At least it hasn't been 12 days...

Whoops! I don't know what happened there. One moment I'm chugging along updating my blog once and week and 11 days later I'm finally updating it again. My bad.


That last time I left you was during the middle of the Oklahoma State v Colorado game. Oklahoma State ended up remove Cate, the second stringer, and replaced him with Weeden, third stringer. Weeden played very well and carried us through the game and to a 31-28 win. Go State! Robinson never played in that game and that kind of left a sour taste in my mouth and definitely did not make confident about the upcoming games. Well my prediction played out and OSU was smashed into tiny little pieces by OU. 27-0. There are truly no words that could describe my emotions through that game.


And now, I'll take you through the riveting journey that has been since that Thursday night the 19th.


Friday 20th
Friday started out pretty normal and did in the usual weekend way. Natalie and Jacob were still in New Orleans so I traveled up I-35 in Walter, the bad boy, and spent the night there with Polly. Polly was not scared, nor alone, as she had had consent visits from Matt and Liz next door. Thankfully, this left me with a very small mess to clean up. A few scraps of cloth. That night, I discovered the internet was permanently down at the Hurst and so I spent a peaceful night watching Psych and reading.


Saturday 21st
I was awoken to a delightful little package Polly, the monster, had left for me. After cleaning up, I laid on the coach followed the football games on my iPhone and watched Gilmore Girls season eight backwards. That is, I started with the last disc and worked my way back. I, sadly, got through all the disc but the last two. That is okay as I do enjoy the witty dialogue and the good sense of humor. That night was the adult session of Stake Conference and so Walter, the bad boy, and I traveled back down I-35 for the two hour meeting and then returned back up I-35. 


Sunday 22nd
I, once again, awoke to a package from Polly. I, quickly, got up, showered, and dressed myself before I once again traveled down I-35 with Walter, the bad boy, for the rest of Stake Conference. Leaving Polly was slightly sad as she howled(barked/made audible noises) at me as I left. Sorry Polly! I got back to Norman with time enough to spare a quick trip to my apartment to check my email and the scores from the night before. I then picked up Lena Tenney and Corey Hokanson and we made it to our metting on time. Unfortunately for Lena, Corey and I were to be sustained to the office of an Elder and were thus required to sit up front. I will be ordained in Stansbury on the 27th of December. I dropped those two back off before I retired back to my room to prepare for the coming week and waste some time. Natalie and Jacob eventually returned to Norman where we switched Stanley for Walter, the bad boy, and once again Walter, the bad boy, was on his way to Stillwater.


Monday 23rd
A usual Monday filled with grogginess and slight panic in Civil Procedure. You see, Civil Procedure is my Achilles heel. It is truly the only class I'm worried about in relation to finals. Nothing bad happened that day in Civil Procedure but it did in Contracts. I was called on in Contracts and although I had read the case I wasn't fully prepared. I feel like I did okay but I did make myself feel like an idiot for not knowing all the answers. Such is life. That night was FHE and I ducked out a bit early to get ahead start on a quick trip to Wal-Mart and avoid having to put a skit on. Go Me!


Tuesday 24th
Much like Monday, Tuesday felt a bit over crowed but this was due to my Torts professor. Professor Tabb decided that we would hold extra classes on Monday and Tuesday so we could use next weeks classes for review. Although a good plan now it did place some extra preparation burden on us. I redeemed myself in Contracts that day by volunteering and giving satisfactory answers. After classes were over I returned home to find one suite-mate on his way to Colorado, another lounging about waiting for his ride, and the third was still at class. I read for awhile until I was bored and then reemerged to find the lounging suite-mate had left as well. This left me to my own devices for quite some time until Matt returned. He quickly got his stuff put together though and then left. It was kind of odd to have the entire apartment to myself but I didn't do anything to revolutionary anyways. Just the laundry. 


Wednesday 25th
I tried to sleep in as much as possible because this was truly my first free day in quite sometime. That only lasted until 8:00 am when my body declared that it was fit for duty. I laid in bed in that awful half-sleep/half-awake mode for 3 hours before I roused myself and showered. I read for a bit and followed Chelsea's match on my laptop before I resigned myself to my fate and left for Stillwater soon after. I arrived in Stillwater to find Jacob alone working on his assignments and promptly interrupted him so he could pay attention to me. Natalie arrived home soon as we traveled to Long John Silver's for breaded chicken. After Long John's we went on the traditional trip to Wal-Mart rented Angels & Demons and Star Trek and retired to their place. We watched the movies before heading to bed.


Thursday 26th
I awoke, this time, to the delightful sounds of Natalie and Jacob moving about the house. Natalie was busy baking while Jacob was escorting the monster outside to do her business. That morning we watched Up! which in my mind is a very good movie and a Pixar classic. Thanksgiving was with the Hurst and I won't event attempt to name who was there. The meal was good, not as good as yours Mom! , I especially enjoyed Natalie's chocolate pie and someone's mashed potatoes. That night we went to Wal-Mart and looked around the store.


