Monday, May 13, 2013
Two Years
Two years ago I made the best decision of my life and tied the knot with an amazing man. It's hard to believe it's already been two years. And to top it off, we are moving home this week!! Life couldn't be better!
Monday, April 29, 2013
And The Winner Is.....
First of all, I just want to say how proud I am of Allen. He has come extremely far with his talents already and he gets better and better. This weekend was a little intense for sure, the team needed to do well to try and get back in the first place spot after a rough weekend last week at Hays, not to mention Allen personally trying to win the region title with one kid (Dalton) right behind him. The first round in the rodeo went really good. There were seven bronc riders from our school who all made good rides and were going to make it back in the short round. Allen scored a 79, same as Dalton. Joe, our all-around competitor also made it back in the bull riding, steer wrestling, and calf roping so things were looking really good for the team. Our team and the Fort Scott, Kansas team have been going back and forth leading the region all season long, and in Hays we had a terrible weekend and they did outstanding. We were about 300 points behind so everyone needed to do their best to get ahead.
To beat Allen, Dalton needed to win the short round and the average of the rodeo and Allen would have to get bucked off. Well, the first few bronc riders all were doing well, two 78 point rides, a few in the lower 70's and Allen was up. I was so nervous! I have noticed though that my nervousness has changed from being worried that he will get hurt or bucked off, into being worried he won't win. Anyways, his horse was one that you could be in the high 80's if he had a good trip, or he could be really hard to ride and throw you in the dirt. About the third jump out, Allen looked like he might get bucked off, but he made a good recovery and made another 79 point ride! He ended up winning the round, winning the average, and winning the Central Plains Region title!! I was so glad I got to be there watching him accomplish one of his major goals for the year. I am one proud wife. He is pretty amazing at what he does.
The men's team ended up winning the rodeo, but they were too far behind to catch up to Fort Scott and took second in the region as a team by around 100 points.
Some of our good friends, Chaney and Tyrel. We are going to miss them. Three more weeks and we are done! Then it's on to Casper!!
To beat Allen, Dalton needed to win the short round and the average of the rodeo and Allen would have to get bucked off. Well, the first few bronc riders all were doing well, two 78 point rides, a few in the lower 70's and Allen was up. I was so nervous! I have noticed though that my nervousness has changed from being worried that he will get hurt or bucked off, into being worried he won't win. Anyways, his horse was one that you could be in the high 80's if he had a good trip, or he could be really hard to ride and throw you in the dirt. About the third jump out, Allen looked like he might get bucked off, but he made a good recovery and made another 79 point ride! He ended up winning the round, winning the average, and winning the Central Plains Region title!! I was so glad I got to be there watching him accomplish one of his major goals for the year. I am one proud wife. He is pretty amazing at what he does.
The men's team ended up winning the rodeo, but they were too far behind to catch up to Fort Scott and took second in the region as a team by around 100 points.
He also won his first saddle for winning the region. He's pretty awesome :)
We had a crazy storm come in on Friday. It was gorgeous and then a minute later it was pouring rain. The streets were like rivers it was really cool to see. The weather is pretty bipolar around here. It went from 40 degrees to 90 in four days.
Look at the waterfall coming off the stairs. This was after it stopped raining hard.
We also went glow in the dark golfing. Best thing ever. If you haven't gone, go. It was a ton of fun.
Some of our good friends, Chaney and Tyrel. We are going to miss them. Three more weeks and we are done! Then it's on to Casper!!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Here's the Scoop
I've been slacking in the whole blogging world, but I finally have a few minutes to catch up on the last few weeks. It seems like every time we get home we unpack, repack and are gone again. The last few weekends we've been at college rodeos, and Allen has been doing really good. He won the average at the Weatherford, Oklahoma college rodeo and won this snazzy little thing.
I have been showing it off for him! He also did pretty good at the rodeo in Hays, Kansas last weekend, good enough to keep him ranked number one in our region with one more rodeo to go. This weekend is the last one, and its at home. I'm not even competing but it's nerve racking because I want him to win so bad. The worst he can do at this point is second place, so he is guaranteed a spot at the college finals in June. What a stud! I never imagined this would be my lifestyle. But it sure is a blessing.
The other day I got a surprise package in the mail from my family, it was just what I needed! We don't have long til we're back home but I'm trying to enjoy the time we have left here. They sent me a package full of 'sunshine' that looked like this
I was talking to my sister the other day and she was telling me about my nephew Kade. He is the cutest little bugger :) Anyway, I guess he goes around the house riding his horses sayin, "buck me off horse!!" I'm guessing he gets that from hearing about Allen ride and I love it! I'm excited to see all the nieces and nephews again. They're so much fun and so stinkin cute! I got this picture of my nephew Porter winking at me the other day and it makes me laugh every time :)
HAHA he's gonna be a ladies man for sure!
Pretty good looking bunch, and that's only half of them. Speaking of good looking, this is the result of Mustache March at our house....
With a little help from mascara so you can see it :) This kid.... He makes me laugh :) Well, it's rodeo time boys. Hopefully next time I'll be updating about my region champion sexy husband.. Keep your fingers crossed!
