Monday, March 26, 2012

He, She, and We




He is simple. In a crowd, he is indiscernible as much by choice as by stature. He is a jack of many trades with the intent to master at least some. He is a teacher who is often found being taught. A long way from home, he is getting there, step by step, day by day. He is optimistic, patient, hopeful, and happy.

She is graceful, elegant by definition. A drive for constant, incremental improvement often puts her on the edge of unknown places and unfamiliar experiences.
She is courageous. She is beautifully simple, and simply beautiful. The qualities of kindness, gentleness, honesty, trust, humor, dignity, and love all find new meaning in her demeanor. She is choice.

We are together. Stretching, growing, learning, experiencing, becoming. We'll be there soon!


05.12.2012






Friday, February 26, 2010

Product Label for Master Teachers

Active Ingredients
Knowledge 10%
Desire 20%
Experience 30%
Love 40%

Uses for the meaningful relief of teenage pain due to:
Depression/anxiety
Family strain
Physical and mental disabilities
Relationship difficulties
Low sel-esteem
Identity crises
Hormone imbalances
Past experiences
Unmet goals
Unfulfilled potential

Warnings
When using this product avoid laziness and sloth. If conditions do occur, refine and change repeatedly until the effects of such adjectives no longer persist. Stop and ask for help if condition worsens. Keep within reach of all children, teenagers, and adults.

Directions
Take only as prescribed by a competent academic professional. Any misuse or abuse of product may result in a teacher’s tears, fears, worries, stress, frustrations, depressions and insomnia. If any of these problems persist for longer than 3 days, consult with the product privately. Ask your doctor if you have allergies to hard work, optimism, honesty, or hope.

This product is determined by effectiveness, not by weight, size, color, or gender.

Product may contain trace amounts of peanuts.

Monday, December 14, 2009

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

When I arrived at the Madsen recital hall for my stake music fireside, I noticed Lawanna sitting alone at the end of the row. I didn't know her then, but she will always be hard to forget.

Halfway through the musical fireside, Lawanna was asked to bear her testimony. This is a summary of the experience she told.

Lawanna joined the church a couple years ago thinking that her life trials would end on her baptism day. Of course they didn't and in some ways even increased in intensity. Bitterness crept into her heart as she began to push away the very people that could help her. In one of her dark moments, she offered up the sincere feelings of her heart in prayer. She needed help with her trials and she needed them immediately.

Lawanna was diagnosed with cancer and began undergoing chemo therapy. Somehow, her roommate convinced her to go to the BYU vs. U of U football game a couple weeks ago even though she didn't really want to. When she got to the game, she discovered that her seats were in the "old folks" section which apparently have just as much "Max Hall team spirit" as the young and spry college students.

At the game she began talking to the couple sitting next to her. Their conversation turned to the church (they were all members) and soon she discovered the the woman sitting next to her was diagnosed with the exact same cancer as she was. Awhile into the conversation the man pulled out of his pocket a business card showing her that he was the vice president of the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the U of U. He explained to her that if she would stick with the church, he would take care of her treatments. With financial and insurance concerns, this was a welcome deal. She now has the greatest support she could ever wish for and her prayer was answered.

This Christmastime, some of the greatest gifts we will be receiving and giving will not be found under the tree.

Merry Christmas!

Friday, November 20, 2009

The Last 5 Months in Prepositions

*Disclaimer: Please don't show this to my English teacher.

Since my MTC career ended...

(Quitting the MTC)





Above the stratosphere...


(Hiking Timpanogos)




On top of my innocent car...



(Practical joke by a friend)




Among 14 year old hormones...

(Teaching at Springville Junior High)




Behind a good Halloween idea...


(Dressing up as facebook for Halloween)




Against the law...



(Group date started here, we ended up getting kicked out)




With good friends...


(My good friend, Tyler Cima, got married in November)




At the breaking point...



(PRAXIS test, getting ready for students teaching, growing pains, etc.)




After a 5-4 shootout...



(We won a tournament game in a shootout!)



...Nothing but net!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

How's Your Week?

