The Amish Project

Dear Friends and Family,

Just recently, in fact... an hour ago. I was just winding down getting ready to go to bed, when I decided to check my fantasy basketball numbers for the day. I did not get to them, because as soon as yahoo came up the front page had something that caught my eye.

It was about Jake Reilly (ESPN's Rick Reilly's son). Jake went on a very interesting adventure. For 90 days, he went without a cell phone, email, and social media. The article that interviewed him was very well done. See for yourself! Check it out!!

He is asked about his experience and most of his answers were inspirational. He talked about how he became so much closer to those around him, and how he found out which friends of his were actually as close to him as he had thought in the first place. Jake also learned that life is meant to be lived more fully than the little devices we hold in our hands.

Seriously though, this was so amazing that I have decided that I want to give it a shot. I want to see what its like to live without all these things that occupy so much of my time. I want to try it for 90 days. Looking at a calendar, If I start on February 1st, I could finish my 90th day and be back to the "real world" by May 1st. The more I think about it the more I really truly sincerely want to give this a shot.

However, I have a few obstacles in my way... a major one is the fact that I am getting married in May, and will likely need Facebook in order to get what info I need from certain individuals, especially those in Australia. (or is that just an excuse??? perhaps that is just an excuse? I could find a way possibly to work around that.....)

Next is my calling. I haven't relied on emails all that much until I received this calling, Everyone seems to be able to contact me best through emails... again, ways could be established to overcome this barrier...

School. Unfortunately there really is no way out of this one. I NEED to be on the computer for this one because my classes all require me to use the Internet to turn in assignments and/or get a hold of the professors. Not to mention the fact that I have an online class...

But those are really the only legitimate things that come to my mind as things that would hold me back from achieving this goal. I know that part of the reason life on the mission is so enjoyable is that you really are more aware of your surroundings and less occupied with technologies and other distractions. So I know I have done it before, I would love to do it again.

I am going to go for it. Today, the 31st of January 2012, will be the last of my social media contact until May. If you need to get a hold of me... call my house. ha ha! the number is... (801) 268-2021

I feel excited to see what the next few months are like, and can't wait to report them back to everyone who is interested.

Til Next time!

Rob

Thanksgiving Part 2

As promised earlier, I will now report on dinner with Lindsey's family.

It was really nice of them to invite me along and even more nice that they understand clearly my celiac diet. Eating dinner with another family that also is experiencing the blessings of a gluten free thanksgiving meal was seriously such a blessing. I did not feel singled out whatsoever, and everything was delicious.

Even better than the food was the company. I loved meeting members of Lindsey's family that I had heard of but never met before. One of these family members was her step mom Terri. Terri seems like a great woman, and from what I can see, she is very loving and concerned for all of her family members. As should be expected when you meet the family of the girl you're dating, you are on the receiving end of a hard time. Consider it a test; you pass, and you receive approval to keep dating, you fail, and well... it'd probably make a bumpy road for the future. It was Terri, however, that completely caught me off guard with this said hard time.

She cornered me in the kitchen, and dropped the question that seemed like a bomb being dropped. "So, What do you like about Lindsey?" No matter what I said, I almost felt like it was a losing situation. If I say some grade school answer, then she might not take me seriously, yet if I churn out some beautifully-poetic-chickflicky-answer, well... then I'm going over the top. ha! I replied that "I like being around her." I hoped that would suffice, and she'd give me clearance to leave with my dessert to the other room. I was wrong, she then said, "that's not good enough, I want to hear something thoughtful and sincere." To which, I replied that she would have to "give me a bit to think about it then." (cunning, don't you think?? I thought so too....)

Somehow that night I snuck out and never had to respond to Terri's question. Later on I found myself joking around with Lindsey about it. We talked about how we knew the next time Terri and I saw each other she would pick up right where we left off. We joked about what funny responses would be. Things like how Lindsey is a good kisser, or that she is a sugar momma. Obviously I do not see myself answering in such ways, But for a moment tonight (yes I know its way past my old man scheduled bed time) for Terri, and anyone else who cares, I want to share with you just one reason why I love Lindsey Taylor.

