(ha! duty...) I've realized that since I got my other blog I've kind of been neglecting this one. I don't want to turn into the Laura Jordan's of the world and not post for months and months, (love you Lar!) So here is the update.
Since I last posted, I've moved home to the po-dunkocity of Juniper, Idaho. (Not Alaska.) Since then, I've done...wait for it...NOTHING! The highlight of my week was a boy's basketball game at my old alma mater. They lost. Shocking. I did get to see a lot of my little homies though, so that was totally worth it. Also, I thought Braun Baker graduated like 2 years ago. He's still kickin' it at ol' Declo High School. Weird.
I did get some things accomplished today. I got all my crap together and into
storage. Well, almost all of it. And by storage I mean the trailer house next door that used to be occupied by the Mexicans that used to work for us.
After that, I got all gussied up because I was going to go into Malta and visit a few of my former teachers. That didn't happen, so I took pictures instead. Enjoy!!
I'm deeply saddened. I don't want to move home. I don't want to wait for the impending doom to finally make it's way to me. Can I just get it over with already? Put this next week and a half on fast forward, only slow down for Sundays, and then just put me out of my misery? I'm tired of waiting. Just shoot me in the foot already.
The following is a note that my really good friend, Jillian Durrant, posted on Facebook. I liked it so much that I just had to share it with the 3 of you who read my blog. Enjoy!
I have so much to be grateful for. Granted, things in my life aren't perfect but the good definitely outweighs the bad. I was looking at the quote, "Whenever I'm sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story." And when I really got thinking about it, that quote could not be more perfect. It seems like something simple and amusing, but what if every time I tasted that bit of depression, I decided to focus on the awesome? What if, instead of dwelling on those things that aren't perfect about me or my life, I decided to dwell on the things are? I know: Nobody is perfect. But I have some perfect things in my life. Friends. My goodness. Just the last few days I have really realized how wonderful my true friends are. They aren't afraid to tell me truth. They know that what they have to say might not make me happy, but they choose to say it because they know it will help me grow. "I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason bringing something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them and we help them in return." How beautiful is that? The Lord sends us the people he knows we need at certain times. The ones that, without really trying, help us grow. They help us become the people we really want and need to be. Not every experience is positive. But, just think for a minute: How different would you be if you had never had a broken heart? Never lost a friend? Always got everything you ever wanted and never really had to work? I know for a fact that I would never have grown up. I never would have matured. I would have been stuck being exactly the same my whole life. Bernard M. Baruch said, "The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them." My mom and I made resolutions this year not to make any new year's resolutions. But I've decided to change that. I am going to be more positive; see every challenge and trial as an opportunity - become the person I want and need to be. This all hit me last night. Even if the party hosted by the Debachelorization Initiative didn't lead us all to our eternal companions like I hoped it might, I learned a lot. While writing this, I glanced at a paper sitting next to my mouse and saw the following quote from President Monson: Our goal is to achieve, to excel, to strive for perfection. Remember, however, that our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves. To break our own record, to outstrip our yesterdays by today, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we never have given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever - this is the true objective. And to accomplish this task, our attitude is reflected in a determination to make the most of our opportunities. Coincidence that I noticed this quote sitting here? Probably not. Life is good. And there is always something positive to think about, even when everything else is trying to tell you otherwise. So here's a shout out to those friends of mine who have helped me out in life. Even those I don't talk to anymore. Even those who now don't like me. This is for you. Because of you, I have grown. Because of you, I am the person I am today. And I couldn't be happier about that. I'm done with the drama. From now on, straightforward honesty - no drama at all. Life will be much easier!
I've been looking at my stats for my blog recently and since I started my blog in October 2009, I've had 341 veiws. So, I got curious and found out the traffic sources to my blog. Some were from Facebook, which is not surprising since I have a link from my FB page. Some were from friend's blogs, and some were from random places on the web. Like Russia in particular. I'm flattered. I thought that was pretty neat that I have Russians looking at my blog, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks Russia!!!
