Christmas 2016

This Christmas was a bit different for my family. My aunt decided we needed to do a Christmas at a cabin, so we all pitched in a paid to rent a cabin in Island Park, ID. Friday afternoon I went and picked up my cousin Jamee and we headed up to Idaho. There was a winter storm advisory for Idaho and we were hoping to miss it. We didn't have any weather trouble until we got to Island Park and even then it wasn't too bad. We did see a moose on the drive and we only got lost for a minute.

 Saturday was a rough day for me. I was highly emotional and irritated by pretty much everyone and everything. There were many tears shed and tissues used. I did manage to pull myself together to participate in the Christmas Eve games. I was on the reindeer team with Sadie and uncle Benny and I won the guess the ornament game only getting two wrong and they were so similar that it was really just guessing for everyone anyway. Elsa or Anna and Elsa, how was I to know? :)

 Christmas morning I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. The front room was occupied with someone sleeping on the couch and no one else was awake except my brother David, so I had him come back into my room and we watched White Christmas on my laptop in the giant bathroom.

 Christmas morning was noisy and busy. 6 kids make everything a bit louder and busier. I got everything I asked for on my list and enjoyed watching everyone else open their presents. We read Luke 2 and had breakfast and then went to play with toys, watch movies and read books.

 I tried to take a nap, but my Kevin convinced me that I should go on the garbage run with them. We had 8 bags of garbage that needed to be hauled out and he assured me it would be fun and that the landfill was open.

 He was wrong. The landfill was not open so we had to haul the garbage back. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of carrying two bags of garbage on your arms while riding on the back of a snowmobile on a bumpy trail, let me save you some time. Don't do it. My body is so sore. It was a great core workout, but my legs are killing me, my neck is stiff and my arms are visibly bruised. It was quite the adventure.

 I spent a lot of my time over the weekend working on this 1500 piece puzzle. I was grateful to my mom and cousin Richard who put in many hours helping me as well as Kaylene, Julie, Marc and aunt Tammy. We finished it at 11:30 on Christmas night.

We headed out Monday morning. I was hoping we would get snowed in, but the nice neighbor man came and plowed us out. It was slow going back to Sugar City but the rest of the way back to Utah was clear roads with a bit of fog. I wasn't feeling super awesome for the drive and when I got home I got my stuff inside the house, ate some crackers and had some 7up and went to bed by 9:15. Overall it was a fun and successful Christmas. I'm back to work today and trying to prepare myself for student teaching starting on January 3rd.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Weekend Surprises

Last Monday my friend Camilla text me saying she had won a trip on a private jet to San Diego at her work party and that she could bring three people and that I was one of them and that it was for Friday. I said yes! And told work I'd be taking a half day Friday. Now before you say "Wow, Cathy, you believed her?!" Let me tell you that she actually has won a trip on a private jet from her work before so it wasn't that farfetched.
Come Friday I get this snapchat from my sister

That's my sister and my best friend. I guessed a few things like Julie was helping Katie move or Katie was taking Julie to the doctor. She had me keep guessing and I guessed they were coming to Utah which would be unfortunate since I was flying to California that afternoon, but my sister called and told me she had good news, bad news and funny news, which all turned out to be the same news which was that there was no trip to California and it had just been a cover so I would take off work to hang out with them.

The roads were really bad so it took them a lot longer than they planned to get here and then I drove up to Salt Lake and the weather was crappy down here as well so it took me awhile to get there. They got a hotel so we hung out there for a minute

After hanging out for a minute we went and grabbed some lunch at a Hawaiian place. Trying to feel a little more like San Diego than Salt Lake and then we did a little shopping. We decided to forgo our naptime and check out IKEA since Julie and I had never been there.

We definitely got our exercise in for the day. It was too early for dinner and we weren't sure if we wanted to brave the cold to go to temple square so we headed back to the hotel. Once we got there we decided we didn't want to go back outside so we watched some Food Network and Christmas movies and then ordered a pizza. After dinner we headed to the hot tub.

And then back to the room for more Food Network. As we were starting to get drowsy we decided to play Heads Up. It was probably the best decision we made all weekend. We played for almost two hours and laughed and laughed.

