A Time For Thanks

Well believe it or not, Thanksgiving 2008 is upon us.  I'm more on the not believe side, because I still feel as if 2008 just started, but alas, it is only in a few short days.  As I look back on my life I realize that I have SO much to be grateful for.  I have been blessed with so much, and I'm not always aware of why I have been this blessed, but I do know that I have a great responsibility to do everything I can with the bounteous things that I have been given throughout my life.  I was pondering random things last night as I waited to drift off to sleep.  As I thought about my situation with not going home for Thanksgiving and what not, missing old friends, and reflecting on times of the past I was overwhelmed with such a grand sense of gratitude like I had never experienced before.  As thoughts of unfairness about my inability to travel home started to take over, my mind began to think of my life in general and how amazingly blessed I have been.  My mind as never worked that way before.  It was almost as if someone had taken my brain and picked certain events and memories from it and showed them to me as if I were watching a movie of my own life.  I watched myself go through so many happy times with my best friends, leaders I have looked up to, warm times with my family, and other fun things I have had the opportunity to experience in my life.  It was a perspective that I have sadly not thought of before.  I realized that the Lord has blessed me with such amazing people in my life.  Whether I am still in contact with them now is insignificant, the point is that I was blessed to have them in my life when I most needed them.  I'd like to reflect on a few things I have been grateful for this year specifically, and then other things that I am grateful for in general.  They are in no specific order because I am so grateful for everything I have in my life.  

2008:

1. I have had a lot of good times in 2008.  Unfortunately I have had a lot of really hard, depressing times as well, so it took me a long time to realize that I have had many good times as well.  I did a lot of fun things with my old roommate, Charissa, and my friend Barbara.  They are and still are very dear to me and I am grateful for the fact that I can be myself around them no matter what the circumstance and there is never a dull moment when I am around them.  

2. I had the opportunity to travel home to St. Louis twice so far this year.  Once in April, I surprised my family by driving home with my friend Barbara.  And the other time I flew home to visit for a week in August.  It's always so fun to be able to spend time with those that I love the most.  

3. I was put into a new ward at the beginning of this year, which was the BYU 245th ward.  I was extremely blessed to have an amazing bishopric that really took an interest in me.  I am still in this ward and I still feel so blessed to work my bishop and his counselors.  They are so sincere and loving and I just love to be around them every Sunday.  

4. My roommates this year have been a true blessing in my life.  I haven't had the best of roommates in general and was finally blessed with amazing ones this year.  I love having late night talks with my roommate Hilary and going out with my other roommates Heidi and Michelle on a regular basis.  I have really enjoyed getting to know them better and become true friends with them.  

5. My grandparents are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and it has been such a blessing to have them as examples in my life.  We had a family celebration for the event in August, even though their actual anniversary is in December.  I loved to hear the stories of how they met and got married and the many sacrifices that they have gone through over the years to raise 8 kids on a farm.  I was amazed and realized that happiness really does come from doing what is right and being with your family as opposed to having material things in life.  

6. I have an amazing job that I just started this year.  I work with 4 mentally handicapped adult men, as many of you know.  I am so glad I have this job because prior to it, I was always uncomfortable around people with mental handicaps.  This has taught me to know that they are loving people and I really enjoy going to work.  I also have great coworkers and have made many friendships while working there.  

7. I was called as relief society president this semester, and wow has it been incredible.  Yes it isn't always the easiest calling to magnify, but I have found that as I truly try to magnify it to the best of my abilities, the Lord has made up for the rest and blessed me beyond my capacity.  I have been blessed to get to know so many amazing girls in my ward, especially my counselors who I am so grateful for every single day.  They truly help me with whatever I need and I don't know where I would be without them.  

8.  It was election year this year, and it was my first time to be able to vote for the president.  I am so grateful to be living in a country that has such a smooth running government.  I am grateful for the opportunity to vote and that my candidate won! :) haha.  Not only that, but I am grateful to live in a country that doesn't break out into war whenever there is an change in power.  It's a greater blessing than many of us realize.  

