Bountiful Blessings

Hi all! Lots of exciting stuff happening in the little town of Thatcher lately :D

Since it is officially Sunday (it’s 12:03 right now) I’ll start out with some spiritual insights and stuff :D So once I got to college I started keeping what I call a “prayer journal.” When I say my evening prayers, I write down the stuff that I asked for in blue pen in bullet points, leaving a few lines of space in between each one. Then when my prayers are answered I write in red pen how the prayer was answered. This helps me to recognize when I’m having my prayers answered and makes it easy for me to remember to give thanks where credit is due. Not to mention build my faith immensely. I’d recommend trying it out sometime. Anyways ever since I started this prayer journal, I’ve had every prayer answered in less than two days. And I’m not praying for little things either! For example: three nights ago I prayed for assistance financially. I needed money, I said I was willing to work, and I didn’t care what source the money came from. The next day I got offered a 5 hour over time job for Friday, I got a call from a local soccer referee asking me to ref this saturday, I got an email from the school saying I have $460 extra from my scholarship that needs to be claimed, AND I found $15 on the ground. I’m going to give the $15 for fast offerings next month, but the rest is going to help me sooo much! And this isn’t the only time something like this has happened. I see answers to my prayers EVERY DAY right now. Maybe it’s because I’m more aware of what it is I’m praying for so I recognize the divine help when it comes, or maybe HF appreciates me writing it down so he blesses me a bit more. Either way, life is pretty good right now, just because Heavenly Father is taking such good care of me.

Alright time for the more interesting stuff. These past few weeks have been pretty insane in more than a few ways. For one thing (excluding last wednesday when I went to bed at 9) I don’t think I’ve made it to bed before 1:30 or 2 for the past 3 weeks. Actually (besides Wednesday) I don’t think I’ve ever gone to bed before midnight. This would probably be fine for a college kid, except that I actually have a 7:00 class three days a week, and an 8 class on the other days, so I’m averaging 4-4:30 hours of sleep a night.

Another thing that’s been pretty crazy about this week and last week was all the performances I’ve had. I’m in GUYZ and we were asked to be the entertainment at the schools 125th anniversary banquet along with Jazz band and Forte (the girls version of guyz). It was alot of fun. We sang 40 hour week by Alabama, and adapted the lyrics to apply here. That was the opener song that was supposed to be like a thank you for everyone who works kind of thing. I had the starting and the ending solos in that one (which were my first solos ever by the way!) and I completely messed up the first one, but it didn’t matter because no one was listening in the beginning. By the end of the year I hope to be able to sing solos confidently.

My boss recorded both of them for me with her phone.

Here’s 40 hour Week

The other song we sang was Next To Lovin’ From Shenandoah. This one was really fun. We do a slow motion fight and everything. The best part is the facial expressions of everyone, unfortunately the quality went down when I uploaded it to youtube, so you can’t see any of that.

If you’re only going to watch one of the videos watch this one, it’s more entertaining.

I actually have the starting solo for this one too, but Shalene missed it.

So that was lots of fun, memorizing choreography, and building confidence to sing solos and such, even though they were all like one measure solos :P

Speaking of Choreography, I somehow ended up as a background dancer for two of my friends in the Mr. EAC contest. I have about half of one of them recorded if you want to watch it.

This is Rex. He’s super good at just about everything and he’s the most stereotypical funny mormon guy I’ve ever met, so he made a compilation of line danceish moves and did that for the talent section of the contest. He actually won the whole thing :D This is only the second half of the dance.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202031312615104

Hopefully that link will work...it won't let me download the video and upload it onto the blog :/

The other one I helped with was Spencer Udall's Brazilian Dance. He got off his mission literally 3 weeks ago from Brazil and is still kinda in Love with the place. It was a really last minute kind of thing though, we hadn’t even heard the song before we performed it. I don’t have a video of this one, but it was really fun.

Speaking of dances I got 2nd place at the YSA dance contest during last nights YSA dance :D Who woulda thought that I could actually dance!? Haha. I didn’t even want to do it, the DJ Called me out and made me try out haha.

So besides all the dancing and singing stuff, I’ve had a few opportunities to add to the list of “awesome stuff I can say I’ve done” Such as going train hopping! Me and my friend Ryan (He’s my Australian friend, you’ll probably read lots about him some time) were walking our friend Andreana home after a party at 1:30. Then when we came back we saw that the train was coming, so we put some coins on the tracks (to make legit looking guitar picks for my new guitar :D) and stood back and watched. I was just saying how cool it would be to go train hopping like hobos in the old days, when I saw an open cart on the train, so I ran and jumped in :D It was such an adrenalin rush! It was awesome. I didn’t actually want to ride it anywhere since I don’t know where it goes, so I jumped off relatively quickly. It wasn’t going too fast so it wasn’t all that dangerous. When I got home I looked up where the train goes, and it runs down the main street right through Safford. So if I’m ever out when it goes by again, I’m going to hop on and take it to walmart in Safford. Then hitch a ride home with any college kids I know there (I’ve never not seen someone I know at wal-mart...especially in the wee hours of the mornin’).

A few other memorable points for this week might be:

-I stayed out till 6am once, think that’s the latest I’ve ever been out.

-I kissed a girl upside down spider man style

-I went roof hopping, lots of fun :D

Actually all of those were in one night, I think that was last Friday maybe?

If I try and tell any of those stories, this email will end up ridiculously long, so I won’t.

Actually this will probably be a really long post regardless, simply because I haven’t written anything for three weeks, so alot has happened.

Last Sunday I made my “constitution” or the rules and standards for my college experience, in addition to a list of goals and things I want to accomplish this year.

