E-Rock Kappyt

Unidentified Blessings

2011-07-20T11:14:00.000-06:00

So... I didn't get much sleep last night.

You're all sitting there wondering why. Well, we went to bed around 10:50 (a pretty good time, which would usually allow for almost 8 hours if we get up and get to work on time). However, I just couldn't fall asleep. I sat there thinking, and then realized that I couldn't remember if I had locked our front door. I got up and checked - it was locked. I went back to bed hoping that would help me sleep a bit. So I just lay there for a while with my eyes closed trying to relax. But I couldn't! At least not for a little while. Well, just as I felt like I was about to fall asleep...

our doorbell rang.

I was very tired, and annoyed that whoever it was had kept me from falling asleep, so when Kimberly woke up and asked me if someone just rang the doorbell I said "Yes, but I'm not answering it". I just hoped that it was either a mistake or something and the people would just leave.

Then I heard voices outside our window, and that's when I felt fear. I felt like something was wrong, and so I got up again and walked into our living room. Kimberly got up and whispered "Don't answer the door!" I wasn't planning to. We have a little deck with a porch light on it, and we usually turn it on at night, but for some reason we hadn't last night. I heard a sound of metal on metal outside and so I crept up to the porch door, (the blinds were shut) and turned on the light. At that moment, a shadow appeared right in front of me on our blinds, but it quickly moved away from the light. I stood there, frozen, in disbelief at what I had just seen. There had been someone standing just on the other side of that door from me! The lock on that door isn't very secure and it has always worried me. I'm guessing that other people figured that it might be an easy lock to break in through! We called the police to let them know what had happened. An officer came and told us that someone else in our complex had answered their door and the person just walked in! He didn't tell us what the person did after entering, but I'm sure it wasn't nice. It seems like these people were going around ringing doorbells to see if people were home and if not their plan was to break in through the porch. Needless to say, I was a little shaken up at this point, and I didn't have an easy time falling asleep after that.

As I look back on what happened last night, I realize how blessed we were. 1. When we first moved in, we had a meeting in our ward during which we discussed neighborhood safety. The man who spoke talked about ways to avoid break-ins. He mentioned that if you hear someone outside your home, the best thing to do is turn on a light to let them know you're home. Usually this will scare them away. 2. I think it's interesting that I was very tired, but I couldn't fall asleep. I wonder how differently I would have acted if I had fallen asleep, or if I would have heard the doorbell at all, or been awake enough to think to turn on the light. 3. I was grateful I had gotten up to check that the door was locked because I probably would have been more freaked out and would have gone to the front door to do that first and that might have given the people a chance to break in through the porch. 4. Nothing happened (no damages, nothing was stolen, no one was hurt, etc.) but it heightened our awareness and helped me realize ways that we can improve the security of our home.

It was a scary night, and I didn't sleep much, but I'm so grateful for a loving, protective Heavenly Father who guides us even when we don't know what we're doing.

On a brighter note, we went to Idaho Falls this last weekend for Kimberly's friend's wedding and reception. After the temple ceremony, we walked around on the bridges. We asked a passer-by to take our picture with my phone. She happened to be a photographer, and offered to take some with her own! Her website is here and her blog (where you'll see our pictures) is here.

Or, if you don't care to visit her site, here are the two she posted:

Engaged... and very Anxious

2011-01-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

So..............

I'm engaged to the most amazing, beautiful girl in the world. Yes, I love her. :) We were engaged on Jan. 24, 2010. The date is May 7, 2010.

Those Police Officers...

2010-12-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

I am a good driver. I think.

Of course, everyone thinks that. But I really think I am a better driver than the average person. Sure, sometimes I do stupid things, most of the time I'm safe, defensive and aware. Before my mission, I received one traffic citation for speeding. I was on my way to a flag football game at the U, and I thought I was going to be late. Well, I got pulled over, written a ticket, and I still made it to my game on time. So that was a pointless ticket that I should have just been more careful about.

Well, since that time I've had a clean record. No tickets, not even having been pulled over. In August, I had a sweet idea to do a Meteor Shower Hike! I can't believe I haven't written about it yet! It was an awesome night. We hiked up to Sunset Peak at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, ate dinner at the top and watched the show! Then we hiked down. Well, on the way home, it was 1:00am, and I wasn't paying attention and... you guessed it: I got pulled over going 10 over the speed limit. Luckily the officer dropped it down to a 5-over, which is the least expensive ticket you can receive. However, I still had to go in and pay for the ticket. Then I got the chance to go to traffic school! That was just on Saturday.

So Sunday night, I was taking Kimberly home after a night of doing homework (again), and I got pulled over again!!! This time it was for not stopping completely at a stop sign, and not signaling for long enough. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson at traffic school. Luckily, I got off with a warning and went on my way. Anyway, I had officially decided at this point that I should be a more careful driver.

For ease of description, two diagrams have been provided. The gray oval is my car, the red ovals are police cars, and the blue is a Ford Expedition.
So I was. Last night, after dropping Kimberly off after (you guessed it) homework, I was pulling out from her apartment, when I saw a police car coming toward me with its lights on. It turned right (see the little red line I drew?

So after the police car had turned, I decided it was clear and I turned to follow it (because that's the way to go home). As I drove, I looked to the right and saw now two police cars (one from before and one other) following a blue expedition in the parking lot of an assisted living center there. I watched and expected the expedition to stop, but he didn't, he just followed the parking lot around as if everything was normal. The cops didn't have their sirens on, just their lights.

Anyway, there were no police cars on the road I was now on, so I continued on my way, expecting everything else on my drive home to be normal.

Well, as I drove, all of a sudden I look in my mirror and see flashing lights - "Again?" I thought, even though the lights were far behind me. I hadn't sped or done anything wrong though, so I just pulled over and waited.

I didn't have to wait long.

All of a sudden, the blue expedition FLEW past me at about 65-70 mph on a 40 mph road, and the police cars were close behind. I stayed pulled over for a bit, wanting to just stay out of the way. It was pretty crazy to be watching a real high-speed police chase! That wasn't all though.

After all was clear (for the second time), I proceeded on my way home, just wanting to go to bed. I approached a stop light at the intersection shown in my second picture (1):

I could still see the police car's lights flashing and their sirens blaring about a quarter mile down the street (not shown). I stopped at the stop light and watched as the expedition took a corner really quick into the neighborhoods on his right (left side of the figure) (still not shown). A few moments later, a police SUV turns from my right onto the road in the direction I'm facing. Just then, the light turned green. As no police cars were behind or to either side of me, I proceeded to cross the intersection behind the SUV. But as I neared the middle of the intersection, a bunch of things happened all at once. The expedition came flying out of the neighborhoods in front of me and turned toward my car, into ONCOMING TRAFFIC (2)! There was a raised median, so he was stuck going the direction he had turned into. Luckily for me, the police SUV was in between the expedition and myself (3). Again, trying to stay out of the way of everything, I pulled over as soon as I crossed the intersection (4). I watched as the police SUV pulled in front of the expedition while the other two police cars tried to hem him in (5&6). Well, this guy wasn't stopping, he ran right into the police SUV!!! Then, he went around on the shoulder and kept heading, STRAIGHT TOWARD ME (7)! The two police cars behind him kept chasing, and he had enough room to pass me, but as he did so, a fourth police car (8) came around the corner behind me, almost hit me and tried to block the guy again! He peeled out and flew across the intersection again, this time behind me. All of the cop cars, including the SUV in front of me that had its front end smashed in on one side now, continued the chase and just drove around me! For the final time, I pulled out and cautiously drove home - unscathed. I'm just glad not to get pulled over, let alone escape being in the middle of a high-speed police chase without getting smashed between a police car and some psycho.

All-in-all, I think I've had my fair share of experiences with police officers lately...

Counting down

2010-12-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

It's just exciting sometimes to count down to things. For example, there are 19 days, 1 hour, 22 minutes and 12 seconds (right now as I'm writing this) until Christmas! Isn't that exciting?

Anyway, I've been excited for a while to count down the days until school ends! This is the last week of classes, then next week is finals. It's been a really difficult semester as far as difficulty of classes go. Bioinstrumentation especially has been a challenge for me, but it's cool to look back and realize how much I've learned over the course of a single semester. Another thing that's made school difficult is developing a relationship with Kimberly. She's been in school this semester too, and since we're both so busy, we have to squeeze in time for each other, and it's been a challenge for each of us at different times to not have the other's attention as much as we'd like.

Another thing to count down to is... CHRISTINE AND PAUL ARE COMING TO VISIT! Ahem. Sorry, I got pretty excited there for a second. The thing is, I really am super-excited. They're just way fun to hang out with. Plus, they haven't met my Kimberly yet, so that will be fun for them to get to know each other, since I've talked to each of them about the other. It's just going to be fun to get to see them again for a while.

What are you counting down to?

I know this is random, but I just have to say,

Kimberly smells so good. :) For those of you who haven't met her, here's a picture of the beauty on our "Ghost Tours" date in October:

Hiatus

2010-11-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

So... it's been about 3 months or so since I even looked at my blog. Sorry to all of you faithful readers who have been waiting on the edge of your seats, checking every day to see if there was some updated post, some new picture, some record of the proceedings of my life. I guess I'm just not as into blogging as I used to be. I just have other things to do to distract me, so I guess I can update you a bit on those things...

School is going well. I'm taking some pretty difficult classes this semester, and I feel like I'm doing ok in each of them. I'm learning a lot, and I hope that trend will continue. (If not, what's the point, right?)

I've been working in a musculoskeletal research lab at the U since the beginning of the semester. It's almost the same type of work as I've been doing for the last year, segmenting out images. However, now they are CT scans of human hips, rather than confocal microscope images of cardiac myocytes in rats (I think the myocytes one just sounds cooler - and I think it is cooler too). It's a good job, and I'm glad to get more research experience, but to be honest, I don't really get that much experience, especially since I already know a lot of the things I could potentially learn, so really I'm just there for the money.

