There and Back Again

(this is what rexburg area looks like right now)

SO I am not the best blogger. Big shocker. BUT I plan on being a little bit more consistent than once every 4 months, as is the current pace. So a little update on my life. I survived another semester at school, and learned how to safely navigate all sorts of fun driving conditions. My favorite is snow on polished ice. Oh, and I am of the opin

ion that the majority of drivers in Rexburg (aside from me, of course) should not be allowed to drive when its not dry pavement. Looking back on the semester, I haven't gone on as many excursions as I did the previous semester. That is in large measure because once winter sets in, you aren't going very far off of the main roads. However, Nae came up before the snow hit so we did a circuit of Yellowstone and then went south to Teton national park. It was sweet.

We spent a good deal of time talking about getting the "mennin"(meningitis) from the geyser vapor or having a bad case of the rubies.(this has no correlation to anything) We also sang country songs, ate sugar peas, many rolls, and talked of getting a good cantalope (antelope). We found some buffalo in Teton that were in a "fenced" enclosure but the fence was super small and was open in a lot of spots.

I got as close as my stupidity would let me, and I snapped these. Those suckers are big. Just saying. But fortunately I didn't die, and neither Nae or I got the Mennin so it was a fun trip where nobody suffered severe injury. Score. So there you have it. My life in a small nutshell. Now im back at home working at the lab again, and saving up for the future. Its a new year, which brings change and different challenges and adventures. Im ready. Its crazy to think how life changes from year to year, but exciting too.

Embrace This Day

Life is good. I am genuinely happy. Don't worry, I could still complain about sleep deprivation, the dating scene, or homework, but I don't notice any of those things right now. In fact, I am going to try to never let them be a focus ever again. Even though things have been a little hectic this week, I feel very content with everything in my life. It started with getting a blessing on Sunday from my Elder's Quorum President (he's my roommate). Things changed for me. I changed. Then a phenomenal lesson in my religion class opened up Alma 36 in ways that I never could have imagined. I changed some more. I have a hope for the future that is burning in me that cannot be quenched by the economy or whatever the world may throw at me. I am going to make a difference in the world. My children will make a difference. And this is not because of any special ability that I have, but rather that I am going to try to live my life a little more like a byu devotional given back in 1996. My friend David sent it to me on facebook, for which I am very grateful. I don't feel fear or regret about opportunities that I chose not to pursue, or even apprehension about what comes next. It will be alright in the end. I'm just waiting for the next big trial in my life, but when it comes I will face it as a new man. I don't deserve any of the countless blessings that I have been given, but I am very grateful for them. Life is good. Even when its hard, life is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw

Musings of a tired boy

While taking pictures of stars (moonrise) out in the desert, with my brother, I came to the realization that there is so much light. No matter how "dark" it is at night, there is always light. It can be hard to see it at time, but its always there.

Er, 4 months of blogging?

So my first semester at BYU-I has been pretty awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I didn't have the time to blog. Or rather sleep was more important than blogging. Or maybe I was just lazy. So here is a little slice of what life has been like (aside from the lovely hours spent searching for research or reading textbooks or writing papers etc) I goofed off sufficiently at the beginning of the semester to earn me a 3.1. Now my cumulative gpa is only a 3.5. Please do not accredit that to this next picture because my grades were on the up-bound the entire time I was dating her.

Biggest event of the semester was this girl here (not the fatty dandelion). Her name is Hailee, and yes, we are dating. And no, I am not planning on proposing anytime soon. And yes, she can sing. Gorgeous voice, actually, and yes, she can sing soprano, but prefers alto. Um, I can't anticipate any other questions from the family right now so you'll just have to ask them later.
I finally got to go camping with Andy's family. I'm rather jealous that he has a great campsite 20 mins away from his house. It was a fun weekend and we shot lots of cans.

While visiting an old friend before she went on a mission, a crazy lightning storm came up and I ran home and got my camera. To the left is President Eyring's son's house. It was a fun night.
On a Sunday drive I, along with 4 others, went for a drive to Tetonia. We stopped along the way a couple of times for pictures. It was a much needed break.
The blurry head is one of my fhe sisters. I don't know which one. I was mostly interested in the mountains, anyhoo. I really want to climb that big mountain.
The view. Almost worth the -20 degree weather in the winter.

On another trip I went to cress creek with some friends. As you can tell I like to look my best on these little excursions. The picture was a request made by Barbie, one of the sisters I hometeach. The flower smelled like fruit loops. Not even kidding.

This is the view from cress creek. Its about 20 mins away from campus and it overlooks this nice little valley. One of the places I like to go :)

Mesa Falls. It was really pretty, and my econ partner, Betsy, wanted to go. See, going places and doing things was always better than doing our weekly econ assignments, but this was our "reward" for getting it done. She brought along her roomates....uh.... (forgot the names. they're the girls) She is the one with her arm around Jordan. (i tried to set them up but it didn't work)
And of course i couldn't leave out my fhe sisters. We had a lot of fun even though half of our lessons were spent harassing me.
I made many an excursion to take pictures with dates, friends, and by myself. Photography was my escape from going insane.
My other escape was going to the temple. It has been such a blessing having the temple only 20 mins away if I walked. (only walked twice)
Now seeing how its good ol' Rexburg, there isn't that much to do for fun. You have to get creative. VERY creative. I apologize to those with sensitive dispositions, but you chose to look at this blog, nobody made you. This was an 80's night date that was a lot of fun. It turned into an impromptu dance party that made our manager come up and tell us to be quiet. Ooops?

