2013

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time.  I guess I am the only person that used Google Reader, so now that it is gone, I don't remember to look at blogs or post.

Here are the highlights to my 2013 year:

1. Running-  I have become a runner, not a fast runner, but a runner.  I was running on the tredmill some the first have of the year, then in July my family convinced me to do a 5K that was a downhill course.  I ended up running it will my sister trying to help her, but I really enjoyed it, so I signed up for another 5K.  From July to December I have ran six 5K races, and I plan on continuing to run.

2. Europe- I was blessed to go to Europe twice in 2013, I went to France in Feburary and Greece, Italy, and Spain in June.  The second trip, I was a group leader of a group of about 13 people (mostly students) taking an education trip to Europe.  It had it's stressful moments, but it was so much fun and I can't wait to go again this summer.  I never was a big fan of Paris before I went, now I totally get why Paris is so popular.  Paris was amazing, beautiful, and timeless.

3. Bucketlist item- Ever since college, one of my bucketlist items was to go to Florence, Italy.  Most people do not understand my extreme love for Florence.  Florence is where the Renassiance began and where some of the greatest artists lived.  The Renassiance was all about celebrating life and tryinng to enjoy life after the plague had wiped out so much of Europe.  Part of going to Florence was getting to see the David statue.  It was literally breathtaking.

4.Mom survived another year- My mom has had a rough year, and a few scares.  Some how she pulls through, and I have gotten another year with this amazing women.  I know I may not have that much more time with her, but I will take every moment I can get.

5. Dad running- My dad has been trying to get in better shape the last two years, I finally convinced him to 5K with me.  So on Dec 28, my dad ran his first 5K in 36:30.  He did amazing and actually enjoyed it and said he might do another one when it gets warmer in the spring.

BRING ON 2014!!!!!!!

Christmas Time

I love Christmas time, it is one of my favorite times of the year.  I look forward to putting up the tree and listening to wonderful music.  I have always been more of a giver than a receiver of gifts...this year more than ever.  I can think of perfect gifts for everyone but me, I literally can't come up with anything for my parents to get me.  A couple of days ago I think I figured out why I don't even want to think about gifts for me.

Few times of the year are harder for me, that reminds me that I'm single than Christmas.  I have been making or buying gifts that would be great for my sister's family or my brother's family and I don't have anyone.  Knowing this, my mind protects me and just won't allow me to think about gifts for me, because everything just seems so silly.  I know I have had an amazing life, I have a great career, a home, a car, etc., but to be honest...it is getting tough to not have anyone to share my life with. I have even been in a tough stretch where I don't have many friends, for one reason or another they have disappeared over the last six months; so I literally don't have anyone to share experiences with.  My family is great and they do their best to make sure they know I'm not alone, but some days are hard...especially this time of the year.

On a brighter note, I can't wait to see my dad open his perfect gift.  I really do think I hit a home run with his present this year.

Update

I know it has been FOR-EV-ER since my last post...trust me I have good reasons.  The first six weeks of school are crazy busy for me every year.  I work insane amount of hours and I don't have much time for anything else.  The tennis season ended up very well, we went 6-4 as a team and qualified for State.  We aren't good enough to compete in the playoffs, but we were excited to represent Taylorsville.  We actually had a girl in JV go undefeated this year, so I'm super excited to see her improve and play next year.

After tennis was over I had a small nervous break down.  I learned one more way that guys can be not worth the time or effort to get to know them.  I don't want to get into the details, but I have had a rather unlucky streak of really bad guys in my life.  But I do believe this last one takes the cake.  I'm glad I found out about everything now and not later, when it would have been incredibly awkward.  I'm very thankful for all my family and friends that have helped me through this crazy ordeal, which I hope nobody else every has to go through.

I am re-focusing my life, and I am finally feeling better about the situation.

Ironman St. George

My brother has had a goal for the last few years to participate and finish a full length Ironman.  If you don't know what an Ironman is, you swim 2.4 miles then bike 112 miles and then run 26.2. We have all thought he was a little crazy for wanting to put his body through something that crazy, but we wanted to support him.  Since his family was not going to be able to come, I planned to take a day off of work and drive down to support him.  It turned out that my dad and nephew were able to come with me.  The three of us signed up to volunteer during the marathon portion of the race.

