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Thanksgiving thoughts

Due to the Thanksgiving season I have been thinking a lot lately about things I am grateful for. Of course I initially came up with the usual things right off the bat, but when I took some time to really think about everything I have been blessed with, I was overwhelmed. Every year during this time I vow that I will forever be thankful for what I have, but once winter is in full swing it’s hard to be grateful for the cold. :) I just thought I’d take a minute to share a few things that I am extremely grateful for, regardless of if they are the standard blessings we recognize in our lives.

I am so grateful for flowers. Daisies are definitely my favorite flower, and seeing them instantly makes me smile. All flowers are beautiful, however, and seem to brighten this bleak world.

The colorful leaves are another part of nature I have fallen in loved with. I often find myself wandering through campus looking up rather than forward, amazed at the beauty of the trees. I love the crunching noise they make when they get stepped on, and they way they randomly fall from their branches. If I could pick my favorite season – one to have all year long – it would definitely be autumn. It’s simply gorgeous.

Another blessing I’m grateful for is the opportunity to receive an education. As a college student I often find myself slacking a bit in school, not realizing how lucky I am to be attending BYU. It is only recently that I have discovered my love for learning, and I’m glad I am able to attend such a prestigious school. Regardless of their football record, I’m still a Cougar through and through. :)

Music is another blessing we all have that often goes unnoticed. I did not realize how often I listen to music, and how quickly it can change one’s mood. It allows us to relax and contemplate, or dance and laugh. What a wonderful thing to have in our lives, eh? Mmm…I love it.

I am thankful for the country in which we live. I am only beginning to recognize the never-ending opportunities America provides for its citizens, and I feel a responsibility and an excitement to make a difference. Although I still feel a little unsettled about the upcoming Presidency, I will put my full support in Barack Obama’s hands and pray that we can all stick together. It worries me a bit with how divided our country has become, and I hope we will be able to remember our heritage and unite as a people again. I love our country and I feel so blessed to have the freedom we are all granted. God bless America.

Another thing I LOVE and am grateful for is the delicious combination of Oreos, peanut butter and milk. My roommates can testify that it’s my favorite snack and they think I’m crazy for eating it, but it truly is the best. Try it out. :)

Well this list could go on and on with the little things I am grateful for, but I’ll wrap it up by talking about my Savior. I am so thankful for all He did for me. I was extremely fortunate to visit the places He has lived and walked, and my love for Him grew more than I could have imagined. What a blessing it is for us to have that knowledge and testimony of Christ. May we all remember what is truly important this season…and after this season. We have all been given so much we often take for granted, so I’m going to do my best to remember all I have. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkins, Spam and Flower pots...

Well, well, well...I guess I slacked again on blog-posting, eh? What's new? It's definitely gotten to the point where SO many eventful things have happened since my last post that I don't even know where to begin. I'll give a quick (or maybe not-so-quick) recap of the last month or so, though, starting with...

*the crazy weather!!! Can you believe it's the beginning of November and it's still nice out? I absolutely love, and have begun to realize I could handle it only snowing in Christmas. (If only, right?) The main reason I'm loving the warmness is because I still work outside a few nights a week...and it gets pretty dang cold. I love my job, but sometimes it doesn't make sense to stand out in the cold for 5 hours watching girls TRY to play flag football or yelling out the time of the game. The best nights are when we're fortunate enough to have a kind soul bring hot chocolate. Love it. :)

Me and Melia loving the hot cocoa...bundled up like crazy.

Sometimes we run laps around the field at half-time to thaw out. We look like nerds, but we'll do anything to survive. :)

* Last weekend I was able to go home and hang out with the family. It was definitely an eventful weekend, full of plenty of pictures and laughs. We first went to the pumkin patch with the two little ones and had a great time. My nephew, Spencer, face-planted a few times due to the multiple vines and roots throughout the place, but he toughed it out and was able to pick a pumpkin. Abbie just liked sitting in the wagon...one day she'll be walking. ;)

Abs...so cute.

Me and Cam...sometimes we're too alike for our own good.

Ali, Spencer and Mark...just imagine a little boy giggling like crazy, because that's exactly what was going on. (This was after the nose dive into the dirt).

After the pumkin patch we watched a little of the BYU game (GO COUGARS!) and then the girls went to dinner together. We went to a new place called Boston's, which I would highly recommend. It was fun to get away and have some "girl bonding" time...

