The Road to Peace

"God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

Today as I was searching for a C.S. Lewis quote for my facebook status, I stumbled upon this little gem. Yes, I quote other people for my status updates. It's my newest trend. I find there is more truth in others words to uplift and give a bit of wisdom. This particular quote hit me hard today. Lately in my life, I have been feeling the benefits of peace and happiness more than ever. I've never really appreciated how that can truly be an asset to my life. I am putting the Lord first in my life and relying on Him completely more than I ever have before. I know I have a lot more to improve on, however, the Lord is the way to peace and happiness. Through Him you can receive the comfort and assurance that you are on the right path. If we stray away from Him, it only leads to confusion and anxiety. He is the way to truth. He is the way to peace. There will still be trials and tribulations. There has to be, that is all part of the learning process. What staying close to the Lord does is to give us the peace through the trials. To be the gentle reminder that everything is going to be okay. There are times in my life I can feel His arms wrap around me as He gives me the comfort I need to make it through. The Lord loves me. He loves each of us. If we strive to be close to Him, He will give us peace and happiness in this life. 

Klondike Bar

Today while in relief society, the teacher got up and asked, "what would you do for a Klondike bar?" The question went around a room a few times and one girl said she'd sing I'm a little teapot for it. The teacher didn't think that was good enough, and wanted some other options. So I raised my hand. I said I'd go into elder's quorum and propose to one of the guys. That got an immediate reaction. The teacher was all for it. The girls wanted to see it. Sometimes it's good to not care. I said that as long as the elder's were okay with it, I was all for it. The teacher went and checked, they were okay. So I marched right in. I went up to the friend that was sitting on the front row, got down on one knee and asked him to marry me. He took the ring I offered and said thanks. Haha not sure if that's a yes or a no. But whatever. I walked out and became a lot of people's hero today. And I got a Heath Klondike bar out of the mix. It was a delicious start to church. Yum! Now i just need my ring back... 

Keys

Today I broke the n, m, b, and h keys on my keyboard. It makes typing seriously frustrating... I never realized how much those keys were used. Seriously! I'm gonna have to go get some super glue tomorrow to fix them. That's for sure. Though on the bright side, I am for real going to appreciate having the keys back working right.

Can't Remember to Forget

You walked into my life that day
And suddenly it was never the same.
You had me forgetting the way life was
Before you ever came.
It took me by surprise,
And I was freaking out.
My mind was so quickly occupied,
That I had no room for doubt.

You were all I ever wanted
You were everything and more
It was better than the best of dreams
I knew this was for sure.
As we made our way into the world
I knew we’d make it together.
But suddenly your thoughts changed
And we weren’t lasting forever.

I remember clearly
How you looked that night.
Your faced looked pained
And I could tell something wasn’t right.
I waited for you to start
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear.
And as you started,
You confirmed my worst fear.

You listed all those reasons
And none of them made sense.
I found myself wishing
You had just stayed on the fence.
When you finish with what
You had to say
I sat stunned
And managed an okay.

You reached inside
And touched me deep.
It was something that I
Was willing to let you keep.
Yet somehow you decided
That I wasn’t ready yet.
And now you’re just another
I can’t remember to forget.

You walked out that night
Because I wasn’t ready yet
And now you’re just a memory
I can’t remember to forget.

Slow Service

Today, I went window shopping with an old friend. We both managed to walk out of the mall having spent less than 20 dollars each. This is a huge accomplishment for us, as for the fact that normally when the 2 of us go to the mall together, we are going with the specific purpose of finding clothes. There were no clothes bought today. Wahoo! Just some gifts.

Well after perusing the mall, we found we had walked up quite the appetite, so we headed to the local Olive Garden to get some food. I was quite excited for the never ending pasta bowl with their delicious salad. Olive Garden was surprisingly busy... we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get seated though. Not too bad. We get seated, both of us are completely parched. I mean we've both been talking about getting a drink for the last 20 minutes. That's all we can focus on. However, we look over the menu while the waiting for our waiter to get there. About 10 minutes later he finally gets to our table and apologizes for the wait. I figure he was just a bit busy, but he would be giving us full attention from there on out. We gave him our drink orders and our food orders. He was surprised at the fact that we were already ready for it.

