96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS!
96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS!
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96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS!
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96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS! 96 DAYS!

96 DAYS TILL BEAR LAKE! I can't wait. :)

Joy in the Journey

Have you ever heard anyone say "that person just really get's life"? Or "This person is just really successful in life."? I often wonder how I can become like that. I want someone to be able to say that about me someday, man he just really gets it. Or boy he is just so successful in life. I think that would be one of the biggest complements that one could ever receive. To truly just get life? Wow, I can't even begin to think what that would even mean for a person. To understand what it takes to be successful in life? How do you do that, how do you begin to start down that road. For me?

The thing that I think is, I have never really heard that about rich, powerful, or famous people. Macy and I were discussing Kobe Bryant the other day, because of course his big face was plastered all over a billboard advertising his "success" campaign. I told Macy, I feel bad for him. Because in a few more years he will have nothing left. He has given everything up for basketball, literally everything. In just a few short years he will be just a name on a chart, or a statistic that they will bring up someday when someone else breaks his records. At the end of his life, what will he say he has amounted too? So would you argue that he is someone who really just "gets life?" Are money, power, and prestige, all that matter in this life? That is the question.

In my life I think that I have had about 2 days go according to my plan. And I think both of those days happened in the second grade. The weather was perfect, I had no responsibilities all day, I caught every frisbee that was thrown to me and everything was bliss. Besides those 2 days in my life I have had to do something I didn't really want to do. I have had responsibilities, tasks, assignments, or obligations that needed to be fulfilled. Things that needed to be done. Life just wasn't perfect. Here is also the thing that I am starting to recognize, these days come every day. Despite what I do, or how I do it, trials, tribulations, and troubles come. Unexpected happiness seems to come, and successes in areas that I hadn't even been working on seem to come. It is what we call life. Now here is what I think that it takes to be someone who just get's life.

I think someone who just "get's life" is simply someone who is able to learn from the things that happen to them, and finds joy in the imperfection of what we call life. Because the other thing that I am learning is that there is joy to be had in the imperfection. There is a whole lot of joy to be had. You just have to learn to find it. And as I look around the world, I see that this learning process is a hard one to go through because all around us we see people unhappy with the imperfection in life, myself included. We get frustrated and mad, that not every single tiny, little, detail, goes exactly how we would want it to. We don't get 100% on a test, or we have to fill our cars up with gas. We have an assignment that is late, or we are more tired than we feel we should be, before the day is over. It might be raining, or windy. Someone might do something to offend us or be rude to us. So many things happen in one day it is hard to mention everything that might happen. However I am sure something will happen today that doesn't go according to my plan.

So I just got married. :) I just was married to the love of my life. Que: Macy. I wanted to mention Macy specifically in this post because I know many people who are on the road to being "successful at life" but she is source behind these thoughts that I have. Not that Macy would ever admit it, and she would be the last to say that she is even good at it however Macy is someone who is well on her way to just "getting life." This is one of the things that I love about her. I have known Macy for 18 months almost too the day and in those 18 months I don't think one day has gone according to her plan. As these days go by I have seen an amazing thing happen, she seems to find joy even in her toughest trials. Trials that I would not be able to go through, myself, she has learned to laugh at, and truly be happy in the midst of them. Now I say she is on her way to getting life for two reasons.

1) She would probably be really mad at me if I said she "got life" and she would say No I don't!

2) Because also I recognize that even she has grown since I have known her.

I am so glad that I married someone who gives me such a good example of something that I want to be, and become.

So fortunately for all of us who aren't rich, powerful, and famous that is not what life is all about in my opinion. At the end of our lives even if we aren't rich and famous we can say that we accounted for something. And luckily for rich, famous, people we can all amount to something in our life more than just money. We can become someone who just "get's life." I think from my very limited perspective that life truly is simply about finding joy in the imperfection. About finding Joy in the Journey.

21 hours later this is all I can think of...

If I had a wand I wouldn't be like Lord Voldemort, I would be more like Neville Longbottom. I don't want to say I would be more like Harry Potter because that would be very presumptuous of me. After all I am no "Chosen One". But I do like to play the pivotal side role, that in the end has kind of a big part, but still can fade into the background with ease. If I had a wand I wouldn't be like Crabbe, and use spells that I can't control, like fiend fire. I think I would be responsible with a wand and all around a good person. I wouldn't put people under the Imperius curse, and I would never use the Crucio curse. I wouldn't make horcruxes, and desire to live forever. I wouldn't duel unless Draco Malfoy was trying to hex me. I wouldn't apparate into people's house, I would politely apparate outside and knock on the front door as would any good common citizen. I would always practice care and caution when it comes to spells that I find in books. And I would never, ever, use my wand around muggles. I would proceed with all caution and care when it comes to my wand. My wand would probably not be made of Elder Wood, and it probably wouldn't have a phoenix feather in it, but after all who knows because the wand does choose the wizard. My wand would be awesome, just sayin'.

Good Grief CHARLIE BROWN!

You know the feeling you get about 3 weeks before the end of the semester? That feeling where all you want to do is hang on. You can't absorb anymore, and you think that your brain might go on an emergency shut down at any moment?

Fact: I still have not recovered from the feeling from last semester
Problem: The new semester has already started today
Solution: I don't know

Resources: Luckily I have a few to help get me through until I have recovered from this -I don't think I can do this- feeling.

