Things on my mind today

There is no grey area. Too long have I fooled myself that just because I am not doing anything terribly wrong that I am doing okay.I want to live the higher standard. I want to have a group of friends that stands together as a beacon. No longer can there be the excuse that "I couldn't say no because all my friends were doing it and it wasn't THAT bad." It seems that we get further off the path the longer we are single. We say, When I get married I will live that higher life. It will be easier for me at that point because my spouse will want to live that way as well. That's true to an extent but if you are not living the way you should be you will not marry a spouse that is either. So how will you live the higher life at that point? The time is now. Be who you want to marry right now. Be the friend that lifts everyone up and doesn't turn everything into a dirty "that's what she said" joke. Its not acceptable anymore and should no longer be tolerated. Its not important to be perfect everyday. My father in Heaven knows the intentions of my heart and knows when I am truly trying. He doesn't expect me to be perfect, he just expects me to try my best.

In church on Sunday the speaker was a new convert of about a year. Amazing speaker, I was impressed with how well he did for his first time ever speaking. His talk was on sacrifice and something he said was, "What would I not sacrifice to live with my Heavenly Father? NOTHING. Why would I chose to hang onto any earthly possession, or habit if it meant keeping me from living with me heavenly father." How true is that! I want to think of that every time I am making a decision. It helps put things in perspective.

Great weekend!

We had a fun weekend here in Mesa! Lots of family and friends. Friday night we got some people together to go to the Drive in in Scottsdale. The weather was perfect!! The Drive in is one of my favorite things to and it was nice to have a truck to go in!

The kids thought they were going to hide in the back seat so they wouldn't have to pay.

Preston stayed with us Friday night. All the family was in town because he took out his endowments Saturday night! I can't believe he is already so grown up!! I am going to miss him but I am so please he has decided to go on a mission.

Check out my Grill...

After the endowment session everyone got together for Dinner. Olive Garden was packed so we did souper salad instead. I tried to get everyone on board for Indian food but they aren't so adventerous.

The bakers and Lawana were there. Thanks for coming!! I love the family support we have.

Lil bro Dallin and I before the Dinner.

Lake Powell Part 2

Lindsey and Brynn on the ski. It was so fun, this was the first time we pulled a tube behind it. It is a BLAST. Its a lot easier to throw the tuber outside the wake and give them a fun ride. I have whiplash from the trip though!! Good one Trish....

The first night we stay on the bouy and head out early the next morning. So that night we like to swim to nearby houseboats that aren't being used and "borrow" their slides. :) Its a long way to swim so it was nice to have the ski this year so they didn't have to swim. I chickened out because it was VERY cold this day.

Here is more firework fun. It looks like an A with a halo and then angel wings.

Here is how trisha likes her smores. 2 mallows please!! :)

Here is how Antonio and I eat our smores. 2 people please..

Firework fun.

Antonio chilling after filling up on a good meal.

Check that out!!

Here is Dangling rope Marina. People live here to take care of it year round! Where do I sign up!!!

We had to wait at the marina because of a gas leak. We ate lunch of hot dogs and root beer floats. Look at the view behind them!

Trish and Brynn.

We have to have a few fires during the trip to burn up all the paper so we don't have as much trash. Lindsey is in the back hauling up more wood.

This is the Channel you have to go through to get to Rainbow bridge. Its amazing. There are Hundreds of these channels that split off from the main lake. Plenty of exploring can happen on the lake.

Steve decided we needed to learn how to tie ropes so he set up a class for us one night. It was fun and we learned knots that every boater should know!! Now we can tie up all sorts of things...

Lake Powell (The real deal)

Okay I am going to try this again...Here are some pictures from the lake powell trip....

Sparklers with an open shutter on the camera can do some cool things. I DID NOT plan the word that you see in there. We were looking at the picture afterwards and our jaws dropped when we realized what happened! HOW COOL IS THAT?

Here is what the top of the boat looks like.

Our flag! That got me excited for the 4th of July!

This is where we ate dinner every night. So relaxing.

Here we are at Rainbow bridge. Very cool.

Here is the cliff that we jumped from. Rule #1 was no cliff jumping... oops... Don't tell Debbie

Look at those peeps who climbed the cliff! If you look close you will see a rope.

Antonio and I doing our aboriginee dance on top of the rocks. We put mud all over our bodies, its supposed to be good for the skin.

