Best Friends

  I am grateful today.  I felt prompted to call my friend Morgan Johnson, which is funny, because when I called her, I just wanted to make her feel good.  It's her birthday, after all.  What ended up happening was she asked me about the things I cared most about and she extracted my problems from my mind!  Then she proceeded to talk me out of worrying about them and made me feel super good about myself.  She's a great friend who I haven't talked to in forever.  Sometimes you can't appreciate things fully unless you live without them for a while.
  I don't have many friends, but I have the best ones.

Kill Shot

Ok not really.  We did go shooting today though.  For family home evening, we went out of Rexburg and shot some heavy guns.  I shot this huge shot gun that almost knocked me over; actually I was impressed at how well I stood my ground.  My roommate Kelsey, however, didn't do so hot at standing still.
Sadly, Erin could not be with us tonight.
At the end, we had a bonfire, told mission stories, and ate hot dogs and smores.  It was a great evening.

Gini owning the AR-15

Cathy-her dad is a cop-who knows how to shoot a gun but isn't featured with one here

Kayla also rocks

Kelsey gone gangsta

I am shooting a SHOT GUN, and I did awesome.

Most of the boys are in this picture: Jose, someone behind Kayla, James, Chris, Kelsey, John, and Gini

Queens of the Foothills

Last night, my roommates Gini Bond and Katelyn Bair and I went to a cabin as a former-roommates' retreat.  It was a sweet experience.  We laughed and caught up with each other, cooked with each other, watched John Wayne together; then today we drove to Mesa Falls and just drank nature in through our every sense.  It was really a release.

Upper Mesa Falls

Making enchiladas (Gini) and cutting a surprise pineapple (Katelyn) that someone left at the cabin!

The beautiful Idaho wilderness

When I'm Not Blogging...

It's usually because I am incredibly busy or have no access to a computer or both.  In this case, it's the last.  In the past couple of weeks, I have left Alaska, been to Ohio, driven across the country, stopped in Nebraska, stopped in Utah, and moved in to my apartment in Rexburg.  It's been so busy, and coinciding with that busyness, I've felt an abundance of love.  I should have been anxious, but all I've experienced is joy and peace.
Since I've arrived, I met my roommates, gone shopping for groceries, and today, I bought a computer.   This expenditure was very unexpected.  I'm posting from my new laptop.  It's a Toshiba.  I had the help of my dad and my savvy roommate, Gini Bond.  I'm so grateful for them!  If I didn't have that help, I probably wouldn't have been able to choose one so quickly.  I learned that it's best to not buy anything just because it meets the most basic needs.  It must also fill some of your wants.  If not, it will not be used enough to make up for the little money you did spend.  It's an investment, and investments have to make you happy.  Like marriage!  I think I will love my computer, partially because it's quality, and partially because it's mine.  This is a principle I must remember.  Who would have thought that buying a computer would have taught me so much?  Growing up definitely isn't the funnest thing in the world but it certainly is rewarding.  You get what you pay for. C:

Real fishing

Yesterday (Saturday, 18 August 2012), we went fishing in Bird Creek.  It was a cool, sunny morning and the tide was incredibly high.  We got there at its highest point, and the mouth of the creek that spilled into the inlet was murky and deep.  I'm sure there were fish in there, but we couldn't see them.  It was my parents, Hannah, and me.  My mom and I spent a considerate amount of time sitting in our chairs; myself, I was reading.  Hannah spent a considerate amount of time splashing in the mud, as the tide rapidly ebbed.  My dad spent a good amount of time losing our lures as he tried to unsnag our fishing lines.  This isn't unusual for our family.  There weren't  many people fishing there.  I'd say there were more or less than 10 in the course of the 5 hours we spent at the creek.  The best part of our excursion was when Hannah's pole snapped in half.  Why?  Well, Hannah was attached emotionally to that fishing pole.  That's fine I guess, but it was a piece of junk, more like a toy than an actual tool.  Dad would ask her every time we'd go out, "Why do you use that thing?"  He'd say "It's a piece of crap."  If you tally all the times she snagged and compared it to the other fishers in our family, I think his opinion would prove to be fact.  That, or Hannah is just really unlucky.  It was funny when her pole snapped, though, mostly because she did a little dance to try to get our attention.   She was a good 30 yards or so away with rushing water between us and her.
After fishing, we came home and watched The Hunger Games.  Now, I know lots of people who think it glorifies children killing children.  However, if you've read the books and seen the movie, you could analyze it in a much different light.  You could take it at more than face value.  What I see is the way an ordinary person can be pushed into doing extraordinary things; how people can be so oppressed that they no longer fight for freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and other natural rights; how even in the lowest point, people can rise together, if there is desire strong enough.  It shows, to me, a wicked time and a hopeless, miserable situation in which something good began to flourish.  I'm not a critic, but that's my opinion.

I'm a bear.

I just caught a fish out of a river with my bare hands!

Cake

I just turned on my Pandora radio.  The first song it played was "Love You Madly" by Cake.  I absolutely love geek rock.  I took this as a tender mercy from the Lord.
I went to institute tonight.  It felt so good to be there.  Last week, I tried to go and I got lost (funnily enough, if I had gone a little further west on Northern Lights Blvd, I would have made it there--even funnier is the fact that I know how to get there and this one night I could not REMEMBER!).  But tonight I found it!  I had this feeling of peace, a feeling that I'm doing alright.  It wasn't too strong, because I don't think it's time for me to pat my back just yet.  But hey, I just feel good, and I wanted to share the good feelings.  To my one reader, FEEL HAPPINESS!
PS: We're going fishing this weekend so I should hopefully (fingers cross) post some pictures soon.