2010

Okay so this is the last one. For real this time. Just a quick update for the day, went out for ice cream with my sister, cousin (Emma), and Kristi. Then went to the mall (yuck), wal-mart, and Pizza Pie Cafe (YUMMMM!!). It was great fun but then we came home, and my poor car, just couldn't make it up the hill to my house. So I tried going around to another side. That was even worse and then when I tried to turn around, I got stuck. BIG TIME. My sister got out to see how bad it was and practically fell over into the snow laughing. She thought it was hilarious. It took Julie, Emma, and Kristi pushing (my sister had her back to the car and her feet on the concrete sewer thing sticking out of the ground) for me to finally get out. We went back around to the first side and made it up but it was quite ridiculous. Then we had to go back out later to push my roommates friend out and my roommate as well.



Report for 2010
Temple attendance - check
Exercise regularly - did well for the first part of the year, then it died.
Write in my journal - blogging really helped with that one.
No Soda - I did okay with this one, it kinda fizzled at the end, but I'd give it a B+.
Drink more water - Having a job helped me a lot with that one. I definitely get an A.
Smile more - better keep trying.
Be more positive - again, keep trying.
Get a job - Did it twice!
Decide what to study and apply to Grad School - EPIC FAIL. Maybe just fail. I decided to not do Grad School but to go back for another Bachelors. Now I just need to find out where and apply there.
Stick to a budget - I find this a bit difficult being single, but I did okay A-.
1 day a month with my cousin Jamee - I definitely failed on this one. I saw her at family things, just like every other year. I think I'll revise this one.

All in all not too bad, but there is definitely room for improvement.
2011 - BRING IT ON!

Made it

Here I am with my last post of 2010. Maybe not. I was going to give a review of my success on my New Year's resolutions for 2010, but I don't have them on me. I'll have to do it another time this week. Maybe. So the big Christmas week. It was great. I left Thursday morning for Idaho with my friend Katie and her family.

We made good time and I was in Rexburg around 1 and headed to the temple. Provo temple was closed last week which made it difficult to go. Lucky for me Rexburg was open. I love to go to that temple and see people I know working there. The rest of Thursday was fairly uneventful. My family was gone to go pick up my Grandma from Pocatello which took much longer than planned since the people bringing her to Pocatello left 4 hours late. Friday was a fun filled day. My sister and I headed up to campus with my dad. He was giving a tour of the new auditorium to one of my former co-workers who was here visiting for Christmas. After the tour we had the great pleasure of trying to get my sisters Christmas present for my mom from my dad's office to the car. It was very big, heavy and awkward but we made it. Then we raced home to unload so we could make it to our movie. TRON!!! I must say it was a good movie. I especially enjoyed seeing it with all of my family. We made it home for our delicious Christmas Eve dinner and then we wrapped presents like crazy.



These are a couple of our crazy elves.
My sister decided that we needed to rearrange our entire front room to accomodate the new cabinet she made for mom so we rearranged and finally finished around 1 a.m. Around 2 a.m. I woke up wanting to puke. We were all sleeping in the family room so I called out my brothers name, knowing he'd still be awake, and asked him to get me a bucket. Luckily I didn't puke. Christmas morning brought great surprises and it was fun. My sister and I then took a nap on the floor, which I don't recommend. Don't be so lazy and move to a couch or something. Christmas night I got a great surprise but you'll have to ask about that. Sunday I went to church with my parents. I had completely forgotten about the 2nd ward tradition of randomly calling on people who use to be in the ward who are visiting to bare their testimonies. My dad was gracious enough to point that out on the bulletin, but lucky for me the bishop did it a bit different this year and he had called and asked people before hand. Then at the end of sacrament meeting he sent everyone home. That's the second time that's happened to me this month. Monday was time to come back to Orem. I was tired but apparently not as tired as my friends I was traveling with. I wasn't going to go to sleep after I watched the driver nod off a couple times in the rearview mirror. Instead I put in the earbuds and started singing, not loud enough to wake up the kids but loud enough to maybe annoy the driver or atleast keep him awake. :) Once we made it home I went to packing up all my stuff. I sure do have a lot of it. Then I moved it. I have another load in my car right now and then I'll need one more trip, but after that I'll be all moved to my new house. I'm excited for the change.

What a great year 2010 has been. Bringing me lots of surprises and so many blessings.

The season is upon us

I can't believe that Christmas is this weekend. It's ridiculous. I've been working on getting my New Year's resolutions for this next year and reviewing how I did for 2010. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I did better than I thought. I'll have to post those next week. This past week has been busy with Christmas parties and shopping. Friday night I took my cousin Emma and we headed to Salt Lake for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas show featuring David Archuleta. Our cousin Rick got tickets and invited us to go. Sadly it took us 25 minutes to go less than a mile. The traffic did get better and we were only 15 minutes late meeting Rick. We got in his car to carpool to the conference center and man was the traffic not on our side. We finally made it into Salt Lake and turned down West Temple. He was going to drop us off and then go park the car. Well as 7 o'clock approached we were still sitting in the car not moving very much. We were at the same light for 3 lights! Emma and I decided that this was just unacceptable and that we would get out and run so we could get in and save seats. It's a good thing we did. First of all let me just say that running in a skirt and high-heel boots isn't the most comfortable thing and I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Second it's no fun to run when it's 20 degrees outside. My lungs were killing me! But we made it. Emma and I went in and found 3 seats together, which wasn't the most ideal thing since Rick had also invited his friend Susan. We managed to get one seat two rows in front of us and only had to beat off one elderly couple. Susan showed up around 7:10 and informed us Rick was still parking the car. Susan texted him our location and we settled in to watch the show. I was very worried he wouldn't make it in since all the doors were closed and no one was coming in. But at 7:40 I looked up toward the doors and there he was. I stood up for a second so he could see us and then we enjoyed the show. I went to a David Archuleta Christmas concert last year and was so impressed with him that I went out and bought his Christmas album. He didn't disappoint this year and as always the Choir was amazing. On the way home we got stuck in traffic again and then when traffic thinned the roads were so slick that my top speed was 40. It took us a while to get home.
Yesterday I woke up yet again to a winter wonderland. The weather here has been pretty lame lately. Last Wednesday it snowed, but was followed by 50 degree weather which melted it all. Yesterday we got good heave snow (which I got stuck in and the neighbor had to push me out). I was suppose to go into work but our internet was down so I never went in. Instead I went home and Katie and I built a giant snowman. It was quite the ordeal and I'll have to get pictures from her. Sadly later in the day it warmed up and rained so by 9 p.m. the snowman was leaning precariously and this morning we found him in pieces in the road. He had a good life, short though it was. We also made a cake out of snow for Katie's husband Marc's birthday. She made most of it, I contributed at the end. It was a fun day in the snow. I finished off the night by going to visit my friend Camille who served in Spain with me. It was fun to see her and her cute little boy and her pregnant tummy.
I love Christmas time.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

So it's Wednesday and I completely forgot to post yesterday, but it's okay because today we have SNOW. I would post a picture but I left my camera at home. It's been a bit ridiculous not having any snow. Growing up in the frozeness that is south east Idaho, I just love a White Christmas. Katie made a good point that I'll be there for Christmas and have snow, but it's so much easier to get into the Christmas spirit when there's snow on the ground to help me out.
I can't believe the month is half gone. I'm a week behind. I keep thinking that the 18th is next weekend. HELLO, it's this weekend, STOP planning things. Oh well. Maybe I'll catch up.
This last week was super great. Thursday night I got together with a couple girls from the RS presidency and we bought stuff for and made jingle bell earrings for the girls in our Relief Society. I was in charge of tying tiny red bows. Not the most fun I've ever had. Tying tiny bows is hard! Then I was in charge of taking all the earrings and gluing the bows on them. Fail. Almost all the earring hooks had come off the bells so I had to redo them. But I finished them yesterday (after a second trip to get more ribbon) and they are super cute. I also got some other Christmas gifts done.
Friday night I went with my good friend Aubrey to Salt Lake and we went to a Christmas ball. A formal ball! It was great. That's right, the two of us went together without dates. It was a blast. We were jumping around and dancing like crazies. SO MUCH FUN!

