Yee Haw...Jake Owen Style!

I LOVE country concerts!! I go to at least 2 every summer and I never get sick of them. This one was particularly great because a) it was cheap and b) I got to be right up against the stage. Jake Owen was so much fun! Aspen, Leslie, Malory, Amanda, and I drove up to the Cassia County Fair in Burley to go to the concert and it was definitely worth it. Now I'm hooked again and will be counting down the days to Brad Paisley next month!!! WOOHOO!

County Fair...and a little more.

It's been such a great week. The girls and I spent a few days at the fair watching the steer show, going to the rodeo and looking at (and buying) cute things. I'll post the fun head band that I bought. You definitely can't go wrong with fair week. Here's us at the rodeo! (Minus Leslie, wish you could have been there!)


The rest of the week was good as well. I made a cute craft that I'll post pictures of soon, got new glitter toes, and hung out with the family before Angela and John went back home to New Zealand. That was the sad part of the week, but I'll just have to look forward to the next time I get to see them! Also on a not so fun note, straw season is Koles busiest time, so we don't have a lot of time to spend together. But on the bright side, he's just over in Tremonton so I got to hop over the mountain and ride in the swather with him.

I'm dead set on continuing with my goal that I talked about in my last post, so each time I blog I'll put it at the very end.

Hope you all have a great week!



Today, I saw the hand of the Lord in my life...

Mandy and I took Ella and Dylan on the River Walk trail today and just being with them reiterated how important family is and how much I just love those little munchkins! I'm so lucky to live so close to them and I love every minute I get to spend with them.

Write This Down

I have promised myself that I'd be a better blogger if I was using it as a substitute journal. I'm just not very good at keeping a journal so I've been relying on this blog to help me out. However, it doesn't do much good if I don't update it very often. I envy my friends who religiously keep a blog and have vowed to be more like them - mostly so I don't forget things down the road. So for my own benefit, I'm going to try and write something once a week. It may be really short, or it may be a chapter book, as we said in elementary school. Either way, I'd like to be better about writing things down, even if they aren't entertaining or beautifully written.


I've also decided to really follow through with a goal I once had that was inspired by President Eyring's Conference talk, "O Remember, Remember". I really recommend going back and reading this talk.

"When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.

He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.”

I went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn’t have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down, so that my children could have the memory someday when they would need it.

I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.

The years have gone by. My boys are grown men. And now and then one of them will surprise me by saying, “Dad, I was reading in my copy of the journal about when …” and then he will tell me about how reading of what happened long ago helped him notice something God had done in his day."

So starting today I'm going to take his advice and write down a few lines each night of how I saw the Lord's hand in my life that day. At least it will be something for me to look back on.

For today's issue of my blog, I will share with you how I saw the Lord's hand in my life today.

It was simple, and almost the last thing I heard someone say to me today, but in the circumstance, it meant more than most times. Three little words. I love you.

Proverbs 3:5-6. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they paths."

Happy Sunday :)

It's Summertime

For those of you who actually pay attention to things such as what time someone posts a blog, you may notice how late (or early) it is. Why in the world am I up at this time, no less blogging? Well it's a little thing called I HATE FINALS IN THE SUMMERTIME. I'm trying my best to study, but it's just not happening, so I thought I'd take a little break and blog again. It's way more fun than studying.

So I guess I'll just give a little update on my life.

I currently love my jobs. I work full time in Utah State's new student orientation office and I love it! The people are so great and there is never a day that I dread going to work. My other job is amazing too. I get to travel around the state and check out service projects that 4 FFA chapters have done through a grant called "Living 2 Serve". Last weekend took me to parts of Utah that I've never been before and I sure wasn't disappointed. I put a ton of miles on that university vehicle but had such a good time.

I stayed in a little town called Alton with my friend who's working down in that area for the summer. Alton is about as picture perfect as it gets. With just over 100 people in the town, they are all so friendly and welcoming. I was on a run one night and ended up stopping and talking to this older man for about a half hour. He said that I was welcome back any ol' time I wanted...I think I might take him up on that offer :).



This picture really doesn't do a justice, it's just too hard to see. But this town was so cute. It's located about a half an hour south of Panquitch and an hour East of Cedar City.