The race was on May 5, 2012...my dad got up early to see the start of the swim, since it was my day off I didn't really want to get up at 5:00am.  So I hung out in the hotel with my nephew until my dad returned.  I guess the swim was really tough, the winner of the race said that the swim was the hardest thing he has ever done in his life.  Around 12:00 we left the hotel to find the station we were going to be volunteering at, we stopped by early to make sure we knew where to check in and everything.  While we were there we got to see the first three bikers ride by.

Our shift began at 2:00, we got our official t-shirt and a silly one that just our aid station was wearing.  As people ran by we would offer drinks to them, our table was "Perform", basically Gatorade.  We would hold cups out and as they went by some would take it and some did not.  It was a really cool thing to do and I got to see my brother run by several times.

Rob finished, which is his goal, in 13:48!!! I'm soooooo impressed.  I'm glad we went, I just hope if he does another one it will be in a cool location so I can make it a vacation.

MLK Day Sickness

So I celebrated MLK Jr. day with having the day off of work and getting an extremely nasty virus. I went down to my sister's house to spend the long weekend with family, I haven't had the easiest of times recently and just wanted to relax. They didn't realize it but one of there children brought home a virus from school on Wednesday and missed school Thursday. They didn't think much of it since nobody else got sick right away. Come Saturday my brother-in-law got it and then Monday it was my turn. Thankfully I knew it was only a 24 hour bug, or I don't know if I would have made it. This thing totally kicked my trash...I even had to call in sick, which I NEVER do. There was a point last night were I was almost too weak to make it to the bathroom, at that point my family forced me to drink something, even if I was just going to throw it up. I spent the day laying on the couch, I took a shower and I couldn't do anything else for like two hours after I was so exhausted. Anyways I'm finally feeling almost normal again.

Christmas with my family

Every year I have been blessed to return home and spend the holiday with my family. Honestly it is one of my favorite weeks of the year. We don't really do much, but it is so nice to be around my parents and members of my family that I only get to see once or twice a year. Traveling during the Christmas season is always stressful, but so worth it. I love my family so much.

Family

Today marks the start of an almost family reunion...my sister comes in tonight and my brother and his family comes tomorrow. We are going to have 13 people living under one roof for four days, but it will be fun. I rarely get to see my siblings so this will be nice. We aren't really going to do anything special just hang out and do stuff as a family. It would have been nice if the entire family could make it, but I understand...but four out of five children isn't that bad either. Especially since last year we only had three of five, so I guess if we keep of the trend in a couple of years maybe we actually can have a family reunion.

Worst Dream Ever

A few weeks ago I had the worst nightmare of my life...without a doubt. I never have bad dreams, like never, but I've had two in the last two months that I had to wake myself up from because I couldn't watch how it ended. I guess I have a deep fear of losing my family, because they were both about something attacking a member of my family. This last one I was with my sister and her family at the zoo. I don't really understand everything but some how we were in the polar bear exhibit. I think the poplar bear wasn't suppose to be there, so they were giving tours or something. Anyways the polar bear came out of no where and was coming after my niece and nephew since they were the closest (and smallest). I only had time to save one, so I grabbed my nephew since he was closest to me and got him to safety and my sister was trying to get to my niece. I woke myself up when the bear was just about to grab my niece...I could no watch anymore. My heart was pounding and I was breathing heavy, I think it took me like an hour to go back to sleep (which was awesome because my alarm went off about 10 minutes after I finally got back to sleep. I hope I never have a dream like that again.

Spring in Utah

Update: last Saturday it was 75 degrees when I went to General Conference, thanks Jensen's for my AWESOME seat. We were on the bottom floor right in the middle, I'm not going to get any better of seats unless we have some one in the family become an apostle. On the walk back to the car we saw Satan, and some guy drove by and called us "losers" it was fun. I love the protesters at conference. I then went down to my sister's and woke up to EIGHT inches of snow. WOW, where did that come from? Then it has pretty much rained/snowed all week this week. Spring kills me, one day it is BEAUTIFUL then it is followed by several really bad days of terrible weather. Awesome huh?

