Faith and Footprints

My friend Annika was over at my house last night helping me pack for Girl's Camp.

 As I was packing she was telling me about being at EFY.

She had a blast

and of course met some cute guys.

One guy in particular

from Oklahoma.

Really nice kid, came with his best friend.

During testimony meeting Annika and everyone else in her group

found out he's not LDS.

Can I just say how amazing that is?!?!

 The fact that he traveled to Utah to come to a religious camp and put up the money for it!!!

I mean seriously...

EFY comes from the Church.

I know personally, I wouldn't go to my friend's church camp

especially if I had to travel 

and pay a bunch of money.

Talk about courage and bravery and trust.

I don't even know this kid

But he's a great example for me in my life...

I have this poem hanging on my wall.

It's one of my absolute favorites, and even though it has nothing to do with what I just wrote, I want to share it anyway.

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed 

he was walking along the beach with the LORD. 

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. 

For each scene he noticed two sets of 

footprints in the sand: one belonging 

to him, and the other to the LORD. 

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, 

he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me." 

The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you." 

Picture Day!!

Who knew a road trip could be so fun

not to mention dangerous and scary???

Let me explain...

Me and my sister were driving to Elko a few weeks ago.

That's a 4 hour drive, and we were pretty bored.

I told Bailey we should document our trip...

See, I have a camera :D

We definitely recorded our trip, but not exactly as we expected..

We decided to get pics of all the semi drivers we passed.

Not the smartest idea, but it sure was entertaining :)

Yep, same guy. Only, now he's glaring 

                                      Can someone explain this to me??

   

   Creeper!!                  Missed the truck, but got an equally good pic

              Isn't this dangerous??      Maybe you had to be there..

              An aged semi driver?      But this dude made me laugh SO hard!!!

Why are both of these guys so old?! 

So we pass this guy, right? He's on the phone, but his glare is super creepy!! 

Then to make it worse, 

after we pass him and get in front

He moves over like he's going to pass us!!!!

The 2 pics on the right, that's him trying to get in front.

Can I just say, we were both completely freaked!!

But...

we didn't stop :D

So then, we pass through Independence Valley...

Yeah, there's a prison :)

The sign says 

PRISON AREA HITCHHIKING PROHIBITED

And the prison is behind it.. It's small but still

Sketchy...

It's my favorite part of the drive :D

    

                           Here we have some lip action and a hiding man, look hard and you can see him

Orange truck driver was the best pic we got... the other 2, not so much.

I can almost see a hint of a smile 

 First lady driver we saw in awhile... How come the guy isn't driving.. Talk about no manners

Beard and glasses...

Beard, glasses and old..

 Why do all these dudes look the same??

 We had quite the fan club :D

Oh, and there was a yellow truck behind the last red one..

Beard, glasses and Black

Creeper if I ever saw one

A gold car's butt...

I hate construction.

 Oh, isn't working in the sun so exhausting??

 The guy in the passenger seat... Scary!!!

More lady drivers, one in a pickup the other a semi.

I'd hate to be a truck driver

Casino stop anybody??

 Umm... Nevermind.

Confession time... we maybe stopped at the Red Lion (behind this guy)

This dude was disgusting. I hope I never see another motorcycle rider without a jacket in my life!!!

So this was our trip.

Dangerous, yes.

Fun, yes.

Would I do it again? No, definitely not.

I'd rather not be chased down by a semi.

I must say though, 

I was honestly surprised that nobody smiled...

or flipped us off :D

Jiggs V.F.D.

Jiggs?

VFD??

Talk about a weird hat...

Yeah, it's mine.

Now, what in the world could it mean??

Well lets see..

Jiggs is a tiny community named after the bar,

but what about VFD??

Very Fine Delinquent

Very Fat Delinquent

                 --- thank you dad

I mean, come on!! 

D... why is his first thought Delinquent?

I am his Daughter after all, his

Very Favorite Daughter  :D

I am just like my dad.

When I mean something, I say something 

different, something sarcastic

Visibly, Father's Daughter 

Okay, so I'm really not so good at this.

As you can tell :)

For reals though, Jiggs V.F.D. 

stands for

Jiggs, Nevada

Volunteer Fire Department

Kinda boring if you ask me...

Beastly vs. Beauty

The entire way home from church Brock was talking about Alexa,

the most beautiful girl in the world and his dream girlfriend...

It's a loooonnng drive, about 45 minutes.

Anyway, I accused him of only liking her because she's beautiful.

He sincerely denied it.

but then we got talking about if hotness matters.

I brought up the movie Beastly.

How the girl falls in love with whats-his-face even though he's ugly...

