My Bestie Quigz (15)

         

          While serving in Nevada I was blessed to be in Reno proper for over a year. While I was there I was in the same zone as an Elder Quigley for three months. We became the best of friends and then I was transferred. We stayed in contact for a while before he was transferee to the East side of Nevada. We had made plans to be roommates at BYU because we were going home on the same day and became best friends. He emailed me and told me that he forgot that he made plans to room with some of his buddies from his freshman year and that they already had everything finalized. I was a little bummed and didn't talk to him for a while. Then towards the end of our missions we got back in contact and we were homies again.

          Now Quigz and I are at BYU. Quigz's first name is Brandon, but he goes by Quigz. We usually hang out at least once a week. We'll play basketball, go to a BYU sporting event, or do something else that we consider to be fun. It's always fun to watch college football with Quigz on Saturday as well. We've gotten to know each other a lot better now that we're not missionaries and can sit around and talk for extended periods of time. We can also stay up later, which is usually when someone opens up and wares how they really feel about things.

          Quigz and I have had some great bro to bro talks and we're working on setting each other up with some ladies. We know each other pretty well so we'll probably do a good job finding a nice girl for each other. Then it's up to each of us if we're gonna win the girls heart or not. We've both sort of struggled with confidence a little bit when it comes to girls. Quigz is afraid of offending girls on a date and I'm afraid of girls not liking me. I've realized though that I need to be myself and if a girl doesn't like me for me then she's not the one. So, Quigz and I do a pretty good job of picking each other up when the other one is down.

I'm a Working Man (14)

          I got my first job at BYU, which is also my first job since I've been home from my mission. I work in the back of Chick Fil A at the Cougareat in the Wilkinson Center. So far everything has been great. It does get very hot in the bcd though, which makes me super thirsty. I only work 2-3 hour each time I work so it is not bad at all. I wanted to get a job so I would have a little bit of extra money for gas, dates, and Christmas presents. The people that I work with are cool people, which makes work fun.

          I also work at L&T in the Cougareat which is located adjacent to Chick Fil A. I actually enjoy working at L&T more. It's not very busy so I'm not pressured while working. Also, there's no back so I'm able to interact with the customers. The people that work with me at L&T are also cool people. It's fun to get to know other people and become interested in their lives.



          One of the benefits of working in the Cougareat at BYU is that I get 50% off of purchases under $8.00 and $4.00 off of purchases greater than $8.00. I usually go to Jamba Juice after work and get a large smoothie to quench my thirst. It's so refreshing. I'm sure once I start spending the money that I make I'll be looking forward to every pay day.

The Grand America (13)

          

          This time of the year is when all of the yummy gingerbread men come out and start going into my stomach. They taste so good. My family and some of my extended family went to Salt Lake Saturday Evening to see the Christmas lights and to ice skate. The line for ice skating was extremely long, so we went to The Grand America hotel and saw the Christmas things they had on display. One of the things they had was a giant gingerbread house that was completely edible except for the garlands. Even the windows were edible. They were made of sugar. It must have taken a lot of time and very careful work to create such a large gingerbread house. 

          That night we also had the privilege of seeing the Christmas lights on Temple Square. They were excellent. I loved all of the nativity decorations around the place. The Spirit of God is very strong on Temple Square around Christmas time. It's a wonderful feeling. I'm very grateful to be in Utah and to have the blessing of being near so many beautiful temples and so many wonderful people. It seems like every young woman or young man in the Church makes his or her way to Utah at some point in their young lives. Utah is a wonderful place. I'm very happy to be living here so close to my extended family.

Time to Hit the Gym (12)

       



          My Dad has quite the belly. When he was my age he was skinnier than I am. I guess he let himself go once he got married and now he's pretty fat. He's been trying to lose his belly, but he can't do it. He works out and eats healthier than usual, but it isn't going away. My guess is that he can't lose it because of his age.
          I once told my Dad that I would never be as fat as him. Yes it was a little rude, but I was just speaking my mind. The oldest cousin on my Dad's side used to have a solid, hard six pack. Now he's got a belly almost as big as my Dad's! He probably said he would never have a belly like his Dad either. He has gained a lot of weight because he stopped going to the gym and he started eating out more due to work.