The two of us sat talking for a while longer. The salad and bread sticks arrived, but still no drinks. He informed us he couldn't carry the drinks with everything else, so he'd bring them back. That took another couple of minutes to get those... finally sweet relief. We settled in on the bread sticks and salad. Those were good, as always. The real food took another while to get out to us. The waiter noticed that our drinks were low. Another couple of minutes went by and finally another waiter brought us our drinks. A different one. I finished my food, and wanted another bowl to take home with me, and she had finished eating. We sat there for another 20 minutes not eating. No one looked at us. No one noticed we were done. Finally, the other waiter noticed something and went and said something to our waiter. It took him another 10 minutes to make it to us. He was all smiles, and acted like nothing had happened. We were completely shocked. He was fast getting us out of there, but lets just say that he didn't get a great tip.

I couldn't believe it. Both of us were completely flabberghast. We just sat in shock. I will not be going back to Olive Garden for a while. That's for sure. :)

Change

It's coming... I can feel it. Everything about my life is changing. It's exciting to see where it's going really. In a matter of a month, everything could be completely different.

End of Another Year

The Pool is officially closed. It feels so weird. I don't know entirely what to do now. When you go from craziness everyday to complete silence and no one around, it becomes a bit lonely. I love my job. I love all the challenges it brings, but I miss the pool when it's gone. Which is weird, I'm completely burnt out. I was getting to the point where I didn't want to show up to work anymore because I couldn't take another couple of minutes in that place. But now that it's gone, I miss it horribly. I miss all the guards, despite all the challenges they could bring, they make me smile. Seeing them each grow into the person they are becoming... it really is enriching. I miss it.

Funny Phone Coversations

So today at the pool brought some interesting conversations either overheard, or I had them on the phone. The first was on the phone. Around 6 tonight, I received a phone call from a lady who had bought a season pass earlier that day. She explained to me that she needed to cancel the pass and get a refund as she had gone home to discuss this with her husband and he informed her that they didn't have the money to be able to afford this. I told her this was fine since she hadn't picked up her cards yet, we would just destroy them and refund her for the full amount minus the cost of coming to the pool that day. I explained our pool refund process and how long it would take, she thanked me and hung up.

Normal phone conversation right... well fast forward about 30 minutes later and the phone rings again. I look at the caller id and recognize the name as the same lady that called to cancel. I figured she was calling back to uncancel the season pass... this happens a lot actually. So I pick up with my normal phone greeting. She responds, "Uh yes, I called a bit ago and canceled my membership, well my husband needs to know that I actually canceled the membership, can you talk to him?" I was a bit flabbergast at this point, however I managed to say yes. So she hands the phone to husband. He gets on the phone, "Hi, I'm sorry for doing this, but my wife is extremely irresponsible when it comes to finances, she spends money when she shouldn't and today is a great example of this..." At this point, I was completely blown away. I couldn't believe this man was saying this about his wife. He continued, "I would appreciate it if you could please explain to me everything that has transpired today." So I told him in exact details the numbers and how his refund would be processed. At one point in this conversation, I told him the amount his wife had spent on the pool pass, he butted in with, "well that's great, she lied to me about the price too." The conversation ended without a thank you or a goodbye. I confirmed it would take about 2 weeks and the man hung up. Needless to say, the whole conversation left me a bit speechless.

The second conversation that made the day interesting was one that was overheard. Towards the end of the day a lady in her late 20's came in and asked to borrow the phone. From the beginning of the phone call, she had an annoyed fed up tone to her voice. Now I could only hear the conversation from her side, however that was enough, it went something like this, "Umm, can you come pick us up. We are stuck here and need a ride." "Well my phone is dead. I mean it's completely dead, and we don't have a car here to get home." "I can't take kindergartners on a road, there is no way I can walk with them all on State Street." "Well if one of your grandkids is dead by the time I get back, that's on your conscience." "Dude, we need a ride. I don't know where he is, he took my 4Runner and left." "What do you mean you wont be able to find us? It's not hard, you pull up to the pool and we are out in front of it." "Fine!"

