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.