Perspective.

It's funny to see how things change over time. Perspectives, wants, desires, life goals... I've realized my pattern of not being able to stay put in one place for very long, which doesn't do well for jobs or housing arrangements.
I am yet again at a point where I feel the need to move away from the 6 month life that I've created here in Clearfield. It doesn't, nor has it ever felt like home to me. My relationships are mostly superficial, my jobs are far away, my people live south of me...I just want to be where I am supposed to be and I no longer feel like it's here anymore. Was I supposed to move here six months ago? Yes, I truly believe so. Have I learned things here that I wouldn't had I stayed in Salt Lake- Absolutely. For one, to stick up for myself in relationships. Two, I have spoken more times in this ward than in the past 5 years combined and it really isn't all that bad or nerve wracking anymore. Three, I have realized my potential as a member missionary and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve in the Ward Mission here.
I have made good friends here and some better memories...but it's time to move on. It's funny how your mind and body just know when it's time to go. I start to get restless when I am supposed to do something. An idea comes to me, and it may seem ridiculous, but it's persistent. Then I start to yearn for new experiences and things that the area that I'm in can't offer me anymore. The fourth thing I've learned since being here is to align my desires with the Lord. I used to want so much control over my life, but whose life is it really? I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Lord...I wouldn't have the opportunity to live with Him again if it wasn't for the Lord. Could I stay where I am? Sure could. Is it where the Lord needs me still? I don't think it is anymore. I could be wrong. These could be my desires poking through. We will see what works out and what doesn't in the end. All I know is that I want to be where I am needed and can be of good use.

Summer...

What a summer it has been! Lots of things have happened since my last post, but I will try to keep it short and simple :) First: I got this!

Then I spent a month in Texas with these chicken nuggets:

After Texas I worked five weeks of summer camps at BYU. During that time I had the crazy thought to buy this little thing :)

And she has been a blessing and hand full at the same time. Then, as of this past week, I am a proud new owner of a bed! A job! and food :) Hats off to a good, hard life!

A Week of Miracles

Let's start out by saying the last month or so has been really stressful. To say the least. I had decided clear back in February that I really wanted to move up to Salt Lake this summer and so I put my apartment contract up for sale here...Clear back in February mind you. I wasn't too worried though, I had time to sell it, and the nice thing was that I already had a place lined up to live in Salt Lake with a good friend!

Other things in my life were going great as well. School was good, working with rugby was still fun, I had a steady job for the first time in a year, and my car was still chugging along. Fast forward to the last week in March...My contract still wasn't selling and I had lowered the price, management wasn't helping me sell it worth a bean, I was so sick of school and just wanting to be done with everything, my car decided to start making weird noises and sputter when I'm waiting at a light, and on the very last day of March...I lost my job. Total blow hole of a situation. Everything was going so wrong but all I could do was laugh. It was straight out of a movie! I half expected a cartoon cloud of death to follow me around everywhere just so it could rain on me. Amongst all of this stink, I had the most calming and peaceful feeling in my chest that everything was going to be okay. I knew with all my heart that moving to Salt Lake was the right thing for me to do, and I just had to be more faithful and patient and it would come. It had to right?

That weekend went by, which was a super good conference weekend, and nothing improved. In fact nothing did for that whole next week. A little side note about conference...One of my questions was whether or not what I had felt was the Spirit telling me to move or if it was just me thinking it was a great idea. Let's just say Elder Scott confirmed my good feeling about it :) Anyway, School had increasingly gotten crazier and crazier. I was literally running around everywhere nonstop until about 5 pm everyday. I had had a few inquiries about the apartment, but no one was really biting. By the end of the week I was so frustrated. Money was weighing on my mind and how I don't have it. I made the resolve that I would go into management the following Monday to beg and plead with them to help me out. I had already gone in trying to use the graduation clause they have ( Guess what? I'm graduating!! Walking in April, but officially in August. Surprise to me too haha) but they had covered all of their bases so that there was no way out for me. Monday came around and it proved to be futile to fight them on it. They basically told me to try harder. I wanted to slap the lady in the face right then and there. Try harder? I have been trying since February. There are faded orange posters in my window advertising it, I dropped my price to $150 a month, I put it on my facebook status every month, I put it on KSL, craig's list, and BYU's off campus housing page too. I even went as far as printing out flyers and putting them on the bathroom stalls on campus. In the buildings that allowed it mind you :) So I was pretty peeved when she told me to try harder. Lady, I have been. At this time I was also going strong with applying to jobs. It was probably the third day in a row that I had done so, but I hadn't heard from any of them.

