Ellery's 9th Birthday

My wonderful little niece Ellery, turned 9 on Wednesday. For her Birthday, we had a family dinner/Birthday at Rumbi Island Grill. It was great to get together and celebrate the life of this sweet little girl! 

Happy Birthday Ell Bell!!

Hey Mamma...

We also had the chance to see our German exchange student, Oliver, that we hosted 15 years ago. He stayed with us for 9 weeks, and became so close with our family! He is here in Utah for a few months working on a project with NuSkin. It was a great reunion! 

Deyo and Stace---Pippers loves Stacy Jo 

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

Today I have been reminded of the importance of SIMPLICITY... I spent some time reflecting,  and then I just started to write...So here, make what you want of some of my jumbled, Sunday thoughts :) 

My ears rest tranquilly. 

They are well acquainted with the effortless and uncomplicated task of sleep. 

Undisturbed and undistracted.

In perfect harmony with the silence,

Unquestionably, the time arrives...

Daytime, life, yet another day. 

It makes it's crude and impetuous entrance.

Enter my ears, the world's hurried alarm of agitated and chaotic confusion.

To remain connected to heaven is demanding, but essential.

Amidst this confusion though, is also a beauty. 

In these beautiful moments come tiny reminders.

Quiet whispers that can so easily be counted as nothing, can be manifestations. 

In everything, we can choose to see this beauty.  

The whispers come as we read, listen, look and do. 

A mortal existence is simply time.
Time so graciously given to us to strive, to become, to dream, to seek, to learn, to nurture, to love.


William Wadsworth has some beautiful words:


Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And not in utter nakedness,
And cometh from afar
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
Not in entire forgetfulness,

From God, who is our home:

President Uchtdorf states:


"we would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most. Let us be mindful of the foundational precepts our Heavenly Father has given to His children that will establish the basis of a rich and fruitful mortal life with promises of eternal happiness. They will teach us to do “all these things … in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that [we] should run faster than [we have] strength. [But] it is expedient that [we] should be diligent, [and] thereby … win the prize.Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from placing our attention and efforts on the basics of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most. Let us simplify our lives a little. Let us make the changes necessary to refocus our lives on the sublime beauty of the simple, humble path of Christian discipleship—the path that leads always toward a life of meaning, gladness, and peace."

President James E. Faust teaches: 

"Balance in large measure is knowing the things that can be changed, putting them in proper perspective, and recognizing the things that will not change. And balance also lies in attitude. May our attitude be one of achieving balance and wisdom and understanding in all that we do." 

I love the idea of living my life and being HAPPY to be alive each and every day. I have been blessed with sooooooo much. It's overwhelming how good God has been to me! 
I want to do my very best.  At all I do I want to try so hard to do it RIGHT and make it COUNT. Even though I will fail over and over again and always come up short, I know that is what this life is about [insert 1/a billion cheesy quotes here]. 


Whether it be school,  relationships,  jobs, commitments, living my religion, taking care of myself,  obedience  honesty, whatever it may be, I'm going to give it my all.  Life can be so simple, and so beautiful! 

Incidents at intramurals

BYU intramurals has never been something I have taken lightly. These highly intense games are games I take extremely seriously. (alright if you haven't picked up on my sarcasm...pick it up now...) But really though, I think it intensity is just part of my genetics. I can't just semi-care. I always try to play hard, and I really don't like to lose.

So that being said, this past Friday proves this point. I've been playing intramurals soccer with a ward team. The game was on a Friday evening, so b a lot of people slacked and didn't show up. We were playing  man-down, and so naturally everybody had to step it up. Only about ten minutes into the game, and playing forward, I charged the goal with an incoming cross off a corner kick. I went to head the ball, as the goalie simultaneously went to "Punch" the ball out. We collided (my head, and his knuckles). All I remember is looking up at him and being like "What are you doing?!" HA! I love that I said that to him. My temple pretty much split, and was spewing blood. My nose was also gushing blood. In sum, there was a lot of blood. Everywhere.

