, ,

Christmas Cookie Exchange

I am thinking about throwing a Christmas Cookie Exchange with a friend of mine and I am trying to figure out the details. I don’t want to make tons of beautiful cookies and have them be exchanged and replaced by some Oreos or something. Oreos are great, but they’re not quite cookie exchange material. But how to I tell people that? How do I ensure that I invite people who understand this!? I wanted to invite my whole relief society because it would be a fun get-together and nice way to meet more people.

Any suggestions? Should I make invitations instead of an open event? I guess it has to be open now that I blogged about it, but let’s be honest… the majority of the hits I get on this site are from my Mom and Hannah. So, Mom and Hannah (which clearly you’d still be invited even though you’re not in my RS, don’t worry) and anyone else out there, what should I do?

/5 Comments/by

Let it Snow

I don’t know what it is about this winter, but I am just craving snow. Every morning I look out the window in anticipation, but unfortunately I keep getting disappointed.

It keeps flurrying but not sticking. What a tease. I am looking for some real frozen precipitation here! Is that too much to ask? I know the likelihood of school being canceled is slim to none, but it’s worth a shot of hope, am I right?

So, here I am. Looking out the atrium windows at work (I’m covering for the secretaries) and I am just searching for a snowflake falling in the air. Come on snow… come… on… snow!

 

/0 Comments/by
,

Everlasting Mirrors

Yesterday, I couldn’t work on my projects any longer and so I quit everything and went to the temple with T.J.

We decided to do sealings. There was just a small group of us in the sealing room. The sealer was so talkative, it was pretty entertaining. All of the names were names he had done and so with each couple, he would tell us their story, which was really interesting. As I waited while other couples performed the work, I stared across the room into the everlasting mirrors, which are symbolic of us being linked  to all of those who have come before us and all of those who come after us.

With each sequential mirror, I went back through my family in my head. Me. My mom. Penny, my Grandmother. My Great-Grandmother… What was her name, again? Was it Pearl? Was it Bessy? Was it Moo?” I couldn’t believe it. There were thousands of mirrors in that reflection. And when I related them to my family tree, I could only go back to my grandmother by name?

Lately at church, the theme has been genealogy and temple work. Last week our Bishop asked us, “What if you went to the temple and there were no names for you to perform the work for?” He went on to tell us that they are starting to run out of names for the women, and that we must start finding our own names.

From my Bishop’s question and my experience at the temple last night, I’ve decided it really is time to start working on my family history. It is embarrassing that I cannot even give the name of my great-grandparents.

There is a lot of work to be done. And if your families work is finished, then help me with my family’s. I like the commercial for ancestry.com that say, “You don’t have to know what you’re looking for, you just have to start looking.”

The blessings that come from the temple are incredible. Not only for those whom the work is being performed for, but also for us and our families. It allows us to be with our families forever and it brings peace into lives, a peace you cannot find anywhere else. For those few hours in the sealing and celestial rooms, I was able to leave everything outside the temple and put my life in an eternal perspective. Christ needs to be the center of our lives. When when we put him first and have faith, everything will fall into place and our families will be eternally blessed.

If you would like to learn more about temple work, visit Mormon.org and watch this video.

[slideshow]

 

/4 Comments/by

Hermione

Well, little miss Hermione Granger sure switched up her look, didn’t she? What are your thoughts?

/1 Comment/by

Coming Home

“Lieutenant Dan has been deployed in Afghanistan since last October and is on his way home. But what makes it special is that he has a new baby daughter waiting to meet him for the first time. Watch as this journey unfolds throughout the day as the tension builds and the family reunites for the first time as three. It’s a crusher. You can’t help but feel some of the patriotism when he arrives home.”

/0 Comments/by

Carrot Top

Freshman year, my eye got infected and the optometrist told me I had something called:

Carrot-top-itis.

I actually couldn’t pronounce what the doctor said, so that’s just what I called it and then my friends started to call me Carrot Top because of it. I’ve seen a bunch of doctors since then, opthamologists actually–because I didn’t want to be diagnosed as Carrot Top anymore. I can’t remember what they said I have, it’s written down somewhere in my files.

Anyway, on Monday my eye started hurting again. It’s not as red as it was freshman year, but it is so irritating and really starts burning after a while.

