Lately I've been trying to watch a good, short video in the morning to start my day off right. This one is by far my favorite. First of all I've always loved this song ever since it came out at EFY 1999, but I also like how it stays on each picture for like 10 seconds giving you more time to look and ponder each picture and how Christ's love really is perfect. There are a few pictures in there that I really really like, but right now my favorite is the guy in the purple shirt who is being held and hugged by Christ from behind. I think we all have moments like that where we just feel like the world is kicking our trash and we need Christ's help. I'm not that old, not that experienced, but I've gone through enough to know that He will always be there to hold us and hug us when we most need it.

Chills

I always get chills when I watch this video. It's funny yet really cool at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfRaWAtBVg

A gem from Moon Apartments

I came home from school one day and saw this on Kyle's bed.

I need help.

So this picture is of Elder Bingham (right) and some other missionary in Holland from 5 years ago. First glance you'll think the guy on the left is me, but I promise it's not me. I need help finding features to prove it's not me. Emily thinks I'm joking, but I PROMISE this is not a picture of me. My last city was Arnhem, Elder Bingham replaced me. The only time I ever saw Bingham was in Dordrecht on my way out of Holland. My companion, Elder White, dropped me off at Dordrecht and picked up Bingham. Bingham was a greenie, I saw him for maybe 5 minutes.

A year later I came back to Holland- visited Willy in Arnhem and saw this picture and was really confused because it's impossible that this was a picture of me but it looks so much like me. So I took a picture of the picture and forgot about it. I was going through Europe pictures today and found it. So I facebook'd Bingham to hopefully find out who the other guy is because there's no way it's me unless Bingham edited me in there. I just don't understand how he could have edited me in there while he was on the mission or why he would have edited me in there or how he even got a picture of me. Anyway, this has been a mystery in my life which I hope to soon find an answer. There's got to be some feature in there that doesn't look like me- the eyebrows maybe?

Me and Emmy were thinking about going to Europe...there were a few dates we were throwing out, one of them was 4/16. It's too bad we didn't cause we could have seen this up close

So me and Emily have gone snowboarding three times now- each time getting a little better...and improving with a better resort each time. Sundance was fun but doesn't have many runs. Brighton is also fun and more runs, but not as many as Snowbird...holy cow, tons of runs!!! So yeah, it was fun, we improved some, but I think we'll stick with Sundance.

2008

2009

2010

...We don't have that many "snowboarding" clothes

Elder Beck

Me and Dallas picked up Colby...err Elder Beck from the Airport today. We had a fun few hours where we got some food from Parker's in American Fork, he said goodbye to Emily, then to his BYU friends, then we dropped him off at the MTC. I kept on reminding him how he won't see any of the sights for a few months just before he flies to Bulgaria. Me and Dallas had fun telling him all about the MTC, missionary work, and we were just being bros.

Funny thing about this picture is that probably 15 minutes before me and Dallas told E.B. how you shouldn't put your hands in your pocket when you're a missionary, or for regular people as well. I was going to let him be the tallest, but Dallas was on his toes so me and Colby did as well. He better not be taller than me when he gets back, that's all I have to say.

Then we said goodbye to E.B. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to him, I was pretty emotionally drained from just the hour or two with him, he's had a few days of it. I tried my best to be Mom's substitute for the day, I definitely didn't take as many pics as she would. Me and Dallas sang "Together Someday" (family tradition).

Wow...2 years! See ya Elder Beck!

In Heaven, we will be enthralled by those we associate with. We will ask someone in which time period they lived and you will might hear, "I lived during the LaVell Edwards' years," or "I saw Roger Reid coach in the Marriott Center" or "I sang the Cougar Fight Song at a Gary Crowton game". And as you are standing there in amazement, someone will turn to you ask you which of the BYU coaches' period did you live in? And when you say "Bronco Mendenhall and Dave Rose" a hush will fall over every hall and corridor in Heaven, and all in attendance will bow at your presence. Guys, we were held back 6,000 years to witness the best years of BYU football and basketball. Remember who you are!

5 years...wow!

5 years ago at this time I walked into my home after a two year absence, fell down on the floor, and then watched Return of the King. That was fun. My family quoted Napoleon Dynamite all the time, the Pope passed away a few months later, I watched Best Two Years daily, Bush was getting a lot of grief for Iraq, and I was terrified of girls. Those are some of the things going on when I get back from my mission.

