RANDOM LIFE STORY: NEWSPAPER ROUTE

My friend Hollie tagged me on her blog but I don't have anything interesting to say like she did so here is my version of it. I will fill you guys in on a little job the two of us had: a newspaper route. We were probably 13 years old when we decided this was a good idea. We delivered a free community newspaper (The Davis County Clipper) to two trailer parks in Layton. Yeah, scary. I think we made .5 cents for every paper we delivered and that turned out to be about $25 dollars a month each.

Our first day on the job, the first paper thrown was by Hollie but she was a little over zealous and broke the plastic/glass window on the trailer. That was funny because it took our first paycheck to pay for it. Sad. Well we loathed Thursdays because thats when we had our route. One Thursday in particular we did not want to deliver all 200+ papers so we came up with the idea to throw about 50 of them in the big construction dumpster in her neighborhood. That was a great idea because we finished our route in about 40 minutes! Good idea Hollie.

Anyway, to say the least it was a very interesting first job. It got so interesting in the trashy Layton trailer park that Hollie's cop dad had to come with us, armed one time because the trailer trash hated us. We didn't last too long but it was fun, something to keep us busy, and quite a story for you folks.

LEMONADE STAND

The other day Lindsay, Josh, and I were driving in a very, very nice neighborhood in Holladay. What we found was appalling. Gone are the days of the old school lemonade stand on the side of the road. The lemonade stand we found was stainless steel with a cooler built into it. No homemade parts of any kind. Not even the lemonade! The brat kids whose trust funds are more than I will ever make in ten lifetimes were out there selling cans of Country Time Lemonade. Can you believe it? Not only was this lemonade stand offensive to my childhood and kids' imaginations but there were actually people buying this crap. There were about 5 people waiting to purchase their $2 can of lemonade. Gees.

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY / 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

One year ago today marks the beginning days of my parents leaving for their mission. June 17 was their farewell. That was a good - with mixed emotions - Sunday. They both gave great talks, along with Elder Madsen. We had a great afernoon at home after church with all of the family. Later that week they were set apart at the Church Administration Building by President Packer and Elder Christofferson. Poor Joshie had surgery just the day before plus emotions were so high, it made for a rough but amazing day. Then mom and dad spent one week at the MTC. The day they left for the MTC was so hard. Lucky for me though, I got to visit them everyday because I was here in Provo. We had a lot of good times. Then on June 28 they left us for good for the Washington, Kennewick Mission. Happy 1 year anniversary President and Sister Belnap. Its definitely been a hard year without you here but I know you are where you should be. Only 743 days to go!

Me and momma after their farewell

The day mom and dad left for the MTC

Today also marks the 4 year anniversary of meeting Jessica and Ashton, my college soulmates. Here is a shout out to them. I love you both. Hopefully we can enjoy the next four years just as much!

My besties

RANDOM LIFE STORY: BEAVERS

Yesterday I was outside in Provo Canyon when a huge flashback hit me: Beavers. The smell of beavers was in the air. For the fortunate readers of this blog who are from Kaysville, you will understand what I mean by this. It was mix between home+wet wood+stream+outdoors. Thats what beavers smell like and thats what I smelled yesterday.


For those of you who are lost let me fill you in on a few things. I was raised in Kaysville, UT on a "farm." Behind my house there is a field and on the other side of that field is a beaver farm. Marion Rouche, our neighbor and friend, had the beaver farm which included about 30 small cement houses with 5 to 7 beavers in each of them. Going to visit the beavers, petting them, and feeding them was a very special, important, interesting, and fun part of my childhood. I loved when daddy would take us down there to see the beavers. What kid gets to go play with beavers? Probably not many.

Don't all go getting jealous because you too can visit beavers one day if you are lucky (except for Leslie and Corey because they are lame and don't think it would be fun). Just go to Kaysville and enjoy. Oh, while you are there you should probably go to Grannie's and get a scone and cinnamon roll for the road. They're mo-licous (which means MOre than delicious).

Josh and I had a good time remembering some beaver stories in the car so I decided that I will occasionally post about random stories from my past that are unique, weird, and probably only interesting to me. Enjoy.