To Be (rational), or not to be (rational)...

... is actually a question I ask myself on a daily basis. 

Sometimes, this is just how it is.

Lesbihonest. I struggle with Mondays (I'm not the only one, right?). I was feeling pretty great after spending the weekend in Star Valley with my family, then Monday morning came and with it the weight of all my obligations, meetings, lessons... Blah blah blah. Naturally, this feeling caused me to stay in bed as long as possible before I'd have no choice but to scare my 5th graders with my less than acceptable appearance.
It wasn't a hard day by any means, but all day long I was thinking "I'm in WAY over my head with everything." Because I am surrounded by 5th graders all morning and high schoolers all afternoon, I really needed to talk to an adult by the time 6 PM rolled around. After going non-stop from 8 AM to 6:30 PM, I went straight to Matt's house because I like him and he is the voice of reason.

Being the wonderful guy he is, just held me and listened to all my irrational thoughts and concerns and let me vent almost to the verge of tears. He would interject occasionally with things like "I understand" and "it will all work out." (Voice of reason AND eternal optimist...) I went off on so many tangents of things that I was so worried about and frustrated with and at the end of it all I realized the one thing that was just the icing on the cake,"and Chuckie Keeton is out for the season!!"

I don't know how, but within the next 10 seconds we were both hysterically laughing. The kind of hysterics where I wasn't sure if I was laughing or crying. I'm sure Matt was just laughing at me at this point which made everything that much more funny.

And then I felt a lot better.

Looking back, how I felt was incredibly ridiculous. It was just one of those days. At least we got a good laugh out of it in the end.

It's a good thing Matt thinks I'm funny. I'll keep him around for a while. 

Uh... is this thing on?

Oh hey.

It's been a while. I'll explain the blog's name change in another post. I'll explain a lot of other things that happened in other posts, too. 

A little journal writing on the flight home. 

A lot has happened in almost 4 months. I've learned a lot and I've changed even more. Maybe that's why I've had such terrible writers block not only on my blog, but in my journal as well. I devote next weekend to catching up. It's important stuff. I still feel really strongly like I need to keep a record of my life, but sometimes it happens too fast for me to keep up!

Hello to the Great Salt Lake.

This summer was a journey in more than one way. I was traveling all over the country being an EFY counselor, and each week I learned really valuable lessons about who I am, what I have to offer, and what I deserve. A lot of these lessons were thanks to the people I associated with all summer: the session directors, the youth, and my EFY team. Flying back to Utah from my last session in Palmyra, NY was a cathartic experience for me. I had worked some things out in my heart and it was time to put what I knew into action.

I'm excited to tell the stories of my adventures! They're my version of events, come read all about it.

According to Phil Robertson, I might be a Yuppie.

But I'd like to think I'm not 100% yuppie. Click here for a better idea of what that is (according to Phil of course.)

Boots mean business

I LOVE going home. "Home" here refers to good ol' Star Valley, Wyoming. Even though I never grew up or lived there, the cliche "home is where the heart is" definitely applies to this place. My dad's parents and siblings all lived in or near Star Valley, and still do! Growing up, my family would try to visit every other year, and despite the 2,100 mile distance. My grandparents board and rent out horses, so we would go on long rides through the mountains and enjoy the country.

 I've gone home a lot this Spring and I can't get enough of being with my grandparents and family there. They've been so supportive during my time at Utah State University. A big part of the reason I chose USU was because it was so close to them.

It's only been a week since I've been with them in Texas for the wedding, but I'm homesick so I'm going up for Memorial Weekend and can't wait.

Here are a couple of pictures of a recent weekend up in the SV:

We spent one morning branding cattle. This was a feisty one so I sat on the fence and watched the whole time.  (Yuppie status.)

The newest member of the farm.

I sure love my grandpa.