My Life's Happenings

I realize it has been a while since I last posted. Typically I wait for about 20 comments to write a new post but in this case I will make an exception. I have had a lot of different things happen to me since December. All-State Music in Cody, All-Northwest Music in Seattle, Singin' in the Rain, MOVING OUT, and going to work for Dome Technology. Each of these things have been incredible in their own way, but the one with the greatest impact on me has obviously been moving out. I have experienced so many awesome things it is hard to count them all. Learning to shop for yourself was a lot more difficult than I would have suspected. Living with difficult roommates has been harder than a bucket of rocks. The work itself has been interesting and strange in its own little ways. Learning how to work in a construction environment with all the swearing and crude coworkers was really difficult for me at first. If I thought 7 years of locker room talk was bad then I don't know how I would rate this! It turns out that even though almost everything familiar to me wasn't present anymore there was one thing unchanged. My relationship with Heavenly Father. In fact it has grown considerably. I could call my parents and talk, but they weren't readily available for the first few weeks. They were either traveling the world or out cruising on new toys like motorcycles! So the only person I could turn to and express my frustrations and concerns to was Him. When I realized that I began to read my scriptures more and my prayers became so much more meaningful. Answers to my prayers came in remarkable ways. It has been awesome. The gospel is always true and constant and I love it!
I am in Chicago right now. I have been here since last Saturday and leave this Thursday. We are repairing a dome we didn't originally build for the North American Salt Company. It is SO hot and humid here. Gag. It was 110 with 85% humidity or something miserable like that. And then when you shotcrete it gets way hotter in there. There are only 5 guys on the project. Tanner came with me. One of the guys is 28 years old and has been working for domes for 4 years. He swears a little bit and chews, but is a pretty nice guy and is careful not to swear too much around Tanner and me. I was tying rebar in the lift with him and he told me he used to be "very LDS." I assume it means pretty active. He wondered what his life would be like if he was still living the gospel and had never fallen away from the church. I should have said "Nick! Just go back and I am sure you will find out what it would be like," but I didn't. Back in Colorado there are two guys I know of who were at one point LDS. Now they are rough and gruff and just like everyone else, they don't seem all that happy. Their lives are living proof to me that joy and happiness come from living the gospel. One of the men is about 30 and working on his fourth marriage. The other is divorced, has spent time in prison for something to do with writing a lot of bad checks, and is a recovering drug addict. Imagine the course their lives could have taken and could take even now if they just started living the gospel again! The 30 year old admits he misses the church and wishes he could go back. He can go back. That is always an option. I guess he must not feel like he could make a commitment if he did start to change. His mother is still active and he knows it's true. Living the gospel requires sacrifice. Joseph Smith said, "A religion that doesn't require the sacrifice of all earthly things can't produce the faith necessary to save a human soul in the realm of eternal life." If we aren't willing to sacrifice every worldly thing then we have no hope in the life to come.
I love the experiences that have come to me through these difficult times and under hard circumstances. Living away from home isn't the blissful life I had anticipated, but it has caused me to grow so much and I am so thankful for it.

Christmas

I wrote this article for my school newspaper, and then found out the paper wouldn't be published. I was a little upset at first, but am just glad I was able to write it. It really made my Christmas better than it would have been.

The Christmas season is fast approaching. As other’s around me in newspaper were doing different articles on Christmas related topics, I wondered what I should do. I realized that I wanted to write something that would make this Christmas season an even better one for each of us. I started to observe those around me and I finally decided. For my article this month I performed an experiment at Rocky Mountain High School. Experimentation is used to test existing theories or to prove or disprove a hypothesis. My hypothesis was this: "Teenagers are more concerned about trivial matter and are more self-absorbed than adults." After asking students and teachers at random I was surprised at the results produced.

I asked these questions of all those I interviewed. "At this point in your life, what are you most concerned about? What do you think about when you are just thinking? What worries you?" The answers I received were wide and varying. Students expressed fear and concern about college and the pressures of getting into one. One young man told me, "Girls. I think about girls." When questioned a teacher said, "I am concerned at the lack of compassion human’s show to one another." These two questions supported my hypothesis perfectly, that young people were more concerned about themselves and what makes them happy, rather than what they can do to make others happy. Then I was blown away by what a different young man answered. He told me his main concern right now in his life was preparing himself to be a better servant of God. The unselfishness of his answer caused me to contemplate what would make him say that. Why would he want to do that? Having spent time with this particular person I reflected on what I already knew about him. I had seen how he interacted with others and seen how he actively tried to be friendly and make them happy. I concluded his selflessness was a result of years of trying to become more caring and loving.

