This requires you to read with the most hickish, twangy accent you can imagine

"Rain makes corn. Corn makes whiskey. Whiskey makes my baby....feel a little frisky."


 "Love, love you let me down, Let me down, No you wont string me along, You better be moving on, Giddy on up, Giddy on out."


"Woh-oh lover lover lover, you don't treat me no good no more, Woh-oh, woh-oh lover, lover lover, you don't treat me no good no more."


"We let it rip when we got the money, Let it roll if we got the gas, It gets wild yeah but that’s the way we get down, In a Hicktown."


"She said I’m going out with my girlfriends, Margaritas at the Holiday Inn, Have mercy my only thought, Was Tequila makes her clothes fall off."


"It's a crazy town - full of neon dreams. Everybody plays - everybody sings. Hollywood witha touch of twang - to be a star you gotta bang-bang-bang."

These are the songs that play nearly ten times a day over the speakers on the REQUIRED radio station at work. That's not even counting the times that they play over and over again in my head because they've been ingrained into my brain. I sing along as a conditioned response (for those of you who took psych). Feel sorry for me. 

Work, work, and more work

This is what my summer life has consisted of - working 48 hours a week. When I'm not driving to and from work (it's in Cody), you will find me sleeping. I've becoming a stranger in my home, leaving before I see anyone because they are off working and what not and then coming home after they have gone to bed. Sundays now truly are my day of rest. I really do love this job though, it's bringing in the much needed income. For those of you that don't know, I'm a super saver and it was driving me CRAZY spending money when there was no money coming in. Who knew that selling fireworks could be so dull sometimes. I have had time to do my daily scripture studying, read the two books in the Hunger Games series, had conversations with Jess of the meaning of Life, watched a plethora of movies (great deals at Wal-Mart...fyi), and I've slowly increased my knowledge in fireworks. People are actually starting to believe me when I tell them what is good and what they do and what to buy! I especially love when people who have absolutely no clue come in and they just hang on my every word and buy all of my recommendations. It gives me a small sense of authority right up until a man will come in and not believe me about the most powerful firecrackers. There have been two occasions once with Matt and once with my dad keeping me company at the store, where the customers will completely ignore my correct answers and look to either of them for information. Apparently being of the male gender means you know about fireworks. For now that is a complete update on my life!

5 of the many reasons why i love being home

5. I can shower basically ANY time of the day in a shower that doesn't always look dirty as much as you scrub and scrub and scrub it (my home shower is ALWAYS spotless though due to my mother's regimen cleaning schedule) and not have three other girls needing to get into the bathroom at any time. There is also a lock so I will never feel like I could be barged in on by ANYONE at any second.  

4. My bed is probably the 5th comfiest bed in the world...with high thread count sheets that are cool to your skin to get into and 6 pillows to smother around you and enough room to roll over and not fall off (never happened but still it's a likely possibility with such tiny dorm beds)

3. I don't have to eat cafeteria food. Sure the parfaits, the muffins, the chocolate milk and the omelets were pretty delicious...but they are not exactly the best choices to live off the entire year if health is taken into consideration. I get complete healthy meals with vegetables that I never exactly craved in my life until I didn't have them. I now consider any meat that is not chicken or hamburger a delicacy.
2. I don't have to do laundry. I realize that this is a rare occurrence in the American Family these days so I do not take for granted a mother who washes my dirty clothes with love. At school, every two weeks...that was as long as I could push it until I ran out of socks and underwear...I would have to haul my gargantuan laundry bag down six flights of stairs then make a trip  back up to grab my basket and laundry supplies. Once my laundry was complete, I would have made around a total of 6 trips up and down those stairs to get all of my laundry done. Needless to say, that was about my whole Saturday.
1. My family is usually less than a room away to talk to. Even with today's communication advantages of cellphones, texting, and skype, it's still just not the same as living with the people you love and having them always there to chat with. I love that I can step out of my room and most of the time find my mom in the kitchen - baking something delicious - or go upstairs and watch tv with my dad while having conversation, or even going downstairs to watch Zach play video games and try to pry into his life.

A Second Reason to Love St. George

In the last week here, Richard wanted to make sure I saw at least a little bit of the cooler parts of the outdoors, hence the Red Mountain hike. On a hiking craze, he took me to Zion's National Park which is about an hour and a half away from St. George and is like nothing I've ever seen, it's so beautiful and huge! The pictures we took won't do it justice, but we went hiking up Angel's Landing and it was such a gorgeous view that I enjoyed between more huffs and puffs up the hiking trail. Most people we past along the trail were quite friendly smiling and saying "hi," which also made it a fun experience. We even saw a boy that looked about two years old walking up the trail on his own, hand-in-hand with his dad and we were quite impressed. 

One of the Reasons to Love St. George

There are so many active outdoor activities to do in St. George, as you can see from my past posts, and I haven't experienced the half of them in my first year of college down here. Richard and I went this afternoon to Red Mountain and spent about five hours of hiking. Needless to say - it was QUITE the workout. The view was gorgeous, making up for the sliding, falling, tumbling down the mountain afterwards. Richard was much more graceful about getting down. 

 First steps of the journey

 Taking a break, catching my breath

You can see the temple from everywhere, even at the tallest point in the St. George Valley. I love it!

Makin' History in a 3 Minute Massage

In the spirit of "D" week, Dixie had a night where they set a world record of the LARGEST MASSAGE TRAIN IN THE WORLD!!! You're looking at numbers 195, 196, 197, and 198 - a very vital section to the 659 person train!

wednesday: the best part of the week

I have a new show obsession that I look forward to every week. Modern Family on abc is the funniest show ever! The character of the dad in the more traditional family is so hilarious...I don't usually laugh out loud during TV shows, but I'm basically in tears of laughing fits in almost every episode of this new show. If you haven't seen it you need to check it out.