Freshman year bucket list.

-Tube down the canal

-Knee bored in canal

-Catch a duck and release it in a friend’s apartment

-Ice cave spelunking

-Repel the dam

-Ride a horse through campus

-Learn a good serenade song on uke, guitar, and piano

-Train hop to walmart

-Mattress surf

-Become as good of a beatboxer as Rylen

-Become good enough at parkour to go to a performance with team Moz

-Become a true Gila monster by kissing on a full moon under the clock tower. (almost did that last Thursday...but thought better of it)

-Go to Mexico (maybe paraglide in Mexico?!)

-Convert someone

Try something new every week I’m here.

That’s just the goal list, I don’t think I’ll type out my standards list, ‘cause that’d be kinda weird...

Angelo (my old work out partner from high school) challened me to do the 100 Push up challenge with him. So we're both doing 100 push ups a night and checking to keep each other honest. I think I'm going to start throwing in some abb work pretty soon as well.

For the sake of length I think I’ll leave it at that. I hope I haven’t made any loving family members too concerned, just know that I know what I’m doing pretty well, I haven’t/don’t make stupid mistakes all that often and I’ve been keeping my grades up pretty well. So...don’t worry, be happy :)

Oh and I didn’t tell you, I’m the “Pa” in our family home evening group...so I get to plan/assign FHE every week, which means I can choose really fun family activities like the whipped cream game :D

That is all, Buenas Noches! (oh yah, I’m learning Spanish from my Mexican friends, just so you now..haha)

Love, Bryce

P.S. Sorry, I just thought of this. I went to Safeway today (well technically yesterday), and they had a whole gluten free wall! And a refigerated gluten free section! And their tags through out the store tell you if the product is gluten free! It's like heaven for me! :D Here's a pic of the wall :D

Goodnight Everyone!

P.P.S

So this doesn't really have anything to do with me, but I was just thining of FHE, which made me remember when I used to show the family funny Youtube videos that people would show me...So...a few that are trending right now that I like are..

It might be pretty weird...but the old man on the chair...freaking hilarious haha. Or maybe that's just me. Idk.

Another old one that is just fun to quote is:

This might just be funny to me because of all the awkward fun times I've had with German people. But still, who doesn't enjoy a bit of potty humor? Haha

Ok I'm done, for realz this time.

I'm learning SOOOO much!

Today I got to give my first blessing! My friend Brook was at Cluff bonds doing backflips off the rope swings and she landed on her head...she been having migraines since last night and has been throwing up all day. So her roommate Kaylen came and got me and asked me to give Brook a blessing. I had my friend Colton with me (we were about to go to a Sunday taco party...) and got him to run home and grab some oil. So I gave my first blessing! I felt really calm, and I had just got back from church where I had just born my testimony, so I could still feel the spirit pretty strongly. I told her she would make a speedily recovery, and have no lasting harmful impact from her accident...I'm hoping that god will honor the blessing...I definitely didn't get an impression to not tell her that, but I'm not sure if I was really inspired to tell her she'd get better either...So pray for her and maybe the blessing will be honored :P I've actually been playing home teacher alot this weekend, yesterday I got a distress call from Payge about a snake in her apartment. At first I thought it was a prank, since her and her roommates seem to like to play jokes on me alot...but I came anyways. It was a baby California King snake, it was super cool. I caught it and then kept it in my pocket while I went shopping for a snake cage at thrift stores. After I had caught it and was told it was harmless Payge calmed down and even accompanied me to go find a snake cage. Unfortunately most of the stores around here close at 5 for some reason...so I couldn't find one. When I was getting out of the car the snake got out of my pocket and was loose in my car. I couldn't find it so I named it Hudini the escape artist. I looked again today and still didn't find it. But then a little later I saw Hudini flattened in the road behind my car...poor little guy. He was super cool. Anyways that was another fun adventure. I even got dinner out of it. Payge is determined to teach me how to cook, and to find a yummy recipe that I can eat without dying. It's a worthy ambition, I think I like Payge :P.

Here's a pic of baby Hudini and me :) 

Besides the churchy stuff this week (I think I went to....6 different institute classes?) the most interesting activity of the week was water pong (beer pong with water). My dormates have played it just about every night from 11 till around 2 or 3, and it gets really intense. I went to another party yesterday and they had water pong set up...and I dominated. We're all definitely all too practiced at that game now :P Sometime when I'm home I'll have to teach everyone how to play. There's so many different variations and rules you can add in that make it so much fun. There's a few other drinking games we've played as well. Sam, the 21 year old non member is the guy who's an expert on them. 

I did my laundry finally! I overstuffed the dryer so much that my clothes didn't dry...so I used my roommates fans and dried them that way.

-A quick note on my rooming situation so mom won't worry too much

So, my roommates...they're all from Idaho, pretty chill guys, the only problem is they're not all that Mormon...and they like to watch R-x rated movies really late at night. They don't do this that often, but it's kinda annoying when they do, because I can't sleep or really stand to be in the same room as the movies. Generally I've been lucky enough to be out late the night they watch the movies, once or twice I've just gone on late night walks which are really nice and peaceful. I'm planning on switching into Cimmeron and Ben's room (they're both super strong members, Ben is an RM). I just have to wait till Conner gets kicked out. He comes home either drunk or high every night...so it's just a matter of time before he gets caught and kicked out. We all placed bets...I said 3 weeks. So anyways once he's gone, Chazz, the kid with an extremely loud speaker system that blasts rap music all the time is going to trade me rooms, he doesn't want to leave until Conner's gone though, since they came up together and are pretty good friends. I could speed up the process by just texting one of the RA's (they're the students in charge of the dorms) when he's drunk. But I figured I'm not in too big of a rush to leave.