We live in a world where greed dominates all we do. Selfish people manipulate others to gain unfairly, for their own benefit for their own desires? How many people pose as credit card companies and con elderly people out of their money? What is their purpose to it all? The only things they stand to gain are the things they want.

A young man in our school is a primary example to me of how serving others, and not just ourselves, can change a life. He told me the story of being part of a group that went to an elderly women’s home cleaned her yard, moved things she couldn’t, and winterized her windows for her. Before departing they sang her a song. He said seeing her face changed the way he felt about service. "I felt happy when I realized I was doing something for someone that they couldn’t do for themselves." It touched me to see tears in his eyes as I heard him tell of his experience. Never before had I seen him cry. I didn’t expect to see him cry. But even though he is smart and very athletic, he wasn’t above serving others. It is not my intention share a sob story to appeal to your emotional side, but to demonstrate what real, selfless service is.

We have all heard people talk about "the reason for the season," but what does it mean? As most people know, Christ is the reason we celebrate Christmas. Christ, who lived a full selfless life, loved, unceasingly, everyone around him. The reason we celebrate him is because of what he did for us, sacrificing himself out of love for people everywhere. This Christmas season, let us rid ourselves of the selfishness that plagues our world and reach out to others because of the love we have for them. Let us emulate the example of the person we celebrate. I recently heard this talk by a man I greatly admire, where he gave us what we need to make Christmas this year better than ever. This is what he said.

"Finding the real joy of the season comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done or in the purchasing of obligatory gifts. Really, joy comes as we show the love and compassion inspired by the Savior of the world, who said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matt. 25:40). As we contemplate how we are going to spend our money to buy gifts this holiday season let us plan also for how we will spend our time in order to help bring the true spirit of Christmas into the lives of others. The Savior gave freely to all. And His gifts were of value beyond measure. Throughout His ministry, He blessed the sick, restored sight to the blind, made the deaf to hear, and the halt and the lame to walk. He gave cleanliness to the unclean. He restored breath to the lifeless. He gave hope to the despairing, and He sowed light in the darkness. He gave us His love, His service, and His life.

What is the spirit we feel at Christmastime? It is His spirit—the spirit of Christ. The Christmases we remember best generally have little to do with worldly goods, but a lot to do with families, with love, and with compassion and caring. The Savior gave freely to all. And His gifts were of value beyond measure."

Senior Pictures

Here is the source to some of my senior pictures. A lady in my ward, Shayla Welling, took them. They turned out pretty good. These are just a few of the 500 she took.

Nifty

I found out something that is kind of nifty. You can track on your blog how many people have visited your site, how many times, from where in the world, on what internet source and type of computer (mac, windows etc.), and I would personally like to thank my number 1 viewers. Coming in at first by a landslide with 15 total visits, felin. Thank you Forrest and Elin for your continuing support. :) 2nd is Logan Roberts with a total of 3.

I just thought that was pretty hilarious and I wanted to share it. Maybe next time I check, everyone on my list will have 1 more view. I also had a viewer from Russia. How awesome ;)

Hello Everyone

Well hello everyone. A lot has happened since I have last shared anything, so I think it would be appropriate to do so.

First, School has started, and with it football, academics, FBLA, NHS, and of course social angst that is inevitable when it comes to school. :) I am a starting offensive lineman, right guard to be exact (the best of them are). I feel reasonably pleased with how I do. Playing football has been more fun this year than any year before, but the rest of it is harder. The kids and the language and stuff. But I have enjoyed it.

FBLA is going, slowly but surely. We had a conference in Casper last week that was good to be at. We left at 4:00 am, and got home at 11:00 pm. It was a LONG day.

For NHS (National Honors Society) we went to the Alberta Bare Theatre in Billings and saw "War of the Worlds" the same way it was first performed... on the radio. It was strange, but kind of cool. We are going back in February to see "La Boheme," and Ken or Kurt Peterson is the main character.

As far as things go in the world of academia, there is nothing to report. School work is the same as ever. I won't be a valedictorian because I ruined that a long time ago, but I am still doing pretty well. I am part of a "gifted and talented" group that will be attending a brain bowl at the college in Powell soon. I'm not going to lie. It made me feel kind of good when I was asked to be on it!

Social life has slowed down a bit since school has started, for a few reasons. Football takes a lot of time, and then I keep getting blown off. That last part may just be me, but I don't know! Tonight for instance, I planned for some friends to come up to the house to do stuff, but it didn't work out. We started out in Cowley together, and through each town on the way home I lost some. Well, all of them to be exact.

