Sunday Thought

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody! Hope everybody wore some green today. But on a more sunday centered note, I taught in relief society today. While I was preparing, I was looking for videos and decided to watch My New Life, Stephanie Nielson's story about her crash. This video is an oldie, but a goody. I have seen it a bunch of times, but I still love it and feel the spirit every time I watch it. I decided to start her memoir Heaven is Here because I have heard wonderful things about it and so far its very engaging and uplifting. Her story reminds me of when we first watched it on journey which seems like forever ago. And I hope someday I can have a cute little happy family like her. But watch the video. Its one of my favorites. 

Per Request of the Krusty-Krust :

So I have been very busy lately as any college student can attest to, and a certain Krusty has been riding me about blogging. So here it is, per request of the Krust. 

I had the privilege of my family coming to visit in early October. They came for their October Break and conference and it was just a fantastic week. They chose a good week because my important class was canceled so I got to spend lots of time with them. We got our Cougar spirit on at the football game, begged for enough tickets to get all 15 of us into conference, heard history making announcements from the prophet, shopped 'til we dropped, played lots of cards and ghost in the graveyard, got leaves in our mouths on the coaster and saw some old beaver damns. A very fulfilling week if you ask me. 

Thinking of Graduation.

So the influx of graduation announcements has begun and it has got me thinking back to my graduation. I feel like this is my mantra as of late but, graduation seems like a lifetime ago, while little things like buying a graduation dress and writing my talk for seminary graduation seems like they just happened yesterday. This has got me thinking about graduation. And I promise I won't get sappy about new beginnings and all things overused, I simply want to remember an important milestone in my life, spent with people I love and miss because they are spread across the globe! 

All my missionaries. Miss these great guys. 

Conference.

My parents and my favorite brother Gus came to visit over conference weekend. Why just Garrett you might ask? Well, we have this tradition in my family that when we turn twelve our parents take just us to conference. I got to tag along since I was already in Utah. 

We had so much fun. They came and visited me on campus on Friday and Gus came to class with me. I treated them to lunch at the Cannon and then we headed up to Park City. To my dad and brother's dismay, we had to hit the outlets and I picked out all my birthday presents. We were feeling adventurous and decided to try out this new Italian restaurant in Park City called Maxwell's. It was very delicious. Conference was great as always.  I enjoyed all the talks, especially Elder Holland's. It was a blast discovering City Creek with my mom. It is the mall to rule all malls. We also taught Gus Rook and drank freshly squeezed orange juice. What a weekend. 

He has officially grown taller than me. 12 year old giant. 

Gus at his first ever Priesthood session. If you look vvvvveeeeerrrrryyyyyy closely you can see the stain on his shirt from P.F. Chang's. He can't resist the Mongolian Beef :)

And on an unrelated note, happy birthday to me!!!!

Sunday Best

I hate Utah wether. Today, it dropped 30 degrees and snowed. Snowed! Last week we had relief society outside and this week we ran up the hill to church in a blizzard. 


But on the upside, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Twelve Apostles came and spoke in my ward today. It was a very special experience to be sitting so close to an apostle of the Lord and have him tell us specifically what my ward needed to hear. My favorite quote he said today was following the story of the woman in the old testament with the blood disorder who touched Jesus's robe and was healed without Jesus consciously knowing. He said "the power of prayer and the power of faith are independent of cognitive recognition." I thought that was a very insightful and comforting comment that really resinated with me that if I have enough faith in line with righteous desires, I can blessed and healed and comforted simply by having faith and praying. That's how closely those commandments and promises are tied. 


I also want my family to know how much I love them. Someone close to me lost her grandmother unexpectedly and I want to make sure that if I ever was confronted with such a situation, that I wouldn't be wondering if they knew how much I love them. Mom and Dad, thanks for the great influence and support you are in my life. Jacquelyn, I know we butt heads, but you really are a great sister and so smart and pretty. Kristen, I always say we would be friends at school if we were the same age, but in fact you would be WAY cooler than me Ms. Stu-ent Body President. Gus, I miss playing Wii and seeing you grow taller before my very eyes and I can't wait till you come up for conference. Lauren, I love you, my crazy baleelee. I know its cliche, but I really don't say these things as often as I should. Just know, I love you all very much. 

Happy Wed-nes-day!

It is 55 and sunny out today. More than that there was a warm breeze. Catch that? WARM! And the grass is starting to grow back in green. We walked past a patch of it the other day and Maeser got so excited he ran over and grabbed a big handful and made us all smell it. Smells like spring :)


More about the weather:  I still can't believe I said 55 is warm. At home 55 was coat and boots weather, but here it is shorts and sandals! I am worried that I will come home in the summer and not be able to handle AZ heat because I am acclimated to the Utah cold. Anyway...


Today is officially the half-way point of the semester. This semester has flown, even faster than the last. It will be very bittersweet when it ends because I get to see my family (yay!) and it will feel nice to have a year of college under my belt, but then I won't see my college friends all summer, and for the case of most of them, two years on top of that. 


