Brian Reganism

It's official. My family has been indoctrinated with Brian Regan. They have not just been indoctrinated, they have been inculcated. We have watched the Brian Regan video twice already and my Dad wants to watch it again tonight or tomorrow. I love it! The first time we showed it, we showed it to just our immediate cousins and some aunts and uncles. The second time, we showed it to our second, and third cousins. The best part about that showing was that we had all these adults who were in their eighties coming in to watch because the laughter was so loud. We started watching it with about 15 people and ended with 35. It was wonderful. During our big family show, my Uncle used a Brian Regan quote. Yes, ladies and gentleman, it has begun. Brian Regan is the man.

What a week!

I have had an incredible week! I left on Monday for three family reunions. The first was my grandparents and their children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren. We went horseback riding through the mountains the first day. The second day we went four-wheeling through the mountains. It was so gorgeous. The mountains are amazing. We are staying at a lodge in the mountains. The river is right by the lodge. We have a swimming pool that is fed by a stream. The water isn't too cold. :) We have a volleyball court and wheeping willows in the front yard. It's just beautiful. The second night there we had a campfire, roasted smores, told stories and wrote songs together. The next night Caitie and I decided to sleep outside. It wasn't too cold. The stars were the prettiest I've ever seen. I think we saw ten shooting stars.

Something I've really come to appreciate is how amazing my family is. We had an 80th birthday party for my Grandpa one night. Every family came up with their own tribute to him. We talked about memories and lessons they have learned from Grandpa. One of the coolest stories I've ever heard about him was when my Aunt Denice was moving from her Orem apartment and Uncle Scott had the U-haul out on the yard in front. This old lady came up to Grandpa and yelled, "You old oaf! Didn't you teach your children manners? Get this U-haul off my property or I'll call the police!" My Uncle Scott didn't like her talking to Grandpa like that so he began trying to reason with her. She again threatened to call the police and Uncle Scott gave her permission to do so. She went inside and started dialing the cops. What she didn't realize though, was that Grandpa was in the same room and had unplugged the phone so she couldn't make any calls. She couldn't figure out why the phone wouldn't work. She ended up going to a neighbors house and calling. The police told her to cool down and not worry about it. Oh man! Such an awesome story.

My Grandpa went to BYU and played basketball and football for them. He was the Sophomore class president. He was in the marines. He went on a mission to France-which is where he met my Grandma. President Benson was interviewing Grandma and called her to the France mission. She was too young to go... but he called her anyway. Such a miracle. The Gardner family is a family of miracles, I've decided. We are so blessed.

Tonight we begin the Stokes family reunion. That is the reunion with my Grandma and her siblings/their children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren/great-great-grandchildren. This one is pretty huge! We'll probably have a family history night. We'll play with our second,third, and fourth cousins.

Monday and Tuesday we will have a reunion with just my immediate family. That's the one I get really excited about. I really do have an amazing family. We're going wave-running at bear lake. We'll have a campfire at night. We'll sing songs, play games, tell jokes, play with children and, as is tradition at any family reunion, have a ton of food. :)

My twin - the panda

I have been the recipient of two black eyes in about as many months. Both of them happened while playing basketball. The first was when I was going up for a rebound while playing with some pretty big guys. I jumped up as one of those 'pretty big guys' was coming down. His elbow hit me square in the eye. Ouch! yes... I cried. But, he didn't know that. He also didn't see the eye. I only got sympathy from my wonderful roommates. :) They're very good at giving sympathy. :)

The second black eye happened on Monday. I was playing water basketball with two boys and my roommate Debi. I had the ball. I saw my hometeachers' hand coming and moved the ball out of the way. Karate chop to the eye! Ouch!!!!! Even more Ouch!!! than the last one. I didn't cry for this one. And my hometeacher definitely noticed. He felt so bad! He has given me more hugs in the last two days than the last 9 months combined.

We went out for dinner at IHOP last night. My hometeacher came. When you leave the restaurant, there are stuffed animals on a shelf. My hometeacher grabbed a panda bear off the shelf and said he was really a polar bear that had been playing a little too rough in the water. "How true that is!"

It's in my jeans!

I have inherited many traits from both sides of my family. From my father, I got my brown eyes and thick brown hair. I got my Dad's nose... just on a smaller scale. I got my Dad's smile-dimple included. From my Mom, I got my legs and arms. I got my Mom's feet. I got my Mom's talent for singing. I got my Mom's talent for typing really quickly. I think I'm a pretty good mixture of both.

Something I didn't anticipate was something else that's in my jeans (there's a reason I'm spelling it that way!). I think I inherited this one from my sister.