          I have stopped working out on a consistent basis. I may work out once or twice every two weeks. I also am one of the biggest soda drinkers I know. I haven't gained much weight, but I know it's gonna happen soon. So, I've gotta stop drinking soda and start working out consistently. Otherwise, I'm gonna end up being fat and made fun of all of the time by my Dad.
          On my mission I did a healthy living challenge for a little bit and I also worked out hard in the mornings and ate healthy when we weren't eating with the members. I lost 10-12 pounds when I decided to start eating healthy and working out hard. Hopefully I can do that again. I don't want to lose weigh, just fat. I would love to turn that fat into muscle. I think the thing holding me back from working out is that I don't have a workout partner. So my motivation to work out has been close to zero. It's starting to go back up now though as I can tell I'm getting fat again. Hopefully I can find a workout buddy that can motivate me to keep going.

Food Family and Football!! (11)

          This Thanksgiving was great. I was very blessed to celebrate it with my family. They came from Texas to be with my brother and I. A lot of my extended family on both sides lives in the Salt Lake area, so we were able to share Thanksgiving with lots of extended family. We ate dinner at my Uncle's house with my Mom's side of the family, and then we went to my Dad's parent's home for desert and to be with them for the evening. The food was delicious all day. I particularly liked the green bean casserole. I love cooked vegetables. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because you can eat a bunch of food without being judged or told to stop eating.





          The boys in my family love football. So, Thanksgiving is a big holiday for us. We are Dallas Cowboy fans, so we make sure to watch that game every year. There was plenty of football on this Thanksgiving. Three NFL games and two college football games. I loved it. I didn't see much football on my mission because we weren't allowed to. I guess I missed it a lot because when there is a good game on, my eyes are glued to the television. Especially if it's a team I like. There's not much more I could ask for when I'm with my family eating lots of food and watching football. It's like a day in Heaven.

      

Disappointed in the Cowboys (10)

          

          My family has lived in Dallas for about 10 years now. I have become a die hard Cowboys fan, but they are still not my favorite team. My favorite team is the Denver Broncos. The only thing keeping the Cowboys from being the number 1 team for me is their quarterback Tony Romo. He is absolutely awful. I have been a Romo hater ever since he fumbled against the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the 2007 NFL playoffs. That year was Romo's first year as the Cowboy's starting quarterback. He's started for the Cowboys ever since that year. 

          

                                       

Tony Romo has a winning percentage of 58.5%. That means he wins more than he loses, but not the type of numbers that will lead you to a Superbowl victory. The Cowboys have never won a playoff game with Tony Romo as the quarterback. That makes me seriously wonder why Dallas continues to pay Tony Romo tens of millions of dollars a year. He does have good passing stats, but no one cares about that unless you've got Tony Romo on your fantasy football team. What us Cowboy fans care about is wins, and Tony Romo does not help the Cowboys win games, especially the games that are important to win.

          Yesterday I was pumped to watch the Cowboys take on the Eagles. I was very disappointed after watching them lose 33-10 against the Eagles. The Eagles are a very good football team, but there is no reason they should've won by 23 points. Tony Romo had what many believe is his worst Thanksgiving Day game in is career. I love the Cowboys, but I am embarrassed to be a fan at times, especially after the game yesterday.

Turkey Bowl!! (9)

          I was not able to play in a Turkey Bowl for two years because my Mission President didn't allow us to for safety reasons. Boy was it fun to finally play in a Turkey Bowl. We had a good group. The two teams were the Young Guns vs the Old Farts. I was a part of the Young Guns. I was lucky to be the fastest one on the field. As a result I had four touchdowns out of the six on my team.  The old guys couldn't keep up so I blew right by them. I did drop a few catchable balls, but I played well overall. After the game one of the bigger players on my team said after the game, "what's your forty? Three seconds?" Haha. I guess they weren't used to having someone as fast as me on the field.
          Football is one of the greatest memories of my childhood, so it was a huge blessing for me to be able to play again. I was very happy to have actually been one of the best on the field. In High School I was a very good football player, but I didn't get much attention from colleges because I'm a little guy that doesn't weigh much. This year after watching the BYU football team have a disappointing season, I have a little desire in me starting to kindle. I know it would be very tough for me to make the team because I'm small, but I would love to play football again. I've given it a little bit of thought and will continue to give it some thought as to whether I will try to get back on the gridiron or not. I now my Dad would love to see his oldest son in a BYU Football uniform.

