Best December Ever

I am determined to make this the best December ever.

It's a tall order, I know. And I have to be careful. Sometimes when you set up such a grand expectation... whatever happens seems like a disappointment.

Here is my line of thinking: this may be one of the least stressful Decembers of my life. I don't have to worry about finals anymore! I'm watching my poor friends scramble to prepare for those and I have to say, I don't miss that.

It's interesting. I haven't had finals in a year and a half, but I've had major work projects going on for the last two finals weeks... so I was just as stressed as my roommates. So far, it's not looking like that will happen. Fingers crossed.

So, no finals. Just working, with my evenings off. I've been busy the last couple months with things like becoming trained as a PREP Inc. Instructor, but that's over now, which means I will have some free time.

I need to use that free time wisely. This is the time of year when we should be serving others, right? I need to make that happen.

I also need to keep up my streak of being social all the time and going out to do fun things.

And... I should probably work on writing my novel a bit... that was a New Year's Resolution I've been neglecting. Good thing there's still a little time!

I am going to work on all of these things, and I am going to have the best December ever. :) Here goes!

Living the Dream

My cousin Natalie always "It will all work out." My parents always say that when you look back in life, you'll see that things did work out. I think I'm finally getting old enough that I can really start to have that experience. :)

If you asked me a year ago where I wanted to be now (you know, in the midst of my quarter-life crisis as I tried to figure out what to do after grad school), I would have told you that I really wanted to stay in Provo. I wanted to stay at BYU, I wasn't ready to give that up. But at the same time, I wanted to be done with school. I wanted to get a job doing research. If I could have picked any topic to focus on, I would pick marriage education, like what I'd studied in my program, but I realized I would be lucky to even get to research a family topic. I didn't even think there was anyway I could use my writing skills in the relationship education arena, besides an occasional post in the blog I made for my family life education class.

But here I am. Living in Provo, working my absolute dream job, researching marriage education and also having the chance to write for a marriage ed blog (and even run social media on the topic!). It occurred to me yesterday that I really am living out my dreams right now. I could not have designed a more perfect situation for myself, and I am so grateful that God guided me to this position. Looking back, I don't think it was a coincidence that I was nudged away from family therapy and onto the marriage education pathway. I don't think it was a coincidence things lined up so that I learned how much I loved research and self-directed methods of education.

Things really did work out. They always do, eventually. I need to remember this in the other areas of my life, too.

Everything's amazing and nobody's happy

We live in an amazing time.

We're not peasants out in the field anymore, just trying to get by. We live in beautiful homes, we have plenty of food, we have multiple pairs of shoes and plenty of warm clothes. We don't have to depend on a fire to heat our homes in the winter. We have access to running water (even hot water!). Since our basic needs are taken care of, we can develop our time to educating ourselves and building careers in fields nobody dreamed of a few generations ago. The technologies available to us would be perceived as miracles by the people of the past. We have instant communication 24/7 from nearly every place in the world. We have access to the internet that connects us with essentially all the knowledge in the world. We can flip on a TV and watch an event that's going on on the other side of the planet. If we want to travel to the other side of the planet, we can climb aboard a flying machine and get there in a day's time. The possibilities today are truly limitless! What do our ancestors think as they watch the amazing opportunities we are blessed with?

And yet, has all this prosperity and technology made us happier? No. Granted, there are still problems in the world, not everything is sunshine and roses. But how often do we get caught up in "first world problems" and forget to look around and be grateful for all the things that we do have? We are living the dream! Let's not forget that.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

My amazing roommate Natalia has an uncle in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and he sent her a bunch of tickets to their Christmas Concert. :) We got to go last night! Getting there was an adventure. Parking was TERRIBLE. I think we drove down every single street in Salt Lake City trying to find a place to park. We were supposed to be in our seats by 7:30 (at that point they give seats away to the standbys) but 7:30 came and went and we still couldn't find a place to go. I think we were all praying like crazy that we'd still be able to make it somehow. In the end, we did. :) We found a random place to park a few blocks away, ran like crazy women in our high heels, and made it to our seats at 7:59, exactly one minute before the performance began. They were dimming the lights as we sat down. Haha, when we first arrived at the conference center, we were afraid they would turn us away, but the volunteers manning the door were incredibly sweet. "We're so glad you made it! We've been waiting for you! Come on in!"

The show was STUNNING. It was not a typical Mormon Tabernacle Choir show, it was complete with ballet dancers and special effects. Nathan Gunn and Jane Seymour were the special guests. The music was beautiful. If you have not heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, you should go look them up on youtube. Right now. :)

One of my favorite special effects was snow that poured down from the ceiling. It looked very realistic, but it didn't stay on the floor. What was it? Well, stop now if you don't want the secret to be spoiled... but on our way back to our car, we met a trumpet player and a bassoon player from the Orchestra on Temple Square. They told us that it was thick, foam bubbles. Perfect for faux snow.

All in all, it was an amazing experience! I hope someday I get to go back again.

NCFR

This week I got to venture to Florida to attend the National Council on Family Relations. This is a big annual gathering where family professionals from around the country gather together to share their research. I had heard about it for years, so it was exciting to finally get to go for myself.

Can I just say, Orlando is beautiful? I wish we had more time there to just play around and explore. I will have to go back someday.

This was the view from our hotel window:

Everyone at the conference got an official nametag with ribbons attached. Most ribbons said cool things like "Award Winner" "Legacy Circle" or "Section Chair."

