"He gave me my eyes that I may see the color of butterfly wings..."

8.21.11

Oh I know those words well... one of my favorite primary songs, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me," wrapped up my summer in Lund. Lucky me, I got to sing it as a solo in church on my last day at home. I was so nervous. But that day was great--everything about it. The smiling faces at church, that amazing lesson on sacrifice, the wispy clouds in the bright blue sky, that giant field of sun flowers, and yes, the color of butterfly wings.

I was sad to leave. Like really sad. Nychea made me cry at the door dang it. And I drove that six hours by myself back to Reno. I left behind the wide open spaces, the amazing Sunday dinners, my mom being at an arms length away, a job I really loved, and that security you always feel when you're at home.


I'm going to miss my family a lot. I used to want to be so far away, but now all I want is to be closer. I am so grateful, though, that I got to be home this summer. I needed that so much. I loved every minute of it--even chasing the piglets when they got out. Those little oinkers.


Some positives about a six hour drive alone:

-you can stop and take pictures and no one complains.

-you get to play your music as loud as you want and sing as loud as you want, too.

-you notice how beautiful--oh I don't know--EVERYTHING, is.

-you can think a lot.

-yeah, I'm fresh out of positives at this point.

So I'm back! 

one night (let's see it was august 9th, yes it was) i was driving home from work. i have a very long drive home from work. on the way, i couldn't help but notice the big dipper out my window. there it hung, gigantic in the western sky.


i thought.


wow, there isn't a cloud in the sky. i bet when this big, bright, shining moon goes down the sky is going to be ridiculous. there are no city lights that the stars will have to compete with. no smoggy air. yes, i thought, this will be wonderful.


so i got home around 11:30 (i work late hours, but it's not what you think. ha). and i got in bed next to my cute sister nychea. i planned on setting an alarm and waking up at three so that we could see the billions of tiny lights in the sky after the moon had gone down, but with jordan calling the next day and the diet coke i drank earlier i could see that wasn't going to happen. so i laid there for a while. then i watched a movie. then i laid there some more.


the adrenaline at the thought of hearing jordan's voice again was harder to suppress than i could have imagined. so i laid there a little longer and day dreamed (except it was night time. but i was awake, so how does that work?). then at pretty much exactly 3 am i woke nychea up. and i may or may not have made a video of our little adventure:

star gazing. from Keisha Stewart on Vimeo.

and so, the parts the video missed: laughing super loud up there on that old railroad car and hearing our voices echo off of the metal surface. being really frickin' scared to climb down because it was really frickin' dark with no moon. the cold. i thought it was august? and of course all of the "shooting stars" that we thought were just for us. seriously. there were so many. with streaming tails and different colors. i was in heaven. and "did you see that one!?" "no, i blinked!" yeah, it was like that. rapid fire.


it wasn't until the next morning i realized there was a meteor shower. man are we lucky we chose that night to look at the stars.

according to my iPhone.

softball games with nychea-tuesday

making shirts with oakley-tuesday night

midnight snack? yes.

flowers-wednesday morning

 volleyball open gym-wednesday night

 bendy straws at racks for lunch-thursday

 optics overload with mom-thursday

 red lips-friday

 "new socks. two socks. whose socks? sue's socks."-saturday

"the moon has won the war, the daylight waits to win.

stay here by my side, we'll watch the struggle start again."

short update on my week:

no letter. this is unfortunate for my family. i haven't been the happiest camper.

lots of time with oakley. gonna miss her so much.

forgot how much i love volleyball. i wanna play again.

school is coming so fast.

i really don't want to leave my family.

i love rural nevada and all its beautiful views.

looking forward to eleshia's wedding this weekend in utah.

can't wait to see jordan's family.

i still miss him.

In between my Utah trips I was home for a couple days and had some serious family time. Some memories from those two days:

Listening to Nychea's stories from Youth Conference.

Painting my grandma's toe nails.

Every minute with Odessa.

And the night before I left, my adventure with Nychea and her friends.

