We've got a kicker!

I've been feeling Great White Shark Baby kicking for just a little over a week now, and holy smokes, this kid is active! I first felt it when I poked my stomach to see if GWSB would poke back, and they did!  If I have my laptop on my lap, I'm leaning against the counter, or leaning forward in my chair, GWSB gets especially aggressive and gives a bunch of jabs to get some space back.  There's also some activity throughout the day and when I first get in bed. It feels kind of creepy, but I love it.

In case anyone is wondering, I call it GWSB because fetuses look like baby sharks early on, and I really dislike the usual fetus nicknames.  Shark baby is way cooler.

Today I had the first Dr. appointment up here in Washington, and once again, it was a little hard to get a good heart rate reading because GWSB would start kicking the doppler and swimming away whenever we got close. Then later today I got to go back for an anatomy scan (FINALLY!).  It was so weird to both feel and see the kicking, punching,  and stretching (and flipping off)!  We got to see a 3D image, too-- of the face smushed as far into a corner as it would go.  Silly baby.  Everything looks great physically (thankfully!) and I'm measuring right on schedule for December 19th still.  Halfway there!

Glassesface, who are all these people, and exciting news!

I very rarely wear glasses.  It's very hard for me to find glasses that don't look funny on my face.  Nothing against my face-- but that's just the way it is.  I do have a pair that are ok, but they are so old that they have the wrong prescription in them, and they've been bent so out of shape that I can't fix them. Also I'm pretty sure one of my ears is much lower than the other, because even when I got them straightened out at the optometrist office, they looked wonky.

Since it has been so long since I've tried wearing glasses, I decided to venture out and try to find some that didn't make me look crazy, drunk, etc.  What I did was go to a bunch of expensive stores and try on their fancy designer glasses, and then wrote down the product codes so that I could find them online and see if I could get them cheaper. The ones I liked were still WAY expensive online, but some glasses-connoisseurs I know recommended Zenni Optical.  Jackpot! Pretty much I just found the frames most like the ones I had tried on and liked, and then order them for $10-20 instead of $$$$$.  Out of the three I bought, I actually love two of them, which I was quite amazed by.

Anyway, here is my favourite pair.  I took these pictures in my bathroom (FOR SHAME!). 

I'm still pretty sure my ears are crooked.

I don't wear bright red lipstick on a regular basis (hence I made a dumb face in the picture since I felt silly), but tonight was Young Women in Excellence so I figured I'd try to be fancy even though my hair was up in a nanny-bun.  I wish that I had better/more pictures of the room, because the ladies who decorated it did SO WELL.  Never has a Primary room looked so good.  I hope somebody else got some good shots of it! I missed the lanterns, chandeliers, fancy banquet table, and all the neatest stuff! Here's the only picture I got:

Look at all those girls! And that's not even all of them!  I'm still not even close to keeping all of them straight D:  I need to creep around and get picture of all of them so that I can study or something.

On to the MOST EXCITING NEWS OF ALL!!! I guess that only those who stuck through bathroom shots and random girls they don't know get to find out ;D 

..........................................

Sam is heading to grad school! Law school, to be precise. But wait! There's more! He has been studying his butt off for the LSAT, which is the test you have to take to get into law school. This whole time he has been hoping and trying for a 165, but wasn't super confident that he would be able to get it.  Well, thanks to hard work and some prayers, and after a stupid month of just waiting around to get the results, he got a 167, which is the 94th percentile.  All was happy around our house when we got those results.

Right now he's working on applying to schools.  We want to end up in either Seattle or Spokane. Neither of us have even been to Washington, but it's where we feel we need to go.  From what I can tell, anyway, it seems like the ideal state.  The climate is just how we like it.  There are endless running and hiking trails in gorgeous Waterton-esque mountains.  There is fresh local food and art aplenty in the many farmers' markets.  They aren't dog-haters like Utah is and there are a TON of apartments that allow dogs (FIRST THING I'm doing when we move is going to a shelter and getting a big four-legged friend).  They also just legalized marijuana, apparently, so that's cool I guess.

We're planning on staying in Utah for several more months just trying to pay off all of our undergraduate student debt.  Then we're selling most of our furniture, packing up, and heading north!  Unfortunately, instead of being 12 hours from Alberta, we're going to be 12 hours from Alberta and Utah.

It's exciting to be moving on to a new stage of life-- or rather, the repeated stage of going to school... But at least it's in a new place! 

