On Christmas morning my family and I went to Yakima to spend the day with my aunt and uncle and grandparents. We had a wonderful time playing cards, eating good food, and enjoying the spirit of the season. It was a Christmas I would have wished for all people worldwide to be able to have. Unfortunately not everyone gets so lucky.
As we were driving back to Moses Lake we noticed a car driving the wrong way down I-90. How does that happen? People were flashing their lights at him, trying to get him to pull to the side and flip a u-turn. He was seriously endangering his own life and the lives of the other drivers. It was terrifying. But we kept driving and passed three police cars flying by the other way. We thought that it was a good sign there weren't any ambulances and hoped that the driver had fixed their mistake. We just had to pray that everything would turn out all right.
Then today I saw this article:
http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/latestnews/671265-8/ellensburg-man-killed-in-wrong-way-crash
This man, unfortunately, had a cruddy Christmas. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Here's to You
Lot's of exciting things have been happening over the past week. Christmas, of course, was wonderful, but everything paled in comparison to what happened to two of my best friends.
They got engaged!!!! (Not to each other)
To Chelsea and Brittany (and Chris and Garrett), congratulations! I love you two to death and I'm so excited for you.
You should both be aware that I have become very adept at facebook stalking, and I may have stolen a lot of (ok, pretty much all of) these pictures off of your facebook pages. The pictures of you on my own page were sadly lacking.
To Chelsea first: I love everything about you. You are an incredible person and an even more incredible friend. I love your smile and your laugh and the fact that we can talk to each other for hours and never get bored. I love that you are the perfect hugging height and that you give me hugs all the time. You are one fun-loving, creative woman, and you never cease to amaze me. We have a lot of memories together and I can't wait for the new memories that you will make in this next chapter of your life. Cherish every moment.
So here's to the future.
Here's to the rest of your lives and a beautiful eternity.
May you always be happy. I'll love you guys forever.
They got engaged!!!! (Not to each other)
You should both be aware that I have become very adept at facebook stalking, and I may have stolen a lot of (ok, pretty much all of) these pictures off of your facebook pages. The pictures of you on my own page were sadly lacking.
To Chelsea first: I love everything about you. You are an incredible person and an even more incredible friend. I love your smile and your laugh and the fact that we can talk to each other for hours and never get bored. I love that you are the perfect hugging height and that you give me hugs all the time. You are one fun-loving, creative woman, and you never cease to amaze me. We have a lot of memories together and I can't wait for the new memories that you will make in this next chapter of your life. Cherish every moment.
Brittany: I don't think I can really define the friendship that we've had but I'm glad to be able to say that we were, in fact, friends. You are lovely and crazy and super smart, and Garrett is very lucky to have you as a wife. I love your sense of humor, the fact that you are forgiving, your singing voice, and your willingness to share your talents. I'm proud of the way you have turned out (wow, sound like a parent much? ), and I love you. Congratulations again.
Just in case you didn't already know, you are adorable.
Does this define our relationship?
Yes, I think that will have to do.
And equally adorable are these pictures of us. BFF's forever?
So here's to the future.
Here's to the rest of your lives and a beautiful eternity.
May you always be happy. I'll love you guys forever.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Home for the Holidays
It feels good to be back in Moses Lake. Really good. Even if I'm only going to be here for a few weeks, I'm loving being home again. I think my biggest problem is the fact that at school the bathroom lights turn on automatically in our apartment. Now every time I walk into the bathroom here I stand there for a second wondering why I'm still in the dark. I'm going to need to fix this soon...
Thanksgiving break was fantastic. My parents and grandparents came down for the week and we stayed in a condo in Park City. Mostly we just played card games and whatnot, but on Wednesday we went to Welfare and Temple Square. I'd never been to Welfare Square, so it was amazing to me to see how the Church's welfare system works. Seriously, it is incredible. They make over 2,000 loaves of bread every single day! And they make some dang good chocolate milk.
Temple Square was beautiful as always. We went a little too early to see the lights, so that was kind of a disappointment. But we went and saw the Salt Lake Temple, the church office building, the old tabernacle, the Christus, and things in between.
