"I do believe I have been changed for the better."

Most of you have probably heard by now about the passing of my roommate Chelsi Dawn Petersen on Friday, June 6th. I don't have a personal blog and I'm not about to do a write up on facebook, so I hope you can bare with me as I do a very modest tribute to her here on the family blog.

I moved in with Chelsi in December of 2007, after escaping Belmont 315 where (if you remember) I lived with Lauren. Immediately she had an unfair advantage in my eyes because she was being sized up against my most recent roommate who had hygiene practices that would make me gag, cost me hundreds of dollars in unpaid utility bills, and threatened to beat me up. Even if my former roommate had been Mary Poppins though, she still would have been perfection in comparison. As far as roommates go she was ideal for me: she was a clean freak, refused to borrow anything of mine, insisted that I use everything of hers, and didn't have obnoxious friends. Her biggest vices included running the dish washer when it wasn't full, doing laundry frequently, and listening to sappy love songs...as you can tell, I put up with a lot. Had she been a messy, mooching, stingy roommate with obnoxious friends, I probably still would would have loved her because all those things are trivial in comparison to everything else she had to offer.

Chelsi loved life more than anyone I have ever interacted with. She was passionate about the gospel, her family, her missionary James, and track. Chelsi's track abilities were admittedly incredible-she was hard working, unwilling to give up on herself, and thus, unbeatable. But as inspiring as she was on the track, she was more inspiring off. She was humble, generous, and a joy to be around. She had bright blue eyes and a smile that could light up a room. This probably seems like hindsight speaking, but it is not. Any one of my friends will tell you that I would brag about Chelsi's athleticism and sweet disposition frequently, so much so that they were concerned I had an obsession with her.

My favorite memory of her is from this one night when we had two attempted break-ins. Cherilyn and I let it go the first time but after the second time we went to Chelsi's room to make sure it wasn't her trying to get in. She came staggering out with bed head and half-open eyes wondering what was the matter. We explained the situation to her and she freaked...and I mean freaked. She, the strongest one of us all, the one who could probably kick the trash out of whoever it was trying to break in, was the one most scared. I loved what a pansy she was. Anyway, she called her mom and then busted out a carton of her nasty fat-free ice cream as we talked for the next hour about what to do. Finally, upon her request, we all migrated to Cherilyn's room where we'd sleep that night because Cherilyn had a lock on her door. Cherilyn and I joked that we actually made up the story about the break-in just so she'd hang out with us because she only associated with athletes. The truth is she was just too busy for us most of the time.

I have wanted to write about her since her passing, but I have hesitated for fear that nothing I say can do her justice. I have come to accept, however, that I can not avoid talking about her simply because of my incompetence. Rather, I just have to ask that you realize she is 1,000 times more amazing than the image I can depict for you. Hopefully you have gathered from what I have written though, that she was barely short of perfection. At first, this perfection made her passing extremely hard to accept. Why her? Why out of all the students in BYU, the person who had the very most to offer this world? Eventually though, this same perfection that brought about those questions also brought the answers to those questions. As her bishop stated at the funeral, she was just too pure for this world. The Lord has much work for her to do in heaven.

And instead of being bitter that I lost such a precious part in my life, I became so grateful for how fortunate I was to have had the privilege of her being a part of my life. From the first week we lived together her mom would tell me how I was the answer to her prayers. That she hated her last roommates and had been praying since they moved out for better ones. And I always replied that I had been doing the same, so we were an answer to each others' prayers. Turns out Cherilyn had been praying for the same thing and moved in a month later. How blessed are we that our prayers were answered and that we were placed in such a circumstance. At her funeral they played a song from the musical "Wicked." The first verse goes, "I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them and we help them in return. Well, I don't know if I believe that's true but I know I'm who I am today because I knew you..." and then a few verses down adds, "I do believe I have been changed for the better..." I can't think of a more perfect song to describe my sentiments in this whole situation.

This has undoubtedly been the hardest thing I have experienced thus far in my life but because of this it has also been the biggest opportunity for growth. I have been trying to learn and grow from it as much as possible and I have already seen so much progress in this past week and a half. I don't know that I could say the same though, if I had not had the love and support of you all and my friends here in Provo. It has been so humbling to see the extent to which my loved ones have been willing to serve me. Thanks for everything, all of you. And don't feel obligated to respond, I more posted this for me and my record than anything.

If this isn't the biggest bag over the head, punch in the face...you know the rest.

One guess as to the first thing to break in the new house. Yep, you guessed it.

Holy freak, where's the Tylenol!

Dad: The Freaking Genius Father

I have been thinking a lot about Dad lately. Seeing how I am a fairly new husband, a new father, and a new homeowner...I have had many things that have made me think of him. I mean, really, what can't he do. He built on the addition to our house. He did the electricity and the heating and air for the additoin. He can fix everything in the house. He has always maintained the yard and dug out the clay in our front yard with a little (and I mean a very little) help from his boys that seemed to take hours to find their shoes, tie them, and get outside to help. He has turned our backyard into a fruit producing paradise. He knows everything about repairing and maintaining cars. I was driving around in a Mazda that was like 15 years old with over 360,000 miles on it in the horrible Utah weather, and I was never concerned about the car because I knew dad gave it a nice checkup and inspection everytime we came home. He sure knows how to get a good deal on a car. What can't he do really.