It's so hard for me to believe that I've been home for 5 years. I remember when coming back out to BYU and talking with returned missionaries who had been home for like 2 years and I thought they were so old. I'm ancient now! Seriously, though, I had the greatest mission. I don't think I've talked much about it on my blog, but it lived up in every way to being called the best two years. I love the people in Holland so much. I told Emily today that I still think about my mission every day. It helps that I read out of the Dutch Book of Mormon. There's the tulips, the windmills, the wooden shoes, the vla, the typical Dutch meals, the flat flat land, green grass and trees everywhere, stores like C&A, Hema which had great ties. There was walking around the downtown area street contacting people, getting in great conversations about how there really is a God. Most important though, is that's where I really came to know the Savior and feel a portion of the love he has for the people of Holland.

When I got back, Dad told me that even though it would be hard to believe life would just get better.

He was right

In a nutshell...

Here are the things going on:

-Had an amazing trip down to California for a 3-day cruise to Mexico with the fam and then Disneyland- thanks Mom and Dad for a fun time!

-Coaching a 5th grade basketball team...it's a little tougher than coaching 8th graders, but we won yesterday!

-Playing intramurals

-Business is going AWESOME, seriously I'm just loving it

-Got a glove for racquetball, my bros don't stand a chance against me

-Thinkin about jet skiin a lot lately, seriously, I love it so much! :)

-I think we're gonna start a Beck family blog

-Research

-Studyin

-Enjoyin winter

-Livin the dream with a cute wife

Mini-golf on the cruise ship

Can't resist taking a sunset picture

Fam's first time to California Adventure

It rained nearly all day which meant SHORT lines

Disneyland is magical even when it's raining

They had to be in every picture, Dallas is only taller in this pic cuz he's closest to the camera

Eating A LOT of food makes ya hungry

Carrie was there too, so was Bret

Me and the girlz

Some Random Pics...ya know, for the kids someday

Mommy and Daddy just married!

Driving through Zions
Rafting the Colorada with some friends

Gettin a good readin in of the Daily Herald with your dad's friend, Kyle.

Hikin through Arches
On the bridge between Omaha and CB.

I'm studying the Revolutionary War this year. I have lots of books I want to read, I finished 1776 and am getting through John Adams rather quickly. Some thoughts I have from what I've read so far:

-Maybe it's just David McCullough, the author, but over and over he mentions instances that in one way or another appear to be directed by God. I can't tell you how many times he tells a story from the Revolutionary War that indicates the Americans received help from above.

Example) (This is when the troops were retreating off Long Island). "Though nearly morning, a large part of the army still waited to embark, and without the curtain of night to conceal them, their escape was doomed.

Incredibly, yet again, circumstances--fate, luck, Providence, the hand of God, as would be said so often--intervened. Just at daybreak a heavy fog settled in over the whole of Brooklyn, concealing everything no less than had the night. It was a fog so thick, remembered a soldier, that one "could scarecely discern a man at six yards distance." Even with the sun up, the fog remained as dense as ever, while over on the New York side of the river there was no fog at all."

It's so faith-strengthening reading about the beginnings of our country. America really is such an amazing story.

Another observation I've had, mostly from reading John Adams, and now watching the HBO series "John Adams," is that our rights are God-given, not government-given. In the tv series, John Dickinson is trying to persuade Congress to give an olive branch to Great Britain and that by appeasing the crown America would receive back its rights. Adams persistently argues that Great Britain created the separation when it tried to take away American's rights and that rights are not given to us from the government, but from God. We especially see this happening today where the government is claiming to be the giver of rights. This is very dangerous, I'm sure Adams, Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin are rolling in their graves seeing the government trying to assert itself as the giver of rights. The Constitution was established to protect the people from the government. By the way, Washington was amazing! What do you think about Washington Beck? Or Adams Washington Beck?

If there is a Santa, this is what I'll be getting for Christmas...

For the love! What I would give to be jet skiing right now!

Well

Sorry about the boring post. It was a goal of mine to blog that day...I didn't really feel like it, but I had to do it, so I just wrote that.

So a little over a month ago, the company I worked for went out of business. I have to tell ya, though, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It was kind of a good kick in the rear to start accomplishing some of the goals that I need to be working on. It's been fun being the one to clean, make dinner, make Emmy lunch and such. Me and a friend who also worked there are starting a company also in transportation logistics! We're both really excited as we have several customers who are on board, most of the same fleets will work with us, and some new carriers as well. Those that know me real well probably are surprised that it took so long for me to actually start a business. I'm such an entrepreneur, and it's great having the freedom and flexibility, as well as the extra drive to work for myself. It's nice to check that off that goal...it was supposed to be within 5 years, so nice that I got it checked off early. On top of that I'll be selling health insurance on the side. I'm trying to do a better job of not talking about crazy goals until at least some steps have been taken. I've slipped a few times with some people...poor Emmy hears so many of my crazy ideas. But yeah, I'm studying for the accident, health, and life insurance exam...so that's why I can talk about it. Once I take some steps on the next crazy goal, I'll talk about it.

