The New Interface

Woah! I clicked to upgrade the new blog settings and everything is different! It is kind of cool and I needed to test it to see if I could do it. I just want to look at all the cool things it shows you ! Here is my favorite setting (and also one I stole from my sister's blog post yeahpo.blogspot.com)

These are all the countries that people have looked at my blog from. I had 6,825 page views (YES! I love being popular!!)


United States       2,822

United Kingdom   548

India                     529

Philippines            440

Canada                 236

Australia              196

Malaysia              166

Egypt                     92

Indonesia               65

Thailand                 46

Greece                    26

South Africa             9

Pakistan                   8

Romania                   3

Norway                     2

Bulgaria                    1

It would appear I am an international celebrity! Coolio! 

BEST DAY EVER!!

My sweatshirt came in the mail! I got it 50% off online, and I love it. It is soft, lovable, cuddly, warm, and new. Call it a boyfriend if you will. Excuse my ridiculous face, I was a little excited. 

Points if you know what this is from... .

Also, today I started my new job. You may now refer to me as 'Farmer Joe'. I understand I am not a boy, but isn't that the most general term for farmers? I drove a truck. A huge one. With air compression brakes (or whatever they're called) and everything. I had my cousins husband, Blake help me unload one time, then I did it 3 times all by myself. For all of you city folk out there like I was, for you to understand how cool I am, let me explain: First, you have to have the little tractor fill your bed up with grain. Then you have to strap on all the tarps and straps and bungee cords and secure everything. Then you drive out to the grain bins. You have to stop at the weigh station, get weighed, get your piece of paper, then take it to the dump place. You give the paper to the guy to sign to show you were there, start unstrapping and undoing all the cords and start the little conveyor belt going to get the grain falling. Then you have to wait till it empties, close all the hatches, make sure the tarp is secure and open for more grain, and go back to the weigh station, weigh yourself again,  give the paper back and get the receipt. Then you go back to the field, take the receipt to the receipt man (may have forgotten his name) and then do it all over again. It is thrilling! I actually don't mind doing it, I was a little nervous with a huge truck full of grain and all the stories Blake told me about trucks taking corners too fast and tipping over. You can say I took them at about negative 3 miles an hour. At the dump place, the same little guy was there to sign my paper and supervise and we became best friends. He called me 'Little Miss' and  'Young Lady' and 'Miss' and occasionally my name when he learned it, and we talked and talked. He is the grandfather of one of the girls that graduated from high school the year before me, so we talked about her, and me, and him, and everything that you can cover in a 20 minute time frame. He even said 'see you tomorrow young lady' so I think we are best friends. We're exchanging friendship bracelets tomorrow.

Well, I know I will have a lot more to say throughout this new period of a fun new job, so we can probably end it here. Happy farming!

The Couch Potato

This whole getting up at 6:30 to run thing is kind of invigorating! I never knew how much time there was in a day! Today my running partners and I decided to start the 'From Couch Potato to 5K' running program. It is a 9 week thing with guaranteed results to get up to a 5K. We will be doing 2 runs. First, the 'fun run' for the Scandinavian Festival in 3 weeks, then the Turkey Trot around Thanksgiving. I am so excited to have a plan and one that appears to work, guaranteed. Day 1 of week 1 was a little rough, but we made it and didn't wimp out once. This may be just the thing I needed.

In other news, I have now taken on my role as super sister. When my mother and I got home from running, we woke up all the kids and she went to get their clothes and I started breakfast. I also made my youngest sister a soccer bag comprised of my socks, shorts, cleats, and shin guards for her first day of soccer practice. (Side note: it is kind of frightening that my shoes fit my 13 year old sister...I don't have the smallest feet in the world) I guess it runs in the family because she made the team yesterday and both my older sisters and myself have played soccer throughout high school. I don't know where this fantastic person inside me came from, but I think my family loves her.