Friday 27th
As per tradition, we awoke at the crack of dawn (9ish) a traveled to Wal-Mart to partake in the festivities. Nothing there was really spectacular and thus I didn't buy anything. After Wal-Mart, we went to Hastings. Once again, nothing too exciting but it was nice to get out and about. We watched Arrested Development most of the afternoon and Natalie made chicken-fried-stake which was quite good for dinner. After dinner we watched Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and I left for Norman about halfway through it.


Saturday 28th
Rivalry game day. Also known as the day Oklahoma State choked it up in Norman. I accidently slept in too late so I was unable to help setup the Family Fun Zone (FFZ) so I decided I would watch the game there and help them take down the FFZ. A big mistake as 10-15 of my closest friends were on hand to watch OSU's biggest disappointment of the season. Later that night, I had my heart ripped out by the BYU jackals as they stole another game from Utah. I personally believe we were the better team on the night but it doesn't matter if the scoreboard doesn't go your way. Max Hall, also, provided Utah with motivation for next season as he stated something the the effect of: I hate them(University of Utah fans, organization, alumni) all and they are all classless. Poor Poor Maxie. Can't even enjoy your own win can you? That night Utah and OSU played against each other in basketball for the Las Vegas Invitational so at least one of my teams won that night. I guess with that game I was 1-3.


Sunday 29th
A pleasant Sunday after the storm. I arrived early to church in order to help set up the chair but was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the Elder's had already done so. Thus, I sat down and read a chapter or two of scripture before I engaged others in conversation. Sacrament meeting was very good as  once again the Stake President was there too speak. I starting to think I must be missing his counsel if he is required to keep attending our ward! That night, I read quite a bit and did homework before once again retiring for the night. 


Monday 30th
I awoke this morning in semi-stage of panic as I had accidently slept it. I was able to make it to class on time, but was unable to ensure I had a good grasp on the material. Uh Oh. I was called on and in my opinion once again, I made myself look stupid. Such is life? Contracts went well as I once again volunteered some information and I think did a decent job at it. That gets us to tonight, or right now, and I'm currently typing away at this blog post getting ready to start homework again. With the condensed schedule this week. Tomorrow is suppose to be Wednesday which is heck day for us. Wednesday is Thursday and Thursday is Friday. At least we will be done early but we still have to get through the week. Tonight is FHE and I plan to attend. 


I am currently in 3rd Nephi working my way to the end and I am still on pace to finish before I come home to Utah! What a crazy few weeks I have ahead of myself so don't expect too much in way of publication. 


Well I should do some homework before FHE and Wal-Mart so off I go. I'll leave you with the Chelsea shield.

O Babylon O Babylon we bid thee farewell....

Well, I guess there goes another week eh? This last week was fairly tame but it was good nonetheless.

Nothing spectacular happened on Thursday as it was rather tame and contained nothing else besides class, at least that is all I can remember.

Friday, not only did I have class, but the ward had its annual Halloween hayride. Sure the Halloween hayride occurred on Friday the 13th of November but it was fun. Lena Tenney brought four friends with her and I got the opportunity to give those four a ride up there. They are quite the interesting crew. All are very accomplished and intelligent individuals, and perhaps a bit egotistical. So was I at that age and I guess I still am. Lena's friend Robert was riding shotgun and as per the rules he was navigating. Unfortunately I didn't screen him well enough and I discovered he had no idea where we were going. We accidently got on I-35 south. We were forced to turn around but with some quick thinking nothing was lost. We arrived at the event and I immediately got myself a hotdog and some home-made root beer. We then rode around President Keyes property and it was okay. Afterwords President Keyes spoke in a fireside setting and he had some very good instruction for us. After he was finished Lena's crew and I, and Lena, headed home. Overall everyone had a good time.

Saturday I got the opportunity to help setup the Family Fun Zone. Always a good time when you get the opportunity to hang out with the Elders and once again get a free hot dog. Oklahoma State was successful against Texas Tech which was excellent. Utah got throttled by TCU. Finally, Real Salt Lake beat the Chicago Fire and advanced to the MLS Cup. I guess that is 2/3, which isn't too bad.

Sunday I got the opportunity to pass the sacrament which is always a good time. Mainly due to the fact that you always get to see who is with who in the ward. We discovered the early church's missionary program and I was quite surprised to see where the church originally had missions. Such surprising countries included China. Priesthood, I don't remember the subject, but it was enjoyable as well.

Monday in between classes I went and washed Stanley and got his oil changed. This was so on Wednesday Natalie and Jacob could borrow him and take him New Orleans. He is currently there and from what I hear he is enjoying himself. I restarted my streak of FHE attendance and it currently stand at 1. My friend Matt taught the lesson and it was about the importance of temperance and the dangers of anger.

