Self Evaluation...

Happy Sunday!  I woke up this morning and started getting ready for church only to find out that there was no way for me to get there.  I tried walking and made it maybe 10 feet out the door before I turned around.  It's snowing, and the sidewalks are VERY slippery.  So for now, I resorted to watching broadcasts that I had missed on lds.org.  I watched the CES Broadcast from Nov. 5 that M. Russell Ballard spoke at.  It was great!  It made me really think about where I stand in my life spiritually and what I need to fix to remain on the path.  He asked 10 important questions:

• 1. Are you happy with the direction of your life and the depth of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
• 2. Do you love God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind, as the Lord taught the lawyer in Luke 10?
• 3. Are you doing the simple things in your everyday life?
• 4. Are you being kind and thoughtful of the needs of those around you?
• 5. Are you following the counsel of the Brethren emphasized in this past conference to avoid completely any kind of pornography?
  Pornography cannot exist in our lives if we have true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I say with all the strength that I have: if this is a problem in your life, “Leave it alone!”
• 6. Are you living worthy of a temple recommend?
• 7. Are you actively participating in your Sunday meetings, especially sacrament meeting—partaking of the sacrament worthily and renewing your covenants with the Lord?
• 8. Are you returned missionaries maintaining the dignity of a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ in your dress and in your personal demeanor?
• 9. Are you preparing for and actively pursuing finding your eternal companion?
  I could spend the rest of the evening on this question, but I am sure by now you understand that we do not endorse “hanging out.” If you haven’t gotten that yet, get it tonight. In your vernacular, “Cool it!” We recommend proper dating—you know, it’s simple: a boy asks a girl for a date, and you have a good time together. Are you really looking for a companion who loves the Lord and honors His holy name?
• 10. Those of you who are married, are date nights a regular occurrence as you continue to build and strengthen your relationship?

He also read a poem by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr., titled The Oak Tree:

A mighty wind blew night and day.

It stole the oak tree’s leaves away,

Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark

Until the oak was tired and stark.

But still the oak tree held its ground

While other trees fell all around.

The weary wind gave up and spoke,

“How can you still be standing, Oak?”

The oak tree said, “I know that you

Can break each branch of mine in two,

Carry every leaf away,

Shake my limbs, and make me sway.

But I have roots stretched in the earth,

Growing stronger since my birth.

You’ll never touch them, for you see,

They are the deepest part of me.

Until today, I wasn’t sure

Of just how much I could endure.

But now I’ve found, with thanks to you,

I’m stronger than I ever knew.

Black Friday... What?!

As my Dad and I were driving to the airport at 4:30am, it was unusually busy on the streets.  I thought, what the HECK people?!  Then we drove past Target...

Oh yeah!  It's BLACK FRIDAY!  Target's parking lot was so full of cars!  I'm not gonna lie: I was very sad that I spent the entire day traveling instead of shopping, but it was a good set up.  I would have definitely spent too much money that I don't have!  One day... One day, I'm gonna marry a millionaire and go nuts on Black Friday.  Then I'll get to walk through a shopping mall with millions of colorful bags hanging from my arms.  :)
 

Well, I'm back in the frozen tundra called Rexburg, and I'm taking the day to start cleaning the apartment to move out (3 weeks til the semester's over!) and keep trudging through homework.  I'm almost done!!!

Only 3 days in Florida, but only 3 weeks until I come back!

I am SO sad to be getting on an airplane back to Utah when I've only spent 3 days at home, BUT beggars can't be choosers!  It has been a huge blessing to be home for Thanksgiving; and to have everyone at the table for the first time in 4 years?!  We were very blessed to have everyone there, including my grandparents... Grandpa had just been released from the hospital last night!  And boy did the food taste good this year!  I'll have to steal a picture from my little sister...

My favorite food this year was the Pecan Pie.  Holy COW.  That was probably the best pecan pie in the world!  

Basking in 78 degree weather...