I recently was released from my calling as Ward Mission Leader. As with almost any calling, this is a really bitter-sweet release. I enjoyed this calling very much. It was extremely difficult, and a lot of the time, I didn't feel like I really made any progress or affected anyone's life. However, looking back I know that I was able to help some people, and hopefully the Lord will magnify what little work we did do for the benefit of His children.

Last, but certainly not least, I've been dating a wonderful girl named Kimberly. She's so kind and cares a lot about people. We have a lot of fun together. I should also mention that she is gorgeous. Like, super-model gorgeous. I'm lucky to get to date her.

So really, it's all of those reasons that I haven't blogged a lot lately.

I hope you'll excuse my absence from the online social network.

God's Fireworks

2010-08-04T19:15:00.000-06:00

A lot of my posts lately have been of a more spiritual note. Cool.

So on Sunday, I came home in the evening to see my parents sitting on the front lawn. I thought "my parents rock". I thought they were just sitting out there enjoying the grass and the nice weather. In a sense they were. But I sat down next to them, and my dad said "Check out the sky". I looked up and my mouth probably dropped. The sky was mostly covered with huge bright clouds of varying colors - yellow, pink, white, blue, gray, purple, red. Some were sinking down and looked like an upside-down cobblestone road with huge stones. Others looked like an upside-down slow-shutter-speed picture of a waterfall coming over a huge boulder. Off in the distance were the ginormous cumulo-nimbus that Russell from Up is so knowledgable about. So we sat out there for about 30 minutes just watching the sky change slowly and every second of it was beautiful. At one point, my mom said "Isn't it wonderful for God to put on a fireworks show for just 3 people?".

Today there's a sweet summer thunderstorm outside. It reminded me of a video \that my friend posted a little while ago. Here it is. Watch it, it's pretty cool.

So... who says God's fireworks are better than man's?

I do.

Faith or Frenzied-ness? :)

2010-07-26T19:23:00.000-06:00

So, I sold my road bike.

I did not want to. As you could probably tell by my posts about road biking in the last 2 weeks as opposed to the long hiatus of non-blogging before that, I fell in love with road biking. I could tell that if I kept at it (which I wanted to do), I could become very good at it and even compete. I love the rush of wind as I pedal at a consistent rate. Basically, I "fit" as a road cyclist.

However, sometimes things don't go the way you want (at least not at first). Friday night, I was saying my nightly prayers, and the thought came to ask this question "What do I need to do to prepare myself for my future wife?". I had asked this or at least similar questions before, and usually the answer was to be patient or no answer, which to me means, "It's not time for you to know yet" etc. But I hadn't asked it since I had bought this bike. The immediate answer was "Sell the bike." Not just A bike from our garage, not even just one of the two bikes I own, but THE [road] bike. My thoughts were "What? I just bought it! I love riding it! It's good for me! Isn't it? Was that just me thinking that for some weird reason?" Anyway, I kind of struggled with those types of thoughts for a good while in my prayer, and then asked if I was still ok to go on my ride (see last post), and I felt I was, so I did. Then I said "If it's Thy will, I'll do it." The next night, (Saturday night), I said in my prayers again "Like I said, if it's Thy will, I'll do it, but I need to be sure I'm not just doing something crazy for no reason", and asked Him to confirm to me that what I was thinking was truly from Him.

Well, Heavenly Father answers prayers (if you didn't know that). I went to a friend's ward to hear her report on her mission, and the theme of the meeting was "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." That's in Proverbs 3:5-6. I was like "Hmmm, if that's not a clear answer, I don't know what is" but somehow I felt that I was going to keep receiving confirmations that day. Well, I did. My own sacrament meeting, Bishop Ayre's daughters Kenedi and Amanda and Brother Hansen's daughter Madison spoke about the trials of their pioneer ancestors and how they had to sacrifice some great things to receive even greater things. Also, Travis Bodtcher and Collette Charles (soon to be Bodtcher) talked about their relationship and how grateful they are for each other. That wasn't a direct answer to my prayer, but it reminded me of how wonderful married life will be, and that I should be willing to give up anything for her. Travis talked about how greatly his life changed the moment he decided to turn his life around, and now he's getting married in the temple because of it. That was interesting to me. Then in Sunday School we were talking about rehoboam and jeraboam and their poor leadership. There were a couple of comments that hit me, but most of all when we talked about the grandson of Rehoboam I think it was, I can't remember the name right now, who was righteous and was surrounded by enemy armies. He was told by a prophet to wait and trust the Lord, and the Lord caused the armies to fight each other and were destroyed. Elder's Quorum the lesson was on the talk by Elder Martino, called "All Things Work Together for Good". Basically, the whole day was saying "Yes, you should trust Me and the Holy Ghost. The answer you received was from Me."

So, it's now gone. I'm kind of sad, but I trust that the best will come of it.

I'm grateful for my testimony, and Heavenly Father's love.

33 mi

2010-07-24T13:09:00.000-06:00

Today I rode 33 miles on my new road bike.

I know that for experienced riders, that's not very far, but considering I've only had the bike for a couple of weeks, for me, this is the longest consecutive ride that I've done on the thing! Last week, my Brother-in-Law Paul and I rode from my house to the second entry of Snowbird (see map). We met Chrissie and my parents there for a day of hiking. Then we just threw the bikes in the car and rode back down with them, so overall it was about 16-1/2 miles of riding. But today I decided to go up and back. I woke up today at 7:30 to start out by 8, and got back around 10:45 or 11:00 (I don't remember exactly). As I got to the second entry, I decided to keep going (mostly because I was following a lady, and she didn't stop there, so I felt like less of a man if I did stop). But I made it to the 4th entry, where I took about a 10-minute break to rest and enjoy the beauty of that canyon. Next time I go, I'll go the rest of the way up to Alta. Then the descent. If you watch the tour de france or anything, you'll see some cyclists getting up to like 60 mph. I got up to 42, and let me tell you, even though I'm a little bit of a thrill-seeker and I LOVE anything that feels like I'm going fast, I was a little nervous. It wasn't bad at first, because the road is newly paved and smooth, but when I got toward the bottom where it's a little more beat up, I slowed down to about 32. So yeah, those guys that go 60 are crazy. Anyway, it took me less than 1/2 the time to get home that it did to get up. I really enjoy cycling, and I think I'll stick with it. It's going to be hard though when school starts, because to get really good, you really have to devote a LOT of time to it.

So for the rest of the day, we're going to play some ULTIMATE at 4:30 and then go to the REAL SL game tonight and watch fireworks after! I'm pretty stoked.

Get out there and exercise, it feels so good.

The Priesthood

2010-07-12T20:25:00.001-06:00

I've kind of delayed writing this for a while, because it's personal and very important to me, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to share, and if there was anything I shouldn't or didn't want to.

However, for the few people who read my blog, I think, I would feel comfortable telling you about these experiences in person, so why not in my blog?

A couple of weeks ago, our family went down to my favorite place on Earth - Lake Powell. We've been going twice or three times a year since I was a little kid, and I look forward to every single opportunity we have to go. This year was no different. I was able to go the whole week, and I couldn't wait for morning ski rides, sun-tanning, hikes, swimming, having fun with my awesome cousins and sisters and parents (I could've just said family), and perfecting the back-flip on my air chair. We got there on Monday afternoon, so my first opportunity to ski on nice water was Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, my Dad decided not to wake me up for the nice water, and just went (even though I've woken him up many times to go skiing)! I was a little upset.

So later on that day, when the water was choppy because of boat traffic, I decided to break out my air chair, and see if I couldn't land the flip and hold on. So I rode for a while, just enjoying the flying feeling of gliding above the waves. Then, I jumped a couple of times, and tried the back-flip, but didn't really jump, so I just fell headfirst into the water, which I've done a lot (see video).

So the next attempt, I jumped, flipped, and in mid-air I thought "Yes! This is it! I'm going to make it!". Something weird happened, and even though I had made it around, I crashed when I hit the water. Usually, this is no big deal. This time though, it was.

To me, it felt like my hand had gone into the rope handle, and that the handle had hit my forearm extremely hard and pulled me forward in the water a little bit. It hurt like the Dickens, and when I came up, I saw that my glove was gone. After telling the people in the boat to pick up the glove, I noticed that I couldn't move my fingers, they were just stuck in a half-clenched position (as if I were still holding the rope in my hand), and there was a half-golf-ball-size local area of swelling right where it felt like the handle had hit me. I thought (verbatim) "Crap, I just broke my arm". So my dad helped me into the ski boat, and we went back to the houseboat to look at it. It still hurt a ton, and I was thinking I had ruined my family's (as well as my own) favorite summer vacation - which, to me, was more painful than the injury - seriously. I didn't cry about my arm, I only cried when I was by myself changing, because I was sad to have to leave without getting to ski.

Anyway, I had the thought "I should have my dad give me a blessing", and Christine, one of my 3 amazing sisters, even suggested it to my dad. Well, we decided to drive out to the channel to see where we could go to get my arm x-rayed, or at least to talk to someone about my arm. When we got out there, my dad gave me a blessing, and then we called. As I talked to Brian, the guy at the Bullfrog clinic, my arm hurt less and less, even though I didn't notice that until afterward. The swelling had gone down almost completely, and I could move my fingers almost as much as before. There was still some pain when I flexed my hand or wrist, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before.

