What friends are for

Two years ago this past weekend would have been filled with dressing up in costumes, going to dance parties, eating all the candy that I could hold down, and washing down the candy with ice cold root beer while staying up until four in the morning. Now that I've gotten married, things have slightly changed....in a good way.

The weekend started off great with our team winning our last flag football game of the season on Friday night. It's been tradition this year to go to Denny's afterwards and reward ourselves with our outstanding play (even though we only won half of our games this year, we still like to give ourselves a pat on the back). Then comes Saturday, the day that is supposed to be set aside as my designated homework day. Instead of homework though, two of my best friends and I decided to go fishing up at Strawberry reservoir. It was a good decision. I feel like I haven't taken too many weekends off from school this semester and fishing was exactly what I needed. I've really only been fishing about three times in my life, as opposed to my friends who are pretty experienced fishers, but who could pass up a good relaxing trip to hangout with some old time buddies for the day. On the way up, we stopped at a gas station to fill up on snacks and junk food and just talked about old times as roommates. When we got the the reservoir, we set up our poles and headed off to our spots to catch some trout. Within half an hour, Nate had the first bite and ended up reeling in a good 20 inch or so rainbow trout. Nate (who is definitely the most experienced fisher out of us three) got the second bite of the day and called me over to come real in the fish. As I was reeling the fish in, we realized how big this sucker was. After a good 5 minutes of tiring the fish out, we got it to shore and labeled it the "trophy fish" of the week. It was a big 24 inch cut throat trout. Even though Nate did the work of getting the fish hooked, he still labeled the trout "Aaron's fish". It was kind of cool because it was the definitely the biggest fish that I've reeled in from anything outside of the ocean. Even though it wasn't really my catch, he let me take the pole and real in the biggest catch of the weekend. I guess that's what friends are for. The rest of the day was filled with a few hours of only a couple more bites, some chilly weather, and a lot of time to think while staring at my bobber to see if any fish were taking the bate.

Even though this weekend wasn't filled with dance parties, haunted houses, candy, and soda, I still had the best weekend because of the time spent with friends, family, and my best friend, Jilly, who I was with pretty much the whole time--except for fishing--sorry Jilly, guys only. Who needs dance parties and costumes on Halloween weekend when you have friends and a wife like mine--who really make every weekend the best weekend.

The balancing act

This past week has been stressful. The week was filled with tests, homework assignments, projects, and work. I didn't get to see to much of my wife or my friends throughout the week either. Good thing that we  have Sunday.

Tonight Jill and I went over to her sister's house to celebrate our niece's birthday. We had to dress up in costumes because the birthday party had a Halloween theme to it. I loved seeing how excited our niece was to see everyone arrive to the party all dressed up in costumes for the night and to see her try and figure out what everyone was dressed up as. What I thought was more fun though was actually dressing up for the party. I honestly haven't gotten all dressed up in a Halloween costume in a long time. It brought back memories from High School and from my freshman year here at BYU....ahh the good ol' days. 

What I love most about these family get-togethers on my wife's side of the family are the games and prizes. Tonight, we had a dance contest, a contest to see who could throw the most pennies into a jack-o-lantern, and, my favorite, a contest to see who could stack three golf balls on top of each other the fastest. The golf ball contest was my favorite. It took a lot of concentration and a lot of time, but I was able to finally do it. I knew a lot of people probably wouldn't believe me when I told them about the balancing act but here's the proof...

Yep, that's three golf balls stacked one of top of the other. It can be done!

Gift from a Stranger

Recently, Jill and I have been trying hard to get to know the people around us. We live in a little 8-plex apartment and within the past month or so, we have had about six vacant apartments filled with new neighbors. We have gone out to dinner with one of the couples, have had the girl downstairs over for dinner, and tonight we had our two neighbors from Central America over for dinner. I've really enjoyed meeting our new neighbors and becoming friends with them.

We had a lot of left over brownies after tonight's dinner. So we decided to take them to the last neighbor's house who we haven't had the chance to meet yet. They just moved in and from the sounds of it, they didn't know too many of the neighbors.They seemed pretty happy to meet me...or....maybe they were happy to get some delicious peanut butter chocolate chunk brownies. Either way, I'm glad that I was able to reach out to our neighbors and bring them something nice.