One of the cutest parts about this town were the "Stop" signs.


It was so much fun to visit the Enterprise, Long Valley and Delta FFA Chapters and check out their awesome projects. I couldn't believe that I was getting paid to do it!

And while I'm thinking about it, here's a little picture of Kole and I, (especially for you, Angela) who I am hoping stays awake tonight while driving home. He's baling hay right now and not only has an hour drive home, but is leaving for a family camping trip this weekend that he'll have to drive to tomorrow. So thanks, Kole, for keeping me up worried all night!! :) (just another excuse to not study hehe)


I hope you all have a great 4th of July Weekend! Watch lots of fireworks, eat lots of watermelon, and enjoy the warm weather :)

Crazy Train...of Runners.

It's been a while since I've blogged! I've been a little busy lately and every now and then I have the thought cross my mind that I need to update my blog, but then it goes away and I forget about it :) So now that I have an extra minute, I thought that I'd get on here and do a little blogging.

A couple of weeks ago, Mandy and I finished the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. We'd been training for weeks and weeks and we were finally able to put that to use. For those of you who aren't familiar with the race, it's the largest relay in the world (this year 1,050 teams of 12 with a few exceptions for ultra teams which consist of 6 runners). The course takes a back route from Logan to Park City, Utah and covers 188 miles. You load up into 2 vans, with 6 runners in each and run day and night until you reach the finish line. Our team, "Project Runaways" ran it in just over 29 hours, which is actually a pretty good time. The only thing that I didn't like was that my running buddy, Mandy, was in van 1 while I was in van 2. Here's part of our team at the start line at ICON in Logan.


Here's my van and our driver at the first major exchange where the last runner in van 1 hands off to the first runner in van 2, which happened to be me. This is at the Eden City Park. We had such a fun van and there weren't even any fights :)


Here are a few pictures of some of my teammates. I didn't get pictures of all of them because I didn't have my camera, but below is Leslie on her first leg-in the sweltering heat of the day.


And here's Alex trucking it up one of the many hills that the course had to offer.


Here's Isaac and I attempting to get some rest at the 2nd major exchange at East Canyon State Park. I was hoping to get some rest in because I was up next and this leg was sure to be a killer. I began the run at around 10:00 pm and the hills in this run were quite the adventure...

All of the team, minus runner 6, at the 3rd major exchange. I was ready to get my last leg started!


Katie giving Isaac water on his 3rd and final leg, which looks nice and flat right now. He had a nice little hill to climb before he got to his exchange.


This is a view from the top of the mountain that runners 9 and 10 had to climb in a matter of just under 8 miles. It's called the "Ragnar Hill" because of it's crazy steep incline (8.5%!) Katie and Leslie did an amazing job hauling up this hill. So many runners had to stop and walk quite often up this hill because of how steep and dusty and hot it was.


Here's Leslie, runner 10, heading up the Ragnar Hill. I wish that we had a picture of how steep this run really was, because you just can't tell in this one.


When Alex heard that our team was called "Project Runaway", the first thing he thought of was Runaway Bride. This was his 3rd year running Ragnar and he has a tradition of dressing up. So, in honor of Runaway Bride, he purchased a $70 wedding dress from the D.I, complete with an 8 foot veil, and ran his entire last leg in it, which was 5.5 miles in the heat.


It's also tradition to match while running across the finish line, so we all wore veils



And finally, here's Mandy and I after the race was finished. When we decided to run this race, we thought it would be neat to dedicate it to Uncle Jeff who passed away while doing what he loved, running. Family reunions won't be the same without him and his great sense of humor and kind heart. So this one's for you, Jeff!


This was such a fun accomplishment and it will be something that we do every year! So if you're ever in the mood to put yourself through the hardest but most fun time you've ever had, give us a call and we'll help you out :)

It's A Great Day To Be Alive

I feel like I have so much to catch up on! Life has been pretty fun the past little while and I've been a major slacker when it comes to blogging. For Krista's birthday, Mandy and I took her to the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan concert in Salt Lake. So much fun! Normally it's just Mandy and I that go to the concerts because Krista is off in some foreign country, but having her there was the best! The only thing that would have made the concert better would be if Angela was there!