Well, it is time to go to the grocery store to begin this day of success. Tomorrow I start working again, so we will see how much I can accomplish this week. Its ok if you feel like a slacker today, we can't all be super. :)

Vacation

Do I enjoy the fact that as everyone prepares to start their first day of school today, I am lounging on my couch playing solitaire and listening to my Disney Pandora station? Why yes, yes I do. This morning I woke up at 6:30 to go running while my mom and her friend walked. I do have to say, the early morning is beautiful, as much as I hate waking up and getting going. When we got home, my mom started the crepes for breakfast and I got my little sisters hair straightened and done beautifully (yeah, professional here) and her nails painted purple -her favorite color-. Yeah, best sister award right here. Then, as my mom dropped the boys off for their first day, I took her to Jr. High for her first day there. Geez I must be getting old because my siblings are in almost big kid school. I can't wait to spend this whole day with not a care in the world! Its been awhile since I have had no worries and no deadlines and not had to get up and ready for work. This is one of the best feelings in the world!

A New Discovery

I just watched a lot (read: 2-3 hours) of Broadway Disney musicals on YouTube. I need to see them. Where was I in 2005-2010 when Tarzan, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, and countless others were performed! I watched all the behind the scenes, the costumes, the makeup, the puppets, actors, actresses, it all was fantastic. It kind of makes me want to go try out for a musical again just to wear the makeup and dance around like crazy. I say again because I did a musical about 2ish years ago. It was nothing like Broadway. I just want to rant and rave about Broadway all night and I love it so much and I want to go sooooo badly!!! I always thought it would be cool but now its not a want, its a need. Ok this could go on forever so I will leave you with this...

Chills.

That's a Wrap

Obviously this isn't my hand because I am terrified of these things...but that is exactly what it looked like. 

I played a real life version of Frogger today. The little guy was doing great dodging the cars, trucks, and occasional tractor but when he came up against my lawn mower, he was no match. I accidentally (or on purpose because I was in a bad mood) sucked his little mini body into my grass catch. Where do frogs come from when there is no water or ponds? He should have considered his location a little more wisely. Also, this is not the first time I have written about frogs. Who knew there were so many around here??

Waking up at 6 in the morning is not my favorite thing in the world. I don't love going to work when it is still dark outside. The one good thing is the sunrises. They are so beautiful it's hard to not love them.

As it was my last day at work today, (!!!!!) I decided to show what we have been working on this season. As we mow, we collect toys and things that we find in the grass. So far this is our collection...

It takes up the whole dashboard, but my coworkers were walking towards me, and I didn't want to explain why exactly I was taking a picture of them and I didn't have a lot of time.

Then, to make this day a little better, my coworker bought me a milkshake to commemorate my last day of work. I didn't even think she liked me so this was a welcome surprise on this 98 degree day. Well I am once again in the world of the unemployed...but my new job starts next week sometime, so I guess I can just enjoy it while it lasts. :)

Today is Tuesday.

Today I quit my job. Enough is enough, people. Ok, well actually I am not that brave. I am finishing out this week.

This was my friend, Jeremiah. I understand the traditional Jeremiah was a bullfrog, but my friend Jeremiah was just the regular kind of frog. I found him in the grass that is kind of by the river. I was trying to herd him back to the fence so he would have a chance at survival, but I couldn't bring myself to touch it just in case it was poisonous. So I got him to hop all the way to the sidewalk, and I happily showed my coworker my new friend. He took one look at him, and then ran him over with his lawn mower. I was devastated. One minute we were friends, the next he was shredded to pieces. The lawn mower didn't suck his poor, lifeless body into the back of the grass chute, it just left him on the ground for the world to see. A group of little kids discovered his blown up body, and were surrounding it, wondering what creature would produce such harm to such a poor, innocent wild frog. They were most likely traumatized for life. I had a little ceremony right there for him. Well not really, just kind of loaded up everything and left. Too bad this wasn't yesterday when we were actually at the cemetery. That would have seemed more appropriate. Rest in Peace little one.

Today is Monday.

