You Fantastic Fish You.*

Sunday I had the opportunity to be home taught after church. We were all a bit unorganized and none of us had read the First Presidency message yet (normally we all try to read it beforehand). So our home teacher read the title "Peace, Be Still" and we went from there. It was probably one of my favorite times being home taught...ever. I don't know if it was because we were unprepared and therefore we were more open to discuss what was on our minds as it pertained to the title of the article, but whatever it was, I feel like I heard exactly what I needed to hear.


Our home teacher likes boats, so he was explaining how some boats work. Sadly, I can't remember the name of the part he was explaining (we’ll call it fin so that I don’t keep saying “random part I can’t remember”), but he said that most boats have it, and in some you can pull it up out of the water. When the fin is bigger, it makes the boat more buoyant and better able to handle when the waters get rough. If it is small, or pulled up, the boat has greater speed (I hope I’m remembering this right). Anyway, he then compared the boats to members of the church. He said that a convert (such as himself) comes in to the water and they have a small fin and are going quickly through the water, trying to learn all they can learn. Whereas someone who has been a member of the church all of their lives as a bigger fin, so they don’t move as quickly, but when the waters get rough, they are more anchored.

Then he asked each of us what we do when the waters get rough. I thought this was a poignant question, mostly because I have been going through a rough time. When he talked about “rough waters” I truly felt like that’s what my past week or so has been, rough waters. He asked me first (cause when he asks questions, Vivienne and I look at each other to see who should answer first and I typically end up answering first). I didn’t know how to answer him, because to be honest, I hadn’t felt that I had been as anchored as he thought I might have been. I first told him it was an excellent question, then told him how I loved the analogy, and then…I tried to think about what I do when the waters get rough. It was good for me to reflect on what my options are and what I had done. I told him honestly that often times I forget about all the support that the Lord offers; Home teachers, priesthood blessings, friends who understand, a loving bishop who wants us to be happy, prayer, scriptures, etc. Last week, my dear, sweet friend reminded me that Priesthood Blessings were an option. I was in Institute at the time, so right after class I asked Christian and Chris to give me a blessing. I needed peace, I needed direction, but I got much more. I find that the Lord does that a lot, I ask for something that I feel is big and more than enough for what I need, and he offers me more, because he knows I need more. It just takes the act of asking for the one thing, for opening yourself up for his counsel, and if you let him in, he’ll give you what is best for you.
I think sometimes the devil would have you believe that you are alone, that there is no one you can turn to, but the Lord offers so many ways to find comfort. I’m not saying this as someone who has figured it out, but rather someone still trying to figure it out. What do you do when you are feeling down, when you feel that you aren’t good enough or aren’t DOING enough? What do you do when you feel like you can’t fight these negative feelings, but you know you have to?

We had excellent talks on Sunday about healing. The first speaker quoted a BYU devotional from several years ago and the woman said, “We may pray for a cure, when what we require is healing.” The speaker explained that a cure is something that is almost instantaneous, while healing is a lifelong process. Just like with my ankle, I wish it would get better quickly and I could move on with life, but it’s been a long process and it’s still not all the way back to where it was. It will take more time, more work, more pain.

The first talk ended with a quote from Russell M. Nelson.

“Real joy awaits each of us – on the other side of sorrow.”

Happy Monday

He's a very good friend of mine, he's one of my best friends, he's my ONLY best friend.*

Congratulations to Kathryn for getting the blog bucks last time!  She takes her ranking very seriously and wasn't about to be knocked out of the top 10!

So little known fact, I have a Pinterest account.  Just like Twitter - I don't know how to use it. (Note: I kept calling it "pin-interest" until my 14 year-old cousin corrected me - you don't want to be corrected by a 14 year-old).  Anyway - people are always saying, "Saw this on Pinterest" and they are always cute little things they do.  So I signed up and then left it for a long time.  Then my sister, Joanna, got on there, and she seemed to get it and really enjoy it so I tried again.  I spent a couple minutes one Saturday looking at little "Do it yourself" stuff for the house and then found a bunch of other things.

Then I left it again.

Then my bishop's wife admitted that she is on there and has no clue what is going on.  But she told me that there is a phone app for it - so I downloaded it and then went crazy one day - pinning things I want to do but knew deep down that my lazy personality would probably never get to them.

