Firepits, Frozen, and Flames - His & Hers

We thought it might be fun to do a his side/her side kind of thing.


So check it www.firepitsfrozenflames.blogspot.com

Might be entertaining...

Firepits, Frozen, and Flames - Part 6

Silence. No verbal communication. Skiers and snowboarders and wind and noises of the mountain. No speaking.

Silence. I don't mind silence. I think I told him that. Hopefully he doesn't mind it either. I don't think he does. I can't feel the discomfort from him that I feel from others when I remain silent. He doesn't feel the need to fill it up. Silence doesn't need filling.

He suggested they take a break and head up to one of the lodges and see what there was. They left their snowboards down by the lift area and walked quietly, observing their surroundings, lost in thought.

They got up to one of the lodges and there were two firepits with some chairs around them. No one was seated there, probably cause it was cold and the fire didn't do a whole lot since it was windy. They sat down by one of the fires. The fires had the little decorative rocks that she had always called humitrophises. They got really hot and worked really well as hand warmers as they would soon find out.

"Are these those things you wrote about that your sister named when she was little?"

How the freak does he remember this!? It was a tiny paragraph on one of my blog posts last spring from an assignment I had to do for my Beginning Acting class....I only remember cause I wrote it. 

"Ha! Yeah! These are pretty much the same thing! Humitrophis. Haha, that's so funny." She was astonished he remembered such a small detail that she wrote. This whole thing was weird for her....or it should have been, but it wasn't...which made it weird. 

All she knew was that she felt comfortable.

I feel comfortable. It's weird though...it isn't the kind of comfortable I feel with people I've known for a long time, but the kind of comfortable I feel with my dog. Like I know there is no judgement or expectation or assumptions. It's just pure contentment and love. Well that is a weird way to put it...You're a freak. This is weird...or it should be...but it isn't....that's weird. 

Firepits, Frozen, and Flames - Part 5

"She just cares about things that Linds and I never cared about. It's harder for her than it ever was for us."

"Like what kind of stuff? Like is she....I don't know how to ask, like more girly or something?"

"Well thats a given, haha, but that's not what I am talking about now. Like for example, when I was a senior, Linds was a sophomore and Regan was in middle school we all got our ears pierced again. Lindsay and I got our cartilage and Regan got a second hole on her ear lobe. My friends were pretty judgmental but I couldn't have cared less. They said all sorts of stupid condescending things but it did not bother me at all. Regan's friends however, were just as judgmental and probably more vocal about it. It was a lot harder for her to let that go. She is just more sensitive. She's a better person than I am for that, but it makes life harder for her."

It had basically been the best first date she had ever had. They had spent the day alternating between talking as they rode the chairlifts, snowboarding down the mountain, walking down the mountain (it took some quad strength she didn't really have), and taking short breaks and talking as they just sat on the mountain as other skiers and snowboarders passed them.

Though she had just met him officially that morning, she didn't feel it. The conversation was completely comfortable and natural. She felt at ease saying those things her mother would tell her to keep to herself on a first date. It was remarkable.

This is awesome. Seriously. What the??? I don't have to conceal all those things that I would normally conceal until we raise. This is great. I mean this conversation is actually meaningful. I usually don't have meaningful conversation until weeks in. It's only been hours. What the???

Firepits, Frozen, and Flames - Part 4

They were on the chairlift headed up to the top of the bunny hill for what seemed like the millionth run even though they had probably only been 6 or 7 times.

It was a rough first go and she fell kind of *alot*, but by the second run she figured out how to get down the hill without falling. She still had no idea whether she was goofy or regular. She started goofy like she was when she rode her longboard and wakeboard but it felt weird so she switched to regular. It felt good for a run or two but now she switched back and forth down the hill trying to figure it out. But the fact that he was there literally holding her hand didn't hurt either.

"So.....you've probably noticed my concentration face," she said to him referring to the face where she stuck her tongue out the left side of her mouth and curled it upward over her lip.

"Haha, yea I definitely have."

"I do it *alot*. I can't help it. I do it when wakeboarding, playing tennis, learning new chords on my ukulele, reading really intently. Pretty much any time I have to concentrate on doing something well. People will tell me I am doing it and I'll stop but will be back to doing it 45 seconds later without realizing it."

"Maybe you should just go with it and not think so hard about it," he suggested.

"Yeah maybe I'll be able to figure out which foot should go first if I stop thinking about it. Maybe both are fine and I am just that good."
There I go being all humble and stuff. Sheesh. But seriously, I have nothing to prove here. It's this guy in the hot seat. And if he has read my blog he knows how freaking crazy I am right? That is all my blog is...my crazy on display. Clearly there's something wrong....right?....with him if it was my blog that attracted him to me.

Firepits, Frozen, and Flames - Part 3

"So how many siblings do you have?"