Thanksgiving break was fantastic. My parents and grandparents came down for the week and we stayed in a condo in Park City. Mostly we just played card games and whatnot, but on Wednesday we went to Welfare and Temple Square. I'd never been to Welfare Square, so it was amazing to me to see how the Church's welfare system works. Seriously, it is incredible. They make over 2,000 loaves of bread every single day! And they make some dang good chocolate milk.
Temple Square was beautiful as always. We went a little too early to see the lights, so that was kind of a disappointment. But we went and saw the Salt Lake Temple, the church office building, the old tabernacle, the Christus, and things in between.
On another note, I also just recently finished up finals for Fall semester (yay!). They went a lot better than expected and I feel great about it. Now I have two semesters under my belt and I'm ready to tackle one more. The end of the semester brought about some good things, namely dates and BYU basketball. My goal was to go on at least one date during the semester and towards the end I went on two in one week. Success! The men's basketball team could have played a little better (in my opinion), especially in that last game against Utah, but at least we pulled out a win so I won't complain.
Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to a lot of games, so this is really the best picture that I have.
One day there was a knock on our door and I heard some people running away super fast. I thought maybe they'd leave a plate of cookies or something at our door. Nope.
A straight up gingerbread house.
Thank you to whoever left this for us. I was definitely craving starbursts.
My roommates and I were feeling very festive, and decided that our door needed a little decorating. So we got together and created this.
Cute, right?
Well, in that spirit I'll bid you a Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas. (And a happy new year!)
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Madness
On Thursday night I told Kelsie that I didn't think there would be enough snow on the mountains during Thanksgiving to go skiing. We had just had like two weeks of fantastic weather and it didn't look like that was going to end anytime soon. Kelsie jokingly told me "Unless it just dumps on us suddenly..."
And I told her, "That's not going to happen."
I had to eat my words.
How does this....
And this...
And I told her, "That's not going to happen."
I had to eat my words.
How does this....
turn into this...
And this...
in one day????
Well, Kelsie, it dumped on us.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Monthly Recap: October A-Z
I'll apologize in advance for the length of this post. October felt incredibly short, but it was packed full of excitement.
Autumn
I absolutely love this time of year! I can never decide between liking Fall or Winter better, but, for this month at least, I decided on Fall.
Blue skies
All the smoke from the fires finally cleared out of the atmosphere, and for two days we had the bluest skies I've seen in a long time. The pictures seriously don't do it justice, but here you go anyway.
Chilly Weather
It definitely started getting colder here. And the weather here is super bipolar. I guess I should be used to that though. Moses Lake is totally guilty of the same. Sometimes I wish it would just decide on whether it wants to be warm or cold. I walk to class in the morning with a winter coat and leave for home in the afternoon wishing I was wearing shorts. Actually though we've been pretty lucky to not have had a lot of rain or wind. The sun shines most days, so that's something I can be grateful for.
Donating Plasma
I'm giving myself props for trying. I went to the center, filled out all the paperwork, and thought I was going to be good to go. Nope. Turns out my arms are too small for them to take an accurate blood pressure. They're getting smaller cuffs next week, so I'll try to go back then. I was pretty disappointed, but they gave me twenty bucks for inconvenience, so I'm not really complaining.
Elf
Fall Coats and Football
Those winter clothes finally got to come out of the closet. Even though I complained quite unashamedly above about our weather, I actually have liked to be able to wear coats and long sleeves. Am I weird for liking to bundle up in several layers? I went to several football games during the month (some of them better than others), and I finally started feeling like a real cougar. One last home game...
General Conference
I had the opportunity to attend General Conference with my cousin, but I already dedicated an entire post to that experience, so if you care enough to hear about it you can read it for yourself.
Halloween
Admittedly, I didn't dress up on the actual day. After donning that wonderful elf costume and way too much glitter, I decided my costume-wearing self would take the back burner. I also skipped out on a halloween party (gasp!) and studied for a midterm instead. Hey, once in a while I've got to discipline myself. Also, I thought I should probably keep a safe distance from all the sugar that I knew would be there. There's been a little too much of that in my system lately...
