that's what brothers are for

This morning as I was driving to work I heard a song called Brothers by Dean Brody. It's a country song, but I like country. :) Even if you don't like country, it's a good song. I would strongly recommend listening to it!! So anyway, I was driving along listening to this song and it made me think of my own brothers. I have really good brothers. Sure I've had to endure lots of teasing but I think in the long run it's only been good for me. I think both of my brothers are exceptional. Seriously. They both have really strong testimonies and have always been good examples for me. When I think of my brothers (and the rest of my family, parents and sister included...even my extended family) I feel so lucky and it's like my stomach gets this warm, about-to-spill-over feeling of love inside. I know that sounded extremely corny and cheesy but it really is like that! I don't know how to describe it. Hopefully you know what I'm talking about. I definitely was sent to my family for a reason. They're the best friends I've ever had.

Mason with his fiance Miralva

Mason and I are only 18 months apart so when we were little and lived in Panguitch we were constantly playing together. We went on adventures in the Archie's old house next door and built "the Aladdin hotel" in the sagebrush lot behind it. We were in clogging together, we rode horses and fished together, played on the same t-ball team, etc. He's always been really protective and when we were in elementary school he walked me to my class every single morning. Not many brothers would be thoughtful enough to do that. Some of my favorite memories from high school are riding to school in Mason's maroon Ford blasting acdc and Johnny Cash. Even though he was often frustrated with me for not being ready in time. :) When he was going to college before he left on his mission when we moved we would be getting ready for bed at the same time and he would sit on the counter and just visit with me. I loved getting letters from him on his mission. I love him.

Aubree, Cameron and I in Zion

Cameron is 6 years younger than me and has been so much fun to have in our family. He provides our family with some very good entertainment. He has always been a thinker ever since he was just a little guy. One time when he was probably only about 4 or 5 he came out of the bathroom after being in there for a very long time. He had quite a concerned look on his face and when we asked him what was wrong he said he had been thinking about eternity and it made his stomach feel sick because he couldn't quite grasp it. How many little kids that age think about stuff that deeply? His turn for family prayer was always the favorite because he just had conversations with Heavenly Father. One time he blessed "our offspring, and their offspring, and their offspring" :) and he was always helping me be better with his prayers to help me not be so bossy. I don't know what we would do without all of his knowledge he so willingly shares with us. He is one of those kids that says the darndest things. I love him tool

I haven't lived with my other brother for a while, even though I know he's with us a lot, and sometimes I don't remember him as often as I should. I'm so grateful for my brother (and yours!) Jesus Christ. He makes everything better. He is always there to protect me and pray for me just like my brothers here. I'm so glad he doesn't give up on me even when I'm not the most reliable sister I could be. He's my best friend and I love him too!!

Yay for brothers!!!! Thank you for everything.

I just got out of my last class. Yahoo!!! No more homework!! I only have three finals next week and only one of them will require studying so I'm practically done with the semester! I'm excited to be done, and yet there's this extremely sentimental side of me that has a hard time with change. I'm excited to live with my family again and for all the joys of summer but I'm sad my roommates are leaving and I won't live in my cute house anymore. It has been a really good year. I'm grateful for this year. We had a barbecue in my backyard last night with a bunch of our friends and neighbors. We had lots of yummy food and dry ice root beer (which I love! I seriously drank probably a gallon of it all by myself...not good) and the weather has been beautiful the last couple of days. I loved it.
Funny random story: My rooommate Sydney was at the ELC (a computer lab on campus) a couple of nights ago working on some end of semester projects. There are always those students who look really stressed out and frazzled, you know how it goes and we've probably all been there before. Well on this certain night an anonymous person came to sit at the computer next to Syd and she was definitely in the stressed out category. She kept muttering under her breath and deleting her typed paper every couple of minutes. Soon the muttering grew in volume until earphones weren't even helpful in blocking out the distraction. Finally after much trepidation she finished her paper and printed it out (according to Sydney it was about 6 pages long, and yes that will become a significant fact when you hear the rest of the story). She came back to her computer, read through the first part of her paper, said, "This is crap" and tore it up into little tiny pieces. Here comes the strange part....she then proceeded to eat the little tiny pieces! And didn't stop until her whole entire paper was consumed!! Yeah. That's when you know you've gone way past the point when you need to stop doing homework and go have a bowl of ice cream.

