hooray for the holidays

The day of Thanksgiving I:

• Slept in.
• Had a wonderful (big) breakfast of waffles and eggs with my fiance.
• Cuddled on the Siesta Sac
• Had a surprise Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house.
• Ate way too much at said Thanksgiving dinner.
• Went to work to get something for my dad.
• Kissed my fiance.
• Celebrated that we would be getting married in exactly one month.
• Had ANOTHER awesome Thanksgiving dinner with the other side of the family.
• Ate way too much at that dinner as well.
• Watched How I Met Your Mother with my fiance.
• Cuddled him on the couch.
• Said goodbye. :(

The day after Thanksgiving I:

• Woke up to a delightful stomach bug!
• Spent the majority of the morning on the toilet.
• Had my first bridal shower and loved it.
• Got some AWESOME presents from my mom's side of the family.
• Finally got to see my sweet fiance when he came to pie day.
• Kissed him.
• Didn't get to eat any pie because of said stomach bug. :(
• Hung out with awesome family for as long as I could stand.
• Watched How I Met Your Mother for 6 hours.
• Fell asleep on the couch.
• Said goodnight.

thankful

Sometimes I feel like it's cliche to write a thankful post on Thanksgiving. I give myself this lecture that, "I should be thankful all the time, not just on Thanksgiving." But, you know what? Thanksgiving is a day dedicated to gratitude when all of those feelings should be expressed. So that's what I'm going to do.

I am thankful for Kevin (obviously). I am so thankful that he came into my life when he did, I'm thankful for the love and respect he has shown me throughout our whole process of falling in love, I'm thankful that four months ago he asked me to be his forever. I am so thankful that he is the one that I'm going to spend my eternity with. I am the luckiest girl in the world.

I am incredibly thankful that our engagement has one month (exactly) left. The past four months have felt like they've been at least a year.

I am thankful for my family and friends. Living away from home has given me a different perspective about what is truly important. My family has stuck around even when others have decided to take themselves out of my life, and the friends that really mattered have kept in contact and stuck around. I'm a blessed girl to have such a wonderful support system.

I am thankful for Kevin's family--my future in laws. They are such awesome people and I really admire them. I'm thankful that his parents raised such an amazing man and that his family gave him the environment to grow into the person he grew into. I am so excited to get to know them more in the years to come.

I am thankful for school and the opportunity to get a higher education. I can't lie to you, school has become a huge struggle for me lately, especially since I started going to BYU, and especially since I got engaged. I never thought I would have this problem, but a huge part of me wants to drop out after we get married so I can start popping out babies. So I'm thankful that my parents have explicitly and implicitly stressed getting an education so much and planted in me that burning desire to have my degree before we start our family. I'm so grateful that I will have a safety net and backup plan if anything happens to Kevin. Education is so important, and even though it's been really hard lately, I know that education is key to so many of this worlds issues.

I am thankful that in three weeks I'll be able to move out of this apartment and never have to live with roommates again. I can't wait for Kevin to be my only roommate.

I am thankful for my healthy body. It gives me grief sometimes, but I am healthy and strong and can mostly do all the things I want to do. When I take care of it, it treats me really well.

I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the Atonement that makes it possible for me to repent when I fall short, to always come back and try to be better. I'm thankful for the love of our Heavenly Father and the interest He takes in His children.

I am so thankful for the temple. I'm thankful that Kevin and I are going to be sealed for time and all eternity in the temple and that I get to go through the temple to make my own covenants in just three weeks. I am thankful for the blessings that the temple provides.

I am thankful for my job and that I can support myself. Going to school and working have been really hard, but these past two semesters have been liberating to be able to make an income, budget and live within that budget. My job is wonderful and definitely better than any on campus job I could hope to find. I'm thankful for a great boss who is willing to work with my school schedule and for an understanding supervisor when I am really struggling to get to work on time.

My list of gratitude could go on and on, but too many words and not enough pictures makes this blog a dull story. ;) Happy Thanksgiving all.

