BASKETBALL WEEK

Tuesday: BYU vs. UTAH

WEDNESDAY: JAZZ vs. KNICKS

My HAPPY BIRTHDAY week (or two)!

I am now 23! It has been a great couple of weeks of celebration so hear are the highlights...

Monday December 27th these wonderful people came to visit...

Mom, Dad, and Joelle came down the week before my birthday and took me to dinner at Olive Garden. After dinner Dad was really nice to chauffeur us around shopping. Mom helped me pick out a new black dress coat for my birthday and I LOVE it. You will see it in most of the recent pictures below.

Monday January 3rd I picked Brent and Kristen Ludwig up at the airport after their Christmas break and they took me to Zupas for dinner.

Tuesday January 4th (MY REAL BIRTHDAY). After a 5am trip to the gym with my good friends Wendy and Janae and then a good day at work I went night skiing with Lee and Ian at Brighton. It was COLD but it was a wonderful way to spend a birthday! I love the skis that I got for Christmas. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Friday January 7th was the day of the big birthday party. At our ward auction in December I bought a party planner :) My friend Wendy planned my party and did an amazing job. I didn't have to worry about a thing. Look at this cute cake and cupcakes. Fun decorations, great food, games, and lots of wonderful friends!

Saturday January 8th I went to Provo for an evening with Elise Kelly Call. We went to YoZone for frozen yogurt but not until we had spent over an hour looking at old Jerusalem pictures. I gave you a small sample below :) Thanks for the great night Elise!

Saturday continued...after spending time with Elise I stopped by David and Ryan's apartment. If you will remember, these were some of the boys that sang to me at my birthday party last year. See here When I told David that he needed to come to SLC to my party on Friday because none of my friends here would be singing to me, he responded, "I guess you need to find new friends." Luckily I still got my birthday song when I showed up at his apartment. I tried to upload the video but it might take all night. Sorry.

Needless to say I had a wonderful time celebrating my 23rd birthday!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

The Table

I finished my table a few weeks ago and finally got a picture of it to share. Next project...coffee table?

Next vacation...Kirtland, Ohio

I have been very blessed to have had the opportunity to visit so many church history sites, both modern and ancient. However, I still have one church history site that has yet to be check off my list...I think my next trip will be to Kirtland.

I am taking a Church History Institute class and this past week we talked about what took place while the saints were in Kirtland, OH. Elder M. Russell Ballard gave a CES fireside in 1994 entitled "Our Kirtland Legacy." He said, "It has been said that we may yet discover that Kirtland is our most significant Church history site."

Elder Ballard lists the following to describe just how important Kirtland is to the Church:

• Reveled basically all the priesthood offices that we have in the church today
• Schooling period for the leaders of the Church
• About 1/2 of the revelations recored in the Doctrine and Covenants were revealed there
• School of the Prophets began
• Joseph made his Bible translations
• Pearl of Great Price was largely translated
• First edition of the Doctrine and Covenants was printed
• More heavenly manifestations and appearances occurred in Kirtland than any other place

Last April Holly and I won the Home Based Business Plan Competition at BYU with our business Vinylize It. Seven months later we had the opportunity to return to BYU as guest speakers in the Women Entrepreneur Lecture Series. This is the class that I was the TA for last year and I never imagined that I would return so soon as the one speaking. View here
I love working with Holly. She has worked so hard on this business and I am continually amazed at everything she has learned and the things she is able to do with one hand while taking care of her kids. She is an amazing mom, wonderful sister, and great business partner. Thanks Holly!

Conference

I went to the Saturday afternoon session with my friend Spencer Mun (from freshman year), Joelle, and my roommate Maryn. I love being on Temple Square for conference and it is so nice to live close!

Kristen, Heather, Maryn, Joelle, and Katie

With Joelle

Project #1...check

I finally finished my bed and I love it! About a month ago I moved to Salt Lake and was without any type of furniture. Luckily I have a sister-in-law who convinced me that rather than buying a bed, I should just make my own. Robbie recently built a beautiful bed that you can see here. The plans came from an awesome website ana-white.com. Thanks Robbie!

Project #2

My day of building with Robbie also included a large table and benches. This one is still in the works...stay posted for more.

This is my new home...
Meet my new roommates...

Lisa (Left)

1. From Fruit Heights

2. Served a mission in Estonia

3. A teacher at a middle school in South Jordan

4. An awesome runner and was on the BYU track/cross country team

Maryn (Right)

1. From Logan

2. Served a mission in Mongolia

3. Going to school at the University of Utah, and plans to apply to the Nursing Program

4. Loves to ski and wakeboard and plays the piano really well

Lisa and Maryn are cousins and yesterday I joined their family reunion and we went to Raging Waters. They are great!

This morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word. So far I am enjoying being in Salt Lake. If anyone has any extra furniture sitting around let me know :)

Travis, Amy, Lisa, Heather, Maryn, and Matt

Goodbye PROVO...
I have a home...well, ALMOST!