For Easter this year my family hauled our camp trailer to Zion and stayed the week. Casey and I drove down once school got out and spent the first evening riding our bikes from the top of the canyon to the campground with my family. It was gorgeous! My favorite part was riding up next to Cameron and Casey on my wimpy little Wal Mart bike and pretending to race. Even with my legs peddling furiously I could only manage to pull ahead for about 30 seconds before they left me in the dust, but I enjoyed the challenge anyway. :) Something about competing with those boys in something I know I am bound to lose is appealing to me for some reason. It cracks me up. That night we enjoyed a delicious dutch oven dinner of bbq chicken, potatoes, and apple cobbler. Mm mm mmm. I think I enjoy food maybe just a little too much, but it was so good!!

The next day some of my dad's extended family came for a picnic and a hike to Emerald Pools. I don't think it quite lived up to my last experience there on Valentines Day when there was beautiful snow, icicles and waterfalls everywhere but it was still very pretty and very fun. Casey and I did a little bouldering before we headed back to Cedar and that was the first part of our Easter vacation!

Our plan on Saturday was to go mountain biking but thanks to spring showers we ended up spending most of the day indoors. Casey did take me out and taught me to drive a stick shift though! I sort of learned in my brothers truck when I was in high school, but that experience involved a rather traumatizing incident of taking at least half an hour to get through an intersection in a convulsing vehicle. Ok maybe half an hour is a slight exaggeration, but it sure felt like time was going exceptionally slow. Since that time I've been harboring feelings of anxiety towards stick shift operated vehicles. This time around was much more successful thanks to Casey's patience with my panic attacks when a car came up behind me and his excellent teaching skills. I definitely wouldn't consider myself an expert at stick shift driving, but I do believe I made a significant amount of progress. I now only harbor a very small amount of anxious feelings. :)

Sunday was Easter sunday and my dad's birthday! So much to be greatful for. I was so blessed to get the Dad that I have and we are all so blessed to have the reason Easter is celebrated. It is always humbling to think of the Atonement and what the Savior went through because he loves us so much. There is a cool video we watched that revolves around Elder Hollands talk from General Conference. I would definitely recommend watching it.

On Monday I went with Casey and our friend Joe to a place called Black and Tan to sport climb. Well the "real" reason we went was to study the Kaibab Limestone formation for Casey's geology class, but we found a little time to fit some climbing in since we were there. ;) It was a really beautiful place where we went. The picture below is our view across the valley from where we were climbing.This is Joe. He's really good. This is me rethinking my life as I approach the halfway point on my 100 foot route. It was only my third time on a sport climbing route and I have to admit the fear definitely gets in my head. This was actually a really easy route as far as climbing goes, but I guess I'm just not used to the concept of sport climbing yet so it's scary to trust the equipment when I'm on a cliff face with a lot of distance between me and the hard ground. I didn't think I would have the guts to climb all the way to the top but I did it! I think I was actually most scared during the first 40 feet and when it came time for me to come back down. I was so excited when I reached the chains and realized what I had accomplished, and then I looked down. Casey looked like a teeny little speck at the bottom! I was so scared of leaning back and being lowered down. Don't ask me why that's the scary part for me but it really is. I said I didn't want to come down so he said he could just tie the rope and leave me hanging up there. I was almost tempted to accept the offer! Eventually I got enough nerve up to let go of the rock and made it to the ground. Phew! :) Hopefully it will get a little less nerve wracking as I get more experience.My trusty and very handsome belayer. :)Casey diligently studying. :)

He started working on this really cool roof problem called Smoking Drums. It's a super difficult route but I think he'll get it in the near future. It had the coolest backdrop for pictures!

therapeutic snowmen

Seriously, go read some Calvin and Hobbes. It's very therapeutic. The snowman are always good for a laugh. I just looked at this website and you should too. ://www.angelfire.com/wa/zzaran/calvin.html
I'm in the mood for some more snow sculpturing.
ok I am done posting about Calvin and Hobbes. I have had a very productive time in the computer lab today.
The end.

One more laugh

ok ok so I just have to add one more comic. This one cracked me up even more than the other one. I could not stop laughing!! Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-hunting by any means. That's probably why it seemed so funny. I am keeping myself very entertained right now. This is a nice break from homework. :)

What it says:

Yawwnn...

"I'm going to get some coffee, Ted. Want any?" "No thanks, Frank."

