A quiet moment

I am pausing for a moment to write my thoughts. Today is technically Thanksgiving although I celebrated with my parents and relatives last night. I am writing this note while sitting in blow up chair next to the window (yes my blow up chair I've had since I was a teenager). I have been studying and writing a paper that I have spent countless hours on, but still am pushing to finish it for the Monday deadline. I glanced out the window as the sun broke through the clouds and shown through the window on me. I feel a warmth and love and gratitude for my God. I saw small chickadees playing in the bare branched trees. I typically, don't find a lot of beauty in bare tree branches, but somehow it was a very beautiful moment. Perhaps it was a reminder. A reminder of the sweetness amidst whatever bareness we may have in life. I realized last night as I spent time with my parents how much I miss them. Not only that, but my whole family. I am surrounded by wonderful family relatives, but I miss my siblings. School has limited my opportunities to see them as much as I normally would. But more than anything on this Thanksgiving or last night I felt a gratitude for them. As I laid down to sleep I found myself saying things to my Heavenly Father such as this, I love thee for my wonderful family I love thee for the opportunities I have to see them I love thee when I see the beautiful mountains I love thee on beautiful sunny morning I love thee at night when city light decorate my window. I love thee for the stars that wink from afar I love thee even for the darkest and hardest nights or the warmest happiest days My thoughts are on Thanks to God. However, my thoughts look much better in my head than I ever find they look written down. A few of my favorite moments this week are individual times with people. I love people. One of my all time favorite was last night when after telling my dad that I learned how to do stitches, but that I need to practice them... He responded, "Well lets practice." I grabbed some string and my granmother's candy dish to tie the string to. My dad then taught and reminded me over and over again how to correctly do different stitches. I learned the one handed version, which I hadn't learned in class. It was fun to spend time with my dad. I loved time with cousins laughing, which reminded me of so many memories we had together. I my cousin teaching me about the guitar and seeing his excitement for it. I loved hearing the excitement of a new friend earlier this week as told of his traveling adventures. I loved brief time with an old friend reporting back on his Florida trip. I am grateful for the many great people in my life and for wonderful blessing I have to learn.

It's been an eventful week. Therefore, it's time for another post. The quick summary is this:

1-Our new NICU unit opened up this week. 

       I enjoyed the reunion and openhouse. The reunion was for families and babies that had been in the NICU. It was fun to see them again and how much they had changed. I also enjoyed explaining the NICU to friends. Its so much easier to explain what I do when they can actually see it in front of them. I also worked my last shift in the special care and moved into our new NICU unit at the end of the shift. What a momentous occasion, it was neat to be a part of it. The new unit is so nice. I am really excited for it.  

2- My program director announced she is moving. She will finish out the semester, but then will be gone. We were all rather shocked. 

3- I received a calling in church. I included my journal with some of my thoughts on the new responsibility below. 

That made for a lot of changes in one week. 

Here's my journal:

November 6, 2011- Sunday

I received a calling today. I hadn't had a calling in my ward, but with 550 people in my ward I wasn't surprised that they hadn't made it around to me.  My Bishop text me on Friday. I had never had a text from a bishop before. He told me he had a calling for me and asked if he could meet with me that afternoon. I was on my lunch break, but didn't get out of work until 6 pm. So he asked to meet with me before church on Sunday. I didn't think much of it at first. After all, it had been 3 months that I had been in the ward and most callings were filled with the exception of committees. However, on Friday night a boy from my ward informed me that they were splitting the relief society and elder's quorum this Sunday. I didn't sleep well that night and woke early feeling uneasy about the calling I was about to receive. The more I sought  comfort the more worried I became about how timing would work out. I started receiving ideas of what to focus on in relief society and how to help our relief society. I can't say that was very comforting either.

 So I met with Bishop Boren who extended the calling of first counselor in the relief society presidency. It wasn't exactly a surprise at that point, but I still felt nervous. Nervous because I know very few people in our ward, especially girls. There are 143 sisters in our relief society. I enjoyed playing some hymn arrangements until church started. My mind still had trouble focusing on the lesson in Relief Society. Bishop spoke after and shared the story of the twins that thrived once together. I appreciated the lesson and it was much of what I felt on Saturday: I can't do this on my own. I need the sisters to reach out to each other and help me. Bishop reminded us how much we need each other and then announced our new presidency.

Once the meeting was closed we met as a relief society presidency. I met Natalie Richards the relief society president and Madison Black the 2nd counselor for the first time. I already knew Michele Harvey. Natalie is in her last year of an English/French major and has been in multiple relief society presidencies. I am impressed with her already. Madison is a new freshman and a pre-med student. Michele is an attorney and has been in 1 relief society presidency before. It seemed strange to be a presidency, yet to be introducing ourselves for the first time. We were sustained in sacrament meeting and afterwards set apart. I was set apart along with Natalie Richards and her mom was there. Before hand the Bishop reminded us once again to delegate and call as many people as we need to get the job done. I am looking forward to the calling.