First of all, let me explain why I was in Arkansas. Because I wanted to be. Andrew was talking about it one day, and I'd wanted to meet his family since I met him. I've never been down south, I didn't have anything else to do, so I asked if I could tag along, of course helping him with gas was a plus. So there you have it. Here you go!!
Adventures I've been on whilst being in Arkansas!
Gentry's Drive-thru Safari Zoo:
There's a little town in NWA that is home to the Little Debbie store, McKee Food Plant, and the drive-thru Safari. This little Safari is home to all types of animals, from zebras and emus to bison and water buffalo. Most of the animals here are those that you would see on an African Safari. There are monkeys and apes, peacocks, prairie dogs, hippos, bears, wolves, lions, leopards, gazelles, and even kangaroos. Which are a lot softer than you would think. We spent a good amount of our time mocking camels and llamas. We didn't get spit on once...I mean...uh, we didn't have our windows down at all...we were being good kids like we were told....it was pretty neat and I highly recommend it to anyone who may be passing through the neat county of Benton, Arkansas.
Zebras are so soft!!
Wal-Mart:
Bentonville is the birthplace of Wal-Mart. Of course we're gonna go there! At night because it's a lot more fun. While I didn't get to go inside the very first Wal-Mart because they were doing renovations, I did get to see it. It was cute and old timey just sitting on the square. But if you've seen one Wal-Mart, you've seen them all, right? I did get to play the Kinect there, that was pretty fun. I lost the race of course, but I'll get better...if only we were an xbox family...*sigh* Anywho, I got to see Andrew in action doing his Wal-Mart shenanigans and even got video of it.
Found a pig head in the freezer. Gross.
That's Andrew with his brother Kevin and their friend Taylor. Hooligans.
Natural beauty of Arkansas:
We went on a few nature walks. The one pictured is at night, of course, because when do we do anything else? It was a lot of fun just walking around on the trails and exploring things like little wind caves, waterfalls, and maybe even a dam. There was a suspension bridge that they call Retard Bridge. They had me run across it while they jumped up and down on the other end. If you can imagine how that went, then you would be able to see why it's called Retard Bridge. You run like Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. It was a lot of fun though.
This is how water falls at night.
Andrew's sweet face.
Kevin's butt.
Mandy picking wildflowers.
We went on other walks through out the time spent there that were pretty neat. The trails that run around Bentonville connect to neighboring towns like Bella Vista and will eventually connect with Fayetteville, which is a good 45 minute drive from Bentonville. Along those trails there are things like Slaughter Pen Hollow (bike trails) and Crystal Bridges, which is a museum that they are building. (Take a look at the website, it's pretty cool.) It's going to be one of the biggest art museums with huge amounts of money put into the art itself. It will be finished 11-11-11. I'm totally going to it as soon as I can!
Other things we did:
Ice Skating. First time ever. I only fell once.
IHOP in the middle of the night. Is there any other way?
Fayetteville is home of the best burger place I've ever been to. Hugo's. I got a t-shirt. We also went "clubbing". Willy D's. It's this dueling piano bar/club. It was deizzz.
FHE/Single's Branch. Lame.
Christmas was pretty awesome. Santa (aka, Andrew's mom) brought me a quesadilla maker and movie coupons. The quesadilla maker does AMAZING things with pancakes.
New Years was pretty fun too. I went to Tulsa with a few new friends. Andrew was not a part of the group because he went to a friend's party looking to get some. He didn't get anything.
Red Robin yummmm! for our birthdays. It's so much better here, in Boise. And we have campfire sauce here. What do they have? Nothing but weird male servers who treat the restaurant as their own personal residence. Creeps.
(I realize it has room for pictures, but those will come later. KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!!)
Here's the basic low-down on the last couple months:
11/24 thru 11/26-Allison came home with me for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun! I love that girl!! Here are pictures from said advench:
This held up traffic for a while. Dumb.
Derner Ready!!
