River Adventures!

It was a GORGEOUS day here in Rexburg and a few of my friends put together a trip to a local river for some fun. They rented some kayaks, paddle boards and tubes.

Me, Dan, Janelle, and Cam on our way to the river. 

Janelle and I in the truck, ready to float!

The river

Oh yeeeeeah!

We love the sun!!

I started out on a tube but eventually switched to a kayak and I fell in love. It was an awesome work-out but it was incredibly fun. But I did have a little adventure with my kayak. I found that I really liked going over the rapids. Hopefully, I'll be able to go again soon and experience some better rapids. 

We came up on an old bridge that only had the stone pillars left and I saw that the best rapids were on the far side so I started paddling over to it. I thought that I was clear but somehow I slammed into the stone pillar on my side and the river's current tipped my kayak sideways and water was rushing on me, pinning me to my kayak. I was in shock, stuck, unsure of what to do, clutching my paddle. Eventually I realized there was nothing I could do to get myself out with the kayak so I kinda rolled off and grabbed my life jacket that was under my legs on the way. It was incredible how fast that water moved.

The guy that was just ahead of me is a life guard and he immediately went into that mode. I struggled over to his paddle boat and assessed my injuries. My leg was scratched up and bruised and the bottom of my foot was slightly cut and there was a little chunk of skin missing on my hip.

Eventually my kayak dislodged itself and was caught by another of our party and I got back on. It was quite the experience.

Now I sit here on my bed burned to a crisp...looking like a tomato. Basically I love my life and the experiences that I have. Whoop!

Split Second

There are billions of people on this earth at any given moment. The chance of meeting a specific person out of those billions is nearly slim to none. It's incredible to me how through a series of random events and occurrences we meet certain people. Circumstances really have to be just right to meet people. Minute choices that we make can change the course of our lives.

It's so difficult to wrap my mind around just how much our lives are interconnected as humans. The webs of our lives reach around the world and have changed people, have changed us. How has my life, my personality, my help changed the course of another life out there?

Our lives really are made up of instances, split second decisions really. It's a lot of pressure if you think about it.

I'm pretty addicted to this song by the way.

Life Lessons Through Film

I'm pretty sure I've told y'all before that I'm a projectionist at work, meaning I work with the digital projectors as well as the film projectors. Sometimes, things just don't work the way they are meant to work and a few days ago one of my projectors had a little accident. 

All that black stuff on the floor is a cute little movie called The Lorax. When I saw this mess when I went to check on the movies I nearly had a heart attack. I'd never had to deal with any real film issues before so this was pretty new to me.

To fix this tangled mess of a movie I had to patiently sit on the floor and feed the film onto the correct platter with the rest of the movie. It was a boring, tedious, tiring, at times even a little frightening Of course there were also moments when the film would simply slip through my fingers, doing exactly what it should but then it would catch and I would have to follow the film into the mess and work out the tangles. When the last little bit finally slid through my fingers, the relief and happiness at being done was almost too much for my little self.

As I was sitting in church today, it hit me, life is just like that tangled mass of film sometimes. There are times in our lives when we're just scooting along no problem when suddenly we get off track and things just seem to pile up and it seems like nothing will ever be the same. There are times when we must look to our Heavenly Father for that extra help in unravelling a particularly difficult knot in our life. Eventually everything will work out though. There are a few eternal truths and that is one of them.

Oh, Hello there officer...

I'm not one to break rules. I follow logical advice. I don't go exploring in places that it's obvious that they don't want outsiders. I'm cautious, so what. Well, those natural character traits of mine have been tested over the past couple days.

Looking back the story I'm about to relate is pretty funny and I'm going to enjoy telling it but at the time I was beyond anxious.

So, a new..er friend of mine wanted to show Rachael and I something on campus so he had me drive back behind a building by the agriculture equipment. We turned off the car and started walking away when suddenly Jon stops, putting his arms out to signal us to stop as well. He then frantically tells us to get back in the car. Once back in the car and trying to calm down, Jon explained his sudden desire to be back in the car, a security car had just backed out of the building we were parked somewhat behind. He tells me not to turn my car on and not to do anything but I'm really just wanting to get out of there. Even though, now looking back we really weren't doing anything wrong or bad so we probably wouldn't have even got in trouble. There's just something about authority and darkness that freaks me out. So I make a decision, turn on the car and suddenly my headlights flare into life. I reverse and get ready to get out of there and the security guard is standing in the middle of the road waiting for us.

From the backseat Jon is coaching me, "Okay, Bri, just let me do all the talking. I can handle this, it's going to be okay." As I press the button on my window I say, "Alright, Jon. This is all you." But here's the thing, as soon as the window was coming down, I freak out and start talking a million words a minute, making up some story about being lost and just wanting to get off campus. Believe me, I was mortified by every word coming out of my mouth and how scared I sounded.