Forget the Birds and the Bees, lets talk about the birds and the grasshoppers. For the past few weeks, every single time I mow the biggest section at the cemetery, the birds go crazy. They fly really low to the grass and sometimes they dive bomb me a little. It is slightly terrifying. I always thought they were trying to protect their eggs that they laid in the grass, and then I thought if they were dumb enough to make a nest on the ground, they deserved to be squished! Well that is kind of mean, but you get the point. Well today I found out that they are not in fact protecting their eggs, they are looking for food! Grasshoppers to be more specific. I found this out by mowing along and having not 1, but 4 land on me, all successively within 10 minutes. One landed right on my lap and thought that it was going to stay there for awhile, one landed on my arm, one flew at my face (ew), and one grazed my arm with a big, wet, solid feel to it. I did not love that. These are not your everyday grasshoppers. They are on steroids I am pretty sure. These things are massive. No wonder the birds just have to swoop down, you can see them from a mile away! Not my favorite creatures in the world. Ladybugs on the other hand are welcome to crawl on my legs anytime they want, and they do. You may recall me expressing displeasure in my job*, and today was so horrible I came home from work and asked my little (well actually quite large) brother to push me down the stairs so maybe I could break/fracture something and be done working. What I didn't realize was how serious he took me. He came up from behind when I had just turned my back and pushed as hard as he could. I grabbed the door hinge in the nick (knick? nik?) of time and did not fall to my death. I have to be careful from now on and convey when I actually am kidding or not. Close call.

*The highlights of today were:
    My mowers steering belt snapping in half (no steering, no moving)
    Same mower running out of gas which resulted in it not starting for 1/2 an hour because there were bubbles in the gas tube
    One man short on our 'crew' so we had to work extra late
    The sun decided to heat up to 96 degrees this afternoon
    My phone died in the middle of the day
    and the drunk man asleep (or dead) in the back of the church pavilion, laying face down in the grass, beer bottle and all. -Also traumatizing me for life-
(Don't worry, by the time we finished and loaded everything up, he was gone. Whether picked up by some buddies, or some animals, we will never know)

 

Sunday's at the Ranch

Nothing like freshly painted nails and an episode of Psych! I have never actually watched this show before, but my cousins are over and we needed to cross that off the list. Today was exhausting! We stayed at Aunt Jan's for basically the whole day just playing with the cousins and eating. Eating a lot of food. When we have everyone over, she makes a lot of food so we just ate whenever we wanted. Also, 2 more weeks of work!! That's10 days people! I am beyond excited to be done with this....if someone accidentally pushed me down some stairs and I broke something, I wouldn't even be that upset. That's how ready I am to be done. So, my aunt doesn't live at a ranch...lets clear that up right off the bat. And that's a wrap.

Rescue Ranger

Alright Folks, I understand its been awhile. I got so involved in my boring job I really had no earth shattering news.

Tonight, we went to the fashion show....oh I mean fair. As soon as I got there I felt like I was back in high school. Whoever can wear the least amount of clothes wins and it is a battle of the boyfriends. If you don't have one, you might as well not be there. But actually it turned out to be a lot of fun. We went to the rodeo with the cousins from New York who are getting ready to go to school at BYU. We taught them all about their first rodeo which was a new experience for them. Fair week is coming to a close tomorrow which means school is just around the corner..for those actually going back to school. I just have TWO more weeks at my job then I get a nice little vacation. Then back to work again, this time for potato harvest. It is my goal to be independently wealthy by the end of this year, so if anyone is up for a spontaneous trip to somewhere cool like Ireland, Australia, any part of South America, or just somewhere where I can whip out my brand new passport, I'm in. In other news, the Hill Cumorah Pageant Application is in, so we are hoping for the best on that one. It takes almost a full year in advance to apply, so hopefully this time next year I will be in New York, getting my acting on. Well, I guess less of the acting, more of the following the pre-recorded cues.

I already miss everybody who has gone back to school and left me behind. This is a special shout out to Cedar City, Boise, Buena Vista, Provo, Oklahoma, and various other schools who hold people I like, but not specifically enough to list. (just kidding if this offends you...)

Well I guess I should go bond with this family of mine. I mean, I only have 4 more months with them! I know, a lifetime.