We had such a great weekend and I'm so grateful for these wonderful ladies who love me so much. I cried when they left and wish I lived closer to both of them. Lucky for me my sister is moving here in a couple weeks, even if it's only for a couple months, I'm super excited.

Touch

When it's Thursday and you're just feeling so down and you realize you haven't touched another person since Sunday. #failing I don't know if they are related, but I feel like they are. I've heard it before that we need human touch.
I found some things about it online here and here
Guess I better seek out a hug. Luckily I've got the temple tonight and haven't seen the sisters on my shift in weeks! I'm sure there are hugs in store for me there. :) Do yourself a favor and go give someone a hug.

St. George

I got to check something off my bucket list this weekend. I've been working on going to all the temples in Utah since I received my endowment 10 years ago. St. George was the last one I needed and it just never worked out for me to go. Every time I was in St. George it was closed for cleaning. Every. Single. Time. So my friend Jon decided I needed to make a trip just to go to the temple. He has a time share that needed points to be spent so he booked me a room in St. George and I invited a couple friends and we headed down.
It was such a relaxing weekend. We stopped in Cedar City for dinner and then headed to the resort. We got lost, but after a quick phone call made it there with no trouble. We watched a Christmas movie and headed to bed. Saturday morning I went for a run and then Aubrey made us some delicious omelettes.

 We cleaned up and headed out to the temple. I found myself wondering what it used to look like since it was the first temple in the west and it looks fairly modern inside with its tile ceiling and wall paper. It was so fun to finish my temple goal the same weekend as the anniversary of receiving my endowment. Definitely much warmer weather than when I went the first time. :)

 After the temple we grabbed some lunch and went to visit Aubrey's friend Janae, got a few ingredients for dinner and headed back to the resort. Camilla opted for a nap while Aubrey and I went for a walk in the beautiful 61 degree weather.

After our walk I took a nap and then we watched a Christmas movie and decided to go check out the hot tub. We lasted about 30 minutes or so and then went back to our room and started on dinner. Who knew you could make fajitas from canned chicken, but they were delicious. We finished the night with more Christmas movies and then went to bed fairly early.
Sunday morning we got up and made breakfast, packed up our stuff, cleaned up the kitchen, checked out and headed to church with Janae. The Young Women provided the program for sacrament meeting and it was wonderful. We ducked out after sacrament and drove back so Aubrey could make it to Relief Society in her ward. I took a nap, read and watched another Christmas movie before heading to bed. Overall it was a fantastic weekend. Very relaxing and so fun! Thanks so much Jon. You really are the best!

I miss you

Last night as I was driving to meet my cousin to do some Christmas shopping and get dinner I was reminded how nice it is to have someone to do things with. Largely due to the fact that I was driving alone looking at the Christmas lights I was passing and wishing I was looking at Christmas lights with someone. Then I got to thinking of all the other things that are better to do with someone. I don't mind being by myself, but there is something to be said for companionship. Someone to share in your excitement and wonder, someone to discuss ideas with, someone to just be there with.

A Christmas Gala

My calling at church is the Stake Mid-Singles Committee, specifically over institute.As part of the committee I give my opinion on activities that other people are planning and provide support however that might look. This year we decided to forgo what has become the traditional Halloween party and do a Christmas dinner/dance instead. The activities committee did an excellent job planning and working out the details and I showed up Saturday morning to help set-up.

We made center pieces

Made some Christmas ornaments

Decorated Trees

Made signs

And basically ran around like crazy people getting everything ready.

I left around noon with a massive headache. Still not sure what triggered it. I went home, took some meds and went to bed. It was not a very restful nap and I woke up feeling only slightly better. I took some more meds and lounged around for a while, accomplishing very little on my Saturday to-do list and then started getting ready for the dance. 

I headed over early and helped get food plated and drinks out. I was in the kitchen for a good chunk of the night which was fine with me. The party was a huge success and there were so many people. Way out of my comfort zone, so I was happy to be hiding in the kitchen. I did manage to make it out to get a picture with my roommates before I headed home early because of the returning headache. It was such a fun Christmas party and I'm so glad it turned out so well. 

Loss

When you have so many emotions and you aren't really sure how you're feeling and all you want to do is stay in bed and watch Christmas movies and cry but you have to be an adult and do adult things like go to work and go shopping and interact with people and pretend you are okay. Life really is unfair.