The date is now April 10, 2012. The start of the good news began with a few phone calls from some of the jobs that I had applied for. Even before the morning was done I had set up two interviews for Thursday morning in Salt Lake! I was so excited. The good news kept coming when I got a text from a girl that was interested in my apartment. She saw the place and really liked it, but said she had a few more places to go but that she would let me know by the next day. I've heard that one before. The next day I was completely surprised to get a text saying, "Hey hopefully you haven't sold your contract yet cuz I'd like to take it." I almost cheered aloud in class! The answer to my constant prayers had finally come! We went and got everything signed over and done with right after my class, and now I'm officially free of this place come next week! I couldn't believe it. I had job potential and I sold my place, all in a day of each other. I am so grateful for the patience and strength that I was given during this time because I could not have done it otherwise.

As I look back on all of the things that happened and when they happened, I've realized that they needed to be done. If I still had my same job I would not have been able to complete a lot of things for school that I was able to without it. And being so crazy busy with things lately helped me get through the remaining weeks of school, which officially ended today :) My last class ever at BYU. It still hasn't hit me yet. And my car...eh well maybe someday that story will change.

Sorry for the long post, but that's life right there! :)

New Direction

So yeah...It's been a while.

We...well I just finished finals for this past fall semester. I was lucky enough to only have two this semester. Everyone hates me for it, but I'm okay with that haha. I would have had three finals on top of a paper...but one of my teachers LOVED our class to the max so he cancelled our final and final paper! Good stuff, good man.

Anyway, this past fall was a hard one. My classes gave me a run for my money, I didn't have rugby, and I've realized that I regret a lot of things in my life...plus I really miss my friend Keilani. She's currently serving her mission in Korea, and doing wonders there, but I just miss her terribly. As for school, I think I've finally decided what I'm doing and how I'm going to finish up. I'm finishing up my major classes next semester, taking the BOC over the summer, taking my last three GE's next fall, and then graduate next December! Sounds perfect right? Let's hope so.

So let's just say, I'm glad I made it out alive. There were things along the way that helped me through: Las Vegas Ragnar, Halloween Half, seeing Julia and her fam for thanksgiving, a trip to Goblin Valley, among many others. Thanks to those that took part in those. I'm really looking forward to Christmas break and just being able to relax. I'm hoping to fix a lot of things when I go home.

Water

Once the clouds finally opened up and let a little sunshine through today, I decided to go on a bike ride out to Utah Lake via the Provo River Trail. I'd done the trail before, but on my roommates extremely small bike, so I was flying on my new (new to me) bike I got off of KSL. I was flying by, but so was the water that I was riding next to. It's been raining nonstop here for the past week so the water was really high and just crui

sing! Watching it rush by and seeing how much flooding it has caused around it got me thinking about the power and destruction behind it.

It's crazy to think that one of the most powerful and destructive things on this earth i

s also the very thing we need in order to live. Water. Our bodies are mostly composed of water, so w

e need to intake water everyday in order to operate normally. That's a beautiful thing! It keeps us alive. The ocean, on the other hand, is also known to have made massive things disappear and has caused quite a bit of casualties over the years. That's the destructive aspect of water. I think we, as human beings, have underestimated the power of water and continue to do so. We seem to think that we can conquer everything on earth, but in

reality we can't. Water sets us in our place.

I love the water. I love swimming, floating, the ocean, water sports, boating,walking in the rain, showering, drinking...anything! I also love learning about water. When I was younger, I used to read all sorts of books about sharks, natural disasters, and ships that have sunken in the ocean. But the thing is, water also scares the living crap out of me. The power that water has scares me, and if you know me well, then you also know that I have a hard time enjoying the water when I know that water creatures are in there swimming around me. That may sound funny, but if water is so powerful, then the creatures that live in it are as well because they've conquered it enough in order to survive. We sure can't say that for ourselves! You hear about all of those stories of people getting swept out to sea, victims of drowning, hurricanes, tsunamis, and even the creatures that live in the water becoming curious when human beings step foot in their habitat, and it's kinda scary. Now, I'm not saying that we should all avoid the water and everything involved with it, but I'm just learning more and more about my love/hate relationship with the thing that keeps me alive. Maybe someday I'll get over it and just be able to love it :)

Water. It's a beautiful, but dangerous thing.