It's like I want these home improvements, I want to lose weight, I want fun activities to do with the nieces and nephews, and I want those cute, homemade Halloween costumes - but I want someone else to do them for me...cause
                                  I'm
                                            LAZY. 

Goodness - I thought we covered this already, why aren't you retaining that about me?

Usually I would say, "I'm just not crafty" or handy, or creative, or I lack fine motor skills, brain capacity, my eye sight is bad, my fingers are fat, I'm scared of sharp objects and splinters, I don't have the money right now, I'm bad at measuring things, I don't know what supplies I need, etc.  You get the idea right? Cause I really can keep going - I'm an "Excuse Queen" and I can do it for almost any activity (i.e. running - it's cold, my legs hurt, I haven't had any water today, I don't want to pull a hammy*). 

Anyway - to the Pinterest Community,

You guys are freaking creative! I will count myself lucky if I can copy you - much less post something original for others to try and copy.  I'm so grateful for this little community of creative, do-it-yourself-ers who think of cute things to craft, or better ways to function in daily life.  I'm also grateful for Pinterest folders where I can store this stuff away to try when I'm older, a mom, have money, have time, own a dog, eat dinner, or learn to can preserves I'll never eat from my garden I haven't planted yet.

However - I did take a day, when there were so many other things I should have been doing, and tried some of these things out - I started small.  My main goal is to build the giant lazy susan for heaven knows what overall purpose, but even if I just did a few of the small things I would find that my Pinterest account was worth it (you know - cause it cost free-ninety-nine to sign up).

Money well spent...

The Ivory Soap

You can put the bar of soap in whole, or you can break it up in to pieces and then microwave for about two minutes or so and walla -

The Naked Egg:

This one actually took more time.


After a few hours

 



What do YOU mean you people?*

I've been outed twice today and all before noon.

This morning, an employee came up with what he thought was a doozy of a problem, so he said, "have you had your cup of coffee yet?"
me: I don't drink coffee
him: oh ok, well then I'll come back later.
me: I still won't have had coffee later, I don't drink it at all.

So he sat down and explained his technical issue, which was an easy fix so I asked if he needed anything else and he said, "Well, you don't drink coffee, and I remember you went to a school in Idaho," and he looked at me and I smiled cause I figured what he was about to ask and he said, "are you Mormon?" and I told him I was.  Then he told me that he wasn't (which I knew) and he said one of his best friends is and he was so excited when Coke came out with a decaffeinated version.  That made me smile for a couple of reasons.

The second time was today at physical therapy, the therapist asked how I injured myself and I told her during a basketball game and she asked if I play pick up games or in a league.  I told her I played on a church league.  So later, when she was working on my ankle she said, "what church do you play for?" and I told her, "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" and she said, "I thought so!" She went on to say you don't find many church league basketball teams and her husband used to play pick-up games with members, though they are not members.  She kept naming people that I know, so it was kind of cool.

Anyway - so on to the story of my first physical therapy session (hereto after mentioned as PT).  When I first got there, I had paperwork galore to fill out.  I can tell you something about the past three months - I'm sick and tired of paperwork!  I tried to be as honest on the form as possible because Dr. House always says that people lie, I think that people just don't realize that somethings might be helpful.  There were two sections I found difficult to answer.  The first second had me rank my difficulty with doing certain activities.  On a scale from 5-1 how much trouble do I have walking.  Easy enough, but some of the options were, running on an uneven terrain, squatting, hopping, turning sharply while running fast...I haven't done ANY of these since my "accident" so I just had to imagine if I would have difficulty with it (they wanted me to provide an answer for all options).

The last section didn't seem to fit an ankle injury (or a physical one).  The options (NOT in their words but in the words I remember):
*fatigue/exhaustion
*Crying fits
*Aversion to people
*Shortness of Breath

I was confused and kept laughing - which should probably be added to the list since it is ANOTHER "symptom" I find myself having on a regular basis.  I wasn't sure if I should check the boxes because I feel these things at all different times or if I was supposed to remember NOT feeling this way before I hurt my ankle?   Cause I'll be honest with you, I cried myself to sleep the other night...nothing was wrong, no one hurt me or offended me.  I was reading in a book and the woman missed her husband who had died years earlier and then in a different book a woman kissed her husband goodbye for the last time right before they buried his body and as I lay in bed that night, thinking about these two that I read about and I started to cry cause
                          that
                                   is
                                          so
                                                  sad.

