This is the earliest I have started writing in quite some time. In fact, I think this is the earliest I have been home in some time as well. I had to work a wedding this afternoon and I ended up just coming home to relax afterward. I got home just in time for dinner and then decided to take a shower, not knowing what would come of the evening. Bouse was trying to get me to come see a movie revolving around ping pong, Balls of Fury or something like that. It didn’t look all that interesting to me and I really didn’t have time to get there if I wanted to eat dinner and take a shower. They later changed the movie to something else, but by that point I was not really interested.

I was planning on watching something from NetFlix tonight, even if Lauren didn’t come over. However, the other day I got some new books from Amazon which I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to read. The first one is “How to Win Friends & Influence People” and I also got a book entitled “Prayer.” I decided while I was waiting for Lauren I would just start reading through the Prayer book. When i didn’t hear back from Lauren I decided to continue reading in the other book and now the evening has been spent reading.

It kind of rained for a bit this afternoon at the office. I tried to go out and play in it, but it would stop once I got outside or wouldn’t rain enough to really do much. I have just enjoyed the last few days the wonderful smell of fresh rain. The wather lately has reminded me so much of Idaho, which I have been missing with extra enthusiasm lately. I told Bouse the other day that I would gladly go to Idaho for a week solely to enjoy the weather. I think I may have to plan a trip up there sometime soon to visit and enjoy.

I just took a few minutes to look at the Rexburg temple. The open house is apparently going to be in January and it will be dedicated in February. I may totally have to go there. Just looking at the pictures of it now and reading about it makes me want to drop everything and go there now. Even though it isn’t complete yet, they have the spire lit up and it’s just amazing. How beautiful!

Why does it seem that I am always getting to bed later and later? I’ll be flat out honest and admit that I accomplished practically nothing at the office today. I spent some time talking with Tara, working through random stuff, and doing a lot of stuff that I can’t recall at this point. I was ready to leave when Tara left at 2, so I was pretty impressed that I actually made it to about 5. I arranged dinner with Sibonet who invited Kelsey and David.

Sibonet suggested Claim Jumper. I went straight for the chocolate chip calzone and still wasn’t able to finish it! I sent the remains home with Sibonet, although she says she won’t eat it. Sibonet still played DJ, but we didn’t drive around for hours on end. I actually ended up dropping them back off at Sibonet’s and running to church for Institute.

Sister Dowden did a great job teaching tonight. Most of it was still way over my head, but I think I am starting to grasp some of this stuff. We pretty much filled the relief society room and we had great discussion going back and forth all night. I hope we can continue to have a good turnout and good discussions. I stayed to talk with Bro. Dowden after and then ended up going to the Dowden’s afterward. Lauren wanted to eat, but I was still full from Claim Jumper. Greg thought the pizza I had Lauren bring was so good last night that he wanted more, so he sent Andrea to get some. I convinced Lauren to take a piece to satisfy her hunger and it would be like her piece from last night.

Again, I’d like to write more, but I really need to get to sleep!

Marissa ended up not coming tonight. I don’t know what came up, or if she just decided not to go. It would have been nice, but I ended up having a great conversation with Sabrina on both the way there and the way back and i think we all had fun at the concert. Nathaniel ended up getting Ali to take Marissa’s spot. The venue was at least half empty so there was plenty of room to enjoy the show. It was a bit warm in there, but it wasn’t intolerable.

We stopped by the temple on the way back from the concert. I asked Sabrina if she wanted to just drive by it. When I realized that this was supposed to be out offering week to go, I thought we should drive by. We ended up pulling up along side it and sitting there for a few minutes. Sabrina found out that I have never been before, so she is thinking we need to make a trip. She said I should give everyone Friday morning off – until 10 – so that we can go as a group, even if it is just to sit on the grounds.

I got some books today from Amazon which I am looking forward to reading. One is about prayer, a compilation of tidbits from latter-day saints. The other is “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” I’m looking forward to reading both.

I read in the Ensign this morning an article about finding the right eternal companion. It was from a member who was in his mid 40s and had not found the right one. He eventually listened to his new bishop and took a challenge to find women with the right characteristics and to quickly figure out if they were promising or not. He had a timeline set to either move on or get serious within a few dates. It was quite interesting and I enjoyed pondering on it for a while this morning.