Running...

That's one of my goals this summer, to run a lot more. Well, it's really a sub goal to a bigger goal of mine this summer, but I'll mention that later.

So it rained today, and I ran in it. It was perfect. Most of the time I can't stand running without music in because the sound of my own breathing and pounding on the pavement drives me crazy. I usually need something to distract my mind from over thinking too much, but today I just didn't want that. I wanted to listen to the rain fall on my jacket, and hear the sound of the water rushing down the streets as I climbed up them. I wanted the freedom to think about what I'm going to do next. Most of all, I wanted that opportunity to build my inner strength, the courage that I can do great things. The mind is one of the hardest things to overcome on runs and I feel like mine hasn't been in the right place lately. I feel like I need to retrain my brain to think good things, and to trust myself that I can do things that I set out to do, good things. I will no longer accept defeat from myself. I can do great things.

I mentioned before that I have a big goal for myself this summer. Most probably won't know what I'm talking about because it deals with rugby, but I'll tell it anyways. Currently I am a back. I've played most positions in the back line with my favorite probably being scrumhalf. We lost a lot of people at the end of this season for multiple reasons (graduation, missions...) so next year should be my chance to impact the team and become an asset to them. I would also like to try out new things. It's probably a little crazy, but I want to train for a forward position. That way if things don't work out with the backs I can try with the forwards, or vice versa. If they don't work out for either, then maybe it isn't for me anymore. All sorts of crazy thoughts running through my head these days! Anyways, the plan is to run more and to lift and strengthen my body and mind more for the upcoming season. It's going to be a great summer!

WE DID IT!

After so many years of struggling and having things taken from us... my rugby team finally made it to the final four!!! We just got back from a weekend in Minnesota where we trudged through the worst game conditions we've played in in a while. The first day we played UCLA in the cold and wind, but we handed them a 31-10 defeat. It was such an ugly game though. That seems to be our method though. Ugly game Friday and a better game on Saturday. Anyways, the next day was actually kinda nice. We played Navy and beat them 7-0. We totally dominated their forwards though and we should have scored more often, but it just didn't happen.

So now we are gearing up for the final four and championship game that we are hoping to be in. We play Army May 13th and then most likely Penn State the next day. It's so close!!

In other news, I'm busy trying to get everything organized into my new place and at the same time trying to get used to taking spring classes. It's only the second week in and I'll already have two tests next week! Crazy.

Spring term, rugby, and hotel rooms...

Spring term officially began this morning at the ripe 'ol time of eight o clock. I had the privilege of sitting in a class for two hours and learning about the bones in our bodies. It was great! There are about five of us that are taking it this semester that are in my semester of the athletic training program so we have a pretty good time. I think it will be a pretty good semester though.

Now rugby...we leave for Minnesota this Thursday to play in Blaine for the sweet 16 and hopefully the elite 8 as well. First up is UCLA and then most likely we would be playing Navy. We are all pretty excited and nervous. The end is so close! We are pretty excited to just travel there haha. Somehow they managed to get us all on the same flight. Plus, we got new warm ups so we will be looking pretty legit! We're hoping for a successful weekend :)

As for the hotel room...Last week, as some know, was finals week here at BYU. So we are all done and going home and all that nice stuff. Well, some of us are actually staying and we unfortunately have to deal with the ugly monster that is student housing. For some reason, BYU can't seem to master not having any lag time in between moving out and moving into another place. It's never been a problem in the past and I thought it wouldn't be this year either. Turns out I wasn't able to move in when I needed to, but I did have to move out of my old place. A long story short, My new landlord was told a few different things from the current tenants and now they aren't moving out until sometime this week. That left me with about five nights of no place to be. The first few nights my friend Janelle helped us out and we were able to stay at her place and spend Easter with her and her family. The remaining nights we are spending in a hotel in Springville. It basically white trash USA, haha, but it's a place to be for now. We are hoping I can move in tomorrow and that everything will be squared away. No hard feelings towards the new landlord though, it wasn't her fault at all. Anyways, happy Spring!