Tuesday was probably the most incredible experience in law school to date. As we were sitting in our civil procedure class at 9:00am, Chief Justice John Roberts walks in and proceeds to interrupt the professor. Of course, Professor Swank was more then willing to give up the podium and let the Chief Justice speak. He gave us a short spiel for about 5 minutes and then told us that surely we had some questions for him. He then proceeded to tell us that he was going to pick the first person to ask the question and suddenly pointed at Brandee Raney and said, "YOU! What is your question?" I'm so glad he didn't pick me, I would have crumbled.

After awhile I asked him, "Where do you think the major change in the law will be over the next twenty years?" He said that he felt it would be in relation to technology. Such as copyright laws, how technology can be employed by the police, and such. After spending about 30 minutes with us, he encouraged us to come hear him speak that afternoon and then bid us adieu and left.

That afternoon Lena came down to the law school and we went and listened to him speak. The problem was that we had to go through security and were required to have a photo id. I had forgotten mine at home. I was forced to run all the way back to my apartment and then back to the law school. Sadly, my unpreparedness led us to not being able to get seats together, so we opted to going up to the sky boxes and watching Chief Justice Roberts speech from up there. Chief Justice Roberts spoke about Abraham Lincoln's appointments to the Supreme Court. An interesting subject but one that surprised me. I was hoping for maybe something more current or political I guess. After the speech Lena and I went to Braum's. A good time was had by all I believe.

Wednesday was pretty normal. Classes were normal and nothing too exciting happened. Sadly, institute was frustrating and seemed to be small reflection of my seminary experience. In my opinion quite a few inappropriate things were sad and not corrected. As I said to some individuals I talked to about it later, this is the exact reason why your testimony is in Christ and not in people.

Today is Thursday and I'm currently watching Oklahoma State play Colorado. Oklahoma State's defense is playing much better but our offense is leaving much to be desired as we are playing without our senior quarterback Zac Robinson. Currently the score is OSU 10-7. The defense already has 4 sacks.

Real Salt Lake plays on Sunday for the MLS Cup in Seattle. The game will be televised on ESPN and I'm completely stoked. I hope we win and I feel like we can do it this year. Oklahoma State is obviously playing tonight and we'll know what happens by the time the night is over. Utah plays SDSU and I like our chances there. Chelsea F.C. this week plays the Wolverhamptom so it should be an interesting game with all the injuries we have sustained so far.

I've missed Survivor tonight because I'm watch Oklahoma State but thats okay as I'll watch it tomorrow. Last week Russell was once again able to find the hidden immunity idol without any clues. That takes brains. They were able to use the idol to blindside one of the Galu 6. This means with a possible Shambo betrayal the game is now tied up 5-5. Of course, this week is the week that Shambo would betrayal Galu so perhaps she didn't. I missed the Office as well, but last weeks episode was actually a lot funnier then they have been recently. This is a good sign and lets hope this continues. StarGate: Universe once again were no sci-fi series should ever go that is time travel. Basically, the last episode I watched was worthless. With the use of time travel that whole episodes content was wasted...

Well with Real Salt Lake playing this weekend for the MLS Cup, I leave you with the shield.

This must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

A Thursday has come and gone and wow the time sure does fly.

It seems like it was just one simple week ago that I sat at this desk and composed my narrative of the weeks before. In fact, now that I reflect upon it, it has only been a week!

Once again, I journeyed up to Stillwater last weekend and spent that time with my Natalie and Jacob. Those two are quickly becoming, if they haven't already been, my favorite married couple in the family. I'm sorry Pam and Rich but I don't see you enough for you to keep maintaining your #1 rank streak! Come to Norman and we can have you two duel it out with those two. Bring cake.

Sunday was church as usual. The speakers spoke on a variety of topics and most of them did a fairly decent job at it. Of course some struggled, and one I feel was a bit off putting but such is life when you allow amateurs to speak. I'm not suggesting I would do better, but there is always a difference between General Conference and your usual sacrament meeting. In Sunday school we talked about genealogy work and I surprisingly I thought back to my father sitting in front of our old computer in Vernal trying to research information and use the genealogy software. Hopefully the work is still continuing but on much faster technological pace. In priesthood we talked about the restoration and the last dispensation. A very interesting subject but, I must admit, by then my attention had waned and I don't remember the entire discourse.

After church, I had an appointment with the Bishop. We discussed mission plans and tithing settlement. He told me he was going to get me set up with the online papers so I could start filling them out that night. On that note, I've completely filled out the paper work besides the papers required for my physical and dental. I have a dentist appointment set up for sure and my mother was going to set up a physical so that all should be taken care of over Christmas. Hopefully, if everything works out like I want it to, I will be leaving on my mission sometime in the early summer. I would like to learn a foreign language, but I realize that it really is not my choice and so I will go and do what needs to be done.