The entire conversation was in a completely annoyed tone. It was hilarious. After she hung up, she gave a completely frustrated sigh, gave each of us in the office the evil eye roll. As soon as she left the office, we were all on the floor laughing. It was pretty much the best one sided phone conversation I've heard in a while.

Climbing the Rope Bridge

So at the pool we have a super long bridge that crosses from the main pool deck over the lazy river to the island. It has a railing as well as a rope fence thing to keep people from falling off the bridge. There is pretty much no way to climb over this rope fence it would just be awkward. Climbing on the outside of the rope would be close to impossible as well as there isn't much space to walk. So the other day, one of the lifeguards was walking around that portion of the lazy river and came to the bridge. He heard a shout and looked up. Much to his surprise, he sees a kid hanging on the outside of the rope, about to fall off. The kid is really really short and super chubby, he looks at the lifeguard and says, "I can't hold on any longer! Should I jump?" The lifeguard is like, "No! Can you climb down?" The kid says there is absolutely no way he can climb down. The lifeguard tells him to hold on and gets the Head Guard on shift over to help him out. The head lifeguard came over and lifted him down... it took everything he had to get the kid down. The whole time the kid was yelling, "I can't hold on any longer, I can't hold on any longer!" When they asked the kid how he got up there, he replied with, "I don't know. I was just here." Yup... awesome.

Peeing in the Pool

So recently, there have been a few complaints at the pool all having to deal with the same thing... and all describing the same person involved. Each person described a little African-American kid with a mohawk. From there is where the story gets interesting. Apparently he would watch the lifeguards as they are walking around the lazy river. He would wait until they had disappeared from sight and then he would hop out of the pool and stand on the side and start peeing on people as they went by in the lazy river. He has yet to be actually caught by a lifeguard. We now have at least 6 cases of this reported. I want to meet this kid, he is my new hero. Haha... he hasn't been back to the pool since we've heard about it, so when he does, we will be watching close.

The Light Up the Trail

So recently, life has started to calm down, because the pool is starting to calm down for the summer. Taking this into consideration, my friend Tyler and I decided that we wanted to hike Mt. Timp one night and sit at the top to watch the sunrise. It's the thing everyone talks about doing in Provo, and neither of us had done it. So we planned a day to go, talked to friends about it got a group together and decided to head up the mountain. Luckily, we had someone with us who has done the hike before, so he was able to warn us of how cold it would be, as well as how long it was going to take, how tired we were going to be and all that. That being said, words never can fully prepare you for what is to come. Our group of 11 met at my apartment around 9 o'clock the night we had chosen. We got all our stuff together and loaded into Tyler's and I's cars. Spirits were high as we headed up Provo Canyon to our destination. It was still all fun and games at this point. I had some water bottles and food in my backpack along with gloves, a hat, a sweatshirt and another jacket. It was time to get started. We had about 4 flashlights for our whole group to climb up in the dark. This was definitely enough, though I'm sure everyone wished they had one.

The start up the hill was fun and lighthearted, I for one was singing my way up. Though if you know me, that's not unusual, I'm always singing my way along anywhere. Everyone was chatting and having a lot of fun as we went up. However it didn't stay that way for long. Suddenly the pavement ended, there was no more paved trail, it was all dirt from there on up (so I thought). The incline suddenly became a lot steeper. Soon it took all your effort to keep from falling. Walking up you couldn't see much because it was so pitch black, but you could feel that there was vegetation on either side. I personally am not a huge fan of nature, or touching things in nature. I was praying the whole way up that I wasn't touching anything super gross and that bugs weren't jumping all over me. As we got further up, you could hear the running water of the falls and all the little streams that run off of it. Soon, the ground beneath us was sloshing. Suddenly I knew I was walking through mud. Gross. I had passed off my flashlight to someone else by this point, so thankfully I wasn't able to see the gross of the mud on the ground. However I still had high spirits. I was excited we were actually doing this. By this point, we were about 2-3 hours into the hike. We had hit a series of switchbacks that were proving to be quite difficult, a couple of our group decided they couldn't do it anymore and headed back to the cars to go home (They took my car back and were going to come get us in the morning).