I Can Do Anything Better Than You Can

It's a long lived battle between who can do certain things better...boys or girls? Today, I found girls got a tally in our favor. I've had my fair share of tickets turned into warnings by just shedding a little tear and maybe giving a little apologetic smile, and I won't dispute that women get away with speeding tickets more than men do.

Here's a little story:
As I've mentioned before, you can't have something go wrong without having everything go wrong. We found out at the 2nd stop of the day that one of the big riding lawn mowers had a very big flat tire. My boss sent the other lady off to the tire store to get it fixed. Not 30 minutes later, the mower I was on went flat. So flat, that the tire actually fell off the rim and resulted in me stranded with a broken mower hanging off the side walk trying to get it onto the trailer....... but that's another story... anyway, my boss sent me to go to the tire store as well. I get there just as the lady that works with me was leaving, with her fixed tire, to head back to finish the property we were mowing. She reminded me to get a print out of the receipt as she showed me hers, and went on her way. So I found a guy, waited a little because there were 18 other trucks there with broken things, and finally got some guy to come help me. I impressed him with my muscles by lifting the whole entire back of the (grass filled) mower into the air so he could get a jack under there. He even commented in a shocked way, which was a little insulting, how strong I was. Girls can be buff too. He finally fixes it and then tells me to have a great day and walks off. I head to the office to charge it to the business I work for and get a receipt. He finds me in there, gives me a confused look and I quickly explain I'm just looking for a receipt. He tells me no problem, don't even worry about it, and to have a great day! That was unexpected because the tire was majorly messed up and it took him quite awhile to fix it! I find it extremely funny that I got a free tire experience and my co-worker was charged $18 dollars for her fix (which was basically air put in). My boss said in all his years of going there he has never had them do anything for free. Guess I'm cuter :)


Side note: I ran a mile and a half tonight! And it felt great! In about a  month, expect that number to say 19 miles. Or like a hundred.

Side note part 2: I checked all of my spider traps and after changing them all to new ones, there are no more spiders! Final count: 18. So happy my room (to my knowledge) is no longer the housing development for those 8 legged guys.

He Said What?!

Today has been a really funny day of people saying things that are wrong and just funny. We'll start with Eli.

As we were driving home from church, Eli looks out the window and sees family that sits behind us in church walking home and he says 'Guys! Did you see Conscience running ahead of her parents?!' and I said Oh, you mean Patience?
That poor kid struggles with names so badly...

Then, as we are sitting in the living room eating popcorn and watching a movie, Eli turns to Jared and says 'Hurry! I need a drink! Give me a drink there's a kernel stuck in my throat! and Jared says 'Are there captains in your throat too?' My brothers are too witty for their own good.

And then we have my mother...she has no regard for lyrics and she will just sing whatever she wants. She attempts to sing Party in the USA and sings at the top of her voice: I jumped in the car to LAX with a dream of my cars again. ... the real lyrics being "hopped off a plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigan"

We put the fun in dysfunction! :)

Relationship Over

I have had some recent (and hurtful) comments about people not liking my most current obsession with spiders. So I will talk about something else I really love. The piano. I came across this guy on YouTube who plays songs by memory. I decided I could be him. It's not so much memory but he is playing by ear. I taught myself to play 'Hallelujah' on the piano because I hear it on my Pandora station so much. I love sitting down and pounding out some notes until something recognizable comes along. My family sure loves it when I do this. Most times I play when I am home alone and am bothering less people. You know those really nice hotels that have the pianos in the lobby? I would love to stay at one and sit for hours and just play and play and play and have people walking by just stop to listen to me. I wish that I had a skill that was more than just being able to play a couple hymns for church here and there. As I was playing yesterday, my brother Eli told me he would like me to play for his baptism next month. That was tender and it made me really appreciate the fact that I could do something like that and he would request me. I love him. So to clear things up, I'm done with spiders. :) Enjoy your lives.

Status Report

I'll spare you the pictures...I checked ONE spider trap in my room. It had 8 spiders on it. I am not even kidding. It had 4 of the monster huge ones and 4 babies. I think they travel in packs.

I'm just kidding. Check out these spiders and be grateful they don't live where you do.