Speaking of late night walks...my last one was at 2 in the morning last Tuesday. Why do you care? Because that was the night I locked the keys of my car in my truck at a friend's house. I was going to leave their house at midnight...but then I realized I didn't have my keys...So I got a ride with a friend back to the dorms. When I got back my roommates were watching a...highly inappropriate movie...so I looked up a video on picking locks, grabbed a wire hanger and ran back to my friends house. After working on it for a while in the dark, I realized that it was pretty much impossible to get the lock in the dark so I ran back. I ran into some black guys in front of the dorms who offered to help if I needed it. They said they'd sprung plenty of locks before :P Anyways I went back and got a headlight, watched a few more videos on picking locks, got a shoe lace...and then ran back. I got it eventually around 1:30. I took a victory picture too :D Sorry I'm shirtless...I felt more manly picking locks shirtless...:P Usually I wouldn't have cared enough, but I had a lab out at Discovery Park at 8 that morning for ecology (it's this riparian observatory place...where they have a frog hatchery for endangered species it's super cool!) and to make matters worse I had promised to drive Sam, and didn't have anyone's number that I could ask a ride for. So I kinda had to pick the lock that night.  I didn't use the wire hanger, that turned out to be too flimsy, I found a random wire in the bed of the truck and used that.

I found some other reasons why this school was pretty much meant for me this week. My boss and lots of other people around here actually know what essential oils are...and use them! They probably wouldn't even think I'm crazy if I talked about energy work! It was funny because my boss recommended me to someone who does muscle testing to help me find food that I'm not allergic too...and then I was kinda shocked...because...everyone there knew about muscle testing...it was awesome.

Also, I've met like...4 girls who are gluten free, and two of them are allergic to corn too, and one of them is allergic to corn and milk! I'm not alone in the world! Were definitely going to have gluten free parties where we trade recipes and make brownies and stuff :D Tonight a girl shared some of her gluten free pizza with me. She said Costco carries it in case anyone's wondering. Oh and Papa John's has gluten free pizza btw. So mom, next time I'm in town we're going to papa John's, since there isn't one here.

I'm learning all sorts of awesome stuff over here! 

Oh that reminds me, swing dancing! It was THE BEST swing dancing I've ever experienced! There were lots of people there, and everyone I danced with was super cool and let me do whatever fun tricks I could pull off. I learned so much. People taught me all sorts of lifts and fancy tricks that I'd never seen before.

I also met a girl who used to dance at 12 W main (that's the swing club I used to go to) and she apparently drives down there every other week or so and then stays the night and drives back up Thursday morning. I'm going to go with her sometime. I only have choir and work on Thursdays, and It's really easy to switch my work schedule and I'm sure Dr. Bishop would be ok with me missing if I told him in advance. I'd just need to get all my friends who still live in Gilbert to go, so I can see them and then hitch a ride with them back to our house. Then I could grab everything I might need for college and drive back up :D I think she's going this Wednesday, but I won't go, since you're all coming up here in 2 weeks anyways...

Oh and I might get a choir scholarship to take private lessons :D He said if there's anymore money in the budget I could have it, but he has to check.

Well...I think that's about it for this week! I'm lovin' life! Really the only stress I've had was trying to figure out how to sing solos in guys...I've never sang a solo before, and he have me like 6 of them just in the two songs were working on...So that's exciting :P I'll figure it out eventually...I just get nervous singing solos...

Anyways hope everyone's doing well, see ya all later! :)

-B-Rice (There's two Bryce's here, and we're both friends with sorta the same people...so I've started going by B-Rice...haha)

Livin La Vida Loca College Style :D

First two emails home from college...I'm lovin' life right now.

 

 

So, I wasn't going to write you this week...But I'll just quickly say that college is the best thing ever. And I haven't even started yet. Every moment of every day is an adventure no matter who I'm with. I think the best part is that I know absolutely no one. I just start talking to random people and then 30 minutes later I'm driving with them off to the lake to swim and go off rope swings. It's awesome. There's only been people here since wednesday and I've already played a drinking game, gone to the lake, multiple mormon parties, multiple movie parties, accapella jam sessions, singing at nursing homes....I could go on and on. I think I like thatcher so much because there's absolutely nothing to do here. It's so fantastic. Everyone here is super creative and does the craziest fun random things, it's right up my alley. Yesterday I was going to go catch ducks with some friends and then sneak them into some other friend's apartments :P I mean...who thinks of this kind of stuff? It's fantastic :D I feel like if I had grown up in thatcher I'd be super crazy fun and creative like the people here. I think I'm going to start asking people what they do for fun more. I always get awesome responses and then I ask to go with them next time. Like two of my friends go kneeboarding in the canal being pulled by a tractor. Another friend just painted golf balls with glow in the dark paint and then launched them off a mountain...just other crazy fun stuff like that. I guess there is normal stuff too. There's $2 bowling on tuesdays...soccer on wednesday, volley ball on fridays, ultimate frisbee on tuesdays and thursdays. Swing dancing is going to start up soon. I'm going to see if I can find the parkour gym tomorrow...everything about this place is like a dream come true. It's like someone took all my favorite activities and talents and made a school just for me. Like seriously...it's ridiculous. The large amounts of attractive lds women isn't too bad either. Oh and so you guys know I think my schedule as of now is psychology, intro to theater (with like...every friend I've met :D). Vocal Show Ensemble (they're the ones that do choreography) if I can make it. First aid/cpr. Lab Ecology (I've heard the teacher is crazy fun). Principles of Leadership institute class, a mission prep institute class,and a devotional and seminar class. Pretty much I'm fitting as many institute classes and as many choir classes as I can. I REAAALLY would like to be in "The guys" It's a 7 man accapella group...but 5 of the 7 are returning and they already have a beatboxer...so my chances aren't too good. I want to make accapella, multiple people have told me that class was the best spiritual experience they've ever had from a class. I'm pretty sure I can make this one...just need to work on site reading. Then there's men's choir...they do really really fun songs and just have a good time. I might join in on that just for fun. I can't do it every day but I could come a few days a week which is good enough if you're already a decent singer. I'm also working 6 hours at the "fish bowl" every week, and then doing other various events for the A team.

