1:30 church...

Today my ward switches to 1:30 meetings. We had 9 am meetings this last year, and I was looking forward to 9:30 or 1:00 church but alas, did not happen. This makes 3 times in the last 4 years that I've had 1:30 church- I'm not really happy about it. But that's life- and it does provide me with an opportunity that has probably gone unappreciated until now: free time. Time in the morning that's free of other obligations, of a desire to be entertained, of social gatherings, among other things. I suppose I mostly just slept and ate and did nothing with this time the last few times I had afternoon church, but I think I might like it a bit better this time around.

For example. I got online today and read some blog entries of various friends. I'm always impressed with people who update regularly. I (as you can tell) do not maintain any sort of regularity in my online communications. In fact when I thought "Hmm, I have tons of time. Maybe I should write a blog entry; it's been a while." the site confirmed that I hadn't posted anything since the end of April. Woops. It's not that nothing has happened this summer. And it's not that I haven't had time to put out some e-mails or blog posts. It seems though whenever I have down time lately I just am not interested in writing a blog or anything productive. But today I discovered that I have tons of time and lots of good thing I can do with it (such as blog, or read my grandpas' biographies, or read the church lessons, or finish that cross stitch I started forever ago... ) and I don't feel like there's other things I want to be doing instead.

So, since I have the time, I think I'll run though a brief update of some interesting things since April...

• I finished substitute teaching. At least for a while. It was really easy, and pretty good pay and a great schedule. I'm glad to be done with it.
• I got a student teaching position at the Logan High School Seminary. I've spent the bulk of my time this summer preparing for this. It's been lots of reading and I'm starting to go crazy trying to spend 4-5 hours a day in an office studying. I didn't even study that long each day during school... It's quite a new experience for my brain, and some days it doesn't handle it so well. But, I start teaching this week! I'm freaking out a bit. It'll be nice to be teaching instead of just studying though. Hmm, I need to make a plan for my first day...
• I went to the grand canyon over my birthday with Halley and friends. It was fun. The north rim is a very different place than the south. Much more green. I think I'll post more about this one later.
• I went backpacking to White Pine with Tia, Halley, Chelsea, and Abby. (Tia: my roommate, others: friends in my ward) It was my first time to White Pine, and I was not disappointed. It was beautiful! It was a pretty easy hike too, so bring your kids and we'll go hiking.
• We went on a 'hike' the other day to Old Ephriam's grave. He was a giant (9' 11") bear that was trapped and killed up Logan Canyon. His skull is at the Smithsonian. I say 'hike' cuz we actually drove up to the memorial marker, then hiked up a riverbed for a bit. So it was really more of a drive than a hike, but it was fun!
• We dressed up like cowboys and played BANG! (a cowboy card game) We even made chili and home made rootbeer last time. It was great.
• Played with family and friends a lot.
• Went wake boarding and didn't feel like I got run over by a truck after. I'm getting kinda decent at it. Wake boarding and snow boarding are about the same deal for me, I do it about once a year at ward activities.
• Watched Tia make pickles from start to finish while I wrote this blog and did other things. 

So,  that's about it. It's been a good summer. Not quite what I was expecting, but that's ok. Now onto the next adventure: Seminary teaching and 1:30 church.