I think the emotion that is dominating is loss. Is that an emotion? I think it is. And it's not a fun one. And my nose hurts. And my garbage can is quickly filling with tissues. And I'm wondering why I even bothered putting makeup on this morning. I think I was trying to be optimistic. My optimism is fading. Quickly.

Timing

Timing has to be the biggest discourager and ruiner of dreams. You can do everything right but if the timing is off, it's just not going to work. Doesn't mean it won't happen, it's just not going to happen on your timeline and you might have to take a detour or maybe it does mean it won't happen and you have to change your plans. Either way, it can be a bummer.

Facebook blues

It can be dangerous to get on Facebook sometimes. You see everyone's best version of themselves. All the positives in their lives. I'm usually okay with it, knowing they are choosing to highlight the positive, probably to help deal with the negative. I'm happy that they are happy. But sometimes Facebook just slaps you in the face and you see the first married Christmas of this person, the three people announcing their new babies and the person who just got engaged and it just kinda hurts a little bit.

Decisions

"Tomorrow's joy or tomorrow's despair has its roots in decisions we make today. Perhaps some people think to themselves: 'I know I need to change some things in my life. Maybe later, but not now.'
Those who stand at the threshold of life always waiting for the right time to change are like the man who stands at the bank of a river waiting for the water to pass so he can cross on dry land. "
Elder Wirthlin Three Choices

I've had decisions on my mind lately and the first talk in sacrament meeting yesterday was on decisions. She used this quote from Elder Wirthlin and I felt like the talk was just for me. Making decisions is rough. I always say "just tell me what you want me to do God and I'll do it". And usually he doesn't. But sometimes he does and it actually isn't making things any easier. Wish me luck. 

Fillmore Lava Tubes

My friend Jon and I went down to Fillmore to explore the lava tubes on a Saturday adventure. After being lost for a minute or two we found them and went exploring. The weather was beautiful and we had a good time crawling around the rocks and exploring the caves. We only encountered one creature and really we only heard it. The one cave we went in was so dark. We turned our headlamps off for a minute and I imagined being lost in there with no light. It was a scary thought. Luckily we had light and weren't lost. 

Elections

This election has been a joke from the beginning. I have been saddened that as a society we couldn't come up with better candidates than the two main ones we had. How do you choose between two amoral, horrible people? In looking for the "lesser of two evils" I couldn't find one. People are free to disagree. It's your right to think that one is worse than the other. That's the other thing that saddened me about this election. The people who forgot or really who just didn't care about your right to your own opinion. People who were rude and mean and horrible. Now that the election is over and we have our President-elect, I'm still not sure how I feel. I knew the outcome would be crap either way it went. I wasn't prepared for the horribleness of people to continue. I blocked two posts this morning because of their language and blocked all posts from another person because I finally got fed up with his complete lack of respect for anyone. I won't unfriend or block someone for thinking differently than me, but I will block or unfriend someone for being completely disrespectful. Is this an ideal situation? No. Would it have been any better with the other outcome? I don't think so. It's a broken system and it's up to us to stop being broken people, a broken society, electing broken leaders.

I hope to be able to live in a way that shows that I believe in Jesus Christ. That I love people regardless of what they choose to believe. That I treat everyone with respect and decency and never turn to anger and hate. I pray for America and the world, that we can turn to love, hope and respect to solve our problems.

Grandma's 80th birthday

Grandma Van turned 80 on the 20th and in true Aunt Tammy fashion, she planned a big party. I know it was a lot of work for her, but it turned out so great and I know grandma loved it. 4 of her 5 kids were there and a good chunk of her grand kids were there. Every family was represented.
I left Friday afternoon to go to Sugar City. I should have done homework, but instead I got Fongs, read a book and played on snapchat with my sister.

 Saturday morning I got up and went for a run, made my soup and then dad and I were off to Jerome in my new car. It was really fun to drive with dad and just talk with him about life. It was a very enjoyable ride.
Once we got there we helped finish up preparations for dinner and waited for grandma to get there. Aubree loves to take pictures and will come and ask if you have a phone and if she can take a picture. I have loads of pictures on my phone she took.

 All of the Walker's and the Schultz's made it which means I got to see this guy.