In case you were wondering, there is an 80 DEGREE DIFFERENCE between where I am in Florida and where I will be going back this Friday (it's 2 degrees in Rexburg!).  Boy, am I glad to be home.  And the weather is supposed to be much better on the day I get back!  I believe in miracles!

Anyway, at this very moment, it is THANKSGIVING DAY!  So here's my list of what I'm thankful for.  First off, I must say that there is no way that I could write everything, and there are so many blessings that I may not even recognize in my life, but I recognize that my Heavenly Father's hand is in everything.

I am thankful for:

Very first and foremost, my Heavenly Father and the plan He has for me.  Boy, do I live the good life when I follow His plan!
Jesus Christ, my Mediator and Best Friend.  I am so thankful for all He's done for me to provide a way to fix my mistakes
A wonderful family
Technology
When my Dad makes homemade popcorn
Cell phone covers.... and warranties!
Good health and the modern medicine we have to keep us that way
Beautiful weather
Sunshine
Being able to attend BYU-Idaho and be in one THE best Horticulture programs in the nation.  Seriously!  Nationally known!
Having good food to eat
Electricity
Plants (oh yeah!)
Disney World :)
Computers
Nail polish
Hugs and cuddling
Thrift stores
Yummy Florida-grown citrus
My little space heater I bought for $10 that keeps my bedroom at school, also known as the Arctic Circle, nice and toasty
Cotton candy
Good quality tissues when you cry
Plumbing!
Soft, squishy carpet
Knowledge
Scriptures
Prayer
Good teeth and being able to go to a dentist to keep them that way!
Rain boots that keep my feet dry
Ski socks my mom bought to keep those dry feet warm
Flip flops (when I can wear them!  I've worn ONLY flip flops while I've been home)
German chocolate.  Natalie, you have ruined me!  I can't look at this crap they make in America and call it chocolate.
Hamsters!
Beautiful nature
Clouds
Stars
Warmth
Fall leaves!!!!
Coconut covered marshmallows
SALT!  Food would be SO boring without it
The ocean and the waves
Light
A bottle of REALLY good lotion
Being HOME for Thanksgiving
Living in a free country

I could go on forever!  All in all, I am so thankful to be ALIVE.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to progress in life and become a better person.  I'm grateful for the chances I get to help other people and help them along their own journey towards Happiness.

Words can't express how much gratitude I have for all that I have in my life.  God is good!

I LOVE fall leaves!

I'm FLYING!

Seriously... I'm 37,000 miles in the air right now!  Thanks to Delta's holiday present of free WiFi, I am blogging on my way HOME.  This will be the first time that I've been home on Thanksgiving Day since 2006!  And it's going to be awesome since Natalie just got home from her mission a few weeks ago!

I am SO grateful for many things.  Technology that allows me to write in my blog while flying on an airplane across the country in 4 hours, listening to music... I'm grateful for such a wonderful, supportive family that I love very much.  I am grateful to be alive!  I am SO BLESSED to be here on this earth at this time with so many incredible resources to help me in my quest to become a better person.

Heavenly Father has blessed me so much, and I have NO idea what I did to deserve it! ... Actually, I don't really deserve this.  We don

Gratitude...

Today was an interesting day... I almost DIED slipping on ice (I told you it would happen in that last post!) taking the trash out, and my roommate and I had to peer through a tiny opening in her ice-covered windshield to drive to church today.  Good thing it was just across the street!

A speaker in sacrament meeting gave some great counsel on gratitude.  He quoted Robert D. Hales, who said that "gratitude is... the foundation upon which repentance is built.  The Atonement brought mercy through repentance to balance justice. How thankful I am for the doctrine of repentance. Repentance is essential to salvation. We are mortal—we are not perfect—we will make mistakes."  

I loved that quote!  Gratitude really is the foundation of repentance.  When we are grateful for all the blessings Heavenly Father has given us, we want to be better people and fix our wrongdoings.