After these 2 left the group, we got even more quiet. Every now and then we would come to a look out ledge. Even at night, you could tell these were gorgeous. I was excited to see them in the daylight the next day. The climb was getting steeper, and it was definitely getting colder, though thankfully, we were all so warm because we were huffing and puffing our way up the mountain. The climb was pretty monotonous for the first 4-5 hours. We were just climbing up switchbacks on the side of a mountain face. Every now and then it would get scary, and we would have to scale sheer smooth rock to get across to the trail. It was crazy in the dark. A couple of the guys would get setup, one on either side of the rock face and would help the rest of us get across it. Then we'd go back to the monotony. After a while, things started to get a little bit easier as we reached a meadow. It was peaceful, the stars were beautiful, and you could hear a stream running nearby. Right after the meadow however, was an incline I've never seen the likes of. It was crazy steep and the dirt and rocks would shift underneath you. I was literally on my hands and knees to get up it. But once at the top of that, we were totally rewarded! We had reached Emerald Lake. Most of the 9 of us that were left made it to the top of the hill okay, however there were a couple of stragglers. So the 7 of us at the top of this hill found a nice little spot to settle down and take a small nap.


Yup we look pretty ridiculous.

After a short nap, we gathered our things to start going again. The 2 stragglers decided this was where they were going to stay until morning. There was no way they could make it up the rest of the way (one of the poor girls had the flu). So they camped out there and the rest of us continued up. From there, things got crazy. There was no longer a cut trail, just rocks and icy snowy drop off. I'm not kidding... if you stepped on a rock or the snow wrong, you would have tumbled down the entire mountain side. It felt like it was completely treacherous. I couldn't believe we were attempting this! That was probably one of the scariest parts of the hike for me. I was completely silent by this point. Finally after what seemed like the entire night, we reached the trail again. This was straight switchbacks, but at the top of these switchbacks was amazing. We had reached the Saddle Back. This is the point where you are at the top of the mountain and can finally see down the front and the back of the mountain. It was gorgeous. The lights in the cities below looked amazing and the stars were so clear and beautiful. We sat down at this point and got some more water and snacks. Tyler and I started to get antsy to get to the top of the mountain, so we got our things packed up to go. The rest of the group decided to stay behind at Saddle Back.

Tyler and I began the last leg of the journey. This was the hardest part. Often we were walking on really unsteady rocks and it was a drop-off to the cities below. There were a ton more people now, so you were constantly waiting on someone else, or having someone impatient pass you. There were some huge climbs where you were using your hands. But after about an hour, we made it to the top. It was just starting to get light. We found a seat and waited. As we watched, the sun started to come up over the horizon in front of us. I saw the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen. It was absolutely amazing. The colors were so vibrant and amazing. After the sun was up, Ty and I went to go and sign the book they have at the top. It felt like such an accomplishment.


Tyler and I at the top

Then I realized... I had to climb back down what I had just climbed up. And on top of that, I actually was going to be able to see the drop-offs and the grossness this time. I was sooo not excited. However, the trip down was pretty uneventful. We were all exhausted. Tyler and I climbed back to Saddle Back and met up with the 5 we had left there, and then we all headed back down the mountain. It was interesting to see all the things we had climbed the night before and all the obstacles we had made it through in the dark. Even more interesting to see was what could have happened if we had happened to go the wrong way. I was completely enthralled and pretty deep in thought the rest of the climb down. We stopped at the falls and stuck our feet in. It felt amazing to have the cool water going over our hot sore, feet and my feet seriously did not want to go back in the shoes. All the bundling up that had happened the night before was quickly undone as the sun made the climb down hotter and hotter. But finally we made it back down to the bottom and met up with the last 2 from our group. We all just laid in the parking lot and waited for our ride to come and get us.