Seeing as how it is already tomorrow morning, I’m thinking I should get some sleep!

I feel again like I didn’t get much accomplished, so hopefully tomorrow will be better. Not really all that much happened in the office, but I think we got things somewhat figured out for Lonestar tomorrow night. It looks like we are going to have a fairly small group, just six of us. Tim and Tara are coming, along with Nathaniel and most likely Sabrina and Marissa.

I washed my car this evening and watched Catch and Release. I spent most of the movie text messaging and not really paying attention to the movie.

I feel like I didn’t get anything accomplished at the office today. Bouse came by to paint our logo on cases from our new stencil. Pyro was there to unload the truck and return gear. Batch stopped by in the morning and then came back in the afternoon, so it was all sorts of crazy.

During dinner I got a text from Melissa about meeting at the Rigby’s early for FHE so that we could go through pictures and burn them to a disk for her. I told her I would try, but wasn’t sure how the meeting was going to go. We had fun looking through pictures before things started, but I don’t think she quite understood how many pictures I actually had of her. We weren’t able to get through them all before FHE started, so we had to finish up later. We ended up with just over 300 pictures that she wanted, which just barely fit on one CD.

The Rigby’s presented a lesson tonight which somewhat continued the discussions on decisions from yesterday. We talked about commandments and why we choose to follow them, how disciplined we are and what we give our time to. I really want to step up the time that I spend studying, but I feel like I have already eliminated all the things I can from my schedule. I think I just need to focus on getting up early each and every morning and starting my day off with a good study period. Melissa shared that since she decided to devote more time to studying that she has had to miss out on some activities, but that she has felt a stronger presence from the Spirit. I guess I need to do the same.

After the lesson and giving Melissa the pictures, I ended up talking outside with Brother Rigby and Melissa. Amongst one of our conversations, Melissa pointed out that she isn’t even supposed to be in the branch, and I followed that up with the same statement. Brother Rigby said we are supposed to be there – and I know that’s true. Physical boundaries don’t keep us from being where we belong and doing out best to magnify our callings.

Well, it is after 11, so I should get to sleep!

Things went well today. I was really impressed with Marissa’s lesson. I think Stephanie did well too, but I was only in her class for a few minutes. We had a slightly smaller overall group today as I only counted about 60 between the two classes – 40 in the chapel (stage) and 20 in the relief society room.

Melissa spoke about decisions during sacrament meeting along with Bro. Kowallis and Rigby.

After the block we had the baptism of Sister Ortega. It was interesting to sit through the service. It seemed nothing like what I remembered. They had each of us write our testimonies which the Elders are going to give to her. I thought that was a nice touch. It’s those little things that really make me love the branch – going the extra mile. I was also impressed with us being asked to stay for the service to show our support.

Of course, we went to the Dowden’s after church. It was craziness as normal. To top it off, it was Brother Dowden’s birthday today so we got to celebrate that. I just happened to have my stock of Hallmark cards in my bag, so I was able to come up with a birthday card for him which was pretty amazing. Lauren and I signed it, gave it to him and then told everyone else they could sign it.

We had a decent little thunderstorm this morning. It wasn’t anything special, but was way better than anything we’ve had in a long time.

As usual, I have lots more i could say, but I should get to sleep.

I had a hard time getting out of bed for the Camp Pendleton activity this morning. There was a much smaller bunch than I was expecting, but it was fun nonetheless. I took 1293 pictures and managed to get out of doing any of the course myself. I had fun watching some of the people, Marissa included, run straight into the wall when they were trying to jump over it. I’m hoping there are some good pictures.

I came home and wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t actually get a nap in. After laying in bed for a few hours I decided it was time to get up and get something done. I worked on importing the pictures from the morning and reading the lesson for Sunday school. Somewhere along the line I realized I had no disc space left and had to start working on clearing off stuff to make room for new pictures.