Impatiently waiting the Election
In case you didn't know (or in case you've been living under a rock), there was a pretty intense battle between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. I think I've read more political articles in the last couple months alone than I have in my entire lifetime, and that includes the semester that I was in Political Science. Needless to say I was excited to see the results. Unfortunately I came away extremely disappointed. The next four years should prove very interesting.
Just plain crazy
Thinking that I might have a little extra time on my hands this weekend, I decided to check out a book from the library. I've been hearing a lot of good things about "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson, and I thought maybe I'd give it a try. This dang book is over 1200 pages!!!! The librarian told it me it was due on November 28th. Right... They'll probably get it back in January after Christmas break. Maybe.
Krispy Kremes
Ok, not really. I wish. But if anybody has some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and wants to share, I will totally be willing to take them off your hands. Why am I craving doughnuts?
I never crave doughnuts...
College is going to make me fat.
On a brighter note, here are a couple of lovely K's that I get to see every day.
Little Children
Where are all these children coming from??? Sometimes I walk around campus and they're everywhere! Most of them are here because their schools take field trips to the campus, and it weirds me out every time. It makes me wish I could be eight years old again, and that college was still just a distant ambition.
Midterms
I hate tests. I have always hated tests. I will always hate tests. But, since I can't avoid them, I must do all I can to make sure I don't fail. So far I've been successful. Mostly I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. The sooner those holidays get here, the better.
Nerds
We had a pretty fantastic nerd dance. We let our inner nerds come out (we didn't have to dig too deep) and partied it up like only nerds can. A lot of interesting dance moves were involved in this. I'll let you imagine those for youself.
October
Seriously, I could not think of a single word to describe this month that started with an 'O.' It simply felt like October. Please forgive my lack of creativity.
Provo Temple
I went to the temple several times this month. I always love sitting there in the peace and quiet. The spirit is strong in that place. We went once at 5 in the morning, and even though it was a struggle to get out of bed, the rest of my day felt a lot less stressful. I've made it a goal to attend at least twice a month, and more than that if I can.
Questions
This past month I've seriously been considering my future. I've been questioning myself and my major, and what I really want to do with my life. At this point the thing I'm looking forward to most is when I can find somebody who can take me to the temple. I want to be a wife and a mother, and while my education is important, I know that raising a family is better.
Rainbows
We did have a little bit of rain during the month, and afterwards we were suprised with this!
It's kind of hard to see in the pictures, but there's another rainbow above. This is the second or third time since I've been in Provo that I've seen a double rainbow.
Snow!
Yes, we got some snow. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about snow. I think it makes everything look pretty, but I'm not a fan of having to walk around in it. What's worse is when it turns to slush. At that point I start thinking, "I'm really looking forward to my Summer vacation." And you know it's bad when you're only halfway through October.
Tough Decisions...
You should be proud to know that I have forced myself to take the stairs a lot this past month, but every now and then that elevator's temptations win me over.
Ultimate partying (BYU Style)
This included staying up until 4 am with Kendall...reading fan fiction and baking cupcakes at three in the morning. We know how to party. For the record, the cupcakes were delicious.
In preparation for donating plasma (which I still haven't actually gotten to do) I started drinking more water. A lot more water. My body took a while to adjust...
Xtreme fast walking/running
Usually I can walk to the Joseph Smith Building in the morning in anywhere between 12 to 15 minutes. But there were two days where I woke up ridiculously late and had to rush to my Book of Mormon class. If we didn't have quizzes at the beginning of class it wouldn't have mattered that much, but we do and I can't miss them. I literally ran to class one day, and my current record is now 7 minutes. My roommates were impressed.
Yoga at 1:30 am?
Don't worry. That wasn't me. That was Kelsie. I'm still not sure why she felt the need to do that. The world may never know.
Zucchini Bread:
If I had a picture to show you I would. But I was too busy eating the stuff to think about grabbing a camera and snapping a photo of it. I must say that for my first time ever making bread, I didn't do too badly.
