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