Brynn, Trisha and Lindsey at Trisha's Birthday party

Mern and Antonio at the party.

The kids preparing to jump of the house boat.

Check out that sunset!! It doesn't get better than this people.

Here I am chilling atop the house boat the first night. It was kind of chilly.

More of the sunset.

Brynn, Trisha, Antonio and Lindsey on the drive up to Padre Bay. It takes a few hours to get there.

lake powell.

Shiz. I just typed up a whole cool thing and posted pictures and it had an error. Now I am pissed and don't want to update.

This is all you get for now. Its a picture of me driving to work this morning. I am VERY sad to be back home. It was a great vacation that I will update you on later I guess.

Round Valley Rodeo

Up in the hills where the bull is king
And fancy clothes don't mean a thing
Where women wear Levis and buckskin vests
And the men grow horse hair upon there chests.

Now come up early for there's plenty to do
Everybody will welcome you
You can fish or loaf or camp in the shade
Till the show starts off with the big parade.

Up in the hills where the cow is queen
Where the good cool air is fresh and clean
'Neath the timbered hills where tall pines grow
Come meet your friends at the rodeo.

-Milo Wiltbank

Good ol' Joshua Rogers showed me this poem. It got me thinking of the 4th of July and Eagar. I am really excited for it to come this year. I always love the 4th but it seems that each year I make it to Eagar less and less so its always more special each time I get to go. There is nothing like 4th of July in Eagar. The Parade and Rodeo and fireworks and chili cookoff. HOT DAWG I am excited.

Irrigation and football.

WOW. What fun. I often wonder if people on the East Coast do some of the crazy things we do here on the West Coast. Saturday night we got together at the high school for a little Irrigation football. The field was flooded and it smelt of fish and kaka. Why would we want to get in that? Because it was SO much fun, thats why.

All the girls. I had already changed and got cleaned up to get in my truck. We threw peeps in the back and went to a nearby swimming pool to clean up.

Dirty kids!

Cleaning up in the spicket.

Fun day yesterday! Mom and Dad met us at the lake and we took out Trisha boat and Lindsey's Ski. Trisha and Brynn brought their friend Antonio. The lake was just beautiful! Its always the best right before sunset. I haven't been on a ski since I was about 10 years old. Let me just tell you THEY ARE AMAZING. I couldn't believe that I could be cruising at 35 MPH and still be able to lift the nose out of the water and haul faster. So much fun! My truck did amazing with pulling it out of the water and up the ramp. I even did it in 4th gear so no need for 2nd. I was nervous about backing the trailer down the ramp because I have never pulled anything before but I did okay. It took a couple tried but booya I did it. Luckily the ramp wasn't busy and noone yelled at me. I will have to practice lots before I take it out on a saturday! Boaters mean busines. Here are a few pics of the afternoon.

Sometimes I get bored on the back of the boat....

Lindsey and Antonio, he rocks.

Trisha sportin the chips and salsa.

Mom drove a boat for the first time! She didn't know I was behind her. haha. She did great, I was just being dramatic.

Its kinda dark but thats me on the ski. Its so fun with just 1 person.

Mom and Trisha on the back of the boat. Don't they look so much alike!

Mom is the best flagger EVER.

Dad and I on our first run.

Mercury

Okay peeps! Mercury is back on track. It is no longer in retr0-grade and life is back to normal. These past 4 days have gone great!! Communication is back up and life is clickin. Its not just me either around the board with most people it seems life has started to look up these past 4 days.

YEAH!

Happy Birthday to MEEEEEE!

YEP, you guessed it.... I bought myself a birthday present. :) I took till late late last night but we were able to work a deal. I am officially a truck girl. I can cross that off my bucket list! :) SWEET. ALSO.... I bought it all on my own, I didn't need mom or dad there. I didn't need them to co-sign. Thanks for Trisha and Brynn for coming with me!

Here I am saying goodbye to bianca. It was weird how sad I got when I thought about not having her! I know most people get sad when getting ride of their car but I think this was rooted so much deeper since she TALKED to me. Ya know?

Making the walk from old to new.

HERE IT IS! ISN'T SHE BEAUTIFUL?

Trisha and Brynn hung out through the whole thing with me.

Lindsey drove down at 10 and brought us dinner. We were STARVING.

We had a tailgate party in the TOYOTA parking lot when everything was finished.

We are going to be GREAT friends.

Breaking in the backseat.