The run in with Jeff

I dwelt in a tent

2011-03-22T21:10:00.018-06:00

Some say that I am crazy others just laugh, but I am happy as I have been in a long time. No I don't have a girl friend... I have Jimmer! Yes what you see is true. I have been waiting in lines for weeks in a tent in cold weather with snow and everything to have a chance to see BYU Basketball and the number one player in the country play Jimmer Fredette.

Every week is a new experience as I await the moment to see the team play. Making signs at two in the morning or playing Jam ball at the hoop we bring up to put next to our tent. It is heaven or as we like to call it "Camp Cougar". This is the area at the very front of the line. Number 1 in front of as many as 100+ tents. We cook, watch TV in our tent, have our heaters and warm sleeping bags. How do we have electricity? Well we will say a magician never reveals his secrets. Basically Camp Cougars is heaven on earth.

Why do we do this other than the obvious reason that we get to see one of the best teams in the country play? Well we have front row seats every game where we get to jam to Kanye West's "Power" as the team is introduced. We have been on every TV station in the country. I have been interviewed live on KSL radio and by 3 other news stations. We make signs for every game that are featured on New York Times, Washington Post, and other news papers. (Trent Boulter is the one by the way that has made all of those appearances in the news paper) We were at the front of a 5,000 plus flashmob by the BYU students. (Check it out on Youtube) Plus it is the best way to have fun! I also got to live my dream of being part of the promotion to do the lay up and three pointer challenge. I conquered it and was one of about 5 people this whole year to successfully do the challenge. The next Jimmer will I become? No, but I felt like him hitting the 3 with out a movement of the net!

So after seeing all of the home games basically from the front of the Marriott Center what is next? The Road!!! Yes I have now traveled to the Mountain West conference Championships in Las Vegas with my dad where we saw the Jimmer drop 52 points against New Mexico. (More points than any NBA and NCAA player this year) But why end there. The following weekend I found my adventures taking me to Denver where I saw the BYU cougars dismantle next years conference companion Gonzaga! (PS lets say I dislike their fans very much) So New Orleans? No can't afford that one, but if Houston comes in to play look for me on National TV in Houston!

I love the Cougars and my family for dealing with my obsession! Go Cougars and Jimmer Fredette!

Why I am a nerd two!

2010-02-28T23:04:00.004-07:00

So here is just a quick up date on nerdyness of Jeff Hammond.

So I thought this girl was cute in church a couple of weeks ago and so I randomly talked to her through out the day and then we had sunday school together and so I was like I can go sit next to her and talk and stuff. Well as I walk up to sit next to her my friends were like come sit by us. I stuttered and said I wanted to go sit closer. They caught my drift and then laughed. So I went up and asked her if I could site next to her and when I sat down I sat right between two seats because I was nervous to sit next to her. haha So all my friends started to laugh at me after that even more. So much for that.

Next example would have to be when my physics TA called me a nerd. Yes you heard it a TA or someone that is majoring in Physics of all subjects called me a nerd. I thought that was the ultimatum. I think it has to do with my gaining weight example after you are married. So the larger your mass the more attractive force you have on other objects. So if you are ever gaining more weight you can just say to your spouse that you are just trying to attract them more. I know lame, but I thought it was way funny!

I love you all and the next post wont be about nerds.

The Nerd With In

2010-01-19T16:51:00.006-07:00

Okay! So what is a nerd?

nerd |nərd| noun informala foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious : one of those nerds who never asked a girl to dance
Well I would not say that I am a "Total" nerd, but yes I have my nerdy days. I like the description they give here at the end of the definition of a nerd. "one of those nerds who never asked a girl to a dance" Well I asked girls to dances but only because I had two older sisters that would kill me if I didn't! (thank you)
I would like to explain today how I am a nerd. I kind of like the idea of being a nerd, if that is not nerdy enough. I love how over the semester I would not only have my back pack completely full but I also had a BYU grocery bag that I would carry more books in so I would have them all for school. You know what I am talking about too. Those kids that have a backpack the size of the sun and yet they still have another bag to carry everything else. This is even if they don't need them they still carry the books. Soooooo me. Too bad I don't have a photo of me walking around campus with all my stuff.
Next in my perfection of nerdyness I have taken up bike riding to school everyday. Even in bad weather I like going to school on the bike. I am saving money and the ride is fun. I pull my pant leg up on one side so it wont get caught in the chain and then I notice when I am heading home I still have not rolled my pant leg down. There are pros and cons to this. First the cons are the fact that I have had my pant leg up all day and I have walked around campus with it up, but the pro is that I don't have to roll it up again.

Well next when you think of nerd you think of chemistry, physics, and math. Well I am doing good here because I only really like physics. It is interesting to see how the world works, which then makes me also like chemistry I guess (just not at BYU). Then in order to like all of these you must like math, so I am starting to even like math. Okay so strike out again.

Now I am not saying I am a "total" nerd but it is funny to look at my days and see how nerdy I really am sometimes. Now I have never really kept my pant leg up for a whole day, but I have for a couple of hours and more than once. We all do corky things and that is what I want to point out. We are all weird and different. So next time you see a "nerd" think to yourself how nerdy are you!

SUMMER AND EFY!