In general:

1. I have truly been blessed with an amazing family.  My mother has truly become my best friend as I've grown up, and I'm so grateful for the relationship I have with her.  I can tell her anything and she is one of the few, if not the only person that knows me well enough to know when something is wrong in my life.  I can confide in her, and I am grateful to finally be old enough for her to confide in me as well.  

2. My father has also been a great blessing in my life.  He is such a hard worker and does everything he can to support me and my family.  He also is a great example to me of spiritual strength and I am glad to have him as a priesthood holder in my life.  I have a very healthy, strong relationship with him and I know he loves me very much, as I love him.

3. My younger brother, Parker (Pooky) is another person that I absolutely adore.  He is such a compassionate, loving person that I learn so much from.  He constantly stands out from his friends by choosing the right and sticking to what he knows to be good.  He is kind to everyone and is hardly ever judgemental of other's faults.  He is also a great role model for my youngest brother, Ethan, and I am glad he is there to help him along.

4. My youngest brother, Ethan, who has so many nicknames it would take a whole blog entry to write them all is such a joy in my life.  Although it saddens me that he is starting to grow up, because he will always and forever be a baby in my eyes, he has been such a blessing in my life.  He always has the capacity to cheer me up no matter what.  I love going home because he has such an outward expression of love towards me that shows me how much he misses having me around.  He wants me to spend a lot of time with him and vocalizes it.  

5. I have been blessed with so many other amazing people in my life that have shaped who I am today.  The Leimburgs are one of the first people I think of.  Kerry has been such a great "second mother" to me and I always enjoy her company.  Sally and Danny are also a joy to be around and I have loved having them be close family friends of mine.  

6. Although I'm not in contact with all of them anymore, I have been blessed with a lot of very close friends over the years.  Not many people have the opportunity to get to know so many people on such a personal level, and I am so grateful to have had that opportunity.  To name just one - my friend Elizabeth has been such an amazing friend to me for over 10 years now.  She is such a positive influence in my life and we remain close no matter how much time passes between us seeing each other.  That is what true friendship is all about.  

7. I guess this is a 2008 and in general one, but I am so grateful to be the granddaughter of Papa Joe.  He passed away this past March, which was a great tragedy for me, but I still have loved visiting with him and seeing him on various occasions through out my life.  You never doubted his love for you and he was the kindest and gentlest man I think I will ever know in my life.  

8. I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life.  I don't know where'd I be without it.  It blesses me with so much: the scriptures, the opportunity to serve others at church, the knowledge that God loves me and that through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, I can repent of my imperfections and become a better person, the knowledge that I will see my loved ones that have passes on again, the gift of prayer, which gives me the opportunity to kneel down and pour my heart's desires out to a loving Heavenly Father at any time during the day, a living prophet that leads this church and gives amazing counsel that will guarantee make my life better and happier, and the opportunity I have to be sealed to my family for time and all eternity.  

Gratitude really is a key to being happy.  As I have considered my many wonderful blessings, I have realized that I should never have any reason to feel sad or depressed.  Although I will feel this way at times, if I can remember to count my many blessings, those times will become more far and in between the great times in my life.

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Better In Time

Well not too much as happened since my last post.  I always find it funny how I am so amazingly busy, and yet my life seems to remain the same day to day, so there's really not that much to tell! This past weekend was pretty blah.  I didn't do much.  I guess that has to happen sometimes.  Hopefully not too often though.  Church on Sunday was good though.  It usually is.  After church we had a dinner at my apartment with people from the ward.  Hilary, my roommate cooked Brazilian food for ever that was really great.  It was called "dinner in a pumpkin."  You scrape out a pumpkin, and then smear the inside with cream cheese.  After that you cook the pumpkin in the over until its tender and ready to eat.  While the pumpkin is cooking you sautee chicken, garlic, and onions together.  After the chicken is fully cooked, you add tomatoes (diced up and blended).  Then you pull the pumpkin out and pour the chicken into the pumpkin and mix it all up, scraping some of the pumpkin into the mixture.  Then you serve that over rice.  It was really yummy!  But yeah we had a good turn out, there were about 15-20 people that came.  So I'd call that a success.  Hopefully we can do it more often.  