Basically my boring Wednesday (July 13th) of cleaning, packing, and playing catch up on here turned into a really fun night! Nychea's friends Hannah and Autumn came down from Ely and brought James with them from Lund. Nychea had made us all hobo dinners earlier and so we headed to the 4-H camp pond to swim and have a fire.  When we got there, the gate was not open as we were told, so we ended up having to throw everything over the fence and then hop over it ourselves.  Well, it was more like climb over it; it was a really tall chain-link fence with barbed wire on the top (so serious). We all made it over with out any injury and quickly made our way to the water.

Swimming turned into a n a s t y moss fight, and I don't think I have laughed that hard in quite awhile. I felt a little silly hanging out with a bunch of 16 year olds, but hey, I'll take what I can get out here. ;) 

We started a fire and threw on our dinners then continued to swim while they cooked. The moon was sooo bright, casting the prettiest light on us as we all sat around the fire eating our hobo dinners...with NO forks. Haha. We truly were hobos. So sloppy.

After making some delicious s'mores we packed everything up, put the fire out, and had to climb over the fence again. This time, I came out with a small wound. Those barbs can be kinda tricky sometimes... When we were all back in the truck we headed back to Lund to drop off James and then came back to the ranch for a little scary movie. I thought, "I am pretty much over scary movies, this won't even be fun." Wrong. I ended up in the same recliner as Nychea, holding on to her for dear life. At one point we both jumped and screamed at the same time and definitely banged heads. I guess I underestimated this one, but never again. I freaking HATE scary movies. Yuck!

Favorite quotes from the night, "You can't touch my chastity boob-basket!" "'Sup wit it!?" "Ew." "He's 14!?" "ohh, you mutha uh uhh." and on and on...oh I miss being 16! 

After my resolution to look on the bright side, things in my life suddenly started to look, well, BRIGHTER! :)


The week before the 4th was spent working, a lot! My job is amazing. I love it so much.  I work with girls who come from troubled pasts and have challenges far bigger than mine in their lives.  They are so strong and hopeful and they are a strength to me as they help me to remember how blessed I am.  I am sooo thankful for the opportunity I have to try and be an example to them of how happy a life free of drugs, and violence can be.


On Saturday Nychea and I went to Ely and went out on the lake with Oakley and her family.  It has been so nice to see Oakley all the time! I missed her SO much and am really happy to have such a good friend in my life.  Boating was a blast! We wakeboarded for awhile because the water was like glasssss. Just perfect :)

Once the water started to get choppy, we broke out the tubes and Oakley's dad gave us the ride of our lives.  It was so much fun just soaking up the sun and laughing with people I love. Right before we left, Oakley's dad gave some little kids a ride on the tube and basically made their whole day.  It was so sweet and nice of him.  Things like that just make me smile. 


That night we went to Oakley's and had a BBQ with her entire extended family, who I haven't seen in almost two years so it was way fun to catch up and talk.  After we ate we split up into 4 teams and played some beach volleyball in Oakley's back yard.  When we were in high school her dad put in an official sand court in their back yard equipped with snap lines, lights and all. We played volleyball well into the night and it was a blast! I had so much fun. In between games I jumped on the trampoline with her little cousin Hayden and he pretty much fell in love with me. ;) ha. After a sun filled day of exhausting, totally amazing activities we headed home and hit the hay. Soooo tired.


The 3rd was fast Sunday and so that meant Fast & Testimony meeting! It is my favorite meeting because I grow so much from other people's beautiful testimonies. This Sunday I was particularly grateful for my blessings because being around the girls that I work with really makes me see how much I have. My heart was overflowing as I sat through the meeting. I was suddenly overwhelmingly thankful to be home with my family and at that moment I knew that was the most important thing on Earth and I was exactly where I needed to be.