The next day, Christine and I decided to go on a little hike across the canyon from our houseboat:

So we took the kayaks over there, and parked them at the bottom (1). We left our life jackets there, and started climbing up the rocky slope. Every step we took sent small rocks down, so we tried to make sure not to send rocks down on top of each other. We got to a point where there were huge boulders (2), and we had to rock climb around them to get up higher. I went one way, and Christine decided to go another way, about 10 ft away from me, (to the right in the photo). We were just talking, and both of us were thinking how cool we were as siblings to go hiking up this hill with our chacos on and everything, when I suddenly hear Christine yelling. I turn around to see her falling backwards off of the rocks above a 10-foot drop, and about 60 feet total below her to the water. I watched in horror as she fell and rolled and fell again down the hill. All I could do was yell her name trying to show my immense concern and worry and love for her, because I thought she was going to die. When she finally stopped falling (about 10 feet above the water) (3), she sat there, turned and looked up at me holding her head. I was worried she had split her head open, and was going to go unconscious soon. I heard her yell across the water to the houseboat "Dad! Get in the ski boat and hurry over here!" That comforted me a little in knowing she could think and yell. I slowly started moving to the side and then down as they came over in the boat and took her back to the houseboat. As I walked down carefully, I noticed that one of the kayaks was upside-down in the water about 10 feet from the shore (4). At the bottom, my dad and I talked a little about what had happened. He said that he could only see me up at the boulders and the rocks falling down from me. The huge boulder Christine had been on was falling straight toward the kayaks, and he thought Christine was in or near the kayaks! One miracle is that the boulder didn't follow the same path as Christine, who went left (black line) and the rocks went right (green line). Apparently that boulder had hit the one kayak and flipped it over into the water, smashing the one end. When we got back to the houseboat, I went to change into dry clothes, and again, being alone, cried because of the emotions I had felt as I watched what I thought were my sister's last moments. Then, my dad and I gave her a blessing as my mom, aunt and sister Chelsey took care of Christine's cuts. She was in shock and was shaking. Miraculously, she didn't break any bones, didn't split her head open or anything. She had some pretty big scrapes, but no deep cuts, and a twisted ankle to top it off.

I was amazed at how quickly she and I healed. I was able to ski Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Christine, I think, could have as well, but to be safe decided not to, in case of infection from the water getting in her cuts.

(The girl in the picture is my cousin Ashlyn, who got up on skis for the first time this trip!)

I know those are long stories, but I wanted to preserve as much as I could what happened, and add to them my testimony of the Priesthood. I know that it's a real power, which has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith by Angels, and that God and Jesus Christ personally appeared to Joseph Smith to restore this power and the true Church of Jesus Christ. How grateful I am for a worthy father who is willing and able to give me and my sisters those blessings when they are needed, and for the blessings that come through that Priesthood and the love of God.

Hearts (Again)

2010-07-11T10:47:00.000-06:00

The heart is so amazing! The human heart beats over 2.8 BILLION times over the course of an average lifespan of 75 years*. This pumping machine pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood every day, and works from it's first beat to it's last. How cool is that???

I just started a job at the same research lab that I've been volunteering in for almost a year now. I'm analyzing some structural differences in striation patterns of t-tubules (which serve as boundary lines for sarcomeres) in healthy vs diseased vs diseased then treated hearts. It's really cool stuff, and I'm excited for the opportunity to learn more and grow in experience.

I'm just grateful that Heavenly Father knew to put such a diligent, persistent organ in us to which we attribute our deepest feelings (i.e. love, devotion, pain, joy, disappointment, and hope), and which provides life to our body and its systems.

*http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/

Road Bike!

2010-07-07T13:02:00.000-06:00

I bought a road bike yesterday.

This is a factory picture, but the real one looks identical to this one.

I'm fairly excited.

Summertime

2010-05-12T15:38:00.000-06:00

I just love summertime.

It's made for me. I think my body's natural habitat is some desert with a nice clear lake nearby. I love the hot, dry air, and so does my skin. Basically, Lake Powell is where I belong (or similar places).

Last summer I took classes at the U, trying to accelerate my acceptance into the major (which did help). However, after going to school constantly for over a year and a half, I decided that this summer I would not take summer classes and try to enjoy it as much as I can. I've been looking forward to being out of school now for a year, so I can enjoy summer.

Two problems: 1. It's not really summer-typical weather right now. It feels more like March in May! However, that's not the main problem. 2. I don't have any structure to my life! I have all these awesome plans of things to do, but then I end up not doing them. I was worried that I might fall into this pattern. It's hard because I'm working at nights, so I don't get to hang out with people (who mostly work during the day), and during the day, there's only so much that sounds fun to do by yourself! I also have an expensive car repair coming up, so I don't want to be spending tons of money on anything.

So, I need to figure out some way to be more productive that will keep me going on a good, healthy schedule. I think I'll start going up to the research lab almost every day for a few hours. I don't like feeling lazy.

Spring Break

2010-03-30T18:26:00.000-06:00

Last week was Spring Break.

It was SO nice to get away from school! For the first half of the week, I stayed at home because I had to work each night (still from 9pm to 1am - I don't think I've blogged about my current job yet, maybe I will someday...). So I realized that if I weren't going to school, my life would be fairly boring! I slept in almost every day, (one day 'til 11:30!!!) I never sleep in that late, so I felt pretty lazy. I went up to the U to work in our research lab a little, and I did some shopping and stuff, but overall, I just played music and enjoyed not having a ton of things to do! Then... on Thursday... I went... to...

LAKE POWELL!!!

Pictures are from past trips - that's why it looks so warm and calm. I don't have a camera anymore because it got soaked on this trip

I love that place. Even though this trip was a little different: 1. I was only there a couple of days, whereas usually I've been able to go the whole week. 2. It was windy and cold, so I only got in one ski ride (usually I ski at least twice a day).

On the way home, we had a fun experience. It was me, my bro.in law Paul and my sister Chelsey. We were just driving along, everything was fine. I was driving and we were following a truck towing a trailer. All of a sudden, some black thing comes flying out from under the trailer, flailing around on the road, so I swerved to avoid it, not knowing what it was, and we started fish-tailing, did a 180, and slid off the side of the road sideways, into the near side of a ditch. We were extremely blessed that we didn't roll or damage my car or get injured. About 10 different groups of people stopped to help us. We got towed out and continued on our way.

Two things: 1. Prayer works. That morning we said a prayer to get us home safely, and I know that things could have been much much worse for us, but they weren't because Heavenly Father was watching over us. 2. People are good. Sometimes it's hard to believe this when you get cut off on the freeway, or people are rude in lines or places. I was so amazed at how many people were IMMEDIATELY there to help us out. My faith in the human race was strengthened because of that.

So anyway, it was an eventful, relaxing Spring Break, and I'm so glad that we have it at the U every year. Now, I can't wait 'til June for our next Powell trip, and for Moab and whatever other things I'm going to do this summer!

The hardest thing about Spring Break though,

is going back to school.

How long has it been?

2010-02-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

So...

I've been pretty busy lately. Sorry to not update all of you on my life. Basically, I started a new job last week, it's going well, but I'll be tired for the next several months, and I'm trying my best to stay on top of school work. Sorry it's short!

Here's a picture to make you happier:

Dating Race? Over. Dating? Still going on.

2010-02-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

With the end of January, several things have been going on.

1. My 24th birthday was on Thursday, the 28th! It was a great day and I got tons of happy birthday wishes from my family and friends! Thanks everyone.

2. The Dating Race has now finished. Congratulations to Shayla, who went on 22 first dates in the month of January! I am very impressed by her. Now I need all of you to go to the blog (if you missed the previous link, click here), and vote for the person you think each of us should take on our second group date! It's been a great learning experience, which you can read about there on the blog.
Although the dating race itself is over, don't think that I'm just going to sit back and relax and not go out on any more dates. No sir (or ma'am). I've met some awesome girls this month that I'm excited to ask out again! I really have learned that this is what the brethren are talking about when they say that we young men should be dating more. Honestly it's amazing to date a lot, you learn a ton about other people, and about yourself, and it's amazing how much more fun it is than hanging out with groups of people (not that that's not fun, it's just dating is more fun).

3. This wasn't necessarily at the end of January, more at the beginning of February, but....

I'M FINALLY GETTING MY BIKE BACK - TOMORROW! I'm super-stoked. I haven't ridden my bike since September, and I miss it. Anyone who wants to go mountain biking soon, let me know, and we'll go. Hopefully it's not too snowy.

Other than that, just trying to find a job still that will fit my schedule, and working on staying on top of school assignments. Life is good!

Tell-Tale Heart

2010-01-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

This was so crazy, and a friend of mine told me to post about it.

So the other night, I was sleeping (cool, huh?), and usually I don't wake up in the middle of the night. But this night, I did. I also don't usually sleep on my back, but this night, I was. So I woke up, wondering "Why did I wake up? That's weird." Usually if I wake up it's because of noises or motion. So I started listening really attentively. What did I hear? A knocking sound - in the constant rhythm of a heartbeat.

Yes, I was creeped out. I thought of The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. Yeah, kinda crazy. I wondered "what kind of animal could be right above my head and have that strong of a heartbeat?" But, I couldn't think of any. So I felt my own heartbeat. It was exactly in sync with the knocking heart above my head!!! I moved a little, and my back came up off the bed for a second, and the knocking stopped in that second. I finally figured it out - my heartbeat was causing my bed to move just enough to make my helmet (which hangs on my bed-post) to hit the wall! After this, I was no longer creeped out, but amazed at how cool this was!

So I discovered that I have a really strong heart. :)

Flight of the Arrow

2010-01-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it's been a while since I last posted on my blog. School has started up again, and it's keeping me busy!

As per the Dating Race, I've fallen behind quite a bit! Shayla is rockin' the planet by dating so many awesome guys, and Jon is right behind her (dating girls though). Me? I've run into a couple of "obstacles" that aren't necessarily bad, but just have kept me from asking more girls out and accepting suggestions from others of people to take out. However, I've decided to not let those obstacles stop me anymore. Even though I don't expect to catch up to Jon and Shayla, I hope to at least stay in the game.