The end is near...

Of the semester that is!

We only have about two weeks left and I can't wait! Unfortunately, spring and summer term are just around the corner, but I have faith that they won't be nearly as taxing or emotionally consuming as full length semesters are. I can't wait for full on springtime/ summer to come! Even though I'll still be tied down by schooling and a job (hopefully) the feeling of freedom will still be there :) Speaking of the job...I talked to the Sports Authority here in Orem and they said they would be hiring for someone in the apparel section in the next couple of weeks! The manager told me to apply and he would hold onto my application. Hopefully my time at the South Jordan store will give me some kind of leg up. I also applied to work summer camps that BYU puts on for kids around the nation. I have yet to hear back from them but that would be such a good working experience if I could get that job. I don't see it working out as well with my schedule, but I can still hope right?

As for the other main ingredient in my life...rugby...We had the first round of playoffs here in Provo last weekend and we blew both teams out of the water. We are gearing up this next week to travel to California and take on UC Davis and most likely Stanford. I feel like this is our year! Sadly, one of our games last weekend was during a session of conference, but we were able to watch the Saturday morning session together as a team. I just love how different this team is compared to any other that I've been on. I've always been the only member on a team in high school so to have an entire team that believes in the same things as me is truly incredible. When we travel to California next weekend we are planning on attending the Oakland Temple together. This will be the second time we've done that as a team and I love that we set time aside to think about the things that truly matter. Going back to conference, one of my favorite talks was given by President Uchtdorf Sunday morning. I love how he focused on receiving revelation and how we don't have to have experiences like Psaul or Joseph to believe and be converted. Most of us just need little steps of faith. Also, I loved when he said that we can become an answer to someone's prayers, and in the meantime we can answer our own. Anyone have any favorites they'd like to share?

So yeah, that's what these next two weeks are looking like...some rugby love and a little school time crunch all finalized with a touch of moving out of Belmont. I'm actually pretty excited to move out. I've been here for two years now and I think it's about time to move on. At first I was trying to find a place to stay with two of my roommates from freshmen year, but they were taking a little longer than I had wanted so I took things into my own hands. I'm moving into a house that is owned by a friend's parents with people that I've never met. The only other time I can say I've done that is when I moved into my freshmen dorm three years ago. It will be an interesting experience I'm sure. I'll miss my roommates though.

That's all for now!

...

It's been forever. Nothing new is really happening. We are coming upon the last few weeks of this semester and it's crazy to see it fly by all of a sudden. February crawled by and now everything is just a blur. School is going well. I finish one class early next week and then I just have three to really worry about. Hasn't been too rough this year and I think it's going well...or maybe that can attest to why I'm so bored a lot lately. Clinical at Lone Peak High school is going well too. The kids there are really nice and cooperative, and it doesn't hurt that they are good at most of their sports so the games aren't too painful to watch haha. I feel like I'm finally clicking with my major though. I'm not second guessing so much and I remember to do everything that is required when doing evaluations and such. It's a good feeling after two years!

Speaking of two years...two years ago my roommates and I sent of numerous guys that were our really close friends and now all of a sudden, they are all coming back to Provo! It's exciting and kinda nerve wracking at the same time. I hope they aren't all awkward! haha.

Rugby is going well. In the past few weeks we've played Weber State on their goose poop field of awesomeness, UVU, Salt Lake Slugs, and today we played Utah State. I feel like I've really been improving as a player. I had the opportunity to score a try against Weber and then I also got to start as the A team's scrumhalf against UVU. It was a really good game! But yeah, things are going well and our team is looking really good I think. We start play-offs in two weeks against Cal Berkley. It's nice because we host the first rounds of tournament play, so no traveling for us yet!

Some other key things that happened over this past month or so...I attended a Jazz vs. Celtics game with my friend Janelle which was awesome!! The Jazz put up a good fight but in the end my Celtics won :) We went up Emigration Canyon one night and went sledding down it. Talk about the most exhilarating, ten minute sledding experience of your life! We didn't have any lights or anything. We just started at the top of a mountain and just let the sled follow the ditch-like path that was there. That's pretty much it for now!

Dear unhealthy viruses that are invading my body...PLEASE STOP!