Autumn
I absolutely love this time of year! I can never decide between liking Fall or Winter better, but, for this month at least, I decided on Fall.
All the smoke from the fires finally cleared out of the atmosphere, and for two days we had the bluest skies I've seen in a long time. The pictures seriously don't do it justice, but here you go anyway.
Chilly Weather
It definitely started getting colder here. And the weather here is super bipolar. I guess I should be used to that though. Moses Lake is totally guilty of the same. Sometimes I wish it would just decide on whether it wants to be warm or cold. I walk to class in the morning with a winter coat and leave for home in the afternoon wishing I was wearing shorts. Actually though we've been pretty lucky to not have had a lot of rain or wind. The sun shines most days, so that's something I can be grateful for.
Donating Plasma
I'm giving myself props for trying. I went to the center, filled out all the paperwork, and thought I was going to be good to go. Nope. Turns out my arms are too small for them to take an accurate blood pressure. They're getting smaller cuffs next week, so I'll try to go back then. I was pretty disappointed, but they gave me twenty bucks for inconvenience, so I'm not really complaining.
Elf
Well, I was told by one of my roommates (on more than one occasion) that she thought I looked like an elf. Nice. So when Kendall came up with the brilliant idea to do a mythical creatures theme, I really only had one option. Those ears were a great find.
Fall Coats and Football
Those winter clothes finally got to come out of the closet. Even though I complained quite unashamedly above about our weather, I actually have liked to be able to wear coats and long sleeves. Am I weird for liking to bundle up in several layers? I went to several football games during the month (some of them better than others), and I finally started feeling like a real cougar. One last home game...
General Conference
I had the opportunity to attend General Conference with my cousin, but I already dedicated an entire post to that experience, so if you care enough to hear about it you can read it for yourself.
Halloween
Admittedly, I didn't dress up on the actual day. After donning that wonderful elf costume and way too much glitter, I decided my costume-wearing self would take the back burner. I also skipped out on a halloween party (gasp!) and studied for a midterm instead. Hey, once in a while I've got to discipline myself. Also, I thought I should probably keep a safe distance from all the sugar that I knew would be there. There's been a little too much of that in my system lately...
Impatiently waiting the Election
In case you didn't know (or in case you've been living under a rock), there was a pretty intense battle between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. I think I've read more political articles in the last couple months alone than I have in my entire lifetime, and that includes the semester that I was in Political Science. Needless to say I was excited to see the results. Unfortunately I came away extremely disappointed. The next four years should prove very interesting.
Just plain crazy
Thinking that I might have a little extra time on my hands this weekend, I decided to check out a book from the library. I've been hearing a lot of good things about "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson, and I thought maybe I'd give it a try. This dang book is over 1200 pages!!!! The librarian told it me it was due on November 28th. Right... They'll probably get it back in January after Christmas break. Maybe.
Krispy Kremes
Ok, not really. I wish. But if anybody has some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and wants to share, I will totally be willing to take them off your hands. Why am I craving doughnuts?
I never crave doughnuts...
College is going to make me fat.
On a brighter note, here are a couple of lovely K's that I get to see every day.
Kelsie and KateLyn
Little Children
Where are all these children coming from??? Sometimes I walk around campus and they're everywhere! Most of them are here because their schools take field trips to the campus, and it weirds me out every time. It makes me wish I could be eight years old again, and that college was still just a distant ambition.
Midterms
I hate tests. I have always hated tests. I will always hate tests. But, since I can't avoid them, I must do all I can to make sure I don't fail. So far I've been successful. Mostly I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. The sooner those holidays get here, the better.
Nerds
We had a pretty fantastic nerd dance. We let our inner nerds come out (we didn't have to dig too deep) and partied it up like only nerds can. A lot of interesting dance moves were involved in this. I'll let you imagine those for youself.
October
Seriously, I could not think of a single word to describe this month that started with an 'O.' It simply felt like October. Please forgive my lack of creativity.