That night as well I spent quite a few hours trying to write a rough draft of the legal memo that is due this coming monday, 16th. It was not my best work but it fit the requirement and I will improve it before it is handed in. A task for the weekend no doubt.

Monday was atypical insomuch that I did what is normally done by a 20-year-old law school student from Utah. That is, I read, I went to class, and I ate. I actually missed family home evening for the first time this semester, besides the first two weeks but I'm not counting those, for the simple reason I didn't feel like going. Probably not the best choice, but I will rectify the decision this Monday night by starting a new streak!

Tuesday was class again and there really is nothing about Tuesday that stands out.

Wednesday, or yesterday, I once again had class and proved my worth to myself. I volunteered information in Contracts and provided the exact line of reasoning my professor was looking for. As well, I feel like I truly am understanding that subject. Once again though, my undergrad system of preparation will not carry me through the day so I will need to ensure my outlines are more than adequate. Again, a task for this weekend.

Today has been a pretty good day so far. I was called upon in Torts and I fill like I provided the adequate responses. Torts is not my favorite class and I don't see it ever becoming such. That is alright though.

Survivor is tonight and I'm super stoked! They have been advertising this weeks episode as such that my favorite survivor, Russell, is up for elimination and my have to stave off his opponents with superior bargaining skills or winning immunity! It shall be a good night for Survivor! The Office is also tonight and I'm hoping they will move the show in a new and fresh way. It is becoming a bit stale for me and I will soon abandon it unless it make the required changes! Heroes has taken a bad course and I'm worried that I'm about to lose that show as well but we shall see. Which leads me to my last favorite show currently, Stargate Universe. Stargate has been taking a unique angle in comparison to the past shows and I won't ruin it for you by posting here about it. It has potential for greatness and potential for failness.  It all hangs on what happens in the next few weeks... We shall see.

Currently, I am reading By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer. I noticed the book was for free if you downloaded it onto your kindle and I couldn't resist. I've thoroughly enjoyed this fictional crime thriller and I'm about 60% of the way through it. If you have any suggestions on some good books to read in my limited down time let me know. I'm also currently in Alma 11. I'm moving at about 10 pages a day and I'm hoping to have finished it by the 20th of December, which is when I fly home. I must admit, I've never read the Book of Mormon with as much dedication or understanding then I have been reading it currently. Perhaps this is due to the Book of Mormon class I'm taking at the institute, perhaps. I would like to believe its due to the fact that I'm doing what I should be doing and the moment and I am reading the Book of Mormon for the purpose of understanding. Once again, I'll let you decided what you believe.

In sporting news Oklahoma St. and Utah both won last weekend and I'm hoping for wins out of both of them this weekend. I must admit, I'd be surprised if it happened though. Basketball season is just around the corner and that is quite exciting. RSL play Chicago this weekend in the Eastern Conference Finals and I'm hoping I can find some somewhat-legal feed to watch it on. Chelsea has Wolverhampton Wanderers which should be a walk in the park.

Well that is all for now. I will leave you with this seasons survivor logo.

Sometimes you just need to lay on the grass and let life flow by

The last week has been quite fantastic baring the tiny three - four hour event that occurred last Saturday.

Friday, after class, I once again traveled to Stillwater and spent the weekend with Natalie and Jacob. We went to Sirloin Stockade, the restaurant of mine and my sister's youth. While we were there, we were accosted by an older lady who was fairly scary. I'm still kind of worried that she may one day find me...

Saturday, we once again got to hang out with Jacob's nannie and that is always a blast. That night we attended the Oklahoma State v. Texas game and I'd rather still not talk about.. A most disappointing lost that in my mind should not have occurred. After the game, we drowned my sorrows in ice-cream and pizza and thus all was not lost.

On Sunday, we choose to attend my ward in Norman. This was a very good decision. As we were walking in on one side of the meeting room, President Eyring was walking in on the other. Luckily, we got to hear from my Bishop, the Stake President, and then President Eyring. All three gave inspired talks and it was well worth the time. After ward conference we headed down to Ardmore, Oklahoma, so I could receive my patriarchal blessing from Patriarch Jack. Once again, this was a very special opportunity.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were fairly plain besides my meeting with the Stake Presidency. All went well with the meeting and I'm set to be ordained to the office of Elder over Christmas break. Other than that, I'm really starting to feel like everything church related is finally coming together like it should, and with that I'm feeling like I need to serve a mission soon... There is no need to put it off. All three speakers on Sunday emphasized that and so did Patriarch Jack. We shall see what happens.

No property class tomorrow and so I'm heading to Stillwater pretty soon after my last class. Everything is going very well...

Got a new toy by the way, I like it quite a bit heres a pic.