I talked with Lauren – She gave up on finding Tara’s last night and ended up playing volleyball with Dustin, Sibonet, Kelsey and some others. We went out tonight to Dallas’s birthday/going away to college party. It was fun. We figured out tonight that we need to start introducing each other as brother and sister so that people don’t think we are dating as it seemed they did tonight and probably have elsewhere.

I’m also stupid not to go to bed, so I’m going to sign off at 12:33 here!

We spent the day at the office installing power and Ethernet in the corner where the duplicator is and building new desks for the reception area. It was nice to get the project done as we have been discussing doing this for some time now. I hope the new desks work out well. Nathaniel no longer has to complain about not having somewhere to work.

I was hoping to get out of the office early to come home and take a nap, but that didn’t happen. I was actually there until after six at which point I just had to leave in order to eat dinner and get ready for Tara’s party tonight. I was one of the first people to arrive, even though I was about an hour late. Melissa was the only other person there aside from Tara and Tim. The party was at her grandparents house out by the Mattson’s land, so it was quite a way out there. Tara invited Bouse and he ended up showing up a bit after me. He got lost, as I figured he would. Lauren was supposed to come, but she got lost and gave up. I knew I should have picked her up or at least had her follow me, but I guess it is too late for that now.

I’m thinking I should go to the camp pendleton activity in the morning, but sleep is sounding really good right now… good night!

I just got home from Wicked. I am really hungry – I seem to have missed lunch somehow – and also really tired, but I wanted to write before going to bed. I had a great time. I think Marissa did too. We made it there in good time, with about an hour to spare before showtime. We parked and then had sandwiches at this little place next to the theater. They were actually quite good and got me through the show.

The show was good. It was nice sitting so close that we could actually see the details in the costumes and the expressions on the actors faces. The row we were in (F) is actually about as close as I would want to get because one would end up looking up to the stage and potentially missing some of the action if one was sitting any closer.

I feel like I didn’t get anything done at the office today. Ryan and I went riding this morning and when I got home I started playing with the new firmware for my voip phone that would make the sidecar work. I finally figured out that I needed to get to the office, so after taking a shower and stopping at the bank I made it there about 10.

Somewhere throughout my non-work day, I told Sibonet I needed to hang out until 9 tonight and thought maybe we could hit up Macaroni Grill. She thought that would be an excellent plan and we made it happen. … She was telling me about how she wanted to go to Rascal Flatts, but it was the weekend after school starts, so she couldn’t come back down that soon. I then explained to her that I had tickets for both nights! I don’t think she believed me. We continued through the concert list and other crazy things I had done.

On the way out she asked me to name five Rascal Flatts songs since I am obviously such a big fan. I was only able to come up with two right off the bat. I felt so bad. I just couldn’t think of them. That then prompted us to get in the car and listen to some Rascal Flatts music, which then lead to her going through my iPod looking for random songs that she liked. She was barely through the first few letters of the alphabet as we were getting close to her house. I told her I’d be happy to keep driving, and we ended up doing just that. We drove surface streets to Lake Elsinore, which I had never done before. We even found old town Lake Elsinore which was pretty hopping. We then came back south to head out to Winchester. I showed her “my house” and then we realized it was time that I needed to get her home so I could get to my meeting with President Mattson.

I was figuring that he was going to be running way behind schedule as it seems things normally are, so I thought I would be ok being a few minutes late. I pulled in the parking lot just after 9, ran inside and there was no one waiting except President Mattson for me! I felt bad, but was told that my timing was perfect. This is now twice that I have shown up right at the bell which is cutting it way too close/late for me. We had a great talk. We went for a full hour and it seemed like only fifteen minutes to me.

We somehow got to talking about concerts and specifically  the Eagles. He jumped in and wanted to know how I got them. I told him Ticketmaster was my friend and that I might have some extras if he was interested. It sounds like he wants to try and get more than what I have available, but it would be cool to go out with him and Trish. I was thinking that I would probably end up taking someone from the branch, Tara would be coming and Bouse would be quite literally the odd man out for once!

I was told at Macaroni Grill that Loni no longer works there because she moved to San Diego. I’ll have to see if I get the same story at BJ’s.

