My Big Surprise

Once a month, I have a scout meeting called Roundtable.  I'll be honest with you, I do get a little bored at those meetings, but I have been trying to have a better attitude about things, so I made it my goal to start attending them as often as possible.  This months Roundtable was actually going to be cut a little short because a district awards ceremony was going to be held right after.  I thought this was great, I would be able to go to a short Roundtable and then leave as soon as the awards ceremony started.  I thought it was going to be a great night.

So, a day or two before Roundtable, I get a text from the Young Men's President asking if I would be going.  I said I would, but would probably not stay for the awards ceremony afterwards.  He then preceded to ask if I would stay a little while after Roundtable to meet with a guy about some activity he wanted us to do.  I little disappointed that this would ruin my early return to home, I agreed to do it.  So I head to Roundtable and eagerly await the time when I could meet with the guy and then head home.  Roundtable ends and I wait with the President for this guy.  The awards ceremony is starting and the President tells me to just head into the gym where they are having it and he would continue to look for the guy because he couldn't find him.  So, I wait for a little while, but no sign of the guy.  I finally decide to head home, so I head to the door to tell the President I'm going to take off.  Well, as I reach the door, to my surprise I see my wife and little girl standing there.

Needless to say, I was pretty confused at that point.  So the President tells my that I just need to take my wife and girl and go and sit down.  So I don't know how it happened, but I did receive an award that night.  I received the Unit Leader Award of Merit.  It was quite a shock to me, but I was very honored that people were willing to recognize me with this award.  It was actually quite humbling.  The cool thing is, I have a new knot to put on my scout shirt that I have never seen anyone else wear before!

I was really surprised though at how my wife and others were able to keep it a secret from me, it really was a big surprise!

Busy Weekend, Turned Not so Busy

So, the weekend was set to be a really busy one.  I went to class Friday morning, then went to work right after that.  I got off around 3:00 and I was going to go to one of the events a group was putting on for my program management class.  I decided not to go, because I wanted some sort of break.  At 5:30 I got packed up and picked up the rest of the Young Men's Presidency in our ward and we headed up to a cabin for a leadership training camp out.  I need to be careful about what I say about the camp out though, only because I know one member of the Stake Presidency reads my blog (that's for you President Jaramillo)!  Truthfully though, it seemed like it had the makings to be a really good camp out.  However, soon after I ate dinner, my stomach started to act up a little and I had a hard time concentrating on what was said at the fireside that night.  I figured I would be fine in the morning, especially since I was able to sleep in a bed, however, it did not.  After losing what was in my stomach a little after I woke up, I tried to participate in the morning events.  I finally gave up and went and took a nap for a while.  I tried to eat some lunch, but my stomach still wasn't feeling the best, so we left early so I could get some rest.  So my busy weekend turned into a lot of time lying on the couch trying to feel better, even missed church today.  Tomorrow's a new day though, so let's hope for the best!

Lake Blanche

So, I was sitting here thinking of something to blog about, and I really had no clue.  So I started looking through some older pictures and I remembered a pretty good story from when Heather and I were dating.  If you don't really know, I am not the biggest fan of hiking.  I like the outdoors, but if I can drive there, walk around a little, I'm fine with that.  I don't really like going on super long hikes.  However, I was trying to impress Heather, so I agreed to go on a hike with her up to Lake Blanche.  It looked like it would be an ok hike, not to long, and we would end up at a nice lake.

So we started the hike, and it went up, and seemed like it kept going and going.  It takes us a little bit longer than expected, because we really didn't think it would be that long, but we kept going because we wanted to see this lake.  We finally make it to the top, and we see just about the most disappointing lake that we can find.  It was a pretty small lake, and it was filled with weeds!  So we ate our little lunch that we took with us, took a few pictures, and then headed back.  So all in all, not the best hike, but it was some good quality time with Heather.  I think the thing that confused me the most though, was it seemed to be a pretty popular hike.  Why?  Beats me.  But I guess if you want to go on a hike, that was as good as hike as any.

I guess it did have a decent view from the top, and a nice little waterfall somewhere along the way!

Random Things for the Week

In class earlier this week, our teacher, Shayne Clarke, told us that we had to buy a Coke for a stranger.  Being kind of broke, and Heather being out of a job, I was wondering how I was going to to this.  Then, a wonderful thing happened.  For my Program Management class, we had to program an event.  Luckily, ours was this last Friday and I was in charge of getting some donations for prizes.

It was a 50's theme dance, and since I work at KFC/A&W, I decided to try to get a donation from them for the dance.  They were kind and gave me five gift certificates for a large float.  So the dance was going on and we had our competitions and prizes, but we only gave out two of the large floats, ironically they went to two of our teacher's kids.  So I still had three left.  I was very tempted to keep them for myself, but I figured that wouldn't be the best thing to do.

So I watched the people dancing and an older couple really stood out to me.  They danced most of the dances and were really enjoying themselves, you could really see how much they loved each other.  So I grabbed two of the gift certificates and said that since they seemed to be having the most fun, they got to have them.  I know we were supposed to be making someone else happy, but I honestly just want my wife and me to be that happy when we get old, and so it was a joy to watch them dance!

What happened to the last gift certificate you may ask?  Well, that went to my sister for being so kind and babysitting for us!

Camp Out!

So, it has been another one of those busy weeks where I feel like everything is being crammed on my right now.  I had the lucky opportunity though to go on a camp out with my scouts Friday night.  I know many of you might not think I was really "lucky" to go on that camp out, but I would disagree.  The camp out was quite unorganized, considering we had a nice training camp out planned for the boys, but last Sunday, we found out the stake pow wow had been changed from noon to nine in the morning.  Giving us only a week to plan a completely new camp out, which would have been ok, except for the fact that all the young men leaders are in school and we all had really busy weeks.  So we went to a place near Goshen, UT, told the boys to bring their own food, and got them back in time the next morning for breakfast before the stake pow wow, that the stake provided.  So it was a short camp out, but Friday night was great.  We had a nice fire, which is always nice, but we also had a lot of fun playing some games.  I slept pretty well, because I actually brought an air mattress, which was really nice, and so all in all it was a great relaxing camp out that I got to spend with the scout and the other scout leaders.  Now it's back to the grind of school.  I have two midterms this week and a big project for one of my classes.  Oh well, here we go!