Simply Amazing

Words cannot describe how happy this video makes me feel. I love it and I love Elder Busche. LOVE LOVE LOVE

Snow

So it finally snowed last night! While I didn't really enjoy my car sliding around in it, it was sure beautiful this morning! I ventured outside this morning in my pajamas and took some pictures of the snow on the trees. Snow on trees is one of my favorite things.

Coming Back

Have you ever left a place for a long time and then returned? Isn't it weird? Everything looks extremely familiar and you can still remember exactly how to get around, yet it is somehow very different. I have come to the conclusion that it is mostly different because you as a person are different. Right now I am in the David O. McKay library at BYU-Idaho waiting for my sister to get out of class. I haven't been here since the day I graduated-almost two years. Somehow my login and password still work so I was able to get on the computer in a lab that I was in almost daily when I went here. I spent the last hour walking through buildings just to see if anything looked different, and also to see how things were the same. Mostly everything is the same, there are a few different paintings on the walls and things like that, but I am just amazed at how similar everything is. As I have been walking around I have been thinking about the person I was when I was last walking in those specific spots. I am the same person, but I have changed immensely. I also don't really know anyone here anymore so I kind of feel out of place. It is also super cold and I don't know how I survived. Weird, weird, weird.

The End.

Love this-

I finally saw Invictus tonight with my parents and brother- I loved it (and not just because it included Matt Damon with a South African accent:). Here is the poem entitled "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley which Nelson Mandela gained inspiration from while in prison. I really really like it, especially the last two lines. I love the idea of being the captain of one's soul.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Bring it on!

I am so ready for 2010!

Here is an AMAZING narrative from one of my favorite websites "1,000 Awesome Things".

I think it is beautiful, enjoy. :)

"#601 Getting through it
That was a tough one.

Come on in and stop for a second to shake your head, dust yourself off, and look back at how far you’ve come.

Sure, it’s been a long year. Some crushing lows slapped you and smacked you around. There were times your heart dipped and you squinted back tears while your stomach squeezed so tightly you couldn’t sleep. There were moments you walked around in a glossy-eyeball daze — when loved ones hurt, friends didn’t stay, or someone dear to your heart slowly drifted away.

Sleepless nights, stressful nights, with teething babies, slurring customers, bad bosses, bickering boyfriends, or blank computer screens. You were feeling and you were dealing and you were reeling and you were healing.

But as you walked your hard path down your long and bumpy road some little drops of confidence dripped like coffee into your head and into your heart. As you stumbled and got back up a quiet inner strength slowly seeped into your bones. And as you climbed over obstacles set in your way some relaxed satisfaction and growing self-awareness glimmered like bright lights at the bottom of your stomach.

Yes, this year changed you and grew you in so many ways you don’t even feel or notice yet. As you struggled you empathized, as you slipped you understood, as you worked you earned…

… as you looked you learned

… … as you dared you grew

… … … and as you jumped you flew.

Your dreams are still focusing and your passion is growing. Your energy is still bubbling as your story keeps going.

You’ve been through so much and gained a year’s supply of experience along the way. You’re stronger than you were last year and stronger than you realize. Sure, there were times you bent, but you definitely didn’t break. There were times you caved, but you definitely didn’t flake.

Listen up: you got bigger, you got better, and you got the scars to prove it.

So stop for a second today to smile and look back at everything you’ve done this year… everything you’ve seen… everywhere you’ve been…

You’ve taken more illegal naps and had more blurry-eyed late nights.

You’ve danced to more wedding songs and smiled at more beautiful sights.

You’ve seen more scorching sunsets and heard more head-bopping songs.

You’ve tripped a few times, but baby, you kept rolling right along.

Yes, you’ve hugged more old friends and kissed some brand new pretty faces.

You’ve cheered more on the sidelines and visited some brand new pretty places.

You tasted more meals, you got more deals, and you’ve sniffed more flower blossoms.

And you made it all the way through this year because you’re so completely

AWESOME!"

by Neil Pasricha

Merry Christmas

Tonight,my heart is full of gratitude for my Savior- His birth, His life, and His death. This year I started listening to Christmas music a lot earlier than I usually do. A week or so before Thanksgiving I found the "Peaceful Holidays" station on Pandora and for the next month and a half it was literally all I listened to. I love this station because it played piano or instrumental arrangements of Christmas songs. These beautiful songs became a form of worship for me because they express feelings for the Savior that I can't so eloquently describe on my own. Here are a few lines that really express my feelings towards the Savior tonight on Christmas Eve.

"What can I give Him, poor as I am?....Yet what I can, I give Him: give my heart."
-In the Bleak Midwinter

"Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!"
- O Holy Night, last verse

"He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love."
-Joy to the World, last verse

"This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!"
-What Child is This?

Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all.

Wonderful and Weird things that happen when I come home

Wonderful:

- I get to see my family
- It is warm, even if it is "cold" it is still warm
- I get to go running a lot
- I get to see old friends
- I get to go to my home ward and see people who have known me since I was a baby (and they don't hesitate to tell me all about it :)
- I get my own room ( I love you Tati)
- I do fun reminiscing things like looking at pictures and yearbooks
- I get to eat my mom's food

Weird:

- I become really tired. It is the weirdest thing. At school when I am getting ready for bed, I am able to stay awake to read my scriptures, write in my journal, and pray, but when I am home, as soon as I put my pajamas on, I am OUT. Like the fall-asleep-while-you're-praying-and-wake-up-twenty-minutes-later-with-a-neck-ache-kind of out.
-I become lazy. I wake up, do some stuff, read a book, sleep, do some stuff, read a book, and sleep some more.
-Even though it is warm outside, I am always FREEZING inside my house. I am not quite sure what it is, but all day yesterday I was walking around with sweats and a sweatshirt and a blanket wrapped around me. I think I just got used to having it be 80 degrees inside like it is in my apartment.
- I have virtually no recollection of the whole past year I spent in Provo. When I think about it, it seems like it happened 20 years ago on a different planet. I feel like once I left Provo, so did everyone else and that nothing happened and nothing will happen till I get back. Weird. And egocentric.