2009-07-21T19:22:00.009-06:00

Summer has been cruising along and I have been working every week of it. It has been a blast though. I have been doing sport camps and EFY! It is so funny to work both of the camps. Why I say that is because of the personalities that come to the both of the camps.

Sport camps for example- They come and they are always tired. They care about girls some but are not to into them and they want to go and eat food all of the time. They are always asking when they can go eat or go somewhere they can eat.

EFY- They are girl crazy and they like to hook up the consolers with all of the other consolers and they always have energy. But the spirit is strong and a lot of changing goes on for the youth and they grow a ton in the spirit. It is so great.

Funny stories now. So one week we are at the first devotional and the speaker says we should get to know someone who is next to us. Well I told all my boys that I would like to get to know a girl that was sitting down a ways. Well they told me now to worry about it and that they would take care of it. Well knowing 16 year old boys and the hormones that they posses I was a bit worried. They came up a couple of hours later and they told me I had a dance with her. Well the dance happened that night and by the time I asked this girl to dance all of my boys and girls in my group were in on it and all the boys and girls in her group were in on it. So when we danced they circled us like it was our wedding dance or something and then my boys had bought a key chain for the girl to give my that said "I (Heart) Jeff". So that was embarrassing. But they were so happy to see us dance it was a blast.

Next story is today I spent two and half hours looking for one of my sport camp kids because he disappeared. So I walked the campus like 3 times. It stunk and it turned out that he went with his mom to do something and told no one what he was doing. So that stunk. I was worried he left because he did not feel like he fit in or something like that. But all was good and we found him safe and sound.

Well life is good and I hope to be writing very soon again.

Sport Camps!

2009-06-23T14:43:00.006-06:00

So due to a crazy spring class schedule I have postpone any blogging until now. So hope this continues to work. So due to great demand from people I am going to talk about one of my jobs this summer. That would be sports camps if you did not notice according to my title. I have had a lot of different camps so far. Basketball, Swimming, Football and the Father and Sons camp. But by far the hardest and funniest was Football.

So my name is Jeffrey. If anyone on BYU campus dose not know that now I would be very surprised. To explain think of a high pitched crow of a bird and then put my name to that pitch and there you go, you now understand how my name was pronounced through the whole week by my campers. So any where we were or anytime I was spotted by one of my campers I received a warm and loud reassurance that my name is Jeffrey.

12 is the recored and no one beat that. What am I talking about you might asked, well that would be the amount of phone numbers one of my campers got. Yes there was a contest going on between them and how many numbers they could get. They had a point system. If you got one, then you received a point, if you got turned down you lost a point. If you got a college students phone number then you received Five points. If you used a pick up line that was a extra point. So 12 was the recored of phone numbers and the count I believe was about 17 points.

So after a fun week of being a human barricade to stop my kids from storming the top floor with pillows and then having the police almost called and chilling with my guys at the creamery talking about girls and late nights hanging out in there rooms talking guy talk the job is going well and the camps are great!

LONG TIME!

2009-05-10T21:24:00.007-06:00

Okay so it has been a long time. Sorry, life is just busy as always and to be honest not much to talk about over the past couple of weeks and stuff. So I am going to give a short synopus of what has been happening in my life.

First California- So I spent a couple of days in California and went to Knott's Berry farm and the beach and the cool places you can go while in California. It was a blast. I went with my 4 girl friends Nikki, Anna, Whitney and Emile. It was a blast. I will say though guys make sure you have another guy to go with when you go on a trip. You need a buddy who see things in a guys perspective and wants to go on all the big rides all of the time! ;) Don't get me wrong girls are amazing, but there is a reason they say Girls are from Venus and Guys are from Mars.

Second my little bro is off on a mission to Tallahassee Florida! He has been in the MTC for two weeks and is about to leave. He has to stay another week we think because he broke his nose playing basketball. God Speed Elder Hammond!

Third School is started again for me. I am taking CHEM 105 again to try and boost the grade up and to understand it better. Crazy class that is but is good and I am trying to stay up on it. It is a beast for all those who have taken it!

Fourth would combined a lot and so we will just call it Flowers. I did a wedding for my friend Kim Young Ine last week and it was great. I wish I could of done a tad bit better, but it still turned out great and it was nice to see people smell the flowers and want to take them home with them. Also I am the newest Floral Design TA at BYU. It is a great job and a lot of work. I have to process a ton of flowers each week and help students with there designs. They always think their designs look ugly but they are great, but it is nice to be asked to help. So it is nice and a great job to be around flowers all of the time.

SO life is busy and I am just trying to stay alive with all that is going on. Sorry it has been a long time since I have written. Have a super day you all!

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.” -Harvey MacKay

Colorful World!

2009-04-12T11:01:00.009-06:00

I love life and all of the colors that exist in it. Well the past couple of weeks have been full of different colors. I guess it comes with the end of a semester coming up and all of the wonderful colorful events that take place in the spring.

1st of all I have to talk about the Harai Krishna Holy Fest they have every year. The gather at there temple located in Spanish Fork, UT and celebrate their religion. Well during the ceremonies they burn a witch, and then throw colorful corn starch at each other. Now this may seem weird, but when you are celebrating with 20,000 people it is a blast. The video and photos should explain the craziness of such a wonderful celebration. Funny thins is this particular celebration was one of the largest in the Nation and probably 95% plus were LDS and from BYU.

