Things that I have missed!

Here is a list of things that I have missed about my dad while he's been gone.

- The way he whistles no matter what he's doing
- His sneezes that you can hear from across the street
- The way he smells, its just good and comfortable
- His smile, and his fangs haha :)
- His witty, if not somewhat inappropriate remarks... which may or may not include profanity. Oops
- His easy-going-ness
- Basically anything and everything, but these things that I've listed in particular.

Things Left Unsaid

I find that I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I attended a funeral on Tuesday and it was beautiful, the flowers, the singing, and the spirit and I decided that I should not leave things unsaid. So this is me saying things I should have said a long time ago.

As I sat in the service for Kenna Smith I watched as her grandchildren stood up to sing a beautiful medley and felt a love so strong I couldn't help but cry. This family had unequivocally and irrevocably accepted me into the fold of this love at a time when I don't believe they knew how much I needed it. I sat there, almost floored at how unbelievably blessed I have been to have any association with this family, with this love, and this bond of friendship. There was a peace there that I could not describe and a love that was unmistakable. So this is for you.

To the Spencer family, the Smith family, the Bintz family, the Huntsman family. You have been the greatest friends and an awesome source of support and love in my life that could only be equaled or rivaled by my own sweet family. For a long time I could not understand how every one of you could accept me so fully and so completely into that fold of love and family, but learning more about the two that started this family it was easy to see why and how. I hope you all know that you have taught me the truest meaning of charity, that pure love of Christ who died for all of us. I hope with all my heart that I can share that in some way with every person I meet, and in my own family one day.

Shannon has always told me that no matter where life takes me she will always see me as one of her own, and I find it a privilege to be thought of as an honorary member of this family- and no matter where life takes me I know I will find love and friendship within this unit.

I guess in a nutshell I am thanking you for every moment that you have shared with me, and for the love and kindness that you continue to show me. You have been a shining example in my life. Thank you once again.

I did not know them

... And yet I loved them.

I've been meaning to write about my trip to Jackson for the past several days and just barely got around to it- it's been a busy week (also a week that has finally started to pick up its pace to normal time). Anyway my weekend in Jackson was great, I made some money, got to play with old friends, and spent some time enjoying the beauty that is Wyoming. My favorite part, however, had to be Sunday.

On Sunday Allison and I both worked a shift from 1-10 so we decided it would be good to attend the visitors ward to take the sacrament and not feel like complete "heathens" -as Allison would put it. So we went to the chapel- after getting the time wrong, going home then coming back, we took our seats in the back of the chapel. They meeting went on as all meetings do, a song, a prayer and then another song. I sat there and thought about who was going to bless and pass the sacrament when I realized that six men had volunteered. Two blessed the bread and water, and four passed them as well.

I sat there astounded by my own feelings. I loved these six men. I couldn't comprehend, I had no idea who these six men were they're stories they're background, but love was the only word I could come up with for them. I loved them for the service that they were performing, and for their worthiness to do so. At this moment I understood to a very slight degree our Heavenly Father's boundless charity- the pure love of Christ. I'm positive I've experienced the feeling of charity before, but I'd never quite understood it as well as I did in that twenty minute interval as these six men humbly blessed and passed the sacred sacrament.

As the meeting continued, three of the six men that passed the sacrament went up to bear a solemn testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. As these three men stood up to bear this testimony my love for them grew. I couldn't tell you any of these brethren's names, but the spirit they bore continued to teach me of that boundless charity.

Needless to say it was an excellent meeting. Oh and one gem that I gleaned from one of their testimonies was this: "That's what the church is all about; Mothers and honeymoons and children. Happiness and joy." Just thought I'd throw that one out there, it made me smile.

Er...

So I haven't posted anything lately that hasn't been copied and pasted out of dictionary.com in quite a while so I figure I could give all two of you a brief update.

The first two weeks of school have been longer than the entire month of July, and I'm not exaggerating, there is not hyperbolic connotation in that statement. September is proving to be the longest month in the history of all months that ever were.

School in and of itself is good, I may or may not still have a crush on my English 2150 Professor and I possibly might have a secret love of diagramming sentences (even though I've failed more than once- I decided not to be afraid of making mistakes though... or something). And my Psych class is as easy as I anticipated it to be. So school has been good but it doesn't seem to make the time go by any faster. Its so weird for me, this whole summer I was itching for hours to go by as fast as humanly possible just so I could be done with a day of work and go and play, but the thing is they went by fairly quickly (I guess thats what happens when you're not engaging your brain very much in the activities you're performing).

So I guess in a nut shell, school is good. Time is going by slower than I've ever previously experienced and I am probably the most impatient person to ever walk the face of the earth. Woot.