New Decade, Old Memories

As we approach the end of yet another decade, I can't help but look back on the past two decades and think of the changes that have taken place.

Having been born in the 80's (barely) I lived a few quality years in the 90's and they seemed to be pretty rad if you know what I mean. I spent the past couple of days transferring all of my music onto my laptop and came to the realization that at least 90% of my music comes from the 90's. Mostly country.

But really-you've got to agree that the 90's was a great decade for all genres of music. Who can't help but sing along to Bust a Move or Ice Ice Baby? Or to Chatohoochie and the Grundy County Auction? Maybe it's just because those years were my most imaginative and life as a kid was pretty care free. Either way, I loved the 90's and I hope you did too.

I do realize that we're a decade off of the 90's, but we don't want to forget those years too quickly, so here's a tribute to a most memorable decade-in fashion, music and television.

You may have lived in the 90's if...

You know all the words to The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air theme song


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBe0VCso0qs

Goosebumps and Are You Afraid Of The Dark scared you

You collected (and maybe played) Pogs

You remember people fighting over Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo toys

You had a short-lived slap bracelet phase

You know the Macarena. And you do it well.

You loved your pair of overalls

You hoped that someday you could climb Agrocrag like the kids on GUTS

Your shoes had flashing lights

Oregon Trail Day was your favorite day in class

Bill Nye taught you something

You’d have a cassette tape in the radio so you could record your favorite song when it came on

You predicted your future with one of these:

You knew every detail about each Saved By The Bell character

You thought gas was expensive when it was over $1

You (or someone you know) wore Jelly Shoes

And to my family, this is a reminder of the 90's

Remember the good times!

Done. Finished. Completed. Ceased. Terminated. Ended. Cuh-put.

Fall Semester 2009=Over!
As of 35 minutes ago, when I turned in my highly procrastinated take home final for Soils, (due at 5:00, it is now 5:34) the first half of my junior year is over. I don't think I've ever felt so much relief at the end of a finals week as I do today.

Christmas break is strategically placed on the calendar for more than just one reason you know.

December is a month to get together with people we love.
It's a time to remember why we celebrate Christmas.

AND

Every college student deserves a break. We've all been working hard. We've all had our stresses, struggles and our flat out "I"M DONE!" moments. Please, everyone, do me a favor and have some fun this Christmas break. It won't be long before people will laugh at us for wanting a month long break from life, so enjoy it while you can.

And to you old fogies who don't get to take a 30 day leave of absence, enjoy your holidays anyway...and be jealous. Be very jealous.

But really, Happy Holidays from me to you.

One Late Night and a Sleeping Foreigner

I lost my keys last night.

My spare key doesn't work in my ignition...only on the doors.

We checked the chair in the library that I was sitting in. It took a while as there was a sleeping man in it. It took much shaking and many "excuse me's" to wake him up out of his deep slumber. They still weren't there.

Because of my luck, the snow has come down hard in the last 48 hours, therefore most likely sending my keys into the abyss of snow drifts on the edges of the sidewalks.

No one has turned them in to any lost and found.

My car is stuck in the parking terrace.

Please pray that I find my keys. I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving break was much needed in the school department for me. School is going well, but it was definitely nice to have a few days off to get rejuvenated before finals week comes. I was able to get a lot done and even put up my Christmas tree! :) I left my camera at mom and dad's so I can't post a picture of it yet, but by tonight I will.

I thought I'd post a few pictures from Thanksgiving day. We didn't have a big elaborate celebration, just mom, dad, Landon and I, but it was still a lot of fun. Dad and Landon were burning a bunch of the brush that we needed to get rid of so we just hung outside for a while so that was fun.
This all needs to be cleared out so instead of hauling it they decided to have a bonfire! It will look so much better when just the trees are there instead of all of the shrubs and dead brush.

I also rode the motor bike around and I was so proud of myself for not crashing! I wish I would have gotten a picture of me on it but at least I got one of Landon.



In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a short list of the things I'm most thankful for. (Not in any particular order) :)

1. My family
2. The Gospel
3. Good friends
4. Opportunity to go to school and work
5. Warm bed and warm showers
6. A car
7. Music
8. Agriculture
9. Technology
10. People who do the jobs that no one else wants to (if you don't know what I'm talking about, just watch Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe on The Discovery Channel)

Happy Holidays!

Life...or something like it :)

The weeks following convention have been so much fun for me. For the first time in a year and a half, I'm living the normal life of a college student which includes: late nights, Aggie Athletics, and plain ol' fun. So I thought I'd post a few pictures!

Halloween proved to be a fun and eventful night. The night was started off with a party and then a few of my friends and I headed over to the infamous Howl at Utah State. Don't worry folks, it's cleaned up a lot over the past 3 years or so, so it's not as scandalous as one might think :) Here I am, Betty Rubble, with Ginger, Scary and Posh Spice.