Saturday morning after sleeping in a bit we headed to the Salt Lake temple for a session. It had been 4 years since I had been to the Salt Lake Temple. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I find it so much easier to pay attention in a live session. It was also great to go to Salt Lake again now that I know what I'm doing and can take it all in instead of worrying about what I need to do next. When I went 4 years ago it was only my second time to the temple and I was all by myself. I remember the nice lady next to me who helped me out. I love the gospel.
After the temple we headed back to Aubrey's aunt's house to get ready for the Fondu party. I'm not sure that I really helped very much, but I did watch the BYU game on TV with her uncle. That was some good basketball. Then we were looking for a Christmas movie on TV and found White Christmas. This is my ALL-TIME favorite Christmas movie which sadly and ironically I don't own, so I was super stoked to watch it. I did have to change it to the Jazz game on commercials to keep the guys from attacking me.

Sunday was fairly uneventful. What am I saying! Sunday I went and looked at a house in Provo to see if I wanted to rent a room there. It's perfect. My own room, own bathroom, only one roommate, an entire house, and the rent was $200 + utilities. I told them I had one other place to look at and that I'd get back to them. As I'm driving, the roommate (who is also the daughter of the people renting) calls me and says her mom said she'd drop the rent to $150. I was sold right then. I didn't even go and look at the other place. I called my mom, talked to her about it. Monday on my lunch break I called the roommate to tell her I wanted it, then her mom called and Monday night I went and signed the contract. Hurray!
Monday night for FHE we went and did the shopping for our ward's sub for Santa. We had the auction to raise money last week and it was so fun to go and buy stuff. We were shopping for a 79 year old woman who wanted shirts and then a 10 year old boy. Like we know what a 10 year old boy wants. We were asking little kids in the store how old they were and what they wanted and then I called my brother to ask him. He was very helpful even though he was 10 almost 13 years ago. :)
And so life is good. It's Christmas time, a season for love and giving and reflection on the purpose of the season, our Savior Jesus Christ. What a wonderful gift. Our Heavenly Father sent us a Savior to redeem us from our sins and make the way possible for our return to him. It doesn't get any better than that.

Tis the Season

One week already gone for December. Craziness. I guess I'll start with the saddest news in my opinion. It's been 50 degrees here and all our beatiful snow we got last week is now gone. Now it's just rainy and gray. In the flux of temperatures I have also aquired a head cold. I'm not loving that. It started with a stuffy head, waking up because I couldn't breath. It has now spread to include my throat and lungs so I have a lovely cough. I have discovered that I shouldn't take NyQuil late at night unless there is time to sleep-in in the morning. Found that out this morning when Katie came to shake me awake on the couch, telling me it was 8:30. Good thing work is close and I had all green lights so I was only 10 minutes late.
Sunday I had the opportunity to go to the conference center for the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional. What a great devotional it was. It's always nice to have a good reminder of why we have this Christmas season. It's a great time to reflect on our individual testimony of the Savior and his life and sacrifice for us. It is a beautiful time of year.



We of course went to look at the lights afterward.

Last night was my ward party. We went to this amazing house up Hobble Creek Canyon in Springville. Really this house was amazing. HUGE. We had our dinner in the gym that you got to my walking by the indoor playground. Complete with giant tree for a tree house. After dinner we had an auction to raise money for sub for santa. They've done this in years past. Last year they raised $1200. Aside from being too long, the auction was very entertaining. I got teeth whitening trays that will be fitted just for me with the whitening stuff for $35. I was happy with my purchase. And the quilt I donated brought in $50. In total we raised just over $1500. A couple other highlights of the night were the Holman's who use to be the 2nd counselor in our ward came with their baby Penny and the guy I met from Spain. Malaga even! It was fun to talk to him. I'm tellin' ya, accents from southern Spain just make me melt. I wish I had had a book in Spanish for him to read to me. Loved it. Even if I thought it was going to be super awkward. What would you think?! A guy in your ward (Joe) comes up to you and says "Come with me. I want you to meet someone." Awkward right? Luckily it was just because Joe knows I served in Spain. What a great night. I can't believe it's only Tuesday though. I'm ready for it to be Friday.

Time?

Where has the time gone? How can it already be the end of November? Well let's see if I can come up with anything good to finish out the month. Of course we had Thanksgiving. It was so great. I didn't have to drive all the way to Rexburg on the crappy roads. We decided to go to Tremonton and do Thanksgiving with my mom's family at my cousin's house. It's always so fun to see my cousins. This year we had a couple new additions. My cousin Emma who is from Pennsylvania was there since she is at BYU going to school. My cousin Jon also has a new baby and he is SO cute. All smiles and chubby cheeks. I made a pie. That was fun. The four of us adult girls were each assigned a pie. My sisters was definitely the ugliest but it was by far my favorite as far as taste goes. I am now a guilt free Christmas music listener. It's long been the rule at my house that nothing Christmas happens until after Thanksgiving dinner. Last year we cheated and watched a Christmas movie like a week before, this year I did okay on the Christmas music with only a few Josh Groban Christmas songs in the mix. But even though I don't live at home and I'm 25 years old, I still feel a bit guilty for breaking dad's rule. It's nice to be able to just listen to it now without the worry that dad might catch me. :)
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and that your Christmas season is full of the Spirit of Christ.

So much to be Thankful for

Here it is Tuesday again and although I feel like there are some things in life not going how I'd like them to, there's so much to be thankful for.
I have a place to live.
I have great friends.
I have a job.
I have a wonderful, hilarious family.
I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have a car.
I am healthy.
I got to go to Disneyland this year. :)
I have had many opportunities to serve and make new friends.
I have seen people I care about make important changes.
So I guess I'll just keep plugging along, trying to make the best of what I have and always remember there's so much to be thankful for.

Return from the Magic Kingdom

What a weekend! It was fantastic! I decided to not go home until Friday morning since our flight didn't leave until 2. That meant that I got to go with the Relief Society Presidency and Elders Quorum Presidency to the Bishops store house. I've been before but I'm still amazed by the spirit you can feel there and just how amazing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is. I obviously have a testimony of it's truthfulness by the spirit but you can tell a lot about a person or organization by their works. It's amazing what one church can do. Friday morning I left early and headed home. Then my brother took my parents, my sister and myself to the airport. Then we were off to sunny California and sunny it was. 75-80 degrees. I'm surprised I didn't get fried. So Friday we just hung out at the hotel. An elder from my mission lives close to Disneyland so I told him I was coming and we went and hung out for the night. It was fun to see him since I hadn't seen him since he left the mission. We went to Downtown Disney, walked around, played in the arcade, and then just chatted for a while. It was really fun.

