ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!

This has been an interesting week, with most of the events happening over this weekend.  On Tuesday there was a cool Relief Society activity on FOOD STORAGE!  I am obsessed with this whole "be prepared" deal and I am not prepared...  It's kind of scary, but that's what this thing was for.  It was also a potluck (always count on LDS Women to have food.  Always!)  I made this really yummy pumpkin dessert that my mom always makes in the Fall.  They're called Pumpkin Bars.  They're super easy and can be easily adapted to a food storage recipe.  Here it is.  :)

Pumpkin Bars/1989 Festival of Trees cookbook
29 oz can pumpkin (JUST pumpkin, not spiced)
3 T pumpkin pie spice mix
3 eggs
1 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla
1 C butter
1 C evaporated milk
1 yellow cake mix
walnuts or pecans (optional)

Mix all ingredients (except cake mix, butter and nuts) in a bowl well.  Pour into 9x13 pan.

Topping:
Sprinkle cake mix over pumpkin mixture in pan.  Pour the 1 C melted butter over cake mix. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of cake mix and butter if desired.
Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 350

Soooo yummy.  :)  It smells like Heaven when it's cooking and it's served best straight out of the oven!  Make them, eat them, love them.  :)  Thanks for the recipe, mommy!  I sure love you.  :)


Wednesday was pretty good, Shenay and I sat around doing NOTHING all day aka. Shenay was on Pinterest and I was surfing random things on the net and we talked and laughed and BONDED.  ;)  She then proceeded to convince me to attend "Citrus & Sage".  Going was a LOT of fun.  I love music.  Almost more than anything else in the entire world!  Literally...  Hanging out with the chicks and Brayden was fun.  Listened to fabulous music, saw friends, went home and made crepes and watched "Pride & Prejudice" which is SERIOUSLY a miracle, because Shenay despises movies with the following attributes: "same-color lighting", accents, "different English".  All of these define a movie as "mel-AHN-kohly" (Megamind's version of melancholy) in her words.  And even better, she LIKED it!  What a fun night...  


Friday was pretty cool.  Hung out with a friend from Weber and went to a Stake Dance down there.  I dressed up as an 80's chick.  My hair was defined as being "as big as Africa" that night, and boy...  It was huge.  I'm sure I took a few adults back to the good ol' days.  

"Hey momma, welcome to the 80's!"

 

I wish you could see the whole outfit...  The heels made the deal.  ;)

 We ended up not getting back to Logan until after one, I got inside at about two...  OI!  Haven't stayed up that late in a llooooong time! 

SO ready to go to bed!!

 Saturday morning, I woke up crazy groggy but very excited because I had another motorcycle ride planned with Sean.  We met up in the morning all bundled up ready to hit the road...  or dirt.  :)  We went up Green Canyon again wanting to ride up the trail we hiked to get up to the lake, but we chickened out when it got too hard.  We ended up riding up to Mount Logan.  It was FREEZING!  On the way down, we almost crashed, it was SO funny!  I fell off the bike because I was laughing so hard.  I don't know why it was so funny, but it was...  Oh my.  :)  Getting back to the car was AWESOME because it was warm!  We sat in my car for a while to defrost.  It was nice.  :)  Then we left to get ready for Stake Conference!!  I was a few minutes late, but DANG!  President Woodland is called of God.  No doubt about it, man...  I could listen to that man speak for hours on end.  I love Church meetings!  I always walk out feeling like I could change the world.  After Stake Conference, I got ready for a Murder Mystery at a friend from the ward's home.  :)  It was a blast!  I should have taken a picture of my costume, because I was an old lady, and boy did I look it!!  Kinda elegant-ish.  :)  I liked it.  Ha ha.  It was an interesting evening...  I invited Sean to come and mostly everyone else there was in the ward, so it was easy to get to know and have fun with everyone.  It got a little awkward sometimes because the script was kinda weird.  :P  BUT it was great, nonetheless.  I was honored to end up being the MURDERER!!  And I was the only one who guessed myself.  :)  (no one knew who the murderer was until the very last minute of the night, not even the murderer)