Just made a loaf of bread

Thoughts of a sickie

So I didn’t quite post every week like I wanted to. I did pretty good for awhile, but then college football happened. A lot else has happened as well…including mine and Emmy’s first year anniversary!! It’s been a great year, lots of adventures…tons to come still, of course.

Things I’ve learned this last year:
-Marriage does weird things to ya, I’ve kissed my finger or hand so many times thinking it was Emmy’s. A few weeks ago in the Temple I honestly thought I was her for a couple seconds. I always think that she’s me, which is why I don’t give her many details of my day cause I feel like she’s gone through it with me, and I assume she has all the same memories I have.
-I knew when I married Emmy that I’d also be marrying Porky, what I didn’t know is that I would also be marrying Tay-Tay, Harry, Memmy, and Bammy. We all have so much fun together, I love the mall.
-I’d say that when we were dating I rubbed off on her a lot more than her on me. I think it’s changed, though. Sure she still says, ‘for the love’ and calls me ‘kid,’ ‘son’, etc. And she does go with me to football games, but I used the word ‘sickie’ in the title. And I do her dance.
-Marriage is great…Emmy is great!

So the Squirt Gun War is started up again, I’m the neo-Grand Moff. It’s pretty fun, I’m ready if anyone tries to come get me. In fact, I dare them. I was home from work for two days and home from church for one. Even though I hate not contributing to society, I did finally beat the online Risk game for the USA Map with 7 computers at very clever. I also have 133,000 points for Brick Breaker which makes me in top 1,000 players, but still over 10,000,000 points away from first place.

I really thought Colby was liking it out here...

WOW!

You're just going to have to figure these pictures out on your own.

Better times...

So one of the main reasons we went to Texas is because of the BYU-Oklahoma game. It was amazing! I loved almost every second of it. It was incredible, so magical! The stadium was unbelievable! I have never seen anything like it and it really is worth all the hype. Jerry J went all out. This last week everybody has been asking me how it was. It's almost like answering the same when people asked me how my mission was. It was amazing! What else can I say?! There were tons of Oklahoma fans, it was pretty intimidating, but in the end the Cougars from Provo, UT pulled it off.

Lots of celebrating!

That big screen is incredible! I sure missed that as we were at the game yesterday. I've heard that the screen itself costs as much as a normal stadium.

I loved it when they showed the BYU logo

Once we went ahead I had to take a picture

The fam loved it! That was so much fun, we'll be talking about that game for years.

Our Texas Trip

So I can't fall asleep right now so thought I'd blog it up. Last year one of Emmy's Christmas presents was a promise that we would go to Texas within 5 years. I think it was like a week after where it was announced that BYU would be playing Oklahoma in the Cowboys new stadium. We decided to go for the game and enjoy Texas while we were down there. Emmy lived in Plano for some time so she really wanted to go back there. We also went to see Jared in Waco and then down to San Antonio. We came back to Dallas for some meetings I had with some clients, and we stayed with the Wyatts. My uncle Cory and his family, Jared, the Wyatts, and the Jacobsons were so nice in letting us stay in their homes.



Went by the Temple in Dallas

Plano
Emmy had lots of good memories here, always getting into trouble with her brother playing with bouncy balls all over the store.

JFK was shot from the 2nd window from the top to the right. What was interesting, though, is that there are conspiracy theorists everywhere and no people telling what really happened.

Hung out with Jared and his girlfriend, Danye.

Went to the capitol building in Austin.

A mission in San Antonio. Deep in the heart of Texas

The Riverwalk in San Antonio.

Em's co-worker, Shay, let us stay at one of their properties in San Antonio. It really really cool to just relax for a whole day.

On the way back we stopped at the Mesa Verde National Park and saw some cliff dwellings.

A cool storm we saw on the way back near Moab "Our dance" outside the Alamo

So that's it. It was a really fun trip, we ate a lot of good stuff. Em took me to some AMAZING restaurants like On the Border and Texas Land and Cattle. What's amazing, though, is that the more we travel, the more we love Utah.