A couple weeks ago, we went to FHE and played football. Caitie was trying to describe a jump kick to someone and ended up showing them exactly what it was. I'm not sure what happened, but all of a sudden, I saw Caitie crouched down yelling, "Sweatshirt! I need a sweatshirt!" There was laughter all around. There was one boy blushing completely on the sidelines. Caitie had ripped her pants all the way from the zipper down to just above her knee. We ran to give her a sweatshirt and she went home to change her clothes. Funny story huh? Wait... it gets funnier.

So last week, I went camping with a bunch of my friends. All of whom knew the incident with Caitie. I was wearing jeans that were pretty worn out. We were playing volleyball and the ball came to my side. I knew it was for me! I dove... as I hit the ground, there was a splitting sound. I quickly looked down to find my jeans matched my sister's from the week before. It wasn't quite as large a tear, but definitely too big to walk around. "Sweatshirt! I need a sweatshirt!" I yelled. My friends busted up.

So when I tell people what I've inherited from my family as far as physical traits go... It's not just genetics... it's in my jeans.

My two left feet

I am currently taking a country western social dance class with four of my five roomates-Caitie being the only one excluded. Caitie is on the ballroom dance team and UVSC and has class during the time of our class. We miss her a lot.

There is a rule in the class that you are not allowed to wear flip-flops or be bare-foot. If you do either of those, you are counted as absent. On Monday, I decided to wear flip-flops to school. I was prepared for dance class though; I brought a different pair of shoes for dance to put on before class started.

After my roomates came and we gave hugs and kisses all around (among the roomates, of course!), it was time for me to put on my shoes. I pulled them out of my bag. Yep... they're both there. They're both brown. Umm... uh oh. One shoe has laces and the other doesn't. That will look funny, I thought. Then, I realized I brought two left shoes. I burst into laughter-as did my roomates. I put them on. It looked like my right foot was severely disjointed.

At first, I thought I would be clever and tell the boys if I danced funny, it's because I had two left feet that day. I proceeded to tell them the story of what happened that day. However, after about two dance partners, the boys started asking me how my two left feet were. So I asked the boys how they knew! Was it really that obvious? Or was it a joke? Apparently, my roomate Cassidy just in front of me in line told them all the embarrassing truth.. I really did have two left feet. Oh the joys of dancing!

A phenomenal up and down day

Yesterday I woke up groggy and sunburned. Granted-I'm not nearly as sunburned as Caitie or Ted-but it's still a bit painful (especially my scalp). I went to church and the floodgates opened. We had fast and testimony meeting first. I really think 75% of those testimonies were testimonies I needed to hear. It was a powerful meeting. The main focus was the Savior. That's where the power came. Whenever anyone testifies of our Savior, the spirit is there in abundance. It's amazing.

The next meeting was Relief Society. Caitie taught. She taught about missionary work. When the scripture came up about how much joy we'll have in the kingdom if we bring but one soul unto Christ, one girl talked about her dad being the only member in his family, but because he is a member, generations into the future will be blessed with the gospel. I thought of my Mom. What a powerful example. I am so grateful for the missionaries who brought the gospel to my Mom's family. That one missionary has brought literally hundreds maybe thousands of missionaries all over the world into the Church.

The next meeting was Sunday school. Brandon taught Sunday School. He's a great teacher. We learned about Samson and how the people kept turning their back on the Lord and then they would repent and have the spirit and the cycle continued on. Great lesson. :)

I walked home and checked my email. There was a letter from Rob. "Exciting News" was the subject. I knew what it was before I opened it. Her name is Emily, she's 20, she's a ball of fun and energy and his family adores her. My initial response was genuine excitement and happiness for them. About ten minutes later it really hit me. I cried for about an hour. I wrote part of a song. I wrote a poem. I cried some more. I prayed. I am again genuinely happy for them. They will be a wonderful couple. It just wasn't right for Rob and me to be together. The Lord helped me with that. I'm so grateful.

I took a much-needed nap and then ate ice cream with my roomates. They made me laugh-like they always do. I prepared a spiritual thought for ward prayer. I talked to my parents on the phone. They always inspire me. Ted came over and we went to the UPC to have a meeting and get ready for ward choir practice. We talked about the pioneer fireside. We jammed on the piano. We sang. Ward chior practice started. We had at least 25 people there. I smiled the entire time. Ted is an incredible director. The fun and excitement of music is there and people are attracted to that. Enthusiasm is a powerful draw and Ted has that in abundance.

After choir, Ted, Rachel and her boyfriend Rob all wanted to jam. We all played and sang for a little while and then Rachel and I wanted to talk. Ted and Rob gave us great background music while we talked about life and relationships and spiritual experiences we've had. I cried. She cried. The Lord is so good to us. She challenged me to not be afraid to take risks. I'm going to take a risk. I need to be ready to open myself up to relationships again. I think I'm ready. My friend Scott challenged me to go on a date this week. I'm going to do it. I'm ready. What a day. What a wonderful, up and down day. Those are needed sometimes. :) Life is great!