SUNDAY...  Boy, today has been so wonderful.  And horrible.  :P  Ha ha.  I woke up with a slight headache, and knew it was because I've been dehydrated the past couple of days.  I drank some water, and figured it might go away.  Stake Conference today was incredible!  I love President Monson so much!  He is such a wonderful man!  I learned so much today from the testimonies of Sister Wixom, Elder Anderson and President Monson.  :)  My testimony has expanded a lot recently.  I love the Gospel!  I then attended Ward Choir, where my headache became more... intense.  After choir, I came back to the apartment to clean up before Shenay got back, but I could barely focus.  I ended up falling asleep for almost an hour and a half.  Naps rarely happen for me, and when I woke up I couldn't see straight.  After a while of nothing working, I ended up asking Tyla if any guy friends were coming over, because I desperately wanted a blessing.  She replied with no, and offered an Advil.  I, astonishingly, took it.  But not before I got sick.  Ugh.  Throwing up is the most horrific feeling in the entire world.  I would not wish it on my worst enemy.  BUT I was finally able to fall asleep again afterwards for about an hour, after which I woke up WITHOUT A HEADACHE!! :)  Yahoo!  Now I'm sitting here watching a movie with Shenay, blogging and eating pumpkin bars.  :)


Life is so good.  It's happy and difficult, challenging and rewarding.  I love living in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 


If you need anything, my sweet and few readers, I am always here...

I'll be seeing you.  :)




 

Bikes & Hikes

First of all, shout out to Jessica Greenwell and Grandma Rowley!  HAPPY BIRTHDAYS yesterday.  I love you two, very much.  :)  Second, I LOVE OCTOBER!  Fall is my favorite season.  I loved driving through Sardine Canyon everyday to go to work because the leaves were hundreds of shades of yellow, red, orange, green, brown, purple.  So very beautiful! 

I have been very lucky to meet a couple people up here at USU that I have quickly become good friends with.  I met this kid, Sean, in my Biology class and we chit-chatted a few times but weren't even really acquaintances.  I signed up for Institute (FINALLY) and it turns out he was in that class.  Lucky me!  (The Lord always provides the things/people you need in your life when you choose Him above other things!)  So at that point, we became pretty good friends.  He's my homeboy.  ;)  Ha ha.  He's from California so we always talk gangster...  Random explanation.  Anyway, he's pretty much the only person I hang out with up here other than my roommate and people in Church (sad, really because I've only hung out with him like... three times.  :P).  Friday was a bit of a rough day for me and I was alone at the apartment because everyone else went home for the weekend, so I decided to see if he wanted to hang out.  Of course being the good friend that he is, he told me to go riding with him (has a dirt bike he rides around on).  He's been trying to convince me to go with him for a while, but 1. all those other times he didn't have another helmet and 2. timing was never good when he asked 3. He's crashed and broken his hand, hurt his ankle, shoulder and who knows what else... Need I say more?  ;)  This time, I said heck yes!  He came over to the apartment, we ate and said a prayer, "PLEASE help us not die!" "I'm really grateful for this chance to go have fun!", and headed out. 

Now, I have ridden ATVs my whole life...  There are pictures of me where I am barely a year old riding around with my dad on our old Big Red 3-wheeler (I HATE that thing... *shudders*).  I ride 4-wheelers (aka "quads") often and LOVE the thrill of it, but I have never, to my remembrance, been on a motorcycle.  To be honest, I've always wanted one, and since I moved up to Logan, this whole car dealio has been a bit of a nuisance.  I wish I just had a scooter or bike to save gas.  I digress...  As usual.  I was a little nervous really excited to get out, get on a bike and spend some off-road time wit ma homes.  He took it easy on the road because he's terrified of cops he was helping me ease into the whole experience, but as soon as the pavement ended, he hit it.  MAN!  It was so much fun!!  We went up Green Canyon and it was so beautiful!