Monday morning we packed up the car with apple pie ingredients and swim suits and headed to Eureka, Nevada for their 4th of July celebration.  We met my sister and her boyfriend Logan there and watched the parade.  Then we all took part in their relay races on main street. We pretty much dominated:

Won some $$

Sam racin'

 Odessa :)

I talked Megan into doing the sack race with me, and then about half way through, to my surprise she was beating me! So I hurried and caught up to her and right before the finish line. When were were neck-and-neck I reached out and pulled her back so that I could win--they never said there were any rules! She reached back and gave me a good smack in the chest and the whole crowd gasped...I guess we don't really look like sisters. Haha. I think they were getting ready for a fight, but we just laughed hysterically and hugged. It was really funny. They still gave her first though, which I am a little ticked about! ;P

Three-legged race champions!

Megan & Logan

After the relay races we went down to the park to get some pulled-pork sandwiches. When we were all fed we came back up to Main St. for the egg toss (the prize was 50 dollars, let's be real here). Megan and Logan went together and Ashley and I were partners. We threw the eggs back and forth, taking a step back each time. Pretty soon we were all they way across Main St. throwing eggs. Megan and Logan made it to the final 5 partners when they finally dropped their egg.

 Mom & Sis

 Best Friends <3

Trio :)

Hahaaaa ;)

 Toons!

 She is sooo pretty! :)

Following the egg toss we went up to Logan's great grandma's house and started making apple pie for the BBQ. Everyone went to the pool except my mom and I.  I had to work the night before and got about 1 hour of sleep so I took a nap and my mom made her legendary apple pie :)

When I woke up everyone was back and the food was ready so we ate. The food and the apple pie was amazing, per usual. That night we headed back to the ranch but made a quick stop in Ely to watch the fireworks with Oakley's family and light some of our own. Nothing like a summer night with people you love! :)

My perfectionism has gotten the best of me.

I haven't written in f o r e v e r because I feel like I don't have time to do it exactly how I want and make it as perfect as possible, so while this may be a bang-up job, here is my last couple months in a nutshell....

UTAH VACA [Part 2]

On Saturday, May 14th when we woke up at Jaxon's my Aunt Monica made us yummmmy German Pancakes.  Then we just hung out with their family all day.  It was so nice to get to talk to my aunt and hear all of her hilarious stories. My little cousins are so stinkin' cute too. :)


That night we headed to Madison's house and stayed there only to wake up SUPER early Sunday morning and make the trek to Pocatello for Elder Duran's farewell.  I was so happy to have Madison and Jaxon with me because I hadn't seen Jordan forever!! His talk was so inspiring, and really touched me--I basically cried the entire time. We had similar stories growing up & moving away from Bear Lake (just goes to show how much that place captures your heart). After sacrament meeting we went to his house for lunch and hung out for awhile! I sure am going to miss him but I know he is making a g r e a t missionary. Jackson, Mississippi: LOOK OUT! :)

Monday, May 16th: Madison had to work! BLAHHH! :( so I started this blog and pretty much worked on it all day. I am so boring.

Taco Tuesday!! YUM! Madison and I got ready and headed to Taco Time to start out our Tuesday date.

After tacos we went to Water for Elephants and it was AMAZING! We both fell in love and I lost count of how many times Madison has seen it now...

On the way home from the movie we stopped and got f'reals for my first time :) basically they changed my life.

"Your quest for happiness is now complete."

We also stopped at the DI and treasure hunted for awhile...I got so much stuff! Basically it is now a Madison & Keisha tradition that every time we are together we make a trip to the DI and find great stuff--supporting my shopping habit while not breaking the bank = success. 

On Tuesday night I went to Salt Lake to get my hair done at my Aunt's salon on 9th & 9th in Salt Lake. I rode the front-runner up there and then went back to PG that night, stayed at my aunt's house, went back to Salt Lake Wednesday morning early and rode the front-runner back to Layton! Talk about a lot of effort for some hair!

Since it was my last day in Utah on Wednesday we decided that the rest of the day would just be spent soaking up the remainder of our time together and we had a 3 movie marathon, 2 Harry Potter movies and the legendary:

I love this movie soooo much! It always, always makes me feel happy :)

Wednesday night and on deserves a separate blog :) geeeez I had no idea this would be my quick recap...I haven't even finished a week! Yikes!