(although, as the movie goes on I think he gets.. well, not cuter, but, well he makes it work)

Anyway, I was telling Brock that I'd feel jipped

if I fell in love with someone who was super ugly then they magically turned handsome.

Why?

Well, if I loved someone who was scary looking and hideous,

who turned heads in disgust,

and when I said I loved him people were amazed and grossed out at the same time.
Okay, well not that terrible, but at least like the guy in the movie,

I don't know 'bout you, but I'd feel pretty proud of myself.
And, I mean, if he's the scariest thing out there
then there'd be nothing to be afraid of.
But
if he turned handsome
people would look at me and say
You got him? Lucky.
Like ending up with him, getting him to fall for me, was an accomplishment.

People would think I fell for him because he was hot.
I don't want that.
I mean, I want a cute husband, don't get me wrong,
but I don't want looks to be all that matter.
I want to fall for what's on the inside, who he really is,
not what everybody sees of him at a glance...

I don't know, this is just me....

Weird, I know

So I like this certain guy.

Problem is

he already has a girlfriend.

Stupid, I know.

Her name is Marie.

Yeah, I'm not one of her biggest fans.

Anyway, a few days ago I had this totally weird thought.

First you should know I love 24...

The series, not the number.

Well, in one of the seasons, either 2 or 3, I can't remember which.

There's this lady named Marie.

Yeah, she's a terrorist.

She kills her fiance and tries to kill her sister

but then Jack comes to her rescue and saves the day.

Anyway, now whenever I hear or think of this girl Marie

I also think of the Marie in 24, the terrorist.

It's weird, I know :D

Skunks...

Bailey and Brock just came home

smelling like skunk!!!

So, apparently

our dog Leppy got sprayed

then ran past Brock and Bailey

and into the hay.

She was rolling around

shaking her head

trying to get rid of the awful stench...

I didn't actually witness this,

but boy,

I'm guessing it was quite a show :D

So yeah, Bailey and Brock walked into the living room

then all of a sudden

we all could smell the horrible reek...

Well, after about 5 minutes

we got them both in the shower.

It was only then

that Bailey could smell herself.

Let's just say she was very vocal about how bad it was :)

And let's also say that after spraying the entire house with air freshner

our house still stinks of skunk... 

Bonding with my Bro

So sometimes I go hang at the junk yard...

Well, not just me,

I took Brock and Asia.

Not that that makes it any less odd...

Me and Brock took our guns and shot at old beer bottles.

You know, the glass budweiser, corona, and bud light bottles.

We stuck them in a huge dirt pile and sat in the back of my awesome little Honda with the back popped open.

I must say, Brock is quite a shot :D

Brock's gun doesn't have a scope so he was aiming at the bottles. He hit everything he shot at.. pretty much.

I've got a scope so was shooting at smaller things, like the bottle cap and spent shotgun shells. I hit the shotgun casings a few times, but it took me forever to hit the cap, but I did hit it :)

Asia, after finding some cool bottles, was ready to go home.

All in all, I'd say it was pretty great.

No better way to bond than having a little competition..

Okay, a lot of competition :)

Dang it! Brock is sitting with me as I write this

and now we're disagreeing..

He says he usually beats me when we shoot behind the house...

Personally, I think he's high on something.

Yes, I have a scope on my gun,

but he has more time to shoot since he lives here all the time.

I only have limited access to my gun, so in a way my scope evens it all out :D

Then again...

He is 10.

Okay, I guess I don't have any excuses,

but he doesn't always beat me,

Maybe once or twice every visit..

I think?

Spiders

I absolutely, positively without a doubt

HATE spiders!!!

Yeah, they're tiny..

but they hide in my stuff and crawl

out from my pile of clean clothes

that have been on the floor for a few days.

They climb out of my shoes

and up my leg...

Eeeeewwwwwwww!!!

I get chills just thinking about it!!

Well, now I've let everyone know my one major fear...

That's just great (I'm being totally sarcastic by the way :)

 but you should know

 if you try to scare me with spiders

I will get you back..

Worse

So don't even think about it.

Seriously

Quotes

Here are some of my all time favorite quotes

said during the Rich Family Reunion

In Relief Society my aunt Mia went up to play the piano,

aunt Ariane got up to sing and aunt Courtney went to turn pages for Mia... Yeah, I have a lot of aunts :)

My cousin Morgan whispered to her mom Dana (yep, another aunt)

"Mom, how come you don't have any talents?" then added

"Even aunt Courtney can turn pages!"

Bosten's watching Blake rub his sister Morgan's back during sacrament.

Bosten: Does he like her? 

Me: No, they're our cousins, they're brother and sister...

Bosten: They live together?!?!?!

In the car driving through hills covered in tall trees

Sadie: Holy CRAP!! Look at those trees!

Did I mention she's 4?