Somehow I ended up with more ribbons than anyone else I saw, but they were mostly for dorky things:

"First Time Attendee" "Student/New Professional" "Student Aide"... the one I was proud of said "Certified Family Life Educator." :)

I spent four hours volunteering at the registration desk. It was AWESOME. So many big name professors checked in... people whose research I've been studying for years... I was a little star struck by it all!

On Thursday I presented a poster on my thesis. A lot of people stopped by. They were all nice and said encouraging things. I felt a little bit more like a professional!

Me and my amazing poster

 After my presentation was over, my friends Lena, JV, and I headed out to Downtown Disney!

Even though it's not actual Disney World, it has the same vibe to it. Just being there made me really happy. I found this awesome little souvenir at the world's largest Disney store (World of Disney):

An antenna topper for my car in the shape of Cinderella's carriage... It says "Disney Princess" and it's the same color as my car! Perfect!

 Overall the trip was amazing and I'm glad I went! Hopefully I can go again next year. Also, I need to go back to Orlando sometime and really check out all the sights... Disney World... Harry Potter World... Sea World... All of it!

But even though I had fun, I am ready to be back home. :) I was surprised how much I missed Provo while I was away. Turns out Provo is a pretty cool place to be!

Best Year Ever

Welp, I am back in P-town, getting ready for another epic year to start on Monday. And I determined to make my last year really count! I am going to make this the best year I have ever had! (*knock on wood*)

So far things are shaping up pretty well. My little sister Shauna is rooming with me, and also Kelly, one of my roomies from last year. I only have one new roommate, Natalia, and already I can tell that she is an amazing girl. I think we will have a lot of  fun. :) Can I just say that it takes off a TON of stress to live in the same place two years in a row? It almost felt like coming home when I moved back here.

And as proof of how awesome my ward is, a large number of people from last year have stuck around. :) In fact, at least two people have moved BACK into the ward after being away for winter semester-I think they ventured out there and then realized what they were missing back here. Also, a few of the newbies in the ward are people I already know from my years here at the Y. So again, coming back to the ward was like coming home. Of course there are lots of new people here too that I am excited to meet. Even the bishopric changed over the summer! Hopefully Shauna and I will make a lot of new friends this year.

I have had a lot of good times at BYU and made a lot of good friends, but last year was probably my best year. It looks like this year will be very similar, but better because I have Shauna with me this time. :) I'll try to be a good girl and keep this blog up during the school year, but no promises! I'll be too busy out having fun. ;)

Roomie Reunion!

Two years ago I lived with these lovely ladies:

We were pretty much BFFs and we enjoyed many adventures together.

Eventually, we all went our separate ways. Ashley got married, and Lauren headed off to an internship out of state (and scored an awesome job when she was done.)

But we all came back together for an important occasion last year:

Last night, we all got together for the first time in over a year!!! 

It was amazing to see these girls. They were really sweet to drive all the way down to Provo to visit. We enjoyed dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (and we had the world's most awesome server too!) Then we wandered around the mall and did the whole girl shopping thing. I found this gem (isn't it cute?):

Hahaha, okay, no, I didn't buy it. I admit it, I like pink fluffy things, but even I could recognize that this was a bit much (although, it is kinda cute, isn't it?) I knew Lori would freak out if she thought I'd bought it-she tries to steer me away from pink fluffy things in my fashion choices-so naturally I sent her this pic. Sad thing is, though, my phone wouldn't let me text it, and she doesn't have internet access until Monday. Hopefully she'll get to see it soon so she can fully appreciate its beauty! :D

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Here at BYU, there is a pretty cool website--http://theboard.byu.edu. Here you can ask anonymous questions, and a team of highly trained volunteers respond, usually in exactly 100 hours. I'll admit I've asked them a few things in my day, and I am always pleased with their answers. Every once in a while, I think about applying to become a Board writer, but then I'm not sure that I'd ever have the time! We'll see what happens.

Anyways, sometimes when I need a break in the grad lab, I go on the website and hit the "I'm board" button and just read through random questions pulled up from the past. ... Haha, come to think of it, that's not how I found the question I'm about to quote. It was posted yesterday, and so I read it in my daily board readings... But anyway, you can find it here: http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/61696/ The question is interesting, but irrevelent to the point I want to make. One line in the response particularly stood out to me: "In my experience it doesn't do much good to dream about how things could be. It's better instead to focus on how good things are."

This line really resonated with me. I am a dreamer by nature, which comes in handy sometimes, like when I am trying to finish that novel I started when I was 12. :) But other times, it can be a bad thing. It is too easy to dream about how my life will be someday when things are better. When my sister is healthy again, when I finally find a boyfriend, when I get married, whatever. Sometimes I get so caught up in dreaming of how things might be that I forget to look around and enjoy the life I am living now! This is a habit I need to overcome. No matter what stage I reach in life, there will always be something more than I need to accomplish, some other goal that I yearn after. That's fine, but I need to learn NOW to be happy in the moment. If I'm always waiting for X or Y to happen so I can be happy, I will always be waiting... not happy.

So, new goal. I need to stop and smell the roses. I'm living in what some people call the best years of my life. While I'm not sure that's true exactly, it IS true that I have a lot of unique opportunities right now that I won't have again. I need to relax and enjoy 'em! You're only young once!