A Slew of Events {11/08/2014}

In avoidance of my homework, I decided to write a blog post. Smart idea, I know.

I'll just make a little bullet list of the events of October/beginning of November and elaborate on some of them. (No promise on chronological order)

I've hit up some BYU football games, and they're pretty cool if I do say so myself, I'm stoked for basketball season though

We had our first cleaning check. We are generally fairly clean, there might be some dishes in the sink every now and then, but for the most part we pitch in some help and do it if it needs to be done. We passed the cleaning check (besides the oven part because it was still on self clean and had a couple more hours to go, but that's a minor detail..) 

I had the opportuinity to go to General Women's Conference and fulfill one of my biggest dreams--which was to be in the same room as the prophet--I just love the general meetings. I got to go with my Aunt Kate and her Mom, along with my cousin Megan. We had such a fun time, and even made it on TV, luckily I was taking notes, bonus points for me. haha. One of my favorite quotes from that conference was "Temples are an expression of God's love." How true is that?! Heavenly Father has provided us a place on earth where we can go to free ourselves from the world and everything that goes along with it. How blessed I am to have one within walking distance from where I live.

We hiked the Y. We don't have a car, so we walked to the Y and then hiked it....And on the walk there we may or may not have gotten lost. I think the walk there was longer than the actual hike, but we had a fun time. Megan and I took the lead and were cruising to the top in order to get the full view of the sunset.  The sunset was breathtaking (we attribute some of it to the lack of oxygen we had in our lungs due to the really fast pace in which we climbed the mountain...)

Abby, Brinley, Megan and I went with some friends to SLC. We split up after a while and Brin, Megan and I went to dinner at the Garden (SUCH GOOD FOOD!) and walked around temple square. My favorite part of temple square is the Christus statue. Every time I visit temple square I insist on going. I love the statue of Christ. The statue depicts Jesus Christ with His arms opened. I get chills every time I see it.  His arms are always open and ready to accept anyone who will put forth the effort and draw near to Him. I have a strong testimony of my Savior and all that he has done. He is my hero, someone I look up to, and someone I want to become like someday. How grateful I am for his undying love for me, even when I slip up and make mistakes every now and then. 

The roommates got together and decided to rent a puppy (yes, it's a real thing). Trixie was a total cutie and had A LOT of energy, but it made for a fun afternoon and some cute pictures.

I GOT SHARPIES. If you know me, you probably know that I love to letter. For my Book of Mormon class I chose to write quotes from the Book of Mormon. It's become a favorite pass time of mine here at college. 

I went to my first ever hockey game (the Utes vs. USU) AND got to see my cousins all in one weekend, which was pretty rad. 

I taught Abby and Megan to make cinnamon rolls this weekend. We might or might not have been listening to Christmas music while doing so...They turned out great and we still have some left over--which means DINNER!

Today, everyone wanted to work out with me. So, we moved the couches around and made enough room for everyone to get their workout on. I've been doing Insanity and this was my last day of my recovery week (round 2...) and they wanted to see what it was like. We had some fun to say the least, lots of yelling and lots of motivational words passed around as people started stopping. I have been going at Insanity for a month now (the only thing that keeps me from gaining the freshman 15..)  I’m a total analogy person, and as I was finishing exercising today I thought of one, so bear with me. Last week I took a break from working out, I was lazy and decided I didn’t want to put in the time and effort (BIG MISTAKE). At first I felt gross, but as the week went on I stopped caring and I began to eat sugar whenever I felt like having it—which was a lot (oopsies..). On Monday I decided to jump back into working out and see if I could do the recovery week (which are the easiest discs in Insanity cardio wise) I found that it was a lot harder than I remembered it being. I couldn’t even finish the first video! (That is crazy sad btw)… it took a lot more effort to decide to do it every day.  I liken that to the gospel, just because it helps me understand things better. When you fall away from reading your scriptures or saying your prayers you start to feel a little different, sorta like something is off,  but as time passes and those things begin to slip away, you start become lazy and replace it with other things such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or yes, even Pinterest (guilty is charged). When you try and get back into it, it seems harder, you aren’t able to read as long, or maybe you aren’t able to stay with it as long. But it takes a lot to come back, and a lot of will power on your part to stick with it and regain the spiritual strength you once had and then add to it.