In school, there have been a few cool things going on for me! Well, really just one, but it's really pretty awesome. So you might remember that I started working in a Research Lab at the University of Utah a semester ago. I picked a really good lab to work in, for a few reasons: 1. It's flexible, 2. It involves doing work that is less mundane than others, and 3. We have had some significant success and are in the process of PUBLISHING A PAPER on it! How cool is that? As an undergraduate with a little over 2 years left still, I'll have my name on a published article! I'm hoping that we will be able to continue to progress and hopefully repeat this process once more before I graduate. I will, of course, let you all know when the paper is done, but for now, I'm just excited to be involved in something so cool! I think this will help increase the amount of responsibility that I have in the lab as well, because we want to get some really good images and data out in the next couple of months to include in our Results section. Yeah, I'm pretty excited.

Also, in our Ward Missionary Committee (I don't remember if I've said that I'm our Ward Mission Leader), we've recently started to go out and visit young single adults within our ward boundaries to invite them to come to our activities and meet new people and come back to Church. It's been very rewarding to be more involved in the Lord's work, and I hope that we'll be able to reach some people who need the light of the Gospel in their lives.

Basically, my life is wonderful. The only not-so-good thing that's going on right now is that I have a pretty bad cold that didn't allow me to sleep (like, at all) last night. But that seems like a minor setback in comparison with all the blessings I have. Yeah, there are things I would like to change, like being single, not having a steady source of income, etc., but I'm finding that "it's not hitting the target, it's the flight of the arrow". (I don't know who that quote is by, but it's cool.)

Dating Race Update

2010-01-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

So THIS is going well!

It's been a really good experience so far! It's only the 3rd day in, but it feels like we've been doing this for a while already! I'm surprised (pleasantly) at the attitude change that I've experienced toward dating, and the great topics that I've had the chance to talk to my friends about with this thing going on.

After reading Elder Oaks' talk, which Jon also posted on our dating blog, I realized that this is a good way for me to take dating more seriously! I know it probably seems like we're taking dating LESS seriously with this "competition". But to be honest, I couldn't care less if I lost the race. I'm just glad to have an extra incentive to ask girls out! It's already helped me to stay in the mindset of dating as a priority in my life. I've dated somewhat consistently in the past, but i feel like this is really helping me to focus on it. Of course, when school starts up again in a week (on the 11th), I'm betting my "date rate" will decrease significantly. But I will still try to have asking girls out in the forefront of my mind.

I want everyone to know that the people I take out on these dates are people I would normally feel comfortable asking out, not just people around me to take on dates so that I can beat Shayla and Jon. Jon did a great job of explaining why we're doing this in his post, "Not Just a Number", which I completely agree with, but I wanted to explain my own personal view on it as well.

I'd like to hear what each of you think about our dating idea, whether you like it or not, what you would do differently, etc... Make your comments as long or short as you like, just try to keep it considerate. Thanks!

Delayed Christmas Present!

2009-12-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, I received some cash from a few different sources. I have been wanting to get one of these for a while (especially after seeing my sister's), and hoped to get one for Christmas, but I figured it was a little out of my parents' (or Santa's) price range, (since they told me it was). So, combining the cash gifts I received, and supplementing any further expenses out of my own account, I purchased something to help me through the rest of my schooling:

Here it is! A 7 X 10.3 inch Netbook, with up to 10.5 hours of battery life!

I'm pretty excited.

If any of you have any extra Microsoft Office licenses lying around, let me know. :)

The Dating Race!

2009-12-28T14:16:00.002-07:00

This is exciting stuff! For the month of January, a couple of friends from my ward and I are having a friendly competition called the dating race! We are seeing how many dates we can go on in the month of January, 2010. Each of the dates will be blogged about, and you can read all about it at the blog:

http://thedatingrace.blogspot.com/

Please check it out, become a follower, and let all your friends know! If you have any friends (Requirements: female, between the ages of 18-28, someone you think I would get along with) then e-mail me at kappyt3@gmail.com with their information (name, number, and anything else you wish to share). I'm pretty excited. Even if I don't win, I'm excited to get into the habit of dating a lot for the year 2010. Also, I'd love to hear your comments or suggestions!

Cliche Christmas Post!

2009-12-28T09:44:00.004-07:00

For Christmas every year, we draw names in my family to buy each other gifts. This year, Chelsey drew my name, and she got me such an awesome present! It's this Cateye Strada bike computer, which will help me monitor my speed and time, and the distances I've gone on my bike (once I get it back). I'm really excited because it's very small so it won't be bulky or weigh my bike down or anything.

I drew Celeste's name. For the past few months, she's kind of been obsessed with a website called "My Life is Average".

So when I got her name, I wasn't sure what to get her, but then as I was reading on this site, I saw the link "MLIA swag is here" or something like that, so I found out they have t-shirts for exactly what our set limit was! It was a Christmas miracle! So I bought it, and waited for it to arrive, so I could wrap it without her seeing it. Then, on Festivus, (Dec. 23rd), I was leaving work, and saw a huge box lined with tons of bubble wrap! If you are familiar with MLIA at all, you'll know that many "average" people are enthralled and overly excited about bubble wrap, so I wrapped her shirt in it. I was so excited to see her face, and it was better than expected! My sisters rock.

This is the coolest gift of them all (I think). So as adults, we don't expect as "large" a Christmas as we used to as kids. We each got our stockings, the exchange gifts, and then one gift each from Santa. After it all wound down, our Dad handed out to each of us kids a small bag with nothing but a couple of pieces of paper in them. One was a set of instructions, the other was a clue we each had to follow. They were hard clues, but finding the small, rolled up pieces of paper at the place the clue described was sometimes even harder! Each clue had a piece of a drawn, burned map wrapped around it. After each of us had gathered about 8 or 9 pieces of 4 different maps, we combined our efforts to put the maps together. They involved different allusions from The Lord of the Rings, Princess Bride, and some other made-up, similarly fictional landmarks. We each followed the map to try to decide if the "Cliffs of Insanity" were the outside wall of our house, or the banister in our living room, if "Mount Doom" was the oven or the grill outside, or if the "Blowholes" were the heater vents or spouts in our downstairs shower. We then found our individual, wrapped presents. Mine was a wooden turtle-shaped box, similar to this one, but much cooler. Inside, I found some Christmas cash and a note from my parents telling me how much they love and appreciate me. I'm sure my sisters received the same. My parents are so creative and so willing to spend time to serve us kids. I'm very grateful for them.

Even more, I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who loved us so much He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for me, and for each one of us. It's a gift I can't comprehend fully, but I'm grateful that during Christmas, I have the added opportunity to spend time pondering that sacrifice, and think of ways I can try to show my gratitude. Oh, how I love the gospel of Jesus Christ! (See top right widget for more inspiring thoughts on Christmas.)

Fixed!

2009-12-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

It works again. I knew I just had to call it out. You can still feel free to leave your comments.

Hit Counter

2009-12-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

It's broken. I haven't been able to see how many people are viewing my blog since the last time I looked at it for a few weeks now! Oh well, you'll just have to leave comments to let me know. That's all.

Another Dating Story

2009-12-15T15:37:00.003-07:00

This year, I met a girl who I thought was very beautiful. I didn't talk to her for a while, but then we started talking at a fireside. She was telling me about how she was training for a short race that weekend. We decided to go running together early in the morning before I had to go to school. So we did! I ended up asking her out, and she agreed!

So we went on our first date, and I had a great time. It was very casual, and we just had a nice conversation the whole night. A few days later, I called to ask her out again, and she told me it sounded fun, but for her, it would only be as friends.

Of course, I was sad that she wasn't as interested in me as I was in her, but I couldn't help but feel grateful for her honesty. It is so much less stressful and difficult to just know how a person feels than to continually have to guess. I'm still very impressed by this girl, and I think sometimes that maybe she'll "change her mind" and give me another chance - (probably not :) ).

So to all those who are honest in your relationships, I commend and thank you. :)

Connections

2009-12-11T16:32:00.002-07:00

Being LDS, having served a mission, and having friends that have served missions, and knowing quite a few friends in Provo provides ample opportunities to find out connections between people. If I meet someone in Salt Lake, I can usually find someone that we both know fairly well. The world just becomes a small place. So it doesn't come as much of a surprise when I find out someone I know knows someone I know. (Hehe, I like that sentence.)

However, there are those times when the connection is kind of bizarre and really cool.

Today, I was talking with a girl named Rhiannon, who is in my major and we've had a few classes together. We came to find out that both her dad and both of my parents had grown up and/or gone to high school in a little place called Morgan, Utah. I decided to ask my parents if they knew Rhiannon's dad, and Rhiannon did the same. Well, later, she sent me a text saying "Did your dad have a brother named Reed?"

Side-story: The answer is yes, I have an uncle named Reed. He passed away before I was born, when he was 13, having been struck by lightning along with my grandpa (who lived) on a golf course. I always remember seeing his picture on my grandparents' wall at their house, and I always felt like, if he were alive, he and I would have gotten along very well. Not too long ago, I mentioned this to my sisters, and they said they had felt the same way! Kind of cool.

So I answered yes, but that he had died when he was 13. She sent me this: "Yes! When he was struck by lightning on the golf course... Holy cow. He and my dad were best friends growing up. My youngest brother is named after him."

How cool is that? I of course was kind of blown away by that, so I told her, and she responded with "You can imagine how I felt, hearing 'Dave Carruth? [my dad's name] Yeah, he's actually Reed's brother.' I've heard about Reed my whole life, and I go to school with his nephew!" [Me].

Anyways, this was one sweet connection to a somewhat random person. Who do you know that I know? :)

Midterms, Madness, Mercies

2009-12-03T16:00:00.002-07:00

This semester has been a really stressful one. My classes are not easy, and there's always something due in at least one of them. This week has been especially rough with 2 midterms and a large project due tomorrow.