Saturday morning we were off to the Magic Kingdom. It was just so great. My mom broke her foot this last summer so we rented a wheelchair for her, since being on her feet and walking around all day would have killed her. It was a great investment since it moved us to the front of the line quite often. In the afternoon we went to California Adventure. Dad and Julie hadn't been on Tower of Terror yet so that was a must. The newest thing at Disney seems to be the upcoming release of Tron: Legacy.
At my house we love Tron. Dad always makes sure we see nerdy older movies. We love them. Julie and I got matching Tron shirts and wore them on Sunday. The highlight of the night was the discovery of the new water show in California Adventure, World of Color. By far my favorite thing of the trip. I took video on my phone. I'll have to post it when I figure out how to get it from my phone to a computer.

Sunday (don't judge) we were back to Disneyland. We started our day with Splash Mountain and then headed to Pirates of the Carribean. Good choice. We go through the exit (mom's in a wheelchair) and we are standing there waiting our turn. This huge group comes in the exit. I was way confused. There didn't appear to be anything wrong with these 20 kids. There are also 6 adults with them. I being the girl I am start checking out the guys to determine if it's worth Julie's time to check out the guys. :) I'm such a nice sister. So I look at the one guy, determine he's worth her time, and just as I'm turning to tell her I get a better look and say to myself, "he looks familiar" so now I'm kinda staring at this guy and then it totally clicks. I couldn't do anything. Star struck.

Now I know he's not super famous but for a girl that was obsessed with Young Hercules it was pretty exciting. That's right, Ryan Gosling was standing a foot away from me. He smiled at me as he walked past. I'm not imagining things. I was the only one standing there unless he was smiling at my dad. I think not. I finally turn to my sister and in a quiet freak out voice tell her that's Ryan Gosling. To remove any doubts, the kids that had entered with him are in their boat, waving and saying "hi Ryan!". I debated if I should just wait outside the exit and be a complete stalker, but I went with no. That was my brush with fame. I know, really exciting.
We took a break during the day and went to the beach. It was SO COLD. The air was nice and the sand was lovely, but that water! Julie told me to just keep walking out. Not the greatest plan ever. I did finally make it out and play around but man it was cold.

We went back to Disneyland rode a couple rides and then headed to California Adventure. Mom loved the Toystory ride so we did that again and then we went to watch the World of Color. This time from the front. If the back was amazing the front was just indescribable. It was SO AMAZING!!!! It was the perfect way to end our trip to Disneyland. Monday we packed up and headed home. My brother brought me my car so I could just leave from Idaho Falls and drive to Orem. All in all it was a fantastic trip and i'll be returning sometime in 2012 for the new attractions that were under construction, assuming the world hasn't ended by then.

One trip home please

So this last weekend was fantastic as I made the trek home for annual family pictures. Friday I left work early to head home. Katie decided to make the trip with me and take advantage of the Collin Raye concert. Yes my friends he came back to BYU-I after 7 years. I went to the one 7 years ago too. It was fun. We got to put on security passes and go in for the sound check. We were pretty darn close. It was fun. We sat in the truck and watched since it was a pretty packed show. I got to run a camera, but it was just a boring robo cam from the truck.
Saturday morning was pictures. It's always an adventure. We've had the same photographer take our pictures for 22ish years now. We know all the sayings and now we say them to him before he says them to us. Fuzzy pickles, Dad has stinky feet, Kevin kisses ugly girls, money, and on and on.
After pictures we headed to Rexburg for the grand tour of the new auditorium. It's pretty impressive. It's too bad I never got to work in there, but everything has it's time and place and that wasn't mine. It was still awesome to go in and see it.




After the tour we went to the bookstore and then I went to the temple since I had missed my temple day for that week. After the temple I headed to the oh so great city of St. Anthony to hang out with my friends Denae and David in her classroom and help her get stuff ready for parent teacher conference. It was fun to be in her classroom and help her out and be with my friends. Then I went home and went rock climbing with my sister. Ouch. My poor leg. My sister being the great motivator she is told me I should try the harder course, then told me I'd have to jump to reach one of the hand holds. It turns out that I'm not ready for a harder course as I slammed into the wall and hit a ring protruding from the wall and now have a gigantic bruise. She thought it was quite entertaining.
After climbing we headed to Sammy's which was packed so we opted for Millhallow where I had a sandwich with my highschool friend Danizza. We had a lovely chat. I ended the night falling asleep to Labyrinth. Sunday wasn't too exciting but it was nice to sit and chat with my mom.
The ride home was fairly uneventful except for my aunt calling to tell me she wanted to set me up on a blind date. The story of my life. :)

So it's Tuesday and apparently I update my blog on Tuesdays. :) Sadly I don't have pictures with me to add but maybe I'll add them later.
Friday night I went rock climbing with my friend Heather. She is the greatest. I just love that girl. I'm very much not a climber but it was fun. Previous to climbing I delivered halloween/birthday treats to some people in my ward. MISTAKE. I knew it was. The birthday side of it anyway. Do we remember boy with a girlfriend, then no girlfriend? It was his birthday. We'll call him Rodrigo. After praying he wouldn't be home, I headed over with the cupcakes. Hurrah that prayers are answered. He wasn't home. Let me just say that I was not looking exactly beautiful having woken up late therefor no shower and no make-up, but I was goign climbing, what did I care? So his roommate asked me to stay but I declined saying I was going climbing. Don't tell the gossip boy your plans. EVER. There we are, Heather climbing, me belaying, and I look over and see Rodrigo's roommate, and behind him . . . RODRIGO! Then the roommate I had talked to earlier came over and chatted. Then they were gone. Hurray. By this time I was done climbing. My poor arms just couldn't do anymore, but Heather was still going strong. So we headed to another wall and she climbed some more. Then she gets down and says "I found them". I turn around look up and there is Rodrigo and his roommates looking down at us and waving. Please kill me now. They come down to chat for a bit. Remember how I didn't shower and I'm not wearing make-up and how now I'm all sweaty from climbing? I just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. No such luck. They invited us to go to the movies with them, but we declined. What a night. After climbing we made smoothies and watched Hocus Pocus and fell asleep on the floor. Saturday we had pumpkin shaped shaped pancakes. I was suppose to go to Layton to see a friend, but seeing as how I slept on the floor and had gone climbing I wasn't feeling super great so I decided not to go. I went with my friend Katie and her two kids to a halloween thing. Hayride, cornmaze, pig races, that kind of thing. After that I took a nap and woke up to rain. So we got the kids ready for trick-or-treating and went to the mall since it was raining. FAIL. Everyone went to the mall since it was raining. We decided to bag that idea and brave the rain, luckily it had pretty much stopped. I've decided I don't like to take children trick or treating. It's a pain. :) Maybe if it hadn't been raining and they hadn't been so tired and cranky. After that I did nothing. Sat on the couch watched a movie don't judge me, it was Titanic, but just the end, it was on TV, and then went to bed.
Sunday was great. We had a special Stake Conference with Elder Costa. The first great thing about that is that church was at 10 instead of 1:30. Second great thing, Elder Costa and his wife are hilarious and really gave great talks. Third great thing because I got out of church at a decent time I got to take a nap. Delightful. Ward prayer and some girl talk finished off a great Sunday.
What a lovely Halloween.

Blessings

Yesterday I received an email that is probably the nicest email I've ever received and it completely made my day. Sometimes you don't realize what you do for another person just by being yourself. I'm grateful for my friend and the person that he is and for his kind words to me. We all should let the people we care about know more often how much we appreciate them.