My semester has been an eventful one. I grew a lot. I had more powerful, spiritual experiences in the one semester than I perhaps did in the preceding two years after my mission. I've met a lot of people who will be my lifelong friends and made a lot of great memories. This is only a very small slice of life since April but hopefully it will update y'all to whats been going on in my life as of late.

Life is Good

Im guessing that some of you are interested in how I like byu-i. I don’t suppose I can give an accurate and full report yet seeing how I have only been here for about 6 days but what a six days it has been! The doubts and concerns that I had about whether or not I was supposed to come to this school have been completely erased. This is a holy place. The only thing I can really compare it to is the MTC but with less razor-rash and its okay to hug girls here. In fact, I guess the hugging is encouraged because its called byu-I do. But back to the seriousness of it, it has been a far greater spiritual experience than I could have hoped for. No, I haven’t found my eternal companion, or not that I know of, but this campus is Zion. There is a spirit of unity and dedication that It is ridiculous how friendly people are here! My new good friend Vanessa makes it a habit to say hi to everyone that she passes by- even if they are across the street or quad. Its more like an obsession but it makes me laugh every time all the same. I have been on a couple dates already and have plenty more in the works. Don’t worry; my self esteem is rather healthy with all of these wonderfully spiritual (and cute) girls smiling at me. And yes, they smile at everyone they pass but I don’t care! Haha

I have a large group of really good friends as well as an amazing ward. My Elder’s Quorum President is nothing short of a spiritual giant and he gave one of the most powerful eq’s lesson that I have ever heard. I love how I can go up to a random apartment pretty much anywhere around and knock on the door and make new friends just like that. I’ve done that a bit (girls’ apartments mostly) and its been a lot of fun. I haven’t drowned in homework yet but I have plenty to do. I still am hopeful to get a job because that would make life considerably easier on the pocketbook. If I don’t get one this semester then I will just focus all the more on my classes and getting straight “A”s so I can get a scholarship here.

My teachers seem to be pretty cool and reasonable thus far and I am very happy with the class size because it is a very intimate teaching setting with no class larger than 50 thus far. I think that these teachers may actually CARE about our success, which is a rarity in the rest of the world. I had an interview with one of the Stake Presidency councilors and I’ve been called to serve as (I think) an assistant ward clerk. Or something like that. I figure I’ll just show up on Sunday and they will tell me what they want me to do.

The weather has been thus far-sunny to cloudy and warm to cloudy and cold to crazy intense thunderstorms. I had fun with that last one because I took a friend up out of town to get a spectacular view of the fireworks. Right now its windy and rainy and I have discovered that my brown shoes are not water tight anymore. You learn something new every day here!

Beginnings and Endings

The end of one thing is the start of another, or so some random person once said. Maybe not a random person, but i just don't have the desire to look it up. As I come to the end of this particular chapter of life, I find myself reflecting on the past two years and what has transpired. It seems somewhat unreal to think back on how many amazing experiences I have had. All of which has led to who I am today in one way or another. I had very specific goals that I have been working on and it has been very rewarding to see some personal growth. I've got a long way to go still (everyone does) but I feel like I've finally accomplished what I set out to do before I went to the temple with someone.

Now don't go thinking that I'm gonna go marriage crazy here but rather that I finally feel ready for the next step in life. I'm more concerned about keeping up with the 17 units and finding a job somewhere, at this point so that will happen at some point. haha So here I sit on my bed, chatting with an old friend, listening to some good music and feeling excited for the future. Mom is saying that Idaho will never live up to what I am making it out to be, but we'll just see about that. Life is what you make of it, and I plan on making this a memorable semester! Life for the next three days will be a whirlwind of work, stress, packing, last minute visits and then a drive thru the night into the dawn of a new chapter of life. :)

Mountains to Lakes

On Tuesday night Adam and I went on a adventure of a sort to take pictures of the stars. After driving an hour and half to get to clear skies, we arrived in a bank of fog. Yeah. We still shot some pics and I got startled by what turned out to be noisy and curious white tailed deer. Not the yeti I had envisioned, darn it. haha So we went down the road and found this spot to shoot from.
It was slightly hazy still, and the moon was out so the stars weren't really visible but we still shot away and got some pretty coolish pictures anyway.
Today we met at Donely Park in Turlock, after work, to feed the ducks and geese and boy did Jake enjoy that! His throw with saltine cracker was somewhat short but the people-friendly birds seemed to do alright.
The crackers in the water did more than just attract birds... fish! This is a shot I got of a fish trying to get the cracker from out of a Mallards beak. Either that or I stumbled on a private moment... awkward. haha
We had a good time playing around the lake and then the others went to the playground for a bit so it turned out well. I went to visit less-actives and was successful (YES!!) while the ABSs packed up and left for Riverside. In fact they should be somewhere around Bakersfield right now... Anyhoo, the next family on the list is the Haymonds in 3 weeks! Woot!