I am also in the process of patching a hole in my pants so wish me luck. I have no Mom here to fix it if I mess up.


On the more serious side, a while back I was feeling very frustrated and helpless and struggling to keep my head above water, so to speak. I found this quote on Pinterest and it reminded me that I am in control, even when it feels like I'm not and to stay focused on what I really want. I told this story so 1) everyone can know I am doing well, 2) I just really like this quote and wanted to share it, and 3) to show my mom how awesome Pinterest is so she will just get on already!!

Hope everyone's lives are going well. Everything is great up here  at Utah. Have a happy Wednesday!

Winnie the Pooh

So call me old-school, but I am hooked on Seventies music. It all started a very long time a go when I would drive with my dad in his truck and we would listen to James Taylor and John Denver. They will forever remind me of home and of my daddy. So, when I get homesick I like to listen to them as previously mentioned on this blog. But here's the catch: I don't have that many songs by either of them in my library so I decided to make a James & John Pandora (its very good, if you care to listen to it). For all you dinosaurs who don't understand Pandora, it chooses music for you based on the type of station you create. So, I ended up with a lot of seventies music. One of the songs it chose for me was House at Pooh Corner by Kenny Loggins. I love this song because it used to play on one of Lauren's lullaby CD's. It also reminded me of the Pencil and her obsessive love for all things Piglet and the little stuffed animals we would collect at Disneyland. Childhood was awesome. 

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Today one of my very best friends had his mission farewell. As I am far away in cold Utah, my parents went to fill in for me. They were telling me how great the talk was and about all my friends from home they talked to and it made me miss home so bad. And I got very excited to see them  when I go home when the semester is over in two months. Then I realized I won't see my college friends all summer and how much I will miss not spending time with them. I came to the conclusion that I am torn between two lives, and I will always be missing someone or something. Then my awesome Mother reminded me how lucky I am to such great friends and environments at home and at school and to always remember to enjoy the moments where ever I am. It does no good if I am always wishing to be somewhere else, with other people, just to turn around and wish I was back. I have always loved the quote "bloom where you are planted". I can thrive at home and at school in two completely different environments and I can love different things about them both. I am so grateful for all my friends and everyone I know at home and at school. You guys are the greatest!

Better Late Then Pregnant!

So it's been a while. And a lot has happened. So this post might be a little bit on the spastic side... brace yourselves. I have come back to BYU for my second semester. GO COUGS! 

My family came skiing right after I came back to school and that was a lot of fun, even though there was no snow. 

The Allison. A classic.

Then it was time to sign contracts for apartments next year. AHH!! Scary right?? And somebody (Kass) thought it would be a good idea to camp out! Worst idea ever. Nobody slept because we had six girls ins a four-man tent and it was January so it was naturally freezing. I woke up--and I use that term lightly since we didn't really sleep--with frozen hair from the side of the tent. But the good news is we got our apartment! Mansion 22 baby!!

Tarleigh is legit with her head-lamp.

Don't we look so excited to camp??

Then we had a super awesome ward activity at this tubing place in Heber. It was a blast... until it started snowing when had to drive home through the canyon. I was safe in Kass's little blue bug, but we did have a couple kids spin out and crash into eachother. But still a super fun activity. 

These big events are a blast, but what makes college fun on a day to day basis are the little things. I now it sounds sappy but its true. We are just silly.

Gotta love Jordan's BYU Christmas stocking shoes!

I'm a Who from Whoville!

And about the title? I was going to write better late then never but this popped into my had from this funny thing I read on Facebook. Its little kids finishing popular sayings. Enjoy.

Yeah, I Know it's Late.

So yesterday was a very crazy day. I had to write two essays that were due today. It was very high-stress but I got them all turned in and everything was great. 


Today in my development class we were talking about self and identity development and all this stuff and my teacher asked us who we are and everyone said "children of God". Is it bad that I said my name first? Then he decided to compare genders and asked all the girls who we are and there was a mass recitation of the personal progress theme. It took me a while to catch on. I guess that shows just how out of practice I am with Young Woman's!

This picture is from pinterest. A web site that my roommate got me addicted to. One more awesome distraction!!!

Also, today I started watching the show New Girl with some girls on my floor. It is my new favorite show second only to Modern Family. It is so funny.

Watch it. Also I'm really excited for my parents to come in less than six days!!! Woo Hoo!!!! And on that note I have to go to bed so I can study for my four tests next week!! 

Hawaii

I posted a while back about how I burned my finger on the curling iron and I thought it looked like Hawaii. Here is the picture again for anyone who is super lost.

So my mom read that and called me today and jokingly said it was a sign that we are supposed to go to Hawaii. Well I won't argue with that! Get planning Mom!

Beautiful Na'pali Coastline

I have gotten so many compliments about my feet this week that when I saw this picture it made me giggle. And I had to put it up because the black sand is so cool!