2nd colorful part of spring is easter and colorful eggs and flowers. This week in my floral design class we made Easter baskets full of different colorful flowers. It was a blast and started the spring and easter feeling off right. Then with my parents we colored easter eggs to start off the easter holiday. Don't we just love colors. Life with out them would be so boring.

3rd and last would have to be the colorful language of spring Ultimate tournaments that the BYU Ultimate club "DestroYing Angles" attend. This weekend was the Regionals for Colligate Ultimate in Salt Lake City. It was great weather and a ton of fun. We started out beating Utah State 13-3 and then went on to beat Montana St. 13-3. We then went up against Montana Univ. and beat them 13-4. But then we played University of Utah and we went up on them 7-4 at half time and we got a little to boastful of our selfs and went down 8-9 and then lost 13-10. So what a bitter end to a great day.

(She couldn't Breath so I had to put her on My shoulders! Once the colors went up the sky went dark!)

I hope you all have a wonderful and happy easter!

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. "

This the end of the mustache growing contest! Will let you decide who the winner is!

Flowers and Running!

2009-03-25T23:12:00.016-06:00

I just wanted to write a short note. First of all I created my first wedding bouquet this week. It dose not look the best and needs some work, but I am loving it and it is a blast to do it. Flowers rock!

Next I did the Rex Lee run at BYU for cancer victims. I ran with my two friends Mari and Mackenzie. The whole time I was thinking of people that I know that are or had suffered form cancer. Such as my Grandfather and Julie Wallace. It was a great run and it was great to see many people show up to support cancer.

I hope you all have a great week!

"Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope"

-anonymous

Published!

2009-03-20T15:12:00.010-06:00

Okay first of all sorry for not writing for the longest time! I am sorry, school is crazy and life is too, but I am ready to start up for the next couple of weeks before school gets out. But enough of that I am a published author in the daily universe at Brigham Young University!

Okay so the reason for the publishing is because of the great letters to the editors that you can write. So the story is the elections where going on at BYU and if you have ever been around when elections are going on at BYU you will understand why I wrote my letter. So lets see what I wrote!

"Leave Us Be"

"The week of constant badgering has fallen upon BYU. The quiet campus of BYU for one week has become a wolf's den for the hopeful politicians for BYUSA. Now why does it have to be such a fight? I walk down the sidewalk awaiting an attack from the various colors of flyers being handed out by the motivated (overly motivated) volunteers for the potential candidates. I can't look one direction without a pack of volunteers or candidates running trying to catch my eye. Let's be civil here. If people want to know about your initiatives, they will come and talk to you. Say hi! Be nice! Don't be the wolves looking for their next victims. I speak for the students of BYU. We don't want to be your next meal!"

So basically BYU for one week is the most annoying campus in the world. Sorry for those who liked election week at BYU, but really? BYUSA dose a lot of good for the students, but the elections are not one of them. To quote another devoted letter to the editor writer Dallin Lundin. He say's "my campaign motto would be something along the lines of, "Taking money form the students to pad my resume," or "You thought high school was over, you were wrong!"." BYU is a great school and the student body council is greatly appreciated, lets just change the election process.

I like to give my thanks to Dru Laws for first giving my the insights about the Daily Universe letter to the editors section and the inspiration to write funny but true letters.

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."

- Bertrand Russell

I had to show you my mustache that I am growing for a contest with my friends. It is gross, but fund to do!

I hope you all have a great week! Love Jeff

EVEN NUMBERS!

2009-02-22T19:20:00.008-07:00

Well the time has come again when I turn a year older! So happy birthday to myself!

Well for everyone that might want to know what I got on my birthday or any exciting things that I might have done I will give you a run down.

Gifts- Well I got the best rice cooker you can get! Yeah that sounds funny to you, but it is true. When you lived off of rice for two years you know when you are eating good rice or plain boring american cooked rice. So I have now have a great rice cooker and would love to cook Korean food for anyone. Plus dose it not only cook rice, but it makes amazing Soups!

I also received some gift cards for ice cream and some food! Some nice clothes from Jon and the Laws family. From friends I received a board game about sports, and a apron. Okay the story behind the apron is the fact that one time my friend Stefanie made cookies with me and I was wearing a floral apron. So she decided I need something more manly. So it was great!

Fun Activities- Well I thought long and hard about what I should do, so I decided to go skiing. Yep that is what I would do. Skiing was great. I went with my friends. I ended up teaching most of the night, but it was fun and the snow was great. Go night skiing up at brighton.

So I am out of the 21st year of my life. Back to even numbers the good old 22. So know I am no longer consider fresh off the mission and I think I am supposed to be more aware of what I need to do in life, but I am not and not worrying to much. Life is good and I love you all.

I am making a promise that I will keep this more updated over the next couple of weeks, I have been bad, totally my fault. Have a super day!

"Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself."

- Tom Wilson

Green houses and more!

2009-02-01T21:00:00.012-07:00

I'm walking across campus the other day with my latest floral design that I have created and I hear some amazing things and get some of the most interesting looks you can possibly get. First of all lets just say that the class Floral Design is a win lose class. Let me explain.