Simple things

Today, Kevin got me a surprise. It was peanut butter M&Ms. I love him. He's so good about doing those little things to show me he's thinking about me and that he cares.

When I told Kevin that I had gone to the store and would come back to pick him up from class he said "thank you so much honey." He's so good about showing appreciation for me and letting me know he is grateful for the things I do.

Dang I love that boy so much. Don't you agree that I've got me a good one? I sure think so. :)

it's just so great.

Today.
First day after a long weekend. Should be crappy? False. It was awesome.
Work 7-10:30.
I ate oatmeal with bananas and a huge thing of chips and salsa for breakfast.
I got to go to the first devo of the semester and sit with my fiance. Dang it, I love him more and more every day.
We had a twenty minute break to lay on the grass before class.
My classes are so interesting. Family processes today was fantastic.
D&C with Ash Bash.
And then we hit the gym like nobody's business.
We rode the bike.
And stretched.
And did wall sits.
And did squats.
And leg presses.
And hip extensions.
So great. I love working out with Ash.
Now I get to chill, do homework, cross things off of my to do list until it's time to make dinner.
Also, I've discovered how wonderful it feels to be able to serve and provide for the one that you love. I love that when Kevin comes home from a REALLY long day of school today, it will be to a hot meal (of hamburger helper sure, but I'm trying really hard) and a hug and a kiss.
I feel so content and happy with my life right now which fascinates me because I was fully anticipating for everything to be hard and awful once school started.
Don't get me wrong, it's hard. But it's also awesome and happy and such a good experience.
The best word I can use to describe how I feel is grateful. Which I know I just did a whole post about how grateful I feel about everything but it just won't go away.
What a great feeling.
I think I'll keep it. :)

Also, Kevin, I think I'll keep him too. Probably for eternity.
Dang I love that boy.

it's not thanksgiving, but why should that matter?

What's the difference between simple joys, tender mercies, little blessings?

Not a dang thing.

Here are a few of mine for this Wednesday afternoon:

The General Conference app on my phone. I listen to talks about the temple while I'm at work.
My jobs. Both of them. It is unbelievably hard to work two jobs and go to school full time, but it is so worth it when those paychecks come.
Budgeting. I'm learning how to control my money instead of letting my money control me and it is such a liberating feeling.
The motivation to get out of my bed every morning. It surely doesn't come from me.
The Book of Mormon. The only good part about waking up is when I get back into bed after washing my face to spend some time in the scriptures. It's great.
Prayer. Did you know that there's a God in Heaven who loves you and wants to communicate with you? It's as easy as kneeling down.
Harriett. My adorable car. She is such great transportation and she is always there for me. Even when I lose her in the parking lot.
Water. I lost my water bottle last week and I'm really feeling a difference. I need to get a new one. I'll consult my budget.
The temple. What an amazing blessing to be able to make sacred covenants with a loving Heavenly Father to get strength to deal with this crazy world. I live a minute and a half away from the Mt. Timpanogos temple and I work two blocks away from the future Provo Tabernacle Temple. It's awesome.
That my co-worker texted me and asked me to open the restaurant today so instead of having to wait for 2 hours to come to work, and then stay late, I got to come straight from class and I'll have time to take a shower tonight. Which is something that needs to happen.
My healthy body. I don't have any insane illnesses, and as long as I maintain good nutrition and exercise habits I feel pretty good most of the time.
My family and friends. I have a wonderful support system. I'm going through this "independent" phase, my mom could tell you all about it, but I'm feeling this need to be independent, be my own entity and in the process I sometimes have days where I don't want to let anyone into my life. But then I get over myself and my support system is always there for me.
Garlic bread from Gloria's. Which actually might be a curse.

Now that I've started I can't seem to stop thinking of wonderful blessings in my life. So I'll stop blogging about them, but you can bet that I'll keep realizing and wondering about the many things God has blessed me with.