The weather has been so great the past couple of days and Mandy and I have gotten in some really good runs. Today was by far the best run of the week-in the difficulty level and weather. BUT...this sunshine has definitely been problematic in my schooling, which isn't a good thing since this semester is so demanding. Only a few more weeks and life will be a little less stressful.

Amidst the stresses of 6 classes, 3 jobs and a demanding church calling, I can't help but be grateful for how blessed my life has been lately. Although this semester has been some of the hardest 4 months of my life, and I have definitely been able to see the old saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" come to fruition, it's good for me to step back and take a look at life and realize that my blessings outweigh my trials.

My challenge to you is to look for the good things in life...even when it seems that life couldn't get any more stressful or hard. Take President Eyrings advice and ponder this question each day, "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?" As I have done this in my own life, the blessings that the Lord has given me have become much more apparent and I know it will be the same for you!



Have a great week!!

Laughed Until We Cried

This was a weekend to remember. From Thursday until Saturday, Cedar City was filled with the unmistakable sea of blue corduroy. Two years ago, I was all nerves while running as a hopeful state officer candidate in that very town. Going back to help out with this years team was a blessing and I had so much fun while doing it. It seems like just yesterday that my state officer team was retiring at the Kent Concert Hall in Logan. It was so much fun to watch this years team go through a successful year and to put on an amazing convention. It was full of laughs and even a few tears.

Brittney and I ran the lights, sound and script and I'd have to say that we did a pretty great job being rookies! I got a notification on Facebook telling me that I was tagged in a couple of photos by an FFA member and I just had to laugh because they are quite the pics...but here they are since I didn't take a single picture. Here I am on the headset with Brittney and the SUU light and sound crew! Haha don't I look so serious?


I was also asked to give the invocation for the convention so here's a picture of me after the prayer.
The state officer team did an excellent job and the state president had me in tears as she gave her retiring address from a wheelchair. If there is anyone in this world who has a good attitude, it's her. In January she was in a horrible car accident, she lost the use of her legs, confining her to a wheelchair. She is a TROOPER.

I'm so excited to see this new team fill their year with awesome memories and good times. They are 6 amazing kids!!
This weekend was also a blessing because of a very special girl I met only 5 short months ago. As most of you know, I was Utah's National Officer candidate. Last October at the National FFA Convention I was able to meet some pretty incredible individuals who were sharing the same goal that I was at convention. I obviously wasn't elected, but have seen reasons why every day of my life. I am so content with the life I have today and I know without a doubt that the Lord knows what you need, when you need it. I know that He wanted me to run for National Office for reasons other than being elected. So anyway, back to the girl I said that I had met. The first time I met Miss Randa Braune was in the room that we took the test for office. Thanks to alphabetical order, that sweet, blond Texan and I were placed next to each other. One of the first things she said to me was, "I just feel so good about this, and about you and about everything, but I'm just so nervous and I just don't know how I'm going to do, but this is all for Jesus and He's lookin' out for us and it's just all for Him, all for Him, and can we just pray?......" At this point all I was thinking was, "this girl is one of a kind." I liked her a lot, but I just didn't know how to take her. As the week went on, I came to just love the girl. I was so excited when they called her name to become the Western Region Vice President and even started crying when she left the seat next to me to run to the stage.
We were fortunate enough to have her visiting for our convention this year and I am even more fortunate to have her staying with me until Tuesday. You see, her flight was supposed to leave from Cedar on Tuesday which would have left her stranded and alone from Saturday until then...and if you know Cedar City you know that it would be a boring place to be left. So they changed her flight to leave from Salt Lake on Tuesday and has been staying with me. She came to church with me yesterday, where my secretary in the Relief Society spoke in Sacrament and shared her conversion story. Isaac, her and I drove out to Dallin's missionary fireside in Lewiston and were able to answer the many questions that she had about the church. We gave her a Book of Mormon and bore our testimonies to her and my heart was so full the entire day. I had been praying for the past couple of weeks for a missionary experience and I know that the Lord answers our prayers. It was so incredible to talk to someone about the gospel and share the light that we believe in.