I've just got to rant about how awesome of a job this is for a second...

Pretty much I'm getting paid to make friends. That's about it. They told me to go meet as many people as you can, make them feel welcome, like they have a friend, make sure they don't have any questions and just be a friendly presence on campus so that they can come to you for anything they might need. It's awesome. I love helping people, I love meeting people, and I love talking to people...and I'm getting paid. It's flippin legit. My roomates are all super confused how I know everyone, since I've met probably around 150-200 people on an individual basis. Just if I could remember names...it kinda stinks. Oh yah training for my job was super fun too. We got the results from the personality test that we took along with our application to work there. I was one of 4 yellows. Yellows are the social butterfly talkative party animal category, I also had quite a bit of red, which is the stubborn leaderly one. That was really fun, because then we looked at each colors strengths and weaknesses...and it was creepily accurate. Here's a list of some of the strengths and weaknesses I wrote down. They all came from yellow and red. Strengths: strong leader, creative in crisis, gives more of self than required, high achiever, very optimistic, adventurous and daring, charismatic, quick thinking. That's it for positive, "Limitations" Impatient, sets unrealistic goals, overextends self, competitive, exaggerate, sarcastic, poor concentration. The whole training was just super fun. They only hired super cool leaderlly fun people, and so I'm super lucky to be able to in the same group with all of them. Hopefully this email isn't too cocky, I've really got to get to bed...I haven't slept much at all since I've been here. Love you all

 

Bye :) <3 Bryce

 

Update: First week of College is now past, and it was better than I could ever imagine. I made GUYZ! The 7 man Accapella group, and even beat out the guy who was bass last year for it! I’m pretty sure the only reason I made it was because I prayed for it so much...I fasted and prayed that I’d make this group, but then when I got here I saw how good they were and then I kinda lost hope and was content to just make acapella, I even scribbled out my check mark on the application of which choirs I was trying out for, just because I thought I had no chance...but I still made it somehow. It’s really scary, because everyone in the group is ridiculously good, and I’m just...good. Dr. Bishop assigned me like...6 or 7 solos already too, and I’ve never sang a solo before...so yah...it’s just kinda scary. I’ll probably be spending alot of time in the practice room this weekend.

Other news, my phone screen cracked pretty badly, I have to turn the screen alot so that I can read stuff under the cracks. I was using it as my alarm, and I was trying really hard to get it on the first ring so that I wouldn’t wake my roomates up...So anyways I lunged for it off my desk, turned it off and then it slipped out of my hands. It’s not unusable though, I’ll still get by.

I sang in a quartet at devotional last tuesday. One of the guys who was with us at the nursing home asked me to sing with him. It was really fun, we sang a really intense version of come thou fount, so now everyone knows I can sing which is good and bad, I just hope I don’t get asked to put together any musical numbers.

I didn’t make company, which is a relief, I don’t really need any more classes, and memorizing dances, is definitely my weak point. The auditions were fun though, we had a singing audition, which I rocked at, and then we had a 3 hour dance audition, which I actually did pretty good at, there was 6 basses trying out, and all of them were in company last year except me and one other kid, who’s in guyz with me, and he was a professional dancer...so yah...I really had no chance.

I went to the temple twice this week that was fun. I think I’m going to try and go once a week. Does anyone have any family names left that I can do? How do I find family names?

This week I’ve tried to slow down on my party going, and I’ve attempted to get more sleep. It’s sorta working...I’ve turned down 007, a river bonfire, movies, basketball, and volley ball, all in the name of sleep, and yet I’m still super tired.

I was late for guyz yesterday. my phone apparently wasn’t plugged into the charger all the way, and so it died during the night...and thus didn’t wake me up. I woke up when the teacher called me at 7, I was lucky I woke up actually, my phone was on silent, so it only buzzed. I put on a shirt and flip flops and drove over there, and made it at 7:05, which I think was pretty good. Although Dr.Bishop has been known to kick members out of the group if they’re late...so it was a pretty scary experience. I’m going to set up my real alarm clock this week, I just hope my roommates will sleep through it.

Since I’m not in men’s or company, I only have 18 credits. I’m also not taking my principles of leadership anymore, we are trying to schedule practice times during the day for guyz, so we don’t have to meet at 7 everyday.

We ran out of toilet paper on monday..I was too busy to go to the store (I had auditions tuesday) and my roommates are pretty much worthless, so I ended up stealing a roll from the high tech center. I finally did buy some yesterday, so I might go back over there and put an extra roll in. The thing is, there was just an extra roll, sitting on top of the dispenser, like god was providing for my needs as they came, so I decided to count it as a tender mercy and not as one of satan's temptations, even though I felt pretty guilty taking it. I think I’ll go put one of my rolls on top, just so I don’t feel guilty about stealing. :P

I’ve also realized after being here for a while, that cooking is ridiculously easy when you’re not picky and only cooking for one. Like most of my meals include me throwing random stuff in the rice cooker and seeing what happens. Which has worked ok, nothing really tastes good...but it doesn’t taste too bad either. Yesterday for lunch I just cut a watermelon in half and ate it out with a spoon, it was so simple it was amazing.