Winning sides-

1- Your teacher loves the fact that there are boys in the class. Example: One day in our large lecture section with all of the Floral design students are teacher starts to list off the boy to girl ratio in all of the sections. Such as Section 1, 4 boys 35 girls, Section 2, 6 boys 40 girls...so on. She gets to the end and dose a final tally for the whole class and gets the number of 33 boys to 235 girls in the class. (She loves the ratio) So she has all the boys come down in front of the class to introduce them self's. Not only this but she gives us a free tie at the same time. So we grab are favorite color of tie and have to say if we are single, married, dating. Where we are from. Why we took the class. Now she is a smart teacher and she made sure that she wasn't breaking any laws by doing this. Privacy act did not apply to this according to her.

2- There a lot of girls in the class. Who can complain except for the girls.

3- You learn a skill that is amazing and you can use through out your whole life and save a good amount of money. Think of it this way. Guys you go to a store and buy a bunch of flowers for your lover and spend 10-20$ depending of the season. Well for me I grab some flowers that I can buy separately and make my own for half the price.

4- You always have fresh flowers around. So for my mom it is great. If you have a girl friend then it is a score.

Losing sides-

1- So I mentioned the above of the great looks and amazing things that I hear. So if you are single you want to keep the image of being single about, and also wanting to have a chance hopefully of maybe communicating with the opposite sex. This is not the class for you. We can just say that flowers are like getting sprayed by a skunk. It is like walking around with a sign on your forehead in bright red saying taken and madly in love. If you don't believe me, next time you see a guy walking with flowers or a girl write me and tell me what the first thoughts are in your head. Also you get some of the greatest call outs too with flowers such as:

"Score man! You are getting 10 points on the flowers."

"Dang! Who's the lucky girl." or for a girl "Who's the guy!"

"Hey I didn't know you had a girl friend"

"Looking good!"

These are all words that I have heard besides the "Who's the guy!" since I am a boy and that is what I would say to a girl if I saw her with flowers. I am as guilty as the next person.

Looks are also great. You get the guys looking at you in jealousy because they think you have a girl friend or you get the wishful girls walking by saying under their breath I wish I had someone like that. I love the second looks from people. They look once and then they look again like they just saw a monster walking by.

2- You have to defend yourself as to why you are taking the class. Me I love the flower arranging thing, I just love flowers. It also counts as my arts class for my generals.

3- Some day this is going to come back and haunt you when someone is getting married and they know you know how to do flowers! Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!

So the fun of the floral design class has just begun. I love the class and enjoy the wonders of life that come along with walking around campus with flowers. Have a wonderful week love Jeff!

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.
~ Abraham Lincoln

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. ~Chinese Proverb

The 2nd semester of Life!

2009-01-18T23:00:00.016-07:00

Week two of the rest of my life is now over. In other words second semester has started and week two is over. Wow, another semester has started since I have returned home from the great land of the morning calm Korea. It is great to back in the swing of things after a nice long break, but that break could have been a bit longer. But let me tell you about my new adventures that await me this next semester.

First of all though I have to tell you about the first day of school. The first day of school was interesting in of its self. I woke up at 3 in the morning to find out that my stomach was not much agreeing with me and decided to let everything out of it in every way it could. So being weird like I am and worrying about missing school I went to school and took along a nice barf bad with me to school and kept it in my back pack just in case I needed it. (That would of made a good impression on the girls the first day!) So through school I made it. I should of left and gone home, but there was work and a cute girl that needed some help later on in the afternoon. So I had to stay. Right? Well I barley made it through that. One co-worked was making lunch and the smell that came off of it was intense and that made me run to the bathroom a couple of time for precautionary measures. Luckily I made it through school with no harm and was able to help the girl out and get a date later on that week with her. So the moral of this tangent of my blog is don't eat the Kung-pow chicken from Panda Express at 10 at night on a Saturday!

Well back to my adventures of next semester. I am taking some pretty sweet classes. I am going for a good and happy semester after last semesters failing effort. They are all very useful classes that cover my G.E.'s so I am way happy about that. So I will tell you them all one by one. I am sure you are all sitting at the edge of your seats.

1- PDBio 120, great class. It stands for Physical Development biology. We are going to study more about development of the body rather than the whole world of biology.

2- Floral Design. This is an amazing class and it counts as my arts credit. The teacher makes the class. From us going to be able to make wedding bouquets and all types of different arrangements I am going to be set for life. Also lots of the opposite gender attend the class. I am defiantly in the minority. It felt like walking in to the women's bathroom on accident on the first day of school.

3- Living Prophets, Amazing class. We study talks from a different prophet each week and we discuss what they want us to get out of it each week. It is amazing.

4- Marriage Preparation. Yes I am in the class, but don't worry I am very far from becoming engaged. I heard this is a fun class and decided to take it. The focus is on how to make sure you have a good dating experience in life and treat your spouse with the respect they need and deserve. Focus on the church in the class makes it great.

5-Student development. I am in a medical preview class where we have a doctor come in a give a lecture weekly. It is cool. They explain how medical school runs and how they run there practices and such. I am hoping this gives me a good look at what lies ahead of me if I continue down the medical school route.

So school should be great. I am still working and continue to play on the BYU Ultimate Frisbee team. Life is good as it always should be. I hope you all have a wonderful week and keep this tip in your mind. Don't eat Kung-pow chicken late at night and from Panda express.