Good Friends

So you just have to love good friends. I'm in the Relief Society Presidency in my ward and the girls in the Presidency with me are just so great. Not only at their callings but they are just great friends. They are the kind of friends who are so excited for you when you like a boy, they help you find things out, invite him over, talk to him, etc. They are also the girls that will tell you how he really wasn't that great when you find out he has a girlfriend. But then they'll still keep doing their homework and when they find out that he really doens't have a girlfriend they'll call you to tell you so that you "can sleep better". :) They are just great and I love them.

Quilting!

So I love to make quilts. I often start one and then start another before I finish the first one. There are just so many cute ones to make! Well I had about 10 quilt tops finished or mostly finished and they just needed to be quilted. Free motion quilting on my sewing machine works, but it takes a while and makes my arms tired and doesn't always come out the way I would like. Lucky for me my friend Aubrey is a home-ec teacher and has a giant quilting machine in her classroom. So this weekend while she was reffing Volleyball I was in her classroom quilting away. It took me a bit to get it down, figure out the tension, what design and all that, but I got it. So after 9 hours, 1 broken needle, 1 lunch break, 1 lay down on the floor because my back hurts, 8 or so CD's listened to, I finshed all 6 quilts that I had taken with me. I haven't taken pictures of them yet, but here's some pictures of me working on the machine. And one when I was all done stretching my poor aching back. :) And don't mind the lovely hair. I had to get up at 6 a.m. and wasn't going to worry about it and it just got progressively worse as the day went on.

Conference weekend.

One second you're walking up the stairs and the next second you're laying on them.
This phrase is both literal and metaphoric.
My conference weekend started out AMAZING. Thursday night I went to a Clay Walker concert with some friends maybe I already wrote about that. I think I did. Anyway, so Friday after work I drove up to Salt Lake to eat with some friends who were down visiting for the conference weekend. We ate at Tucanos. It was very yummy and I didn't even have to pay, just making it that much better. But really it was just so great. So fun to see my friend Rachel and her family. I love her mom!!!! Too bad my conversation skills need some help.













This is Rachel and I at Tucanos. Picture complements of her brother Josh who took at least a whole minute to finally take the picture.

I left from the dinner and headed up to Kaysville for my mission reunion. IT WAS SO GREAT. I almost cried when President and Sister Mellor were standing on the stage getting ready to talk to us. It was fun to see people although I didn't really talk with many people since I feel like I don't know them! I did however get to talk with my favorite Senior couple the Marlers. They were in my first area and are just my most favorite people ever. Elder Marler is hilarious!!! Love them!!!!




















































After that we went and stayed with Denae and got up early to head back up to Salt Lake to go to conference, but not before we had a delicious breakfast prepared by Denae's mother-in-law. It was very tasty.
At conference my friend Pam had a ticket to go in the conference center so I dropped her off and then parked and watched conference in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with Rachel and her family and then afterward I went with them and ate at The Roof. The view was spectacular and the food delish. Still need to work on the conversation skills.
After lunch I was off to the conference center with Pam. Conference was a delight and I enjoyed being in the conference center. After conference we headed to the food court. Since I had ditched Pam for lunch, she was starving. We ate with an Elder from our mission and then headed to Deseret Book so Pam could get her free wall hanging. We watch Alex Boye and Jericho Road, got our free thing and then headed up to Bountiful to see my friend Dana who was up for conference from Arizona.
IT WAS SO GREAT TO SEE HER!!!! Dana and I have been friends since the 2nd grade. Bestest friends from 2nd-8th grade. Then she moved away but we were still good penpals and we have somehow stayed friends until this very day. Who knows why. I think maybe it's because we need to keep tabs on each other and make sure the other doesn't share any of our deep dark embarrassing secrets. :)
We headed out for ice cream where we got somewhat caught up on the last two years of life since we had seen each other. We laughed a lot and had a wonderful time. What a fantastic way to end an already fabulous day.













Dana and her new baby.

So after leaving Dana's we headed down to stay with another sister, Marie, from our mission. Surprisingly we didn't even get lost. I was out cold when Pam finally stopped talking to me about her love and putting her freezing cold feet on me.
Sunday morning we decided to stay with Marie for the first session and eat breakfast with her and her friends. We left half way through to avoid the traffic of conference. Sadly this is where the literal part of my first line comes into play. We took our stuff out to the car and were headed back in to say goodbye to Marie. One second I was walking up the stairs and the next I was laying on them. Some how I didn't quite get my foot up high enough to clear the step and soon found myself getting very familiar with the concrete steps. My poor hand took most of the impact along with my poor bleeding toes. We hurried in and said goodbye and then were on our way. Pam had yet another ticket to the conference center so after walking around a bit she headed there and I went back to the Joseph Smith Building. Sadly Rachel and her family weren't feeling well and stayed in their hotel room to watch conference so I watched it alone in a room full of 500 people. Maybe it was the fall, maybe just life, the close of a great weekend and conference or a combination of everything but I was crying and wanted to just crawl into a hole. Thus the metaphoric part where sometimes in life you are walking along just fine and the next second you find yourself saying hello to a concrete floor. But when that happens all you can really do is get up and keep going. We may be a bit more bruised than when we started but that's part of the journey.

Figures

First of all I just want to say I LOVE BEING ALIVE. Life is rough and I know I definitely could have it a lot worse, but I really just like being alive. I like to learn, even if sometimes it's the hard way. Today I'm really grateful for prayer and forgiveness. As a human being I do some really dumb stuff. I'm not going to go into details on this, and really isn't wasn't anything huge, but yesterday I received some news that should have been very happy. It was good news, but because I'm a very selfish person I didn't take it the way I should have. I was kinda bitter and iritated. Then I sat there in my car and asked myself why do you feel this way. This is obviously a very good thing, why should you be upset by it. Once I saw that I was just being an idiot and that my life would still turn out just fine, I focused on the positive and asked God to forgive me for being such a brat. I felt much better and today it's like the greatest news there ever was. Well maybe not ever, but it's still good news.
In other news, I had to buy a new battery for my car yesterday, I went to a Clay Walker concert with some friends, I completely moved out of my old apartment and in with Katie, cleaned out my car, was in an awesome movie where I was the star and might I just say I'm an amazing Wendy. Peter Pan's Wendy. It's gonna be awesome. Pretty much life is good, can't complain too much. Shouldn't complain at all.

Happy October!

The change begins

Here comes fall, the changing of the seasons, the leaves are bright and colorful, and I'm changing right along with it. I've decided to move in with my friend Katie and her family. We, my current roommate and I, looked for somewhere to live together but it just wasn't coming together. We really wanted to live together and she really wanted to stay in the sames apartments where we are now. We talked and looked and it just wasn't there. But then I had this epiphany, she could go to an apartment that had an opening in the ward and I would do something else. So now I'm going to live with Katie until January and then I get to change again. It'll be great. Moving all my stuff hasn't been fun and I'm really going to miss my roommate and being close to so many single adults in my ward.
Right now I'm also getting a lesson in how to not be jealous. I'm finding it to be a bit difficult. Someone help! I feel like once I'm finally on top of one thing there's something else. It's so lame. Lame but necessary. I remember on the mission my Zone leader gave me a pep talk after I had a breakdown. He told me the mission (and life)is a refiners fire. If it's not one thing it will be something else.That's how we learn and grow. I'll catch onto this life thing sometime.