Oh I got a job as a soccer referee for a local ref league yesterday. So if you could bring up my equipment that’d be nice. I’m not sure how much I’ll need, they give me a jersey and a whistle, but I’d rather use my stuff if I have the option.

Country swing dancing starts this wednesday, I showed off some swing dancing at a YSA dance last night, so I already have a line of girls wanting me to teach them :P I asked one if she’d trust me to do lifts and she said lifts were her favorite part of swing dancing :D So Maybe I’ll be able to practice some of the fun stuff :D

Still haven’t done my laundry yet. I’m going to see how long I can last. I haven’t reused any clothes besides pants, and I’ve made it 2 weeks.

Anyways I’m having a fantastic time down here! It’s honestly more like a vacation than anything. Hope everyone is doing well,

see ya later :)

Mom, you can forward one or both of these emails, I guess they don’t sound that cocky, they’re just not terribly interesting.

Surviving Summer part 2

Hi Everyone!

So apparently my email got forwarded on to all my extended family (thanks mom..) now everyone probably thinks I need psychiatric help. Just kidding I don't really care. I really haven't cared about anything since high school graduation...I don't even bother to put a shirt on when people come over anymore (just kidding I would...it's just...I'm outside and they just walk up...awk..) actually today was the first time the relief society president has seen me with a shirt on! I felt accomplished. She has a funny family. The first time they came over, one of her little boys took one look at me and went and hid in the car...:P Apparently they've never seen a shirtless guy before..or maybe they're intimidated by my manly 7 pack...that must be it.

So it's only Wednesday...but I'm writing you anyways...I probably won't send it till Sunday though.

News:

My alarm clock bird left this week :'(. Every morning there's a devil bird that sits next to my window and kaw's at 4:50 exactly. It's one of the most annoying sounds I've ever heard (besides chewing with your mouth open...that's the worst...) the best description I can come up with is, imagine a 12 year old voice cracking boy...trying to imitate a witch's cackle...while gargling nails...just kidding I have no clue. It does sound like a witch though. Anyways since it left I haven't woken up on time, and usually get started just before 6. I think what happened was the evil witch bird knew that I hated waking up that early (I used to yell at it to shut up...) but since I started using it as an alarm clock it eventually realized that I wasn't getting annoyed...so the fun was ruined and it left.

Yesterday Grandpa's shirt caught on fire. :P That was kinda funny. He was using the steel grinder/saw...which is pretty much the manliest tool ever by the way, especially ours, we have the manly man upgrade. When you grind metal it shoots sparks everywhere. Ours is special, because the thing that directs the sparks away from you broke off, so it's pretty much like taking a fountain fire cracker and using it to take a shower...It feels very manly. 

 A picture of the hole grandpa burnt through his shirt.

Speaking of Grandpa, I finally found out why I'm doing all this. He told me today "When I kick the bucket I want to be mummified with my hat and set up on one of the flower boxes with a fishing pole." You guys should see the holy hat..it's my both my and grandpa's favorite one, so we sometimes steal it from each other...although I wear it more than grandpa does, because when he wears it he gets a sunburn blob on his forehead :P

This is Grandpa modeling for me and Evan how he wants to be mummified.

Alright time to answer some questions... Grandpa Walter is funny because he's sooooo old...but he still acts like a little kid. I feel bad for him...having to deal with Grandma Jane and her memory loss. Jane is always trying to boss him around, and he comes up with the funniest responses. Grandma Silvia is determined to teach me and the Grandpa's southern table manners, and such nonsense, and is always getting after grandpa Walter for making a mess...or eating my Gluten free food...and stuff like that...and he just comes up with the funniest excuses. 

Sunday was officially the start of monsoon season. And the rain came right on time pretty heavily Sunday night. Monday morning I woke up at 5 and rode the ATV around picking up some dirt (we use it like a motorized wheel barrow..it's spiffy) and I pretty much got a breakfast of nats...They were everywhere. I hit at least 3 swarms of them the first time driving, and then decided to postpone that job until they went away. Which they did, the next day there were no nats...it was kinda strange.

 This is Hagrid. I let Hagrid and Harry hang out...but Harry ate Hagrid..jk I didn't keep either of them.

Dirtbiking is loads of fun! Evan and his kid (can't remember the name...) dropped off their 100cc Honda for me to play with for the next week or so. Me and the kid rode around everywhere him on his friends 140 and me on the 100.

For the sake of not scaring mom all I will tell you is

A) I'm wearing a helmet

B) I'm really bad at sharp turns and braking.

C) Bugs can really do some damage when your flooring it in 5th...especially in the eyes...but only my left eye...what's up with that?

D) Always stand up when going over ramps or large bumps...it makes life easier.

E) There is some CRAZY dirt biking trails behind the elementary school! It's flippin fantastic!

I'm thinking about offering him $200 for it, since he just bought a 250 and doesn't use this one as much anymore.

I figure Thatcher would be about as good of a place as any for a dirt bike, so I could really get my money's worth out of it. He got it for a little over $300 and that was 2 years ago, so I bet he would sell it to me.