Last but not least, I have remodeled the bathroom downstairs, and well frankly, it looks awesome! I don't know how to get pictures off of our new camera onto the computer, so I will figure it out and get it done. We bought this new video camera that takes pictures too, but I am technologically inept, so it could be a while!

FarmTown

Have you ever heard of FarmTown on facebook? I get these Farmtown gift requests all of the time from a man I know on facebook. I block every application that this man sends me because he sends them to me all of the time! There is this guy at work who LOVES FarmTown. I laugh so hard on the inside when he talks about when his corn is going to be ready, and how Nick Wilson needs to harvest it for him so he can get points from him. Just now, "I'm thinking about buying a bigger place than the one I have now." This is hillarious. I love every minute of hearing about FarmTown. Nick Wilson's character is called "Jimbo." That makes me literally laugh out loud.

I got to work a half our early today, and that is why I am posting. I go to the HighSchool at 6:10 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to do p90x with Nick. It is awesome. It is tough, but I actually really like it. Forrest isn't the only one who can post pictures of what he is going to look like at the end of the summer! By the way, it will be the guy, not the girl. Although, she looks pretty ripped.I am enjoying work a lot. I have learned a lot and am doing a lot. It is actually really fun. One day something went wrong with the Cowley street project, and it was our fault. Nick was really frustrated and had to leave to go somewhere really quickly. I hear him go out the door, but I heard him come back in. He walks into the middle of the office and says, "Russell, go to law school," and walked out.

Accounting, Wow

So Here I am in accounting taking a test. It stinks. I try and try and try to understand this stuff, but it doesn't work. In fact, I don't think that anybody even understands it. Our teacher can only help one person at a time, so while I spend tons of time waiting, I get on the internet and enjoy everything that it brings me in while I am in this dreary place. Well I had better get back to my test. Mrs. Mader is coming.

I need to get a life...

This is kinda a LONG video, but Ryanne and I had way to much fun making these. I will post later, and look at Ry's blog. They are funny too. When we started we had 15 pictures on our computer, and by the end of the day there were 130. Ya, we need to get a life.

An Update

I am pleasantly surprised with how well I am doing with my blog. It is going well. My posts aren't long, but they are still there. Sometimes I feel everybody knows what is going on in my life, so there isn't anything exciting to write about and, like I have said in earlier posts, the only reason I really checks blogs is for the pictures, and I don't have pictures of the things I do. 

There is on piece of information that I would actually like to share with all of my avid readers:) Each ward in the Stake and a talent show. I won it in my ward with "Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone." The top 2 in each ward were taken the the Stake talent show. I sang the same song and was one of the top 2 there, so now I advance to the 4-stake Youth Conference this summer. I didn't really want to go just because it makes me really really nervous. There is no other news today that I want or need to share with anybody. That is my life right there. That and the play are what consume my days. I can't wait for Felin, Ben and Ry, and Tim and Rachell to get here though. It will mean I only have 2 days of school this week. Wednesday I get out early to get ready for the play, Thursday I go to Billings to pick up Ry from the airport, and Friday everyone will be here, and I don't know if I will have to go. Yay for family.

Just a news flash

Hey, really quick. I don't know how significant this is, but in the fundraiser we had for Mr. Collins, we raised over $5,000. It went SO well. I have to say I'm glad it's over, it was a ton of work, but oh man. It was excited to hear those numbers! We fed over 300 people at the bbq.

Oh, Life

Well, here I am at our computer enjoying "The Scarlet Pimpernel." I have to listen to it when ever I get the chance, otherwise it is off with mom somewhere.

I just got back from a Stake Youth Council meeting. It was my first one. I am really looking forward to serving on it. There are a lot of good experiences and pretty girls to become acquainted with! The 4-Stake Youth Conference was already getting planned, but I will be taking over. It will be fun. I have a couple of friends on it, but they are getting released. Kyle Peterson is staying though, so that will be good.

But what else? I am in charge of a fundraiser for one of our teachers, Mr. Collins. He has terminal brain cancer, so we are doing a BBQ and carwash for him. It is a TON of work, but I am glad we can help.
Well, have a great day everybody!

Pictures

We went to the King Tut exhibit. That was pretty awesome. There were so many things that I didn't know. I saw this small stone box, and when I read its title and little explanatory paragraph, it said how they were the twin fetuses of the dead king. That creeped me out a little. I don't know if they died, and then they did that, or the King died, so they did that. Nasty. There was also a sarcophagus with one of the Pharaoh's cats in it. Awesome. 

What a doll.

This is a Beluga Whale. They look like big, white, fat, sea lions with really small heads and bug bulging bodies. Funny. It looked to me like they were always smiling.

Kind of a cool silhouette of something big that was floating over my head.