Then we had FHE last night.  We tied baby blankets for a service project.  We also served leftovers from the dinner we had on Sunday.  Oh and I also baked a red velvet cake over the weekend that we served at the dinner and at FHE.  Everyone loved it!  With that being said, it was a little hard for me because at this time of year the main question asked is "Are you going home for Thanksgiving?"  So of course it was a huge conversation with my FHE group about how everyone is going home for Thanksgiving, how they would die if they couldn't go home, and a bunch of "if I can just make it to Thanksgiving then I can get through anything" being said.  Then there's always the awkward moment when I say that I'm not going home and people don't really know what to say.... I have come to terms with the fact that I'm not going home, but it just doesn't help when that's all that everyone talks about at this time of year.  Oh well, the time will pass and everything will be better then.  

It reminds me of the song "Better in Time" by Leona Lewis.  I just love this song because it just reminds me that no matter how bad it is, time will pass and everything will be ok.  Time heals everything!  That's a great lesson that I've learned this year.  I can't believe that this year is almost over.  I'll be at home for Christmas break in less than a month.  That is so insane.  Then it'll be time to celebrate the coming of the new year.  I still feel like it hasn't been 2008 long enough.  This has been one of the fastest years ever.  But I'm sure the years to come will be just as fast, if not faster.  Well once again its a short one, but that's all I've got to say for today, so until next time....

P.S. Mom and Dad- I would prefer to not get any comments referring to me not coming home.... I will not be happy with you!! :)

Baby It's Cold Outside

Ok let me first start out by saying how much I love my new design for my blog! I was having trouble finding a good one, which is why I just went with the brown one from before, but now I have found one that I really like.  It's great.  Well I'd like to mention a few things that have happened since my last post. As you all know, Barack Obama was elected as our next president on November 4th.  Of course I was very happy about it because I voted for him, but I am extremely disappointed with some of the reactions that I've been seeing around me, especially living in Utah and all.  Let me just tell you of a few examples.  One girl says that it's going to take a serious depression for the US to realize that it was a mistake to vote for Obama just because he's black.  OK come on! I for one did NOT vote for Obama because he's black.  The only reason she said that comment is because he's black.  So what if he is black? I voted for him, as I'm sure most other people did as well because of his political beliefs, not his skin color.  I'm just surprised that someone had the nerve to say that on an open internet site where many people could have taken offense to it.  I personally think it's amazing to look back at history and see the issues of slavery, the civil rights movement, and to now see that we have overcome a huge milestone in the racism issues of this country.  Obviously there is still racism and a lot of it, but it's still an amazing step in the right direction.  Alright onto more examples.  So then my friend sends me this text that was a forward which said the following : "According to the book of Revelation, the anti-Christ will be a man in his 40s, of MUSLIM decent, who will come out of nowhere, decieve the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE christ-like appeal.. that prophesy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything.  Is it OBAMA?"  There are so many things wrong with this its incredible how lame and ignorant people are.  I don't care if you didn't vote for Obama, but really? First of all, I'd like to know WHERE in the book of revelation does it say this? I've read that book, and i'm pretty sure the word "muslim" is not in there.  Plus OBAMA IS NOT MUSLIM.  Seriously, if you're going to insult our next president then at least pretend you are intelligent.  And finally, it is impossible for Obama to destroy everything once he is in power, because that's not the way our government works.  It's called checks and balances people.  If people knew anything about politics, they wouldn't say such stupid things.  And once again, I do not care if you voted for McCain, that is your right.  I just care if you come up with irrational, illogical statements that don't make sense.  But I guess it is your right to be uneducated as well.... even though it shouldn't be. haha.  My final statement about politics before I move onto a new topic is that I was really impressed with John McCain's conceeding speech.  Unfortunately not a lot of people have listened to it, or adhered to it, even though they should.  If you haven't had the chance to hear his speech, I would highly recommend looking it up.  And while you're at it, look up Obama's speech as well because it was also very good.  