Hobbler Half Marathon

A few weekends ago I ran the Hobbler Half Marathon.  It's down by Springville, and I went in thinking it was the same course as the Hobble Creek Half Marathon that I ran last year.
JOKES ON ME!
This course was way more difficult than the one I ran before, even mentally compensating for the drastic downturn my running skills have taken.  It was still a pretty run; just different than I had expected.
It was pretty well organized, but I probably won't do this one again.  The course was just decent and there are other races I enjoy more (and plenty I haven't tried yet!).
Since I had not anticipated a PR by any means, I decided to just run by feel and try to enjoy it. I didn't take my GPS watch or keep track of mile splits.  That left me with a time just a minute faster than the AF half, with a 2:03.  I had been hoping to get back down to sub-2, but that wasn't happening on this course (or with the lack of training).

Anyway, not my best or most fun race, but I guess it was better than pounding the pavement around town.

MUSTACHIO

Holy crap, I haven't posted on this blog in forever! Sorry about that.
Our apartment rocks. Our ward rocks. The area rocks. Seriously, this was such a blessing to find this place and get to live here.
Also, it's really nice doing a 5 minute drive 6 days a week instead of 35 minutes 6d/w.

Last weekend the famjam did the Ragnar, which is a 200ish mile relay race. It was a blast!

Get it?

I BEGGED Sam to let me give him a mullet, but then his hair wasn't long enough D: He had a lovely mustache though. He was a very good sport about coming and helping with the aid stations.

You might notice that I got a wee bit sunburned

We lost Chris, Jamie, and Anya somewhere, obviously

I was quite concerned that my various injuries would make everything suck, but it wasn't too bad! The only time it caused real problems was on the viciously uphill 8mi leg, so I was responsible and let Chris take over the evilest uphill part  last few miles. Everyone else rocked their runs as well!

It was a lot of fun! I definitely would do it again.  I even signed up as an "extra runner" for the Las Vegas Ragnar later this year in case somebody needs an extra person. Fingers crossed!

Moving onnnn!

Since I'll be done classes in June and Sam is working up in Alpine, we've decided that we are ready to get  the heck out of Provo and move closer to family and work.
When we posted our apartment online, I was shocked at how much response we got.  I've been getting anywhere from 3-10 calls or texts every day since we posted it!  It sure has helped me keep the house clean knowing that people are coming by almost every day to secretly judge my housekeeping skills the apartment.
As we started our own apartment search, I was looking desperately for a place that would allow me to have a dog.  I've been dying to get a big ol' running buddy.  Unfortunately, I learned that finding an apartment within our modest student budget was really difficult- and essentially impossible if you were planning on having a big hair drooly dog as well.  I have come to terms with the fact that a dog just isn't happening right now :( However, this did open up more apartment options to not have that criteria in the mix.
The first place we really liked was in American Fork. It was small but in a good neighborhood and crazy inexpensive.  We applied, and after waiting a week to hear a response, I got a mass text saying that it was going to be rented out to somebody else. Dang! Rejection!
Before we had applied for the AF place, Sam had gone and looked at a place in Alpine.  He said it was nice, so after our sad rejection we decided to go up and both take a look.  As we got closer to the house, I started getting more and more excited.  It is a super precious house on a super precious lane (not road. Lane) with super precious children frolicking about.  As we walked up to the house, I noticed that there were chickens next to the house just wandering around in a chickeny way.  The lady took us to the apartment, which is in the basement with a separate entrance, and I liked what I saw! I tried to turn on the charm, flashed some ankle (thanks to a suggestion from Sean), and we talked with the couple for a while, just getting to know each other.  I asked (a little too excitedly) if the chickens were theirs. They were, indeed!  Then the husband started telling me about how they had been raising emus for years and this past year they had finally hatched their own chicks. This is probably what my face looked like:

fyi, I'm on campus and some girl is sitting across from me at the table probably judging me.

Anyway, we really liked the apartment, the people, and the location so we gave them our references and headed on our merry way.

(Sidenote: We went and saw The Avengers that night, which was FANTASTIC. We also went bowling, and Sam did better without bumpers than I did with them.)

Finally, we got the call saying that they would like for us to rent from them! Woohoo!! Then later that day I had somebody scheduled to come see our apartment, and after the tour they said that they want the place, and were wanting to move in around the same time we were leaving. Perfect.

We're very grateful that we were able to find a great place to live, as well as sell our contract!

And that is my very long story about finding an apartment that could have been told in two sentences.

Frankenstein's monster.