Hallmark could probably get the same reaction out of me.  But the PT doesn't care about that, that has nothing to do with my ankle.  So I checked "fatigue/exhaustion" cause I figure that actually might have to do with my ankle and it's healing process.

In other news - I still wear the brace, the ankle is still swollen, the range of motion still sucks, and for now, I'm not supposed to attempt running - and the 10k is a month away.  I've run it with less preperation, I'm just hoping I can at least jog it by the time it comes around.  I'm not worried about the Color Me Rad run - cause that's just for fun and not for time anyway.


My brace (cause I don't think I ever posted a picture)



She'd eat if we were have Tony-loaf.*

Congrats to Isaac for getting the Wreck It Ralph quote (which happens to go with this post since that's when I saw portions of it).  This brings Isaac into the top 10!

Friday night Jacob and Tommy stayed with me.  There was a basketball game at Bailey Bridge, so I picked them up and took them to my house for dinner and then we left for the game.

On the way to my house Tommy said, "I wish your house wasn't so far away." Note to reader, my house is further, but even then, it's about 10 to 15 minutes with the interstates.  I laughed because...the drive from my house to Bailey Bridge is about 45 minutes.  He was in for a real treat.

The ride over was entertaining to say the least.  Spencer taught me a new trick with how to deceive children.  When they ask how much longer you say, "5 minutes" when they ask again you say "4 minutes".  Suddenly a 40 minute drive is only 5 minutes or less.

The boys have also apparently never seen a tower in the night.  Jake kept asking what that tower was ahead and as we drove it seemed to switch which side of the road it was on.  The boys kept asking in amazement how the towers were able to switch sides of the road, and then when we finally came up on it they wondered if the towers were following us.  And yet they wouldn't believe me when I told them I was magical and that's how I turned off my house light (motion light) or when Spencer told them an airplane was a spaceship...but towers jumping across the interstate and following us??

Turns out that the boys also have never been to a basketball game, they seemed to like it. I know Jake watched pretty closely and when my team lost by one point he said, "I wish you guys could have won" - so I know he was picking up on some of it.

When we got home it was time for bed (it was past time for bed) so the activities continued in the morning.

...bright and early...before 7:00 a.m.

I took pictures with my new camera.

I felt like this was a normal breakfast for them because I have seen it at their house a couple of times.  They enjoyed it.

The boys Tommy watch Wreck it Ralph while Jake made a camera out card stock paper.  Then the boys wanted to play the Wii so I let them.  These pictures of from when they play the cow racing game (it's a hoot).

 

Jake couldn't sit still he loved this game so much



Then we went to Target to get a few things and got some Icee's.  Tommy had a fun time walking through the women's section - and by fun I mean once he noticed that he was surrounded by bras he said "ew" until he came out into the aisle and then shied away from the section as though he might catch something.

Overall - I think it was a success. but I guess it's their opinion that matters most on that one.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.*

Dear first Monday after daylight savings,

I don't like you much.  My eyes sting every time I blink and I feel like I got jipped an hour of sleep (but that was the day before).  May I direct you towards Arizona? I think we should try to reject daylight savings time like they do.  Thank you for your consideration and I hope that there will come a day when I don't dread you as much.  Maybe during retirement.

*~*~*~*~*~

Dear Sun,

Way to drop the ball this morning.  Some of us have jobs we try to be on time for - looks like you don't feel the same way.  Would you please be more considerate and try not to be tardy next time.  Thanks...for nothing.


Welcome to Spring.  I'm exhausted. 

I am officially out of my boot and into a brace.  I feel like the brace means that I am almost 100% better, but that's not the case.  I have a "prescription" to go to physical therapy twice a week for three weeks and then I have another doctor's appointment to follow up on the physical therapy.  I'm frustrated and I know I shouldn't be, things could always be worse than a stubborn, sprained ankle.  I've just gained about ten pounds, can't run (well or long) and I have two races coming up in April.  Luckily they are a 10k and 5k - not a half marathon or something.  So - recovery is happening (probably at a normal pace), I just want it to go quicker.  Impatient.