Cami, Mom and Ali

Bev, Me and Chelsie

After dinner (I know this is a long story, but I have to continue...) Cami and I ran a few errands and then she talked me into highlighting her hair. I'm not sure if she was aware that I hadn't ever done this before, but I tried to stay confident and told her I knew what I was doing. It took about 45 minutes just to pull her hair through the cap (it went a bit faster because Mom helped too)...and then I started painting. Who ever though coloring hair was such an art? I loved it, and it turned out great.

She definitely didn't know what she was getting herself into at this point...

After I had just finished her hair. It was almost midnight at this point and I needed to fill up my car and run to the store for Mom...so Cami came with me like this. :) She just sat in the car, but apparently she got some great looks. I don't have an "after picture" right now, but the result was a success. Anyone else need a hair-dye???

*I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I'm dating a guy named Rich. He's a lot of fun to be around and always makes me laugh. He's finishing up his Masters in Public Health here at the Y and will graduate in April. Because of my work schedule and both our crazy schooling, we spend a lot of time throughout the week studying together. We still manage to fit in some fun and exciting things here and there, though...

Utah Jazz game. We lost by only a few points and my favortie boy Matt Harpring was MIA, but it was still a blast. Great seats, thanks to Rich's work.

Carving pumpkins...

And of course attending BYU football games. :) Apparently I should've worn a coat to this game...it was freezing!

*Can I just say I absolutely adore my roommates? There's only four of us living together and it's so much fun. Our schedules definitely conflict, so we're rarely together...but when we are we have a great time. I love you, roommies :)


Me, Ashley, Kate and Maggie

*Another highlight was Halloween. It is definitely one of my favorite holidays...especially for track practice. We always get all dressed up and then take a bunch of pictures together - and this year was the best. I don't know where some people come up with their costume ideas, but they're great. :)

Posing in the weight room before we started the work-out.

I was a cat and Katie was a fish...it only seemed fitting.

Later that night Rich and I went to my stake party and then a few other places. We had a great time, and definitely got some weird looks due to his costume choice. We had to get creative because we wanted to have "couple costumes"...but obviously it was a stretch. It usually took people a few seconds to understand the correlation, but it worked. :)

Yes...he really was a can of spam. :) As for that night, however, he was merely catfood.

One of the many "Super Spam" poses he did througout the evening. What a character.

I think it fits me better...

Whitney, Kate and I at the stake party. Can you tell Whitney's from Texas? Sheesh...

Halloween was a blast...even if our costumes didn't go together as well as planned. I'm sad it's over. Especially because I loved wearing fake eyelashes. Anyone ever tried them?

* The last thing I'll post about is last night...Rich and I went on a big group date with his roommates and friends. We went to Trafalga (Tra-fall-ga...you know I'm right, Rich) and played a little mini-golf - so fun. We decided to keep score, and I was determined to beat Rich. He'd had a few bad strokes, off into the rocks or the dirt...and we were following the "play where it lies" rule. Anyway, on the second-to-last hole I was up by a considerable amount, but had an unfortunate first stroke. To make a long story short, I ended up out in the grass across the sidewalk from the hole. With my first attempt to chip it onto the green, a guy came flying down the stairs out of nowhere, right in time for my ball to hit him in the ankle and roll back to where it was. Ugh. What are the chances, eh? After laughing like crazy, I made my second attempt...this time the ball got across the sidewalk but hit a crack in the cement, sending it flying backward - right into the flower pot next to me. Wow. By this time I have quite the audience, and I had to hit it out of the pot...embarrassing. I ended up getting a whoppin 6 strokes on that hole, which moved me comfortably into last place. Rich supposedly beat my by one stroke, but I still claim interference with the running man...so it was tie. Agreed?

The gang right after we finished. These are the stairs that led to my destruction...

Unbelievable. See my pink ball? I also managed to detach the flower in my hand from the plant on my swing, so Rich thought it fitting to keep it as a token of remembrance. Lame. I should've won.

Where did August Go??? And half of September?

Well...I doubt anyone is even going to read this post because you all probably think I'm dead by now, but lo and behold - I'm FINALLY updating again! I know that I probably won't be justified by coming up with excuses because, in the words of dear Coach Buhrley, "Excuses are like behinds, everyone has one and they all stink." Although that is generally true, I have been unbelievably busy this past month or so. This is going to be a marathon-of-a-post, so bear with me. I'll try to give you a little glimpse of what I've been up to recently...so here goes.