When your week feels kind of like this...



What do you do? All you can do is hope that the dips aren't too deep, the corners aren't too sharp, and no one's following too closely behind.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

What I've Done, But Haven't Told You About

My blog in the past few months has been....struggling. At first I blamed it on my largely bathetic lifestyle even though that never really stopped me before. I mean, who else could dedicate an entire blog post on a Norwegian troll? (Where is it, by the way?)

So, in effort to reconnect with my faithful and starving blogging audience, here is my penance to you. Below are a couple anecdotes from the last five months of my life, complete with rusty wit, unpracticed sarcasm, and a little taste of Tadd.

Did anyone tell you about...? - For me, moving apartments is about as fun, exciting and rewarding as watching three weeks worth of Michael Jackson on CNN. For those of you who are Michael Jackson fans, just think about how you would feel if John Denver got the same amount of media coverage for his untimely death. Get it? Well, after a fair amount of searching, we signed contracts at the Le Grande apartments (better known as the “La Grunge” apartments for obvious reasons). Eric, the previous tenant, was very nice and diplomatically took it upon himself to break us in to the new complex. “Did anyone ever tell you about the boy problem?” Luckily, the apartment manager did inform us of the reality that there were actually three boys for every girl in the ward, a near impossibility at BYU. A few minutes later, Eric said again, “Did anyone ever tell you about the dishwasher problem?” This one caught us unaware. On the door of the dishwasher was a handmade sign that said something to the effect, “Do not open or you will die.” Apparently anthrax and its closest relatives had invited itself to cultivate the inside of our dishwasher. Lastly, Eric asked, “Did anyone ever tell you about the bird problem?” At this point I either wanted to shove Eric out the door and suffer an ignorant fate or cancel my contract with the apartment manager on the way to getting detoxified from exposure to rare and threatening spores.

As it turned out the “bird problem” was really just a code for naturally occurring 4 am alarm clock complete with “window dressings” that conveniently reminded us that the birds were still in business.

Man vs. Wild, Provo Edition - Right after I moved into my new third story apartment, my roommates and I put in a homely garden complete with nine small tomato plants. After only a few days, we noticed that instead of getting bigger, our plants were actually getting smaller, by the chunk. We blamed everyone but ourselves for the reason behind this new discovery including the girls in our ward who were growing a rival garden. One glance out the bedroom window, however, told us exactly who the perpetrators were. Our friendly birds had carefully hung our tomato plant out of their rain gutter nest so it was in plain view from our window as if to say, “we killed your tomato plants and want you to know it!” Their snooty arrogance was quickly met with vengeance and a large broomstick.

We had a little remorse.

There was no more “bird problem.”

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Jimmimmimmimmy!

Today I am officially the only male in my family under 30 years old! That means today Jimmy officially turns 30! Happy birthday Jimmy!

Although I’m pretty sure he destroyed some of my favorite Hot Wheel cars with his BB gun, I still love him. He has been a wonderful example and a good friend to me. Jimmy lives so closely to the ideals and values he cherishes. He epitomizes gospel living.

The night before Brad’s farewell, the boy cousins and I had a little fun with Jimmy. Naturally, all of the Farmer kids were kicked out of our rooms to make room for the aunts and uncles to sleep. The boy cousins and I were placed in the same room with Jimmy to sleep the night away. While Jimmy was sleeping, we had a competition to see how many snack food items we could fit in Jimmy’s mouth, ears, and nose before he woke up. To this day, I don’t know if it was the pretzel in the ear or the peanut in the nose that roused him awake.

Fast forward about ten years to another farewell time, this time it was mine. I remember being in the car with Jimmy a few days before I left on my mission. He asked me several questions about how I was feeling and he shared some simple experiences from his mission that really calmed my fears. I really felt greater excitement and less uncertainty from my conversation with him. That’s the kind of brother Jimmy has always been.

Happy birthday Jim! I love you!

P.S. (Can you “P.S.” on a blog?) I don’t have any embarrassing pics of Jimmy. I thought about just posting a pic of me since we look so much alike but I decided against it.