 Sunday morning Kevin called me to see if I had already gone back to Utah. Kaylene had missed her bus and needed a ride to the airport. In trying to figure out a timeline, my friend Jon volunteered to go and pick her up and take her to the airport leaving me free to go to church with my friend Camille and go visit grandpa Van. It was a great weekend. I love my family!

Jon and Kaylene

Hobblecreek Canyon

Saturday the high councilman from the YSA ward invited people out to their house to do a leaf walk in Hobblecreek Canyon. I really wanted to go, but when I didn't get a response that anyone else was going I just drove up the canyon myself, stopped at a park and went for a run. It was AMAZING. I was grinning like an idiot as I ran because it just made me so happy. It was SO beautiful! God really is quite the artist.

Toward the end of my run I just sat on a log and stared at the trees in front of me and pondered on life for a while. It was good meditation and I'm so glad I went. Fall is a good reminder to me that change is good.

These are a few of my favorite people

Everyone has favorite people in their lives. People they just feel comfortable with. People who "get you."I got to hang out with a couple of those people this weekend. It was so great catching up with Camille on the way to our mission reunion. I hadn't seen her since I stayed at her house 2 years ago! I don't know what it is about her that just fills me with light. She's the best.

And then there is Dana. She is one of my longest bestest friends. I love her so much and I'm so glad we get to hang out once a year at October Conference. She is real. There is no sugar coating of life. She makes no excuses. She tells it like it is and it is usually hilarious. She never fails to make me laugh and remind me how good God is to us throughout our lives. He is watching out for us before we even know we need watching out for. You just never know where a friendship between two little second graders will go when it starts, but we can see where ours has come and it's a good place to be.

A message to parents

I am not a parent, but I have observed a lot of parents in my life and I've heard lots of people talk about their parents and I've come to this conclusion: parents underestimate themselves. My friends with young children often lament that they must be the worst parents ever. I would have to say that  you are wrong. Of course there is no such thing as the perfect parent unless we're talking heavenly, but just because you make some mistakes does not make you a bad parent.
If your child has the basic necessities of life and feels safe and knows they are loved then you are doing a fantastic job. If you read with your child and take them to the park and maybe even the occasional outing to the zoo or museum, you're actually what some may call, an overachiever. I'm being serious. There are so many children who don't get that. Sometimes it's not actually the parents "fault" per say, they are working 3 jobs just to try and meet that first requirement of basic necessities. Your kid may not always act like they think you are doing a good job. They want this or want to do that and they scream that they hate you and I'm sure that really sucks.
But someday your 31 year old daughter will call you from institute to have you help her fix the projector at institute because she's on a time crunch and she knows you will be able to fix it faster than she will. Or she will call you to help her with her homework and you'll be on the phone with her for 2 hours (while you miss dancing with the stars) helping her find visuals for her lesson plan. And she'll drive to work and think "man I won the parent jackpot." And you can know that even though maybe you didn't do everything like you should of, your child loves you and he/she recognizes the love and sacrifice you continually make for him/her. And I hope you know that God sees what you are doing and He is helping you.
You're doing better than you think you are.

Running

There is a reason I make running goals and it's not so I can eat lots of cookies. I haven't been running in two weeks and I just brushed it off as no big deal. I've been really busy and I was sick so running obviously would have to wait. Last night I got out of the temple early and it wasn't a million degrees so I decided to go for a short run. It was amazing! I only ran 1.5 miles and it wasn't fast, but when I got home I felt so great! My attitude was just so much better. My dinner didn't get made on time so I had cereal, but that was okay. I didn't get quite as much homework done as I was planning, but that was okay too! I felt better about everything on my plate and more like I could conquer the world. Running is my therapy. It helps keep me balanced and grounded and sane. I seem to forget that it does that for me when I haven't been in a while. My perspective on how things are going in my life has changed and I'm looking forward to more regular running again, especially with the fall colors for the next two months and the cooler temperatures. :)