This last week was tough at school, we had to cancel one tennis match because it was raining/lightening/hailing...that means that next week I'm going to have four tennis matches. I don't know how I feel about that, but I guess that will help the season move along. Their is only two months left of school and I can't wait for summer to come. I have some fun stuff planned this summer and I can't wait for it to come.

I'm Thankful For...

Family!!!! I love my family, I talk to some of my friends and they hardly ever talk to there parents or mention their family. I talk to my mom and dad like four times a week I would guess. It is hard with a family so spread out like mine is, but knowing I have several people that love me no matter what helps...a lot. I'm not going to pretend that I have the perfect family, because lets be honest, do any of us have a perfect family? No. But I do have parents that are amazing examples to me, and brothers and sisters that care about me and want to see me succeed in my life. I'm really lucky that I have a sister that only lives 45 minutes away, sometimes when I'm home sick I spend the weekend at her house. Most of the time we don't do anything grand or exciting, it is just nice to be around family every now and then. I wish it wasn't so expensive to fly, because then I would go home more than once a year, but I will have to take what I can get. I love my family.

Adult?

I know I have officially been an adult for several years now, but I have never really thought that I was an adult. But alas I think the time has finally come....I received my very first Ensign in the mail this week. I have never been a big reader of the Ensign, so I didn't see the point in buying it, plus one of my roommates always ordered it. I felt that I should get for my house now that I don't have any roommates that have it and maybe I will even learn to enjoy reading it too. No promises though. Life in the new house has been great, I really enjoy living by myself for right now, so as long as I can afford it and save some money I think I'm going to continue to stick it out by myself. This has been a very busy year for me, but it has been a great year as well. A few weeks ago my parents came out for my nephew's baptism, but they stayed with me. I'm not around family too often so it was really nice to be mom and dad's little girl again. I was sad to see them go, but I knew they had to get back to there life.

Home for the Holidays

I love the holiday season...so much joy in the air, so much to look forward too. Every year I come home for Christmas to spend it with my family. We don't really do anything super exciting, we just hang out with each other. The only bad part about me coming home for the holidays is I have a dream of having a white Christmas, but as long as I come south, it is not going to happen. We had our version of a white Christmas this year, a wet Christmas. I woke up to a complete down pour, it rained for hours and hours. We had puddles of water in the back yard, so that is the southern version of a White Christmas. It is nice to just relax and enjoy spending time with family. It seems like everyone is always in a rush during Christmas, but I like to just take things easy and enjoy the time I have. So here I am relaxing....I hope everyone else had as good as a Christmas as I did.

Spanish Fork Rodeo

Last week I went to my very first Rodeo. I have never really been a rodeo fan, but it seem like fun. Plus I got to go free, due to the fact that my brother-in-law hurt his leg and could no longer go. We had pretty good seats, on row four, so I got to see some action up close. Some riders got pushed into the fence right in front of us, it looked pretty painful, I'm glad it wasn't me.

Me and John hanging out outside the stadium before the Rodeo began. I can't believe how big he is getting, but we are still best friends.

This was my favorite horse of the night for a couple of reasons...first, I have always liked the horses that were both brown and white. I don't know why but they have always been my favorite. Second....This was a "Dodge Man", basically the cowboys that go and save the riders if they stay on for the eight seconds, then they herd the horse/bull to leave the arena. At one point they were trying to get control of a bull and this horse freaked out and bucked the cowboy off. Then the next bull the horse bucked again, but the cowboy was able to stay on, it was pretty cool.

Before everything started we walked over to where they were holding the bulls, they were pretty calm and nice. John and Sierra would get a little worried when they started walking around. I have definitely never been that close to a bull, they are big animals.

Treat Your Mother Right

Happy Mother's Day!!! I hope one day I can be just like my mother, she has always been a great example to me. So mom--- I love you the most! From coast to coast, from east to west, I love you the best!

