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.

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.