For our last spring break of our college careers, we decided that instead of going home we would take the week off and spend it in the sunshine on the beach down in Corpus Christi. The week definitely had it's ups and downs, but it was so nice to forget all our worries and just spend time together. One of my favorite parts was the dolphins. They were everywhere. There was one morning we just sat on the middle of a dock clear out in the bay and watched a dolphin play and swim. Dolphins are such happy little animals! The first two days we were in Corpus there was plenty of sunshine and it was so much fun playing in the water and spending all day on the beach. After that the weather didn't want to cooperate with us and the wind made it almost to miserable to want to be out and about. So instead, we went to the aquarium. It's amazing to me how many different creatures there are and how unique they can all be. From sharks to starfish and seahorses and everything in between, we are so blessed to live in such a beautiful world. With all the bad going on and the stuff on the news about what is wrong with everything it was nice to have some time to just see the beauty that is still here.
Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with what might happen and all the scary possibilities of the future that I forget to just enjoy the present. I wish I was one of those people that can just live carefree with no worry about tomorrow but it's something I really struggle with. I get so caught up in the what if's that sometimes the right now seems to slip away. Last week somehow helped me realize that. No matter what happens, no matter how hard life gets or what it might throw my way, I can still be happy now. I can live a beautiful life and make it through anything as long as I worry about what's important and not what might be, because what might be and what are can be very different. If I'm not happy with how things are, I'm the one that can change it, and a positive attitude makes a world of difference.
Now after my positive attitude spill I have to vent for a minute. Kind of seems like I already defeated my purpose being all happy and all, but sometimes you just need to get things off your chest. And this situation is one that really bothers me. One hard part about our trip was one of the boys that we traveled with. For his sake, we'll call him Bob. He is one of those people that are very full of themselves and always letting people know that they are better then them. He is on the rodeo team here and almost everyone on the team refuses to travel with him any more because of it. Sometimes I honestly feel bad for him because he says he has confidence issues and is only trying to impress people or make people like him, but after twenty years of that not working maybe you should try to just be yourself. So... Allen won't tell him he won't travel with him. He's too good of a person to just leave him out to dry even though he knows he will have to put up with him and it won't be the most pleasant experience. Kind of like a self fulfilled prophecy, it was a rough week with him. Right now he is winning the saddle bronc title for the region, but Allen and and few other guys are right on his tail. From first place to fifth place is within about thirty points of each other so the competition is very intense. Well, Bob always is saying stuff to Allen to put him down about his riding and telling him how he is going to kick his butt (to use nicer terms then he does) and how he will beat him everywhere they go. It doesn't bother Allen near as much as it bothers me or else he just doesn't show it, but it gets to me. It's hard to be nice to someone who treats Allen like that, especially when Allen is one of the only people in this town that is nice to him. So anyways, the first two rodeos we went to at the beginning of the week, Allen was 80 points and 77 points and beat Bob both times. After that all we heard was 'wait till the next rodeo, I have a better horse, I'm riding better, your not going to get lucky again, bla bla bla.' It is not a good thing to want your husbands traveling partners to fall off when they ride, but that's what I was hoping for. I wanted him to lose. I know it makes me a bad person and all, but lets get real, you can't treat people like dirt and expect them to like you. Another thing that bothered me was that the whole week Bob was telling Allen and Josh (the other kid that went with us and his girlfriend Lexie) how no rodeo cowboy should travel with their wives or girlfriends because it was too expensive and not worth it to take them with. For one thing, he went with just me and Allen last week and was saying how much he wished his girlfriend would come more because she doesn't like to go, and after the rodeo he went to a strip club with a bunch of other guys. Not ok. So apparently he only wants a girlfriend around when the world champions aren't around to take him to the club. And another thing. If Allen didn't take me with him I would have seen him exactly one and a half days in the last eighteen days. For us it is absolutely worth the extra money to be able to spend time together. Ok moving on. Allen made the short round back to Austin and at that point Bob was staying with one of his friends in Texas because he didn't want to go to Corpus with us, thank goodness. Well, Bob's friend also made it to the short round so he could have rode the three hours with him, but instead, he really used his head and drove his own car so that Josh and Lexie would ride back from Austin with him to the next rodeo. Let's be smart here. We are already traveling thousands of miles in a week with two vehicles because we can't all fit in one, and instead of using your brain like a normal person to save gas, you decide to drive alone so you can have Josh and Lexie spend more time with you. He was terrified of being alone. Honestly I've never seen anyone but a little girl be that afraid when he didn't know where Josh and Lexie were. Well, Allen rode amazing in Austin. He was 85 points and took second in the round. I am so proud of that man. He has only been riding for four years and to have come as far as he has is just crazy. He has so much talent. That of course made Bob even more determined to beat him the next day, which is good, competition makes you try harder. Unfortunately you have a dancing