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we don not see the one which has opened for us."

-Helen Keller

One more thing I just wanted to add is that happiness is always there. We just need to grab and go for it. One thing might end in life or be hard, but life always goes on and happiness is there awaiting you. Have a sweet week. Love Jeffrey

Boyz

2009-01-09T09:35:00.012-07:00

So I have come to the conclusion that Girls and Guys are different. Yes I know I am 21 and should have already figured this out. I may be slow but at least I figured it out. The best part though is that it was a comic that helped me understand this great truth. Maybe because it represents me in so many wonderful ways.

If you cant read the comic here because of the size the link below should take you to the desired destination.

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2009/01/04/

So other than the boy also having the same name as I do I think about the weirdest things and this made me laugh. Guys have their quirks and girls have theirs with their looks that kill! Also with the Phenomena of the movie "Twilight" I thought it was only fitting to say what my thoughts would or will be when I see the movie. Why dose the moon not hurt the vampires if it is a direct reflection of the sun. Seems like a good thought to me.

Well other things that we can conclude about the difference between girls and guys would be our view on destroying things. Now a blog or two ago I posted one about the great tradition of blowing up gingerbread houses. I thought I would leave this short but hopefully entertaining blog with videos of the carnage of the houses. Have a super week!

Family isn't it about time?

2008-12-28T15:04:00.012-07:00

From the title you get the familiar ring of the LDS church’s old commercials about family. They always have some situation where someone dose not have a lot of time or treats some in the family in a rude or unkind way and then they show the people realizing it is more important to be with the family.

It is true in so many ways. The family is so important. I love the Christmas season when you can get with your family and share the wonderful experiences that you have had since the last time you saw them or just digging out your minds the old great memories that you have had together in the past. It is funny things never change.

In the Hammond family tradition is a major part of Christmas. You can ask anyone of the family members who were married in to the family how big a role of tradition is to us. So every year we buckle up and we do are Christmas traditions, which have to include the whole family, which occasionally brings out quite the battle.

I want to talk about some of the more major ones in the Hammond family. It is funny because all of them include family. 1^st would have to be the Hammond family dinner. We have all of the extended family come in to Provo and we meet at our Grandfathers house and sing songs and do talents and sit upon Santa Clauses knee and tell him what we want for Christmas. Then we all have a giant dinner and enjoy each other’s company. It is funny because all of the same conversations come out every year. They usually include making fun of cousin Roy for not bringing his saxophone to the Christmas gathering (I have never seen him bring it, so this has gone on for a long time), nest why the single members of the family are not dating anyone, or if they are why they are not at the party (beware you will have to be reindeer and prance around the room if you come), and one of the last ones would have to be what is going on in everyone else’s life.

2^nd of the great family traditions would have to be Christmas eve when we go as a family to get pizza at Brick Oven. They are on of the few places open on Christmas Eve and so we enjoy our pizza and then go look at the great Christmas lights of Provo until someone gets carsick. (You all know that someone in the family has to be sick or it wouldn’t be a family gathering).

Last but not least of all would be the run in to the family room where all of Santa’s presents have been laid. We all wait upon the stairs until we are allowed to go in and tear apart the presents from Santa. This video will show you the great excitement of that morning.

Graham Crackers and Frosting!

2008-12-21T13:39:00.014-07:00

Christmas brings so many good things to the Hammond house hold. One of those great things is Graham Cracker Houses (Ginger Bread Houses with Graham Crackers). It has been a tradition of the Hammond family now for a bout 10 years to make Graham cracker houses.

Now we are the not the traditional kind to use frosting to put our houses together. That just takes to much time. Instead we use good old trusty hot glue guns to assemble out master pieces. Also we don't eat our houses. Why you may ask? Well 1st of all who wants to eat a house covered in candy or should I say in cheap candy that has been sitting out for a week or two? We all know we use the cheap candy to make the houses and reuse the remainders of last years candy too. So that is one good reason to avoid. Also for all the girls out there "Calories", frosting, candy, cookies, and so much more, the calories really add up. So being the family we are instead of eating them we blow them up. Yes you read right we blow them up on New Years day to celebrate the new year. That is one of the best parts of making them, because we know we get to blow them up, but other parts of the fun of making them would have to be the different personalities of my family while making their houses.

1st we have to start out with my dad. He is a good sport and makes one but it is always the most simple and lest technical one. But he has an art behind it and it always turns out good looking. We could all learn from simpleness. It is just good looking and wholesome.

Next we have my nice and nephew. They have more fun looking at the other family members houses and commenting on them. Saying stuff like, "Wow, that is really small.", "That is going to be the biggest and then mine and then grandma's and then mommies, and so on.", "Why are you doing it that way?", and they continue to watch us intently as we do ours. Then once they get started on theirs it is quick and to the point with lots of frosting or none at all. It depends on the year.

Their is me and I always have to do something big, I don't know why but I do. As always I seem to dig myself in to a hole with my ideas and end up putting on lots of frosting to try and make it look good. Its my secret. Put lots of frosting on and it looks good.

Then we have our creative side of the family like Jamie, Mom, and Dru. They always seem to come up with great ideas. This year my mom with her broken hand still came out with and amazing design, she made a Graham Cracker present.

