2010

As the final week of this year has come to a close, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about all the things that 2010 has brought.

It has been a year full of ups and downs, highs and lows, endings and new beginnings, challenges and triumphs, disappointments and excitement.

At the start of this year, I had no idea what I had in-store. I can honestly say, it's a year that I will never forget. It has changed me. I have changed: hopefully for the better. I have learned so much from the various experiences that I have had.

I have learned so many lessons including...

1. Life is all about what you make it.

2. When your own plans fall through, try listening for God's plan for you.

3. Personal Revelation is available to all of us.

4. No matter what happens, you still have your FAMILY.

5. Moving out leaves room for lots of lessons to be learned.

6. Judging others is useless. It only hurts you and limits them.

7. The Holy Ghost is one of my best friends and definitely the most reliable.

8. Hard work is the key to success in anything worth while.

9. Obedience brings happiness.

10. Heavenly Father loves me more than I even know.

It has been a great year! I look back on all that has happened this year with gratitude and thankfulness that Heavenly Father has helped me learn so much! Thankfully I don't have to go back and do it all again, but even if I did, I still wouldn't change a thing.

I know that where I am right now is EXACTLY where I am supposed to be. That is a wonderful feeling - one that assures me that I have so much to look forward to in the coming year! I am excited for the lessons I will learn in 2011.

Tomorrow is a new day and a new year.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Break

Christmas break has already consisted of...

Sleeping in every morning. (I slept for 14 hours the day after finals ended!)

No homework.

Using my gym membership daily... and I have time to attend not only one class, but TWO!!

Eating lots of goodies.

Spending time with family

Driving around to look at Christmas Lights

Seeing old friends

Hiking Camelback Mountain to find a live, decorated Christmas tree at the top

Wearing flip-flops non-stop

Being able to practice the piano at home

Spending an entire day on a project that I decided to do that very morning

Listening to Christmas Music

Buying gifts for others who are less-fortunate than me

Watching TV/movies without feeling guilty

Seeing the Temple Christmas Lights

Attending Grandma's Christmas Party

Making Gingerbread Houses

Further plans for Christmas break include...

Eating more goodies

Getting lots more sleep

Working out at my favorite place again and again

Reading a good book

Seeing more friends

Snow sledding

Watching the Miracle on 34th St., White Christmas, & The Year without a Santa Claus

Eating Peppernuts

Decorating Christmas Sugar Cookies

Shopping with Mom

Ice Skating??

Seeing the Movie, Tangled

Forcing myself to sign-up for my 3rd half-marathon

Making new crafts

Finding Snowboarding gear

And remembering the True Reason for the Season

I heard a statistic today: only 35% of Americans correlate Christmas with the birth of Jesus Christ. That was very disheartening for me to hear! This entire time of celebration is to be centered around our Savior; yet, this true meaning has been lost in all the noise of the world! I hope and pray that I can spend the next few days spending time to focus on the Savior - the real reason why we celebrate CHRISTmas!

The New "F" Word: Finals

You know it's a sad day when you lay down for an hour nap at 7am

after your alarm went off at 4:30 this morning!

...now back to studying cramming.

Happy Finals week!

My Worst Enemy

My Worst Enemy...

Is a professional at pointing out all my flaws

Never takes vacation days on reminding me of all that I don't do perfectly.

Only occasionally commends improvement

Is impatient with wasted time

Can always list off a million things that could be worked on

Is overly critical

and struggles to let things go.

My worst enemy is... ME!

Sad but true. It's not my best quality, but it's a reality. I read a talk by Sis. Holland this past week. One quote from the talk has echoed through my mind over and over again:

"We must be patient with ourselves

as we overcome weaknesses,

and we must remember

to rejoice over all that is good in us."

This past general conference, Elder Scott said,

"If you have determined to live righteously,

don't become discouraged...

You are making better progress than you realize."

I love these quotes! I need to work on being less critical, impatient, and demeaning towards myself. I know that I am daughter of God with divine potential and I need to rejoice over all that is good in me and remember that I am making better progress than I think.

I am going to work on being nicer to myself...

...as soon as I find time to workout

and return these "freshman 5"

back to where they rightfully belong (not on me)!

JK!

-Lets be honest though, that's exactly what goes through my mean-ol-head!!

Anyone out there who can relate?! If so, aren't we just ridiculous?!!

I'm a work in progress! :)

Trying to Find the Perfect Christmas Tree...

My roommate and I went hunting for the perfect Christmas tree yesterday after school. We decided needed some Christmas cheer to help offset the upcoming craziness of finals. So off to the local Christmas Tree lot to find the perfect tree.