The Group after we finished

This was a truly amazing experience. I am so grateful that I got to do this. While I was hiking, I got so much time to think, and out there I felt so close to my Heavenly Father. I felt like the lines of communication had opened up in a way that I could only dream of. A lot of what has happened in my life thus far, suddenly began to make sense. Why I had the feeling to make certain decisions and such. I was also taught some beautiful lessons out there.

How often are we climbing up a steep trail in the dead of night? How often are we in complete darkness and scared, not knowing what gunk is underneath our feet, or what we are touching off to the side? I know that this happens to me a lot in life. I have no sense of what direction I'm going, or how what I'm doing affects my life. However out on the trail, we had a light, just a small one, that opened up what we could see enough so that we could make our way. It lit the pathway before us so that we could continue on the path unharmed. I was amazed to realize, this is how the Holy Ghost helps us. He opens up our light on the the trail to let us see where we are going and to give us the help that we need. If we rely on that help, we can make it to the top to see the beautiful dawn in our life. I know that through the help of our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ, my life is blessed and led in a direction that will bring me true happiness!

Gradumacated!!!

It's official! The day has now come and gone when I graduated! I am now a graduate of Brigham Young University (kind of)! I say kind of because I still have to finish up my internship, so it won't actually be finalized until I get all that done. But still, it was exciting. I got to graduate with a friend from my major, as well as my cousin. It was a couple of really long days, but overall, so much fun! The past 4 1/2 years have been so crazy. I can't believe it's gone by so fast. Seriously! It seems like just yesterday (I know, I'm totally cliche) that I was walking on to BYU campus for the first time as a freshman. I know with all my heart that this is the place I was supposed to spend these years. The time I spent here I will cherish always. Thanks to the many great people I have met here... I have had times that I could only hope for in dreams before. This has been truly the most cherished experience of my life this far. I can only hope that life is going to be even better from here! Here's to BYU class of 2009!

Kaleb Enters the MTC

So today we a really exciting day! My little brother went into the MTC! It was really exciting to have the whole family together in Utah for the occasion. Though the whole family (minus Kaleb of course) will be back for my graduation in a week. Kaleb is going to the Porto, Portugal mission! I'm so proud of him and excited for the opportunities that is going to bring!

Summer Craziness

So this summer is proving to be absolutely amazing. Like Yeah... I am working at an amazing pool for my summer internship. Though because it's brand new, my life is one constant stream of working. I'm busy all the time and I love it. I was recently interviewed by a local newspaper on everything I do there. It is pretty much my favorite addition I've made to my life. There are crazy stories about the lifeguards and all the things that happen at the pool as well as craziness connected with our FlowRider. But it is all totally worth it. And so much fun. If you are interested in seeing the article, click Here!


That's the top of the FlowRider... I think it looks rather cool.

Catch Up

It's been a while since my last post. Dang it... I need to get better at this whole thing. However, life took over and I got super busy. School has ended, another semester down and I'm only 4 months away from graduation!!! Who knew it would happen. Yes I passed all my classes. So now I only have to knock down this term, and I'll be done! I'm also doing my internship right now. So that's where life got super busy. Around the end of March, my boss at the pool I was working at received and email that a guy she knew was looking for staff at a brand new pool. She immediately emailed him back listing all my many qualifications. At this moment, I have now been the Pool Manager of the new Lindon Aquatics Center for about a month and a half. It has been the best experience of my life so far. I am learning so much everyday. I am involved in every operation of opening up this pool. It is a brand new facility that is still under construction right now. I currently am up to my neck in sorting through applications as well as designing t-shirts, setting up our computer software, forming all our policies and procedures as well as trying to get all the equipment ordered and getting people totally certified to work. It's craziness. Between everything I'm doing I'm working 10-12 hour days right now! It's so much, but totally worth it. This is unfortunately a pool that is only open for the summer, so the job only lasts through September, but the experience I'm gaining is totally invaluable!