Decisions, Decisions

Not gonna lie, I'm not a huge fan of making decisions. I do okay with your everyday tasks, what to eat for breakfast, pants or a skirt, straight or curly hair, but the bigger more life impacting decisions aren't so easily made. I've known since January when I signed my lease that it ended in September. Now here we are in September and do I have a new place to live yet? Of course not. Have I thought about it? You better believe it! Have I gotten anywhere with it? Not really. I think I've come to the conclusion that maybe I depend on others too much. What are they choosing, what will help them the most, blah, blah, blah. Well here I am waiting for them to choose, trying to help out someone else and the answer came yesterday that I shouldn't wait on her anymore. Maybe that's not a good way to phrase it. The answer was maybe you should just make a decision. Now I'm stuck. I was gonna stay where I am with my one roommate, but that just doesn't look like it's going to work. I can move in with another friend which I think is what I want to do, the only problem is that I drug my feet long enough that now the place we were going to go is full until next semester. So now I need to find a place to live for 3 months until I can go to the place I should have gone with 3 weeks ago. What's my problem?! Where to live, where to live?

Sunday will come

Somedays you're on top of the world and somedays you have a melt down. My melt downs seem to occur around Labor Day. I just take one a year but I make it count. The end of last week was interesting. Thursday I started crying at work. Poor co-worker he wasn't quite sure what to do with me. Offered me a hug, which I really wanted but I knew I'd totally dissolve so I passed on that. Then I was fine. Friday he had a crappy day and it was my turn to offer him a hug. Saturday was fine, Sunday was great. Monday was a Monday. Tuesday though, that's where it went downhill fast. I work collections, not the most desirable job, but it pays me. Anyway we have this account that is 22 days past due and I saw the guy walking down the street so I called him up. Well he actually answered and he didn't have anything nice to say. After listening to as much profanity as I could stand I hung up. My co-worker, Aldo, looked at me and asked what happened. I told him and so he picked up the phone and called the guy back. He wasn't nice and put this guy in his place. Between the guy swearing at me and Aldo standing up for me I completely lost it. I went in the back and composed myself and then I was okay I guess. Watery eyes and not feeling super great. I decided part way through the day that I didn't really like feeling so sad and always on the verge of tears so I decided to ask my neighbor for a blessing. This is a hard thing for me. I don't know why but it always is. Well I did okay for the day, but at the end of the day I really just wanted a hug so I asked Aldo for a hug. Being the nice guy he is, he gave me one, but that set me off and I just started crying. I left work and went to the temple where I cried through the session off and on. Then in my car I completely dissolved. I got home and after I cried to my roommate my neighbor came over to give me a blessing with another guy from my ward. , I told the guys my "issues" for lack of a better word and cried some more. The thing that bugs me the most is that there really wasn't anything wrong. Maybe change and stress? Anyway Simeon gave me a blessing and I calmed down and wasn't even crying by the time it was over, but then Simeon gave me a hug and I just couldn't keep it in.
Satan was definitely working on me, but I'm feeling better now. After breaking down one more time for the night with my friend Katie I felt much better. I'm grateful for the priesthood and good friends.
Life really is okay, but sometimes it's just hard. Maybe a bit overwhelming. It will always be that way, no matter the stage of life. I get that. Right now it's my lot in life to be single and to sometimes feel lonely, overwhelmed, confused, and maybe a bit lost. But it's okay. Heavenly Father loves me. He's given me the tools I need to make it through. I don't have to go it alone. No matter how bad things look, it's like the talk Elder Wirthlin gave a few years ago, Sunday will come.

Family

Already this week has been quite delightful and filled with family. As a single girl living away from home it's always nice when I get to go home and see my family. This week has been a bit different. Sunday I got to drive up to Tremonton where my cousin Jon lives to pick up my cousin Emma. Emma is from Pennsylvania and I hadn't seen her in about 9 years. She will be going to BYU this semester. She flew out last week and my cousin Jon picked her up from the airport. Then my aunt came down from Idaho and took her shopping for everything she'd need at college. Then it was my duty to make sure she made it to BYU. So we had a nice chat getting to know each other a bit on the way back, she stayed the night at my apartment and then we got up bright and early to take her to school. We dropped her stuff at her dorm, got her an ID card and books and then I left her to go on her retreat. I sure do like that girl.
Then to add to the day my grandpa called me to see if I was working, which I was. He then called me back to see what time I got off work and invite me to dinner. He then called me back again and asked me to go pick up my cousin Connor and meet them for dinner. So after getting off work late I went and got Connor and we drove to my great aunts house. So the reason for this get together is that my cousin McKenna is also starting at BYU this fall and her family drove her out from Michigan. So we all went out to dinner. My aunt Shelley is insane. That woman can TALK. It's very funny. Sadly McKenna and Teresa don't remember me and hardly even knew how we were related. I find this quite ridiculous since I saw them last year when they brought Connor to school, but what are ya gonna do? It was fun to see everyone and chat for a bit and free dinner is always appreciated.
In other news in the wonderful world of Cathy, I decided to work this week instead of taking a vacation. I didn't really know where to go and I didn't want to go by myself. It saves me money and I'm earning money and I get to work with my awesome co-worker one more week. I didn't like working by myself but it would have been easier to leave if I hadn't gotten a new awesome co-worker. He's hilarious and he keeps trying to convince me to stay. If I didn't dislike the job so much he might be able to convince me. So as of now I have 4 days left. The summer is coming to a close. It's been great. I'll be moving soon. Lot's of new adventures to come.

New Job!

I got a new job!!!! I'm SO SO excited about it. I called on Friday to check up and then they called me back. It took a lot of restraint to not jump up and down while I was on the phone with the man. After I hung up though, there was no restraining going on. I was jumping and yelling and I was so excited! Good thing no one else was in the office. :) Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to have a job at all, but it's just not very fun when you dread going to work everyday. It's even worse now because my boss and only co-worker quit two weeks ago so I've been working 6 days a week all by myself. Luckily that ends tomorrow when the Manager from St. George transfers to my office. Sad day for him that I'm putting in my two weeks notice tomorrow. I think my position will be filled easily so I don't feel too bad. I don't start my new job until the 2nd of September so I'm thinking of maybe going on a vacation to somewhere awesome for a week or so. I just don't know where. Any suggestions?

OREGON!

Thursday afternoon I started my adventures to the great state of Oregon. My friend Katie dropped me at the airport, sadly I was starting the trip with a headache and I didn't have anything with me to take. I flew from Salt Lake to Pheonix. Layover in there for an hour. Getting on the plane, the flight attendant Mike, asked how I was doing,(he was asking everyone, I didn't look that bad) I asked if he had anything for a headache and he said he'd see what he could do. I found a seat and waited for take-off. I kind of thought my friend Mike had forgotten, but right before we pulled onto the runway, he walked by and handed me some painkillers and a water. Best part of my night. Mike was one of my favorite people of the trip.
Upon arrival in Portland I made my way outside. It is much colder in Oregon at night than it is in Utah. I was FREEZING. I've been sleeping with no blanket and still been completely miserable in Utah, so I wasn't planning on colder weather. I didn't have a jacket and it was really cold. Luckily my ride was there so I didn't have to stand in it long.
Friday was full of fun things like setting up tables and stealing tables and chairs from the church. I was only the accomplice, it wasn't my idea. Moving those tables and chairs proved to be not good as Saturday I woke up with my left arm KILLING me. It still hurts. Anyway, Friday afternoon we made our way to the beach to take pictures of Denae and David looking all nice in their wedding attire. The beach was fun. It wasn't too cold. Worst part of the beach was that I left my camera in the car. Lucky for me Justin was nice enough to take some pictures for me with his camera. The pictures ended up taking way longer than planned. Denae started to drive back but as I watched her eyes in the rearview mirror I got a bit scared and offered to drive, so I drove the rest of the way home.
Saturday morning we got up to get ready for the wedding breakfast. It was very delicious. From there we were off to the temple. The temple was beautiful and it was all very lovely. From the temple I went with Denae's mom and I totally crashed. I slept for like 3 hours. I figured I had put in my manual labor hours the day before with the tables and chairs. Everything was very beautiful and the reception was fun. Denae and David were so happy and lucky for me I made a couple friends and her brother was there so I wasn't completely on my own.
This morning her mom and dad took me to the airport and I made my way back to Utah. It's much hotter and deserty here, but that's usually how vacations go. It was fun, and I'm glad I could be part of something so great for Denae and David.

