THIS BLOG HAS MOVED: Cleaning Out, Part I

As I am getting ready to marry Hollis, I have been cleaning out everything. A de-junking of things and memories that I have accumulated over my 23 year life. I started with a de-junking of my computer (see blast from the past post) and re-installing the system software. Then I moved onto my phone.

My current phone is one I got a few years ago. I have had two phones since then, but they have both recently died, so I returned to my old phone. And there were old pictures there to greet me!

The first picture is one that I took of my dad when I was playing with my first camera phone ever (fall 2007). It was a cold weekend in Provo, and my parents were down visiting. I love the shot because my dad's face is in focus and everything else is blurry. And he was asking me what I was doing walking backwards. I love it :)

Remember how I said it was cold? Well it snowed at the football game that weekend. BYU had dominated, and it was very likely that we would win, so many "fans" left. The true fans (myself included, obviously) stuck it out and LOVED the snow. I mean, our fight song states: "We will fight, day or night, rain or snow."

The year before this I waited through a 40-minute long lightning delay and was much colder then because I was soaked. But it was a ton of fun. Oh, I love college football!

That Christmas (2007) I ended up hanging out with my little cousins most of the time. They were running around like crazy, and I joined them for a while, but got tired. So I sat on the couch and took pictures of them. They are so cool. And all good friends. My cousins are cool like that.

Bottom right picture, L to R: Nat, Brian, Tory, Melinda, Sarah, Rachel.

Then I skip to Summer 2008. Apparently I didn't take any pictures between those times. My boss on BYU grounds crew was pretty awesome. So awesome in fact, that when he found a ring of dry grass, he proceeded to gather sticks to spell out his name (Lloyd) and then posed with it. Actually, I can't remember if he gathered the sticks or if one of us on the crew did, but we sure had a blast.

When I went home to visit in July, my brother proved to be just as funny as ever. He mowed the lawn in a bulls-eye pattern. This was a fairly common thing; he had a bow and arrow he loved to shoot from the deck down into the grass. Then a while later I looked out the window to see this:

Apparently the grass circles weren't enough! He went into the garage and found a can of paint so that he could make a more distinct pattern. Brian was 11 at the time. He painted a "Hi" in the grass after I took this picture. We were all extremely curious as to what my dad would say when he saw it. My dad is very particular about his grass (a trait that used to annoy me, but now I am grateful for because he trained me well). Well, as soon as Dad got home, Brian grabbed him by the hand and towed him to the deck; "Look what I did, Dad!" We all crowded around the window that we cracked open so we could hear his response. "Oh. That's nice Brian. Where did you get the paint?" Whew. No blow-ups there. :) My dad explained to Brian that he should not just get paint or tools on his own; he needs to ask permission first. And then he asked Brian to not paint the grass again. And Brian hasn't.

Also while I was home, my family went to Ensign Ranch for the day. My mom and sister Heather were certified to supervise the rock climbing wall, so we played on that for a while. My cousin Alyssa was really bored. She just wanted to go play on the giant slip-n-slide that they have there. She just looked so adorable with her helmet on too big and wearing the inflatable tube around that I just had to take a picture.

At the end of July, I went to a chemistry teachers conference in Indiana. After the conference, my friend Mary and I went to Purdue. I was thinking about applying for their chemistry teaching masters or doctorate program (it's really good). While visiting a lab, this comic was posted on the wall (they printed it out from xkcd.com).

I think it is hilariously funny, probably because it is kind of true.

For some reason or another, during Fall of 2008 Heather and I went up to Salt Lake. Maybe we went to the General Relief Society broadcast. I think that was it. When it was over, we had someone take a picture of us. The picture is dark, but I like it anyway.