Whats that I see? Legs?

Oh, Hello. Playing a little hide-n-seek 

Thats enough for tonight. Happy nightmares :)

Hallelujah

This is a joint blog. It is written from the perspective of me- a girl, and Cas- my friend. Before I start, I checked my spider traps this morning and this is what I came across:

3 spiders and a centipede

Moving along.... After I got done working today, I went to my best friend's house. She gave me one of her delicious chocolate cupcakes that she had saved especially for me. She is so kind. And it was absolutely wonderful! Then, we (mostly Cas) dyed my hair. She was super at it. She had never even thought of dying someone's hair before, but you would think she was a professional. I look gorgeous. 

And then we went to Taco Bandido to celebrate the success of my great hair. We both ordered Taco Salad burritos. This is an important part of the story. The lady brings us our tray of food which was supposed to be 2 tacos. Instead, she set down a tray with 9 burritos and a plate of macho nachos. We just kind of looked at each other and started eating our tacos... I mean, its free food after all. Just kidding I didn't think that at first because that is dishonest. So we went to the counter to tell her, but everyone was rushing around and I got told 'just a second, hold on' about 19 times so I just stood there and waited. Finally, after I saw she was preparing the exact same food that was on our table, I decided to say something. I tried to talk to her but she kind of brushed me aside and ignored me. Again. So I waited some more and finally someone talked to me and I told her about the situation on our table, and she said hmmm keep it. So I took home a lot of food for my family. For free. Also, I told Cas that one of the burritos was a dessert one. She got super excited and thought that it was stuffed with chocolate or something wonderful like that. I had actually like to her. It was stuffed with beans. That crushed her. The end.

And then we had a very soulful jam session to Hallelujah and other wonderful Disney songs. We are wonderful singers. Promise. Especially when it's done extremely loudly. Dad loves it. 

Pandora Disney station does wonders for me. Also, we cannot be bothered with lyrics, so its kind of a free for all on what we want to sing...or rather belt, at the top of our lungs. Which my father keeps yelling down the basement stairs that he loves. Who wouldn't love us?

Also, I got a shinner at work today and my leg is bumpy and hurts super bad now. I really enjoy whining about it. Good thing Cas is so sympathetic.  


More about this leg from someone who it actually happened to: I was crawling into the back of the trailer and my foot slipped so not only did my shin hit the trailer, but it hit it twice! Hard both times! So my poor little leg has two huge bumps and red bruises on it. In the morning I will probably need amputation.


Also, I am lucky that Cas is here in my basement because after her last experience here she really didn't want to come back. My pet spiders nearly ate her. She didn't love that. It's not everyday that you get your very own pets to live with you in your room and do whatever they want. I am willing to share if anyone thinks they need a little life spicing up. 


Well, one of us (me) has to get up at 6 tomorrow for work. Which I do not love. We hope you enjoyed us. 
Cas doesn't have to work tomorrow, but she likes to sleep. And it would be weird for her to continue blogging on my computer while I sleep, so she will be done too. It's been fun. Goodnight!

We are unsure how we feel about each other....

Spider Identification

I googled poisonous spiders to make sure I am not going to die in my sleep, and we could not stop laughing at the symptoms of the house spider:

House Spider-  the bite of the Black House Spider is poisonous but not lethal. Certain people bitten experience severe pain around the bite site, heavy sweating, muscular pains, vomiting, headaches and giddiness.

I do not think after being bitten by a spider I would feel giddy! 

Hobo Spider- The bitten site will turn angry red, and a welt like blister will form. Weakness, fatigue, headache, and vision loss are all common side affects of a hobo bite.

I am almost certain I got bit on my thigh. I have every single one of those side effects today, and we are lucky I am still here. I even have the red welt on me. (according to the identifier chart, these are the spiders in my room...)

The Mouse Spider- Known to cause severe illness. Non aggressive, but will attack if provoked. It has long painful fangs, that will stick inside you if bitten. 

You can all thank me for keeping you safe and alert. Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any symptoms felt while looking at these pictures... 

