Word of the Year: Soar

My goal for 2017: Soar to new heights.

Travel Bucket List

People keep talking about my trip to Europe as a once in a lifetime opportunity. That may very well be what it is... But oh man, I don't want it to be!! I have the travel bug so bad. I want to go everywhere and see everything. I'm already saving up for my next trip. :)

Now every time someone mentions somewhere, I'm adding it to my mental bucket list of places to go. So my tentative plan is to make my wishlist and just keep on adding to it for forever. Here is the wishlist in no particular order:

1. Ireland--I had ancestors from there long ago. :) While I'm there I'd love to stop at the Trinity College Library to see the Book of Kells.
2. Scotland--The McAllisters came from here! :)
3. Capetown, South Africa--One of my airport shuttle drivers told me this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, surrounded on 3 sides by the ocean. I looked up the pics and he wasn't kidding!
4. Finland--Kristie served her mission there, so I want to take her back someday. In the summer when the sun is out ALL day! :D
5. Tokyo, Japan--Jason and I want to check this place out.
6. Norway--Kristie's friend Antti was telling us about this place to the north with mountains and the ocean visible and how pretty it is in the summer.
7. Caribbean (ALL of it! :)
8. Tahiti--the beaches here are supposed to be legendary
9. Hawaii--Polynesian Cultural Center, Honolulu Temple, Pearl Harbor
10. Germany--including Neuschwanstein Castle
11. China--especially the Great Wall
12. Austria--including where the sound of music was filmed :)
13. Australia
14. New Zealand--Lord of the Rings! (Yes, I'm a dork! XD)
15. City Museum, St. Louis Missouri

Word of the Year: Love

Last year Melissa gave me a challenge to pick a word of the year. A one word reminder of my goals and resolutions to help me keep on track.

This year, I've decided the word will be Love.

I picked love because I want to work on:

• Spending more time with my loved ones. They are the most important thing in my life, after all! 

• Returning to the things I love that I haven't had time for lately. The biggest one is creative writing. Let's get that novel written finally! I've been trying for forever.

• Loving myself more. Sometimes I can be too much of a perfectionist and too hard on myself.

• and of course, loving my fellow men.

Bring it on, 2016. I'm going to make this a good year.

Word of the Year: Light

Melissa gave me a challenge to pick a word of the year.

A word to define 2015, to remind me of my goals and resolutions and help keep me on track.

After a lot of thought... I've decided my word will be "light."

Light means:

• Striving to grow closer to Heavenly Father

• Being optimistic about my future

• Learning new things, reading good books, visiting new places, all kinds of good things. :)

I think this is gonna be a good year.

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!

Summer Bucket List

1. Attend a live session at the Salt Lake Temple  June 8, 2013
2. FINALLY hike the Y! June 8, 2013
3. Find a cute pair of modest shorts (or multiple pairs!) June 10, 2013
4. Finish writing my book! (Or at least make a dent in it)
5. Visit the Living Aquarium
6. Visit at least 3 temples outside of Provo (SLC counts!)
1. Salt Lake temple June 8, 2013
2. Mt. Timpanogos July 13, 2013
3. Draper August 1, 2013
7. Rent a puppy  June 1, 2013
8. Go to a planetarium show
9. Go to an outdoor movie  Did one better and went to an outdoor musical on July 13, 2013
10. Go to 7 Peaks Water Park
11. Get a manicure June 27, 2013
12. Disney Bound in public Disney Bounded as Charlotte La Bouff July 14, 2013

My Bucket List

1. Publish a book. October, 2015--one of my research articles was included as a chapter in the textbook Family Life Education: the Practice of Family Science.
2. Ride the London Eye.  July 15, 2016
3. Eat gator meat.
4. Visit Walt Disney World.
5. Learn to horseback ride.
6. Visit a castle in Europe (I'm not picky about which one!).

• July 17, 2016--saw the outside of Buckingham Palace (the Queen was in residence so we couldn't tour)
• July 18, 2016--Tower of London (where I saw the crown jewels)
• July 21, 2016--Palace of Versailles

7. Visit every continent... except Antarctica. I'm not a big fan of cold. :)
8. Kiss in the rain.
9. Ride in a hot air balloon.
10. Go to the Floating Lantern Festival in Thailand.  Okay, so I didn't make it to Thailand. But I did go to a Floating Lantern Festival in Colorado Springs on November 7, 2015


Hmmm... More to come. I think I'll add to this as ideas hit me... and mark things off as I go!

Updates!

So the last couple weeks have been pretty eventful!

This happened:

Yep, two years of hard work have officially paid off. I am a master of Marriage, Family, and Human Development! Haha, funny story on that... For my last class (Outreach in Family Life Education) we had a chance to be interviewed by the communications students on our "areas of expertise". The communications professor introduced me to my interviewer by calling me a "marriage preparation expert." The girl (happily married and a couple months away from delivering her first child) asked, "Wait, you're not married? How can you be an expert on marriage preparation if you're not married?" Hey, first of all, I wasn't the one who said I was an expert... that was the communications professor! And second of all, I DO know all about marriage preparation-I'm probably better versed in that than some people who have been married for a while and started to forget the preparation stage! :)

After graduation, I successfully moved back to Colorado. I have loved being with my family again! I've taken things kind of easy the last couple weeks, but now we're kicking it into high gear as we get ready to move to a new house later this month.

In other exciting news, last night this happened:

We fulfilled a years-long dream of seeing the Wicked musical!!! It was AMAZING! It way surpassed my expectations. The plot is awesome-I love how they tie everything into the original Wizard of Oz story. The music was excellent-no one ever missed a note! The sets were spectacular. I want to go again!!! They really need to make a Wicked movie so I can at least somewhat relive the experience over and over again in my living room.

So basically, life is going pretty well right now. It's looking like it's going to be a fun summer. :)