Balance

When you have chips and blueberries for dinner, you kind of feel like maybe you might be failing at life a little bit.
This is a woe is me post and I'll probably delete it later, but I am feeling very overwhelmed with life and I'm coming up short all over the place. Balance is nowhere to be seen and I need to get it out. Today I needed to go to the grocery store, look at a car, turn the AC on at the church for institute, put the groceries away, get to institute to help set up, be at institute and do my homework. I got the groceries, the car I went to see doesn't have air conditioning, as in it never did. Why would they even make a car like that!? Looked at another car, left before really getting a good feel for any car, drove to the church, which was locked, left the church to go put the chicken in the freezer and grab the projector. Put the chicken in freezer bags, grabbed the projector and got to the church in time to turn on the AC and sit down. The lesson was really great, but got derailed a bit in the beginning so we didn't make it through the entire lesson which left a lot of things unanswered. boo. Came home to discover that although I had put the chicken in freezer bags, I did not actually put it in the freezer. Luckily my roommate saw that I'm a dope and did it for me so the chicken was not lost. Since being home I have, cried, prayed, filled the humidified, had some tea and prayed some more. No homework will be done tonight. I'm only two weeks behind.
I've got to figure something out and find some balance, so I can eat like I should and get some homework done and find a new car and date and run and sleep and clean my room and sew and do my calling and be and do all the things. It's no wonder I have a cold.
But I do have many blessings. I have good roommates who ask about my day and put my chicken in the freezer when I forget and let me use their humidifier and diffuser to help with my cold. I have a car that runs and gets me to the places I need to go. I can work while I go to school so I don't have a boat load of debt when I'm done. I can leave my job for a couple hours during the day to do my observation teaching. I have food. Good healthy balanced meal food. (Just gotta work on actually preparing and eating it). I have a house. I have good people who make me laugh and rub my back and help relieve my stress, even if it's back again tomorrow. I have a Heavenly Father who listens and probably shakes his head at me a lot and whispers to me that I'll be okay. He knows I'm overwhelmed. He's helping me. I'll find some balance.
I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.

The most wonderful time of year

I've been noticing some color on the mountains the last week or two. Saturday I decided I needed to go and check it out up close so I grabbed my homework and headed up Provo Canyon. It did not disappoint. I'm excited to start running the canyon after work and I'll have to go hike a few trails before the leaves fall and the snow flies. It really is the best time of year!

 This was the view from my blanket at Big Springs Park. Best place to do homework. EVER.

California Shenanigans

Julie and Sterling went to California for a week for their honeymoon/6 month anniversary.  We decided it was the perfect opportunity to have a family vacation. Unfortunately David was unable to attend,  but we still had a great time!
Wednesday night we stayed at Jon and Louisa's house and Louisa, Aubree and Cali took us to the airport in the morning. We landed in Long Beach and piled into Kaylene's car. After a trip to Walmart and a stop for food we checked into the hotel and then headed to the beach. The water was pretty dang cold, but that didn't stop dad and Kevin from plunging right in. Kaylene followed and I finally made it in. At the end Kevin even got mom to come in up to her knees. We had a good time playing in the water and pretty much had to drag dad out of the water. He just loves the beach and wanted to stay forever.
The next few days were filled with walking, walking and more walking. Nothing like a theme park to remind you how out of shape you are.

 Disneyland is just a magical place. You get to wear stupid 3D glasses and feel like a kid and hope the ride doesn't make you want to barf.

 Sterling was my buddy for Autotopia since Julie went to get us fast passes for something else.

 I was the 7th wheel. But I still had fun. :)

 This is what it looks like when you put 7 adults in a car that only fits 5 so you don't have to walk to the shuttle. We didn't get pulled over. :)

Why yes, my family is super ridiculous and awesome. Julie did this a few years ago when we went, so we decided to recreate the picture. We rode the entire ride like that.

 Best way to find all the Mormons in a theme park, wear a BYU shirt and listen to them say "Go Cougars!"

You'd never know who was related . . . or that we know exactly where the camera is on that ride.

I really wanted to go to Harry Potter Land so I convinced them we should hit up Universal Studios this time around. We haven't been in about 15 years and they have changed a lot! The studio tour was SO awesome! Harry Potter land was also awesome, but we were not prepared for the castle ride and were lucky that none of us lost our dinner.

It was a great trip, but we were definitely worn out by the end. I had great plans to go in for a half day of work when I got back but instead I took a shower and went to bed. I'm fighting a cold now, but it was totally worth it. Great memories with my family.