We got to the place and looked EVERYWHERE. Nothing was small enough for our little apartment. Just when we were about to give up and go to the next store, we finally found the mini noble firs! There was a HUGE pile of them. We began to pull tree after tree... too fat, too short, too thin, too sparse, too brown, too dead, too odd. So after about 10 trees, we had narrowed it down to 2 that were... mediocre. But, as you know, mediocre is NOT ok! So we devised a new plan... any that we didn't like we would stack against me, and Cami would keep searching for "the one." (Yes, we rearranged the tree lot... temporarily.)

About halfway through this process, Cami had an epiphany. She stood up and said, "Finding the perfect Christmas tree is like trying to find the perfect man... it will be the last one in the pile. We will want to give up, but we can't because the perfect one will be worth the work!" She was so proud of her correlation!! I just died laughing while trying to hold perfectly still so that the 20 mini Christmas trees leaned up against me wouldn't fall! (I am sad we forgot the camera, because it was a hilarious sight to see!)

So Cami dug and dug and I held more and more trees. Yes, she was right! The VERY LAST TREE that we looked at was indeed the perfect tree!! We didn't even have to compare him to past trees. There was no question! It was quite ironic! Cami just kept saying, "see, it does work!!" So we bought our little tree and brought him home to decorate. We now refer to him as "Atlantis" after Jamie O'Neal's song, "Trying to Find Atlantis."

Lesson of the Day: This life we live is all worth it: the trials, the worries, the crazy schedules, the hard times, the stressful moments, the disappointments, the fears, all of it! It will be "worth the work" if we just stick with what we know is right!! I am thankful for my patriarchal blessing that helps me remember this on days where it might seem hard to believe! Life is GREAT!!

Merry Christmas!!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

It's really been quite cold outside lately. No fears though... Cami and I have become pretty creative in our efforts to fight off the cold without turning on the heat!

• After you pull your clothes out of the dryer, you should use them as a blanket to get warm before you shake them out and put them away.
• After you cook on the stove, you should warm your hands while it's still hot.
• If you get cold while studying under a mound of blankets, you can do jumping jacks to get warm (it also burns calories and wakes up your brain - it works well!)
• If you need to go shopping, do it at night when you can fully appreciate the heat the stores so kindly provide to those who shop there!
• If you bake in the oven, you should open the door and study near it while it's still hot.
• You should turn your dishwasher on at strategic times that allow you to fully take advantage of the warm steam that billows from it when you open it.
• Finally, if you have already done hundreds of jumping jacks, cooked dinner, washed the dishes, done the grocery shopping, and dried your clothes and you are STILL cold, it's time to shower and blow dry your hair without turning the bathroom fan on!

It's ok to laugh at how pathetic we are! We do too! Despite all of our wonderful ideas, we have finally shivered enough and we caved. We turned our heat on three days ago. Oh how I love the heater! Now it's COLD outside and only kinda cold inside! :)

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Here are some of the highlights:

• Running the 10K Turkey Trot (so I could eat all the food I wanted and not feel guilty). I hadn't trained for it, or so I thought... apparently living in 7,000 ft elevation automatically prepares you for some things because I ran my personal best! (One of the perks of living here!) My dad ran it with me this year too! I am so grateful that he did! I have now done it for 3 years but it meant a lot to have him there with me this year! My dad is seriously so amazing! He is such a hard worker, has such a vast understanding of the gospel and does so much for our family! I love him so much!

• The most perfect weather EVER known to Thanksgiving in the Valley!!!
• Spending the holiday with most of my dad's side of the family! It was so much fun to see all my relatives that I have missed while up here at school. It's so fun to sit and talk and laugh with them and feel the love of a wonderful family!
• Eating TONS of yummy food: homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, turkey, ham, every kind of fruit dreamed of, jello (of course), and enough pie to make one sick with joy! YUM!
• Family Traditions: air plane contests, bubble gum blowing, etc.
• Seeing this wonderful family one last time before they flew back home. They came over and hung out for awhile! I cannot believe how big all the kids have gotten since I saw them last time 6 months ago! Best part - they ALL remembered me, even the twins! It was so wonderful to spend so much time with them over my break! They came and played over at our house, we went to the zoo, AND they came for a bit on Thanksgiving! I am so thankful to have them in my life!! Thanks for spending so much of your break with me! Love you Horlachers!

• Card games galore: Rook, Liverpool Rummie, Rook, and more Rook!
• Scouring the Black Friday ads with all the family as we mapped out our early morning shopping. This year, A got to come Black Friday shopping for the first time! It consisted of getting up at 2:30am and shopping until about 2pm! We all came home and crashed for a good 4 hour nap afterwards!

I am so thankful for Thanksgiving! I am grateful for the reminder of how blessed I am. I am thankful for our living prophet who has reminded us that we can always live in thanksgiving! I hope that I can be more grateful this time of year and always.