The past couple months that we have dated have been educational for me on my part. Lindsey has taught me moments that matter most in life, are not what I've been focusing on my whole life. For example, Sports. You ask anyone, and they will tell you my life revolves around ESPN and big sporting events. Since we've started dating, my St Louis cardinals won an improbable world series. I was so excited about this remarkable accomplishment, and couldn't stop talking about the whole ordeal. Although she could see my excitement, all she ever did was laugh about fat Albert's last name. "Poo-holes!" she would laugh about it all night long! Again and again something would happen in the sports world that I would just be so stoked about for some reason or another, and she'd give me the old, "that's great rob..."

It was Lindsey that got the point across, that at the end of the day, win or lose, it all really just doesn't matter. There is more productive things to worry or get excited about than silly sport results. So this last weekend, when the Utes totally blew their chance to play in the PAC-12 championship game, instead of being completely heartbroken like I normally would have been; I simply had an outlook like "oh well... maybe next time, its all good."

That may be the worst example to illustrate my point. But I want it to be known, that Lindsey helps me every single day, to realize the importance of the things that matter most. In all that she does and says, she always points me in the direction that I should be facing. As cliche as it sounds, she knows who she is, and what she stands for. She knows what is important in life, and has prioritized her life in ways to accomplish the things that she needs to get done. That is a great standard for me to follow. For me, knowing that she is going full speed in the direction God would have her go, is one of the greatest ways I know she is the one I want to be dating right now.

This video is a Mormon message from one of my favorite talks. It shows how I feel. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

thanksgiving part 1

So the past few weeks have been pretty interesting. Truth be told, if I filled this entry with all that could or should be said, It would likely be about 3 miles long. So to be brief, I will only discuss a few things. First things first....

I have decided that my days go by so much better when my mornings are as productive as they possibly can be. Lazy days are determined in large part by the mornings that I was a slob, and of course the best days happen when continued from awesome mornings. We are all big fans of awesome days, so it became very apparent to me that my mornings need to consistently rock.

To do this, I had the idea of going to bed earlier so I could wake up earlier. A LOT earlier! My new routine has me waking up at 4:45 every morning, and depending on the day I will either swim, read scriptures, then hit the train for school, or I will skip the swim, study scriptures, then get on the train. It is still a work in progress. My inner clock is all sorts of messed up, and I'm awake when I shouldn't be, and I'm asleep when I need to be busy. But I'm hoping that soon enough I will be on track and on the old man schedule.

In other news, I got to celebrate thanksgiving twice this year. I had a meal with my own family, and I was blessed to be able to eat with part of Lindsey's family as well. Thankfully the two meals were on two different days. I ate with her family on sunday, then on thanksgiving thursday I ate with my own. I will blog about Lindsey's family outing soon enough...

The meal with my family was so great. It was so great to be able to get together with all of my mom's side of the family again. It has honestly been at least a year since we were all together at the same place at the same time. Everyone is busy living their lives in various different spots. The short time we spent together was not enough to get around and really catch up with everyone, however it felt so good knowing that everyone was alive, well, and happy. And of course we were all happy, It was thanksgiving! Its food, food, gratitude, and more food! ha!

The food, although it was a great plus, would eventually turn into a painful minus as well. Not long after our dinner did we find that most of the family that got together to celebrate thanksgiving with dinner also got food poisoning from it as well. Last night and this morning were not very pleasant. Hopefully now the worst is behind us.

Thats about as brief as things could be told for the past couple weeks.
I need to get better at this blog thing.

This is me today

DISCLAIMER

This one is for Danielle Taylor.... and anyone else actually that is curious....

My whole short leash entry below has nothing to do in any way, shape, or form to the blog just before it where I announced I was dating Lindsey. Phew! now that I've got that off my chest, I better get to something productive....

Ever feel like you're on a short leash?

I do sometimes

Behind Enemy Lines

World, I'm dating this girl. Her name is Lindsey. She went to BYU... I know, unheard of...
anyways, She is super great, I won't go on and on about her right now as I have some studying to do.
Nevertheless, here is a picture, Enjoy.