Don't Mess With Momma or Papa Bear (8)

            

          “That was the scariest movie I have ever seen,” I said to my friend Grayson as we were driving to his house. We went to another friend’s house to watch a scary movie for Halloween. I kept looking in my rearview mirror checking the back seat to make sure no one was there. I was paranoid after watching Insidious. I knew I was going to have a tough time sleeping that night. I would definitely need a light on in the hallway. I tend to take scary movies a little too serious and bring them into reality. After dropping Grayson off, I became even more terrified because now I was completely alone. I continued to look into my rearview mirror making sure that no one or no thing was in the back seat. I hated having to stop at stop signs and stop lights because that just meant I would have to be alone in the car longer, So, I did the California rolling stop at the stop sign so I could make it home quicker. I probably set a personal record for how fast I got home that night.

            I parked the car in the street and headed for the front door. I heard a movement in the bushes and that caused me to stop. It sounded like a tree branch broke, which means something must have stepped on it. I waited for a second and then continued my route to the front door. I was almost there when I heard a tumult of noise coming out of the bush. Rawr!” my Dad shouted as he jumped out of the bushes. He scared me half to death. I gathered myself ad laughed off my fear. “Now do you know to not come home so late?” he asked me when we got inside. I nodded in agreement and then headed to my room.

I was finally home and knew that nothing bad was going to happen. I hurried into my room, making sure to leave the hallway light on. I normally slept with the closet door closed, and it was already closed so I didn’t think anything of it. I laid in bed facing the wall, comforted by the peace of my home, but terrified by the movie. I kept thinking of different scenes in the movie that scared me the most. I couldn’t keep my eyes closed for more than a minute. Each time I would try to close them I would think of a different scene from the movie.

            As I laid on my bed trying to fall asleep, I heard my closet door open . . . At this point I was more scared than I had ever been in my life. “Boo,” my mom said at a tone just above a whisper as she made her way out of the closet. My heart was beating so fast that I was struggling to catch my breathe. My mom laughed as she watched me gather myself from being scared so badly. My mom then asked me the same question that my Dad had asked me fifteen minutes earlier, “Now do you know to not come home so late?” I now figured out what my parents were trying to do. They wanted to punish me for coming home so late, especially since it was a school night. Their punishment for me was to scare me half to death! They got me good. That Halloween will always be remembered as the scariest Halloween I have ever experienced.

My parents had a house rule that cell phones must be left downstairs at night. Well I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping much that night, so I convinced my mom to let me keep my cell phone in my bedroom with me for that night. She hugged me good night and went downstairs to bed. I made sure to keep the hallway light on. I was up for a long time before I finally fell asleep. I woke up relieved that the previous night was in the past.

            I thought that my worries of being scared were over, but boy was I wrong. The next day I came home to an empty house after football practice. I was a little nervous and hesitant as I went towards my room. No one else was home and I was still a little scared from the events of the previous night. I headed to my room to change and get started on some homework. To my surprise my mother had left a hideous, scary, Egyptian mask lying on my pillow. She must have thought she was so funny. To add to her humorous act, she laid out a shirt and pants as if the mask had a body. I was so freaked out that I didn’t even enter my room. I called my mom and she answered the phone laughing. She had yet again gotten me good for coming home so late. I stayed in the clothes I had on and did my homework in the game room. I didn’t dare enter my room without anyone else in the house. I was still freaked out when it came time for bed.  I knew it was going to be a tough night of sleep again, so I chose to sleep on the extra bed in my brother’s room. I felt less scared that way.

            My scares were finally over the next day. I didn’t have to worry about my parents or anyone else pulling tricks on me. They had scared me half to death more than once and knew that I had learned my lesson. I wouldn’t have to worry about my parents scaring me anymore, but I would always remember them scaring me two days in a row. They taught me to be home by curfew in a very clever way. I planned on never being late for curfew again. If I were going to be late I would make sure to ask for permission, and if I didn’t get permission to come home a little later then I would drop whatever it was that I was doing and head home to make sure to be home by curfew. I did not want to find out if my parents could come up with another clever way to teach me the importance of being home before my curfew.

I had learned my lesson and would not need to be taught that lesson again. I’m grateful for the lesson my parents taught me, because they kept me out of a lot of potential trouble. Nothing good happens when evening becomes early morning. It is best to be home where you are assured of safety from the outside world. I’m grateful to understand the importance of being home earlier rather than later. I’m also grateful for the wonderful idea that my parents have given me and that I can use on my own kids in the future.