Tum te ta ta tum...

"Aiee!! They got Frank!!" "RUN"

"You got 'im" "He's a big one too!" "Nice shot Bamb!" "Somebody get the Camera!"

"...needless to say, Franks family was upset when he didn't come home that night, but everybody understood that the human population had doubled in just two generations to almost 6 billion, so some thinning of the herds was necessary to prevent starvation."

"Another parent- teacher conference." "Your turn."

the joy of tests

This morning I had a math test in my Math for Elementary Teachers class. Sounds easy right? I thought so too when I signed up for the course. It turns out that easy math you once thought you knew how to do really well can be made into a very complicated and difficult process of which you have no idea how to accomplish. I actually think my test this morning went pretty well but I ran into this comic that made me smile. Probably because I can totally relate to Calvin and yet I am going to school to become a part of "the system". It's ok though because my goal is to make learning meaningful and fun so that it's not just memorizing pointless facts. I know a lot of teachers who do that really well so I hope I can be as good as them!
Calvin and Hobbes is the greatest. If looking up at the clouds on your rough day doesn't help, reading Calvin and Hobbes is sure to.

Just in case it's too small for you to read, this is what it says:

Box 1 - Test: 1. When did the Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock?

Box 2 - 1620

Box 3 - "As you can see, I've memorized this utterlly useless fact long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You've taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations."

Box 4 - "They say the satisfaction of teaching makes up for the lousy pay."

I can't think of a creative title for this post but it's mostly about General Conference and Spring Break

I absolutely love General Conference! Nothing beats relaxing all weekend with loved ones and treats, listening to the Prophet and General Authorities of the church. I always feel so inspired and motivated to be better! I love how peaceful and confident each of the speakers seem. It's a good reminder that we really don't need to worry. Casey and I are at his house in Bluffdale for the weekend and it's been fun. Between sessions we went swimming at the Saratoga Springs pool which is heated by hot springs. So nice in this freezing weather!
I finally got videos from our Spring Break adventures uploaded to the computer so I decided it's time to update my blog. I forgot to take my camera (which probably wouldn't have been very useful anyway because it dies after 3 pictures) so unfortunately I didn't get any photographs. We've been working on a climbing video so my parents were nice enough to let me borrow their videocamera and I got lots of great footage. We spent the week climbing at Ibex (west of Delta), Joe's Valley (near Price), and Little Cottonwood Canyon (by Salt Lake). We also got to spend about half the week at Casey's house which was also really fun! We did some slacklining, played basketball, cleaned some branches up from their yard, played on a zipline, watched movies, and got some shopping done as well. It was so much fun to play and relax with Casey all week. I'm putting a video of Casey climbing so you can see how amazing he is. The problem he does in the video is called Big Gulp and it is a V8 at Ibex. He sent it after wearing himself out climbing all day. It was pretty exciting when he got it!

The only bad thing about spring break was how hard it was going back to school once it was over. We only have a few more weeks left in the semester though. I can't believe it's almost over! I'm excited to be done with school but it's kind of bitter sweet because Casey will be moving home for the summer. I haven't decided what to do for the summer. Stay in Cedar or move north somewhere to work?.... Decisions, decisions. I'll probably just end up wherever I can get a job. My piano job ends in May when school gets out for the middle schoolers so I need to find some summer employment. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a kid again and spend the summer watching cartoons, playing on slip n' slides and going on "summer school" field trips with mom. Maybe I'll just have a lemonade stand. :)

Tender Mercies

Can I just say I love clouds?! They seem to be exceptionally beautiful lately. I think I could stare at them for hours on end and be completely satisfied and content. Storm clouds, fluffy white clouds, orange, yellow and pink clouds, I love them all! Especially the ones that look like they have gold lining around them because the sun is shining from behind. So amazingly amazing! And they never look exactly the same twice. I like to think of them as watercolor paintings from heaven. :) I'm so glad clouds were invented. Next time you're having a rough day just look up. You'll feel better trust me it works!



I'll catch up on my spring break adventures and everything else later when my homework is done.

p.s. I was looking for pictures of clouds to put on here since my camera is broken and couldn't do them justice anyway, and I didn't find any amazing ones to put on my post but I did find a photography website that has some of the most incredible pictures I've ever seen!! You should definitely check it out. Go to http://ladzinski.com/ and prepare to be amazed! I think I need to learn some more about photography....