partner and you can't pick it. Allen's horse the next day was awful and he was only 63 points. Bob was going crazy because he beat Allen and he was so awesome and talked about it all day and night how he did so great. Josh wasn't as lucky. He got bucked off and was having a hard time feeling good about the ride and on the way out to make it worse, Bob was over standing with Toas Muncy (two time world champion saddle bronc rider) and a bunch of other guys who have all been to the NFR. Well, Josh was carrying his saddle to the car and one of his ladigos was dragging. Bob yelled at him across the parking lot "Hey dumb ass! You're dragging your ladigo!" It made Josh feel like crap. Bob's only purpose was to make himself look good in front of all those guys and he was willing to put his friend down in order to do it. That is wrong. You don't do that to your friends. All week we were all supposed to keep track of all of our receipts for gas and hotels and when we got home we were going to see how much everyone owed. Well, even though we all told Bob a few times during the week, he didn't keep his receipts. He did write amounts in his phone, unfortunately the numbers didn't make any sense. He bought a hotel one of the nights and after he paid for it he said it was $65 for the night, well it changed to $71 later that week and when we were figuring expenses it was $68. It's only a few dollars, but if he is adding a few dollars to everything that adds up pretty quick with a few expensive weekends. His smaller car also somehow used $100 more then our car did, and our car went a lot more miles down to Corpus. When it only takes $25 to fill it with gas, that's an unexplained four extra tanks of gas. Josh and Lexie rode with Bob most of the time and almost every time we stopped for gas it was them filling it up, and they had receipts. I feel bad that we even are questioning what he says, but honestly if something is that fishy it's probably not nothing. I just hate that he thinks he can get away with it and thinks he will still have friends after doing that to people. Rodeo isn't just a hobby for Allen at this point, it's a career choice and a business. And you don't do business with people that screw you. I just want to be around when karma bites Bob in the butt because someday it will happen. We're not the only ones who have a problem with him either, last summer he told us that his traveling partners would sometimes "forget" that he went with them to a rodeo and would leave him there, other times they would "forget" to enter him in the rodeos with them so he couldn't go with them. That is pretty low. And I don't doubt for a minute that he didn't deserve it. Which is sad really, I mean, you travel together to help each other out. You can't blame people for not wanting to go with you if these are the kinds of things that happen all the time. I just hope he gets a clue one of these days.
Moving on. I'm over it I just needed to get it out and now I'm done. Back to the positive stuff. One of the days in Corpus we got a boat ride over to a vacant island to check it out. It was neat! We found a ton of sand dollars and seashells all over the place.
There was also turtles swimming up by the shore and tons of dolphins, it was such a crazy thing to see so many even though there was people and boats all over.
On our way out of Austin we stopped to grab a bite to eat and as we were leaving Lexie noticed a girl not much younger than me sitting in the corner of the place with a cardboard sign saying she needed help. I didn't think much of it because there were homeless people every where in Austin and I've always just thought people like that kind of take advantage of the kindness of others and if they really wanted out of their situation they would find a way, and it was probably their fault they were there anyway because of bad choices. Lexie is different. She wanted to help every one we say and felt so bad for them and just kept saying how she wished she could help them. Lexie was determined that we were going to help this girl even if it was something small. We had some left over snacks and a couple bottles of water that we took over to the girl, and I'm glad we did. She was so grateful and started crying and said God bless. It really took me back that she was so appreciative. It was a good reminder for me that it is not our place to judge and we don't know the battles that people are facing. Lexie had said that God would want us to help that girl and that if we believed in Him we would show it in our actions not just our words. I am extremely blessed to have a friend with such a pure heart. We were also able to talk a little about our beliefs. I love being able to talk about that because I feel like so many people have this stereotype about "Mormons". To let them see that we believe in Jesus Christ, that we believe in the Bible and have so many common beliefs and that it's not the crazy religion people make it sound like. It was really neat talking to them about religion, at one point they were telling us about the different churches they had visited and how at some there was just an empty feeling and others there was a feeling that God was definitely there. I was thinking, if you would only come visit my church! The feeling there is like no other!! I hope someday they will come with us.
Overall it was a great week!! The bad times were bad but the good times were great. We are some of the most blessed people alive. We are young and don't have much, but we still find a way to do all the things we could ever want to. Allen is able to rodeo and chase his dreams without having anything hold him back, and I get to go with! We have some of the most amazing friends anyone could ask for, families that support and love us no matter what, and a loving God who blesses us more than we could ever deserve. And on top of it all, I get to spend eternity with Allen. I find myself complaining a lot, and this week I am making it a point from here on out to change that. I will have challenges, bad days, and who knows what else, but I have so much more to be happy about then to complain about, its just easier to complain but not anymore. Wish me luck, because it's not going to be an easy change. I hope some of you will choose to do the same. By being happy ourselves we can make the world a happier place, one smile at a time!!