The rest of the family enjoys and has a blast. Mainly though, we all know we are waiting for the new year to blow them up. So whether it be Graham Crackers of ginger bread the Hammond house hold loves to make their houses and then like all good people, we enjoy blowing them up.

Merry Christmas to all of you who read this blog. Remember the true meaning of Christmas. Love one another and show gratitude to others and remember the Lords our Savior Jesus Christ birth. Through him we receive the opportunity to become clean from our sins and one day return to live with our father in heaven. This is the greatest gifts of them all.

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

Dr. Seuss

The All Knowing Frosty!

2008-12-10T18:19:00.015-07:00

It is time for Christmas when the Hammond home is covered in Christmas decorations. The outside is always the best, but not when putting them up. For years at the Hammond home we wake up a couple of Saturdays before December 1st and put up the outside Christmas lights.

The reasons for the madness of putting up lights all the time is the neighborhood competition of having the best lights. It is true that this competition has died down over the years due to "professionals" putting lights up now for a small fee, but the fame of Autumn wood will always be their in the Provo history. Why history you may ask.

For those who do not know Autumn wood, we are home to Santa Clause flying in on a helicopter, weather balloons flying away with Christmas trees, leftover Stadium of Fire fireworks being lit, and of course friendly competition between the neighbors trying to out due each other ever year with a little extra flair to out due the past and keep ahead of the competition.

So the neighbors every year go all out to win the coveted Candle light that they can put proudly in front of their house to show all the Christmas eve passer-buyers that they are the winners of the candle that year. So with the great competition that our neighborhood has we seem to have a good history in Provo for good lights. You can always seem to know one or two people around where you are in Provo that know that our neighborhood is the Christmas light street in Provo.

Well with all the great competition in our neighborhood it has convinced my family to buy some pretty interesting light things. These would have to go in order of the waving Santa Clause being pulled by reindeer running, blow up frosty, blow up snow glob, the flying angle is always a classic, and then our white trash years with the canoe in our front yard being pulled by reindeer. So we love to join in the great fun of Christmas.

This year though we had some fun with our great 15 foot or so frosty. Me and my dad were putting it up when the next door neighbor girls came up and started bowing to the "Great Frosty". It was funny. Their dialogue went something like this,

"All powerful frosty tell us what we should do."

"You are our Master."

"We will do what you wants us to do."

This was all said while bowing like they were phrasing Pharaoh of Egypt of old. It was quiet funny. Me and my dad were a bit worried though and thought that we would be struck by lighting any moment.

So the Christmas spirit is strong here at the Hammond home, but we are still praying for the snow to come to make it complete. Have a wonderful week.

Also Happy birthday to two wonderful people that are in my life. 1st my lovely niece Ellie "bean" Laws. She is eight years old and will be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latte-day Saints this year. She is a beauty. 2nd is my good friend Stefanie Barker. She is now an adult at the good old age of 21. Happy Birthday to you all.

Thanksgiving/Shopping!

2008-12-04T09:49:00.020-07:00

Family at Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving is a great time of year for many reasons. You get hang out with your family, eat a load of food, and if you are up to the challenge their is always black friday. I experienced them all. I made the venture in to the shopping world and I ate all the turkey I could.

Shopping in Park City with Stefanie

First shopping was great. To make sure I knew what to get people and to have a good time and to hang with my best friend I went to Park City the day before Thanksgiving to the amazing outlets. Me and Stefanie went to all the nice stores such as J crew, Polo, ect. and dressed each other up. It was a blast and also gave me many ideas on what to get people for christmas and birthdays. This experience lead me to build the courage to go up on black friday to the outlets again to fight for the goods. I tell you it was worth it. I saved more money then I spent. That is truly good shopping.

Us posing as models

(PS Good Christmas stuff)

The best part though of thanksgiving was just hanging with the family. It is not often you get to do this when you are older and you start to realized how important they are in your lives. My mom made an amazing dinner and we all ate until we were stuffed. We sat around for the next hour or so, so we could get down pie. It was a quite weekend but it was amazing just to be with the family.

So shopping and food always make a good week. Have a super week and enjoy the photos.

Thats a Big Carrot!

Sunday Dinner

2008-11-24T10:15:00.008-07:00

Welcome to the best part of the week at the Hammond home. SUNDAY DINNER. It is one thing to look forward to for many reasons during the week. Here they are,

1- Great food

2- Conversations that would and will only happen at the Hammond dinner table

ex. Spongebob square pants, Twilight, skiing, girls, boys, golf, last weeks crazy stories, dad's sunday school class trying to turn off the lights every 2 seconds stories, so on (NOTE these examples are taken from a conglomerate of stories over a couple of years, now spongebob only comes up about once a month) Also we have the regular what happened at church at least once a month.

3- Friends and Family gathering. This is one of the best parts. We have Jamie and her Husband Aaron over and sister Kim Jamie's old mission companion who happens to be Korean and Jon and his friends and my friends and when we are lucky we have Jessica and Dru and the kids when they are in town.

4- Great food.

5- Dessert has to be one of my favorites of them all.

The best part though of this all would have to be the gathering of the family. This week it was a blast because we were able to hang the ornaments on the tree. Now me being a post missionary who has not experienced it for the past two years, I loved every single ornament that I hung. It is great to see the wonderful blessing of a family.

