2010 - ABUNDANCE Cherished

Being home for the first time in several months, the standard question is always: What's new with you? - And immediately, what comes to mind - nothing. Lame... Well, never fear friends, I have scoured facebook and blogs to determine the highlights of 2010, and it has been quite a miraculous and wonderful journey.

Firsts and Memorable Moments:
~ I got my first kiss... I know, for those of you who read, and remember last year's post, that was on the "NO, not yet, list"... No longer.
~ I participated in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk with friends in Salt Lake City.
~ I began and then discontinued a master's program through University of Phoenix in counseling.
~ My first trip to Cabella's. I truly love that store.
~ I got to pet a real live baby kangaroo
~ I attended the UCET conference - loved it!
~ Wrestling road trips with friends
~ My first snowshoeing experience - FUN!
~ I spent the summer at home taking and scanning pictures, making videos, and enjoying family history trips.
~ learned to crochet something besides a chain - baby booties, hats, and scarves for instance.
~ adopted a cute little shia tsu puppy
~ got a new roommate - her name is Kelsey and we are having a blast!
~ bought a digital slr camera, and I'm loving learning to take good pictures.
~ spent Thanksgiving in Heber with my sister and friends due to a snow storm - 'twas fun!
~ I hit the big 2-5... No quarter-life crisis yet - but it's only been 36 days. :)

Road Trips and other Fun:
~ Baliwood nights with Kellie, Alice, and Melisa - such good fun. I own a sari now. :)
~ Vancouver Olympics - watched them, and loved them. I want to go there someday.
~ Evanston day trip with Alice spur of the moment - fun times.
~ St. George two weekends in a row
~ Manti pageant road trip and an eclipse
~ summer drive from Virginia to Utah - introduced Dad to geocaching and avoided a tornado in Illinois
~ Second biannual trip to Colorado with Chris and my sister to visit Aubrey and go to the BYU v. Air Force game. Even watching us lose was fun! :)
~ YELLOWSTONE - a three-day camping-in-the-car trip with Zoe (my puppy) Alice and Kelsey, SO MUCH FUN! Highlights:
~~~ seeing Mammoth Hot Springs and the Roosevelt Arch
~~~ camping every night and seeing a wolf, and tons of other wildlife, especially 4 moose(n)
~~~ waking up to elk bugling, and then the herd's march through our campsite
~~~ photography lessons, and nighttime photography trips.

Books:
~ finished The Hunger Games series
~ The Short Second Life of Brie Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
~ The Guardians of Gahoole (began the series, want to finish)
~ The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

Games:
Ticket to Ride - the obsession continues
Hand and Foot - family game that everyone else should learn and enjoy
Bunco - never played until a ward activity - I LOVE THIS GAME!
The Farming Game
Frontierville on Facebook

Exciting things to come in 2011:
~ Richfield wrestling trip
~ UCET, again
~ Yellowstone - I'm thinking it needs to be an annual event, even if it means camping in the car.
~ driving across the country with friends ~~ are Kirtland and Nauvoo in my future? I doubt it, but one can always hope! :)~~
~ another summer at home with the family, scanning and taking more photos, making videos, and visiting family history sites.

At the beginning of the year, I chose a word to be my personal theme for the year, and to tell you the truth I didn't focus much on it. Looking back, however, I can honestly say that my life has truly been filled with ABUNDANCE.

My next new toy will be...

So, my latest new toy purchase (several months ago, just before Yellowstone) was a digital SLR camera. Huzzah! Well, while home for Christmas break, my uncle let me play with his latest toy, and I think I might need to get one for my own:

Ok, no joke, this lense is AMAZING! It can zoom from 18 mm to 250 mm in ONE LENSE!!! For those of you who don't understand camera-speak (like me), that means you can zoom way out or WAY close with one lense, and it's just awesome. I took some fabulous pictures (if I do say so myself) with my uncle's camera - the kind I've been wanting to take all along. In case you haven't noticed, when you get in people's face with a camera, they kind of get annoyed and don't make natural facial expressions. This camera allows you to capture those spontaneous moments, and no one is the wiser - which makes for awesome pictures! I'll post some pictures when my uncle gets back from his vacation and sends them to me.

Oh, and Alice - do you see the infinity setting?! - I forsee another trip to Yellowstone in our semi-near future. :D

Updates on what's actually going on in my life and pictures for the last several months uploaded on facebook coming soon! :D

Christmas, Christmas - time is Here!!!

Yay for Christmas! This is seriously my very favorite time of year.

I was itching to put all my decorations up. I've got so many projects going right now it's really not even funny. Finishing things up at school, making Christmas presents (very few bought this year, but I think they'll be good!), recital, visiting Ty, plus concerts and as much Christmas hullabulloo as possible.

But, I did get this e-mail recently, and although I don't have children, I thought it was a very worthwhile thought!


Have you noticed how much effort some folks put into finding just the right Christmas gifts for their child? I bet you know someone who doesn't think twice about spending endless hours - or even days - scouring store shelves for that awesome action figure, digital doodad, or doll their child has been wanting.

Let's think about it. Is there anything wrong with this? What's the problem with spending lots of time and energy looking for neat and nifty Christmas gifts for our kids?

Nothing. But…

What happens when we exert more energy on finding these gifts than showing our youngsters what a gift they are to us?

Ouch! I've done this. Yes, I've fallen into this trap! I've worn-out myself trying to make things perfect that I've forgotten the most perfect gift of all: the expression of never-ending, unconditional love.

We're all wired to need it. All of us yearn for a relationship with someone who will love us forever, regardless of how stinky we behave. Isn't this the greatest gift we can give our loved ones? Isn't this what Christmas is really about?

During this Christmas season, my hope is that you'll…
spend more time playing with your kids than you spend shopping for them;
remember that the gift they really yearn for is you;
hug them and smile into their eyes as often as possible; and
show them through your never-ending love what a precious gift they are.