Meet my roommate Harry: 

Harry is a sunspider that decided to join me for my evening prayer on Sunday. I didn't know what he was...and didn't really trust him with my eyes closed, so I put my cup over him and then played with him after prayer. Since I am a guy, I had to mess with it a bit, just because that's what males do...play with anything that looks potentially dangerous. I poked a pen in the cup and watched him lunge at it and try and strike it, and then pulled it out at the last second...eventually I lost and he bit it, and as I pulled the pen up, he held on (strong little bugger) and came flying out of the cup. It was kinda creepy...He was loose, and hanging out in my essential oils, so I let him be while I did some research on what he was, and if I should feel comfortable sharing a room with him.

I found out alot. First off all...these guys have a pretty insane reputation...they're called sun spiders, screaming spiders, camel spiders...and a bunch of other names, even though they're not really a spider. They can get up to 8" they have LOADS of legends and false stories about them. I posted a photo on fb and people told me all about their numbing venum that they use to keep people asleep as they eat bore a hole into you and eat your muscles...etc etc. Actually it wasn't the uneducated people on fb's fault, most of the internet sites I found at first were warning me of deadly venom and speed and stories of babies being eaten...and such. They actually are quite remarkable though. They have a very painful bite but no venom  and they don't generally bite unless they're bothered. They are ridiculously aggressive, as I saw with the pen. They hunt their pray by running them down, making an eery screaming noise while they do it. They are one of the fastest bugs, at a top speed of 10 miles an hour. Anyways there's lots more cool stuff about them...but I doubt any of you really care...so...

Oh and this was Sunday. I've ran into him a couple more times throughout the week. Last night I nearly stepped on him while walking down the stairs. It was kinda funny and we both jumped. He jumped off the stairs and hid under the couch before I could catch him again. Grandpa told me to kill him next time I see him. Grandma Silvia is scared of them (she got chased out of the shower by one once :P) and so knowing that they can climb up and down the stairs makes me need to get rid of him. 

Update (I wrote everything before this Wednesday) I have now seen 6 different sun spiders this week, ranging from the size of my pinky to a little smaller than my hand. I've killed half of them. They all came inside once it started raining under the laundry room door, since it's not sealed very well.

Me and Grandma got in big trouble yesterday. We went on date to see "The Lone Ranger" which I thought was great by the way. And then went to Applebees afterwards for dinner. We didn't bother to call Grandpa about going to dinner though, and so he was at home worried sick about us for a couple hours. We got home at 8...which I think is a pretty good time to have your date home...although I had told Grandpa the movie would be over sometime around 6, so he was expecting us back well before then. It was kinda funny seeing Grandma get chewed out like I had been chewed out so many times before.

Grandpa has had a sorta rough week. He was really sick on Tuesday, so much so that he lost over 2 pounds in barf...which is really gross... I realize now that that was probably why he was so grumpy on  Wednesday. 

Katherine agreed to give me horsemanship lessons last Sunday! I had my first lesson on Friday, but it was kinda canceled because of the thunder. I still went over and learned how to groom and clean a horse, and then how to properly lead them, and train them with a line. I'm going to work on ridding on Monday.

Grandma Coleman asked what it was that I was working on, and asked for pictures. Here they are!

The pipes in this picture are where the fountain will go, I took these a week ago. If you look closely the closest leg to us on the canopy is wooden...I bumped it with the ATV, and broke the leg, so I made a splint for it. It's broken much more since then from the crazzy dust devils that we've been having. It's been flipped upside down 3 or 4 times now...and that's with it being staked in. Now we don't even bother to stake it in, and just accept that it's going to die.

To put in perspective just how much work I've done...and because it's fun to see the numbers, I tallied up all the supplies that we've burned through since I've been here.

Well over 5 tons of rock (we haven't used it all, I just helped load it and unload it, since Grandpa can't lift some of the rocks.)

2 tons of sand

18 tons of gravel

52 94 Pound bags of cement (this is why my back is sore...because when I hurt my knee...I could no longer lift with my legs)

and 5 gallons of cement binder/glue.

This is to make 6 rock flower boxes, 5 of which have junipers in them, the other one is going to have vegetables. The biggest one is next to the parking lot, it's huge..and I only had time to lay the first set of rock and one full corner before we started on the fountain. We also laid a cement curb where we're going to hang flags from all the grandkids missions that he currently has out. Last weeks project was the fountain, it's going to be huge. All we have done so far is laid all the cement for it (sorry I forgot to take a picture of it..) There's going to be a 6 ft fountain running into a little pond with gold fish. The cement layout looks like the ship from star trek. 

Semi funny story: So we took three trips to get more rock this week...and I somehow got the illusion that I had muscles, and loaded on some HUGE rocks...like some of these weigh more than I do, and I'm not completely sure how I picked them up to put them on the truck...Anyways I was feeling buff, so I lifted multiple 100 lbs+ rocks into the truck. Then...I got home, and I realized just how large these darn rocks were, as I had to figure out a way to carry them from the truck to the place where I needed to use them...I didn't feel nearly as buff as I had before, and had no earthly clue how I managed to lift some of them, and couldn't even get some out of the truck. So I made grandpa back the truck up in between a bunch of mesquite trees so I could roll them off of the truck. He ended up getting stuck by the mesquite trees and had to wait till I finished unloading to get out..which took a while. These rocks were so big that after we unloaded them, we realized that we had dented up the license plate and the parts of the bed of the truck that I used to think were seats when I was a little kid...sorry, can't think of a name for it.

I feel like making more lists.