"The family. We [are] a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting on another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."

-- Erma Bombeck

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMIE! My big sister who I love!

Sundays will always be my favorite part of the week because of the church and the great opportunity I have to hang with the family each week. I love you all and have a super day.

The Post Office Run

2008-11-17T20:25:00.007-07:00

The post office is the place to be from 12:00 until 3:00 at BYU. Why I say that is because I work there. The great old post office at BYU. It is amazing how many people come into the BYU post office mailing things to foreign countries. I guess the girls are always trying to keep up with their boyfriends who are on missions (we all know those never last). To prove the point of the foreign mail, the BYU post office mails more foreign mail in the United states west of the Mississippi then any other place. Cool thing. We even have the provo post office call us about stuff when it comes to foreign stuff.

Well the cool thing that happened this week has to do with a korean man that came into the post office. He came in and came up to my desk and did not say anything to me and pointed at some stuff and I gave him a pen and he went on writing his letter. So I looked to see what he was writing and it was in korean so I said hello to him in korean. He just sat their and looked at me and I kept talking to him. Eventually he got that I was speaking korean and he pointed towards his ears and gave me the sign that he was deaf. So I thought this was interesting that a korean man was in Utah and deaf. The cool thing though is that I lived with the Elders that taught deaf in people korea, so I learned a little Korean Sign Language. So I said hello and nice to meet you to him and he got a big smile on his face and we had an instant bond. We did not have to say anything to each other but we both noticed we had a love for each other for our cultures and that we wanted to help each other. He left with a smile on his face and I was happy the rest of the day. Words are not everything I came to find out.

If you truly care for someone the actions and ways you try to make them happy shows you what you feel and think about them as a person. I am so happy that I could say hello to him, but I was happier that we could trust each other by pointing and trying to understand each other.

"There are times when silence has the loudest voice"

-- Leroy Brownlow

It is true, actions are what shows us the love of others it has the loudest voice. I have one request for you all that read this, look at what others do for you and see what you do for others. I love you all and have a super week.

"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." --Matthew 25:40

Seasons of Change

2008-11-09T18:58:00.008-07:00

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity wold not be so welcome." -Anne Bradstreet

The seasons are changing in Provo, Ut. This week we had a lovely snow fall on to the mountains and also a taste of it down in the valleys. I love the quote above but I think I would change it to say something like this. "If we had no spring and summer, the winter would not be so pleasant." Now I am not saying that I dislike summer or spring, but winter is amazing in Utah for many reasons. I wont list them but skiing is one and the great holidays of the winter months. It brings families together and their is a serenity of peace that comes with the white covered cities of the world.

The title of my blog this week has more to it then just the seasons of change, but it also is a metaphor for change in ones life. Life has been a change for me over the pass couple of weeks and it has been for the better.

If you look into nature as the season change you see that their have to be changes in order for the world to be ready for the upcoming season. Winter for example can not come with out Fall. The leaves of the trees must fall off of the tree in order for the snow to come and not kill the tree. This is the same in our lives. We must have changes in order to bring about the essential things in life. Their may be things stopping us or changes that we do not want to go up against, but if we follow thru the change brings about good.

Life is good in Provo, Ut. I am excited for the changes of life to come and to experience the unexperienced. Change is a necessity in life and it will bring the rewards we need.

School is good to me when I am good to it. For all those who have attended BYU with morn with me when I say that I am in Chemistry 105. This is a change from the norm. From preaching the gospel to memorizing chemicals and how to change a liter in to a molar ratio has put my life in a state of change. Also the wonders of Social life and how to act around a girl and not to bore her with stories of the mission. My life is a constant change it feels like. Change is good and will bring the better of life. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

"Sliding into Change"

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage." -Henry David Thoreau

Me and My Gang!

2008-11-01T15:25:00.018-06:00

You know life is good when you have great friends. This week has been all about the great friends that I have and the amazing Halloween I had partying with them.

To start out lets talk about how old can you be when you go "trick or treating". I say their is no age to stop as long as you dress up and you are happy about it. To make this clear, I was not the only one last night trick or treating that was a University student. I saw my brother with his friends trick or treating. Of course when we saw him he was quick to say, "I thought we were to old to be trick or treating." So this made us feel old but did not deter us from going from house to house getting a great reward of candy. I probably have a enough to last me the next twenty years, but hey it is great to be in America again when you can go and get great stuff going door to door.

The night did not start their though. Me and my friends had to venture over to the great Wienerschnitzel and have a good hot dog and hamburger before the festivities. It was good. I wont lie it was the first time I have been their. My friend Stefanie came up with the idea to go. She is a smart one. She is from the south, she knows good food.

Well after the trick or treating experience of our lives we had to head to the parties around Halloween. BYU has them around every corner, so what do you do if you are a college student you go to them all. First one, me and Brittany won the whip cream eating contest and then me and Stefanie won the most marshmallows you could stuff in you mouth, I got 15 of the big ones before we ran out. So we rocked the first one and then we made it to another party and we danced the night away. My friends rocked the night away, I did my old waddle and stuff and tried to make my body move. (note to self I need to loosen up a bit) So the Halloween night turned out to be a blast. I had a great time and that is all because of my friends.

