Trix is For Kids

Things that ALWAYS make me feel better:

 My current favorite cereal

 Yes, I am a dork!

Salsa and chips

Getting my hair cut and styled.

Good friends who saved the day twice today!

Visiting with my bishop who is an amazing man. He always gives me sound advice and is a great listener.

New Years Resolutions

Lately my life has seemed a little bit out of control. It's interesting how every time I start feeling like my life and my progress is stagnant, something happens and there is a huge change in my life. So last semester I started feeling discontented and wondering what I should be doing differently in my life. Then at the climax of the semester (right before finals) I was called by my ecclesiastical leader to be the president of the women's organization. That's kind of a big deal, and a HUGE time commitment!

Needless to say, my life doesn't feel stagnant anymore. The first couple weeks of this semester, I've been trying to figure out how to balance my life. My new years resolution is to simplify my life while keeping a well rounded balance and doing all the things I need to for my present as well as future needs and tasks. Kind of a big resolution!

My first commitment this semester is a toss up between my education and the women's organization. The biggest challenge is to balance that, keep my grades good and serve the women in my neighborhood. I also need to be preparing for graduate school applications, which I will be doing at the end of this upcoming summer. I need to volunteer at a couple more physical therapy clinics in order to have a competitive application. I work at a physical therapy clinic, which I love, however I do need experience in a variety of PT settings.

On top of all that, I feel it's important for me to stay healthy. Sometimes when I have too much to do, I neglect my health, and I've realized that if I don't take care of me, I run out of energy and don't have anything to inside of me to give to other people. Although this semester will be challenging academically, emotionally and spiritually, I feel like it is important for me to exercise regularly and take the time to cook and eat healthy meals. Luckily I have some great friends who want to go running with me, so with a little help I'll have the motivation to take the time to go running every week.
This week I tried to rearrange some things in my schedule in order to help simplify things, to make room for everything I need to do this semester. We'll see how things go, but with a little help from God I'll have the strength, energy, and guidance to do everything He's asked me to do.

Highlight of the Day

Today after church and a delicious dinner at my Grandparent's house in Salt Lake I drove to the airport to pick up a friend coming back from Korea. I thought her flight came at 9pm, but it turned out that it wasn't scheduled to arrive until 9:40pm, so I had 40 minutes to kill. I sat on a bench and read for a little bit, but my lack of sleep from New Year's eve was catching up with me and I wasn't able to concentrate. So I put away my book and began one of my favorite things to do: people watching. As I watched people come and go, I suddenly became aware that the older couple sitting next to me were speaking in German! The wife went to grab something to eat, and since I was sitting there anyway, I turned to the husband and asked him where he and his wife were from (in German of course).

It turns out that they are from Switzerland!!! I knew that lovely accent sounded familiar! They have been living in Salt Lake for over 40 years, however they still speak German to each other. They were just coming home after visiting a daughter in Arkansas, but they had to wait at the airport for another daughter to arrive on her flight before going home.

That totally made my day, especially since I've been feeling a little homesick for Switzerland and Germany lately! What are the chances? :)

Love this little Family!!!

This is my lovely mission "Mom" (trainer), Sissi, and her husband Tom who was my very first district leader and their baby Sam. It was the first time I've seen them since the mission, as they live in Germany near where Sissi is from. They were up for the holidays visiting Tom's family in St. George. I was so happy to see them and meet their little one! Hopefully it won't be so long until we see each other again!

Ich habe euch Lieb!

Sister Christmas Cheer

Oh how I love my baby sister! She is the bomb dot com!!! :) This was at Temple Square on Thursday where Alyssa performed with Timpview High School Acapella in the Joseph Smith building as well as the Assembly hall. It sounded beautiful!!!

One Fine Christmas on Prezi

Cheerful Courage

I feel blessed to have so many wonderful friends who inspire me to be a better person. I'm grateful for the courage that so many of my friends have to face whatever trials they are dealing with--whether it's physical illness, mental illness, challenges at work or school or in the family, to name just a few. I'm also grateful for the positive outlook on life that so many of my friends have even when they're dealing with difficulties that would seem insurmountable to me.
Recently I spent the evening with a friend who is one of the best people I know. She has a very cheery outlook on life and she spreads happiness to everyone around her. I found out that she's having some physical problems that are quite debilitating. But true to her innate cheerfulness, she didn't complain about it, she just told me the way it is and how she'll just keeping living life anyway. I was so impressed by her faith and courage. I'm truly lucky to know her. This is a shout out to her and people like her who just go forward one day at a time placing their faith in God and still loving life despite challenges.

Today I...

• Talked with my lovely Grandma on the phone in the morning. I love that she calls me on Saturday mornings to find out what fruits/vegetables I got in my Bountiful Basket and to catch up on my life!
• Took a FREEZING cold shower....For some reason our hot water wouldn't work at all! BRRRRR!!!
• Left SUPER late for my shift in the Temple, but luckily some friends from my shift saw me walking about two minutes after I left my apartment and gave me a ride. I love how in Provo I can count on the fact that when I begin walking to the Temple on Saturday mornings I never get all the way there without someone stopping and giving me a ride!
• I LOVE volunteering in the Temple! There is an incredible spirit there and I always feel refreshed, revitalized, and back in touch with God after spending the majority of my Saturday there.
• Bought a Christmas tree!! Yaya!! My wonderful Mama gave me money to buy a Christmas tree & lights as an early Christmas gift. She is seriously the BEST! I love the smell of real Christmas trees! My friend was super nice and gave me a ride & helped me haul my Christmas tree in his truck. AND he even helped set it up. How nice. Buying a Christmas tree makes me feel like a real grown up.
• Our apartment manager came over on short notice (and on Saturday night to boot) to look at our water heater. Discovered that the temperature had gotten bumped and was set way too low. No wonder our hot water wouldn't work! About 20 minutes after resetting the temperature we miraculously had hot water again. The wonders of modern technology!
• Since the apartment floor was covered in pine needles, my fantastic roommate Kim and I borrowed my family's vaccuum and (after a short ice cream break with them) we had a dance/cleaning party! Blasted the music, sang, and rocked out all the while cleaning! Our apartment looks sparkly clean now and it's always great to have an excuse to dance!
• Ate dinner with my Mom and sister Alyssa then spent a while playing the piano and singing with Lyssa. We played/sang: Christmas songs from Josh Groban's Christmas songbook, "For Good" from Wicked, and "I Never Saw Blue Like That Before" from Runaway Bride. The last two songs are two of our favorites.
• Drank pumpkin spice (Stephen's hot cocoa)
• Got ready for bed. I love nice relaxing days! I only felt slightly guilty for not doing homework. Will have to wake up early Monday morning now.
• What a great day!