Last Saturday I had to move out of my apartment in Provo and I had no where to go. It has been a long week of searching and I have spent hours browsing KSL and visiting apartments, houses, and duplexes. Luckily that has come to an end.

Last week during my lunch hour I went up to the Institute at the U to check out their housing board for the third time and met a couple of girls who were also looking for a place to live. It turns out that one of them is friends with Eliza Dickson and I had met her a couple years ago before she left on her mission! They are great girls and they are going to be my new roommates.

So after 4 great years in Provo I am headed to Salt Lake. I am sad to leave my friends, intramurals, and the beautiful blue of BYU, but I am excited for a new adventure.

"Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence" -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

I just listened to one of my favorite BYU devotionals given by Elder Holland. He really has a powerful way of speaking. In this talk he teaches us about revelation and I love it. I would suggest taking the time to listen to it. You can find it at BYU Speeches

As he talked about fear I was remind of something that my mentor Paul McKinnon shared with me. He told me that he has as quote from Elder James E. Faust sitting on his desk at work that says, "Let us not take counsel from our fears." Thanks for the great advise Paul!

New inspiration...

This may not mean anything to you or you may wonder why I spent money on this little decorative board. It just seemed to speak to my heart yesterday so it is now sitting above my bed. Depending on how you read this, I think it could mean a few different things but for me...it has caused me to rethink how I am choosing my "endeavors."

Today I went with some friends to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! No better way to spend the afternoon. It was also interesting to see the difference between this temple that was dedicated 1 year ago, with the Manti Temple, dedicated over 100 years ago. It has been a great week!

On Saturday I took a trip with my ward to the Manti Temple. It was beautiful and I had a wonderful time. Click here to learn a few things about the Manti Temple.

Number 25!

I now have 25 nieces and nephews and I love them all! Brandon and Lindsay were in Beaver for the 24th of July Celebrations so I met up with them for a few minutes at the Wendy's in Orem on their way home. Grant is so cute and I wish they still lived in Provo so the two of us could have more bonding time. I guess I may just need to move to Idaho! Are their any openings at any of the dairies?

As I was talking to Lindsay she was telling me that Grant has brought quite the change to her life. We all face so many different changes no matter what stage of life we are in. Some we can anticipate but most of the time it seems to come upon us without warning. Steven E. Snow gave a great talk entitled "Get On with Our Lives" in April 2009 conference on the topic of change. I would encourage all to read this one!

"By listening to the prophets, keeping an eternal perspective, having faith, and being of good cheer, we can face life’s unexpected challenges."

This weekend we...

Went here...Stayed in this...And by the end felt like this...

SUNSETS...

It has almost been one year since I returned from a study abroad in Israel. In a blog post from that time, I shared how I had fallen in love with sunsets. I was reminded again just how beautiful they are when I watched the sun set over Provo as I reached the "Y" after a hike up the mountain a couple of weeks ago.

There have been many sunrises and sunsets over the past year. It is amazing to me to look back at everything that has happened in the last year. As I left Jerusalem I couldn't have imagined all of the new opportunities and experiences that I would face as well as the passing of many of those same experiences. It is a time of transition and a time of new opportunity. The sun may be setting on some parts of my life but it is soon to rise and I look forward to what the Lord has is in store for me.

"I begin by mentioning one of the most inevitable aspects of our lives here upon the earth, and that is change. At one time or another we’ve all heard some form of the familiar adage: “Nothing is as constant as change.

"Throughout our lives, we must deal with change. Some changes are welcome; some are not. There are changes in our lives which are sudden, such as the unexpected passing of a loved one, an unforeseen illness, the loss of a possession we treasure. But most of the changes take place subtly and slowly.

"Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows."

Thomas S. Monson "Finding Joy in the Journey"

A day with the Christensens

Yesterday Adam and I went to the Christensen's to spend the afternoon and evening with Katie and Eric and their kids. We had a blast at the neighborhood pool. Annie loved "diving" and I loved her stance. Fairy in hand and tube around her waist.

Annie and Cameron loved the slide.

We also enjoyed a few games of pool basketball I must brag that Adam and I won 2 of the 3 games. Katie and Eric are great shooters but Adam transformed the game into Rugby-Basketball and I will just say that I was glad that he was on my team!

Helping at the dairy...

It was so fun to go home for memorial day weekend. Too bad that it was freezing cold on Saturday. It is a sad day when you have to wear a stocking hat and three jackets instead of going out on the river in a swimming suit!

Adam was great to come along and help Ben and me with the vet check and probably learned more than he wanted to. However, Adam loves being a new expert on cows and telling everyone we see about what he learned.

One of my favorite moments is when we were driving and Adam saw some cows out in a pasture. Ben taught him all about the different breeds of dairy cows so he asked me what kind of cow the black ones were that he saw. I told him they were Angus and his response was...."oh, yummy!" The only thing missing from his weekend was a steak!
The one thing that Adam really wanted to see was a cow giving birth. Just our luck...(along with the cold weather) the only calf that was born while we were at the dairy happened while we were out helping Ben, so we missed it :( Until next time...