I have been showing it off for him! He also did pretty good at the rodeo in Hays, Kansas last weekend, good enough to keep him ranked number one in our region with one more rodeo to go. This weekend is the last one, and its at home. I'm not even competing but it's nerve racking because I want him to win so bad. The worst he can do at this point is second place, so he is guaranteed a spot at the college finals in June. What a stud! I never imagined this would be my lifestyle. But it sure is a blessing.
The other day I got a surprise package in the mail from my family, it was just what I needed! We don't have long til we're back home but I'm trying to enjoy the time we have left here. They sent me a package full of 'sunshine' that looked like this
This is a count down chain til we come home!
I was talking to my sister the other day and she was telling me about my nephew Kade. He is the cutest little bugger :) Anyway, I guess he goes around the house riding his horses sayin, "buck me off horse!!" I'm guessing he gets that from hearing about Allen ride and I love it! I'm excited to see all the nieces and nephews again. They're so much fun and so stinkin cute! I got this picture of my nephew Porter winking at me the other day and it makes me laugh every time :)
HAHA he's gonna be a ladies man for sure!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Homesick
The closer we get to the end of the school year the more I miss home. All I want to do is be home again with my family and friends and it seems like it will never get here. The other night after talking to some of my family I lost it and cried for an hour. Poor Allen didn't know what to do with me. I know we were here for a reason and we were meant to be here, and I'm not sure if we've fulfilled that purpose or not completely but there is nothing I want more than to get back home. I know in a couple weeks or so of being home I'll start missing the people here and wishing we were back, but home is where we belong. This is the first semester we haven't been able to go home and I didn't think it would affect me like it has. I normally don't get homesick and I am fine, but holy cow. Another thing I have been really struggling with has been keeping my thoughts positive. It's making me crazy because I've been working so hard on having a good attitude. I've never had a huge problem with being negative until the last couple weeks and it feels like its an actual struggle not to let stupid things bother me. I'll be honest I felt a ton better after reading my brother in law's sisters blog, she just moved to Kansas a few months ago and guess what she blogged a couple days ago..... "One thing I've noticed here in our new land is my battle between negative and positive thoughts. It is ongoing, and it affects every day. Hoping to come off victor!" Not that I'm glad she's having the same problem, I just know what a cheerful person she is and knowing that someone like that can struggle with it too makes me feel more normal. To top things off the last week I've been having dreams about family and friends from home almost every night. And then I wake up still in Oklahoma. There are 45 days until graduation. I can make it 45 days.
Just to clarify, I am glad we moved out here. Allen and I both felt like this is where we needed to be and things worked out perfectly to get us here so I don't regret leaving home. It has strengthened our relationship and helped build a foundation for our marriage and I'm grateful for that. We have made some amazing friends and been blessed beyond what we deserve. As an example, the other day we were going over some of our finances. I have been working for the school part time but besides what Allen wins at rodeos that's the only job either of us have. On a good week, I'll get somewhere between 15 and 20 hours in for minimum wage which amounts to just under $1000 since December. Allen has won around $3000 so far this year, but when we were going over our finances somehow we have had about double that since the beginning of the year. That is amazing. I'm not sharing this because I want to brag or show off, it's really personal information that I normally would keep to myself, but I just know we are being taken care of by our Heavenly Father. I don't know how to describe the love I feel from my Heavenly Father. I don't deserve it but He blesses us more than I could ever imagine, and it's sad to think that most of the time we don't even notice or pay attention to the things He does for us. One of the biggest blessings right now is comfort. When I am homesick or feeling alone I always have His comfort. He makes me strong.
This seems like a very drama filled post, so to end on a positive note:
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
"Enjoy every single moment. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the inspiring, the not-so-glamerous moments and THANK GOD THROUGH IT ALL!"
Just to clarify, I am glad we moved out here. Allen and I both felt like this is where we needed to be and things worked out perfectly to get us here so I don't regret leaving home. It has strengthened our relationship and helped build a foundation for our marriage and I'm grateful for that. We have made some amazing friends and been blessed beyond what we deserve. As an example, the other day we were going over some of our finances. I have been working for the school part time but besides what Allen wins at rodeos that's the only job either of us have. On a good week, I'll get somewhere between 15 and 20 hours in for minimum wage which amounts to just under $1000 since December. Allen has won around $3000 so far this year, but when we were going over our finances somehow we have had about double that since the beginning of the year. That is amazing. I'm not sharing this because I want to brag or show off, it's really personal information that I normally would keep to myself, but I just know we are being taken care of by our Heavenly Father. I don't know how to describe the love I feel from my Heavenly Father. I don't deserve it but He blesses us more than I could ever imagine, and it's sad to think that most of the time we don't even notice or pay attention to the things He does for us. One of the biggest blessings right now is comfort. When I am homesick or feeling alone I always have His comfort. He makes me strong.
This seems like a very drama filled post, so to end on a positive note:
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
"Enjoy every single moment. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the inspiring, the not-so-glamerous moments and THANK GOD THROUGH IT ALL!"
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| I never realized how beautiful Utah was until I left. |
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| Love these girls, I never knew I would grow up living with some of my best friends! |
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| Love Oklahoma sunsets, it will definitely be something I will miss!! |
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
SPRING BREAK
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!!
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!!
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