If for no reason other than meeting this sweet girl, the hard work it took to run for National Office was worth it. The Lord puts people into our lives for special reasons and I am so grateful to Him for that.

American Honey

Current favorite song.

That's all.

Enjoy.

Lady Antebellum   More CMT Music   More CMT Music Videos

Oh Canada!

In the spirit of the 2010 Olympics...and in the spirit of being a true blooded, native born Canuck....I figured that I had better write up a little blog post about that great northern country of Canada. Aunt Connie posted a video on her Facebook page that I loved because it gives such a positive outlook on the relationship between Canada and the United States. Check it out below-well worth the 6 minutes!

And here are a few reasons that I love my home and native land :)

It's where my forever family began


Thanks to grandpa and dad, I have a deep love of agriculture that has helped me in more ways than one


Where the mountains meet the prairie...who can ask for more?



As much as I dearly love my home today, there will always be a piece of my heart left north of the border!

Love Like Crazy

I know I just blogged last night, and even though I really don't have time to do another post, I'll be quick because I decided that I better dedicate a little post to this!


Miss Brittney-my teammate, my sister, my friend....is getting hitched! So I thought I would just say congrats to her out in the blogging world! I am so excited for her and Tyson to begin a new chapter in their lives. Anyway, that's all :).

Lessons Learned

Tonight, before I get all ready for bed and such, I thought that I'd sit down and share a few experiences that I've had over the past month and half or so :).

In the middle of December, I was called to serve as the Relief Society President in my ward. Overwhelmed. Blessed. Inadequate. Excited. What? Just a few of the words that popped into my head as I sat in Bishop Weaver's office. It has taken me a good month to get a semblance of a feel for this new responsibility that has been given to me. And even now, I don't feel like I'm anywhere close to where I should be in order to fulfill my calling the way I should. But, I take comfort in knowing that I don't have to do it on my own...and that is Lesson #1.

Lesson #2: I'm just an ordinary person. I haven't done anything to make me famous and I'm not the one to stand out in a crowd, but the longer I live and the more things I experience, the more I realize that sometimes, no, almost always, I learn the most from "ordinary" people. Maybe being "ordinary" is an o.k thing to be.

Lesson #3 is stolen from a phrase you may have heard before...Just Do It.
I've always had a fear of sharing the gospel with people, for fear that they might think I'm "pushing" something on them or that I might offend them. This is not the attitude I need to have. This is the truth we're talking about here, people! I've had the opportunity to share the Book of Mormon with one friend and have had 2 experiences with the missionaries over the past 2 weeks and it has been such a testimony builder for me. It has pushed me from an attitude of "someone else will" to "Just Do It!"

Our ward mission leader has started up a Preach My Gospel Sunday School class and a good 30 or 40 people attend it each week. I've enjoyed it so much and the emphasis that is put on having a testimony of the Book of Mormon is something that I love. This past Sunday the teacher challenged us to something that he lives by every day, and that is to keep a study journal while reading the scriptures. He showed us a full backpack of about 15 notebooks that he had filled and shared his testimony of how much his study of the scriptures has improved since he has started this practice. I've begun my own and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes when you go into your study asking and expecting to learn something new. Lesson #4: Ask for it, you'll get it.

If one thing has become evident to me over the course of the past month, as I alluded to above, it is that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. We're all pretty ordinary and normal,I hate to say it-but with the Lord on our side, anything is possible.You guessed it: Lesson numero 5.

And last but not least, I have a new thing that I love to do. Instead of listening to music while I'm getting ready for church, I'll listen to a few Conference talks. Lately, with this emphasis on the Book of Mormon that I've had in my life, it reminds me of the moving and powerful talk given by Elder Jeffery R. Holland in October's General Conference.

"I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my “last days,” but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days."

I encourage you to go back and listen to that incredible talk. It's amazing how uplifting just listening to these talks over again can be!

Lesson #6:Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Whether it's listening to a Conference talk, staying on track with a homework schedule, our scripture study or keeping up with a running program so you don't make a fool of yourself while running in an insane relay race, repetition is what gets us to do things and realize things that we wouldn't normally.