Lydia "oohed" quite a bit. She was really cute.

This is an "aniname, an anenmine, an imininie."

What ever. 

Logan and I are about the same height. That was exciting.

In way of other news, Forrest and Elin sent me "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Thanks you guys! I am STOKED! I can't wait to dive into another exciting Broadway production. I'm going to do a bit of research on it and find out more about it. Once again, it was an awesome trip. I find myself missing it at random times. When I see a cute little kid, or smell something good that reminds of Atlanta. These were only some of the pictures I took on Paula's camera. Some of them really sucked, so I will keep those hidden.

Life Goes On

I am here at school washing basketball jerseys with one of my friends (Emily Bernhisel). It is really boring, but I guess it is what I signed up for.
Recently (yesterday) I got home from Atlanta. I was gone 5 days. It was awesome. It was really hard for me to leave. I had this feeling of sadness the entire trip home. It even carried well into the day at school. I loved just getting to konw them all a little better. It was great to spend time with the Atlanta Roberts Family. I think there is a closeness there that didn't exist before. But life goes on.
In other new,Lydia is so flippin' cute! Whenever I was in her room with her, she would pull all of the books out of her book box, put them on my lap, and then put them all back in the box. Sometimes we went through a few rounds of this before something else grabbed her attention. I went to Seminary with Logan every morning. It was fun. It was cool to see how the Church is the same everywhere you go. I made friends with some of the kids there. There was a boy there, Keaton? Doody? Duty? I don't know, but that was his name I think. He reminded me a lot of my friend Kyle Peterson. Another girl Andrea. I know that isn't how you spell her name because I saw it spelt somewhere. But you pronounce in (On-dray-a). She was cute. Another girl, Laura, and other people I didn't really talk to. I also went to a stake dance while I was there, it was a little akward, so I only stayed about an hour. It was fun though, I think the people I had gotten to know were genuinely interested in me and glad I went to the dance. There was a cute girl, Kayla, from South Africa. She had a cool accent. I didn't talk to her at all actually, but she was really cute (I thought so anyway). Sunday was their ward conference, so all the Youth met together for the 2 hours after Sacrament meeting. Anyway, there came a point where the Stake Young Men's President asked someone to sing a hymn. This girl Keagan got up and sang. She had a really nice voice. Then he asked for a guy to get up and sing. When I was at mutual and seminary, some of the kids heard me sing, so they knew I could. Keaton, Andrea, Laura, and other people encouraged me to sing, so I decided, what the heck? So I sang a duet with Keagan. I didn't think it was inmportant enough to tell anybody, but somehow word got out (Andrea) and then Logan knew, then my mom.
Other things we did. We went to a King Tut Exhibit that was really interesting. Didn't get to meet the guy, but we saw a lot of the nice things that were buried with him. It was fun to learn about that sort of stuff. We also went to the worlds largest aquarium. It was awesome. There were little sharks, sting rays, crocodiles, and tunnels you could walk through with thousands of gallons of water over you that the fish swam in. I didn't take pictures with my camera because it is so freakin huge, I didn't want to lug it around, so I took pictures with Paula's camera. It was awesome.
Paula, Lydia, and I took a trip to the mall of Georgia. It was quite large. It was cool to see.
I will try to post some pictures later, but maybe not.

Catch up time!

Here are a some pictures. I figure they make up for the last, I don't know, year and a half I've had this blog. I know I don't read blogs, I just check the pictures. So here are some.

Lydia Chowing Down on an onion. Yum.

Beckett and Lydia got out an onion and loved it.

Being the sweet and good kids they are, they peeled
the onion for Grandmas before they returned it.

Here are a some pictures. I figure they make up for the last, I don't know, year and a half I've had this blog. I know I don't read blogs, I just check the pictures. So here are some.

Sorry that they are sideways. Here is little
Beckett watching "Nemo"

Some ridiculously good looking teenager my parents
found on the street...

Mom looking super happy to be here!

Hello again!

Hello! Its been a while, and I apologize! My life just isn't that interesting. My main reason for updating, is so that Felin will create a blog that I can check, everyday! Well, a lot has happened since March 9th, so here we go! Never mind! I can't upload pictures right now, but I will at a later date. I just don't want to! But that doesn't mean you can't Elin!

LALALALALALALALALALALA..... L.A?

Yes! I went to L.A to visit the cutest little boy on the face of the Earth!
(If you don't think so, I will fight you. That's no lie.)

Here he looks a little mentally ill or something(?) but we loved it when we could eat fish crackers together.

Beckett basically loved his ball. I would bounce it on his head and he would giggle.
What a cute boy. I would say happy, but he can get pretty cranky if he want too!

