Merry Merry Christmas!!!

So for our first official Christmas together as husband and wife I decided to make Corey and I matching Christmas socks. Corey grew up having a stocking that his mother had made for him. Due to current circumstances, of all of their stuff being in storage, they can't find those stockings. I have never really had my own Christmas sock, that I can remember. My mom always just use the same socks and we got whatever we got. When Santa brought the toys our names would be pined to them on a Christmas tag. So, I am very excited to finally have my own Christmas stocking and they even turned out cute.
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Story of Stuff

I recommend this to anyone and everyone!  Our awareness needs to be heightened!  Please share with all.

www.storyofstuff.com

Photo contest winner!!!!

So, my dearest Jentri submitted this photo into a competition and won! She got first place in the peer voting and second in the professional voting. Overall my sweetheart won 70 dollars! I am so very proud of her.

Are Mormons Really Christians?

I have found it an interesting observation of how there are more people who are christian, but are better christians than LDS people. I am astounded at how un-christian most members of the LDS faith are. They are well known to be judgmental, unaccepting, and socially inept to being open minded. It seems as if they are so stuck on judging on the moral aspect of others that they forget about the ethical side of things. It seem as though ethics have gotten thrown out the windows! In the LDS faith they teach that we should live our life more like our savior, Jesus Christ. In so doing we should treat others as we would like to be treated. One shall not judge another, thankfully judgement is the responsability of our savior, he is the one who knows the thoughts of our hearts. Just because there is one of the mormon faith who is not quite living up to the standards that you hold up to them doesn't give you the right to disown, or try to correct their ways. As children of God we are given agency to choose. Throughout life choices are made, good, bad, somewhere in between...... They all have to be made. Through choice, lessons are learned and our adventure of life is played out. Most choices are made blindly, by faith. We do not know before hand the things God has planned for us. Everything in our life occurs for a reason and a purpose. The reason or purpose may not be immediatly clear but will be revealled to you through time and the journey. I am saddened when I watch someone of my "christian" faith pass a uneducated judgment on someone without a seconds hessitation. I do not believe that our father in heaven wants us to judge people but rather situations and things. He wants us to seek happiness and find joy. This is the purpose of our lives here on earth. We should all encourage those around us to find happiness no matter what it is. Even if it has nothing to do with religion. As far as happiness goes with religion........ there are so many out there that can make one happy. I have found my preference and I encourage others to find theirs. As well I like to share my happiness with others, but I will not shove my views down another's throat. That is a whole other post.

BOZEMAN!!!!

We are here at the competition and having a blast! I am working on homework upstairs here at the gym and thought that I would give you a little post while I had some time.

Craig, Ryan, & Chema (this is a boy's name he's a friend of Nate's) showed up last night around 5 o'clock and met up with Corey at Sticks(FYI:this is a climbing gym in Rexburg called Sticks and Stones. Corey lives here when he's not at school or at home). Jared and Jessica showed up around 3pm, I think, and went to Sticks with Corey also. We all went to dinner at BIG Jud's, a local eatery, and enjoyed the 1 lb of beef burger affectionately called the BIG JUD. Then we went home and watched a climbing video, which is the usual for a competition weekend, and they stayed up til midnight talking about climbing, also typical for a climbing weekend.

We left Rexburg around 8:30 and headed off to Bozeman, Montana; a climbing down with a college problem (just kidding). We arrived sometime after my nap and before the competition so that everyone could register and headed to The CO-OP, a funky little/LARGE grocery store that has organic everything and some really cool stuff. People grabbed food and we headed back to the comp right before it started at 1pm.

They apparently climb for 4 hours and get ranked according to their top 5 climbs and their point values(I may need to retract my statement if I find out other wise). They stand "in line" by putting their place cards in a pile and whoever is one top goes first. The gym is full of tons of climbers and techno music, it's actually really cool. Corey is right when he says that the energy here is amazing because it really is. Imagine being on that hyper high you get every once in a while; usually from staying up too late with friends, where you are silly and just so full of energy you don't know what to do with yourself. Now imagine adding techno music to it and having it last for four HOURS!!! If you can imagine that then you can get close to the feeling of the Bozeman competition.

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Five hours later...
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After everyone climbed 'til they were too tired to move. They then started the Dyno competition and the slack line competition while we waited for them to tally the scores. Craig made the top five and went on to finals. Finals are done by isolation, which means that all of the participants are not allowed in the room where the routes are. They come in as a group and have 3 minutes to look at the route, touch the starting holds and decide how to attempt it. It was actually really funny because all of the guys that were in the finals were friends and they were all giving each other tips, when in the real world they wouldn't. Craig made it up the first route but only part way up the second. His friend, Mike McClure, topped out both routes and won the open category over all.

After the competition was over we headed to Arby's for dinner and then started our 4 hour drive home. It was wet and icy and we didn't get home until 2 o'clock in the morning. Yay for really long road trips. And we get to do it all again next year.