I've been trying to organize my time better so that I can get more done, including homework, cleaning my room, preparing scholarship applications, serving in my calling, and having time to spend with friends. However, organization is one of the weaker points of my personality, and I can't seem to figure it out. This week I've just gone to school, then work, then as soon as I get home, I pull out the books and study until I go to bed. Kind of crazy.

This morning, I had to wake up even earlier than usual to get to school on time for one of the above-mentioned midterms (Differential Equations). I've been relying a lot on divine help to get me through this week and in general through my schooling. I've noticed a lot of help on exams and homework assignments, so much that I know that if I do my part, I'll be blessed. But this morning, Heavenly Father decided to reassure me of His love and willingness to help me in my life. I know this might sound so simple and coincidental, but to me it wasn't. I went out to my car, and as I was pulling out, I stopped for a second to close the garage door. In that second, I looked up at the bright, almost-full moon right outside my car window, and in that one second, a shooting star went flying right past the moon. I drove to school with a smile on my face.

I'm just thankful for a Heavenly Father who sends us tender mercies, even when we feel like we'd do OK without them.

Feast or Famine

2009-11-30T16:29:00.002-07:00

It's never a consistent meal-plan.

Anyone else experience this? (I'm not talking about food.)

Confocal Microscopy and Cell Segmenting - Hearts

2009-11-20T15:09:00.003-07:00

Don't be scared. I promise you can understand this.

So at the beginning of this semester, I started working in a research lab at the U. So far it's been a really cool learning experience for me. Sometimes it's frustrating because I feel like I'm not much of a contribution (which is true), but over the next couple of years, this should give me a great experience, and help with applications to grad schools and employment in the future.

I just wanted to explain a little about what I do. Overall the purpose is to better understand how heart cells change when they are in a diseased state vs. a normal state, so that we can know how to replace those cells with tissue engineered ones - (as one possible solution).

What I do is take rabbit and rat hearts, and slice them into very thin (~100 micrometers) slices, and then dye them with antibodies that attach specifically to proteins on the cell membrane, followed by secondary antibodies which fluoresce. Then, we use confocal microscopy to create a 3-d image of the fluorescent antibodies which outline the cell. It looks something like this, only with a bunch of cells all connected to each other, rather than separate:

My main responsibility is to use a computer program to form an outline in 3 dimensions of as many of these cells as I can, without the outlines overlapping, and as close to the actual borders of the cells as possible. These images are then processed and we are able to analyze how the cells deform given certain stresses or other stimuli.

It's cool to be able to learn more about this, and it makes me more and more interested in hearts and how they function. After all, our heart is the life-organ of our existence.

Leaf Day

2009-11-15T14:46:00.003-07:00

Today was leaf day. For those of you who aren't in my family. Here it is:

Every year, this tree in our backyard waits until the very last moment to shed its leaves. It's almost always after the first real snowstorm of winter. All of the other trees lose their leaves over time, but this one dumps them all in one day. So it's become a sort of holiday in our family called Leaf Day. Traditions? Enjoy the beauty of falling leaves onto a blanket of snow!

Oh how I love institute!

2009-11-11T21:34:00.003-07:00

So if you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend taking an institute class from Bro. Frogley at the University of Utah Institute. At the beginning of this semester, I was concerned with how I was going to keep the motivation to get through the next year of hard classes after a summer semester.

Luckily, on the first day of the semester, I went to Bro. Frogley's class, and after it was over, I knew that throughout the semester, my institute class would be what would help keep me motivated about working hard and doing well in all of my other classes. It really has too.

Why?

Brother Frogley teaches differently than any seminary or institute teacher I've ever had before. He's so focused on ensuring that we not only hear what he says, but that we have a change of heart and desire to do something about what we learn from the Spirit. I'm in his 3 Nephi - (Sermons of the Savior) class. We started in chapter 11, and we're only just finishing chapter 13 right now. We take so much time analyzing every scripture by defining words, even conjunctions and their functions :) and Brother Frogley does an amazing job at teaching us what he has learned about the scriptures and how much information is packed in each verse, so it takes forever just to get through one section - and I love it. It's cool that at the end of class I think "Oh man, it's already been an hour?" and not wanting to leave because I'm learning so much about what I should be changing in my life.

So, if I could explain it all to you in greater detail, explaining every verse like we have in class, I would. But I can't right now, because of time. So I recommend taking a class from him and actively participating so you can understand what I'm talking about. However, as a brief example, I will explain a couple of verses from chapter 13 that we talked about today:

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal;

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

22 The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

I'm even going to have to shorten this, because I think we spent 30 min. talking about these few verses. Basically, we were trying to determine how we can become "grace-giving servants" to those around us. When we talked about treasures, in the context of v. 21, we discussed how the heart is the center of the soul, and whatever is in our hearts (our treasure) will be what determines our confidence, our power, our support, etc. Treasures on earth (money, prestige, even family) are corruptible, and therefore are not guaranteed to be eternal. Really, the only thing that we know is incorruptible is God. So our treasure, we decided, should be the Savior, which should be the focus of our hearts. The next couple of verses (some of my favorites) are "next" for a reason. They answer the question "How do we keep the Savior in our hearts all the time?". Because the eye is a "conduit" to the heart, if we view good things, or if we view the Savior in all things, then our hearts will automatically become focused on him, and the result is that "[our] whole body shall be filled with light".

Again, this is a watered-down version without a lot of the amazing comments that people give in class, and reading this is probably less influential on you than hearing it was for me in a spiritual setting, but even then, isn't that cool how many new insights you gained from those few verses? We do that with every scripture we read.

So yeah, take institute, because it'll give you the boost and motivation you need to do better.

Tribute

2009-10-26T15:44:00.001-06:00

To awesome dates!

Sometimes, it's easy to get tired of going on dates when you don't see a lot of "fruits" from your efforts. By "fruits" I mean getting along with someone well enough to see a relationship grow.

Then, there are those times when you go on a date, and it's just refreshing to be able to talk with someone, and because you're similar enough, you can understand each other and just have a great time. It is my experience that these types of dates are rare, and should therefore be treated as such. I think that's what most single people are looking for.

So this is my thank you - to those whose personality "rings" with mine.

Post-Fall Break Post

2009-10-19T16:20:00.004-06:00

Last week was fall break at the U. I love fall break. Especially when you have an awesome Dad that picks that week and the week of spring break for your houseboat share for the year, and you get to go waterskiing in October. How awesome is that??? I had a great time. I think I'm skiing better, I got all the way around on a backflip again, I got a nice pre-winter tan (along with slightly bleached hair), and discovered what I'm going to be for halloween. Plus, I got to sleep in and relax with very little homework to do. Did some sweet rock-climbing, played on one of the best sand dunes I know of, tried to flip a kayak, played with my little cousins, and got to spend some quality time with my family. That's the best possible scenario I can experience right now, and I loved it! I'll try to get some pictures of our trip to post on here.

So it's kind of hard to come back to school and work and just... responsibility. lol. But life doesn't stop for a vacation, so I've gotta get back into the grind of working hard every second of the day and going on little sleep and food.

And finally, this is kind of a funny story, and I hope you enjoy it:
Today, I found out that I wouldn't be able to do anything in my research lab, so I headed over to the institute to get some studying done in the couple of hours before my institute class. After a little while, a couple of girls came into the place I was sitting, and I recognized them, I had seen them before in the same place on a Monday. They wore white uniform shirts with some sort of badge on the arm that I was too far away to read. One of the girls, I really thought was beautiful, and seemed very nice. I spent the next hour and a half reading a paragraph, then looking up at her, reading another paragraph, taking another glance, etc... So for the last hour (not joking) I sat there thinking about ways to go and talk to this one girl without being too strange or awkward, or making her friends laugh at me, or getting rejected and embarrassed. I racked my brain, and nothing seemed like it would be normal. I hoped maybe her friends would leave before my class started, or that she would get up and walk past so I could pull her aside and ask a "curiosity question" about their shirts or something. Of course, neither of those things happened. I tried getting up the courage as I gathered my books, but I just stood up and walked downstairs and into my classroom. It was empty, and I put my stuff down and started hitting myself in the head for not talking to this girl! lol, this story's making me laugh as I tell it! So, I knew I would feel so stupid if I didn't, so I went back upstairs (a different way, to give me more time to prepare - [this ended up being useless]), and after a couple of hesitations, I walked back there without my stuff, walked right up to the table and said "Hi. I was wondering what these shirts are for." or something like that. I didn't get names or anything, I just blundered along through my words, and then said "Well, see ya." and I left. So girls, if a guy come up to you and asks some stupid question, and looks like an idiot just standing there not really knowing what to say, it means he thinks you're attractive and would like to get to know you better. Anyways, it wasn't a total disaster, but I just wish I had gotten up the courage earlier and not waited, or that I had spent just a few more minutes and at least gotten her name or something. Now I can only hope to see her again and have another chance. So guys, get up the courage, and remember that Nike was right when they coined the phrase "Just do it" (and the apostolic addition - "Just do it right").

HAHA! So, immediately after finishing this story, I got into my car to drive home and plugged in my phone, which is on shuffle. The very first song that came on was "My Stupid Mouth" by Jon Mayer. It's not exact, but I feel very similar...

tfehT

2009-09-30T16:34:00.002-06:00

It spells theft backwards. Why? Because I'm getting my bike back!!!

The amazing campus police found my bike (and a few others that had been stolen) in a pawn shop. They had been sold for $50 a piece! That's it! Can you imagine stealing something in order to get 1/16 or LESS of its worth? Ridiculous. Anyways, I'm just really excited to get my bike back. And you can bet I won't be taking it to campus anymore, that's what 20-dollar D.I. bikes are for.

So, this is me today:

Prayer

2009-09-29T22:09:00.002-06:00

So this is a somewhat unusual post, but it's something that's been very important for me.

I'm amazed at the power of prayer. I think a lot of the world thinks of prayer only in dire circumstances, or as an in-church ritual (maybe I'm wrong). For me, prayer is a daily activity that blesses my life in enormous ways.