It all started about two weeks before Christmas break. I had flu-like symptoms and was really weak at practice and such, but then it just went away. Then Christmas came...haha boy was that fun. We all were plagued with flu stuff again! It was either vomiting or diarrhea that kept us bedridden for hours on end, but I was also fortunate to get a sinus infection as well. Who knows, maybe I was the one that brought it after all! Sorry mom...

The Christmas bug also left about a day after and all I had to battle off was the sinus infection. I eventually did by the time we came back from Oregon and got settled into the new semester. I would only be good for maybe a couple of days until something would trigger a sore throat and start the whole process over again! I know what you're all thinking at this point, go see a stinkin doctor! Well let me tell you, I did just that about three weeks or so ago. She gave me amoxicillin that I have to take for ten days and it's supposed to clear everything up. It was doing it's job up until about two days ago when I got yet another sore throat and I can feel it affecting me the same way. Awesome.

What am I supposed to do?! I guess I could go back and get another medicine, but will that even work now? I feel like I'm just doomed to have this until I die...haha. Anyways, tis life right now.

Desire, Decide, and DO!

So as of late I've had a hard time making decisions about important things in my life that are coming up. The dilemma is figuring out what I want to do for spring and summer while I'm here. I already know I'm going to be out here and I already know I need to find a job. Check and check. My main problem is classes. I wasn't able to get into a few classes for my major this semester and I really wanted to get them done before I start next fall...that leaves me with spring and summer classes which I didn't want to do either. This has been on my mind for a long time and it's literally been driving me crazy just trying to think of all of my options and what is best for me. I recently talked with a friend about it and she gave me some good advice that is perfect for this situation and for others that I'm sure will come. She said something along the lines of if I've planned something out, and it looks good to me, then I just have to do it. Continuing to think and over analyze the situation will just waste time and delay my decision making. So I came up with a plan. Desire. Decide. Do!

My desire started with wanting to have these classes taken before next fall. I missed that this winter semester so that only leaves spring and summer. At first I was going to take both in the summer, but then I realized how hefty these classes are and how much outside of school I want to accomplish as well.

So then I moved onto deciding...I decided I'm going to take one class each semester. Here is where problems arose..I had made plans to come home in June, I didn't know which class I would take first, and I have no idea what job or where that job will place me. More deciding! I rehashed plans in my head and formulated one that I was leaning towards, but I still didn't want to make the decision myself. Then my friend shared that bit of info with me so I decided to DO!

I chose that plan I was leaning towards and signed up for my classes today. As of right now, I'm taking functional anatomy in the spring and exercises physiology in the summer term. Done. And I'm hoping that since I split them up like that I will still be able to make a trip home maybe missing a few classes here and there. I'll have to feel it out to see if I can miss class.

Sorry for the long boring post, but that's really all that's going down right now...

Changin it up!

This semester started out great and not too busy...mainly because I wasn't working at all yet. I realized that I kinda liked having that free time to read my school books and being able to keep up with the work and such. I haven't had to scramble around the night before and try to cram everything into my brain for the next day. Yesterday was my first day back to work since before Christmas break. Things were great and I didn't dread the time I was there...probably because in my mind I already knew it was my last day. That's right, I quit! I am no longer an employee at Sports Authority. It sucks though because I loved that job and it really was perfect for me, but I've just had so many conflicts with it in the past that I couldn't handle anymore, and it potentially was going to cause more problems with my rugby schedule once we start traveling. I didn't want to be a pain for them. The plan is to take off work for this semester and then see if they will take me back in the spring. I'm hoping I can get the job back there and then transfer down to the Orem store. It will make things so much easier having a job down here in Provo. Especially since I'm planning on taking classes this summer. I can't decide whether or not to take both classes in the summer or one in the spring and one during the summer term, and then work the whole time too. Gah! I hate all of these decisions. Plus, I have to figure out where I will live and all that stuff.