I feel the Lord has been preparing me for this calling: About 2-3 weeks ago I went to the temple with the question, "How can I be more efficient with my timer." The answer surprised me. I felt prompted that rather than doing less things I should do more and that by doing so I would be efficient in my studying. That seems hard to believe.

As the prompting came a newspaper article grandma had shared with me came to mind about BYU-Idaho. The article was about the innovative way the school is approaching education, but it also shared the history of the school. President Hinckley turned to Hal (Elder Eyring) and said something like, "Isn't there a way we can allow more students, make the school a 4-year university and decrease costs?" Hal's response was no. However, they seemed to have found a way. Typically the conversion of a 2-year college to a 4-year university increases costs and requires the school to become specialized in areas. However, the school is now a 4-year school and can accept more students and even with the economy has had very little increased cost.

This story came to mind because unlike what I would think increasing the variety of activities I do would actually increase the effectiveness of my study time. I thought this was referring to improving upon my talents such as piano or violin, service given and social activities and it does. However, I feel that instruction was to help prepare me to accept the calling and have faith that I can complete my graduate school requirements, work 36 hours in a 2-week pay period and still magnify my calling in the relief society presidency. The Lord sees not as man sees.That's for sure.

My life

In case you forgot, life is really great. My life is great. I get to live with my cute spunky grandparents. I have a beautiful view to enjoy while I study. I get to study hours on end. I also have a job with great people I work with. I am healthy. I have friends that are so kind to me. I have a wonderful encouraging family. My life is by no means perfect, but today was a great day. For school I got to interpret an x-ray, which was kind of fun. I discovered that the funny tube that I thought was some funky tube I had never seen was actually a blood pressure cuff. It was fun to try and put the pieces together. More than anything today I was reminded of the joys of everyday life. Or if you heard Elder Uchtdorf's cute talk, (found here http://lds.org/pages/general-rs-meeting-2011?lang=eng) the forget-me-nots. There are so many little joys we can overlook if we aren't looking for them.

Where has all the time gone

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I finished up the summer semester. It was a rough semester for me. It definitely wasn’t the summer semester I was hoping for, but I still managed to enjoy some summer activities:

·         Extended family reunion at the ranch

·         Completed my final assessment paper(if you have heard anything about these papers you will know it was a very exciting moment to finally be done)

·         Family gatherings at Disneyland, Seaworld, and home

·         Shared a room with my cute nieces. I learned they have nighttares once the bed started shaking and I woke to their screaming. They didn’t remember it in the morning though.

·         Moved to a new apartment

·         Attended the Shakespearean Festival

·         Saw the new Harry Potter and Gifted Hands both of which were excellent movies

·         Finished reading the Fablehaven series

·         Chopped over a foot of my hair and donated it

·         Had a fun fashion show with Katherine orchestrated by my cousin Emily

·         Had a bachelorette party for my roommate before her wedding

·         Attended my cousins baptism

·         Celebrated my grandpa’s 88^th birthday

·         Completed my first curriculum vitae

·         Attended the Abbott Dinner Conference for work

·         Saw our childhood family friends visiting from Hawaii

·         Attended my grandpa’s brothers funeral at cedar breaks and participated in spreading the ashes

·         Heard the full story of how my grandpa lost the tips of his fingers and saw my grandparents laugh so hard they were crying

·         Attended my new ward

·         Attended an organ concert and got to go inside the organ at the cathedral of the Madeline

·         Had the most amazing enchiladas (honey lime)and yummy dinner provided by my two cute cousins

I believe that pretty much sums up the events. I have enjoyed my break before school starts to get things done and enjoy time with family and friends. I have one more week until school starts. Oh also, I spent about $500 on textbooks. I better learn a lot from them. Oh I had an a clumsy moment this week. My brother-in-law asked me to grab a can of root beer for him. Unfortunately with the phone at my ear, rootbeer in hand and trying to close the closet door the root beer escaped my fingers. The root beer crashed down to the tile floor and exploded like you can’t even imagine. Not only was the floor was covered but the walls and ceiling. The root beer sprayed out the front door, all over my grandma’s newly washed table cloth, and into the living room. So what might have been a small mess in the entryway covered the dining room, and living room as well.

Oh one other unexpected event was my carried with my sister. What should have been about an hour long drive turned out to be parking lot of freeway for over 2 hours perhaps even 3. What was so strange was that the traffic was in the middle of the night. We left at 11pm and made it home at 2 am. We were both so tired, but it was definitely memorable.

