A good week to be an American / BYU fan

A very very good week indeed. Once again though it feels like the beginning of this week was forever ago. BUT the beginning of this week was a very stressful time for many here in this country. I believe this applies to both sides of the polls. Stress was high for sure. Yes, whatever happens will happen and we will be taken care of either way by our Father in Heaven, but man it was hard to have hope when I would drive to and from work with Harris/Walz signs staring me in the face and anti-trump propaganda everywhere. Tuesday rolled around and I worked that night so lucky me I watched the whole dang election all night long. Honestly, no stress when it came to. Trump ended up so far ahead that it was a miraculous breath of fresh air. 

This is the only picture I have of that night and obviously this was still early enough that many swing states weren't announced, but I believe almost all the swing states went red. Trump won the popular vote as well and it was a good night to be a true American. With social media - all you ever see is the evil. The woke people of the left arguing for what they believe to be is women's rights and freedom for this country, but in reality it's all evil. It can be discouraging when that's all you see, but it was very cool to see how many good and smart people we do still have in this country. One thing I loved was so many counties in California turned red this election. I believe Trump gained the vote of over 40% of California which is the most any republican has ever received. I believe Heavenly Father had his hand in this election, just like he plays a huge part in all of our lives everyday. Moving on...

Wednesday afternoon I treated myself to a good ole micro-needling session and got this fancy little mask on afterwards to increase oxygenation and healing. I honestly loved it other than the fact that I looked like I belonged in a haunted house. 

That night Erin dropped this off for me. She was heading home from a doctors appointment and told me she had something for me. When she got to my house she said "Since you are a BYU fan now, I thought you needed something to wear while watching the games" Its honestly such a "Laynee" shirt. She knows me well, that's for sure. 

Since Im on night shift schedule still - Ive been staying up super late and sleeping through half the day. This all worked out perfectly though because Jesse is working red-eyes at the moment so we started hanging out at 8pm and she did leave my house till 3:30am haha. 

We called this night - Painting and Politics. Ive had this paint by number in my room for almost a year and Im not the patient artistic type so I wanted some help to get it finished. We chatted, painted and watched political YouTube videos all night long haha. 

got a little Saturday late morning run in. I hear Siri say "text message from Pops: You out on a run?" So I snapped this pic mid jog. The creepy part was when I stopped to walk further up ahead dad texted me "Oh looks like I slowed you down" haha I laughed. It was nice to get out. My body actually felt pretty decent. I stopped to walk twice for a minute or two, but for the most part ran the whole three miles. The only thing that sucked was coming off being sick I still had some mucus blocking my airway which makes running difficult as you can imagine. It was a nice sunny, 45 degree day though so I'll take the sunshine and some outside activity. The rest of my Saturday at the time was shaping up to look like some homework and heading to a friends that night to watch the BYU game. Once I got home from my run I got a FaceTime from Erin. (Erin was given tickets to the game for her and her family) She was literally still in her shower towel and says "You want to come to the game tonight?!" Her brother in law decided to go on a hunt that night instead of the game so a ticket opened up and I took it. This season I have since become fairly enthralled with BYU football. They are having a pretty dang good season as is, but I do find it admirable the good people they are and the way they have reached out to my friend. BUT tonight was against Utah and Im pretty sure everyone and their dog knows about this game that's about to go down. I mean the freeway is lined with billboards about this rivalry. So I was excited. The only bummer is it was a late and cold game. 8:15pm start time up at rice-eccles stadium with a starting temperature of 40 degrees I think. 

We got up to SLC and were welcomed by the vulgarity of the Utah fans. Many phrases such as F BYU and F you mormons were said repeatedly. If I didn't already despise (hate is a bad word, but honestly hate), the people in SLC before, I do now. I know there are a lot of good people, but like I said earlier it's the annoying ones that are always seen and heard and those are the people I can't stand. We scurried up to our seats in the mostly BYU section and didn't really leave that area till after the game. FYI some quick facts: BYU last beat UT in 2021, but the craziest thing is BYU hasn't beat UT at rice-eccles since 2006! So between that and the fact that BYU is undefeated this year it was kind of a heavy pressure game. Anyways - the game was gnarly. A very back and forth game with not many touchdowns. BYU did have a kickoff return touchdown which was pretty dang awesome. Other than that the score was 21-10 for Utah at half time. I was pretty bummed the middle half of the game. It was cold and we were losing and I was dreading leaving the stadium with a bunch of (insert bad words) idiots. After halftime BYU's defense kicked it up a notch and held UT at 21. We were able to get a touchdown, but missed the two point conversion leaving the score at 19-21. With a two minutes to go BYU had the ball, but could not get a dang first down. Between a couple time outs and flags BYU had a couple 3rd down chances and finally started to advance the ball. At the 44 yard line and only seconds left BYU went for the field goal and freaking got it. Pulled out the win and boy did the blue crowd go wild. I loved seeing all the red people just sit in silence. And I know it's just football, but like the election, Id like to think Heavenly Father cares. I especially think BYU is doing so well literally for Erin. As we were all cheering I overheard her as she was hugging her dad say something to the effect of she was so happy she was alive to experience this night. So yeah. I will continue to think that BYU and Heavenly Father are working together to have a good season for Erin. Man it was a fun night. We waved goodnight to all the Ute fans as they left the stadium and we all stayed to cheer and sing the fight song with the football players. Lots of modern day miracles this week ahah. 

Me and my second family. 

good good memories were made and stoked on being there in person to witness that crazy game. The game itself didn't get over till after midnight then with staying longer to soak it all in and the traffic trying to get out - I didn't get home till 2am. Worth it. I told Erin if you woulda told me last year that in a year Id be willingly freezing my butt off to cheer for BYU I woulda laughed. Shout out to the hursts for making me a sports fan. Go cougs.