Worst Day Update

So I made it camping. The spot was AMAZING. Sadly we got there when it was getting dark so I couldn't see very much, but it was so fun. I slept like a rock. The temperature was great, the ground wasn't too ridiculously hard, fun people, hiking, beautiful scenery. It was great. Then I came home and my friends boyfriend looked at my car since he volunteered and said he knows about cars. He looked at it, said it started on fire because the oil hit the HOT exhaust manifold and ignited. The fire burnt a hose, but just a surface burn so he says it will be fine. As for the oil in the alternator, he said those are made to spit out fluid that doesn't belong. He told me to just take it to the car wash and spray it out. So that's what I did. First time ever using a car wash. That was interesting to figure out. So my car is fine. The camping was amazing and now I'm ready for a nap.

Worst Day Ever

So I don't exactly love my job and for that I'm blaming this not so great day on my job, although in truth it was just my fault. So I'm at work and I get off at 6. I'm suppose to be in Salem 20 minutes away at 7 to meet some friends to go camping. Well I didn't get out of work til 6:15, then I had to take the deposit to the bank and go get gas. So I'm at the gas station and I think, "I haven't checked the oil in a while" so I do and it's low so I'm going to put oil in the car and I'm in a hurry and I pour oil EVERYWHERE! Ridiculous. I've spilled oil before, but not quite this much, and it smokes and stinks and that's the end. So it's smoking and then there are FLAMES!!! This is not good. I'm at a GAS STATION!!! So I look around for a fire extinguisher or something but there isn't one. I step back a little and just watch it. In reality the flames lasted about 2 seconds. So I'm standing there and it's still smoking and I don't know what to do, so I do what I always do when I have car trouble, I call my dad. He tells me to just wait and then drive home and look at it with the car running. So I get home and I'm looking at it and I'm on the phone with my dad (mind you I'm still in a skirt from work) and this guy comes up and asks if I'm having car trouble. I tell him what happened and he looks and it and tells me I got oil in the alternator. NOT GOOD. Actually REALLY REALLY BAD. So camping, still going to happen I just have to wait til my friend Barbara gets off work and go with her. Car, well my dad called back and my mom had the idea to take it to the car wash and use the high powered sprayer to wash everything out. Better water than oil right? At least water doesn't catch on fire. So when I get back from camping tomorrow that is what I will do. What a lame day. Hopefully camping goes well. I'll make sure to stay away from anything flammable. Blek.

The Mission!

I freakin' LOVE LOVE LOVE the mission. My mission president got home this last week and they had a big party at their house. It was so great!!! To be perfectly honest I didn't know a lot of the elders very well. I recognize them and know most of their names, but I wasn't super great friends with very many, but it was still great to see everyone and just sit back and watch everyone interact. It was weird to see President Mellor. In my mind he just belongs in Spain. The past couple weeks every time I thought about him coming home it made me want to cry. He was the last person I knew in the mission. Obviously members excluded. I don't know a single missionary in the Spain Malaga mission. But I suppose that's how life is. Full of changes. We learn from our experiences, we have great memories, and make great friends, but we can't live in the same place or same stage of life forever. Sometimes it's just hard to move on. Basically I love the mission. I miss it. I'm so grateful for the people I met, the friends I made, the testimony it strengthened, and the many experiences it gave me. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Thanks to all my amazing friends from the Spain Malaga Mission. You know who you are and I LOVE YOU.

Best Friends

Some days I feel that maybe God tucked me away on a shelf and forgot about me. You know the feeling, nothing is going right, you feel that maybe no one would even miss you if you suddenly disappeared? But then there are those other days when you can be pretty sure that you must be God's favorite. Those moments come to me often one right after the other. One minute I feel that I'm the person pushed to the back of the cupboard growing something moldy, and then suddenly I see the bright glimmer of love from God, reflected in the face of a good friend. God sure knew me and continues to, as He sent me a very good friend when I was only 3 years old and just a sunbeam. One of those friends who knows what you're talking about, even when maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. A friend who puts a hand on your shoulder and says I'm here for you or maybe just doesn't say anything, but you still know that you haven't been forgotten, that maybe life could get worse and things really aren't that bad, and that someone does love me. So thank you God, for sending me Katie, when I was 3. And for sending her closer to me when I was 25. I appreciate it. And for all my other great friends. I'm very grateful for you too. :)

Girl Talk

I just love having friends!! Tonight we were going to go out to dinner with the girls as we do every month, trying a new ethnicity of food. It didn't work. The scheduling was just not working so we decided to just do a quick dessert. We should have known better that there would be nothing quick about it. Once we get together we just love to chat. Everyone had to go around and tell of their relationship updates or the lack thereof. It was so fun! We were laughing SO hard and it was just so great to be together. I'm so grateful for college and for the job I had there and the wonderful friends I made. I LOVE IT!!!

Be Kind

So yesterday I was sitting at my computer and my friend sent me a link to a blog. So I went there and started reading. It completely broke my heart and really brought home the saying that if you think your life is bad you can always find someone who has it worse. I may think that I have trials and that life isn't going how I want it to but there are definitely a whole bunch of people out there who have it way worse and I wouldn't trade trials with them for anything. My boss, whenever she's frustrated about money, tells herself that she's wealthier than a third of humanity. I believe the trick to happiness is in perspective. Obviously we should not be happy because someone else is miserable, but we can be happy knowing that maybe our trials really aren't as bad as we might think. I wanted to find a quote I heard once, and I thought Elder Eyring said it, but I couldn't find it and maybe he didn't say it. It goes something like this, "Treat every person you meet as if they are fighting the hardest battle of their life and 80% of the time you'll be right." I do not know if that is true and I don't know if Elder Eyring really said it, but it can't hurt right? All of us are fighting different battles and it's very likely that at least some of them are much harder than the one we are fighting. I looked on the internet for that quote last night and couldn't find it. This is what I did find. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." For everyone out there fighting a hard battle, you are not alone. There are people who love you and above all you have a Heavenly Father who loves you, and a brother, Jesus Christ, who knows exactly how you feel. He is waiting to reach out and help you through whatever you might be going through. You always have a friend and there is always someone praying for you. I know my prayers were a little different last night. I am grateful for the trials I have, but I am even more grateful for the trials I don't have. It's all in perspective. I hope that I can try and keep that perspective and remember to be kind.
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

Be Positive

So the other day I was at home by myself. I decided it was much too nice outside to sit inside. I decided to walk down the park, upon arriving I sat on the swings and started to ponder life. Maybe not my greatest move of the night. I sat there only to discover I didn't really like where I was in life. I don't like my job, I don't get out much, and the worst part for me was that I didn't really know where I wanted to be. It's hard to get somewhere when you don't even know where it is. I texted my friend asking if he ever felt stuck in life. Smartalec that he is said "I wasn't aware of any other state of being." :) Upon clarifying, that maybe your life isn't going anywhere he agreed with me and oddly it made me feel better. Also on the walk back home I talked with another friend. She said maybe if you feel like you aren't progressing, you aren't. And it's no ones fault but your own. So what can I do in life to feel like I'm moving somewhere, in a direction I want to go. I'm thinking of going back to school to be a teacher, I'm gonna find a new job, and I'm going to read more educational stuff. Also, I was looking through my books and found President Hinckley's book Way to Be! I read it in a day and decided that maybe one of my problems is my attitude. Sometimes I'm just not very positive. I like to complain and let's be honest, no one likes a complainer, no one wants to hear it. It doesn't help anyone, least of all me. So my goal for this week and hopefully for my life is to stop complaining, no matter how lame the customers are, how tired I feel, how annoying our dogs are, how cold it is, how hot it is, I'm not gonna complain. Hold me to it. :) Life is too short and too great to dwell on the lame stuff.