Ralph Waldo Emerson --

"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud"

This is true. I have two of the best friends right now. Stefanie and Seth. Stefanie is the best and she truly is what Emerson said about friends. She is a open ear to me when I am in tough time. Seth is the man and is just that he is the man. I am forever thankful for them and their love for me. I hope they always know they are the best and I will always love them no matter what happens, they are the best.

Henry David Thoreau--

"The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?"

I love everyone. Thank you for all of you support in my life. Special Thanks to Stefanie and Seth.

The Malt Shoppe

2008-10-26T23:06:00.010-06:00

You know you have had one of those weeks when you have eaten two rocky road milkshakes during the week. You know when you wake up on monday and you think to yourself, "Dang, I have 5 days until the weekend." Once those thought go into you head you are in trouble from the beginning. Well I woke up thinking the same words.

It was not actually a bad week, just a slow one that had no exciting events happen. It basically came down to the fact that I had to go to the Malt shop twice in order for me to enjoy some good ice cream.

Well to explain the title better than the fact that I had to go to the Malt Shop two times to enjoy a milk shake I saw one of my old MTC teachers. It was funny because I told a girl to go and say I love you in korean to them and then I went over their and talked to them and it happened to be one of my old teachers. It was great but it gives you that feeling that you want to be back in the mission field again.

For all of those that served missions know what I mean. You are happy one moment and then you are in a desperate want to be back where the people love you every minute and you are sharing the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a fact of life and a thing everyone has to go through if you go on a mission.

Your feelings kind of go like this,

First Feeling: Wow the mission was a great time and I loved the people so much, I am so glad I was able to serve.

Second Feeling: I want to go back, I want to speak the lovely language that I spoke, the people were amazing.

Third Feeling: I cant go back, it would not be the same. I am different now I have spent my time doing the Lords work.

Fourth Feeling: I am happy to be home, I love my family and I love school and my friends.

Fifth Feeling: I love my mission, but I need to do what the Lord wants.

So the run in with Jeff is lame this week but it will pick up and things will be good. Love you all and have a great week

The beginning of Life

2008-10-19T10:16:00.011-06:00

Me and Stefanie ("just friends")

Run in at the flower store

This is the first of many blogs to come I imagine. To introduce my blog it comes down to this. It is going to be one of those once a week posts that give you an update on my life. It is going to be like we run into each other at least on a weekly basis. With the wo's of life we don't get to see each other as often and I want everyone to know what is up with me and any friends that want to find out the deep dark secrets of my life can come and read. Okay that is the boring stuff. Lets start with my 1st blog.

DATING (I know what you are thinking, Jeff talking about dating?!?!?!?!?)

Well people that know me pretty well know I am not much of a dater and have not been since the ripe old age of 16 hit me many years ago. But something has changed in the wind over the past couple of weeks or month and I have now gone on more dates in about 3 weeks then I have gone on in my whole entire life. That is not saying much considering I really never dated before. It is a weird world I have come to find out. Let me explain by example.

So you see a girl or boy; a girl in my position; and you think to your self she is pretty cute. Maybe I should go talk to her. So you causally walk over and you introduce your self and tell them the whole spill that you work on privately in your head during class at school. It goes something like this,

Boy: Hey nice shoes (Good beginning)

Girl: Thanks, they are just some old things I put on. (Its a lie, She bought them yesterday at PayLess)

Boy: My name is Jeff (Good name)

Girl: Nice to meet you, I am Jessica. (Just a generic name, don't worry!)

Boy: Where are you from? (Conversation starter which we all know leads to the "do you know?" game, they never know who)

Girl: I am from so and so.

Well the conversation goes like they always do until the question that you can never get out as a boy with out you sweeting and going in to a chill in about .00001 seconds of time and then going numb and blurting out the uncomfortable words of...

Boy: So if you are not busy this friday night...pause of awkwardness...would you like to go and get something to eat and go do something? (After the blurt out their is about 2 seconds of awkwardness before you get and answer from the girl)

Girl: (During the 2 seconds of awkwardness she is thinking, "Wow he is bold but cute, do i have time, yes, do I want to have time, I don't know, he is cute though and he liked my shoes, he must be a keeper, I guess it cant hurt, or can it, I guess I will say...) Sure I would love to go.

Boy: Sweet, I will give you a call and let you know what is going to happen. (Thinking in his head since the words YES have come out of the girls mouth. "Yes, I am the man. She is so cute and I get to go out with her, yes I am the man")

To go on, the date goes well and the boy is trying to do everything he can to impress the girl without it showing, but we all know it shows.

The end is history, well until the 2nd date comes around. I have yet to master the 2nd date scheme of things. Give me about two years and I might be able to comment on that.

Blind Date

So that has been my life for about the last 3 weeks. Constant Chills and sweats in .000001 seconds with many awkward pauses. I hope the 1st of many blogs was enjoyable and that my grammar and spelling was not to bad. Talk to you next week. BYE!

Me and Allie (Corn Maze @ HEW HAWS)

I don't want to forget one more thing that brings dating into a whole new life and that would have to be Speed Dating. BYU held their annual speed dating and I was their for the time of my life. Okay maybe not for the time of my life, but I was their to have a good time. It was funny. You need to watch the Youtub Speed dating of the Hitch movie and that will give you all that you need to know. Click here Hitch Speed Dating