These pics were taken with my phone=not great quality

It was probably a 20 minute ride up then we parked, stretched and went on a little hike at the trail-head.  The hike was fun and really pretty.  We just talked about life and riding, crashing experiences, snotty people from Bountiful ;) and that we were afraid of being eated by bears.  So we ran.  :)  I love running, just fyi.

I love that little patch of orange!

Got back to the bike and rode off toward the pink horizon...  UNTIL we saw this radical cave!  We stopped and hiked up to it.  The view was incredible!  Both of us commented that looking at the mountain and trees was trippy.  We don't know why or how...  :P

I'm kinda sad this is blurry... The picture doesn't do the view justice.

Anyway, got back on the bike, hauled down and came back to my apartment where we made NO-BAKE COOKIES.  :)  Mmmmm...  No Bakes.  My favorite.  Showed each other good music and watched "The Guardian".  Then he left and got pulled over...  HA ha.  :)  No ticket though, so that's cool

Aaaannnyway, it was tons of fun and I'm going to get a bike.  Soon.  I want one BAD!

I'll be seeing you.  :)

Learning to Trust

It has been quite the past few weeks in the life of Alex, man...  I have been relying on no one but myself.  I THOUGHT I was allowing the Savior to help me.  I wasn't.  I have been thrown into the fire of affliction in a few ways.  Sound scary?  Yeah.  It is!  But it's cooling down and I am being molded into a brighter, more confident and committed Daughter.  I went and spoke with my Institute teacher, Brother Harding, last Friday and he gave me so much incredible insight that has allowed me to make decisions that have affected my "right now" happiness and the happiness I will choose to have in my future life.  I am slowly becoming better at interpreting the Spirit and His language so that I can better do what is best for myself.  I am SO GRATEFUL for The Comforter, The Spirit of God, The Holy Ghost...  He directs me in the Lord's way. 

"The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the sill waters.  He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..."

I fear no more.  I have courage, faith, obedience and,  just like you , the Love of Jesus Christ!

I'll be seeing you!

I Seek After This Thing

Have you ever wanted something so bad and you feel like it is exactly what you should be doing, and nearly everything in your life points to it?  Have you gotten it?  I feel like that in my life, and yet, while I feel like I did/am doing what I can and need to do to attain it, it evades me.

More than anything in my life, I want to be a wife and a mother.

More than anything. 

Not just to anyone, of course, but I won't mention him by name for a few reasons.  I understand that I am "young" (20 in 3 weeks for those of you who don't know).  I understand that I "have time".  I have heard those phrases a kajillion times, but usually from people who don't really care/matter.  I can't help feeling that what would have happened was meant to.  Alas, I cannot make decisions for other people and things change.  I find myself preparing daily for being that woman I want to be.  I cannot wait to teach my children about the things I am learning.  I cannot wait to spend evenings with my husband hashing out bills, careers, children, school.  I cannot wait to keep the commandments of God.

"Marriage offers fulfillment all the way through life—in youth and young love, the wedding and on the honeymoon, with the coming of little children and the nurturing of them. Then come the golden years when young ones leave the nest to build one of their own. The cycle then repeats itself, as God has decreed it should."

Gaaah...  I don't know if I really like it being on my mind all the time. Yet, as I think about it, right now, even though I think I'm ready to take such a huge step, I CAN wait.  I just wish things didn't end.  I'm not even heartbroken, I just wish I still had that companion. 