I love camping!!

This past weekend I went with some friends camping at Hobble Creek Canyon. The weather was beautiful and it was so much fun. I even bought a tent of my own for this camping season. I took sleeping bags and a camp stove from home and I was prepared to go. We were highly entertained when Simeon and Kolten showed up and decided they were men and needed to chop down and tree. They did it. The first tree was down in 16 minutes. The next day they decided they needed to do it again. The second tree was much bigger than the first and took 50 minutes to cut down, but they did it. It was fun getting to know new people, playing Phase 10 til 1 in the morning, taking 8 years to make pancakes, sunburn, rock gathering, beer can collecting, hiking, reading in the morning in the beautiful creations of God. It was great and I can't wait til our next camping trip!

Little things

Isn't it great how little things can make or break your day. The sun is shining, I am happy. It is snowing, I am sad. Work goes long, I am annoyed. Receive a text, jump for joy. Friend is sad, so am I. I could go on and on. I feel that God really does know what He's doing (duh right?) But really, if we required huge things to make the difference in life, I think I'd be really miserable all the time. I'm just happy I know who I am and why I'm here and in general where I'm going. It gets frustrating sometimes with my tunnel vision of only today, but then I get a little reminder, that there is a bigger picture and the best is yet to come.

I'll be a mess if I don't

So I just got home from being at church for 6 hours. Aside from being a bit tired, since I had to be to church at 8, I feel great!!! I love being at church. It may help that the last hour was munch and mingle and therefore there was food, but really I just love being at church. In Sunday school the teacher was teaching on faith and how we build our faith and was telling about a friend who asked him why he would go to church for 3 hours. My roommate under her breath said he should have replied, why do you go to the bathroom? I thought it was kinda silly and it definitely made me smile, but really it makes sense. You go to the bathroom because you need to, it makes you feel better, and you'll be a mess if you don't. I go to church for 3 hours for those same reasons. I need to, it makes me feel better, and if I don't I'll be a mess. Luckily I don't always have to go to church for 6 hours. I was just put in the Relief Society and we had Stake meetings this morning thus the extra two hours before church. All in all, the point of this is that I LOVE CHURCH!!!!

Blessings

This last weekend I had the opportunity to go home. What a great weekend it was. Saturday I went with my friend Pam to the Rexburg temple, then we visited with my favorite Cheesehead Denae. Then I washed my car and my dad changed the oil in it. That evening we all went to dinner at Gringos. My girl friends from highschool, my mom, my sister, my cousin, and two sisters from my mission. After that it was good times with my sister, since it was her birthday, then a blind date. It was pretty fun. Sunday was the best part though. I went to Stake Conference with my whole family, including 3 cousins and my grandparents and afterward I was able to witness my dad set my youngest brother apart as an Elder. It was awesome to see him sitting in the chair, with my dad, grandpa, and other brother standing around him. The gospel truly blesses my life and I'm so grateful for my family!!

New Hair!!!

So I decided to be daring and maybe a bit crazy and do something different with my hair. It takes some getting use to and I still think I look strange but it looks good I think.

New job?

My friend Rachel recommended me for a position at the church in the Small Jobs Shop. I sent her my resume and she sent it to the head man and I went for an interview this morning. It would be so awesome to work for the church and I think I'd be a great fit for the position. Let's all pray that I get it so I don't have to give people loans at 360% interest any more! :)

Vegas Baby!!!

So I went to Vegas this past weekend and it was so fun. My friend Aubrey is the greatest ever!!! She is so good and I love to be around her. We had many great adventures. We stayed in St. George friday night with her friend Janae. Listening to Janae's brother and his friends talking was quite entertaining. Saturday morning we stopped at the St. George branch of the company I work for so I could meet the people I talk to on the phone all the time. It was very entertaining. Since I had never met Aldo, the main guy, I went in pretending to be a customer. But I was a customer with an outstanding loan. It was so funny to watch him thinking and then his face when I told him who I really was. LOVED IT!
Then we were off to Vegas. It was nice weather and really the first time I've been in Vegas and not on the strip. We went shopping, then we went out to lunch with a college friend we worked with. We got to meet her husband and it was fun to chat with them. I miss my friends from Media Services! After lunch we went to the strip to see what we could see. Not much worth seeing. Aubrey was daring, I'll have to give more details later.
After an hour or so on the strip we headed to a YSA activity. The ward had bought and raised a pig and we went to the party to eat it. It was an awesome party. There were so many people there. Lots of dental students. :) Tom was my favorite, he even came and talked with us. Sadly he was too short for me. After the BBQ we went back to the strip to see our friend Whitney who was the whole reason we were in Vegas in the first place. She was visiting there for the weekend. We went with Aubrey's friend Margie, another girl from the ward, and Ryan, one of Margie's friends. We watched the lights and water show at the Belagio, went and watched the trapeze artists, and we did get to see Whitney for a bit.
Sunday we went to church with Ryan since his church was earlier than Margie's and then we went to see Whitney for a bit. (p.s. Ryan is too short for me, but he's great!) It was fun to hang out with Whitney and really get to talk. We got caught up on life and reminisced about Alaska. Then we had to leave to make it back. We stopped in St. George to pick up Aubrey's shoes she left and then we were on the road again. What a FREAKING long drive. I did not love the drive back. It felt like it was 12 hours long, but all in all it was an awesome weekend. Aubrey has all the pics so I'll have to post them later.

Friends

Where in the world would I be without the good friends that I have? I don't really even like to think about it. This weekend was a bit ridiculous. I took a whirlwind trip home to get a demo reel done for a job I'm applying too. Procrastination is a terrible thing. Lucky for me I have great friends. Mike and Luke got things started and then Derek came and helped me out, my dad came to I wouldn't be by myself and he even helped by capturing video and attempting to edit. You'd think a video engineer who studied broadcasting would not be so intimidated by an editing program. :) Anyway, I got my FHE video done and got the demo reel close to being completed. Then I left a note for Mike and Luke asking for them to finish it and post it for me. Mike called me today for some info on it. What would I have done without them. Cry a lot. Anyway, just another testimony to me that God loves me a lot a has given me really great friends.