I've always been taught to pray, and even though I haven't always been perfectly consistent in my daily personal prayers, as I've grown and matured, I've noticed a difference in my attitude about life between those times when I'm consistently praying, and when I'm not. The first time I noticed a huge blessing from prayer was in 10th grade in High School. I was taking an honor's english class from a teacher who was well-known for having extremely high standards in grading. We had to write an essay that was due the first day of class on a book we were to read over the summer. The grading scale was 0-9, with 9 being the highest possible score. Well, I got a 4 on that summer assignment. The next essay we had to write was to be an in-class essay on the next book we were assigned to read. I'd never written an in-class essay. 50 minutes to answer a specific question and compile all of my thoughts about a book intelligently into a well-written masterpiece was somewhat frightening.

So, I prayed. I didn't just pray, I read the book. During the week before the in-class essay, I reviewed the important parts of the book, and prayed, and thought about what possible questions I might be asked to write about. I did this consistently each night, with lots of prayer. The day of the essay, I prayed again, and again, and again before the essay (in my mind). It was so cool to look at the paper and notice that the question was very similar to one that I had thought of in my studies that week! I started writing, and felt I had done well. I would have been happy with a 6.

A couple of weeks later, the essays were graded, and this teacher posted a few "excellent" examples of essays (without names) on the wall. As I walked into class, I heard some people by the wall say "Someone got a 9! That's crazy!" I walked over, and saw that it was my handwriting!

I know that's a really simple example, and a lot of people will say that it was just due to the fact that I studied hard. I partially agree. However, I know I couldn't have done that without the help of Heavenly Father. Since then, I have had many similar experiences with my prayers being answered as I tried my best to fulfill my end of the "deal".

My life is busy. Not nearly as busy as some people I know, but busy enough for me. I wouldn't be able to keep my head above water without prayer.

Without prayer, my life would be much more difficult. I'm so grateful for the availability of a "phone a friend" to a loving Father who knows all the answers, and that He speaks to us, both through Prophets (yeah for General Conference!) and through His Spirit.

Theft

2009-09-24T15:55:00.002-06:00

Someone stole my bike today.

I know that there are a lot of much worse things that could happen to a person, but still, getting something of worth stolen from you is awful. I bought this bike about a year and a half ago, and have loved it the whole time. I've taken it riding up in the mountains several times, and at Lake Powell. Plus, I ride it around campus every day, which makes it possible for me to get to all my classes on time. So today, someone decided to deprive me of my mountain biking "pride and joy". I'm amazed that some people think that they have a right to take something, even if they haven't worked for it. When I noticed that it was gone, I just felt sick.

Really, it's like this person just stole a bunch of money, time and love from me. Because that's what the bike represented for me. I spent a lot of time working on it, enjoying riding it, and earning the money to pay for it. All of a sudden, it's gone.

Anyways, I'm trying to keep a smile on and remember that it's just an expensive piece of metal, and that there are much worse things that could happen to me that haven't. I'm hoping it will turn up (unharmed) somewhere, and that I can get it back. If not, I guess I'll just have to start saving up for a new one in a few years.

Moral of the story: Don't steal. It's rude. Not to mention it's one of the 10 commandments! Sinner. lol

Frustration vs. Optimism

2009-09-11T17:10:00.003-06:00

I guess this is kind of an explanatory post. If any of you have noticed that I haven't been quite my cheery self as of late, there is a reason, and it's not that I'm depressed or struggling a ton. Really, it's mostly from school, and then it effects the other aspects of my life.

So, as explained in my previous post, I have kind of a hectic schedule right now. The main classes that are getting to me are Biostats and Differential Equations.

Let me start with Diff Eq's: The professor is obviously amazing at math, and luckily, he's american, so I can understand every word that he says. I just don't always follow what the words mean. He assumes that we know a lot more than I think most of the class actually knows. For homework, he requires a very strict format, including a form of the question, every step written out, with explanations of those steps, and then an answer check at the end. It usually takes longer to write the homework than to actually do the problem! Anyways, it's a hard class.

Second, Biostats. For the first couple of weeks, I thought this class was going to be a breeze. Then we got a homework assignment, and I realized that I had no idea what I was doing! How frustrating is that? So I stayed up late trying to figure it out, with little success. Luckily, (again), he gave us some extra time to finish and turn it in, because he realized that very few people in the class understood how to do the assigned problems. So really, I should be grateful and excited because of the two "luckily"s.

On a happier note, I think I aced the physics exam I had today, and my other class isn't really too difficult - Strengthening Families. Anyway, I occasionally (meaning about once every year or two) have to set a goal to just BE happier, without expecting things to MAKE me happier. So that's what I'm doing now.

Business

2009-09-02T17:08:00.003-06:00

I mean business as "busy - ness", and I mean business.

There's just too much enjoyable in life to let it slip by without making the most of every second. I've been amazed at how much it's possible to accomplish in the short period of 24 hours, including the 7-8 hours of sleep that I (attempt to) get. Here's a "run-down" (hilarious office episode) of one of my busy days:

6:10am- Wake up, eat
6:30am- Go running/excercise in some way
7:00am- Get ready (Breakfast, Shower, etc.)
7:40am- Rock out to some tunes on the drive
8:30am- Class (Biostats)
9:20am- Study/Work in Research lab
10:30am- Institute
11:40am- Institute
12:55pm- Class (Physics)
1:45pm- Ride bike back up to car
2:00pm- Rock out to some tunes on the drive
2:30pm- Work
5:30pm- Go home, eat dinner

From here on, my days vary from one to the next. Here are some suggestions (to myself?) of the best things to do at this time of the day:

-Water-skiing
-Ultimate Frisbee
-Dates
-Homework
-Ward Activities
-Chill with the fam (watch psych, talk, make cool stuff, water-skiing [I can put it as many times as I want], etc.)

10:30-11:30pm- Prepare for and go to bed!

That's not even that busy!

Isn't it amazing how much we can do? ("Yes" is the correct response.)

School! And over 100 views!

2009-08-26T15:19:00.002-06:00

Well, it's official. School's started. It actually started on Monday. Also, today my blog passed 100 views! Thank you to all my faithful readers (all few of you) for helping me achieve this greatness.

My school schedule this semester is going to be kind of rough. I'm taking "calculus-based physics", "differential equations and linear algebra", "biostatistics", and "strengthening families". That's 14 credit hours of mostly-math enjoyment! I've realized that taking summer classes is helpful for reducing later semesters' stress levels, but it makes it a lot more difficult to jump right back into school for the fall and spring semesters after only a 2-week break.

Anyway, I am now officially accepted into the Bioengineering Major! That just means I get to start taking more difficult classes. I'm excited though. It looks like it will still take me 3 years (including this one) to graduate with a bachelor's. That's a little longer than I would like, but I guess it'll be ok just as long as I finish sometime. Plus, I don't mind school. I enjoy learning, it's just the expense and the stress of it all that are annoying/frustrating.

So, if you'd like to donate to the "Education for Life Fund - for Eric Carruth" just send me an e-mail or give me a call! Or, my bank account number is 3 at that one bank. Thanks for all your support!

Ultimate!

2009-08-20T12:08:00.007-06:00

How have I not devoted a post to this sport yet? I've mentioned it (see "Sports") but I have more than just an interest in the game.

If you've read my profile, I explain very briefly that one of my greatest motivators is watching and imagining what people are capable of, physically, mentally, spiritually, etc. It is my belief that this is the reason why I love to play ultimate frisbee. There is something that happens automatically in my mind and (dare I say) even my soul, every time the frisbee goes up into the air. Immediately, subconsciously, my reaction is "Is it possible to catch?". I don't think it, it just happens, and I go. My favorite plays are when someone on my team throws the frisbee toward the endzone, but either they throw it too far, or they try to push my limits, and I have to really book it to even come close to the disc. As I run at full speed, it seems like the frisbee is so far out of my reach, I'll never get to it in time. It starts its inevitable descent, still yards in front of me, and just as it's about 6 inches from the ground, I dive, barely get my fingers under the edge, with my wrist just grazing the grass, and slide for a while with the disc in my hand. Mmmm...

Anyway, I've loved this sport ever since I first played. I think I was about 12 years old, maybe younger, and we went up to my Grandparents' house in Mt. Green. A bunch of my older cousins and uncles went down to the park to play. I'd never heard of it, so they explained the rules to me, and we played. I wasn't very good, so they didn't throw me the frisbee a lot, but when they did, and I caught it, I felt elated. Every time we went up there, I wanted to play again. One winter, I missed playing so much, that after a snow-storm, I geared up and headed over to the elementary school field with my dad's purple "Ripper" frisbee in my hand. The field was white (not already to harvest, covered in snow). I threw the frisbee as far as I could, and started rolling a snowball toward where I had thrown it. I got there, threw it again, and rolled the snowball. Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn't roll the snowball anymore, so I just threw the frisbee around a little. My dad and sis. came over and tried to help me move the snowball more, but it just cracked down the middle.

The next significant chunk of time we spent playing was in High School. We played a lot. About once every other week in the summer. Mostly, it was because people would say, "Hey, let's do something." Someone else would say "What?". Then I would say "Let's meet at Southwood [a park] and decide." I think I gained a few enemies out of our female friends at the time, because they hated playing all the time, but I just couldn't get enough. We played for hours and hours.

At one such game, the injury period began. It was 2 weeks before our Senior trip down to Lake Powell, just after we had graduated. I was running behind the ultimate wizard, trying to catch up before he grabbed the frisbee (which he did in the end). He tripped over something in the ground, his leg stuck out, and I tripped over his leg. Fell onto my left shoulder and broke my collar bone. That hurt.

At another game, I ran into a hill, and really hurt my foot. I couldn't walk on it for a while.