Provo Temple
I went to the temple several times this month. I always love sitting there in the peace and quiet. The spirit is strong in that place. We went once at 5 in the morning, and even though it was a struggle to get out of bed, the rest of my day felt a lot less stressful. I've made it a goal to attend at least twice a month, and more than that if I can.
Questions
This past month I've seriously been considering my future. I've been questioning myself and my major, and what I really want to do with my life. At this point the thing I'm looking forward to most is when I can find somebody who can take me to the temple. I want to be a wife and a mother, and while my education is important, I know that raising a family is better.
Rainbows
We did have a little bit of rain during the month, and afterwards we were suprised with this!
It's kind of hard to see in the pictures, but there's another rainbow above. This is the second or third time since I've been in Provo that I've seen a double rainbow.
Snow!
Yes, we got some snow. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about snow. I think it makes everything look pretty, but I'm not a fan of having to walk around in it. What's worse is when it turns to slush. At that point I start thinking, "I'm really looking forward to my Summer vacation." And you know it's bad when you're only halfway through October.
Tough Decisions...
Stairs or elevator?
Ultimate partying (BYU Style)
This included staying up until 4 am with Kendall...reading fan fiction and baking cupcakes at three in the morning. We know how to party. For the record, the cupcakes were delicious.
Voting
I got to vote for the first time this year! It wasn't as empowering as I thought it would be, but it still felt good to do my part as an American. Even though my vote doesn't really count because Washington always votes Democrat. The west side of the state totally ruins it for the rest of us.
I got to vote for the first time this year! It wasn't as empowering as I thought it would be, but it still felt good to do my part as an American. Even though my vote doesn't really count because Washington always votes Democrat. The west side of the state totally ruins it for the rest of us.
Water...In preparation for donating plasma (which I still haven't actually gotten to do) I started drinking more water. A lot more water. My body took a while to adjust...
Xtreme fast walking/running
Usually I can walk to the Joseph Smith Building in the morning in anywhere between 12 to 15 minutes. But there were two days where I woke up ridiculously late and had to rush to my Book of Mormon class. If we didn't have quizzes at the beginning of class it wouldn't have mattered that much, but we do and I can't miss them. I literally ran to class one day, and my current record is now 7 minutes. My roommates were impressed.
Yoga at 1:30 am?
Don't worry. That wasn't me. That was Kelsie. I'm still not sure why she felt the need to do that. The world may never know.
Zucchini Bread:
If I had a picture to show you I would. But I was too busy eating the stuff to think about grabbing a camera and snapping a photo of it. I must say that for my first time ever making bread, I didn't do too badly.
Monday, October 8, 2012
General Conference
This weekend was one of the greatest spiritual moments I have ever felt. I fully expected to spend the entire weekend sitting on my aunt's couch, and I didn't think for a second that I would be attending conference this month. But last Thursday night my cousin Kristina called me up and invited me to attend conference with her. She had gotten excellent tickets, but I would have said yes even if they were on the farthest row back on the balcony. We had floor seating and we sat 23 rows back from the pulpit. We were incredibly close.
Seeing all those men of God together on that stand was so powerful. The Priesthood power there in that room was extremely strong, and the spirit was overwhelming. Kristina and I just looked at each other, and we both had tears running down our faces. There is no doubt in my mind that this church is true. God truly does have prophets on the Earth today. Thomas S. Monson is an inspired man. I love him, and I love every one of the 14 men that serve with him.
Seeing all those men of God together on that stand was so powerful. The Priesthood power there in that room was extremely strong, and the spirit was overwhelming. Kristina and I just looked at each other, and we both had tears running down our faces. There is no doubt in my mind that this church is true. God truly does have prophets on the Earth today. Thomas S. Monson is an inspired man. I love him, and I love every one of the 14 men that serve with him.
Outside the Conference Center
Some nice people offered to take pictures of us.
My lovely cousin Kristina.
After conference we went across the street to the temple. Every other person there had the same idea, so we didn't get as close as I'd have liked to. The Salt Lake Temple is absolutely breathtaking.
Needless to say, this was a good weekend. I'm thankful to be a member of this church and this great work.
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