11/30-It snowed in Boise. A lot. For Boise. So, after seeing Jesse Fusselman for the last time in at least 2 years (probably more), and it being the opportune moment, we, (we being Wes Clark, and I) having made a pact that we would go Hookybobbing the first chance we get, went hookybobbing!! So we took the second chance we got and made a party out of it! Lucy Mercado, Jessica Taylor (who is Jim's sister) and Beth Layton came along with us. We tore up the Warm Springs church's parking lot. There were some sweet 360s thrown, by yours truly, and even some air was caught, on purpose (except the first time) by both Wes and I. Here is the proof of that:
12/4-I like to save things in case I need them in the future. I had saved every paper I had received over the last two years of schooling (plus some) in a box. The box was full to the brim and was lucky to be able to close it. Logan had a bonfire Saturday night and so I took the box along with me to throw that Mother into the fire. (I may or may not have pyromaniacal tendencies) I did just that. I took papers out, and one by one threw them into the fire. Then I had the idea to throw them into the fire from the box. I should have looked through it first because my chemistry binder from high school was in there...oops. After having it out with the fire and 2 years of wasted time, some of the kids wanted to go sledding. Logan and Dalli aired up their tube (for tubing on the lake) and took it to the mound of dirt they have in their front pasture and the boys went crazy! I got one picture then decided I was hungry. So I took Benny and we went to Taco Bell. When I got back, people were getting ready to head out to Kuna Caves to do some spelunking. We got dirty! But it was fun. My pants are stained. We had quite a few people there and some were bored, but eff them! I liked it! Afterward, a few of us went to IHOP for some breakfast. There were drunk guys there....all in a good nights morning... Anyways, here're the pics:
so, I realized it's been about, oh, like FOREVER since I blogged.
obviously the whole "being thankful for one person each day" thing worked out amazingly.
because I haven't done it in like 4 months.
I am pleased to announce, however, that my blog is being read by people. Truly. Even by people I'm not even friends with anymore. Crazy. (and yes, you are a creep because I haven't talked to you since May and haven't been friends with you for even longer than that, and you read my blog. CREEPY.)
Today I'm going to be thankful for things, like having a computer to mess around on, having friends to keep me grounded and remind me what's important in life. *Cough, Logan* I'm thankful for having a washer and dryer in my house so I don't have to pay for to do my laundering...I'm most thankful for underpants straight out of the dryer. It puts a HUGE smile on my face when I put them on. mmmm....warm panties. I am very super thankful for Sister Tanner. She is AMAZING!! She does so much for the Institute and no one even knows it! I'm thankful for the best roommate in the entire earth. I love Carrie Brocksopp! She really is THE BEST roommate I could ever ask for. She better not get married before I have to leave because I couldn't handle the loss. I'm thankful for my mom. I'm thankful for everything she does for me. I'm thankful for her tolerance of when I need more money because I overspend way too much. I think she feels kind of bad that I'm not getting paid, so that helps the cause, but I need to be looking for a job instead of doing this.........
.....................
I'm thankful for Bro. Spjute. He is an amazing person, as well as teacher. He can bring the spirit into any situation and uplift even the most down-trodden soul. Bro. Evans is the same way. He has the best memory I have ever encountered. He has a special way of making jokes and having fun and then bringing the spirit right back in and settling the rowdy feelings instantly. I don't know how he does it, but he is so great. I love being at the institute. It's a safe haven and it is where I have met all my best friends (except Jill, who was through Cara, but because of institute, Jillian and I were able to become really good friends :))
I'm thankful for BOISE!!!! I love it here! and everyone else here! and I don't want to ever leave, but alas, I must.
This girl is amazing! and we owe it all to her mom, who is equally just as awesome!!!
If it wasn't for Logi, I would still have fun, but let's be serious, not NEAR as much fun as I do with her around.
A huge reason why we're even friends is because she's so chill.
A little tidbit about me is that I tend to have different groups of friends that, when merged, don't get along as well as I hope.
But with Logi, she gets along with pretty much everyone ever! And that's a huge deal to me! She's always there for me. She's going to be Aunt Gogi to my kids. (we've discussed it.)
First thing she thought of me though was "Freak!"