Trauma

Recently it has come to my attention that my bedroom is infested with spiders. Today they crossed the line. As I got out of the shower, I wrapped myself in a towel and felt a little tickle. I ripped my towel off because this has happened before, and there it was. A monster spider just sitting there on my skin. I freaked out.

I asked my little brother to kill it, and he said no. Nobody would help me. I had to squish it by myself. This thing was monstrous. Then, I found his brother...

Needless to say, I have 6 spider traps sitting on my bedroom floor.

This Little Piggy Went to Market

This, believe it or not, is bacon.

We think. My mom thought she took a bag out of the freezer but when we cooked it, it basically stood up of its own accord and had a sickly gray color to it. I don't actually think that's normal. We threw it away for fear getting swine flue or something (haha see what I did there?)

Speaking of pigs, I googled them. These little guys showed up under the picture section and I thought, for pigs, that they were pretty cute. They are called teacup pigs and they grow to be 30-60 pounds and are meant to be kept as pets. This is no dog, but I'm sure it could grow on you.

And some pig related humor for you...

What did the fat pig say when the farmer dumped corn mash into the trough? "I'm afraid that's all going to waist"


The hog was a failure as a TV talk show host. What happened? He turned out to be a big boar.


How do you take a pig to hospital? By hambulance!

What do you give a sick pig? Oinkment!

The Peanut Butter Prophet

I helped my aunt in nursery today because she had to teach all alone. There were only 2 kids, but those 2 kids were the equivalent of about 5 kids. As one of the little boys was saying the opening prayer with promptings from my aunt, this is a little how it went....
Aunt: Bless our mommies and daddies
Jake: Bless our pumpkin and pumpkins <giggle>
Aunt: Help us to be safe
Jake: Help us to pumpkin
Aunt: We love you
Jake: We pumpkin and pumpkin
Aunt: Amen
Jake: Pumpkin

I had to try so hard not to laugh at him. He thought he was clever. I guess since he was only 3 or so, we will let this slide. He had a little naughtiness in him today because as we sang 'follow the prophet' he improvised with 'follow the peanut butter prophet' and those were the only words he would sing. So funny. Then when we were eating snack, after about a banana and a half, I told him that if he ate any more he would turn into a banana. He looked at me seriously, set his banana down, then walked away. I called him back and asked him if he was done. He said emphatically 'well, I don't wanna be a nanna!!' then I laughed and told him I was just kidding and he wouldn't turn into one and with a look of relief on his face he finished it. The other little boy would run around the room and squish 'spiders' that were apparently crawling about. Then he would insist on sitting on your lap to get all of them off his shoe. I swear there had to be like 23 spiders in that room this morning. I love little kids.

For Heather

Today my best friend got married. I love that kid so much and I am so happy for her. These are the things I will miss about her: (Not that she is dying, she will just be a married woman and I will see less of her...that and the fact that she will now be permanently living in Oklahoma...)

• Playing the piano together. 

• Having that special relationship that only we really understood...sometimes. Even now I still wonder about us. 

• Trying really hard to get a good jumping picture....which we didn't actually succeed at

• Making weird faces at the camera

• Eating pizza on the dock and boating

• Watching football games together

• Watching BYU football games together

• Painting 'the rock' whenever we felt like it

• Going to fancy dinners with all the bests

• Going to Twin Falls just because we could and actually taking the time to time the right moment for a bubble picture

• Braving all the elements at every single football game our Senior Year

• and Graduating together

 

So I realize these aren't actually things I will miss about you, and more just of pictures we had of us together, but I feel like its the same thing. 

I really am happy for you, Heather. I wish you the best of luck in Oklahoma. I know you will have a whole lot of different adventures now, and I hope you know that you will always have a little place in Burley with us...assuming that I live with my parents for the rest of my life and never move out of this place :) Love ya kid! 

Enlightenment

It is a privilege to announce that all the animals I have so sadly slaughtered this summer have been put to a good cause and are now on display for your viewing pleasures. For a $1 admission you are welcome to witness 'Emily's enLIGHTening Organisms.' It will be worth every dollar, guaranteed. Here is a sneak preview of the lovely specimens:

The frog I squished.