What shocked me the most was the response of the "First Aid" people. Aren't intramurals pretty grotesque at times? Well to be frank, no one really knew what to do. It was like it was the first time any of them had ever seen this much blood, and as if they were in shock. I was pretty upset and just wanted them to tell me what to do! I think I was a bit out of it and probably wasn't the kindest person ever...but I just wanted to know what had happened and how to make it stop bleeding!  They asked me about 6 times what I wanted them to do...I just kept saying "I don't know, I don't know aren't you guys supposed to tell ME that? I can't even see where I'm bleeding from?!" After some stellar medical treatment that involved the girl "Dabbing" my severed head with some T.P. in the bathroom, I took the initiative to get me to the hospital where I could have my face repaired properly. I called my friend who came to rescue me. I got some interesting looks from people casually walking by, as I stood in the IPF parking lot COVERED in blood. A nice girl on her bike asked me if I needed help, but she was about as useless on her bike, as the First Aid people inside. The last thing I wanted was to double up on a beach cruiser to get properly taken care of. That could only have been bad...

I had to go to 2 different hospitals in order to get to one where my insurance would cover a Plastic Surgeon to stitch me up. I laid on the table for hours holding a piece of gauze on my head. The Plastic Surgeon was on-call, and Im' pretty sure he was also on a hott date, because it took about 4 hours for him to show up...  The nurse had to shoot my face with needles about 30 times to numb me (not pleasant). She also dripped epinephrin in my EYE, which was lovely. So in case they wanted to give me lasik or something, my eye was all numbed up for them!  About 5 hours later I was on my way home from the hospital with 35 stitches.

Here is the latest update....It's still covered with tape, and

tomorrow I'll get the top layer of stitches out. Eeeeeeek! I'll let you know how it goes, and how it looks :/

This was my turf burn I got last June in Intramural soccer. I really am glad I'm graduating and can stick with just running now...haha My future modeling career has been ruined thanks to BYU Intramurals....

I want to do more.

Isn't it amazing how we can have such scattered thoughts in our minds, and then be able to transfer those onto paper, for others to see?  In a way it makes us vulnerable. Before, those thoughts are ours, and ours only. In an instant though, those thoughts can become alive and dance on a public stage. Often our thoughts involve other people. We can choose to keep thoughts to ourselves, write them down, or vocally express them. Many times others could be edified if only we chose to communicate. Our expression is precious. Some of the most tender moments in my life have been moments where someone truly expressed their feelings to me. I have felt love, joy, pain, hope, excitement, and many other emotions just because someone chose to let me in on their thoughts....Communication is truly of the essence. 


How often do we think things that we wouldn't want others to know we were thinking? A NEW GOAL. Express every good thought, think only that which would lift someone else, if they saw on paper, or heard what I was thinking. There is no reason we should ever feel it's alright to secretly hate, mock, scorn, lust, or look down on others. Just because we aren't outwardly expressing those thoughts, doesn't justify our thoughts. I know how good it feels to genuinely make someone feel good about themselves. I also know how painful it is to lose ourselves momentarily to tearing someone down. We all feel inadequate enough, that we don't need one more person against us. Oh how I would love to be one that consistently lifts up others. It's hard to do, but it makes us better. I want to be just a little better each day. That's all I can do, but that's also a lot. The beautiful words of Rabintranath Tagor inspire me...

I slept and dreamt

That life was joy

I awoke and saw 

that life was duty 

I acted and beheld 

Duty was joy

Tomorrow, I want to wake up and truly wake up. I want to see that I have a duty. I want to live each day in gratitude. Gratitude to my Heavenly Father for all that He has given me. For the potential I have to become. My thoughts should be more turned to Him and his undeniable existence and involvement in my life. I can serve Him more faithfully as I outwardly express my love for Him through my actions towards others. This is a moment of truth. I want to be better tomorrow than I was today. My thoughts will drive my actions. My actions will drive others to be inspired, just as my Heavenly Father inspires me daily to become more than I am . And as a wonderful man and prophet of God, Gordon B. Hinkley once said, “Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine.”