Wintry Weekend

Ok, last weekend was fabulous and I couldn't have asked for greater circumstances with all the snow that got dropped. (Minus the no cell phone business, but that has all been taken care of now.)

Friday night: I went night boarding at Brighton with my old friend Derrick Pili. I haven't seen him in well over a year, I probably haven't seen him since right after he came home from the mish. It was so fun to see him and just kick it up on the slopes together for a bit. That's the best part about old friends, you can just sit and talk like you just saw each other yesterday. And the two feet of fresh powder that day was quite the added bonus.

Saturday night: My ward rented out the tubing hill at Soldier Hollow. It was most excellent. Ali came with me and we had such a blast. There is a tow rope that takes you AND your tube up the hill. and then you fly down, I felt like superman, it was wonderful. And they pump music up on the hill. Fabulous idea on their part. Enjoy some peeksures.

The start of a ride down

Getting farther....

Getting faster...

And going crazy fast!! So fun!!

Monday: A day 4 years in the making. McKay and I FINALLY got to go snowboarding together. We took off after we got out of class at 10:00 am and headed up to Park City Mountain Resort. Oh how I love that place. The Canyons will always hold a special place in my heart, but I do love Park City quite a bit. We hit the slopes for a few hours and then went to their family's cabin for lunch. (because you can practically board to the front door.) We went back up to the resort for night boarding but alas, my back freaked out hard core so we called it quits an hour and a half earlier than expected. It was alright though, because we were able to hit up Dairy Keen and make it back in time for my FHE which I haven't been to very much this semester because of work. It was great. Boarding was fabulous. It was so sunny and warm and beautiful and McKay and I had a blast just chilling together.

Me coming out of the trees

McKay coming into a powder field

McKay under the roof of my Great-Grandma

Hewitson's shed. Their cabin is right above her

ancient house so we always like to look at it and laugh

at how small of a world it is.

McKay and I, ready to hit the slopes!

Grateful

Tonight, something happened to me. I am not going to give details, I am ok, everything will be fine, but tonight for whatever reason, was really hard. However, I was blessed and I just want to take a moment to state the things that I had in my moment of need and express how grateful I am for them.

• Having a temple close by: It was midnight but for whatever reason, the gates were still open and there were enough lights on that I was able to walk around it for a while and sit on the benches to think things through.
• The stars: Any time I am struggling with something, the best way to pull myself together is to look at the stars. They immediately take me back to camp and put me into a peaceful place.
• Camp songs: They come to mind when I see the stars. The slow camp songs bring so much comfort to me, particularly "Walk Tall". These songs always manage to put my feet on the ground and heading in the right direction.
• Cousins: I have the best cousins in the world. I was able to text my cousin Joey and have him come over at almost one in the morning to give me a blessing.
• Piano: I don't play our piano very often, but tonight, I played for over an hour. I played in the dark with just a lamp on and the volume down so as to not wake the roomies. Most of my best meditating moments in life have been while I was tickling some ivories, and tonight they worked wonders on me.

I am so grateful for all of these things. My life is so wonderful, I'm lucky to have the things that I do!

Sleepy

Quick post.

I am exhausted. It's been a crazy busy week with lots of activities going on and LOTS of stuff for school. I was up til 3:30 am studying last night and was up at 8 for class this morning. Let's hope it pays off. Also, let's hope that I can stay awake to read two books in the next 48 hours. This should be fun. Curse life's distractions that make it so easy to procrastinate.

I want to sleep.

Testimony Day

Since today is the first Sunday of March, it was fast Sunday. Sometimes I think it is so nice to fast. I feel like it not only cleanses the body, but I feel like it really helps me think more clearly and sort things out better than normal. Given the nature of this being a public blog, I'm not going to go into details about what was on my mind all day, but it was so great to be able to think about it all with a clear mind. But I'm getting on a tangent...come on back Frizz.

