computer. I was done playing and crept to the door to our room. Certain he had no idea I was behind him at the door, I very loudly yelled "I'M BORED!!". Startled halfway out of this chair, he jumped and flailed his arms and legs a bit. After quickly realizing I got him, almost in the same motion of his startled jump, he leaned back in his chair to sigh, only to have the backrest give out and break, sending him tumbling head over heels backwards. All of this happened within 3 seconds and with him being somewhat large in stature (I just started re-reading the Book of Mormon so forgive the phrase), it almost looked as if he was falling in slow motion as the momentum surprised him and took him upside down. I laughed for a good couple minutes and kept randomly cracking up for a few hours as the utterly hilarious image of those 3 seconds kept renewing in my mind.

The second story is not as hilarious, but funny nonetheless and happened at my expense. As I was driving to work the other morning, I glanced in my rear-view mirror. As I did, I read the date on the paper in my window indicating when my temporary registration expires. I became confused and thought to myself, "Wow, I put the paper on backwards. It's supposed to be facing the other way so it can be read from outside.". I turned around to look at it and had a good laugh as I realized it, in fact, was facing the correct way...the mirror simply flipped the image.

This week has been a great one for me and I hope also for all of you. If not, I hope you take a moment to reflect on what caused it to be not so good and take the necessary actions to fix it. Our Song of the Day today is dedicated to everyone having a great week. Also, I think I will adopt a new strategy for blogging. I enjoy posting every day, but, to enable me to have more time each night for reading and getting to bed, I think I will update just a couple times a week. I usually recap weekends on Sundays, so I'll probably do a couple posts during the week and a weekend post. This will also enable more people to read a higher number of posts since not everyone sees on Facebook or directly each day and if you miss a day all of a sudden you have missed 3 posts and don't want to catch up. Lastly, I think it will enhance the quality of my posts. Sometimes I have little to share about a particular day. Posting about a few days though, there is generally more quality things for me to share.

Before I go, I wanted to again thank everyone for reading. It is nice to have a blog for my family to read what I am up to, but, as many of you have noticed and even commented to me, my posts are not just about what I did one day. I often delve into life lessons I've learned and share personal things I would not otherwise share. For that reason, I am truly amazed at how many non-family members have tuned in to read. For some, it's a once or twice occasion, but there are some who read a few times a week or even almost every post. That leaves me at a loss for words. My life is so insignificant, yet you choose to spend time in your day to listen to me. You inspire me to listen to others more. I have made a very sincere effort these past months to listen more to those around me, so thank you for that. May we all have a fantastic week. Good luck to all you USU students taking finals. Have a good week at school Angela. Hope your eye feels better Camilla. Find a good internship that leads you to eventually become a millionaire so you can help a brother out Mike. I'm loving my new car Annie (oh, and have fun doing whatever it is you do at work). Help get Mitt elected and I'll come visit Mom and Dad. I'll visit you too if I come Max and Amelia. And don't think I've neglected the rest of you. I sincerely hope you all have a peaceful and productive week free from troubles and stress.

The actual story of the DMV is abridged as follows:

I awoke to the peaceful sunshine gleaming across my well rested eyes. I jumped out of bed, excited to dart around town running my various errands. Number one on my list, both in priority and in anticipation, was the DMV. Having recently taken over ownership of my sister's Ford Explorer, the car was due to be registered in my name. I quickly showered, shaved and began my preparations for the DMV. I was unsure what forms I would need and turned to the internet. After some uncertainty, I remembered a page of guidelines sent to me by the bank. With high certitude, I departed. First stop was the auto shop for a safety inspection. Like a lightning strike, by the time I blinked, the inspection was done. A few minutes later, the paperwork to go with the inspection was completed and I headed to the DMV on my way to campus to print out forms. I wanted to make sure I had everything correct the first time so there would be no back and forth all day, so I popped my head in and spoke with a very kind elderly lady who affirmed the forms I would need and gave me two of them to fill out. With me and the DMV on the same page, I went up to campus in my officially certified safe vehicle. After exchanging pleasantries with friends and co-workers, I was able to slip away from the social butterflies to print off the Application for Utah Title from the email from the bank. All of the correct forms filled out, I then swung by home to grab the bank provided check for registration I had forgotten. The completed package finally together, I whistled happy tunes with a smile on my way to the DMV. The kind lady I had spoken to previously was on lunch, so I conversed this time with an even more pleasant lady. I presented all the properly filled out forms, she typed in the information and presented me with a bill of $800. Shocked, I asked why it was $800 rather than the $108 it should be. So silly of me, a normal person with zero knowledge of car registrations and the forms that go with it, I had put the value of the car on the Bill of Sale when the car was a gift, not a purchase. The delightfully helpful clerk let me know I would need the form to say gift to be processed and sent me to fix it. Downstairs, I found an office with white-out and corrected the silly error. I went back up and was directed to a different pleasant lady due to another customer being helped by the second one I was working with. The third lady ever so politely rejected my white-out solution, saying I needed a whole new form. She gave me a new one and I left again. Concerned that they would reject my using an unofficial form of power of attorney to sign the form on my sister's behalf (she lives 2068 miles away in Virginia), I called home seeking the official form she signed for the bank gifting her interest of the car to me. While I patiently waited to see if we had a copy at home, I jovially cruised to Chick-Fil-A and got lunch. For any interested parties, if you like banana cream pie, you will LOVE the limited-time-only Banana Pudding Milkshake from Chick-Fil-A. Back on topic, my family could not locate a copy of the form, so I decided to give one final try with the second lady. I filled out the Bill of Sale with "Gift" in the amount, signed it and headed back up to the second floor of the county building to the DMV. I walked in and was helped by the third lady, who was suspicious of me. Thankfully, as soon as I stepped to the counter, the second lady became available and I asked if she could finish what she started. The third lady recused herself and even left the room as I moved to the next spot over. This time, everything was in order and I signed up for special interest plates. I'm loving being here at Utah State, so I got BYU plates! I know my true blue Aggie friends will hate me for it, but their major beef is with BYU Athletics. No one can or has argued with the high caliber education BYU offers, and I wanted to contribute to that in some way, so, with these plates, every year I register the car with them, I donate $35 that goes to the BYU General Scholarship Fund. Don't worry all you Aggies...between catering, attending on-campus events, service projects and other things I do here, I am contributing plenty to the equally important endeavors of the other great university in the state (the University of Utah gets nothing, sorry). All in all though, I had an absolutely pleasurable experience with the DMV today and I would highly recommend them to everyone...*cough* *cough*