It was a bit crowded throughout the entire TSC...can you tell?

Really...it was wall to wall.


In the Ballroom, there was an illusionist and a performance by one of the teams from America's Best Dance Crew. They were pretty sweet to say the least


I can't forget to mention Aggie Sports...I haven't been able to make it to a basketball game yet and it's kind of been killing me. I have, however, made it to a couple of hockey games which are pretty entertaining as well. I guess it's the Canadian coming out in me that gets me so excited at the games. We have a really great team which makes it even more fun.

Here's Sasha, Audrey and myself cheering on our Aggies against San Jose State


This year we've been really good about celebrating everyone's birthday. This is our party planner, Shoat. He makes sure everyone's birthday is celebrated in style. Ironically, I don't have any pictures of the night mine was celebrated! (Don't worry about the beer sign in the back, we're just at Texas Roadhouse!)


At Texas Roadhouse, if it's your birthday, they make you sit on a saddle while the entire restaurant yells, "Saddle Up! Saddle Up!" Apparently Jeff and Sid just couldn't fathom saddling up alone, so they did it together..

Waiting..waiting...waiting...you wouldn't think that it would be too hard to get a group of 30 in, right?
I know this was a forever long post, but I had to put these pictures up sometime! :)

Contentment.

To me, one of the best feelings in the world is that of being content. Content with where you've been in life. Content with where you're at. Content with where you're going. I've felt very content in a lot of different situations. For example, I feel content on Christmas Eve when the family is together and we're just sitting around enjoying each others company. I felt content the moment I decided what my major was going to be. I feel content while sitting in church. I feel content when I'm reading a good book. So with this new little chapter in my life coming up, I am so happy to feel content and at peace with it. I have had such an incredible past year and a half and I wouldn't trade the things I've learned for anything. I'll be starting my first semester of the secondary ed teaching program in the spring and that will last for 3 semesters....and once they're done I'll be a teacher! How weird! The majority of the time, I do not feel old enough to be taking care of and teaching high school kiddos! But man, am I excited about it!

This group of kids are some of the other states National Officer Candidates. We went ice skating the night before elections and just had a fun time. These were some great people! The girl on the far left side is from Idaho and is actually going to BYU-I. Our first Sunday in Indy we took a cab to a ward a few minutes away so that was fun to have another LDS person (we were the only ones). Anyway, I loved, loved, LOVED that week and I met some really incredible individuals.
'Til next time!

It's Here!

You got it! Convention time is just around the corner...literally! I'm leavin' on a jet plane tomorrow for Indianapolis and then it's off to the races. I know it's going to be one of the most challenging yet rewarding weeks of my life and I'm so excited to get started. Dad and I talked for a long time last night about a lot of things. He gave me some really great insight into a lot of the different ag topics that I'll need to know inside and out. Thank goodness for him because I got some really great information. He also gave me a lot of really great personal advice-man am I grateful for him. And am I ever grateful for my mom who knows how to sew!!! :D (Oh, and she's kind of been a big support through this all) I wish all my sisters could be here tonight for our little going away party, but know that I'll be thinking of you! This will most likely be my last blog post until I get home from convention so know that I love you all and thank you so much for all of your support-through my year as a state officer and through the last 5 months of preparation! Off to Indy I go!

Kindness...Isn't it about time?

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but the topics of charity and kindness have seemed to be so prevalent throughout church lessons and talks lately. Those two topics have really been on my mind lately, so maybe that's why I've noticed it so much. To me, they compliment each other and often times go hand in hand.

We definitely live in a world where kindness, service and charity are put on the back burner. Sarcasm is a common means of communication and many live on a one-way street named "Me". I was grateful for President Monson's talk in conference this morning about service and kindness. I think that it was a very heartfelt and thought provoking message for all who listened-members of the church or not.

"I have wept in the night for the shortness of
sight that to somebody's need made me blind;
But I never have yet felt a tinge of
regret for being a little to kind"

I'm challenging myself to seek out ways to be charitable and kind this week. As President Monson invited us to, I will ask myself each night, "Have I done any good in the world today?" I know that the Lord blesses us with opportunities to serve when we are looking for them, even if they be small acts. It's so easy to fall into the routine of every day life and forget what is really important, so it is my hope that I will become more conscious of all of my words and actions so that I can answer "yes" when I ask myself each night if I have done any good.

Here's a youtube for thought. :)

23 Days and Counting!!!

Believe it or not, I leave for Indy in only 23 short days! Preparation for National Office has been one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. Call me a nerd, but I guess I just have a good time studying something that I love.

While I had the chance, I thought I'd write a post that had all of the information for convention that you might want in case I don't have time to before I leave. You can watch the election on TV/Online on Saturday the 24th during the final session (starts around 1:30 and goes until it's finished) Regardless of the outcome, as candidates we will all be introducing ourselves on the Friday afternoon session at 1:30. Come check us out!