On a more positive note...We recently had a practice where my coach said if we didn't know exactly what position we were supposed to be focusing on, to come talk to him. Well lately he's been throwing me in all sorts of positions so I just wanted to hear from him what he wants me to focus on. He basically told me I'm the top pick for scrum-half and to focus everything I have into that. Talk about a holy crap!! I was pretty excited to hear that, but at the same time was doubting my ability. Confidence is something I've lacked in for a long time and I'm going to need to find some somewhere and fast if I'm going to pull this off! Haha. It'll take a lot of practice that's for sure, but I just need to keep my head on straight and I'll be able to do it. It's going to be one fun season :)

Life as I know it...now

New Year, new semester...Just for the record, I hated last semester with a passion! I didn't have many classes that I enjoyed being in, and if I did enjoy the class it was mostly because of the people I sat by, not the material I was supposed to be learning. None of them interested me that much and I had a really hard time trying to get through it. I went through that period of life when I questioned everything I was doing...was I in the right major? Would I even be able to pass the national exam when all was said and done? Was I digging myself into a hole with everything that was on my plate? Was I still that same person I used to be, the one that everyone likes? Yeah...I had a lot of soul searching and it wasn't that fun, but I am really glad that I stuck it out with my major because I couldn't see myself doing anything else. I love it too much. But after all of that I honestly wasn't ready for this next semester to start...

...But surprisingly I love this semester so far!!

I'm taking it easy with classes for my major and I'm taking a few more general education courses. So it's a lot less stress but it's still going to be a lot of work. I think I can manage it though :) I have orthopedic rehab, upper extremities, and clinical..wow, those are the only ones I'm taking for my major! That's less than I thought haha. I'm also taking Living Prophets to finish off my religion credits and then Astronomy!! That class is fantastic. I love it so far and we get to mess around with the planetarium every cla

ss period. It's sick!

Rugby has been going well too. We have just been doing a lot of conditioning and occasionally we get our hands on a ball. It's hard for me to get stuck in right now though. I ended the season pretty sick and I'm starting it back up being sick. It makes it so hard for me to perform at my best. It's like a hit or miss if I have energy that da

y or not and it makes me so frustrated that I can't just be myself 100%. Hopefully this one won't plague me for that long. I may have to give in and see a doctor haha.

I would say work has been going well...but wait, I haven't even been there since December 11th? Yeah it's been a while. I'm supposed to go in next S

aturday, but I'm just thinking through a lot of things now. A lot of people keep telling me to look into the Orem store or just look for a different job that's closer to home...I'm scared I'm getting too used to not working right now and that when I do start again it will throw off the balance I've created. We'll see though. I think I can manage it

though. No worries!!

OH!! My roommate Jessica went into the MTC this past Wednesday. She's serving in the Dallas, Texas spanish speaking mission. We are going to miss her a lot, but we know she is going to do so much good for those people in Texas :) Good luck Jess!

Sorry for the long post!

New Year...

Christmas break is always a weird one to come back from to me. It takes forever to get to and then it's here and great and you have such a wonderful time, but it goes by so fast. Then New Years comes and we welcome in a new year and then BAM! School the next day. What the crap is that? And the concept of bringing in a new year is so weird to me. It's not like anything really changes in a day. You're basically doing the same stuff, you just tack a different number onto the end of the date and call it good. Oh well, it is what it is.

So Christmas was kinda blah with the sickies and all, but it

was also really fun to be with family again and to see the magic of Christmas still alive in my sister's kids. Things could have been better yeah, but it was perfect still :)

We all left the day after Christmas for home, and for me...Oregon! I got to spend the week leading up to and including New Years with my friend Janelle and her family. The adventure began on the first flight that lasted four hours. Apparently the guy next to me ended up in Texas when he was supposed to Denver so they were trying to get him to Oakland quickly. Question, how in the world does that happen? Aren't their words on your ticket that tell you where you're going? haha. Anyways, he was pretty upset I guess you could say and planned to just drink the next four hours away. I think he downed 7 bourbon bottles and had a Red Bull with vodka to top it off, and only peed once! Pretty successful I'd say. I fe

lt bad for the ten year old kid that was sitting next to him on the other side, and his parents. After that, I stopped in Oakland for an hour or so and then got on a plane to Portland.

Being in Oregon was a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of her family and see a lot of cool things. We ate at a little tea house, played games on the wii, played a lot of card/board games, went shopping, and stayed at an awesome beach house for new years!! It had the beach right outside the door, a hot tub, pool table, juke box, and a pinball machine. Not to mention the big screen tvs, the crows nest, and awesome bunk bed rooms!! Oh

, and the company was great too :P haha. We went on the beach a few times despite the fact it was fa-reezing!! We found a group of rocks to jump around on, and I guess there was even a big starfish that got stuck on them but we never found it. All in all it was a great trip!