Just one of those days

Life is good

Life can be kinda crappy sometimes but I think all in all it's good. My favorite 2nd counselor just got released and gave a talk today in Sacrament meeting today. He gave a quote that I had heard before and I really like it.
"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”
"Another one I found in my mission journal is similar.
"Our journey into the future will not be a smooth highway stretching from here to eternity. Rather, there will be forks and turnings in the road, to say nothing of the unanticipated bumps. We must pray daily to a loving Heavenly Father who wants each of us to succeed in life."
In my lesson today there was another great quote by President Faust. He shares an experience of being in Tahiti and looking out at the ocean and feeling peaceful and how beautiful it was but then he says, "I have come to realize that the comfort and sense of well-being I felt on that special morning came not only from the external influence of the beauty of the landscape and the sea, lovely as they were, but from the inner peace, strength, and security of knowing that God lives and from a testimony of the divinity of His work upon the earth."
Life is rough, but I can still be happy knowing that God is still in charge and that no matter what things will work out the way they need to, as long as I'm doing my part. There are so many little things that just make life great. My roommates are awesome.

This is a cake Natalie made for us for our birthdays.






I have a job. I have the opportunity to serve: I teach Relief Society, I get to go to the temple often, I get to volunteer at the MTC and I get to sew for others.

This is the quilt I made for the 2nd counselor who got released. His wife is expecting in August and they are moving to Alaska so I thought the bears would be perfect.

Life

Do you ever just feel so overwhelmed? I felt like that yesterday. It's really nothing, but I was thinking about it and decided that life can't always be so easy. (Obviously) We don't grow without trials and life can't always be smooth sailing. It's nothing big and I'm sure it will actually help me out in the long run. Just gotta keep a good perspective on things.

Little Things

So sometimes just little things make life so great. This week my dad came down to pick up some stuff from the church. I got to go to dinner with him, Luke, and John. It's always fun to see people from my last job. It was so good to see my dad. He got to "meet" my car and says I did a great job. Leaving after dinner I almost started to cry, I missed him already. I'm not one to get homesick but I really did just want to stay with my dad. Lucky for me the next day he stopped by my work on his way out of town. It was a fun surprise. Then today my best friend Katie called and told me she was going to be in Salt Lake but wouldn't make it down to Provo. If she's coming all the way to Salt Lake you can sure as heck bet that I'm gonna drive the 45 minutes to go and see her! So after work I headed down to Holladay to a bridal shower I was not invited to. It was great. The food was delicious, the games were entertaining, and I got to see Katie, best thing all day. I sure do love her. God knew what he was doing all those years ago putting us in Sunbeams together. Life is good. I wish I had a picture of her and I as little people to put on here.

MTC

So I go to the MTC every Thursday night after work. I even have a name tag now that says "Sister Schultz Volunteer Missionary Training Center" I love it! the elders glow and they're just so great and their Spanish is horrible and I just love them. One of my favorite weeks was when the Elders were doing "contacts in the park". They came and introduced themselves to me, one was Elder Johnson and the other Elder Nielson. I thought to myself "there was an Elder Nielson in my mission". At the end of the contact I asked the elders where they were going. They said Spain. I of course got really excited. "I served in Spain!!! Which mission are you going to?" Elder Johnson is going to Madrid and Elder Nielson to Barcelona. They then asked me which mission I served in. I said Malaga and then Elder Nielson said, " Oh! My brother served in Malaga." Yes my district leader/zone leader/ AP is this elder's brother. What a tiny world. Tonight he taught me and I got a picture with him to send to his brother.
The other interesting thing about the MTC tonight was that I went alone which I don't usually do. I always go with Emily but she had to go to Salt Lake tonight. I went into my room, the elders came and we walked to "the bus", then I went back to my room to wait for them to come and teach me for the second half of the hour and there was a guy in my room. He had been assigned to the same room so we chatted for a while until the elders came back. Then the elders taught us and turns out we are "almost getting married". The things we say when we are pretending to be someone else. Anyway that's what we did for the rest of the night. "We're not married, just working in that direction." After the volunteering was over, my new friend asks me to go to dinner, and I did. it was fun. Kinda really random, but fun.

Trip to Hades

Okay, so way back in October I told my last companion Jenny that I'd be at her wedding. At the time she wasn't dating anyone so I figured I'd have a lot of time. Not so. She met someone and married him in 3 months. So it was my luck to have to live up to my word and go to Cali for the wedding. Emily who also served with Jenny was going also so we decided to drive together. I invited my brother to go along also since the wedding was in his mission and he could go and visit some people from the mish. Also Hermana Pam Grau is here visiting her sister in Salt Lake. She's from Paraguay and she decided to come also. The only real car option was to take Percy. Emily's car and my red car were not going to make it. Getting my car registered and insured was a big pain in the you know where. We left later than planned but finally headed out to California.
What a long boring drive. An hour before we left we found out that the place we were going to stay was no longer going to work. To say I was irritated would be an understatement. So we spent the next few hours trying to figure out where we were going to stay. Kevin said he could stop by some members and they'd let us stay but I wasn't going to knock on someone's door at 1 in the morning and ask if we could stay. After another let down we finally found out no one was staying with Jenny and called her. We ended up sleeping on her floor. Sad thing is she forgot to turn on the heater and we didn't have a lot of blankets. It was hard, cold, and to say the least, miserable.
Next morning we stay to get ready while my brother goes to visit some people. He calls me 10 minutes before he's suppose to be back to get us and tells me he's going to be late because he put a hole in my tire. When he finally gets there we load everything in the car and head to Sacramento on the spare tire. We got Emily and Pam to the temple with 10 minutes to spare. I didn't go to the sealing because 1. I wasn't invited and 2. I had to go buy a new tire. So 82 dollars later we're back at the temple. So part of our great plan for this trip was to go to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. the last tour is at 4. We are at the temple for pictures and it's taking FOREVER. I mean really. Take the pictures with the friends and people who need to leave, make the family wait. But no, I thought we'd never get out and that we'd definitely NOT make it to the factory, but we made a big enough fuss they took some pictures and we were on our way. I'll admit it I was a brat, but come on I drove 10 hours one way! So we make it to the Jelly Belly factory at 5 to 4. Hallelujah! it was so fun and the free bag of beans at the end was delicious.
After that I really wanted to go down to San Fran since we were so close but sadly we had to go back to the reception. The reception had delicious food. Best reception food ever. Then we were off to visit more of Kevin's people from the mission and find somewhere to stay. Poor Kevin, everyone had moved! It was so sad. We went to 4 houses that had For Sale signs. He did get to see one old investigator and one family from the ward. Lucky for us they were home because that's where we ended up staying. Their house was heated, she had lots of blankets and we didn't even have to sleep on the floor! AND they made us smoothies in the morning and she sent us out with granola bars and clementines. Bless them!
Now it was back on the road for another 10 hour drive. Kevin was such a good sport the whole time. He drove most of it and listened to us speak in Spanish most of the time. The big joke the whole weekend was that Pam should marry him. We made it home and Kevin was set to go driving my old red car home. Little did I know the back driver's side tire had a big bulge in it and that's why it had been shaking. I was so worried and tired I was just crying and crying in the parking lot. Kevin looked at me and said "Cathy, it's just a tire." Like I don't know that! I prayed so hard for him to just make it home safe, and that if the tire was going to blow that it did it at least on the Idaho side of the Malad pass and the closer to home the better. My dad sent me a text this morning saying Kevin got home at 3 a.m. The tire blew in Idaho Falls and the spare didn't fit. How stupid is that? Who puts a spare tire in a car that it doesn't fit? Anyway, my dad had to drive to IF and they put the spare from one of our other cars on my car and they made it home. What an ordeal. I was dead tired today and hope I recover soon. Blek. At least Percy could take us through Hades and back like a true Hero.