Nature

There is so much beauty in life,
Beauty in the human soul,
Beauty in the heart and in the mind
Of the good man and woman.
There is beauty in nature,
Beauty in the sky and in the clouds,
In the mountains and in the sea.
There is beauty in the creative work of man,
Beauty in true friendship.
And immeasurable beauty in love.
All God's blessings
To delight us in this world. 

Emmy Nielsen Reyes de Gaspar

The visiting teaching message this month is on beauty, the beauty of this great Earth.  It's amazing to behold this earth.  Fall my favorite, as it is many people's.  It is unreal how beautiful it is in Pullman right now.  We talk about it at work basically everyday.  The leaves are turning from green to yellow and red.  The air is crisp but the sun is shining!  Coat and boots weather.  Yes!  When I was on my run this morning a single leaf floated down and landed on my hand.  It was a simple reminder to me that God is watching me.  Not just the whole world, but ME.  He knows my pains, my happiness, my dreams.  And he wants the best for me at all times.  I am grateful for everything that Heavenly Father placed on this Earth for me to enjoy.  If only Glen and I could have a day off together to take pictures.  Someday I look forward to having regular days off together so we can do things like take pictures together in a beautiful location.  At least we are planning a date tonight when he gets off work.  

Improvements

How do people work full time and still do everything else??  I know I still have hours after work to do things but it just seems to go by in an instant.  Between working out, dinner, errands and cleaning, it takes up all my time.  To counter that, I also feel like all I do when I'm home anyways is watch TV.  Here are some of my goals to accomplish outside of work:

• Keep the house clean, not uncluttered, but actually clean.... at least never let it get gross, haha.
• Apply to grad school
• No TV 2 days a week
• Read more
• Laundry once a week, even if it doesn't look full
• Go to more social activities
• Not get caught up in "my plans"
• Lighten Glen's burden
• Make homemade dinner once a week. lol  (Glen's the cook, not me)

Please say that other people have these basic items on their to-do list.  I really want to stop saying that I will be better when I have more time, when I'm a stay at home mom.  Ha!  I realize that this might be totally unrealistic.  So, I've decided to start working on these things before I'm done working outside the home.  

Besides, I have finally realized what people mean when they say good job to me, for being a wife of a student.  What's the big deal?  I'm not the one doing the work, it has nothing to do with me.  But now I see that all his stress and work rubs off on me.  His hard weeks become my hard weeks.  Therefore, I need to step things up when work gets hard for Glen.  That's how I can lighten his burden.  :)  Someday both of us will have less to worry about.  

Rexburg Trip

I have been hoping to get back to Rexburg for a while now.  I went there in 2007 and 2008.  I got my AA in general science, then transfered to WSU.  I really enjoyed my time at BYU-I.  When I left, it was being remodeled, so I knew it would look a lot different.  My brother will be graduating from BYU-I this spring and my sister just started her first year there.  We'll all get to experience it.

If you went to BYU-I, you should seriously think about taking another trip out there.  It is AMAZING now!  The MC does not look anything like it used to!  It's wild.  There's a ton of new apartments and new shopping strips.  It's way cool.  Those lucky kids.  And it was soooo good to see my brother and sister!  I did a 5K with my sister the day I got there and the next day we just looked around and goofed off.

Why am I the short one??

Glow in the dark paint.  Not a great pic.

After hanging out with my family I went over to Michelle's.  Michelle was my roommate my freshman year!  6 and a half years ago!  We were both babies.  But I'm sooo glad we stayed friends.  It was a little crazy how we became roommates because I was dating one of her friends, so we went to high school prom together.  And I really wanted to be better friends with her.  Then when I went off to college, I peeked into my roommates room and there were pictures of her!  We happened to be roommates.  It was fate that we were supposed to be friends.

2007 at BYUI

She invited me to a halloween party.  Everyone was to dress as witches.  :)  I took the easy route and justwore a black dress with a hat.  Simple.  But Michelle went all out!  She even won best dressed!  It was so fun!  Always good to have some girl time, even if you don't know the other girls, haha.  Thanks for the fun time and for letting me stay at your place!  

It was a great weekend.  Even tho it was an 8.5 hour drive, without Glen.  

P.S. Michelle, where's your blog?  I wanted to get some of the pictures you took with your nice camera.  :)

Fitting in

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now.  I guess now is as good of time as any.  This post is mainly about friends and change.  Ever since my husband and I got married and joined the married ward at church, we started noticing that no one really invites people over to watch a game or have dinner or get ready for an event together.  And while some of that is obvious, I mean you're not going to get ready for a dance with a girlfriend when you're married.  But people seem to just mind their own business.  They have their spouse and what else is needed?  I even felt this way when I first got married.  I didn't see the need for having best friends now that I'm married but there is a need.  A very BIG need!  And now I feel like I've been in the same ward for over 2 years and I still don't have really good friends.

But I can't blame anyone, I am in the "full-time working wives without kids" group.  Which means, I get home at 6 or 7, eat dinner, and spend a couple hours with my spouse or doing my own thing before bed. And on the days I do have time to hang out during the week, I am drained from work.  Some days I don't mind at all, some days are friend-lonely.  Weekends are packed up with all the things I don't have time to do over the week.

What I'm saying is that if you don't make an effort to make friends, you won't get any real friends.  I could make more of an effort myself, too.

At work I am so young and inexperienced (how could I even be married already?).  At church I am so old without kids and working all the time.  It's a strange dynamic.  But this is a college town that is driven on academic achievement, and mormons are ... mormons.  :)  I cannot WAIT to start a family, but it just hasn't been our time yet.

I''m excited to have a baby someday and finally be "in the club."  I understand tho, that being a stay-at-home mom means more time to get out and do things with other moms.  All the project groups and recipe groups that I have gone to have been a blast.   So thanks to everyone.

I guess the real point is for myself to be the change.  

I need to be the one to make the effort.  I need to make the time to have girl time.  I need to call my friends from far away up and take the time to see them.  I may not have a lot of time available but girl time is worth it!!  Kids or not, it shouldn't matter.