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.