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Thursday, April 28, 2011
Unwound.

Thursday, August 19, 2010
Yee Haw...Jake Owen Style!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
County Fair...and a little more.

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.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Write This Down

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.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
It's Summertime
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 :)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Crazy Train...of Runners.
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 :)