After my mission, the streak continued. A day or two before I reported on my mission in our Ward, I broke my thumb. Ran into another guy. I didn't think it was broken, until two weeks later when I finally went and got X-rays. Had to have surgery to fix the 35-degree angled thumb bone.

Just after my thumb healed, I got the torn cartilage in my knee stuck in the joint playing ultimate. Had to have surgery to sew the cartilage back together. 6 months of healing time.

It's been two years now since I've seriously injured myself playing ultimate. I kind of had to tone down my playing style to avoid those injuries, but I think it's smarter. We play about once a week, sometimes more. There was one week where I played about 11 hours of frisbee in 3 days, with 3 consecutive games (all unrelated). Basically, it's a passion of mine to play, especially with my friends from High School, and my Ward, (and the girls that come and play - awesome!).

The last significant thing, is that we (my High School friends + 1 and myself) won the Intramural championship at BYU. We got t-shirts. If I can, I'll post a picture later. Right here:

Anyway, I love the sport.

Wow, I think this is one of my longest posts. Hope you're not too bored.

10:00

2009-08-17T14:29:00.003-06:00

I've decided 10:00 is a crucial time of the day. I will try to explain why:

10:00am-

This is the point of the day that determines how happy you will be for the rest of the day. If you wake up early, exercise, eat right, do some service, or get some productive things done by this time, and have a good attitude, I think that the rest of the day will take care of itself. If you're still sleeping at this time (literally or figuratively), you'll probably be in a similar state of mind for the rest of the day.

10:00pm-

This is the point of the day that determines how you will spend your night. If you're already out and about with friends at exactly 10:00pm, you'll probably stay out 'til midnight or later. If you're not doing anything at all, and you're not on a date, and 10:00 rolls around, you might as well go to bed.

If you're on a date - two options -

1. If you're already doing something really fun, you'll probably end up saying "whoa, where did the time go?" when you see that it's midnight or later (which is a good thing).

2. If you're not doing anything, you spend the next couple of hours worrying about what to do.

I don't know why this is, but 10:00 is an important time of day (and night).

Who loves summer weekends? OOH! OOH! ME!

2009-08-17T09:20:00.004-06:00

So.

Friday at around noon, I left work. That was when it started. I drove my car (pre-packed the night before, with tent, bag, sleeping bag, AIR CHAIR, etc.), with Shayla up to Bear Lake for our HUGE Stake Boating activity. Seriously, there were 500-600 people up there! It was crazy. Anyways, so we got there, waited around a few minutes, then decided to head down to the beach to take out my air chair, which is why I went. (See previous posts.)

We got out to the beach, and lucky enough for us, President Plumb's brother and his son were there with their boat, beckoning (well kind of, they were pretty tired of being out on the choppy water, and I'm sure they were hungry too, but they were nice enough to take us out) for us to come onto their boat. So, they let me ride my air chair. I jumped a couple of times to get used to the tower, then tried the backflip again - no good. Then I decided I would try the flip off the wake, because I usually get more air that way - again, no good. So I rode it back toward the shore (I had ridden for quite a while already). As we were coming back toward the beach, I realized my turn was just about over, so I decided to try it one more time outside the wake. I cut out, waited for the slack a little, pulled back, jumped and threw my head back. I kind of expected to land on my head again, or my stomach, since that's where I usually do, but I landed on my butt! I landed it! I had the rope in my hand! It kind of caught me by surprise, and water was splashing me in the face, so I kind of unconsciously let go, as I heard the people in the boat cheering. It was awesome!!! I can't wait to go again, and hopefully get it more consistent. Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera. For second witnesses, ask Katie Kelson or Shayla Dickson.

So, from then on, it didn't really matter what else I did, I would have had an awesome weekend. The rest was awesome too, though! We headed back for a free steak and baked potato dinner that our Stake had made (yes, for 500-600 people, they provided STEAK!) Then, we drove up to Lava Hot Springs to camp out. Sat around the fire with a nice little group of friends from our ward, and laughed until about 2:30 am. The next morning, we ate a cold breakfast, went to the hot pools, floated the river, swam in the pool, ate lunch and drove home! That night, I washed my car, watched a movie and listened to awesome music.

Sunday I slept in (always a bonus), then woke up to prepare a lesson for Elder's Quorum (yes I procrastinate, but this time I was told I would be teaching late Saturday night). At Church, our ward boundaries were changed, and we got a new bishopric called into our ward. It was definitely an eventful Sunday.

And overall an eventful weekend!

Towers

2009-08-12T12:39:00.004-06:00

There was once a time when I never really thought I'd say this, but I wish we had a tower on our boat. Lately, if you can't tell from reading my posts, I've been kind of obsessed with air chairing. Only those of you who have actually "flown" on the thing realize why this is. Maybe some of you who have cleared the wake on a wakeboard can come close to understanding, but the air chair/sky ski is just a whole new level of fun. It's amazing to be able to jump wherever you want, and even though I don't get way high all the time, it's even better to land, and not be jarred by hitting the surface of the water. Every time I switch from a boat with a tower to one without, or the other way around, I'm amazed at the difference that it makes in how easy/hard it is to fly. So, since a lot of people aren't familiar with hydrofoils, I've decided to give a little info. on them:

I'll summarize here, but for the full article, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofoil

So the concept of a hydrofoil is very similar to an airplaine wing. As water passes over the rear blade of the foil, which is angled slightly downward, the front wing is tilted upward. When the water passes over the front blade, the water going over the blade has to travel faster, and the pressure above the blade is reduced, thereby increasing the net force upward, providing lift. (Sorry, I have to sound scientific when I talk about stuff like this.)

Because of this physical property, some genius people (including Alexander Graham Bell - see above article) realized that they could lift a boat up out of the water, reducing drag, and increasing speed. Which is what they did. Several hydrofoil-equipped boats were made, and used in the military. Because the blade rides beneath the surface of the water, turbulence is almost eliminated, and it really feels like you're flying.

I'm amazed that there aren't any postings on wikipedia for hydrofoiling as a water sport, for air chair or sky ski. So, I had to gather the rest of this info. from their respective sites:

http://www.airchair.com/rider/history.htm
http://www.skyski.com/

Basically, it took a few years to get to the types of foils they have today. I have a 5-6 year old sky ski, and I love to ride it!

I've posted a few videos of one of the best air chair gurus in the world - Geno Yauchler (see below - just ignore the break dance instructions). Also, you can watch these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoGqdZNdb_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpbCQp9vlEE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBYuDgt05Pg&feature=related

And you can watch one of my several attempts at a backflip on my facebook page.

If you or anyone you know wants to try it, let me know!

Except, we don't have a tower... ;)

Backflips!

2009-08-10T08:55:00.004-06:00

So, I know you're all wondering, "Was Eric's weekend as good as he hoped for???".

It was AWESOME! So, as stated, we drove up to Morgan on Friday night (me, Celeste, and Jill). My Granparents were so nice, and made Jill some dinner (Celeste and I had already eaten, but we ate a little with her too). My Grandpa is hilarious, he gave her some raspberries, and then said, "You want some cream with those, don't you?" and she just had to agree with him. Our Grandma came in saying "Stephen, kids don't eat berries with cream anymore!" It was hilarious. But I tried some too, and it was actually delicious! My Grandpa is funny though, he kind of forces you to agree with you by saying things like "Now isn't that just the best thing you've ever tasted?". So that was fun. Then we headed over to where my Aunt works, at the "Dance Shack" in Morgan, where she teaches dance and tumbling. I had her watch my backflip and teach me how to do it better. At first she was correcting some things, then she said "Wait, you don't use your arms!" I said "Ok, how can I fix it?" and she said "No, that's awesome! Most people aren't able to do flips like that." So I was kind of happy about that. I still had some form issues, but it was cool to hear. She also showed me how to do a front flip, and I did it! (Just fyi, front flips are harder.)

That night, we slept out on the trampoline, and in the morning, headed up to the lake! We got there around 6:20 and I skied about 20 minutes later. Here's a picture. It was pretty nice water, but freezing cold air! Right after I skied, there were some dark rain clouds coming over, so we grabbed the cover to our boat and just chilled underneath it for about an hour, waiting for the ward to come up. Oh, and David and Andrea were there early too, so they were in the boat with us.

It stayed cold all day, with clouds and wind. I rode our Stake President's wave runner, and afterwards I couldn't stop shivering for about an hour. Finally, at the end of the day, Bro. Linton took me out behind his boat on my newly polished sky ski, which really improved its riding capabilities. And... I almost landed the backflip!

I tried it three times, and the 3rd time was the closest. I'm planning on going up to bear lake this weekend, and I think I'll be able to land it then! I can't wait.

So then we drove home! It was a fun trip up to East Canyon. I'll let you know when I land it. :)

Weekendish awesomeness!

2009-08-07T14:37:00.003-06:00

I just finished summer semester today. Can you say "AWESOME!"? That's what I thought. So to celebrate, tonight, Celeste and I are driving up to Mor-Gan to sleep at my Grandma's house! lol It's gonna be sweet, and then in the morning we're headed to the lake for some water playin' with the ward. I'm excited to try out my sky ski after I polish off the tarnish that's been building up on it. I'm really really really hoping that it fixes the problems it's been having. If not, I'm probably going to have to sell it and look for a better one... :( I love the weekend, especially one right after the last day of finals!

Also, I realized that I haven't posted this or told many people, but on Sunday I was released as Ward Clerk (bitter-sweet), and called as Ward Mission Leader! I'm excited for the change, but it's kind of sad to not be able to work with the Bishopric as closely, even though they're being released soon as well. It's going to be fun to get back into the missionary mindset a little bit, and help the missionaries look for people to teach. Know anyone? :)

So I'm not having a lot of success with getting into a research lab up at the U, and it's getting kind of frustrating. I have a meeting pending with the professor with whom I would like to work - (check out that English) - but I have to wait a week for that one, and even then I'm not sure if he'll want to have me work for him like I want to. I'd really like to get something set up BEFORE fall semester starts, but we'll see if that actually happens or not.