I'm grateful I'm not a squirrel

Oh, how wonderful it is to go to sleep without an alarm set!  12 hours later, I woke up, rubbed my eyes, and hopped into the shower while jamming to Jason Mraz.  As I was getting ready for the day, I started mentally making a to-do list to accomplish: do laundry, get the Evergreen Portfolio done, read Greenhouse Ops, make an awesome breakfast, and definitely go for a walk to get outside!  To my dismay, I looked out the window and had my hopes for a walk crushed by lots and lots of white fluff.

My first reaction was to fall to my knees and cry out "Nooooooo!" Note: I am NOT a fan of snow.  Snow turns into sheets of ice, and I fall on those sheets of ice daily.   But then I saw this little squirrel:

I thought to myself, you know what, I might not get to go outside today, but at least I don't have to be outside!  God bless that poor little squirrel.  

So be thankful you're not a squirrel!

The first post...

5:30pm: I head home after being up for nearly 12 hours studying, going to school and working.  All I want is to sit on my butt and do nothing!  So I did.  And then the blog called...

Multiple people encouraged me to start a blog, but I just didn't feel like I had the time.  Then I read a blog from an acquaintance that opened my eyes.  She talked about simplicities of life in such detail that made me look at life differently, so I thought Oh, what the heck. I'm going to start a blog to try and focus more on the simple things.

I was reading Dieter F Uchtdorf's talk from General Conference last month, and it was just what I needed to help me start on my journey towards a simpler life.  Whether you are Mormon or not, I highly recommend that you read it.  It gives us all very good advice on how to slow down and remember the basics: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-7,00.html

Here are a few quotes that I enjoyed:

"...it wasn’t long after astronauts and cosmonauts orbited the earth that they realized ballpoint pens would not work in space. And so some very smart people went to work solving the problem. It took thousands of hours and millions of dollars, but in the end, they developed a pen that could write anywhere, in any temperature, and on nearly any surface. But how did the astronauts and cosmonauts get along until the problem was solved? They simply used a pencil."

"...[M]ost of us intuitively understand how important the fundamentals are. It is just that we sometimes get distracted by so many things that seem more enticing.

Yet amidst the multitude of voices and choices, the humble Man of Galilee stands with hands outstretched, waiting. His is a simple message: “Come, follow me."  And He does not speak with a powerful megaphone but with a still, small voice.  It is so easy for the basic gospel message to get lost amidst the deluge of information that hits us from all sides."

I know can easily get caught up in being busy, and too much of a good thing can definitely be bad.  Stress levels jump out of the green zone, I'm not as happy, my body gets out of whack, and the list goes on.  Once I stop and be still for a little while, I regain my simple perspective and get back on track.  I am excited to see what this blog will do for me!

As I was taking my Evergreen I.D. midterm today (which consisted of being quizzed outside on 75 out of over 120 plants we memorized), I was blown away at how beautiful the crabapple trees looked that morning.  They have no leaves, but tons of bright red fruit that took my breath away.  These plant identification classes have literally given me a new set of glasses to look at the world from; I see beauty in not only flowers and leaves, but fruit, bark, leaf shape/structure, habits... OK, OK, I'll turn the plant nerd off.  :)


... Maybe not.  One more plant thing!!!  I went to California on a Horticulture field trip a few weeks ago, and I found this card:

Isn't that SO TRUE?  If we don't take risks on our lives, we will never reap the benefits that life has to offer.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to eat leaves and bark all day.  I want fruit!  But I'll be honest: It's scary to climb out on that limb.  On that same trip I got stuck in a tree because I got up but couldn't get down without feeling like I was going to die.  But I got out (even if that meant having to jump on Lanae's back "koala style"), and it's one of our favorite memories!  Life is all about getting out of your comfort zone to learn and grow.

I get to be home on Thanksgiving Day for the first time since 2006, and I CAN'T WAIT!  I am so incredibly grateful that I get to go home and be with the people I am most thankful for.  I'll be home in 67 hours.... But who's counting?