He loved his bath too, as you can see below. Actually, he only liked it when mom or dad gave him one. When Uncle Russell got to babysit, he wasn't quite so fortunate has mom or dad had been!
Just some pictures of the sweet little boy.

It was a fun trip and I enjoyed it very much. We went to Disney Land, Nathan and I. It was fun. I had set myself up for really exciting roller coasters, with tons of loops and things, but then I had to realize that it was Disney Land. I still was very glad to have gone. We went on many rides. The Matterhorn, Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, another roller coaster that just slipped my mind, the Buzz Lightyear Star Command ride three times, and the Pirates of the Caribbean. All "oodles" of fun. We both had turkey legs the size of mine, and ice cream cones the size of Hagrid's. I payed for the ice cream, of course. Oh ya. We went on "Star Tours." The least "amusementy" of them all, and it made us the sickest. I was first on Splash Mountain, and I got SOAKED. The camera's took some pretty sweet pictures of Nathan and I. I looked mentally inept, and Nathan looked like the billboard model for Disney Land. Well, it was fun. I did get stuck in the Denver Airport for 13 hours though. Sick. I almost died! Not really, but I felt like it since I hadn't slept in 24 hours by the time I got home! It was a really fun trip however!

Life's getting...Better?

Here's my schedule for the rest of February and beginning of March.
Thursday the 21st- Leave for Riverton to play in Regional Basketball
Friday 23rd-24th - be in Riverton
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday 27th-March 1st - L.A to see Beckett, Nathan, and Lindsay
Then I come home do finals, and enjoy my last quarter of this school year. Awesome? I think SO.
There aren't any recent pictures on the computer, so I can't put any up. I'll take some with my camera when I go places, and I'll post some pictures. Not that anybody reads this blog. Tanner doesn't (loser) I don't know if Leslie does, but that is basically EVERYBODY that knows I have a blog. Maybe I'll post a comment leaving my address or something. I don't know. If there was anything else good to write about, I would. I'm in Voice lessons. Yay. It is gun, I mean fun. Just whenever I think of voice lessons I think about how I wish I had a gun. :) Have I used an exclamation point yet in this post? No. Thats how drab (nice word, huh) my life is. Well, I'm going to go to bed! Yay! Thats exciting! Three !!! in a row. Wow. I don't know if it would be good if Logan read this post!
(4!!!!)

Wow, it's been a LONG time!

Wow. It's been what, a few MONTHS. I feel pathetic. There is nothing worse that not being able to commit to anything! Today President Hinckley Died. It is sad. But I'm sure that he is having a happy reunion on the other side of the veil. Pres. Monson is next in line then. I love him too. Of course, if there was someone put in we didn't really love, would we believe that he was called of God? Well, if our testimonies were strong enough, we would know.



There is a lot to catch up on. I still can't do pictures, but I try. I got one a while ago, but it wouldn't work out. I'm going to try again.

This is my precious niece

This is my favorite nephew. Here I am
Or, was, reading to him at Felin's wedding.

It isn't a killer post, but it's late, and I am TIRED. I need sleep. It is one of my best friends. Well, Good night!

Family!

I'm going for a new feel with my blog. I'm going to use red font today. I really missed my family when I came home from Haley's wedding in Idaho. It is the strangest thing! The person I felt like I missed the most was Rach. Rachell, it's not that I never miss you, because I do. Here is why it was strange. It was strange because I am going to see her tomorrow, and yet I bawled my eyes out when we had to leave. Crazy crap! That night before we went to bed, dad asked me to give the family prayer. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF HIS ENTIRE LIFE! After the 10 seconds that I said how thankful we were for getting back safe, I started praying about how we are so blessed to be with our family. I cried for about 4 minutes of the 4 minute 30 second prayer. I got through the night though. It always depresses me to be separated from my family. If you have viewed Rach's blog lately, you will notice her post about how we can be together FOREVER. What a remarkable blessing we have to be an eternal family, if we live like we should. Thinking about that always motivates me to live better. Obviously, it only works for about a day! I have to go to play practice!

Rach

Rach. What more can I say? I was looking at pictures of Beckett, and then I decided to go to Rach's blog. She cracks me up! Last night on the phone, we were talking about me going to Idaho, and Jorden coming here. It was so funny becuase, if you know Rachell, she lets out this like pained laugh. And then we talked about how we hope Beckett will be a good athlete, and I made the comment, "Well, where he will be living for a while, it will be harder to make teams." Then Rach goes, "Well, if he's anything like me, he won't have any problems." It made me laugh. She is coming home at the end of the month. She of course gets the downstairs room!