Ok onto other things.  So this past weekend was good.  Friday night I had a game night/get together at my apartment for anyone in the ward that wanted to come.  I wasn't sure how many people would show up, but about 20 came. So it was a really good turnout, and the perfect amount for the size of my apartment.  Then I worked Saturday morning.  My coworker and I took the guys to the mall.  We shopped at various stores and it was a lot of fun.  They seemed to really enjoy it.  After work, I went back home and went out to dinner with my roommates.  Then we just hung out at our apartment afterwards and went and got Yozone.  I wasn't lying when I said it was a weekly tradition! This time I got dark chocolate and mint, it was amazing.  It's so weird, I used to hate the mint/chocolate combination, but now I absolutely love it, and it's one of my favorites.  So yesterday was Sunday and I was just wiped out all day.  I felt so physically tired that it was hard to get up and get going.  I was in some sort of meeting ALL day.  And I mean all day.  I had one at 7:30 AM, then church, then two meetings after church.  Then interviews with girls from 4-8 PM.  I literally went to bed at 8:30.  I don't think I've gone to bed that early since I was a small child.  Seriously that's just how tired I was.  Anyway, today has been one of the coldest days this semester and it has been raining all day, so it was extremely not fun to walk to class and I've been freezing all day.  Including right now.  I am SO cold!!  And it's still raining, so it's a pretty dreary day.  But other than that, my life continues to go well.  It's already less than a month before I turn 21.  It's so crazy! I don't feel like I am that old! I always wonder how old I will be before I really start to feel older.  Like I still feel like I just graduated from high school and yet I am going on my 3rd year of college.  I guess I feel more mature than I was in high school, but at the same time I don't feel old at all, not that 21 is even old. I asked my mom how old she was when she really started to feel like an adult once and she said it wasn't until her kids started going to school.  So I guess I have quite a ways before that happens!  Well I am in dire need of a nap, so I think I will leave you with that.  Until next time!

November already?

Is it really November? Wow does time fly.  I feel like I'm always saying that and it's so cliche, but it is oh so true.  Ok so it's been quite a while since I last wrote.  Let me update you on what I've been up to.  The weekend before last was pretty chill I don't think I did much.  To be honest, I don't really remember.  Then for FHE this past week we had a pumpkin carving night.  The pumpkins all turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  Ours was of the BYU cougar, which was pretty intense to carve.  Then on Wednesday night we had enrichment night, where we had a "favorite things" dinner.  Everyone brought their favorite thing to eat.  We had a really good turn out and the food was all really yummy, even though it was pretty random.  Then Friday night was Halloween.  I am sad to admit that I actually didn't do anything.  I ended up taking a shift from one of my co-workers because she had a funeral to go to.  So I gave candy to trick or treaters all night.  Not a terribly fun night, but not a terrible night either.  Then on Saturday I worked all day until 4 and then got some dinner with my roommates.  We then watched a movie and went and got frozen yogurt.  It has become quite the tradition I must say.  We have a new place in our complex called Yozone, where you serve your self and then they charge you based on how much it weighs.  Its an awesome place and we have gone their every weekend since it has opened.  And its all fat free! haha.  

Ok so today is Sunday and it was such a great day.  My meeting before church went really well and then church itself went really good as well.  I taught the lesson today in Relief Society on how we can feel the spirit more often and more strongly in our lives.  I think it went pretty good.  A lot of people made comments and I feel like it went really smooth.  No awkward moments or anything. And that's always a good sign, right?  I guess I'm always hesitant to judge my own lessons or talks because I never really know how well I did.  So anyway, after church I had another meeting and then went to break the fast.  It was a good little ward activity.  

Oh and I voted!! First presidential election baby!  I voted for Obama for all of you that are wondering.  He just seemed like the better choice in my opinion.  There a few Obama supporters out here at BYU, but overall everyone is pretty republican out here. Surprise, surprise.  One guy was wearing a republican party tie today at church and I just had to chuckle to myself because BYU is pretty much the only place he could get away with that because anywhere else he would be punched or something.  Or at least yelled at.  lol.  Of course I'm being overdramatic, but still, I found it amusing.  

Alright, it's a short one today, but that's all folks!!