The New Year

Needless to say, 2010 has been one of the craziest and exciting years of my life. For many, many reasons.

February

An incredible High School soccer career ends after we lost 1-2 in the State Finals

 

April

An incredible Club soccer season ends after we won 4-1 in the State Finals, for the second year in a row

I heard back from a PSA contest I entered and won first place! Oh, and $1,000...

I was lucky enough to be able to visit the beautiful island of St. Thomas

May

I finally graduated from High School

I got to spend a super fun weekend at Lexi's camp with all my friends

June

I went with the Bridge family to the World's Greatest Waterpark Schlitterbahn

July

Senior Trip to Disney World!

August

A wonderful trip up to Wisconsin with my two best friends Clayton and Mikey

Move out to Utah for BYU!

And well, the rest is history. Or you know, already on my blog.

So 2010 was a crazy and exciting adventure, but all good things must come to an end. But just because one good thing ends doesn't mean another can't begin does it? Tonight I will ceremoniously blow up plenty of fireworks, and look forward to what 2011 will bring.

Another semester of college

Plenty of new friends

Plenty of new memories with old friends

Exploring exciting new places

Learning to ski/snowboard

And of course the big one:

Being called to serve a mission somewhere in this crazy world.

So bring it on 2011, I'm ready.

Everything's Magic

Jessica Graff,

Today is your lucky day.

Forever has shown us that leaving home and living on your own isn't guaranteed to be an easy thing. In fact, it can be a really, really hard thing. Exactly 18 weeks ago I moved into my dorm at BYU, and exactly 18 weeks ago I met my best friend.

So anyway, that was a nice cheesy, semi-dramatic beginning to a blog post. But I do mean it. Yeah, usually when a guy would opt to calling his girlfriend his best friend it's a problem. But in this case I just feel that of all the different labels you can apply to a person to identify them, she's my best friend above anything else. Which is a pretty freaking sweet deal. Just saying.

Jessica is Breeann's roommate Kaitlin's little sister (it's fun to make these connections), and because of this, we've been blessed with the opportunities to do things that most freshmen probably wouldn't be able to get to do together. For example:

Trips to Salt Lake for General Conference

A Trip to Vegas

Harry Potter Midnight Premieres

Or just plain old Sunday dinner

But besides that we've had our own fun little moments of fantastic.
She surprised me at almost every soccer game I had

And well, we've taken quite a bit of goofy pictures...
 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Anyway, to sum it up Jessica has made my first semester at BYU completely different and better than I could have expected. She's someone I can rely on, someone I can turn to when I'm feeling down, and someone who will just sit on a couch all day and eat junk food with me. What more could I possibly ask for? It's going to be really hard to say goodbye when I leave for my mission, but I'm always going to be coming back right? Who knows what will happen next, but I think things always have a way of working themselves out. So thank you Jess, for all the big things you've done or been through with me, but more importantly for all the little things. Thank you for being that someone I can know and trust for right now and always.

ps I stinking miss you!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

So I was sitting at home enjoying the lovely Christmas atmosphere when I remembered that I had this thing called a blog. So here I am updating all the people (no one) that read my blog.

Well obviously, I am now back in Louisiana and am enjoying the fact that I can wear shorts anytime I like. So when I first came home from the airport, there were two really big packages waiting for me in the living room...

So basically. I was so excited that they were here I threw up the next morning! Seriously though. I threw up. And laid in bed the whole next day. It sucked. But the next day I was fine and we had some crazy fun. Here are some obscure videos that don't show anything. Feel free to fill in the endings with your imagination.

Then of course, there was Christmas. And my family is crazy so this is what you get:

I've been so busy I pretty much haven't even had a chance to see any of my friends! But I'll be able to see them all next week! 

Well, that's about it. Merry Christmas everyone!

Wasting Time

Well finals are officially over for me and I have absolutely nothing to do! Jessica and Brenton have both left to go home already, and as time continues, many more of my friends will be slipping off to their own corner of the world, myself included (3 days!). Needless to say there are not very many forms of entertainment. But here are some things that I've found.

1. The Creamery is and always will be overpriced.

Here are a few of the more ridiculous prices:

      A) A normal box of Goldfish for $8.00.

     B) Two regular boxes of Cheez-Its for $7.00 (notice how it says "Priced Right" right above it).

