SLC for the 4th

Matt and Camille blessed their newest addition on the 4th of July. Justin and I hitched a ride with his mom and joined his dad and Merril, Jamie, and Juliet (the other two came with us) in SLC. We went to a birthday party for Beau on Saturday night and to the patriotic Music & the Spoken Word on Sunday. It was fun!Jules and me in the back seat of Grandma's car waitin' for everyone to get back.

Music and the Spoken Word is held in the Conference Center during the summer to accommodate all the people that go.

Help a Sister Out...

Ok. So I've taken on a little of the advertising responsibility at work. Recently, we have launched what I like to call "The Facebook Fan Blitz." Essentially, what it is is a raffle for a gift certificate for dinner and a movie. All that is required to enter is for a person to become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or on our company blog. Anyone can enter, though the prize can only be redeemed in the St. George metropolitan area. If you suggest this contest to friends and they join up, they get an entry and you get an entry. I know, a pyramid scheme, but, hey, it's easy and it doesn't cost anything to join and their are no meetings...

If you'd like to help go here or here to enter. Thanks so much! You all rock!

P.S. Don't be alarmed if the Mountain West blog looks like mine right now... we have the same background currently...

Happy Independence Day!!!

I LOVE INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

I always get such a sense of pride in my country around this time of year. I really wish that it was a month long celebration instead of just one day.

This year, I have decided to read The 5,000 Year Leap in honor of Independence day (Sara, I promise we will give the book back at the end of this month! ;) So far, it is amazing and to the point. I recommend it to everyone. Everyone should have a copy and give another copy to their friends. Seriously, the principles in this book are that good.

The point that has struck me hardest is the reality that our Constitutional government cannot exist with out religion. Our Constitution gives us the right to do many things and our religion teaches us what we shouldn't do, even if we do have the right to do it.

Ok, enough preaching. I am very grateful to live in a country so blessed with so much. I really hope that things start turning around. I know I'm going to do more toward that goal... It's the least I can do to thank those men in 1776, both those that wrote the declaration and those that gave their lives to defend it.

New Place & New Job

Ok, so the Hurricane job wasn't as permanent as we thought. We decided to move anyway. It feels like we're supposed to be in this new house for some reason, especially the way everything has fallen into place.

Justin is working for Andrus Trucking now. He's their tow truck driver and also works on the safety lane. Denton works there too, so hopefully the two of them can get some work done instead of goofing off all the time... ;D

Our first week in our new ward was okay. Dow and Hannah go to the same ward, so we didn't have to sit by ourselves and we had guides to show us where the classes were.

I love our new place! It is so spacious, especially in the kitchen. I still feel a little overwhelmed when I look at all the boxes we still need to unpack, but I'm sure we'll get it done soon.

We're moving!

Alas, we are moving from the fair town of Gunlock. We are sad. We will miss Kevin & Sara & the kids and the ward and the quiet and the orchard... but Justin works in Hurricane now. So we decided that it would be best if we moved into St. George to help offset fuel costs.

There are a couple of places that we are looking at right now. One is in Santa Clara (not too much closer than Gunlock, but a little) and the other is off of Main Street in St. George. They are exactly the same floor plan, except they're mirrored images of each other.

We're planning on moving the end of May so we will be in for the 1st of June. It's bitter-sweet for me. On the one hand, I'm gonna miss Sara terribly. We've gotten to be super, SUPER close friends. And I'll miss my Cub Scouts and the members of the ward. On the other hand, I'm excited to have a bigger space and have all of our stuff under the same roof(minus our trailer[possibly] and piano[one day, I swear it will move out of Janet and Mark's basement]).

I guess I'm mostly apprehensive, scratch that, scared, about the new ward we would move into. I'm pretty shy when it comes to new people and I have a hard time feeling welcome in new wards. I'm sure it will work out. The Lord gives us opportunities to grow and I know this is one of them. I'm grateful that he has that kind of faith in me!

Gotta love lds.org

I absolutely love the Church's website. If you've got a question, the site has an answer.

Justin and I have been trying harder to read the Book of Mormon together (we've resorted to reading while we're carpooling to work). I usually do the reading, as Justin usually drives. The other day, we came across the "And my father dwelt in a tent" verse. I thought to myself, "so what? Big deal, you lived in a tent." But then I got to thinking about it. Why would Nephi waste space on the plates, especially so early in the writing, about something so seemingly unimportant? There must be a reason. So I went to lds.org and found this very illuminating article. It documents a couple who were contracted by the Church Magazines to find the route that was most probable for Lehi and his family to take when escaping Jerusalem. I HIGHLY recommend it. It was a very interesting read.

Grumble...

I feel like I need to apologize for not posting more from March and, now April. I have decided that I need to get a small point and shoot camera because my camera is just too big to haul around every where. I mean, seriously, have you ever tried to get a candid with yourself and another person trying to reach something roughly the size and shape of an anvil clear out to your arm's full extension? Yeah, not so fun...

To add to the lack of pictures, our laptop has some sort of virus and we haven't had the time to sit down and figure the dumb thing out. We'll probably have to take it to one of our friends (computer genius!) to get it taken care of. That's fine, he's a good guy.

So, I have a million pictures. Can I upload them? No. They are on my laptop. As it is, I'm writing this post at 8:40 in the morning on my work computer. Not that my boss would mind if I was writing it during business hours, but it just doesn't have the same familiarity as my laptop.

Justin has a new job. He's going to be phasing out his bug spraying, so if you want your house sprayed, you best speak up soon. He is working for a company that buys and refurbishes used commercial fitness equipment. It is truly amazing how much happier he is at this job than he was bug spraying.

Well, I suppose, until my laptop is fixed, adieu.