summertime

Tomorrow is June 1st. I feel like it's about time to make a Summer To Do List. I'm going to take it seriously this year.

1. go camping, a lot
2. Mona rope swing at Burston Ponds
3. bike Moab with Lucas
4. cook outside at least 2 or 3 times a week
5. 5 canyons, I don't care which ones
6. float the Provo River
7. outside concerts (Twilight, Red Butte, USANA)
8. go fishing! and get good at gutting fish
9. rodeos
10. at least one demolition derby



Hopefully we can do everything on the list ... or maybe more.

exciting news

Remember this? The Element I mean. My favorite dream car. It was the best day. I just love that car, even though the back windows didn't go down and there were only 4 seatbelts. 4 seatbelts in the whole car! It was kind of ridiculous. It especially sucked when it was our carpool night and only one of us could go pick up the kids... Which brings us to the exciting news. We got a new car.
We've been looking into possibilities, mostly at Subaru Outbacks. I love that they have a great space for a dog, and 5 seatbelts. We checked out the Larry H Miller 500 tent sale last week, and found something really exciting... not a Subaru. Another Honda. The Pilot. We got a really sweet deal on it (I think because there are a whole bunch of different dealerships competing to see who can sell the most cars). It's just beautiful. It even has a DVD player and seating for 8.




Who wants to go on a road trip? We have plenty of seatbelts ...

PS Remember Daniel? He graduated from high school! It's a pretty big deal ... he's only 16!

the cancer

I hate cancer. I hate that it ruins lives and causes so much pain. I'm pretty sure I'll get it in some form or another eventually, I just think that it will probably be when I'm an old lady. The only time I knew someone my age with cancer was when my best friend Blake had leukemia ... we were 5.
Well, my great friend Jillyn has the cancer. It's a bad one too - colon. She's had some stomach problems the last little while, went in and got checked and had surgery last week. You can read about it on her blog, here. Well, she found out a couple of days ago that she has stage 3 colon cancer and will be starting chemotherapy in 3-4 weeks.
My thoughts immediately went to one of my favorite scriptures ...

Doctrine and Covenants 122:7
And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

I realize that this is probably the last thing she wants to hear, but I think it's a good reminder that even during the crappiest times, God still has us in mind. Jillyn is one of the strongest people I know, and most funny. She always has the cutest hair (and it's red!) and her little dogs are some of Brok's favorite play dates (even though Jersey is scared to death of him). She's in a really sucky situation, but handling it like a champ.


Please keep her in your prayers. Thanks.

inspiration

So I have this friend, Arielle. She's an Olympic athlete. Truly. She rides BMX for USA and actually lives at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego. I work with her mom, Lori, and we've been friends for a few years. So maybe Arielle is only my half-friend ... but she's a super cool chick and I really like her. She's inspiring.



Anyway, she has this friend who also lives at the training center, Lex Gillette. He's an '08 Silver Medalist, two time Paralympian, and completely blind. Here is a little video to give you some background on Lex:



Arielle wrote this about him:

INSPIRATION

When I think about the opportunity I have had to live and train at the Olympic training center what comes to mind is not the world class equipment, the physio, the state of the art technology, or the best SX course in the world. Its the other athletes. The ones I eat lunch with, live with, and pass on the campus en route to training. Athletes that inspire me to be a better athlete, to work harder as I see them work harder. Diversified in many different sports we are all united in one common goal: The Olympics.

None have impacted me more than Elexis Gillette. At first glance Lex appears to be a typical Long jumper. Long dark muscular body with an obvious athletic astuteness and awareness of a high caliber athlete. Always surrounded by people, Lex has an energy that is contagious, a smile always on his face, and it usually takes two or three glances before the average person finally realizes that he is completely blind.

It never ceases to amaze me how he gets around campus on his own, often without his walking stick. Or how he always knows its me when I walk in the cafeteria and shouts my name before I have spoken his. If thats not inspiring enough his athletic ability is phenomenal. Watching him charge a runway to the sound of his guide runners claps before launching himself blind into a pit of sand seems impossible. A silver medalist in Bejing, Lex has proved the impossible wrong. His blindness has only made him more aware, and his attitude being so positive all the time makes me wonder why I complain about the small things.

Lex has got an insatiable curiosity, and after attending our World Cup a few weeks ago he asked me if I would take him out to walk our course so he could feel it. Understand it. I was hesitant at first to take him to the top of the 3 1/2 story start ramp, but he insisted we walk it from start to end. Over the next 45 minutes he touched and felt every lip, landing, berm and surface while I explained it to him. It was an incredible experience for me, I had never seen the course like this before. As I was describing it to him while his fingertips were touching the gate, the ramp, the soil-tec on the dirt, it was opening my own eyes. Like I was seeing it for the first time.

Lex also happens to be an incredible musician. He writes, he sings, he plays. Its evident after spending just a little time with him that his real passion is music, none of us that know him doubt that he is going somewhere with it. He has real talent.

After we went out to the BMX track Lex wrote a song about it. Its raw and funny but I thought it was pretty cool, and I felt like sharing. The experience has inspired me.

Arielle

Here is a video of Lex riding the BMX track at the training center ... the music in the video is his song. I love it.



Some days I just need a little extra inspiration.

April Trek

We took the Focus kids on Trek last month ... girls and boys. It was intense. We went to my favorite place in the whole world: Boulder, UT. Here are some pictures from our lovely trip.













1. hiking
2. climbing up a tree to get to our campsite
3. moon
4. jake's last picture before he shot himself in the leg (reminds me of Aron Ralston in 127 Hours ... the last picture of his right hand)
5. hiking
6. hiking
7. tired brok
8. scenery
9. Kane Cave (named after the discoverer of the cave, the very Lucas Kane)
10. more hiking
11. sky from the top of Boulder mountain

renovation

The house remodel has begun. I guess we're not remodeling the whole house, but we do have a few exciting projects lined up (sprinkler system, more painting, more floors, etc if anyone is interested).
We started with the floor in the front room, bedroom, and hallway. The house was built in 1957 and came with sweet original hardwood ... it was just under several layers (carpet, carpet pad, linoleum [circa 1972], particle board, and TAR paper). So one day we started to rip things up.





We pulled up so much crap, and heat-gunned the glue off. Then we my dad sanded for like 9 hours one day ... it was really dusty. Thanks Dad.




Then we stained the wood and put on a lot of polyurethane. A lot. Meanwhile, our furniture was in a storage unit and our poor boys had no place to watch TV. Sad.


But now it looks awesome! And the TV is plugged back in. And I feel like I live in a new house. I just love it.



And a special thanks to my mom, who got the "house flipping bug". The bathroom's next.