Girls Camp!!

As many of you may know I was released as the Young Women's President a couple of weeks ago. It truly has been tougher than I thought. I miss all of my girls and the leaders that I have worked with. Well this past week it was girls camp!! It was held at Heber Valley Girls Camp and it was so AMAZING!! I was only able to go up for the last day, but I had so much fun. When I first got there we went on a two mile hike, which is where I realized that I am out of shape, (I tried not to show it though). After the hike we were able to eat lunch and have some free time, where we could talk and hang out. I had so much fun hanging out with all the girls and doing crafts. Later that evening we had some awesome dutch oven dinner before testimony meeting. Testimony meeting was and has always been an incredible thing. I was so proud of my girls and the things that they shared. They have such strong spirits and are great examples to me and other girls. I am really sad that I was not able to go up for the whole week, but that one day was so much fun!!! I have loved this ward, calling, and the girls and leaders that I have had so many great experiences with.

Update

Obviously we're not the best bloggers ever seeing that it's been over a month since my last post, so I'll have to update things a bit. Not even sure where to start. Celeste and I are playing a waiting game right now. We're kind of in between a few different things right now. I'm still planning on going to Mesa, AZ and applying with the police department. They just posted their next test date which is June 28. I'll be heading down for a week or so to go through the whole testing process. There is five or six different steps in the whole process. I'm trying to prepare myself now by getting in better shape and learning as much as I can. If everything goes well and I get accepted into the POST program, I'll start the academy in January. Celeste and I have been trying to decide what to do until then. I had a phone interview the University of Phoenix to work for them as an enrollment counselor and we are waiting to hear back from them. I've heard that they are going to offer me a job, but they have to do a background check and they are still in the process of doing that. If it all goes through, we'll be moving down there as soon as possible. In the mean time, I just started a new job here a couple weeks ago working for a company called North American Services Group. They are an industrial cleaning company. Right now I'm working out at the smelter for Kennicot copper mine. It's pretty crazy out there. I have to wear a facemask with a respirator pretty much all day. I work a pretty crazy schedule too. I wake up at 4 am so I can be up there by 5. I'm supposed to get off at 2 pm but most days I'm there until 5 pm. Twice I've had to work until 10 pm and don't get home until 11:30, but the overtime pay is great. It's a pretty crazy job that I didn't think I'd ever do, but I can deal with it because it's a temporary thing. If I don't get the job at University of Phoenix, then we'll stay here and I'll find something a little less crazy. My biggest hope is that everything goes well with the police officer testing. That would be a dream come true for me. I've always pictured myself doing that. I have what I like to call a hero complex. I've always wanted to be a "hero" and help people. I'm excited and nervous about it all at the same time. As I said with all of this going on right now, we're playing a waiting game. I think we'd both like to have a baby but we feel like we need to wait until we know what's going to happen in the next year or so. I was told it's best not to have a baby while I'm in the academy because I can't miss very many days. So once I know if I get accepted or not we can know if we should wait or not. That's the latest and greatest with us. We'll keep things updated a little better as things come up. Wish us luck!

Mesa Arizona

As many of you know I was in Mesa this last weekend to check out the police department about getting a job. I went down on Thursday night and stayed with Nik and Anissa Rasheta. Nik is Noah's twin brother in case you didn't know that. That night we just spent the night talking and I asked a bunch of questions about being a police officer. Friday morning Nik and I went to the police station and he gave me a tour. I also was able to talk to a recruiting officer. She told me it's a good time to be applying. The city needs to hire 100 new officers this year so she said as long as I'm not a dough head, things look good for me. Good news. That night we picked Noah up at the airport and spent the rest of the night at home. Saturday we went and played sand volleyball for Anissa's birthday. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards we went to Anissa's sisters house and jumped in her pool. Nik and I changed there and went to the station for Nik's shift. I did a ride along with him for his entire shift, 3 pm to 1 am, that night. It was a lot of fun. It was a busy night and we kept getting call after call. We didn't really get to do anything too crazy though. We did bust a girl for possession of cocaine though. All in all it was a good night for me and it pretty much just sealed the deal for me. I'll probably go down around August/Sept to go through the testing and application process. Then I'll hopefully start the academy down there in March. I could start the academy as early as Dec. but for Celeste's sake we'll hope that I can start a few months later. In the end it was a lot of fun. I loved the city and the area down there and think it's the perfect place to live for Celeste and I. Big thanks to Nik and Anissa for letting me come and stay with them and for taking care of me for the weekend.

Hiking with Dodger

About a week ago before the cold weather came I took Dodger with me up to the foothills in PG and we did a little hiking. We hiked up Grove Creek canyon one day and then up Battle Creek canyon on another day. It was actually a lot of fun. I forgot how much I really love the mountains. Dodger had a great time being able to run free and not be confined to a leash. He did really good about not running to far and staying with me most of the time. There was only once when he got away from me and I thought he was gone. When we went up Battle Creek we hiked to the top of "G" mountain. There were deer all over the place but they were far enough away that they didn't tempt Dodger. Once we got to the top we came around a corner and surprised about 10 deer. They took of running and Dodger followed. I tried to keep up but there was no way. No sign of the deer or dodger. I walked in the direction they ran for about 10 minutes calling Dodger until I finally heard his tags ringing and he finally came back. All in all it was a lot of fun and we plan on doing a lot more hiking this summer.

Nate's Update

Hey everyone, just thought I'd write a little bit and update everyone on what's going on in my life. As some of you may know, I've been working for a occupational health and safety company performing site inspections and other various duties for mostly construction companies. I've been doing it since October now, but I really don't enjoy it that much. A couple weeks ago I realized one day how unhappy I was working there and how it was beginning to affect the other aspects of my life. It made start to think about what I really wanted to do for a career and I came to the conclusion that it's time to move on with life and start working on a career I'm going to love. For almost as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a police officer (just like every little boy trying to be a hero). Well, looking at some other options and a lot of contemplating, I've decided that that's exactly what I'm going to be. I'm going to become a police officer. I've talked with several officers here in Utah about their job, and kind of got the scoop on how things work here. I also talked to a police officer down in Mesa, Arizona about the ins and outs in Arizona. Next week I'm taking a trip down there to talk to an officer face to face about it. The way things look now, Celeste and I will be moving down there in about a year or so, and I will try to get on the department there. There are a lot of advantages in going down there then staying here. They pay more, benefits are better, better departments, and they pay me while I go to the academy. Here I have to pay $6000 to go to the academy. I'm really excited about it. I get anxious everytime I think about it. I don't know if I can wait a year. I would love to go now, but we have to wait for Celeste to graduate. I'll update things as time goes by, but that's the direction I'm heading in for now. Here's a link to the Mesa Police Department if anyone wants to go check it out: http://www.cityofmesa.org/pdjobs/default.aspx

**Assistant Manager**

Today I met with my boss and he gave me a promotion!! I am now officailly the assistant manager at Allyse's Bridal. I got a raise and will get bonuses if the store does well. I am so excited! I love my job and hope that I will be a good assistant manager! :)