I don’t really have much to report from the office today. I made it there on time, which was pretty amazing considering I started researching this morning. Somehow I managed to get out of the house on time even though I spent more time than I was planning on studying.

Things were fairly quiet in the office and I think everything went well. We got all the cable ramp orders taken care of, finally, so hopefully everyone is happy.

I came home this afternoon hoping to get a ride in, wash my car and maybe relax or at least finish reading the talks I found this morning. After deciding it was too hot to go for a ride, doing some more work from home and then eating a piece of cake for dinner, I started getting ready to wash my car and then I got a text from Sibonet. She said they were working on arranging a night in the park. I explained my athletic ability, or rather lack of it to her, but she came back that we were going to do something like hide and seek. I quickly washed my car, without even drying it and then got ready to go. I was going to kidnap Lauren, but she hadn’t finished her homework yet and we both decided it would be best for her to be prepared for class and well rested.

Sibonet told me to meet at a nearby house at nine. I showed up and there was no one else there. Zach and Chelsey showed up shortly thereafter, but then headed straight to the park. By the time we got there, a bunch of people had already amassed. Sibonet and Kelsey were not there yet though. We ended up going through the woods basically and found an open area to play a game in. We ended up playing capture the flag. I then realized I wasn’t dressed appropriately yet again. I was in a grey shirt and flip flops. Everyone else was in black or other dark colors and tennis shoes. I ended up guarding the flag for our team, which I guess I did fairly well until the end. I was attacked by two girls who had teamed up. Clarissa was actually able to get the flag, but I quickly tagged her after she got it. She didn’t realize that she had to get back to her side of the field before the game was over, so she started telling everyone she had won. We just let it go, but in the end the game was ultimately a draw I guess.

Seeing as how I need to be on my bike in six and a half hours to meet Mr. Promack, I had better go get me some sleep!

So another week has come and gone. Last week was fairly quiet which I found to be nice. Of course, we can always use the sales, but it gave me time to get caught up on some items I was a bit behind on.

I actually hung out with Tim & Tara Thursday evening. Tara had told me they were thinking about going to see Bourne Ultimatum, and asked me if I’d like to join. I had a wedding to work, but I came back up to hit CPK and the movie with them. Nathaniel also joined us for the movie. Lauren was supposed to come, but got stuck at work late. By the time she got there the movie had just started and she didn’t know where to go because her phone had died. So, she ended up driving home… I felt so bad, but was really just happy to hear that she was alive at the point I finally talked to her.

Last night Lauren and I went to a multi-stake activity in Temecula. They ended up having a handful of team building activities – like getting the team from one side of a rope to another and the human knot. I took pictures so that I didn’t have to get involved with the teams, which was both good and bad. Sometimes I wish I could just let my guard down and be normal, but then I regret not taking the pictures. In any event it was good. After the various activities we sat around a campfire, even though it was quite warm outside. Many people made smores and everyone pretty much just sat around and talked. I ended up spending most of the night talking with Sibonet.

The batteries that came with my flash actually started to die last night, so I changed them out to these Enginizer super special batteries, but they didn’t seem to work nearly as well as the Varta’s that were in it. I thought about trying my rechargeable batteries, but I figured they would be long dead by now. I’ve had the flash something like two months with the same batteries in it and it has been kicking butt!

Today went well. I actually hogged most of the time in branch council instead of my usual no comment. We talked about using a lav mic when we do combined classes in the chapel, which we ended up using today. We talked about splitting the group into smaller parts to keep things more intimate, and we all agreed that it would be best. Finally, we discussed doing something different with the marriage and family relations class.

In sacrament, Brother Bloom talked about preparing ourselves for emergencies. We were asked to get a 30-day supply of food, water and other necessities along with having 72 hour kits or at least water and some food in our cars. I’ve got the water part close to down probably, but I don’t think I have any emergency food in my car anymore. He took it a step further and suggested that we have plans for what to do with our houses if an emergency was to arrive. For example, if there was a gas leak, where do we turn it off? Water? Need to escape from the second story? With how much this gets stressed, I think it would be quite important to make sure we are prepared. I don’t have any of the church kits, but I think we have a good stockpile of food in the house. I have actually thought about this at work, where I figured we could live on candy and whatever else we randomly have along with all the extra cases of water.