First and foremost, my last few weeks in Jerusalem were nothing short of incredible. I celebrated my 20th birthday, so a few friends and I went out in the city to celebrate my newest decade!! I'm no longer a teenager, which is crazy, but wonderful. We got ice cream at McDonald's and enjoyed the night-life there. The last few days we focused on the last week of Christ's life. We walked the path from Gethsemane to Golgotha, and the spirit was incredible. It was unbelievably hard to leave the Holy Land, and I'll never forget the experiences I had there.

The big 2-0!!! Woot woot...

Me and the girls at McDonald's for the last time

My birthday present to myself...my first tattoo! Ok, so maybe it was just a stamp-roller someone had, but it served it's purpose of making me feel like an adult. Don't mess.

This is believed to be the actual street the Savior walked up to be questioned and charged. Definitely a crazy thing to realize, but I loved it.

This was our last day in the city, and a bunch of us met up at the Dome of the Rock. It was one of my favorite days there, all of us moving from site to site as quickly as possible to fit everything in. I miss looking out my window and seeing this beautiful building...

After Jerusalem I met up with my parents and Chelsie in Barcelona for a few days. We bummed around there and then got on a cruise ship around the Mediterranean. Although it wasn't the most relaxing trip, it was better than I could've imagined. We got to see Malta, Sorrento, Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Villefrance. Woot woot. We didn't have a lot of time at each place, but we saw incredible architecture and took some hilarious pictures. Although I was a bit homesick by then (or shall we say "America-sick") I enjoyed every bit of it. We had some trouble with our flight connections on the way home, and lost a few bags in the process, but we got everything back and finally made it home!

Chels and I all "dressed-up" for dinner one night. We may have had a photo shoot in the lobby of the boat...but we enjoyed it. The food on the boat was incredible, and I even tried 3 new dishes, including 2 different kinds of fish!

All four of us in beautiful Malta...are we a good-looking group or what?

Notice anything "Eurpoean" about our tour guide...? Ha ha. I couldn't resist

One of the many gelato stops we made...this was in Florence, which was possibly my favorite stop of the cruise!

Me at the Vadican - I LOVED this place too. The artwork was incredible inside, and the Sistine Chapel was everyting I'd imagined.

Another Italian tour guide we had - does anyone else feel like he resembles a certain character from "The Wedding Planner"? ...Mosimo? Ha ha. He had the exact accent, and was kind of a creeper - Chels and I were dying, we had to get a picture with him.

After the cruise I came home and tried to get everything back in order. Our house flooded a few days before my parents left for Europe, so there was a bit of fixing up to do. My parents are still in the process of re-doing the upstairs, and it's been a great excuse to paint and get new carpet up there. :) I spent some time with Aaron (who I'm actually no longer dating) and he taught me to wakeboard. I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical of myself, but I got up and was doing great on my second try...I even got in and out of the wake. :) Definitely one of my new favorite things, so I can't wait til next summer for that. Anyone who has a boat...can we be friends?

I've been offered to be sponsored by multiple companies, but I'm keeping my options open for now. ;)

Another updateable (totally not a word...) event was the now-annual Colors Concert up at the Sandy Ampitheater. I met up with my family there, and Hydee was kind enough to be my date. :) It was a beautiful night, and the music was as great as expected. Afterwards Hyd and I went back to her house off 90th South and had a slumber party. Her husband was at his brother's for the weekend, so it was fun to have a little girl-talk and look at her wedding pictures. We also put mud-masks on our faces, and it was my first experience with it...definitely comes highly recommended by me!!! It was a great weekend - thanks for letting me come stay, Hyd.

Us three hung out together...all without our men. (Well - the other two actually HAD husbands to be missing, and I was getting used to single life). It was a party... :) Colors is the BEST.

Post-concert facials...

Well - that's about all the excitement one post can handle these days. I don't have a lot to update anymore except for school, work, and track. I changed my major from PE Teaching and Coaching to Home and Family Living, with a minor in Coaching. Definitely a great move for me, and I'm loving my classes now. Track is going well, and we have a lot of promise this coming season. I can't wait to tear it up, so keep praying I don't get injured or sick again. ;) I'm working for BYU Intramurals again, supervising volleyball and football. I love the social scene, and watching the games while getting paid isn't a bad thing. I'm easing back into the social life here, and I'm surprisingly enjoying it. BYU football has been incredible, and I'm still in awe from last week's blow-out. Congrats, cougars...and let's plan to destroy Wyoming tomorrow!