In sacrament meeting most of the testimonies that people shared were about our Savior, Jesus Christ. I wanted to bear mine but I knew I would cry if I did so I chickened out. But since this is my journal, it is important for me to share here.

I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of my Savior Jesus Christ. He is my greatest strength and I know that through him, I can have an eternal life full of happiness with the ones that I love. I am so thankful for his atoning sacrifice. As hard as repenting can be at times, I know that it can be done through him if we turn to him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. When I was younger I always thought a broken heart meant to be really sad about what you did, but as I grew older, I realized that it is about being broken, like a horse. When a horse is broken, it breaks it's old habits and develops the habits and traits that it's master instills in it. That is how we need to be when we turn to Him with a broken heart, we must submit our will to His. He will then take our sins as His burden and carry them for us so that we can be clean.

My favorite part of the atonement that means more to me than just about anything in life, is the fact that He felt all of our pains. He felt my pains. All of them. When I think about this thought, I literally weep because it is such a comfort. It breaks my heart to know that He had to bleed for me and suffer as much as He did, but I am so grateful that He did. There is not a soul on this earth that has experienced the things and the way that I go through or will go through (not that my life is terribly hard, because it's still great, but there will always be hard things.) My life usual sails along fairly smoothly, but there are times when the waters are rough, and He is there as soon as I ask for Him. There are times when no earthly being can comfort you the way that you need. Those are the times that His love and understanding of this pain are the strongest. It is my greatest blessing to have the knowledge that He has not only felt my pain, but that He will stand by me through it all and love me in any way He can.

I am so thankful to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so that I can have this testimony and this knowledge. This is the true church, and it brings so much happiness, joy and peace into my life.

Since music is how I connect and internalize I want to share some of my favorite songs/lines regarding my Savior.

"While in agony He hung, no murmuring word escaped His tongue." Hymn #191

"He lives to silence all my fears. He lives to wipe away my tears. He lives to calm my troubled heart. He lives all blessings to impart." Hymn #136

(On this one I like to change the we's and us' to me and I)

"Let me not forget, O savior, Thou didst bleed and die for me when thy heart was stilled and broken on the cross at Calvary. Fill my heart with sweet forgiving; teach me tolerance and love. Let my prayers find access to thee in thy holy courts above. Then, when I have proven worthy of they sacrifice divine, Lord let me regain the presence; let thy glory round me shine." Hymn #172

And my final favorite and possibly the quote that I absolutely live by...

"I believe in Christ, so come what may." Hymn #134

Bad Phone Karma

So Wednesday night at work the screen on my phone stopped working. Super lame. Out of commission. T-mobile has another one on the way. Meanwhile, I have been using my dad's phone that he had when we first got them. Yuck, but it is a working phone. Well, then I went boarding up at Brighton tonight with my old friend Derrick. When we got down to the car when we were done, I reached in my pocket to get my phone and my keys. Nothing. I dug deeper in my pocket. Nothing. I checked my other pocket and nothing. Which meant debit card was gone too. I dug deeper and pulled out keys and debit card, that was a plus. But still, no phone. It is gone. Lost in a winter wonderland. My little white and silver phone floating around in all the new silvery-white powder. Awesome.

So, now all I can do is call the resort in the morning and see if it was turned in. If not, then I just have to wait for my new replacement phone for the broken one to get here and then buy a new sim card and get all of my contacts again. So excited. Not.

I've dreaded this moment since the beginning of cell phone-dom.

Alice in Review

Ok Katieface, it's after midnight so I technically didn't get this up when I said I would, I got carried away quilting. But here it is.

My little brother works at Jordan Commons movie theater. For some of the big exciting movies they have a private screening for the employees. This was the case with the new movie Alice in Wonderland which hits theaters today. Since he loves me, he asked if I wanted to go and of I course I accepted. The movie started at 11:30 pm Wednesday night, oye, late after a busy day. I was positive I would probably fall asleep.