Just call me Carrot Top from now on. And don’t make fun of me if I have to wear an eye patch.

/0 Comments/by

Portfolio.Portfolio.Portfolio.

I’ve been working day and night on my portfolio for my NY Internship program application, due this Friday. It’s just about finished but I’m showing it to a professor today who will probably tear is  a part, but it’s for the best, right?

Creating this portfolio and application, however stressful it may be, is REALLY getting me excited about the internship. If selected (which I sure hope I will be because I’ve had an internship before and I’m a senior), then the committee here sends my portfolio out to several agencies in New York, including Young and Rubicam, McCann Erickson, and Ogilvy & Mather. It will cost T.J. and I a fortune–there’s no way we will ever be able to afford it unless we get grants or figure something else out financially. But it’s an investment and will be one of the greatest opportunities I’ve ever had!

Wish me luck!

/0 Comments/by
,

Disappointment

I stopped watching Glee a few weeks ago because it was getting a little too inappropriate. As if that wasn’t disappointing enough, today I tried to download some of the music from the show, and it’s just not the same because I didn’t see the episodes. Usually I want to download all of them, but I only wanted to buy a couple. And even then, it’s just not as fun to listen to.

Shame.

/0 Comments/by
, ,

Hello, Cincinnati!

Last weekend T.J. and I were going to buy our tickets to Cincinnati for Christmas break. T.J. has to leave before New Years so he can get back to work and we decided I would stay until the 3rd of January since I don’t get to go home very often. Well, T.J.’s ticket was rounding out to be about $500. That is ridiculous. No student has that type of money to spend. That’s like 2 car payments, or ten phone payments, or 3 months of groceries. Way too much.

We didn’t want to have to buy the ticket right then but we also knew it was quite a risk not to buy T.J.’s ticket because the price could keep increasing or we might not be able to be on the same flights for Christmas (which isn’t a huge deal, but it would be nice). So anyway, we felt really strongly that we should just wait to buy his ticket and pray that by our next paycheck we could afford to buy his ticket and that the price wouldn’t increase too much.

One day later after buying my ticket, we got a message from T.J.’s parents saying that they would like to get T.J.’s ticket with his dad’s sky miles (he racks up a lot each week because of his work). I was amazed. First of all, I am so grateful for in-laws who are willing to do that for us, especially when the tickets mean we won’t be spending the holidays with them. Also, we didn’t have to stress out about the situation at all because our answer to our prayers came SO fast. And three, what a blessing it is that we listened to the prompting to wait to buy T.J.’s ticket.

T.J.’s dad got the ticket for us last night, completely free.

Incredible.

Thanks so much, Kelly and Mark! You have no idea how grateful we are for you all!

/0 Comments/by
,

My Top 10 Scary Movies (not in order)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA6pPzh6Bd4&fs=1&hl=en_US]

  1. The Orphanage. I saw it on campus at the International Cinema so they edited out the bad stuff. But this thriller really gets your heart pumping with a well-written plot and twist ending. Just wait until the woman plays the “knock 1 2 3” game. Oh man. (P.S. it’s on Netflix Instant Play).
  2. The Ring. I will never see this one again. Too satanic. Too scary.
  3. The Ring 2. I watched this with a bunch of girls a few years ago really late at night. I don’t remember much because I kept falling asleep. But I do remember a bunch of deer attacking them. Horrifying.
  4. Lady in White. Old movie. You wouldn’t think it would be this scary, but I couldn’t have the blinds open for weeks. There are like three stories throughout the movie, but the ending is by far the scariest part.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM9pIeZSy5Q&fs=1&hl=en_US]

  1. The Others. I love this movie. Nicole Kidman does a great job and I’ll never forget my friend Mikey Tensmeyer quoting the children at the end. When the door slams and the piano starts to play, I always lose it!
  2. Skeleton Key. I think you know already how I feel about this one.
  3. The Birds. It didn’t scare me during the movie. It scared me the next time I saw a bunch of birds. And every time since.
  4. The Invasion. This is more of a thriller. Once again, Nicole Kidman is incredible.
  5. 1408. When this first came out, Blair and I saw it 3 times in the theater.
  6. What Lies Beneath. When the neighbor see them through the window all of a sudden, you might have a heart attack.
/1 Comment/by