Oh Christmas Day...yuck

Yes for Christmas morning, getting up super early with Julia's kids, feeling the santa magic in the air, and opening up all of our presents!! We did all of this and had a great time just being with the family and seeing all of the kids get really excited about their toys. They got some pretty cool stuff! But my dad and I unfortunately got a gift we weren't expecting, or wanted at all for that matter...

So our whole family got sick this weekend starting with my mom, then Aiden, Landon, and Julia, Tim got sick yesterday, and then my dad and I got the worst of it today. I had gotten a sinus infection from my mom early on while everyone else got the 24 hour flu. It wasn't until today that we got that sicky too. I felt fine opening gifts and stuff, but after that I was upstairs in my bed for a good portion of the day. I came down every once in a while, donning my plague victim mask, and hung out with the fam, but I just couldn't stay for long. I'm feeling pretty good now, just my stomach is upset a little still. I think I'll be ok though as I fly out tomorrow to go to Oregon.

But yeah, Merry Christmas to us!!! Despite the sicknesses, I'm glad we got to come and spend time with Julia, Tim, and their kids. Hopefully the next time we see them a sickness will not be involved in our visit! I hope you all had an awesome Christmas Day :)

In the famous words of Strongbad...IT'S OVER!!!

Christmas break is here! I never thought this semester would end...it just kept dragging on and on....BUT it's over :) This finals week was different than past ones. Maybe it was because I didn't really care about my classes much so the grades weren't that important to me, or maybe I finally learned how to manage panic! It's probably the first one. I don't think I did that bad on them though...I guess the final grades will tell all.

One thing I am truly grateful about the end of this semester is the change of clinical assignments in my athletic training program. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED working with the women's basketball team here at BYU, but I did not love working with my clinical instructor that was in charge of them. Let's just say she hasn't developed very strong communication skills and it's caused a lot of trouble for us. Not even when my partner, Tyler, and I approached her did she acknowledge the issues. She would just come in the next day and act like nothing was wrong. She also liked to lie to our faces because I don't think she can handle confrontation. Man up and say it to our faces!!! I would rather hear it from her than hear about it from someone else or read how she rated me online later that night. Anyways, Tyler and I are both done with her and moving on to bigger and better things. We both got transferred to high schools, me at Lone Peak, this next semester and I'm pretty excited about it. I'll have a ton more freedom there than I did on campus and the clinical instructor is really chill and willing to work with my crazy schedule. Bonus! I'll let you know how the new site turns out.

In other news, my really good friend Emily got married right before I left for break. I was honored that she asked me to be a bridesmaid and that I got to take part in her wedding. It was fun hanging out with the other bridesmaids and trying to figure out what we really should be doing during the reception, or trying not to freeze our ta tas off when we took pictures outside right after her wedding!! haha, good times. Thanks Emily for asking me to be a bridesmaid!


Also, my "little sister" Kalani surprised me a couple of mornings ago with the news that she is pregnant!!! How crazy awesome is that?! What a week it's been...And now I'm in the beautiful 80 degree Texas weather hanging out with my sister Julia and her fam bam. We are all coming here this year for Christmas and it should be a lot of fun :) My friend Keilani is down here too at the same time and it would be really cool if I could see her too while we're here. After Texas, I'm off to Oregon to spend the week with my friend Janelle and her fam bam for New Years. Lots of traveling and lots of fun!

Struggling...

This semester has been THE hardest one I've had thus far. Who knew getting into your major would be so time demanding and frustrating! I have super early classes everyday, I have clinical that eats up three or more hours of my life everyday, there is no space for me in my classes for my major next semester, I don't know if I should take spring or summer classes, I don't know my assignment yet for next semester and I need to in order to prepare my classes, hardly any of my classes really interest me all that much, I'm tired all the time, rugby takes up a good portion of my life as well, I'm out of town a lot for rugby, I currently am working diddly squat at Sports Authority and not making very much, I have a lot of expenses regardless...the list could seriously go on and on as to why this semester is so rough.