They were driving up the canyon to Snowbird where she would attempt snowboarding for the first time with a perfect stranger.
Awwww yeah, this couldn't get any more hilarious. I am in a car, driving to a ski resort with someone who crept on me. And we are having this great small talk. Wait, if he has been reading my blog he probably knows the answers to these questions. Why is he asking me this? Hmmm...
She had borrowed her friends snowboarding gear and was pretty excited to see how it would go.

"Uh...that might sound like a straightforward question, but it isn't. I have 9 siblings; 5 sisters and 4 brothers. But if you had asked me that last summer I would have said 8. How about you?"
Meh, maybe I should have just given the simple answer....oops

"I am an only child," he said to her.

ONLY CHILD?! Uh oh. 
"No one likes an only child."
I definitely said that out loud. Oops. Ah well. I don't have much to prove here. HA!
"I mean I couldn't tell you were an only child so that is great news for you"
...and me...

Firepits, Frozen, and Flames - Part 2

"Snowboarding?!"

"Yeah", she said to her mother. 

"You are going snowboarding with the guy who asked you out on your blog last week?" 

"Yeah.....pretty much."

"Why? You don't snowboard. You don't even like skiing." Her sisters agreed with their mom. 

Pshhh, they think they know me. 

"Ok well that might be true, but I could like snowboarding. I've never been before. Maybe I am a pro and I don't even know."

"So you are going snowboarding on a first date with this kid." Her mom said it skeptically as though she had said they were going shopping for their first date.

"That is the plan," she said. 

She knew they would be astonished. Incredulous even. But whatever, it didn't bother her. She didn't even care. She thought it was brilliant. The whole thing. Completely nuts and completely brilliant.

Firepits, Frozen, and Flames - Part 1

She woke up in the house she grew up in. Christmas break. She was home from college for a month. A glorious month before she started her last semester in Wyoming before studying abroad in Guatemala.

She didn’t feel like getting out of bed yet so she used her phone to check her email. She had heard all the who haw about not sleeping with your cell phone cause it causes cancer and stuff but she occasionally did it anyway. One new email: “New activity on the post “Relationships are like a Poker Game”. 

New activity? Who commented on that? I mean it was a cool post but…hmmm. 

I do not know this person. Ugh…if this is another freaky stranger who feels like they know me cause they read my blog I don't know what I will do. 

And that is how it began.

God guides but does not move

I think that God will guide us but he won't move us.

It must be our feet that carry us forward and His guidance that directs the path that our feet are treading.

We could probably have the faith to move mountains but if we do not use our own bodies to carry us forward, those mountains will remain there.

God cannot move us. That is contrary to the agency he has given us. He can urge, direct, prompt - through the Spirit and through others, but until we put our energy and agency into movement we will stay at rest.

Imagine if everyone began walking with the intent to move forward as God directed the way. Most people are probably either walking without God's direction or not moving at all.

I don't want to be at rest even if I did have the faith to control the elements. I also don't want to move forward on my own path. I want to give my energy into God's will. I will be the movement and He will be the pilot.

Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me

1. 1. Jesus, Savior, pilot me
   Over life's tempestuous sea;
   Unknown waves before me roll,
   Hiding rock and treach'rous shoal.
   Chart and compass came from thee;
   Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
2. 1. 2. As a mother stills her child,
      Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
      Boist'rous waves obey thy will
      When thou say'st to them, "Be still!"
      Wondrous Sov'reign of the sea,
      Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
   2. 1. 3. When at last I near the shore,
         And the fearful breakers roar
         'Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
         Then, while leaning on thy breast,
         May I hear thee say to me,
         "Fear not; I will pilot thee."

"I was such a loser!"

Do you ever look back at stuff you wrote like journals or letters or blog posts and think, "Wow, that's embarrassing. I was such a loser". 

Or maybe you think, "I sound like a crazy person, a lunatic, psychotic."

I had that moment re-reading some of my blog. I really do sound like a lunatic. Then I remember that I am a lunatic and it's pretty much dead on....

On a completely unrelated note...

I'm becoming a redhead on Saturday.

True story.

Bear Lake

I've failed miserably the past few months (cause I decided to have a life) so I apologize.

My fam and I spent New Years up at the cabin in Bear Lake. It was pure joy.

We jumped into the lake on the 31st. This is pre-jump

This one is post-jump

This is where we jumped:

For some reason the videos of us jumping are not working...I'll figure it out laterrr

Here are some more pictures of us post-jump

It was awesome. We had lots of fun. It was cold and you couldn't breathe for a while and then it started to burn....but I don't regret it. 

Other than jumping into the lake we read and watched approximately 1 million movies like:

• Bernie
• Admission
• Mud
• The Amazing Spiderman
• Despicable me 2
• All 3 Chronicles of Narnia
• Ratatouille
• Gladiator
• Dennis the Menace
• Megamind

 We read some books and played some card games. We wrestled (I usually won). Ate lots of food.


It was a great way to begin 2014.

Now to think of my resolutions for 2014....