Reflecting back on my childhood, I remember doing this same thing around Christmas time. That year, my family was trying to think of who to do the "12 days of Christmas" for. The "12 days of Christmas" is the concept of giving a gift to family member or friend for each of the 12 days before Christmas. That year, we decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for my aunt, Yvonne. She was about 80 years old or so and lived alone. Starting on the 14th of December, my family would bring a gift each day to my aunt Yvonne all the way up until Christmas day. When we left a gift, it was usually just me, my brothers, and my sister. We would quietly tip-toe from our car up to her front door, knock on the door, leave the gift and hide behind her fence. It was funny to us kids how Yvonne would always look around her apartment door for the person dropping off the gifts each night. Little did we know how much of an impact it had on her. Within the next year, Yvonne passed away. As our family was cleaning out her apartment, my mom stumbled across a letter that was written by Yvonne. The letter was intended for her "secret friends" who dropped off gifts each day leading up to Christmas. Tears filled my mom's eyes as she read the letter that was written out of love for these "strangers."

It's amazing how a small unanticipated gift can bring someone so much happiness. A couple of brownies from me to my new neighbors may seem like nothing. But who knows, maybe those brownies are just what they needed.

nieces and nephews

It's amazing how many titles that you take on when you marry into a new family. When I got married, I was instantly someone else's new son, grandson, brother, cousin, and uncle. The title that I love the most is uncle. On my side of the family, I don't have any nieces or nephews. But since my wedding, I now have 6 nieces and nephews on my wife's side of the family. They are quite the joy in life. On Friday night, I got to babysit one of my nieces and one of my nephews. My little two year old nephew, Edge (it's a different name but I like it), followed me around everywhere I went. It was like having a mini me in the house for a few hours. If I was on the couch watching the BYU football game and he wanted my attention, he would pull my fingers and drag me around the house wherever he wanted to go. It was fun to see his sense of wonder that he had. I tried to put myself in his shoes and see the world through his eyes and let me tell you, life is great at age two. We had some good bonding time while we were together. It's an exciting thought for me to be able to watch these kids grow up even though I'm not part of their "blood related" family.

 I was at another sister in laws house tonight for sunday dinner. They have been married for about seven years and have three kids. One of the little girls, Gracie, and I were playing on the couch together and she looked at me and said, "Anon (it's her way of saying Aaron) you're my favorite aunt!" Everyone in the room just busted up laughing. She realized what she said was wrong and changed her statement to "uncle". It was pretty funny. I may not really be her favorite uncle (or aunt for that matter), but tonight was my night to be the favorite.

Even though I've only known these kids for a short period of time, I love them like they were my own. They are just a little extra light for me and my wife to have each week when we visit them over the weekends to play. I love having them in my life because they seem to teach me new things every time I'm with them and instill within me a sense of wonder that I have seemed to have lost since being a little boy.

Gratitude

The last five or so years of my life has changed me dramatically. Just over five years ago, I was in high school and I had no idea what direction my life was heading in. More importantly, I had no idea how many blessings were in store for me. I started off my senior year of high school by earning my Eagle Scout, an accomplishment that I never thought I would achieve. Around November time in 2005, I was accepted into BYU, which to me, was a long shot. I also graduated high school and found a job going into my first year at BYU. While at BYU my freshman year, I received my mission call to serve in the New York Utica Mission. I was ecstatic at the chance to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ for two years of my life out East and considered it to be a great opportunity and blessing. The principles that I learned and growth that I experienced  while on my mission has changed my life forever and has helped me gain a more eternal perspective on life. About a year after I got home from my mission, I met the woman of my dreams, Jill Dutson, and we got married on 20 November 2010. I consider this the greatest blessing of my life, and I always will. I was also blessed with the abilities to start a small window washing business and learn some of the basic skills of business and networking. I'm so full of gratitude for these blessings that I have received over the past years. I would have never imagined myself in the position that I am in now when I was a senior in high school just over five years ago. I am grateful for the God who gave me life and who continues to support me in everything that I do. For all of these blessings that I have received and that I continue to receive, I owe it to Him, my Father in heaven.