The bird I hit.

The fish I sucked up on my lawnmower. 

On a cuter note, check out these fellers. For an extra $5 dollars you can view them as well. And for an additional $100 you can cuddle with them. 

It's worth it, I would know.   

All proceeds go to benefit my traveling the world fund. Thank you. 

If you were to be one person in the picture, who would you want to be?? 

Leave your comments below. 

This post was brought to you in part and in whole by stumbleupon.com and these fine people whom I lovvvvve :)

Habitat for Humanity

I would like to start this by saying friends are the greatest. A best friend is one you can call and vent to for an hour and they will just add the right amount of input and be just as livid as you are without even knowing why. Sometimes parents get boring to talk to, and that's why I love my best friends and the closeness we have. I love my friends so so much. Now back to our regularly scheduled program:

I think I have more adventure in a day than most people do in a year. There were frogs galore at the first place we mowed today. We didn't want to run them over because first ew and second they were so cute! So I bravely relocated some of them across the fence where they were out of harms way. They were so tender and small. And that's saying something for a reptile I barely like. Aberdeen may be considered the nature capital of the world. As we were driving down the road, a strange looking dog caught our eye in these people's backyard. Upon further investigation, we realized it was actually a deer. Yes, a deer in their backyard on their back porch. It took a couple laps around the yard then laid down on the porch for a little rest. Weirdest thing ever.

my little phone does a great job at capturing pictures of hyper baby frogs. How tender is he??

You know those days that if one thing goes wrong, they all seem to? We started off our day by forgetting to gas up the truck yesterday (by no fault of mine...) and half way down the highway I happened to glance down and notice we only had about half a tank. It takes us half a tank to get to American Falls! With nowhere to turn around because of that blasted construction, we made a quick radio call to our boss- which I'm sure was overheard by every employee there- and he gave us permission to save a receipt for reimbursement. Lucky for us our coworker had a credit card, because I don't know if you are aware but diesel is the most expensive thing ever. <side note, whoever invented diesel pumps did not put into consideration that no one would know how to work them! It took us like 10 minutes to figure out how to turn it on> If it was possible to lock our truck doors without taking out the key and manually locking it by hand, I'm sure we would have locked ourselves out of the truck as well, just to spice things up a little. Also, when we got to one of our last properties with only 3 more things to do, one of the mowers decided to reject the steering belt inside it, which promptly snapped in half. Our boss was less than happy to have to drive all the way to AF to fix it. All in all, it was great to be done with today because I am not sure I could have handled it much longer.

Caution: Edges May Be Sharp

Is it just me or are birds pointier than usual these days?

This is not the only property that I found feathers like this in the ground. How weird is that? Then I liked to pick up speed and hit them full blast so they would shoot out of the side of the mower and go flying. All in all, today was a pretty fun day for me. It rained and stayed pretty cloudy so that was pretty great in not being hot all time time. And some random guy at a church told me I looked like an Indian, so that was nice. I like when people recognize the sacrifice I make to be this tan.  And in other news, I have picked up running as of yesterday. Today I made it a mile and a half. That is half-ish way to a 5k and I am fairly excited about that.

Bob the Builder

Having a life plan is awesome. It makes you feel so good to know that you are finally working towards something and that you won't be living with your parents for the unforeseeable future (only half joking here...)  I have been wondering to myself why am I working? Why do I wake up and go to a job that I only half like anymore? I think I finally figured it out. In January I tentatively plan on going to Washington State University for a semester and try out this whole college experience again. I kind of gave up on college and told myself I was never going again after that whole SUU thing I did there. That made college kind of not so much of a party for me. But anyway. I plan on applying to the Hill Cumorah Pageant this year to be in it in 2012. I did it when I was about 12 or 13 and I still remember doing it. That't how great of an experience it was for me. I am really excited about this and I hope I make the cut. Who knows if they want someone all the way from Idaho! (for more info visit http://www.hillcumorah.org/Pageant/) Also, I went on a run tonight so I am kind of on a runners high, and feeling really positive and happy tonight! That little activity will definitely be repeated!