District Horse Show

Wow! Where did July go?
Parents came home and are gone again...to Chicago this time.
Went to Bear Lake for a week for the Reunion...Awesome (pictures later maybe)
Got called as 1st councilor in the Elders Quorum...explains why I don't have any more time!

Anyway, I do want to post about the District horse show I was in Yesterday and Friday. It was a ton of fun! I've never been to a horse show let alone competed in one so it was a great experience.

My first event, and only one on Friday, was the Pony Express. The Pony Express is a relay where your horse is unsaddled and there is a saddle in a circle out in the arena. You must lead your horse to the circle, put the saddle on, ride around a barrel at the end of the arena and come back, take the saddle off and then lead your horse back across the starting line. There are five people on one team. It took our team just under 5 min. for all five of us to go. We totally smoked everyone! The bad news was that after all the events were over with then the people in charge talked it over and said we were disqualified. Them talking it over is illegal so we should have won, but we didn't protest because we moved on to Region just because there weren't enough teams to go. The other event that I helped with was the ribbon pull. This is a race to see who can pull a ribbon off of a steers back the fastest. I was running the chutes to let the cows out. Well you have to move the steers to the front of the chute to get them to come out right and to get them to the front you grab their tails and pull the tails forward, and this gets them to move forward. Well I went to grab one of them by the tail and little did I know it had just crapped all over its tail! It was nasty!
So Saturday morning came bright and early. I was up at 5 so we could get everything ready and get there on time. This is on the ride up, my sister-in-law was caught taking a little nap!
When we got there I was informed that I was in the Potato Race! I was just an alternate but someone dropped out so I was in. In the potato race there are two barrels, one on each side of the arena. One has 12 potatoes in it and the other is empty. You ride your horse to the first one and stab a potato with this lance you have in your hand, you then ride back to the second barrel and fling the potato back into the barrel and then cross the finish line and hand off the lance to the next person in line. Well I had never done this in a cowboy hat and my horse was being stupid so we missed the potato and had to go back to pick it up. Luckily we still placed forth which is good enough to move on to region!
The last event I did is called Wild Cow Milking! This was a ton of fun. The release a bunch of wild momma cows out into the arena. Then there are two guys on a team. The first one is on horseback and has to rope one of the cows. The second guy runs up and has to "mug" the cow, which basically means he has to manhandle the cow while the first guy comes and tries to milk the cow. He just has to get enough for a drop of milk to run out of the bottle. Well I was the mugger and my brother the roper/milker. It took us about a minute and a forty five seconds to rope the cow and then we got it mugged and milked in about ten, only to run down to the circle and before we could turn the bottle and dump out the milk the time had expired. Luckily only two teams actually posted a time so they are letting us move on to region! Oh and I should mention that our cow had horns about a foot and a half long, and she wanted to use them against me!
Overall the two days was a ton of fun! I invite everyone to come to Region on Aug. 22-23 in Logan to see me wrestle a huge milk cow that has never been milked before! We will also be competing in a club drill event where we will all be wearing the same matching outfit.
I should mention, that if you see a cowboy with his hat tipped down....it means he's looking for a fight!
And if you see a cowboy with his hat tipped up...then you've got a happy cowboy!

7 Days

So seven days from right now, my parents will have returned from a year and a half mission! It feels like it's been about 8 months now but nope, try 18! It will be good to have them home but with it comes changes. It will be different living under my parent's roof again (yes I know I've been living in their house, but it's different). So who knows I might be ready to move out in a month or two.

I also have a new calling. I'm not at liberty to say what it is but if you come to my ward on Sunday than you might find out. I will miss my old calling. I loved serving as a Ward Clerk. I believe it is one of the best callings in the Church! Almost no other calling has a definitive end of what is required! Once all the paperwork is done then there is nothing more to do! I guess I brought this on myself though. I've been in this ward for almost two years now...the longest I've been in one ward since my home ward back before I was 18! Crazy!

Anyway these are my random thoughts on this last day of June, my last Monday night without parents in the same country, the last night I hopefully sleep without installing the AC unit from the basement!

What would you do?

As some might know, my parents get home in a week and a half, July 7th to be exact. At that time I will be once again, living with my parents. So I have some options I could pursue. First is change nothing, stay living here and just keep on keeping on. Next I could purchase a place down south closer to work. Now comes the real questions, should I buy a motorcycle? This option would most likely be for living in Bountiful to save on gas money but could be for anything cause I've always wanted to have a motorcycle.
So here it is, your chance to have a word in what I should do.


*I reserve the right to not take any advice or follow the majority on any issue.
**By commenting you will be entered into a drawing for $1,000,000
***No actual money will be rewarded

Gain of money...Loss of time

So today I went to my brothers place in Farmington. We had spaghetti for dinner and then went outside to enjoy the nice afternoon. I decided to go pay my horse a visit. It had been over a week since I'd gone riding. I walked into the pasture and my horse saw me and walked right up to me. I petted him and looked him over for any scratches or wounds of any kind, and then walked back to the gate. He followed me over there and seemed to be saying, "Please let me out or stay for a while and do something with me!"
I couldn't resist. I grabbed his halter and lead and put it on. He nearly ran over to some flat ground, excited that someone was going to do something with him. After making sure he was thinking and wasn't going to do something stupid, I jumped on his back and rode bareback for awhile. Then I climbed off and started walking toward the gate. He followed, trying his best to show how good he was so I could stick around.
I felt horrible that I hadn't been riding or even coming over to see him. I realized I was stuck in the rat race! It sucks! There is a scale for most of us in life, on one side there is an excess of time, on the other is money. Unfortunately one cannot have both, or so it seems. I had been living favoring the time side and life was good. Now that I've shifted toward the money side I want to find a way to have both. Maybe it's greed, but I think of it as working smarter not harder. There has to be a way to make money work for you so you can enjoy time and still have money coming in. I'm not doing it now and it's driving me to figure out how to live the good life.

I'm open for suggestions!

Memorial Day Thoughts

On this memorial day, I'm grateful for all those who have fought and are fighting for our freedoms. I personally have two good friends serving. It worries me for their safety but I am eternally grateful that they, and all the other men and women of the military, are willing to risk their lives to protect my life, my freedoms and my home. So here's a shout out to Scott Lalliss and Justin Porter!
Because of these freedoms I enjoy, I have gotten a new job! I begin work tomorrow, May 26, 2008. Over one year since I've had a steady income. It will be difficult to go back to an 8 hour, 5 days a week job, but it will be really nice to have a good income, health and dental and a 401k. The company is called Smile Reminder. You can check them out at Smile Reminder. They are a company that works with doctor and dentist offices. They have software that they can send text messages and emails for reminders for appointments and birthdays and other advertisements. I will be customer support and training and technical support. They also have good room for advancement. I'm hoping to become the photoshop guy but I'll have to see.
My parents come home in about 6 weeks, July 7th. So now I'm trying to prepare the yard for their return. My problem has been that last year we let the yard go so it's a lot of work. I'm open to all volunteers or service projects. There's lots of weeding and trimming and fixing sprinklers and many many more things. My new job is a blessing but a curse when it comes to this work. Blessing cause I can pay for repairs and fertilizer and other supplies but now I have little time to work. Oh well I guess I'll have to do what most people do all the time.
I've been recruited to the Institute fireside committee. My friend Steph is in charge and asked me to help with the technical side of firesides. I've been to the Institute about 10 times so it will be interesting to go and learn the layout of the building. The committee members all seem to be cool. We will be working closely over the next year so it should be fun.

Well that's about it...if there is still anyone reading after this long post I thank you and hope you come back.