My nephews spent the night on Friday - I have pictures so I will try to post about that tonight or tomorrow morning.  Just wanted to give you some sort of an update so you don't think my blog is abandoned. 

Cause every blog post needs a picture right?

Don't you have some kind of a line that you keep open for emergencies or for celebrities? I'm both. I'm a celebrity in an emergency.*

Congratulations to C$ and Sarah for getting the Mean Girls reference!

It's snowing!

For people who live where it snows a lot, this isn't a big deal.  Snow is annoying, and I still had to go to work this morning, and right now with my boot it's an extra pain (reminds me of Rexburg a little), but there's something about snow that just makes me happy on the inside.

Also - work closed early and I got a new camera - so I was pretty excited to take some photos with this beauty.

Can you see my boot print?

Thanks to Jo and Ben for the great deal on a camera! I'm still unsure of what I am doing with it - but I'm excited to learn how to use it!

This is how I eat my dinner too.

I feel like she is quoting Shakespeare as she eats.

Downstairs Christian's new home.  I thought it was colorful and  cool photo opt.

She doesn't even go here!*

It's been a while.  I wish I had something exciting to update you on - but really, all I can update is that my foot is still in the Storm Trooper boot.

The Sunday after I found myself in the boot, I was set apart as the Compassionate Service Leader for my ward.  This opened me up to jokes - people kept telling me that I should get some compassionate service for myself...which I did, I organized rides, I made myself dinner, it's been great.

I am getting tired of not driving myself, not because the people haven't been great, but more so because I never before realized how much junk I carry around with me.  If I know I'll be out all day, I can take my stuff and leave most of it in the car until I need it.  Now I pack my purse full of things to keep me entertained in case I need to wait for a ride.  I have two notebooks, two books, and a rough draft of the story I am working on...all in my purse.  This doesn't account for my ibuprofen, pencil case, planner, boot pump, wallet, ipod, phone, camera, keys (that I don't really need), chap stick, lotion, and other sundry objects.  This purse is HUGE.

Anyway - last Thursday, bishop's wife picked me up from work and took me to her house to eat dinner.  Then we went to a book review for Freakling (mentioned in last post).  I felt strange about it because it was for Midlothian ward and I don't go there, I was the only outsider, luckily I had Patty with me. 

It was so much fun.  The women were really friendly and I loved hearing Lana's story about getting her book published.  From the conception of the story to getting an agent and the editing process and even working with the artist for the book cover. 

My favorite part though was when Lana said something about getting an idea for a story and becoming obsessed with it and the characters and she said, "Jessica, you know."  It made me feel legit.  I learned a lot of helpful things about finding an editor and publishing and I'm excited to keep working!

Anyway - I also just want to thank all the people who have been helping me out with rides.  It's so hard to ask for a ride and to be dependent on people.  And aside from one little snag, it's been a great experience, learning to be humble and ask for help.

That meat lover's pizza is NOT loving me back at all! *

January - 4

February - 3

Total = 7

Freakling by Lana Krumwiede

This is the woman in charge of the writing group that started mid-February.  The premise of this book is that there is a town full of people who have telekinesis (moving stuff with their mind) and they are separated from those who don't.  If anyone loses their ability they are sent to live with the "duds" and if someone develops abilities, they are sent to live in the city.  I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the sequel that is coming out in October.  It also helps that I've had the opportunity to get to know the author and find out more behind her idea for the story. 

Look Up My Soul by Gerald Lund

Fantastic book! I love how Elder Lund lays the book out, from talking about hope and it's companions, faith and charity to talking about how to better study the scriptures and prayer.  He ties it all together nicely, and while he made me cry (a lot) during the last two chapters, I forgive him.  I also liked how, as I studied older conference talks and scriptures, I kept thinking about this book and about hope in general and getting an overall bigger picture.  I definitely recommend this one.

House of Learning by Richard and Kathleen Walker
This book was written by the Walkers as a reflection of the things they learned while serving as the Temple President and Matron.  I liked how simple and straight forward it was and at the end of each chapter they ask a question and leave space for you to write (at least I think the space was intentional).  It was good because it caused me to pause and reflect at the end of each chapter.