My Sisters

2009-08-03T16:13:00.005-06:00

Since I have the best three sisters in the world, I figure it would be a good idea to post a little tribute to them here.

Chelsey.

Super power: Mind-reader/Telekinesis.

I wouldn't put it past her. She's super-smart, and talented. When she plays the piano, it's like the nerve signal doesn't have to travel all the way down her arms to her fingers, it's just immediate processing.

She also reads books. Lots of them. Fast. This, along with other things, is what, in my opinion, makes her so exceptionally smart. Not that she wouldn't be without it, but all the reading makes her just that much smarter. She's almost always cheerful, and she's been a great example to me throughout my life.

Chels and I talk. Every once in a while, I'll head down to Chelsey's room at around 12:30am and just start talking with her. She's an awesome sounding board for me, and takes the time to listen to what I have to say, and then gives her ingenious input for my life. I don't know if she thinks it's as awesome as I do, but it really has been a blessing to have her to talk to.

Thanks Chel!

Christine. Super power: (Take it as I mean it, please :) ). Christine is like the Jaggernaut on X-Men.

She has momentum that is unstoppable. She's not some huge ugly guy with a ridiculous-looking helmet. She just doesn't stop for obstacles. I mean this both literally and figuratively. Although this picture isn't of her, it looks a lot like her. She's number 1 on the BYU women's lacrosse team, and there have been several instances both in lacrosse and in soccer when she has taken on girls much larger than her and just ran them over like a bulldozer. Also, when Christine puts her mind to something worthwhile, she doesn't stop until she feels like she's satisfied about the job she's done. She can run right over any obstacle. Not to say that it doesn't jar her sometimes, but she keeps trying, and that's as inspiring an attribute as I've ever seen.

Christine and I play hard. She's always been the one that I can count on to play sports and do fun things with. Like snowy hikes, water skiing at 6am, and running a half marathon. She helps me have more motivation to reach higher ("to be that shining star").

Thanks, Christine!

Celeste.

Super power: Lifting spirits of those around her.

She reminds me of a mix between Alice and Jasper from Twilight.* She is very good at making people laugh, which, (I have experienced this) can cure any illness or bad feeling. If you ever feel down on yourself, or sick, or bored, give Celeste a call, and within a few minutes, you won't remember any of those things. She just clears them away like the sun clears dew.

Celeste and I laugh together. She's nice enough to laugh at my lame jokes and make me feel like I'm funny even when I'm not. We watch Psych together (easily the most hilarious tv show ever made, with The Office at second), and have about a gazillion inside jokes.

Thanks, Celeste!

So those are my sisters. Please don't mistake them for my girlfriends. :)

*Yes, I have read the Twilight books. I thought they were good, because of what the vampires could do. I had to take breaks to stop dry-heaving sometimes at the ridiculous girly parts, like when Edward's skin sparkles. What's up with that? Yeah, that made me gag.

Utah

2009-07-31T12:06:00.002-06:00

I live in one of the greatest states ever.

Today, for work, I had to drive up to the U (not the campus, the letter). I had to go up there to take some pictures of a lot that someone wants to build a house on. Someone wealthy, obviously because the view is incredible up there. I could check how much taxes would be just on the lot, but I won't.

Last night, I went up to my Stake President's house for a Bishopric date night. When I say "up", I mean it. His house is the highest up the mountain just East of the I-215 3900 S exit. He has a pool that overlooks the whole valley, and we had a steak dinner out there, and then swam in the pool after watching the beautiful sunset. If I get the chance, I'll hook up my phone and post the picture of the sunset from it right here. It was amazing.

Also, tonight I'm headed up to the Uintah's for a campout with my friends from high school. It's an annual thing we do, and it's tons of fun!

So, with all this mountain stuff, I got to thinking about how many awesome things we have in this great state! Mountains, for hiking, camping, mountain biking, with rivers for floating, lakes for water skiing. Also, we have desert and hot dry air, which is my favorite. Lake Powell, which trumps anything you could argue for any other state. Plus, my family (including most of my extended family) lives here. Pretty much, I've got a great life, and a great location for my personality. I get to do all the awesome things that I love to do, all within an hour of my house.

Sweet.

On Blogs

2009-07-30T09:44:00.002-06:00

So, after doing some minor research into the world of blogging (as this is still fairly new to me), I've discovered that a couple of things help make blogs more interesting:

1. Pictures. Even kids understand this concept. If you're going to read a book to them, there'd better be some illustrations in there, to help their imaginations to soar. It's the same on blogs. Unfortunately for me, my camera got soaked at Lake Powell and doesn't work anymore.

2. Using either eloquent or dramatic speech. This one's harder to explain. For some reason, when things are typed on a page, and you can't hear the person's voice, it can get really monotone in your head. So when people embellish their words and throw out some crazy awesome analogies, it sounds more fun and energetic, and easier to read. I think font type and using some bold or italic fonts would help too. This would have to be something for me to work on, because I just say things the way they are, and I don't like to sound exaggerated. The sad thing is, in a blog post, non-exaggerated sounds bland.

If you have any other observations on what makes a blog a fun blog, let me know!

Sports

2009-07-30T09:34:00.002-06:00

I love playing. This week I've played a sport every night. Monday was volleyball and Tuesday and yesterday were both ultimate.

Volleyball - This was a stake FHE, and anyone could put together a team. I was lucky to be picked on the best one. We went undefeated.

Tues. Ultimate - BYU Coed Intramurals. We aren't undefeated this time. But, we won! We were playing a very good team, that had 3-5 subs, while we were down a player the whole game, and we won 12-5! That was a good feeling. We just beat them with our hustle.

Wed. Ultimate - This was just for fun, with friends from our ward and high school and everything. I love playing, and I can't stop until everyone's gone. Even then, I love to throw the disc around with a couple of people.

So anyways, last night, after all this ultimate and volleyball (both sports in which jumping is required), I felt the effects of not stretching. I was watching psych with my sister and her friend Jill, and I just stretched, and I got the WORST cramp/charlie horse in my calf! I couldn't relax my leg, and it killed and lasted around 5 minutes. I know I'm not old, but I guess I am getting older. Maybe I should stretch before and after I play...

Ahhhhh...

2009-07-27T13:23:00.004-06:00

Saturday night we got home from Powell. Late. I went to my room, laid down on my bed and exhaled. I love that place. It is without question my favorite. Not to mention that I went with my awesomest family and the Shoells, which just made it that much more enjoyable. I could live there.

Of course, it wasn't all just smiles. I did get my camera wet, and it won't turn on anymore, and my sky ski isn't working quite as well as it should. For some reason it keeps just randomly turning on you and stuff - kind of frustrating. I got some scrapes, but overall, we had an awesome, enjoyable trip, and had a lot of fun and time to relax! It was great!

So now I'm back to working and schooling! Hopefully I can catch up on all the stuff I've missed this week in my organic chemistry class and in lab. Because...

I'm going camping this weekend too! Vacation time all over the place. This is the annual guys camping trip with friends from high school. It's going to be sweet. Sadly, I can only go friday night to saturday morning, but it'll be fun anyways. We're headed up to the Uintahs!

The Temple

2009-07-17T15:06:00.010-06:00

So I went to the temple last night, and it was just a nice peaceful experience. There have been a lot of talks in General Conference and other reminders in Church about how we need to visit the temple more often. I was chatting with a member from my mission, where they have to travel close to 1,000 miles to get to the temple in Frankfurt, and how exciting it is that the temple is being built in Kiev. It made me think of how blessed I am to have 4 temples in the Salt Lake Valley, plus 3 others just 20-40 minutes away. So I figured I should go.

While I was there, I read Moroni 7, which is my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I've been thinking a lot lately about faith and how I can strengthen my faith, so it was good to read that and be reminded of how I could. I'm glad I was able to go.

Powell

2009-07-16T17:13:00.004-06:00

Next week we are headed to the BEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! For any of you who don't know where this is, it's in Southeastern Utah/Arizona, and it's called Lake Powell. We are lucky enough to get to go there about twice a year, and every time, I get so excited! This year we're going with the Shoells, a family friend that we've known for a very long time, and we get to go for the whole week! It's gonna be great! Here are a couple of pictures of what we do there:

The Begog

2009-07-16T16:56:00.002-06:00

This is something new for me. I don’t know if my life is interesting enough for other people to read about, but it’s something to do in the very little spare time that I have, and it’s a good way for me to remember my life. I’m pretty bad at keeping a journal, so I thought maybe I’d try this whole blogging thing. My sisters really enjoy blogs, and have their own. You can check their blogs out too - cxclax.blogspot.com and c-bop.blogspot.com. You’ll soon find out that they are the coolest sisters ever (including Chelsey, even though she doesn’t have a blog “BLOG!” yet).

My parents are amazing as well, so put us all together, and you have the coolest family ever made!

Seriously though, we are the best.

Anyways… to start this thing off, I figure I’d better tell you how I got to be where I am now. I’ll keep it brief:

I was born in Ogden, Utah on January 28, 1986. I grew up in Murray, Utah all my life. I went to Murray High School, and then went to the University of Utah for a semester. I then served a 2-year mission in Donets’k, Ukraine. Now I’m back at the U, studying BioMedical Engineering. It’s such an exciting major. I love all of the classes that I’ve taken, and I’m excited for all the others I have to take!

I love waterskiing. It is my favorite hobby ever. I’ll probably put a few pictures on this of us at Lake Powell and elsewhere, enjoying glassy water. It’s ok to be jealous, just try to do your part to keep the water that way. I also love playing Ultimate Frisbee, and most other sports, including running, mountain biking, hiking, soccer, football, etc... Music is a big part of my life, and of course, the Church plays an important role in defining who I am.

So that’s me!