*Macy, probably one of the biggest supports that I have right now, thank goodness for Macy
*The Jazz, thanks goodness for the NBA and our Utah Jazz. It is pretty much heaven sent that the NBA lockout ended when it did. If I didn't have the Jazz I would be in deep trouble
*Nolan, this cute little nephew of mine who lives at my house, can always make me smile and help me solve my Chemistry problems.
*The thought that this semester can NOT be worse than last spring semester, true it may not be as fun, but it can not be worse. I promise.

All of this said and done, I am actually really excited for this semester, I guess you could say just not quite ready for it to start. But ready or not here I come. I love my life. :)

Don't you just love Calvin and Hobbes? I think one of my nephews should be named Calvin and Sammy should be renamed Hobbes.

In the old west Texas town of El Paso

There is something special about following a team with your whole family. It binds and bonds you because of how you spend time, and energy, you live together, you suffer together, and it feels like sometimes you die together. But you are together none the less. Things only get better when they are in El Paso, which is where the whole family just came back from after following our Utes there. (That is in Texas for those of you who don't know) It was such a fun trip, and I wanted every one to be able to experience it just a little bit. Here are the most memorable moments of the trip.

*You threw up 5 times, but it was with class -Ryan*

*What's for lunch? What's for breakfast? What's for dinner? -Vickie*

*Wasn't me. -Dad after taking out a subway sign*

*There are a lot of things that have to give in a marriage, and control of temperature in the car is one of them. -Ryan*

*Josh my nose is like an ice cube. -Macy*

*I have to go potty. -Easton*

*Ba, ba, ba, argggg. -Corbin and Nolan*

*Vickie i'm going to buy you some Cortez milled flower. Oh wait I don't have my wallet. Vickie Ryan is going to buy you some Cortez milled flower. -Craig*

*Josh you need a lesson in passing. -Zach*

*You almost got in a head on collision, and the other time you left me behind. -Collie*

*It feels great in here. Maybe we should turn the heat up. -Staci*

*It's eighty degrees in the girls room. -Dad*

These are a tiny snippet of the highlights, but there were many, many more. It was just a great time, with the family and the Utes won in a thriller which always makes the drive a little quicker and makes the trip more fun. Also just to report, there are 8 eye witnesses that UFO's really exist. We promise, they are out there. We saw them in New Mexico. All in all this was such a fun trip and we all loved it.
The whole crew, Dad, Mom, Ryan, Staci, Nolan, Zach, Collie, Nolan, Corbin, Josh, and Macy. We are all there. I promise.

ESCAPAY!

I'm not dead, i'm really not, only mostly. I have just felt like this......


For the past little while. But don't worry after next week i'll know whether I was eaten or not. As they say in Rudy, "pray for us."

Happy Finals week everyone

Please don't let my dreams run dry

A long time ago, in the Garden of Eden God gave to Adam two commandments. One of which everyone knows, to multiply and replenish the earth. Yes, everyone knows that one, but the second and sometimes forgotten commandment was to till the earth, that it would bring forth food and fruit that Adam and Eve would eat. I want to talk about this commandment. The one that is sometimes forgotten because it is this one for this moment that I can take joy in. So the saying goes....
17) ...cursed is the ground for thy sake; in ^csorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18) ^aThorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19) In the ^asweat of thy face shalt thou eat ^bbread, till thou return unto the ground;

--Genesis Chapter 3

Now fast forward about 6,000 or billions of years depending on how you look at it. November 21, 1988, Kent and Vickie gave birth a little baby boy. Little did they know that at the time this little boy would grow into a boy that would try with all of his heart to keep this commandment no matter on how small a scale it may seem. Hence my blog post

This is a picture of my land
So here is the story. Maybe 11 years ago this past summer, I was about 11, (I might have been 12 and it maybe have been only 10 years ago, but sparing the details this is how it went) and in my backyard we had this patch of dirt, right next to the sandbox. Now calling this a patch of dirt is generous, it was more like a piece of the Sahara desert dropped right in our backyard because it was so hard and unworkable. Well while mowing the lawn one day I decided what a good idea it would be to dump the grass clippings in the dirt and let them compost to make the soil better. So I dug a little hole and tried to dump the clippings. I underestimated two things though. 1) How hard the ground would be. 2) How much grass was actually cut when I mowed the lawn. So instead of the grass starting to degrade into the soil to make it better, I had a mound of grass in about a 2 foot by 1 foot hole in the backyard.
But I had a vision of what this land, my land could be. Now fast forward about 10 or maybe 11 years. Now I in no way shape or form do I proclaim to be a good gardener. In fact I might even say I have a tough time proclaiming to be any type of gardener. But I am someone who is trying work the earth by the sweat of my brow. Every year, since that summer I have attempted to grow things on the little patch of land. It's not much, and at times maybe even laughable but it's mine and I love it. I have been learning all along the way. Like how Bell Peppers don't grow to well in the extreme heat, or how tomatoes will fight for every inch of sunlight you will give them, and how they let you know when they don't have enough. I have learned how to grow jalepenos, and sweet peas. Maybe not well but I am learning. I love it. I have learned about turning the earth with leaves. And what makes good compost and what does not.

(To bad i'm not a root farmer because I can grow some mean roots.)

I have endured bad crops, and opposition. Laughs, and scoffs at my little patch of land. But I will work that land, and I will live to see a good crop come in. One day when I am eating my crop through the winter, I will truly say I have conquered the land. Well maybe not conquered, because I work with the land. I work the land so it will produce for me. It's a partnership, and as such as I put in, it puts out. Without the land I receive nothing, and if not for me it may still very well be a little piece of the Sahara Desert. So with my partner I will continue to work and learn. It will continue to teach me more than I would have ever learned from any book.

"He who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He who soweth deeply shall reap also deeply."
--Paul the Apostle