Things we've broken: 3 wheel barrows, hammer, tape measure, truck bed, shade canopy, manly man steel saw (just the guard broke), axe, clippers, extension chord, cement mixer...and I think that's it. I broke 6 out 12 of those...which considering I'm working about twice as much as grandpa  my ratio from work to stuff broken is pretty dang good. Everything on the list (except for the truck bed) has been fixed with duct tape. It truly does fix everything. I installed an air conditioning unit yesterday with duct tape, stuff works miracles. Actually now that I think about it, we didn't end up fixing the extension chord, or the axe, or the clippers...I guess even duct tape has it's limit.

I've worked a total of 230 hours in the past 4 weeks, which averages out to a 57.5 hour week (I only worked 54 last week).

Well that's about all I've got for now. I don't think this email was as funny as the last one, so I wonder if it will get forwarded on.

See ya'll later!

-Bryce

Random side note that I just remembered...I cleaned out grandpa walter's garage/food storage on Monday. It was horrifying. It was like walking into a haunted house mixed with a evil scientist...or maybe a witches layer is a better description. Anyways there was lots of jars...of unidentifiable stuff...everything from jars of dead cockroaches and crickets, to jars of pickles and pickled foodstuffs that was too old to identify and stuff that I think Grandpa said was V8 juice..but definitely didn't look edible. Anyways it was hard to imagine that any of it was meant for human consumption, and I'm pretty sure if they had to live off of it. They would starve. The peaches still looked like peaches and the jams still looked like jams, although they were all dated to 94 or 95...which is older than I am...After cleaning it out, I vowed that I would always go through my food storage when I'm older, continually replenishing and recycling through it. I don't get it either...its not like grandpa and grandma have anything to do...all they do is watch tv all day, occasionally play piano, and go on a walk to the porch and back. You think you could find the time to break into the food storage and sort it every 5 years or so..

Ok, I THINK that's all I've got, this has ended up to be a pretty long email too...or maybe it's just the giant pictures, not sure. Anyways love you all! See ya in a bit.

Working with Grandpa, email #1

I spent most of this summer away from my family, so I started emailing them weekly, this is just a record of my emails. I'm making a blog because A) sometimes I think I'm funny and B) So family and ward members can see what I'm up to without Mom having to forward my emails to them C) So I can have a record of my adventures somewhere where I can't lose it.

This is my second email home...the first one's kinda boring...

"So...first off...it is way too hot right now. It's not a dry heat either...my entire body is covered in sweat...and I've been on break for the past 2 hours. It started getting cloudy yesterday and I got super excited, because I thought it would be nice to work in the rain...boy was I wrong. It hasn't even rained yet but I feel like I'm walking through a swamp..all the time...especially when I work.

I decided yesterday that it was simply unreal to try and force myself to be outside for ten hour days in this weather, so now I'm doing 9 hour days. Hence why I'm still on break at 2:30. 

So I've got alot I could write about, and no real desire to stop and get back to work, so this email might end up really long :P

To start off this week I got severely sun burnt..it kinda sucked. I've been working outside shirtless from my lunch break to the end of the day, just about every day now. I usually put sunscreen on in the morning. I forgot to on Tuesday because I was in a rush to get started so I could have enough hours before I went to singles ward activity, which was volley ball. So in my rush to get started before 5 am I forgot sunscreen, and then forgot that I forgot sunscreen at lunch, thus getting burnt. Luckily I have a set of essential oils mom gave me and some of her salve and so I liberally applied Lavender oil mixed with the salve at every break for a day or two, and it pretty much turned into a tan. It was the fastest I've ever had a sunburn heal. The worst part of it all, was that after I worked my butt off trying to get 10 hours in before dinner, getting sunburnt in the process, I got lost trying to find the stake center. Although for once, this wasn't my fault. Grandma Silvia has absolutely NO CLUE how to draw maps apparently. It's really hard to describe her faulty method of map drawing...but I saved it just because it's pathetically hilarious just no that she doesn't draw a right turn for you to turn right...she draws a "down turn"..sorta. So anyways, instead of playing volley ball I got to follow a map that didn't lead anywhere for 50 minutes. Fortunately I had driven around buying cement and rock and such that I actually knew where I was the whole time and was able to get home just fine. I don't think I'm ever going to try and go to singles ward again...or to institute.

The strange tan lines are from my camel pack, which I wear all the time.

Second story: So Tuesday night I was reading Drawing Upon the Powers of Heaven (I'll send you some notes in a different email Brenden) if you haven't read it...it talks about choosing goals or desires of your heart to pray about, and occupy your mind with and stuff like that. So I was praying, asking what I should be working on annnnd I got the impression that I needed to learn some energy work. I prayed that I could learn easily and be provided with something to practice on. Which prayer, I came to very painfully regret. The next day (Wednesday) I was finishing up another rock wall and spraying off any extra cement on the front. I put the hose down, and because grandpa's hose is possessed it started spraying me and everything else on it's own (it does this quite often). I kinda laughed at it and told it that it wasn't very nice (I think I'm going crazy over here I talk to inanimate objects all the time now..) and turned it off. I started to go inside...which if you haven't seen me do this, I always do a little wall run up the tile walls instead of walking around to the stairs, and I thought as I was jumping "I wonder if this will work with wet shoes" and then I slipped. But it wasn't just any slip, it was a hard core hat-flying knee-smashing-into-sharp-rock kind of slip. It hurt. Immensely. In case you guys haven't watched me get hurt/go through pain recently, I always breath really deeply the more the pain the deeper the breath, and if I have to do something while in pain I'll start singing "Be a Man" from Mulan and I'll force my body through the pain. So I got up, breathing extremely deeply I couldn't tell just how badly I was hurt but the pain was pulsating through my body and my right knee did not want to move at all. I remembered the essential oils and started jog limping while yell singing the lyrics to be a man all the way to my room. Needless to say, this was excruciatingly painful. Like ridiculously so. Like I don't think I've ever been hurt that badly from something so silly as a fall (and that's saying something I get hurt doing stupid stuff all the time). So I made it to my room and started applying essential oils on the knee, and I was thinking (I don't believe in consequences, I think everything has a lesson to be learned) I was wondering why the heck I would be hurt so badly, and what I was supposed to gain from this...and then I got the clear impression "You asked for practice." And I just started cracking up. Like for a good 5 minutes, I just laughed at how dumb I was as the pain was pulsating through my body from my knee. It was fun though, I got to practice pulling the pain off, and I gained a testimony of the power of essential oils, and I tried out a few other energy techniques that I had forgot about up until that point. Anyways I'm healthy now for the most part, my knee is in sorta working condition, I still pull the pain off every morning, it takes it a while to unstiffen, and I practiced energy work on my sunburn as well.