Happy New Year

Wow, where did 2008 go? It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I was stressing out over starting my career and struggling to get my feet under me. All of a sudden it is a year later and like always I am a year older and hopefully a year wiser. If nothing else I don't stressed out nearly as much about school, I kind of just let things go with the flow. I can't believe that in two weeks I will have been teaching for one year. I guess that means I have one down and 29 more to go right? Teaching has its advantages, as my dad puts it, what other career do you get a three month vacation in the summer and two weeks in the winter? The problem is going to be when I go back to school on Monday. I have enjoyed sleeping in and staying up late. So getting up early is going to kill me on Monday, but oh well, I've got to go back.

I really enjoyed Christmas with Mom and Dad in Texas this year. It was so weird not being home for Christmas, but we did what we could to make it nice. Me and Susan got each other a lot of presents so it wouldn't look so sad, but we had a nice little Christmas. This was also the first Christmas in a long time without any grand kids running around and waking us up early on Christmas morning. Even though things were much quieter, I have to say that I missed the kids.

Well even though 2008 was a big year for me, I am hoping that 2009 is even better! I has already started off great.

Saturday with the Jensens

Yesterday morning Tricia called wanting to know if I wanted to spend the evening with them in Salt Lake. Of course I did, I love spending time with family. BYU was playing a basketball game at the Energy Solutions Area (new name of the Delta Center), they were playing Utah State. I got to go to the game, and it was rather intense. The Utah State fans were really into the game, and were much more organized that the student section for BYU, but it was really fun. BYU ended up winning by five points, it was a nail bitter down to the last few seconds. After the game we went to Temple Square to see the lights. I love the lights, I want to go every year and usually more than once, I don't know if I will get to go again, but as always they were amazing.

Me and Savannah right before the game was about to start. Savannah wasn't too excited to be there, she just thought it would be more fun than shopping in a bookstore for two hours.

John on the other hand couldn't wait for the game to start, he is the biggest BYU fan I have ever met.

Parents come into Town

I love spending time with my family, I seem to appreciate it more and more as I realize that I'm most likely not going to live too close to any of them- at least for awhile. Last Monday my Mom and Dad came to Salt Lake to spend about four days with me and three days with my sister before going into the MTC. Even though it was really crowded and I gave my bed to my mom, I loved every second of it. I only wish I didn't have to work while they were here. Dad would get up and make me and my roommates breakfast every morning, then drive me to work. They went downtown two days and loved, they haven't been to Salt Lake in a long time, everything had changed. So they had fun doing all the tourist things while I was at work, then dad would pick me up and then we would play. Well I got to spend six days with my parents, and if felt really nice. I honestly do get jealous sometimes when I hear people talking about going home over the weekend, it was finally nice to have my family in my home. My life is simple, but it was fun getting to share it with someone.

Happy Birthday Dad

I wrote this down on Father's Day, but I think it will work for his birthday as well.

Why I Love my Dad...

• Loves our family
• Hard Worker
• Will do anything for my Mom
• Loves the baby just as much as the oldest
• He holds the Priesthood
• Willing to help and serve others
• Prays for me every day
• Wants to help me be successful in life
• Has given much of his adult life to different callings in the church
• Able to give me blessings
• Has a strong testimony
• Willing to give up money and time to serve a mission
• He talks sports with me
• Never judged me for liking sports
• Used to sing me to sleep at night when I was young (even though he hates singing)
• He is a good example
• Has made sure that I will always have a home to come home to
• Gives big hugs
• Says "I Love You"
• He is proud of me
• Taught me to be responsible
• Dad is one of my best friends

John's Birthday

John finally turned six on Feb. 22, my boyfriend is now one year older. I brought him presents from Grandma and Grandpa across the country. But John loved his presents, he had to go run and put on his John Deer shirt and made his dad open up his fishing pole right then. He kept asking when they could go fishing. So once again Grandma and Grandpa found some good presents for John.

Aunt for the 8th Time

After being stuck only having three nieces and three nephews for about four years finally we have some new additions to the family. Now I'm up to four nieces and four nephews, it is nice that brothers had one girl and one boy to keep everything even for me.

Talmage Elkins-- Feb. 19, 2008

Sarah Elkins--Jan. 8, 2008