I am TRULY grateful for the Refiner's Fire, though.  I am slowly, step-by-step, becoming someone who I want to be.   I have been brought down to be built up grander than I was before.  My sweet and beautiful friend Allie sent me an email that was such a great strength.  She said, 

"When President Monson announced that they're making the Provo Tabernacle into a Temple, my understanding was opened to a beautiful new truth. We were the last people to ever sing in the Provo Tabernacle, and it was really confusing for a lot of people to understand why the tabernacle burned down, because we knew that the Lord could have easily stopped that fire. But my choir director said that there is obviously a reason why it burned down that we may never know. Then when the Prophet made that announcement, everything made sense! He needed to burn that down to make it into a Temple.... a TEMPLE!! The one place on earth where God can physically dwell, the one place on earth that binds us to Him and our eternal companions for all eternity. But the amazing thing is is that we can think of ourselves in the exact same way: sometimes our Heavenly Father has to burn us down to almost nothing and sometimes we may not know why He's doing it. But He always knows why! If we let Him burn us down and re-construct us, He WILL turn us into something so much more divine, beautiful and eternal than we ever thought possible! He can turn Tabernacles into Temples! The Lord ONLY upgrades!" (italics added)

I love that analogy!  Not only because it gives hope, but because I am actually seeing it in my own life!  I am so grateful for the NEVER ENDING LOVE of my Older Brother, Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  I am grateful for ancient and modern-day scriptures that lead and guide my life and enable me to be the happiest I ever could be.  I love knowing that I am doing what I can to make myself, others and my Savior happy.

Thanks for reading, pretty soon here, I won't whine as much.  I promise.  :)

I'll be seeing you... 

"Where Do I Go From Here?"

Warning: Since I want to whine and this is my blog, I'm going to. You're entitled to skip to the second paragraph if you wish to fore-go the "I'm currently unhappy with the path I am currently on" sob story.

So, there has been a lot on my mind lately about where my life is headed, what kind of person I am and who I am trying to become. I feel like I'm stuck in this mundane rut. I'm unemployed (my last day of work at the Bank of Utah in Ogden was last Friday), I'm single, I'm not a mom (I know I'm young, chill), I don't have a calling in my ward, I'm leaning more towards the "undeclared" major AGAIN, I am consistently and profoundly confused about a topic that continues to be on my mind/in my prayers, I'm not a good friend... This list could almost go on forever. The phrase "when it rains, it pours" has never been so applicable to my life. I definitely know I'm not the only one that feels like everything going well in their life falls apart all at the same time. I just don't know what to do. Where do I go from here? What do I do with all of these memories that come multiple times daily? What am I going to do without a job, with rent and tuition to pay? What am I going to study in school if I feel like I can't do what I really want to because 1. it's not practical and 2. I'll be in the music building ALL the time with him? I see a car that even looks similar to a silver Honda Accord and it feels like my stomach is going to fall out of my butt and I'm going to puke up my heart. No joke, it really feels like that. I don't even want to think about actually running into him. I've never had a break up this hard. Obviously. I've never had so many things to be nit-picky about. I've never felt so useless and almost worthless. Not worthless. Sort of. To some people. Maybe just a waste of time. Yeah, that's it. I feel like a big, giant blob of wasted time that could have been spent on something good. Something divine. Something Eternal. "There was a time when when men were kind, and their voices were soft, and their words inviting. There was a time when love was blind, and the world was a song, and the song was exciting, there was a time... Then it all went wrong." Man, if I didn't have the Gospel, I'm sure I'd be really depressed right now. I'm just... disappointed. I'm not around to witness the growing of my only niece, to check out my little brother for lunch in his first year of high school (Yeah, Brian is at Jordan. HOLY CATS!), wah wah wah. I'm getting sick of being so pessimistic. Look at me! I feel as though this is out of my character. I HOPE so! If not, I'm one pathetic creature.

