Post Holiday Thoughts

Hmmm . . . Do you ever feel a little melancholy after a great event, like Christmas? I think that's what I'm feeling tonight - like Christmas is over, and I need to get back to life and it's responsibilities, which I'm dreading. I'm thinking about the new year and all of the things that I need to get done before the semester is over. I'm thinking about the goals that I want to set and tackle - they're not going to be easy ones for me.

However, if I can get myself to focus on the fun over the past week, I can think of happier things. I've gotten to spend the past several days surrounded by most of my family, and I'm including a picture of my brother and sister-in-law in here because I took a picture of them this morning, and I'm not sure when I will see them again. I've played LOTS of games. I've watched some good movies. I've received nice gifts. I've given away many. I've thought about the Savior and His greatest gift. I ought to let those things help make me ready to tackle what's ahead.

Happy One Year Anniversary!

Guess what, everyone? Today marks an important day for me. Today makes one year that I have had my blog. Last year on this day, I began this blog, hoping to contribute to it at least monthly. I exceeded my expectations and posted at least weekly, so this has proven to be my kind of project. I decided that I wanted to change the layout for year two. I hope you like it. Maybe I'll start changing it more often. Who knows? Thank you for reading. It's certainly fun to try writing, and it's fun to read your blogs, too, although I have been terrible at it since around the start of Nablopomo - sorry! I hope this year brings fun new adventures for all of us. Take care!

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to take a moment tonight to wish you all a very merry Christmas!! Isn't Christmas the best holiday of the year? I think so. I love it! I love what it represents! Most of my family was at my parents' this year - all of us except my very prego sister and her husband, so we will definitely excuse them for that. We ate tamales and posole last night, looked at lights, visited some quasi-relatives, and spent time around the tree singing carols and listening to my dad read Twas the Night Before Christmas and those famous Luke 2 verses to us. I got to share my little message, too, only this year it wasn't so little. I think I need to cut down next year.
This morning, we woke up and went to see what Santa had left for us - wheat grinders and wheat!! "Hoorah!" as Scrooge's nephew, Fred, would say. Okay, not very exciting, but definitely useful, and I'm very glad to have it. Now I'll just have to become an expert and grinding grain and knowing what to do with it after that. I received 4 books this year, which is exciting. One of them is a C.S. Lewis book I have never read before. The other three are by Alcott, and I have read them. I also got the live-action Peter Pan, which I love! The books and movie were all on my wish-list, so it was exciting to take them off the list. My grandparents sent their life stories, which I'm also excited to have. Besides an abundance of gifts, I have been over-indulging in the abundance of food around. My little brother says it's okay to put on weight during the holidays and not to worry about it, but I have a feeling that is because he's thin and it shouldn't be hard for him to take anything off that he might put on. I, on the other hand, am not the same and am dreading the consequences of my gluttony.
Mostly I'm glad for Christmas, thought, because of Christ. Without him I wouldn't have a family that could continue forever. Without him I wouldn't have anything worth having. He is the reason this day is merry.

A Sad Day

Do you remember how they have titles every so often on the movie Babe? If you do, the title is supposed to read like the "A Tragic Day" chapter. Friday night, one of my bestest friends and her husband, Lu and The Colonel (although she calls him The Rock, so I guess that's what I will call him for the rest of the post), had a going away/graduation party at my place. The Rock just graduated, and he and Lu are moving to a tiny town (population: less than 2,000) where he will work at a mine. I am happy for them and their new adventure, but I am definitely sad to see such a great friend go. I know you've heard about these two many times before, but allow me to reminisce for a moment:

Out of the two, I met The Rock first - I believe it was at the Student Union when a group got together to watch a Phoenix Suns game. I was very new to the area. He was really nice. He came to my little gatherings at my place occasionally. I heard about Lu, but I didn't meet her until later in the summer. We really became friends, I think, after she asked me if I was interested in finding a place to live with her. After my last day of work, and after she took the bar, we spent a week of being homeless and driving up and down streets looking for a house. We also looked for roommates. Fortunately, we found both. We moved in, we shared a room, we were perfect together in my opinion. We are about the same age and like to think and talk about a lot of the same things. There are many things I like about Lu. Here are a few of them:

She is not big on P.D.A.

She is intelligent and likes to talk about politics, women, etc.

She loves to read - and she reads great books!!

She listens - I think we shared conversation really well.

She found a black couch and put it in our room.

She tells it like it is.

She's fun.

She's into good music.

And, even though intelligent, she can still enjoy silly things with me, like Twilight, which makes those silly things even better.

