Ride for the Brand

  Where to begin.  After a few changes, things have stayed the same.  BJ is working at Marketstar in Ogden for a new Google campaign, Liz is doing nails still, and Brinley and Wyatt are rotten as ever.  For any interested, we were coerced into entering the dutch oven competition at the Davis County Fair August 20th, so go ahead and stop by to make us a little nervous.  It's our first one.   We're moving closer and closer to being able to get a home of our own, that's pretty exciting.  As far as everything else, about the same, but like the Man In Black said, I guess things happen that way.  We were able to go to the amazing U2 concert in May.  We were 20 feet from the stage and they walked over us on the bridge a few times.  Great experience.   Our wonderful sister Erin let us take care of her house while she and Ryan were gone, now that's what I call trust.  They and so many others do so much for us.   At times I feel like there needs to be a great movement for some

     One of the most important things in life is doing what you think you should be doing.  It's also one of the hardest things to learn.  When you think that you've done all you can, you find that you still have  good way to go.  Or you find that all you've done has been for the benefit of someone who needed you when you were there, and you don't realize what you've done before it's too late to thank them for allowing you the opportunity to help.  In life there are two choices that ultimately decide the direction you go for a little while.  You can choose to go by what will keep you in your comfortable bubble with the illusion of safety, or you can choose to take a chance on something with no guarantees and break that bubble, risking the safety you imagine is yours.  Either way, you reap what you sow.  You either end up with what you thought you always wanted, mediocrity and the thrill of being average and ordinary, or the satisfaction of knowing that you actua

Wheew, talk about a lapse in post's! A couple years ago, I (Liz) made a plaque that says: "Ride for the Brand". And we had a few people ask what it meant, I have been thinking about it lately so I'm going to tell you where I got it from and what it means... Because I can :)   The history of the American West is filled with these kinds of phrases that reveal the nature of the men and women who came west.  "Ride for the brand" in the words of the western writer, Louis L'Amour, was "an expression of loyalty to a man's employer or the particular outfit he rode for.  It was considered a compliment of the highest order in an almost feudal society.  If a man did not like a ranch or the way they conducted their affairs he was free to quit, and many did, but if he stayed on, he gave loyalty and expected it."  I like to think about this phrase, in the terms of F