Happy Wednesday!

spiritually saturated

February was a bit of a tough month for me. I started working two jobs and tried to figure out how to juggle those plus full time school as well as keeping myself spiritually uplifted. This past weekend was exactly what I needed. I got to go to my YSA stake women's conference and guess who was the keynote speaker. Sister Julie B. Beck, General Relief Society President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What a great experience! Do you remember when I served her bread and water back in January? I still feel really cool about that.

Hearing Sister Beck speak was seriously an unbelievable experience. She is so funny and genuine and kind and she really portrayed the love that she, and the Presidency of the Church have for us. She took 6 questions from the congregation and built her talk around those questions. I have never been to a meeting that was so directed by the spirit. It was amazing. She taught such important truths about our purpose as women on this earth, she taught about the temple and about recognizing the spirit in our lives.

As I've mentioned, February was kind of a hard month and I came into this conference with a lot of unspoken questions in my heart and a lot of things kind of weighing on me. By the end of the hour that Sister Beck spoke to us, I had answers to all of my questions and a feeling of peace and love from above.

Isn't God great?

And that was just in the hour between 9 and 10:00 on Saturday morning! The rest of the morning was filled with break out classes and a wonderful musical program that had me bawling. Women of this church are just amazing.

Since the conference was held at the Stake Center right across from the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, I decided to mosey across the parking lot and do some baptisms. What an amazing blessing the temple is. I eagerly look forward to the time when I can get more than a limited use recommend and make more covenants with my Heavenly Father.

And if this great day wasn't enough, the next day was fast Sunday which is always a day that has a special spirit associated with it. My church meetings were hard core incredible. I haven't talked much about my YSA ward since I've been in it these last couple of months. Goodness. It is one of the best wards I've been in since graduating from high school. There is always a great spirit there and I think it was magnified by fasting yesterday.

But the spiritual experiences weren't even over yet. Last night I got to watch a broadcast of a CES fireside with Elder Quinton L. Cook speaking from BYU-Idaho! You should have seen my reaction when I realized that the choir that was singing was MY choir with my friends and old teachers! I kept nudging the guy next to me and saying "That was my old FHE brother!" "He was my mentor!" "I taught her in basic musicianship!", on and on. What a good sport. :) Elder Cook's talk was really good too, he spoke about avoiding wearing "masks" and how detrimental they can be. The night culminated in ice cream. Win.

Basically I had a fantastic weekend. I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven who is always there to bless us and show us His love for us. He surely poured out His love and spirit on me this weekend!

a grateful post

I'm sitting here in my cozy apartment, wearing a yellow maxi dress, reveling in the fact that I decided to ditch my math class and the knowledge that I'm leaving for PG in three short hours.

I'm thinking about how many wonderful things in my life I have to be grateful. I'm going to make a list for you to enjoy.

I'm grateful for:

My wonderful roommates
My family
My Savior
His gospel
BYU-Idaho
BYU-Provo
The comment that Merrie just made: "I accidentally stuck my finger up my nose last night when I was washing my face..."
Documentaries on Netflix
Bro Tay Tay
That I didn't throw up at FHE last night after I ate my leftover Applebees
My FHE family
My turquoise shoes
God's love
TEMPLES
Handel's Messiah
John Rutter Christmas music
Spotify
Oatmeal
Minty Candies
That my roommates let me cuddle with them all the time
Love and support when I'm sad for no reason
Milk
That I didn't have to teach mentor group today
That I'm going home in three hours
A body that is healthy and kind to me (most of the time)
My adorable little apartment that I love sharing with wonderful girls
My ward and bishopric
Granola Bars
Sandwich makers
That the past year of my life is behind me
Growth and progression
Life lessons
Scriptures
Prayer
A loving Heavenly Father
My older brother Jesus Christ

My life is so wonderful. I can't even comprehend it sometimes. I'm so grateful for this season, with my life and the blessings that I have. :)
Happy Thanksgiving Break everyone!