Boats and Books

Sometimes in life I leap with both feet into something, but begin to wonder "what I was thinking", when I find myself in the deep end. I definitely found myself in the deep end this week with school, but in the midst of it I enjoyed it:
Yesterday, I had a long day of studying and it continued into the evening when I met up with Ruslana to compare our assessments infants for class. I was anxious about the assignment; I was also anxious to go to bed because I had to get up for work in seven hours. Two hours later I had completed the assignment and started to walk out of the hospital. I realized I had enjoyed it: I had enjoyed the assignment; I had enjoyed piecing things together; I even didn't mind that I was leaving so late. I tell you this story, to illustrate even though I may have been in the deep end, this time I enjoyed it. Not only that, but I am happy that although I may have jumped into school, that I like it. I am excited about what I am learning and the new skills I am acquiring. I am happy to be in such a great field.

Katherine left me a cute note on my mirror encouraging me for school. She quoted Dory from Finding Nemo, as follows, "Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills (or she replaced it with Miss Giggles because my coping mechanism when I am overwhelmed has been to laugh about it). When life gets you down do you know what you've gotta do?...Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..." I loved that thought.
 
I had a dream  this week that I was driving the streets of Rexburg. However, instead of driving a car, I was driving a motor boat along the water filled streets. I had to be careful because there was a lot of debris (I guess the debris was from the flooding) and the water was rather shallow for a motor boat. I was afraid I would hit bottom and scratch up the motor.  It was quite enjoyable to carefully navigate the streets. So remember when your life feels flooded that there may be obstacles to avoid, but it can be a fun journey.

Summer Time

Summer always brings busy times. That is true whether it is filled with play, work or school. For me its been all three. I am loving school because I am taking my first class that is specifically for my field: newborns. Its been so interesting, but very demanding. I did manage to enjoy family time and a hiking trip to escalante before the semester started. I've uploaded a few pictures from my hiking adventures.

Frank

• Frank Sinatra
• The library
• Editing

I don't know what it is about this combination, but it made for a great early evening. I didn't know how much I could enjoy editing. 

Strange Dreams

I don't usually remember my dreams; however, perhaps because lots of work has led to little sleep, I woke remembering my dreams:

I was startled by my alarm for work and sad I was no longer chasing beavers around our house. Apparently, one sprinkler in our yard caused the front yard to turn into a lake that reached as high as our front step. I ran to my sisters blue room to tell her about the creatures in our front yard and wanted help identifying them. I still don't know what creatures they were, but my best guess is two cute beavers. Perhaps, it a reflection of reading Narnia before falling asleep. The beavers after all were friendly... Well back to my running to the blue room. Instead of Kristi I found my coworker housekeeper who I use to practice speaking spanish with. I don't know where that came from since I never see him anymore since we work days and the other nights. Maybe it was the blue in the room because that's the housekeeping uniform. Now I think I am trying to make sense of my nonsensical dream. But if you are reading this, you better take care of your sprinklers before strange events take place.

Although my other dream is somewhat hazy this is the highlight:

• I was trying on wedding dresses in the relief society room so then I could then dance hip hop. Who would have known those two go together. I even had 100's of people join me as we all then started dancing throughout the building. Interesting.

That's about all I remember of that dream actually. Well here's to some more crazy dreams. Goodnight

I have learned a lot about myself lately. The hard to hear as well as the good. People have been really inspiring to me.
These have been some methods of inspiration:

• nienie dialogue
• Mindy Gledhill
• a 14-year old concert violinist I heard on radio
• Amanda who in her cute sunshine yellow sweater talked on gratitude today in church
• My cute family (kind of lifetime inspiration)
• mothers who do the best they can

From this I have realized that the statement from Mindy Gledhill, "It's all about your heart" is true.  I have found my heart makes all the difference in my daily focus. It has come to mean to me to show love, to love life, and to make the most of the moment now.

My heart was quite angry this week. I worked a lot this week because there are a lot of sick babies in the nursery right now. I really loved working, until I came across a mother who I felt was far below what her baby deserved. I was angry at her and that may have also influenced her in how she treated me as well. I didn't look forward to having to see her again. I learned a great lesson though. There was moment in our conversation that changed my mood and feelings. I realized although we definitely didn't see eye to eye that I didn't know her. Her background, family life, heartaches, education and so many things have made her who she is. I judged her from our first negative interaction. I realized how grateful I am for all those who have made me who I am today, which is probably you if you are reading this. I have been blessed with so much.
I am grateful for:

• my mom- my inspiration
• my dad- my other inspiration
• my cute sister and cousins I spent a weekend in Provo on vacation with
• my cute childhood friends and the lunch date and sewing party we had this week together
• my ever-faithful roommate Katherine and my friend Jason who are always there when I need them
• the beautiful world around me
• beautiful weather
• my sisters, brothers, nieces although they are far away
• my Jesus
• my health
• my education and opportunities to learn
• my grandma who is selfless and makes me smile
• my grandpa who is fun and inspiring
• the little things: music, art, a note, a text, a smile
• church and all that incorporates

My heart is filled with gratitude for life