Warning this story's kinda gruesome...Kaylee and Danny (if he actually reads stuff like this) be warned.

So Squirrel Hunting. Fun stuff right? Unfortunately for the squirrels I'm a pretty dang good shot with the BB gun now..Which is craazy because the sights don't work at all, so you just kinda have to guess. Anyways I killed the big one last week, and meant to eat it but it escaped down it's hole to die. This week I was determined to get another one. They completely stripped both apricot trees...and they don't even eat them, they just open them and take the seeds...and now they've started on the plumbs. They also ate all the pomegranates earlier in the year too. It's a family of 6 I think...or at least it was, the relief society pres.'s kid got one, and I've gotten two now so there's 4 left most likely. The problem with this one...is that he wouldn't die. I shot a beautiful shot from where I was working on a wall in between two pushes and hit him. It was great, every time they see me they hide now, so I was rather impressed by the shot. I ran up, and I see the little guy and I try and put him out of his misery with a shot to the head..but as I talked about last email, close range shots aren't all that accurate, and the little bugger didn't die, so I loaded it again, and shot him again...and it still didn't die. Now it had multiple holes in it, it was bleeding, and coughing and I felt really bad for it, so I ran inside and asked grandma if there was any painless ways to kill a squirrel...she didn't know any, so I went out and this time pumped the BB gun 50 times (earlier it was only 25) and shot him in the head again. This time he did die...but it must have went through and hit his spinal cord or something because he started spazzing like none other. He flopped and thrashed and ran and convulsed like no one's business...It would be really cool...if I didn't feel so bad for it. Since it was bleeding from so many shots and flopping everywhere it got blood on the pump house, and all over the squirrel hole. It was gross. I no longer wanted to eat a squirrel...at all or kill any of the little buggers either, at least not with a crappy low caliber BB gun. I told grandpa this and he said to use the shot gun :p I still want to learn how to skin/clean a mammal though, I feel like it's a necessary wilderness survival skill that isn't really taught much. Maybe I'll try and lay some snares and eat one that way (snares are another skill I'd like to learn). Or I might make some more of those live traps with cans and mouse traps that I made earlier, idk, but grandpa's loosing fruit fast to these guys, and now that I've finally gotten really good at hunting squirrel...I don't want to hunt them anymore. Time to go work. See ya.

Alright I'm back time for part two.  I don't blame you if you stopped reading this well before this...I just kinda like to write, and it's not like there's many people to talk to over here...:P

So Grandpa can't hear anything at all anymore. Silvia cleaned his ears yesterday, and took out a but load of ear wax and made his ears stop hurting. But she must have pushed some too far in, because now he pretty much can't hear at all. LIke, I was screaming at the top of my lungs at him (not cause I was mad...just to see if I could get his attention) from just a few yards behind him, and he had no idea I was even there. He's alright at reading lips though, so we can kinda communicate if you get him looking at you. But man, it's going to be a long week next week if I  have to yell everything and repeat myself 4 or 5 times like I was today...

Evan might let me ride his motorcycle later next week! :D Which is awesome, it was one of my goals for the summer, to go dirt biking, or learn how to ride a motorcycle. It's pretty cool how these things like that come about actually. Like I prayed at the begging of the summer about what I wanted to accomplish and my goals and such and I asked for Heavenly Father's help in accomplishing everything. And slowly one by one, just about everything on my list has either been checked off, or I was given the opportunity to check it off (in wake boarding's case). These kind of tender mercies happen all the time for me, which is why I bought a scripture journal, so I could write down every time HF answers another prayer.

Oh mom guess what earlier I was taking a shower and a spider climbed up my leg as refuge and I thought of you and your cockroaches. It made me laugh. It was a pretty big spider though, and it might have bit me...I'm not sure.

I'm learning lots while I'm here! Today I made a soup in my rice cooker, you should all be proud. It overflowed and spilled through the top and I burnt my finger cleaning it up, but besides that I didn't ruin anything! 

I've learned to never go squirrel hunting in socks...I stepped on a three inch thorn...but it got stuck in my callouses at about a 1/4" through...but still...a three inch thorn! I didn't know they came in that size! Imagine if I was someone normal who didn't have giant callouses! That thing would've impaled my foot!

I've learned that the absolute best hair jell is sweat dirt and a sprinkle of cement powder. I can seriously pull off any spikey hair style I want right now, which never happens with normal jell. 

I've learned how to choose a good watermelon. You hold it to your ear, and tap it. And if it sounds like your pregnant wife's belly, then you know you've got a good one.

Anyways I should probably just send this and get to bed...I don't think anyone will make it this far anyways.

Peace. Bryce Coleman

Oh and Grandpa Walter is my favorite grandpa here. He's hilarious. That is all. Goodnight :)