Now, let me tell you something else about last night that just added to everything. Gale. Force. Winds. Strongest wind I've ever been in, in my life. The dust was even thick enough that you couldn't see for very far. Just seemed to make everything that much creepier.

After dropping Rachael off, we made our way out to the cemetery just because we could. Once we were out there (after getting lost once) it was pretty late and the wind was adding a giant chill to the air, we turned the car off so that there were no lights at all. Luckily by this time I wasn't waiting to see some crazy man. Jon suggested that we go lay down on top of a plot. If it hadn't been so dang cold I would've wanted to stay a little longer because the stars were so bright. So gorgeous. You could see every one of them. I miss that. I love the stars. But two seconds out there and I was shacking with cold. So we left.

Basically, my weekend was an adventure. Perhaps one that I didn't want at the time but one that I'm glad to have had.

Call Me, Maybe?

People are so creative and silly. I've come to the realization that people have an affinity for creativity if they just let themselves. The reason for this sudden idea comes from a fun encounter from a few days ago. So, I spend a lot of time on campus, just sitting there reading or doing stuff on my laptop. Well, the other day I was doing just that and I was watching music videos. I happened to watch this one

and just as I was finishing it and moving on to the next music video on my list when a young man dropped a piece of folded paper next to my laptop. He walked away before I could say anything. Of course I opened the paper and it said "Call me, maybe?" His name and number. Funny much?!

Of course with the cleverness of how he went about giving me his number, I text him so he'd have mine.

We went out last night and it was really fun. There was a Dance Battle up on campus that we decided to go to (totally incredible by the way, the students here are so talented), went for ice cream, and played some ping pong. He and I have backgrounds in tennis so it was an interesting experience. It's been a little bit since I've gone on a real one on one, declared date, with a guy who called me to set it up, who picked me up and opened all my doors. It was refreshing :)

On a totally unrelated note...The Hunger Games has been released! I went to the midnight premier and holy heck....it was AWESOME! I loved every single second of it. They really did an amazing job with this adaption. Casting was spot on in my opinion; the actors really nailed their parts. Especially Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, these two actors completely and utterly made you believe in the reality of their characters' existence and I loved every second of their screen time. I saw it twice in a ten hour period and still want to see it more, that's how good it is. Everyone should find the time to both read the novel and watch the movie.

Who's your daddy?

Last night, as I struggled to fall asleep I was thinking about the men I've dated and am dating and I came to a realization. I have the BEST dad in the world. I mean, I've known that for ever but it really hit me last night. My dad has provided the perfect example of the ideal husband and father. Growing up, I never saw him angry with my mom, never raise his voice or become impatient, instead he was endlessly kind, generous and patient with everyone in the family. I can still remember him rocking me to sleep at night when I was no older than 6 and the silly songs he would make up as I was trying to catch those Zzz's.

My dad always thought of my mom before himself and I never really realized that until later in my life. When my mom needed a new car, my dad was fully supportive and even though he wants a new truck let my mom go find a new car. He dutifully provided for every small and big need that any of us needed. He made it possible for my mom and I to do all sorts of really fun things.

Basically, I know that's the kind of man I want to end up with, someone who is so extremely selfless and kind, generous and hardworking, patient and spiritual. You all might think you have the best daddy in the world...but you'd be wrong. Sorry, that's just the way it is in all actuality. My dad trumps all other dads out there. The end.

Snowman, Mommy, 2000!

It snowed a while back...it's snowing now. Ever since the very first snowfall, I've wanted to play in the snow but something always got in the way or else I just didn't feel like it when I had time. The other night, I was with a friend of mine and as we were driving by this park around 11 at night, the snow was calling my name; it was just so perfect, untouched, this gorgeous expanse of flawless white. I looked at my bud and asked him to stop the car so we could go run around in the field. Sadly, we didn't stop.

A few nights later though, I was able to get him to go with me to make this giant snowbaby. Oh, did I mention that it was uh midnight when we did this? Yeah. Most spontaneous thing I've done in awhile and I LOVED it! Although I didn't do very much of the work (he basically did everything except for packing snow around each section), I still take partial credit for this huge masterpiece. Sadly, the next day when I went by to check on Ted  (the snowman) there was a big ol' stick in his chest. So sad. And now he's completely toppled over. I'll make another some time.

On another note, my mom is in town! She leaves in the morning but it's sure been fun. I love having my mom around, I'm lucky to have such an incredible woman as my mother. Fortunately for me, she's coming back in just a few weeks. She doesn't like the weather though...

Oh yeah, we've reached over 2,000 pageviews! Not that big of a deal but I'm excited. Whoop!