      C) And most importantly and depressing, Double Stuf Oreos for a little more than $4.00

 2) We have to get rid of food so we have been throwing our junk food in a pile and letting anyone have at it. I feel like a huge fatty. It's great.

3) The snow. I was coming home from my first day of finals and found this outside our dorm. It was magical. Also if you care I took a timelapse of an entire day. So you can watch that if you want:

That is all. Can't wait to be home!

The Final Countdown

Yup. Finals are here. As I'm sure anyone who has read any college kid's blog would know.

So I feel weird because I feel like a lot of people have been really stressed and studying like crazy for all their tests, and I really haven't spent that much time doing so... I'm sure the classes I'm taking has something to do with it but still. I'm like concerned that I'm not worrying enough.

Oh well! I guess I'm doing okay because I took my Mission Prep test this morning and got a 98% on it! Then 30 seconds later I reentered the Testing Room and took a Book of Mormon test for two hours. But it payed off because I got a 91%! Woo. Unfortunately, those are the two easiest classes and I have three more to take. Finals weeks is dumb

Only about a week til I'm back in the warmth. Can't wait.

Be Here

So there is this band called Parachute.

And they're amazing and everyone should know about them.

I had the opportunity to see them in concert in August 2009 and they did NOT disappoint.

Anyway, I just really like them and if you're into that kind of music then you should like them too. Here are three of their music videos, but I'd also recommend just listening to the song "Be Here" that I have in my playlist. Their second album is supposed to come out in early 2011 and I can't wait. Anyway, for your listening pleasure, Parachute:

Magic Hours

Isn't it crazy how much the world can change around us and we don't even notice a thing?

 

(I know this timelapse is really sucky, I'm going to record a way better one later, don't you worry)

I made the better one, along with some other timelapses. Here ya go.

Way With Words

I don't get it.

Words can have so much power.

They can influence a mind.

They can win over a nation.

They can break someone down more than any weapon in the world.

But they aren't always like that.

Sometimes the words are nothing.

They're cheap.

No matter what you say they make no difference.

But the same meaningless words can mean so much, it just all depends on when they're used.

"I'm sorry."

They can make the difference. They can be empty.

Some words are used more than they should be.

"Love"

No one ever seems to use this word the way it should be anymore.

Just because someone picked your pencil up for you doesn't mean you love them.

I always wished I could be a master of words. I always want to be able to say the right things at the right time. But I guess that's something we have to continue to learn. To get better at. And until that day comes, I guess I'll just have to deal with my awkward moments and my inability to find the choice words to seal the deal. 

Just a thought.

Happiness

So Jess and I decided to attempt cooking some super real food, you know, besides our regular pasta. And Mom, I thought you'd be proud to see that we made one of the recipes you gave me. So yes, it only took about 3 and a half months before I realized it's possible to make good food on my own. And that, that is happiness.

Surprise, Surprise

Well all I can say is that I was so happy that I went home for Thanksgiving! Well, I kind of went home. Breeann and I flew into New Orleans Tuesday night and drove two hours back to Lafayette. I got home around 9 PM or so and got to see all of my family! Needless to say we take really cool pictures:

 

So when my Mom called me and told me that they decided to get Breeann and me a flight home, I decided that I wouldn't tell any of my friends that I was coming home and just show up at their houses and surprise them. Turns out this was a really good idea and they were all freaked out when I showed up at their doors. It was awesome. But unfortunately I couldn't really go and see everyone, but it was still really nice to get to see Lexi, Cassie, Kelly, and Cody!

So Destin was amazing. And WARM (there's snow everywhere in Provo now). Another bonus of getting to go to Destin was I got to see my buddy Clayton.

And as tradition would have it, we went out one night and dug a huge hole on the beach. Unfortunately, this year we couldn't find any shovels so we used dustpans. Still worked. The weirdest thing was that Big Black didn't come with us to Destin... His company was greatly missed. Anyway, these holes were about 5 and a half feet deep. And it only took us about 3 hours! Woooo.

 

Anyway, in a really scrappy nutshell that was my trip and I can't wait to come home again in 3 weeks and be able to see ALL my friends. But then again, of course there might be a person who I'll be missing the whole time I'm at home.

Jussstttttt maybe.