Stephanie did good teaching Sunday school. I wish we didn’t have so much material to cover, but we need to get caught up. She used the lav mic which i was happy to see work without any previous testing. She had tons of people come up to her after the lesson and tell her what a good job she did, so I hope she feels that she did well.

I liked the lesson in priesthood. It was from the Spencer Kimball book about keeping the Sabbath. I actually read it before class – like I try and normally am able to do. At one part the book gives a long list of good things to do on the Sabbath, including some I had not thought of. Something we talked about in class was making the day special. This would be a day to be extra nice, to go more than the extra mile, etc, etc.

This afternoon at the Dowden’s was fun. At the dinner table we had an interesting conversation about texting when on dates. Some were quick to say absolutely not; either the phone would be off or they would ignore the incoming calls/messages. Others were like heck yes and then there were some in the middle. I think it depends on the situation, the timing and who it is. If you’re in a position where you can turn the phone off, great. If it is on, I think one is best to look at it and make a judgement call as to if it needs to be dealt with or not. I’ve heard before that some think keeping the cell phones on allows things to be less formal and stressful.

This evening at branch prayer I was asked to say the prayer. I suggested opening it up for others to jump in just to see how it worked. Brother Lee decided it was worth trying. I think we only had two others jump in, but maybe it could grow to work for the branch. Or maybe everyone will think it was too weird and ignore it. Either way, I’m glad that we were able to try it.

Well, I’m sure there is more to say, but I should be getting to sleep.

What a difference a week makes. After we sang the opening song we did our branch business. I was ready to take notes as Brother Kowallis had told me that they would be calling two new teachers for me today. We started releasing people and I remember hearing Marissa along with all my current teachers and a few others. My first thought was where the heck is she going? She can’t be released, who is going to help me find a house? Then it hit me. Was she being released so she could get a new calling? She was called to be a gospel doctrine teacher along with Stephanie.

In other big news, Brother Kowallis got released today as 2nd counselor in the branch presidency. They called Brother Rodriguez to fill his spot. They said that Dave is going to be busy in his final year of school and also with hospital training. He is going to have to work a number of Sundays, so he felt it would be best to get someone else in his spot. I was crying while he was talking about it. Fortunately, it doesn’t sound like he will be going too far and will still be involved in the branch. I am going to miss reporting to and working with him.

We had a good lesson in teacher development, which I guess will be our last. Dallas was released from his calling today, even though he doesn’t leave for another three weeks or so. We talked today about questions, specifically asking good questions to get involvement from the class. This class has been really interesting for me. I am going to be sad to see it go, but I guess that is part of life.

I waited around the church for Lauren as she got recruited to choir practice. We were there till about 5:30 before we headed over to the Dowdens. It was nice to have them back and be with the big family today. Lauren decided about 6:30 that she wanted to go home. After trying to fight her off for a while, I decided to take her home and come back, so I did just that.

Things were really busy in the office last week. The added work of the event today and vendors messing up orders left and right didn’t help. We were pretty busy with other sales and items as well.

Today went well. I missed the Dowden’s again, but I made it through it. Lauren came with me again today, even though I had to be there early for branch council. Our meeting went well, even though it was fairly light attendance wise. Our thought of the day was in Alma 29. Verse 14 says, “But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren…” We talked a lot about being more full and it states in 16, “when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy.” I think it is pretty remarkable to be that full of joy. I do understand, I think, how one could be that joyful. I certainly can understand how we can be joyful when we have done good, and then have even more joy when someone else is able to do something wonderful.

We had a good testimony meeting. As usual, I don’t remember most of what was said, but I certainly enjoyed listening to most of them. I remember there was something I was going to write about, but I can’t think of what it was now. It may have been what Lindsay spoke about, but my mind is blank – it must be too late.

I thought about getting up there and talking about my ski lift experience at the fair – how we need to get away from the crowd to be found – but I couldn’t come up with a good way to present it – and there was never a lull long enough where I felt pressed to get up there.

I guess I’ll shorten this up so I can get some sleep as it is after midnight.