Talking to Jesus

On the way home from buying my books for the new semester we were listening to the radio. I heard Monica say something, so I asked her what she said. She gave me an answer but I didn't understand it since the radio was still up. So I turned down the radio and asked her to repeat what she said and she goes, "I'm talking to Jesus, Mom!" I sorta nodded my head and watched her in the rear view mirror fold her hands and whisper something. I just thought it was so sweet!

P.S. I just asked her what she talked about to Jesus and she said He told her that she needed to "pray always for Mom and Dad and Leah, and that families are forever."

Blonde Moments

I seem to be having a lot of blonde moments lately. I'm not sure why. But they are good fodder for laughter, so in the spirit of laughing at myself and being humbled just when I start getting a big head about my 4.0 this semester, here the most recent...

A few months ago we went to the rodeo with Matt and Elisha. Ryan and Elisha started talking about the bulls and wondered if they would have good meat or if it would be too tough. I seriously got momentarily disgusted and blurted out, "Ew! You eat bulls??" Ryan just looked at me and said, "Um, so do you."

Then a couple nights ago we went to the zoo for the Feast with the Beasts. (Pictures to come later when we get our computer with all the pictures working.) After a great night of roaming around and seeing the animals at night, we were walking the covered entryway where the gate is and I had a really stupid thought. This time, I didn't voice it til later and could laugh WITH myself. But as I was walking through the covered gate area, I thought, "Man, I hope it's cooler when we get out!"

Add in tonight's moment and I think I might be losing my grip. We were at Uncle Paul's for Cynthia's 2nd birthday bash and I had put my gift on the table they used last year, but there weren't any other gifts on it. So after about an hour, I decided I needed to put the gift with all the others. Well, I walked inside to try and find the collection of gifts and was searching ALL over. Seriously, the only rooms I didn't check were the bedrooms and bathrooms. But I just couldn't see them. And right as I'm about to vocalize my frustration, I notice that the TV I had been staring at for the last 5 minutes was SURROUNDED by the gifts. Der-der-doo.

President Lewis, President Sowards, and President Wilkinson

I just had to post today because I am really excited about our new Stake Presidency!!! It was a wonderful time to get to sustain a new presidency and express love and appreciation for the outgoing presidency. I'm excited to get to know Presidents Lewis and Wilkinson. But having had President Sowards as both a bishop and branch president before, I'm excited to hear more words of wisdom from a man that has already taught me so much.

TRUE STORY: Before Ryan and I went out on our first date, I was getting my mission papers ready to turn in to go on a mission. After completing my papers, Ryan finally noticed me. And not that I knew at the time that it meant we would get married, but I knew if Ryan ever asked me out on a date that I would not be going on a mission. So when he asked me out for our first date I was conflicted. I felt like I had committed to going on a mission so I asked President Sowards for advice. He kinda looked at me funny when I told him I was conflicted because we hadn't even gone on a date yet! So he told me to go on the date, because it might not turn out the way I thought it would and I would still be ready for a mission. BUT- if it did turn out the way I thought it might, having been ready for a mission made me ready for marriage. And either way was pleasing to Heavenly Father.

So I keep trying to be "mission-ready" to stay "marriage-ready" . :)

Emily The Great

Emily asked me for my sign-on info and I thought she just forgot her own sign-on info for blogger. About 20 minutes later she showed me my new post. Since I love her and some of this is true, I decided to keep it. Because Emily really is great! And I will miss her when she goes back to Idaho... :)

Isn't it great when sisters come to visit? I would like to take a minute and say how much I love my sister Emily. She is such a great person, I have worked my whole life to be like her. She not only is the most beautiful woman on the face of the planet, but has one of the most beautiful personalities of anyone I know. Not only is she smart, funny, and super kind, she is one of those people that when you meet them you want to be their best friend. I will be sad when she goes back home, I have come to realize how special she is and how much I am indebted to her for being such a great sister to me. I hope that one day I can be just a little bit like her, then and only then will I have true happiness in life. Emily deserves an award for "the best person ever in the whole world" I am going to strive to create and get such an award made so that I myself can present it to her. Where would I be without her? Lost....utterly lost, but alas I am not for I have the great privilege, nay, honor of calling Emily my sister.

One semester closer...

To a degree in English! I sat down the other night and decided to fine tune my degree goals, and I decided to go for a degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing!! I am so excited.

Last night my grades were posted and I got my first 4.0 since starting school. The last time I had a 4.0 was over 10 years ago! So I was really excited that I achieved that GPA in my first collegiate semester since 2002.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about this semester, but I was mostly excited about my classes. I think that having had some life experience before going back to school, made me realize just how important and valuable education is. And I truly value what I am learning. This semester I studied juvenile delinquency, cultural studies, philosophy, and writing for the media.

I discovered a few things about juvenile delinquency.
#1- The majority of delinquents are nonviolent, unlike what is shown and portrayed in mainstream media.
#2- Both parents are vital to the social success of their children, but mothers appear to have more influence.
#3- Our justice system is failing our youth.

With cultural studies, I was challenged to consider racism and the relationship between race, class, and gender. What I found was that we cannot be a nation of ostriches and stick our heads in the ground and say that racism isn't a problem anymore. Even though I, personally, may not have a problem with the color of people's skin, it doesn't mean that it isn't an issue at large still. And we cannot sweep the issues under the rug.

Writing for the media challenged me to follow grammatical rules more closely and to attribute EVERYTHING. I had to write quickly and efficiently with my first drafts. I feel like I became a better writer after having to write over 20 newspaper articles throughout the course. But I also learned I do not want to be a journalist. Maybe a columnist, but definitely not a journalist.

And finally, philosophy made me get out of my emotional comfort zone. I learned how to take myself emotionally outside of an argument to analyze it. There were a LOT of arguments that I didn't agree with. But I learned how to determine if they were valid or not, and I have learned about the techniques of political strategists to "make people aware". I have also learned how to judge arguments, and how I might be judged when I make a claim and argue its validity. There was one part of this class that I LOVED and it was the setential language and logical proofs. This part was about deductive reasoning.

I loved being in school and I loved learning! I'm happy for a few weeks' break and then starting up my next semester. With any luck, I will raise my GPA further next semester to have a respectable GPA before I transfer to UNM. Higher learning, here I come!

Leah's new phrase

A few days ago, after I'd taken Leah out of the bath, I laid her out on the changing table to lotion her up. She looked up at me and waved her hands and said, "Ah duh". I looked at her and thought about it, and asked her, "All done?". She smiled really big at me and repeated it with the sweetest grin..."Ah Duh!"

She's getting so big!

The following were pictures of her wanting to cuddle up with Monica while she was crashed out on the couch. I thought it was sweet she wanted to snuggle right up to her and it wasn't enough to just be sitting next to her!

Monica ROCKS Turbo Jam!

I turned on my Turbo video before I changed out of my jammies in to my workout clothes and Monica pushed 'play' before I was finished. By the time I got to the den, I found her doing my video! Stretching out...
Party time - "Bump Bump!"

She really got into the knee lifts...

Looks like I have a new workout partner!