Anyway, I love Lu. She has been such a great part of my recent life, and I will really miss her. I definitely plan on visiting, but it won't be soon enough. I'm hoping she finds me a rich, mining man who will marry me, and we can be neighbors. :)

Good luck you two!!

Cheesy

ONE WORD: IT'S HARDER THAN YOU THINK!
1. Where is your cell phone? Floor
2. Your significant other? Earth?
3. Married? No
4. Your mother? School
5. Your father? Gas
6. Your favorite thing? Charity
7. Your dream last night? Forgetable
8. Your favorite drink? Horchata?
9. Your dream/goal? Family
10. The room you're in? Living
11. Your fear? Failure
12. In 20 years? Family
13. Where were you last night? Institute
14. What you're not? Perfect
15. Muffins? Blueberries
16. One of your wish list items? Books
17. Where you grew up? Yuma
18. The last thing you did? Apologize
19. What are you wearing? Clothes
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pet? Fish
22. Your computer? Slowing
23. Your life? Incomplete
24. Missing someone? Yes
25. Your car? Corolla
26. Something you're not wearing? Socks
27. Your favorite color? Yellow
28. When is the last time you laughed? Competition
29. Last time you cried? Saturday

FOUR WORDS
30. Four places I go over and over: Home, Work, Institute, Rachel's
31. Four people who email me : Jared, Merissa, James, Brian
32. Four of my favorite foods: Steak, Sugar, Cheese, Mexican
33. Four places I would rather be: California, Yellowstone, Spain, Grandma's

Knosps

What a weekend I have had! Or, maybe I should just say, what a Saturday I had! This is what happened:

1. My sister and I hosted my other sister's baby shower. Stressful, but I think it turned out okay. I think my favorite part was making a cake out of diapers for her (my roommate told us about them). I think we used enough diapers in it to last Baby a couple of days (hopefully more).

2. I was supposed to go to a girl party, where I planned on getting as close to pretty as I could because I was planning on attending a birthday party later that night that I was pretty sure a particular boy would be attending, too. However, I did not go to the girl party because

MY BABY SISTER GOT ENGAGED!!!

She sent us a text.

3. I went to dinner with my local siblings and the brother-in-law elect. I mean, I didn't elect him, but my sister did, and he seems like a nice guy, and everyone keeps referring to the president-elect, so for now he can be Brother-in-law Elect.

4. I went to the birthday party, which was huge! There were a ton of people there.

Anyway, I was exhausted long before the day was over. I'm still exhausted. It's a good thing there's a break soon.

Speaking of item #2 above, as I told my roommates earlier tonight, there's nothing to emphasize your Old Maidenhood like your Baby Sister - who is almost a decade younger than you - getting engaged. I pretty much figure that if nothing made it official before that, it's got to be official now. Yup! It's all over for me now. My sisters should definitely be glad that our family is not like the Major-General's family from Pirates of Penzance or my singleness would have prevented their coupleness from ever happening. What a good lesson in humility this should be for me, right?

And now, a poem:

Before ruining in antsy nervousness,

I say,

Be a conscientious knosp!

You may think that has nothing to do with anything, but it does, I assure you.

Prophets

Tonight I watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, as I'm sure many of you did. It was wonderful, of course. I loved the Christmas messages. What I remember most, at the moment, is that I felt a little tinge of guilt, as I was reminded that I should focus on the simple message of Christmas and not so much on the gift-giving/receiving. I was also reminded that I need to look for service I can give this holiday season. I'm glad for those reminders because it's easy for me to get caught up in good, yet less important things.

I also taught a lesson on prophets today in Gospel Principles, so it was nice to be able to hear the prophet speak this evening. It is such a blessing to know that there is a prophet on the earth today. I feel lost with what I should be doing with my life career-wise, amongst other things, but I do have a prophet to listen to and receive important guidance from, and I am grateful for that. I'm grateful to know that Pres. Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet today, and I'm happy that we can listen to him.

I Win!!

I know that today is the day after NaBloPoMo ended for me, but I just had to write to tell you all that it paid off. When I checked my e-mail this afternoon there was this message telling me that I won a prize - wahoo! It appears to me that many random people donate prizes to people who complete NaBloPoMo. Then the girl-in-charge has a computer spit out random registered bloggers. Then she verifies that you did it and hooks you up with a prize - pretty sweet, eh? I thought that the prizes went to people who wrote amazing posts all month, so I didn't think I would win anything. Fortunately, it's much simpler than I thought. Anyway, I won scented oil and a thing to heat it in. When I looked at all the prizes that are being given away, it made me want to contribute next year. The prizes are all very random - from a free tarot card reading, to sock zombies, to home-made preserves, etc. I'll have to figure out what I can give.