Wanna know why? Well I'll tell you. This bag-o-douche named Jared Monzello invited her to the movies later that night, and I'll admit, dude's pretty good looking, so I'm not surprised she totally went for it. But after he left, I turned to her and said "He's a creep, I wouldn't go if I were you." Enter "Freak!" comment...Turns out I was right, but she found out the hard way...well, not exactly the hard way, but she still found out for herself what I was talking about.
Anyways, she's one of the best things in my life right now.
Last night, for her birthday, we went to the Brad Paisley concert. It was AMAZING!! We saw
Easton Corbin ♥
Steel Magnolia,
(Josh Thompson was there, but we skipped him to go eat at the Ram, sooo good.)
Justin Moore
and Darius Rucker.
It was so much fun!
Here's Brad's mascot and opening acts ♥
Everyday is a party...especially with Logan around!!!
We were at Craig Robot's game night and we were playing Scum. Bronson was cheating, trying to get rid of one of his cards in the discard pile thing and i totally caught him in the act. So I picked up the card, hucked it at him, and i landed perfectly in his mouth. His face was priceless!! SOO funny!! Okay, I'm done.
I've decided that today I'm going to appreciate Krista Nielson.
She's always a smiling face when I'm in need of cheering up. She gives the best hugs and is just plain hilarious!! We've had millions of good times and I only started hanging out with her like 9 months ago.
I've never known anyone that could be so happy about life when it seems like it's falling down around her. She's the best influence ever and definitely someone I look up to.
I decided I'm going to blog everyday about someone in my life, past and present, that i just really appreciate! (I was thinking maybe i should do some about people i dislike, but that's too depressing.) SO, i've come up with this idea all by myself.
okay, so i got this inspiration from one of the best things in my life: Lindsey Oakes!!
Or Homecow.
or magical trevor (still don't know the story about that one..)
or slore. whatever you want to call her.
She's my BFF or whatever.
She was the first friend I had (other than the incredible Laura Jordan) when I moved up to Les Bois.
Linds and Lar at good ol' Merritts
Granted it took 5 months for her to find me.
The only reason she even started talking to me is because she was my visiting teacher at the time. (She only ever visit taught me once.)
But here's how a portion of our conversation went:
Lindsey: "You're funny. We should be friends."
Me: "srsly."
anyways, she's the funniest person ever. She's always there when i need a good laugh, and she's the funnest person to go on adventures with. srsly. i love this girl.
Tonight we dicided to go ice blocking. To start out with, it was just Jeni, Spencer, and I, then we figured we should invite Sami. By the end of it, 7 people came.
So, it took a good 3 hours to finally get to Simplot Hill, mostly because people are slow-pokes, and I am including myself in this one. There were trains, singles, wrecks, jumps, flips, pain...the list goes on...eventually we moved from ice blocks to just rolling down the hill.
Probably the best thing ever. You get going so fast that you don't know where you're going to end up, all you can do is hope it's not in the middle of the street or on an ice block that had been carelessly left there to melt into the oblivion.
As we were about to leave and taking our final roll down the hill, a suburban drove by, turned into the parking lot, and 2 men came over and each picked up an ice block. They climbed up the hill and let us know that they had never done this before and were asking for our help and guidance. They were about 40 years old, which is the funny part.
We helped them out, and probably made their entire night. They were having so much fun! They thought it was the greatest thing in the world! It brought them back to childhood.
It was about 2 am by the time we finally left (Jeni and Jared were talking forever!) I'm really glad we all went. ILML!!!!
[sorry, no pictures were taken of this momentous event]
So, I just got done reading Lindsey's latest posts on her blog....she's slacking BIG TIME!! She made it a goal to write everyday. Her last post was September 3rd. It is now September 7. (Happy Birthday, Mom!!) (I should call her) Anyways, Lindsey needs some butt kicking because I'm an avid follower, and if she doesn't post, then there is nothing to avidly follow! Here's her blog address to the few of you who know what mine is:
(Josh Thompson was there, but we skipped him to go eat at the Ram, sooo good.)