MOVING ON! I'm trying to figure out how often I'm going to post an entry on this dealio. Daily? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly? Randomly? Knowing myself, it'll most likely be randomly. Aaannyway, pretty recently I found out that I am singing in Lex de Azevedo's "GLORIA! The Life of Christ" at the end of November. We're singing it for the turning on of the Lights at Temple Square! :) YAY! It's going to be so wonderfully wonderful to sing that glorious music again and be in a CHOIR! I am excited! I haven't really been singing. At all. Okay, I do when I'm at church, and in my car, but that's pretty much it. OH! Other than today! :) I was all alone in the apartment for a long time and I totally belted for like, half an hour. SO MUCH FUN!! Back to "GLORIA!" You can get tickets by clicking here. It is going to be a TRULY incredible evening. I love music. I love talking about music. I love talking about music with my sweet roommate, Shenay. :) We do it often, seeing to the fact that we are both music majors (for now... :P). She is such a darling girl! A wonderful example, a happy-go-lucky chick. Positive through the roughest of times, she is. I consider myself very lucky to be having such a great shared room first experience. I don't know if she can say the same... :-S I'll work on that! We were just talking about dreams, among many things, and I am determined to teach myself to lucid dream. I BELIEVE I CAN LUCID DREAM BECAUSE I WANT TO :) (Some site says that you have to believe you can and really want it. I've got it, man). I am also determined to write my missionary friends, for Pete's sake!! I'm REALLY sorry, boys... I'm a terrible time-scheduler. Elder Diaz (Alex) and I are finally corresponding! Golly, I feel like the worst friend in the world. His mission is like 1/4 of the way done and we're just barely getting in touch. He's doing well, though. :) As far as I know, all the missionaries that I know are doing well wherever they are. Many are coming home very quickly which is exciting. I want to go on a mission. I don't know if it's going to be when I am 21 or when I go with my husband, but I am anxious for it, either way. It makes me nervous though, because many of the young men that I've spoken to about sister missionaries are... well, they strongly dislike them. :P Ha ha. The majority of them, at least. They love to make fun of them, which I guess is okay. "Junior Comp for life." ;) I really need to go to bed, I have a long day ahead.

Sorry for the whininess at the beginning... Shame on me for wasting my own life. This life is a GIFT. I accepted it, unwrapped it, played with it for 5 minutes and then buried it under triviality in the bottom drawer of my ignorance.

GOD LOVES YOU! :) I'll be seeing you.

Documenting and Declaring

So, it's been quite some time since I've posted anything on here, and I thought that it might be a good idea to keep this up. I decided a long time ago that facebook was getting dangerous and time consuming. I didn't really do anything about it. About a month ago I stopped getting on as frequently and I don't "update my status" anymore. It's been interesting to see how different life is! You wouldn't think that something as little as that would make a big difference, but it does. I think from now on, I will only be on facebook to keep in contact with those who I cannot contact otherwise. Plus, I have to let people know I've blogged SOMEHOW. :) Anyway, on a similar topic, I have edited my blog and deleted many of my former posts seeing to the fact that they are distracting from what I want this blog to be from now on. I had a couple posts that were mainly journal entries because no one really gets on here and reads my entries. There were many things pertaining to a young man that I recently stopped dating, and there are still a few things left on here about he and I that I felt were okay. Sorry if they're mushy. I liked him a lot. :) Onward and upward.

I heard today about this "Mormonism is a cult" deal and got quite frustrated. I've gotten over the frustration since, and have moved onto confusion. My dear friends, if you have any question or doubt about whether members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are Christians, I have a few propositions for you. 1. Read the title of the church again. "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints". 2. Read the Book of Mormon. The title is "The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of JESUS CHRIST", wherein there is hardly a page that does not reference Him and His glorious works. It was NOT WRITTEN BY Joseph Smith Jr. It was merely TRANSLATED by him through the power of God from ancient texts written by Prophets before and after Christ's time on Earth (much like the Bible). 3. Speak with active members who live and love the teachings of the Gospel. (if you don't know any members, you can visit mormon.org and lds.org or speak to me!) 4. Seek the Truth out for yourself. Now, for you members, PROCLAIM YOUR TESTIMONIES! Let's use this seemingly negative publicity and turn it into missionary opportunities! :)

I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I love trying my best to live its teachings. I am grateful for modern-day revelation, Temple work, scriptures and my Savior's Atonement. It's so simple and logical. Realistic. REAL. I know it is true. :)