But here's the thing! I wouldn't trade any of it and here's why. I love the people that are in my semester of my major. We got along so well and so fast and we love helping each other out. I love my clinical assignment now and the girls that I get to hang out with everyday. My instructor is also really good at teaching us new things so it hardly gets boring. I also get free clothes from it so who can complain about that? I LOVE LOVE rugby and would never trade it for anything. I often think about what my life would be like if I had never joined and I can honestly say it would have been boring and sucked. Well, ok it wouldn't have sucked but it would have been bland. My job at Sports Authority has been one of the greatest jobs I've had thus far. I wish I could work there more and make the money that I need to, but I'm ok with it right now. I'm glad I kept the job there so that I could work more if I wanted to, and when I want to. The people there are so fun and great that it doesn't even matter that I'm making a half hour commute to work. Earlier I listed off a bunch of really negative things about this semester that have been driving me crazy, but really they are all blessings in my life. I know that if I just put all my trust in the Lord that things will work out. Everything happens for a reason right? Sure does :)

So a quick everyday life update...This last weekend my team and I traveled to Palo Alto, CA to play in a rugby 10's tournament. There were two pools so we entered two teams to see how good we could do and to gain more experience for everyone. We played some really good teams and had a lot of fun. I went in a lot as scrumhalf and it was AWESOME!! I got a few good hits on people, and they got a few on me haha. Even a nice try zone pole got a good hit on me! Anywho, so both of our teams were seeing a lot of success and doing really well. Turns out we did so well that we played each other in the championship game! Haha. So basically we went to Stanford, handed them a good butt whooping game (47-7 loss for them) and then turned around and took first and second at THEIR tournament. haha. It was a great feeling. So yeah, it was a very successful weekend for both teams. Our second team consisted of a lot of our new girls and they did SO well!! I was so impressed with how they played and held their own. I'm so proud of them!
This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to see Lady Antebellum in concert with my friend Janelle! It. Was. Awesome!!! They are such good performers and sound so good live. The girl in the group has some interesting (questionable?) dance moves and we loved to make fun haha, but it was seriously so good. We got there pretty early so we ended up pretty close to the stage, but we had to stand there for hours!!! Playing go fish/war/games you make up while standing can get interesting haha. At one point in time, Janelle left to go to the bathroom and I stayed to save our spots in the crowd. While there, the girls standing to my right got into a fight! It was so funny...but not at the same time. Fighting is wrong. Haha anyways, the girl in the front was mad because she felt like the girl behind her was pushing her and it got all heated, f words were flying, there was a little pushing, but that was it. No fists today! It made for an interesting evening though. To add to the evening, as we were trying to leave the venue and get to our car, we realized we couldn't...because there was a train blocking our way! Somehow and for some reason a train just stopped on the tracks and we had to wait a little bit for it to start up and move off the road. It was great.

Still alive...

I can barely believe it but I've managed to stay alive through this past month of school. Between work, rugby, school, clinical, and the tiny moments of eating and sleeping I was wearing myself out. Every sparing second I was doing something that NEEDED to be done. These past few weeks I realized I needed a change in my life or my grades were going straight down the poop shute. So I had to cut something out, and unfortunately work is at the bottom of my necessary list. I had full intentions of just quitting at Sports Authority, but the managers and I decided to try something out. So currently I am still employed there but I'm only working there a night a week. Hopefully this frees me up enough to bring my sanity back...

In other news...My coach switched me to play scrumhalf which is kind of like the quarterback in football. Yeah, talk about the scariest position I've ever played! My first game playing is tomorrow so we'll see how that goes...

BUSY!!

I can't believe how incredibly busy life has gotten since school started two weeks ago. Let me get you a little updated on my life since the last post...

I finally quit Domino's and got a job at Sports Authority in South Jordan!!! I love it there and the commute isn't even that bad. Way better than Domino's for sure. The people there are way nice and I've gotten the hang of cashiering I think. Then school started and with that came rugby!! We had our first game on Saturday and we won, but it was super ugly! We will probs die in practice today because of it but hey, we gotta learn sometime. School is going alright. I'm trying my hardest to get everything to fit in my life so it's been a little hectic. My classes are going good for the most part and my clinical is awesome!! My instructor is so nice and loves to give us opportunities to learn and grow in this field. It's going to be great! I can just feel it :)

In other news, my computer is retarded currently and likes to freeze on my when I'm trying to use it or the internet, so that's why there are no pictures and why I don't get on here that much anymore. Alrighty, well I'm out!