I know that some of this may not be relevant to you or really even mean anything at all, but as I said in a previous post, 2010 is the year that I try new things, my year to turn over a new leaf. The leaf's turning folks!

The Race is On

Everyone has New Years Resolutions and this year is no different. However 2010 is not only a new year, it's a fresh decade which means it's time to try out new things. This year, Mandy and I have decided to compete in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. It's a relay race from Logan to Park City with a team of 12 runners, each running 3 separate legs. From what we hear, everyone who has done it says it's one of the hardest things they've ever done, but we want to challenge ourselves so here goes nothing! We still need a few runners to complete our team, so if you're up to the challenge, we'd love to have you!
Check out details on http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/index.php/
It's been about 5 years since I've done any races so I'm nervous but really excited to get back into it. If you hear of any random 5K and 10K races, let Mandy or I know so we can do them!

We're also planning on running the Top of Utah Half Marathon in August...wish us luck!

Anyone have fun New Years Resolutions they'd like to share?

Living and Living Well

Today marks week number 2 of my second to last spring semester at Utah State. It's a little bittersweet, knowing that college is drawing nearer and nearer to an end...but then I remember that when I'm done I'll have a real job with a real paycheck and I won't have to worry about walking all over campus in the bitter cold.

I started Level 1 (of 3) of the teaching program and have really enjoyed it so far. It's going to be a very busy semester but a great one nonetheless. (Except for my ag fabrications class...I don't do math) One thing that I'm really excited for are the 30 hours of clinicals that I'll be doing this semester. One of the requirements is to observe a teacher and ag program for 30 hours and take notes, participate when needed etc. One thing that's difficult in the ag ed program is that they are fewer and farther between than say, an English or Math education class-so this requires most of us to travel anywhere from an hour to 6 hours away. We can't go to a school that already has a student teacher for this semester and all of the nearby schools do and you aren't allowed to go to the high school you graduated from. I'm actually excited to have to go somewhere completely different and see a new program and a new teacher.

We haven't been assigned yet but we were able to choose a top 3 list from the options we had and mine were 1) Grace, Idaho-1 hour 15 minutes away 2) Malad, Idaho-1 hour away and 3)Blackfoot, Idaho-2 hours away. I had a couple of reasons for choosing all Idaho schools. The first being that those 3 schools are all closer than any of the Utah schools available for me, as I am from the most northern part of Utah. The second reason being that I have only been retired as a state officer for less than a year and want to have a fresh pair of eyes for whatever program I get to go to. I want to go where the kids and teacher don't know who I am which is hard to do after being a state officer. I also want to go somewhere that I don't know the kids or teacher either so I don't have any preconceived notions about them or their program.

I'm so excited to finally be at least ankle deep in the program and so happy to finally be in the classroom-even if only observing. If there's one thing I miss about being a state officer it's being in the classroom. It's what made me want to teach and I can't wait to do it for real.

But the most important part of this post is this: I can't begin to describe how good it feels to be excited about my future occupation and that I know I'm where I need to be. Life's been a bit eventful, to say the least, since the middle of December but I've been tremendously blessed through it all.

Summer? Seriously?

Guys...it's January 12th and I'm already in major anticipation of SUMMER!!! Since I know it is not even close to "just around the riverbend", I needed to change my blog background to something that reminded me of sunshine. Thus, the palm trees. I guess that the long winter is just something that we deal with here in Cache Valley, and since I love it so, I'll deal with it. But can I just vent for like...2 seconds? Top 5 reasons winter is NO BUENO!



1. Scraping the car windows!
2. Not being able to breath the red day air!
3. School!
4. Slippery ice!
5. Short days!

Have a great day :)

Potential Singing Act?

Ok so this post is mainly for my 3 sisters. Seeing as how there are conveniently 4 of us Peterson gals, I was somewhat inspired when I saw this video clip. All I have to say is, why not?...what about now girls? This could be our chance to make it big. So, with no further ado, please enjoy the inspiration to the possible future Peterson Sisters Act.

P.S-The video isn't working very well on here, so here is the link so it might work better.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/37752/saturday-night-live-the-lawrence-welk-show