Thanks to modern day technology, anyone who wants to watch any of convention from home will be able to starting October 20. That way, you can feel like you're with the other 55,000+ FFA members, parents, teachers and guests that will be attending convention! If you have RFDTV, (comcast channel 203) they will be broadcasting it. If not, you can go to this website
http://www.ffanewhorizons.org/index.php/convention/2009
and check it out!

You can also check out this website for the convention schedule if you are wanting to watch any of it!
http://www.ffa.org/index.cfm?method=c_convention.events

Do we have any "Dirty Jobs" fans out there? One of this year's convention keynote speakers is Mike Rowe, the host of the TV show. Here's a little bio on him if you're interested.

Mike Rowe has had more jobs than you. In fact, Mike has had more jobs than anyone. As the creator and executive producer of Discovery Channel's Emmy-nominated series Dirty Jobs With Mike Rowe, Mike has spent years traveling the country, working as an apprentice on more than 200 jobs that most people would go out of their way to avoid.

Dirty Jobs is entirely unscripted, and Mike doesn't cheat; he actually does the work, with a sense of humor rarely portrayed in such professions. In fact, the notion of depicting hard work as noble and fun is central to his personal mission. On Labor Day 2008, Mike launched a website called mikeroweWORKS.com, where skilled labor and hard work are celebrated in the hope of calling attention to the steady decline in the trades and bolstering enrollment in trade schools and technical colleges.

Hope you all have a fantastic day!

212 Degrees

Today in one of my classes my professor showed us a video on youtube. It's just a few minutes long and I think it's worthwhile to watch.

Going just a little farther, pushing a little harder, and focusing just a little bit more makes all the difference.

Enjoy!

Catching Up

So....looking at the title of my last post got me thinking. It is such a good thing I'm going into Ag Ed and not Math Ed. How many summers have I had? You guessed it, only 20. Anyway!
School is going well so far this semester. My classes are ones that I know I will actually use in life, especially in the classroom. Work is going well and it's so nice to be able to work on campus! Studying for national office continues to go well and I hope I'll be as prepared as I need to be with only just under 5 weeks to go! I'm flying down to Las Cruces, New Mexico for 3 days in October to do some training with my old professor who is pretty much the king of FFA. I'm so excited to see him again and do some training with him. He is the one who did most of my training when I ran for state office and national office run offs. Such a selfless person.

This week should be a blast. Once I finish up the week of school I'm heading down to Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley in concert with Mandy and 2 of my roommates....it will be amazing! And the best part is that I only had to pay around $15 for the tickets!

The day after the concert will be fun as well. It's state fair time which means...livestock shows! My favorite part of the fairs. This year I'm showing a heifer for my roommate so that will be fun. I haven't shown any livestockin a show since high school when I did heifers at the Black and White Days show, so I'm really excited.

Hopefully you are all planning something fun for the weekend! Have a good one!

My 21st Summer Comes to a Close

Summer always seems to go by so quickly! It feels like there isn't any time between the professor handing out a final and handing out a syllabus! My summer was, however, very great! The past couple of weeks have been busy but so much fun! Hours and hours were spent at the county fair this year-running ribbons to the exhibitors of the Junior Livestock show, weighing in pigs, lambs and steers, taking money from generous people donating to the Jr. Livestock program and a few other responsibilities. All in all it was a great time, as it always is at the fair. I was able to go up to the Franklin and Rich County Fairs as well, which were both a lot smaller than Cache's, but still a lot of fun. My new roommate, Shelly, was the judge for all 3 shows at Rich, and her brother was the judge for the pigs and sheep in Franklin so we went up to watch them. They're talented livestock judgers and I think the kids learned a lot from them.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity of joining the Sky View FFA Chapter Officers on their summer leadership retreat to Bear Lake. It brought back memories of my own time as an officer at Sky View and how fun of a time it was. The 2009-2010 team is going to do a great job and I'm so excited for them to get the year started and "Lead out Loud".

I was checking out Mandy's blog today and watched a couple of videos that she posted. The church has a little thing called "Mormon Messages" on Youtube and I think they're great ways to share messages of the gospel. I really appreciated those videos today and with school starting in less than a week it's good to be reminded of the things that help us become who we want to be.

Each day we have a million little choices to make. Hopefully we are directing our lives in a manner in which we can be led to make the right choices. I feel like I have a few big things coming up in my life right now and it gives me so much comfort to know that I'm being watched over as long as I'm doing all I can to be the best that I can be.

What are you grateful for?

A couple of days ago I was thinking about how many things that I have going on in my life that give me reason to be a very happy and content person. So I thought I'd list a few.

