a blog well past due

with the arrival of all my siblings into town, life living on my computer slowed down enough that i didn't want to waste the time typing out a blog when i could be taking pictures of my nieces and nephews. the following is a photo journal/blog of the past week with all my family in town:

the journey started in idaho falls. jon, tina, and co finished their tour of california and arrived friday night almost exactly when emily and i arrived. the parents followed shortly after the following day. while in idaho, we ate, laughed, cried, and smelled jonny's farts, but mainly just laughed. michelle and i sang in church, and i traveled home a day early to be back for work on monday. highlight photos from idaho:

baby jonas



maryn parading in her swimsuit



seth playing in the sprinklers



maryn looking oh so good (you'll see soon that she's my favorite girl to take pictures of)



i have found out that the two older nephews (zane and seth) both have nicky characteristics. while zane looks like i did when i was his age, seth kind of has my personality.

zane and i on michelle and brandon's bed:



i wish we would have taken pictures of me working in the garden for proof! but michelle will verify that i helped her with her tomatoes.

here is seth and maryn helping in the garden




seth and zane were getting a kick out of this shrek toy that would belch or fart. whatever the noise was, it got them laughing.



then maryn joining in on the fun, as always!



then a nice sunset to end the evening of fun



the week continued onward, children laughed, children cried, children slept, and then children cried some more over whatever toy it was that hour. at the end of the day, seth and maryn showed me who was boss!



seth sporting his armor



two of my favorites of maryn






the week steadily continued onward. saturday came, and the big trellis project has started. this time i have proof that i was working! the post digging was kind of a nightmare.



while i slaved away, the kids got to play in the water.













saturday was complete. sunday was a nice day to relax. michelle and i sang again in my ward this time. then the rest of the day was left to prepare for the next day. the posts had been set, and now was the time to finish brandon's creative brainchild for grandma gigi.

michelle and i did some drilling....





and the kids got otter pops.








while i just got dirty



and maryn was distressed, haha.



and then the project was finished!!!




needless to say, we had a lot going on the whole time everyone was together. as much as i joke about the day that they all go home, i really do enjoy having everyone together. our family has never all spent so much time working on one project. we must love grandma gigi so much :). but it was a huge accomplishment for us stone kids! (and bumbpa) it did help to have a good foremen keeping us in line, and making sure we didn't ruin anything, but i was proud. i was glad that i was able to take the time off work to just be around. so to jon and michelle, come anytime you want. just know that when you go, i'll be happy that you're leaving and looking forward to the next time we can all be together again.

fun with photography

my myspace astrology message for the day

I came across this on myspace today. Pretty close to me actually...

LIBRA - The Partner for Life
Caring and kind. Smart. Center of attention. High appeal. Good to find, hard to keep. Fun to be around. Extremely weird but in a good way. Good Sense of Humor! Thoughtful. Always gets what he or she wants. Loves to joke. Very popular. Silly, fun and sweet.

my life vs. his life

yesterday after I finished my work out and swim, i hopped in the hot tub to kill time before I had to meet madison and whitney for the ozma concert. while doing so i noticed the cute little (5'5" maybe) mexican man who I just saw cleaning up the locker room enter the pool room with a little bucket and mop as he began his daily routine in the pool area. here I am--a 21 year old punk college student who has the kind of money to burn on a monthly gym pass and go to concerts whenever the heck i want to while this cute little old man is probably supporting some sort of family by the money he makes for being a custodian at gold's gym.

this raises a few questions and thoughts fill my mind:

1. is this his dream life when he decided to come to america?
2. should i feel sorry that at age 50, a man who probably had hopes and dreams as a young 21 year old is working a crappy dead end job and probably will for the remainder of his life?
3. should i feel guilty that I can enjoy the things i enjoy when obviously there are people even here in our country who can't enjoy some of the perks and entertainment i enjoy?
4. maybe he has kids who are thriving in the american public school system and sacrificing pretty much his whole life for them is good enough for him.

sometimes i just don't think it's fair that some are born into money and wealth and others are born into complete and utter poverty. why was it determined that one person would be born into terrible circumstances and fear for when their next meal will be when others' main worries involve where they're going on their next big vacation or what new outfit they are going to wear to next week's party.

it just seems a bit lop-sided to me, that's all.

summer, summer, summertime

one conclusion i've made about myself many years ago that still holds strong today is the fact that i am constantly busy, and in fact need that consistency of business in my life to stay normalized. as much as i enjoy the few hours I might have to relax in the basement and watch one of my netflix, i can only do that for so long.

take this week for example: i told my friend who is the drama teacher at the jr. high that i would sweeten her tracks for seussical. a rather large undertaking i soon found out...especially after no one really could or wanted to help out with their voices. so it ended up being me singing through every part (including the womens--just pitch shifting the audio to the correct octave) for the 8 songs I sweetened. It was long, and at some moments crappy, but also a ton of fun. on top of that i had to prepare my computer to take it up to the movie theatre to basically hardwire it into the projector. I had no idea what i was doing. We bought a special card for my computer and in order for me to feel prepared i had to read the manual. If anyone has a question about the KONA 3 video card now, I can probably answer it. We went up this morning and had a very successful trip! Now we can have an actual premiere of Firecreek in the weeks to come.

On top of that, I have three other projects including one I'm finishing up for the Psychology department today, a marriot school promo video, and the Hinckley visitor center kiosks to get the media prepared.

then there's my regular daily trip to the gym. i'm now swimming every other day with cycling on the days i don't swim along with a 15-30 minute run depending on how much energy i have left (because sometimes the gym is the last thing i do for the day).

i have new york in a month, a trip to idaho falls to sing with michelle in a few weeks, Julius Caesar things to start preparing for (okay not really for another month probably), movie releases to catch (mainly 3's: pirates 3, spiderman 3, and shrek 3). concerts to go to, people to hang out with, and hopefully here soon a new place to be living closer to campus to make all of the above a little easier on myself. oh! and maybe (if i can save enough money along with trying to save for the following school year) a trip to visit jon at his new house in august!

a lot of things, i think, but i wouldn't have it any other way. i almost NEED the crammed life style. maybe it's because i am a part of the ADD generation and need something constantly happening to maintain sanity. let the summer games begin!