I have daily reminders of how great he is. I look out the window into my back yard and I see my grass dying in several spots and think, what would dad do about that. I get into my nice car and remember what a great deal he got for me. I go through a drive-thru and use the power windows that roll down by pressing a button and think, I am so glad that I did not get the cheaper model of my car because Dad convinced me to get the nicer model for a very small amount a month more. Every time I go and get my oil changed I think, Dad never paid for this kind of stuff. He is too smart for that. Yesterday we had some friends over for dinner and they were telling me about a bunch of different improvements that they had to make on to their house because the bought a fixer-upper and to each one of the things they said, I thought to myself, yeah, I have seen my dad do all of those things. He is pretty much amazing. The thing that I appreciate the most, however, is something that I really came to appreciate while I was on my mission. I saw so many good kids and nice people that would come to church sometimes but that were not really active and not really committed to the church and to the gospel. In every case, either, no father was present in the home, or the father was not a member of the church, and in a few cases he was a member, but he was inactive. I have often thought about that and reflected on that. And as I look back on my youth, that is one constant that I can always remember is that we went to church on Sunday. I am so grateful that we were tuaght our whole lives that we go to church. It is so easy to see that everything good in my life has come through the church and living the teachings that we have been taught. So Dad, not only are you a completely amazing person, but I want to thank you for being such a great patriarch and example in my life. We love you Dad. You are awesome.

So...I am not sure how often Dad looks at this blog, but I figured mom could in charge of getting him to look at the blog.

My new favorite salad...

It's summer time and that means salads, salads, and more salads. Here's a recipe for my new favorite. It's a Pampered Chef recipe and my friend Keri made it for us this past week at our "recipe exchange."

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Dressing:
1 lemon
2 T white wine vinegar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 T vegetable oil
1 t. poppy seeds

Salad:
1/4 c sliced natural almonds, toasted
1 1/2 c strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/2 medium cucumber, sliced and cut in half
1/4 small red onion, sliced into thin wedes
1 6 oz. package of baby spinach

For the dressing, zest lemon to masure 1/2 t. of zest. Juice lemon to measure 2 T of juice. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT USING BOTTLED LEMON JUICE AND BOTTLED LEMON ZEST. FRESH LEMON MAKES THIS SALAD!!!!! Add remainder of dressing ingredients, wisk, and refridgerate until you're ready to serve.

Combine salad ingredients. Top with dressing and Chow Down baby!

In case you were wondering, my menu for father's day...

Stake marinated and grilled on the bar-b-que
Strawberry spinach salad
Grilled zucchini from our garden!!!(marinated in Italian dressing and grilled on the bar-b-que)
Cherry cobbler (made from the cherries I picked this week)
Vanilla ice cream

It's gonna be a good day around here tomorrow!!!

Four days of summer vacation and I'm still alive...

I thought I would die...summer. All the kids are home all the time. AHHHHHHH!!!! So, Sunday night, I came up with a list of jobs that I want done before there is any playing. Each kid has their own chart that they get to check off (side note...except for Malia who came down tonight and said, Mom, I need to do my job. I asked her what her job was and she replied, "eating blueberries." Anyhow, the jobs vary but each child has to do two pages from their workbooks, practice their speech (Jake, Carter, and Bella are all in speech for "r's", read for 20 minutes, clean one room of the house which rotates weekly, clean their room, bruth their teeth, etc. etc. Then, when they're done, they are allowed 45 minutes of the Wii every day. When I was deciding how to enforce this, I decided there would have to be a bribe that would matter to them. For my kids, it's MONEY. They like to have their own money to spend and since we don't live by grandparents any more, they don't get any very often. So, they all get an allowance. The list that I posted a picture of is things that cost them money. They are fined a quarter for each infraction. Surprisingly, IT'S WORKING!!!!!! They are doing great. Jake always has everything done by the time I'm finished with the treadmill in the morning. I also planned some sort of activity for each day so that we're not just sitting around. In the afternoon I always take them swimming at somebody's house so they can burn off any excess energy they might have. We don't have community pools here, but lucky for us, we have plenty of friends who do have pools that are nice enough to share.

Anyway, I learned by day 2 that running errands with all four children is a LESS THAN PRODUCTIVE USE OF TIME. So, I give up. No errands during the day. That saves me gas money and the headache of driving the munchkins around. So, that's my summer schedule. What are the rest of you doing?

Cherries anyone?

This week and last week the kids and I got to go pick cherries at the orchard of a friend of a friend. The cherries were just falling to the ground because they didn't want to pick them. COUNT ME IN! They are Ranier cherries (white cherries) which are a mother's dream...no purple stains all over the kids when they eat them. They are in season right now so they're about $2.50 a pound...and we got them FREE! Some of them I froze for future use...cherry cobbler, cherry jam, etc. and we ate a few bags full of them. A friend of mine said she liked to freeze them on a pan and let the kids snack on them. So, I put a pan in the freezer to have for snacks later. Then I noticed throughout the day, the pan was slowly getting less and less full of cherries...and then the culprit. Carter and Malia. They were "sneaking" cherries all day. Jokes on them...that's what they're for. I just kept refilling the pan and they "sneak" snacks all day! I hope we get to pick peaches in the next couple of weeks...that same orchard has a lot of peaches and nectarines that aren't quite ready yet. Yummmmmm.

Behold...the harvest

Now, this is my first shot at a real garden and it's working! These are pictures of my garden...cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, oranges, apples, and basil. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. We at zucchini for dinner last night from our very own garden. I know you are not nearly as excited as I am...but feast your eyes on these pictures anyway...And, for our summer experience in Fresno, we even got to go pick Ranier cherries at somebody's orchard. They are the white cherries and they are very TASTY! Isn't Fresno great? (As long as you don't mind the heat, that is...)