1. An amazing family.
I would venture to guess that most people are pretty satisfied with their family. I for one definitely am! I really can't ask for a better set of parents or siblings. I am so grateful for the memories that I've been able to make and continue to make with my younger brother and 3 older sisters, along with their great hubbies. I also have a hilarious nephew and an adorable niece. What a blessing it is to have family! Although half of them are spread out across the world (literally) I still love the phone conversations, random facebook chats and the occasional email.

2. Great friends.
Some people get pretty lucky when it comes to the friends that they have and I can happily say that I am one of them! I really do have the best friends in the world and I am so grateful for the examples they continuously set for me. Happy times, funny times, hilarious times, sad times, stressful times...you name it, we've had them.

3. The Church.
I love that each Sunday I can leave the cares of the world outside and focus on the things that are really important for a few hours with no distractions. I have the wonderful opportunity to be serving in the Relief Society presidency and it has been such a blessing. The love that is there for each of the sisters is incredible and I love the camaraderie between each of us. I love that I have a family who is strong in the gospel and a father and brother who hold the priesthood. We are truly blessed to have such an amazing church in our lives.

4. Being apart of the National FFA Organization.
I can honestly say that without the guidance that I have received from being apart of this organization I would not be the person I am today. I have learned so much about myself and others through the experiences and trainings that I have had. I have spent hundreds of hours dedicating my life to it and it has truly been a rewarding 5 years. I truly hope that I will be able to serve the organization for another year as a national officer, however I do know that whatever the Lord has in store for me is the right thing. I am working as hard as I can and will do so all the way until the week of interviews and that is all I can do. If I do my best and still don't make it, then I will know that it isn't where I am supposed to be at that time. If nothing else, I have grown so much as a person solely from the preparation.

5. Living in a BEAUTIFUL place.
I live in such an amazing valley. Utah State, beautiful canyons, rivers to float down and fish on, mountains to ride horses in, all the necessities...it really is a great place to live. Not to mention that there are so many great people everywhere you go.

These are only 5 things that make me so ridiculously happy. But I hope that you try to find the things that make you happy each day. Remember back to President Eyerings talk in General Conference when he challenged us to find the hand of God in each day and to write it down. You'd be surprised how many things you're grateful for when you have to really think about it. Try it, I dare you!

Publish Post

Help!

So I know how to do posts and how to leave comments, but I have no idea how to add followers or become a follower or any of that stuff for other people's blogs...and I would love to know how! If anyone could help me out in this department, it would be greatly appreciated :) Thanks!

Megs

Lanae's Farewell Party

One of my best friends, Lanae, is leaving for her mission to Scotland in just over a week. A couple Sundays ago we had a goodbye party for her before she moved back home to Idaho. Lanae is going to be an awesome missionary and we're all so excited for her, even though it will be sad not to have her around!
Amy and I thought we'd be clever and make our own ice cream cake. It was so easy and everyone loved it!
The all-time best part of the night was probably the prank that the kids across the street played on us. They were just kidding but it sure gave us a good laugh!


Good luck to Lanae! We know the people of Scotland will love that little dairy farmer from Idaho!

Manti Weekend

A couple of weeks ago some friends and I headed down to Manti to watch the Pageant and just play for the weekend. Our friend Amy is from the area so we stayed at her house. It was quite the campout we had! Her brother goes to BYU and brought along some friends as well, so all together there were 20 people staying at her house! The Washburn family was so generous to let so many college kids take over their home! Not only were they happy to cook us meals, they kept us entertained by letting us use their horses and four wheelers all day Saturday!


The Pageant is quite the little experience, to say the least. Hehe. Considering the script was written in the 60's I guess I'll give them some slack. :) Words like "eutopia" and "interum" were commonplace and although the play was even humorous in parts, it was still a fun time with the friends. We were able to get excellent parking thanks to my gimp-ness on crutches! They let us right in to the handi capped parking which was only 100 yards or so away from the chairs!

I was looking down at this newspaper they handed out and saw this little girl in the picture. When I looked up and over, I saw the very same girl standing up on a chair in the very same hoodie! So we got a couple of the boys to go get her autograph. It made her night!



We went back to Wales to spend the night and woke up the next morning ready for some fun! We spent almost all day Saturday playing outside, which is just fine by me!



We rode the 4-wheelers for a good couple of hours and just kept going and going up this mountain. It's just an area that people summer their cattle so there are trails everywhere but no one to bother you. We finally stopped and took a picture at the top overlooking three different vallies. It was such a pretty ride.


Amy's family has a small herd of hereford cattle (which the Peterson family is a little partial to I'd say) so they keep a few horses around. I was lucky enough to be put on the crazy one since I was the only one who had done much riding. It was a fun challenge! By the time we were out of the corrall the horse and I were buds and he was great for me the rest of the time...well most of the time :)
We had an awesome time riding horses and 4-wheeling and none of us wanted to leave, but all good weekends must come to an end!