However, I was shockingly pleased with the movie and my eyes didn't even begin to get heavy, fabulous!! The previews made the movie look really weird and kind of crazy. I am not sure why they portrayed it that way, because it wasn't like that hardly at all. It's the story of the older Alice revisiting Wonderland and remembering who she is and what she is capable of. I felt there was a lack of Johnny Depp's face, but that is slightly biased because I think he is such a talented actor. I loved the movie though, I would recommend it. It's not one that necessarily needs to be seen in the big theaters unless you are seeing it in 3D. (We didn't get to see it in 3D but I feel like this would be a cool one in 3D, and I don't even like 3D.) Anne Hathaway wasn't terribly impressive in this one. She played her role well, but I didn't like that she twirled with every step. I wasn't incredibly inspired by the movie like "Remember the Titans" or something, but more so than a lot of movies I see in theaters. There is one line though that I have decided is my current theme in life. Alice says this to the dog at one point and it just kind of hit me upside the head, it was great.

"This is my dream. I make the path."

And then she got her muchness back. It was good. Watch it.

***Sidenote: Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum are the spitting image of my nephew Mikey. The red queen even calls them her fat boys. Travis and I laughed every time they waddled onto the screen.***

Buckwheat and I giving the movie two thumbs up.

And yes, this picture was taken at 2:00 in the morning after being

up and at 'em since 8:00 am, thus the tired faces.

"I've Gotta Feelin'!"

This morning was Monday morning after a fairly pleasant weekend. I woke up at 8:00 am...snoozed in 5 minute increments until 8:35, at which point I seriously contemplated if it was worth leaving my bed to be in class by 9:00. Luckily, the sun was shining or I probably would not have done it.

Soooo...I dragged my sorry butt out of bed and went to class. On my way, the song "I've Gotta Feelin" by Black-Eyed Peas came on. Great Monday morning song, excellent actually, I was feeling pretty pumped about the day. After class I rushed home to shower and head to my eight hour shift at work. It went shockingly fast and then I headed out to FHE. We had a special FHE out in Alpine so that we could get to know our new bishopric.

Bishop Barney is so awesome. He was shot in the back in an accident with his friend at age 14 and has been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. He is in a wheelchair and still made all his dreams come true. He was in the 2002 paraolympics and has done all kinds of wheelchair sports. He also cycled across the country from coast to coast on one of the bikes that they pedal with their hands. AWESOME!!! Brother Stauffer is our new 1st counselor and I feel great about him too. I am CONVINCED that he is one of the Bar J Wranglers. CONVINCED. I asked him and he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about, but I met them one day at work and I swear on my life it is him. They are so funny. I feel like this will be a great thing for our ward. I am trying to make a special effort to get everyone involved, including myself. I mean I go to church and everything but things like ward prayer, I haven't ever really been in to. But I'm working on it. FHE's will still be rough just because of work, but what do ya do? However, I feel so great about the new bishopric. I can hardly wait to get to know them!!

Then, on the way home, Katherine quietly asks me "Can we stall? Drive slow or something?" We had half an hour and were 5 minutes from home. So we ran to Target and killed some time. Then as we drove home we sang at the top of our lungs and rocked out. And Ali barked at random people walking by. Hilarious. I love those girls. We parked the car at the apartments and the song "I've Gotta Feelin" came on the radio this time so they opted for a brief dance party in the parking lot. We turned the stereo up and danced it out. One of the apartments on the second floor even started flashing their lights for effect, it was pretty funny. Then we went upstairs and took Tegan to one of the apartments and "SURPRISE!!!!" Happy Birthday Tegan! It was a big shock to her, it was fun, props and thanks to those that put it together, I loved it. So, as I sit here tonight, I just can't help but thinking "I've gotta feelin', that tonight's gonna be a good night!" And it was. It was a long day but it was so much fun. And I just thought it was funny that that song started and ended my day. Good times and lots of fun. :D

Heartbreakers, we know.

Katherine, Tegan and Me

Everybody that was there for the surprise.

I was SHOCKED that I got everybody into the picture.