And by "Frankenstein's monster", I mean that I had to get hooked up to an electric current to "come alive" today.  Is that a weak connection? Maybe.
I had another chiropractor appointment today.  First he destroyed me with his hands.  Then he stabbed with some needles.  Then he stabbed with more needles, and hooked up an electric current to them.  I don't think I have a very accurate concept of pain due to all those years of slamming my head body into other people and various other activities, because I guess he turned it up waaaay high before I considered it a "strong" pain feeling. Then he turned it down a tad, and left me there for 15 minutes.  Let's just say that electroacupuncture isn't the best feeling.  At first it was okay, but then it got a whole lot worse (probably because I kept tensing up).  Finally the nurse came in and took it off, wiped off some blood, and sent me on my merry way.  Unfortunately Sam had the truck today, so I had to ride my bike home, which didn't help much either!  It's going to be sore for a while!
I'm very glad to have such a good chiropractor, though.  He thinks that I'll be able to start working my lower body in maybe two more visits, and that might even include running.  My fingers are crossed.  Sometimes I'm not a huge fan of going on a run, to be honest, but now that I don't have it anymore I sure miss it!
Anyway, that's the update.   Next time he's going to look at my knee some more, which has been messed up since early high school.

Oh, and I get to wear this dealio for a while too:

Fancy pedicure toe-thinger?

A very sad tale.

I've been having some problems with my hip the past few weeks.  It pops when I walk, and is extremely painful when I walk more than half a mile, or run at all.  That doesn't mesh well with marathon training.  On Friday I went to a chiropractor who specialized in sports injuries.  Long story short, I'm out for running for at least a month and can't do any sort exercise involving my lower body for at least two weeks.  What does this mean?  Well, I'll be doing a lot of upper body and core work for the next month.  It also means that I have to sell my marathon race bib.  Even if my hip was ok to run by then (which it probably wouldn't be), I wouldn't have sufficient training to not likely jack myself up more.  It also means I might not be able to do the Ragnar that was supposed to be the week after the marathon, or pace the half marathon the week after that.  Let's just say that I'm not a happy camper.  When I've been putting in 50+ miles of running a week to be ready for an event, only to get injured a month before and not be able to do it, it's really disappointing.  The half I was going to race in July is going to suffer too.  I was expecting a PR on that course.  I was also expecting a PR on this marathon course.  My little secret is that I have been training to qualify for Boston this year (you have to run a certain time-- 3:35 in my case-- on a qualified marathon course to even be able to register).  I would have been able to pull off a 3:45 or 3:40 at this race if all went well, and then hopefully the 3:35 in my September marathon.  With missing this much "conditioning" to start training for the September marathon, I can't see that attempt safely succeeding.

The shoes I ordered pre-injury that are coming tomorrow, but I now can't wear for a while :(

Anyway, I'm really sad and angry that I'm missing my marathon and pacing the half, as well as possibly missing Ragnar, a half PR, and qualifying for Boston.  The plus side is that with proper treatment I will some day be back to where I was-- just not as quickly as I wish.
Anyway, there's my explanation for why there won't be as many race recaps this year.  I guess I'll just have to make up for it next year.

All grown up and taking on the world.

Well that's it for now, folks-- Sam is graduated, and I'll be done in June!  On the one hand, it feels like I've been in university for forever, but it also feels like time just flew by. 

Flashback:

Right before my freshman year

kindergarten!

first day of life?

What does the future hold?  We've got big plans, but for now Sam is working and I'm finishing up my last two classes (and fighting the senioritis that has grown exponentially since I have already done the cap and gown deal and even if I barely pass my last two classes my GPA won't change.  I should still do some more learnin' though, eh?).

I had to double check how old I am now.

I've been 22 for almost a week, but I still haven't posted about that joyous transition!

The week before my birthday the White fam took us to Bombay House at my request :)  None of us had ever been there, but Sam and I had been wanting to try it for a long time.  Let me just say that it is FAN-freaking-TASTIC!  We all ordered a dish and kind of shared family style.  My favourites were Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Coconut Kurma, along with the garlic Naan bread.  The rice is also fantastic, and you get an endless supply!  So if you went with just you and a friend you could definitely order a dish (plus bread!) and share it. I seriously recommend trying this place.  I'm a pretty light eater most of the time, but I was very disappointed when I started getting full and had to stop eating ;) Afterwards Sam and I ran home to tidy up the apartment and Whites brought over an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Thanks family, for coming to celebrate with us!

The week of my birthday I was doing a presentation for a  class, and there happened to be a portion of the lesson that could better be illustrated by having cupcakes.  So naturally I made some fancy Valentines cupcakes.  I'm very sad at my horrible picture taking skills that really don't do them justice, but they were super cute!

For my birthday, I had class until 6pm.  Fun stuff, right?  It's better than last year when I had to write an American Heritage test, though!  Sam came to pick me up after class with some pretty flowers and a choice of two different dates- "In" or "Out".  Given the fact that good ol' Provo was understandably a gong show, we decided to save going out for another night.  We ordered food from a local family deli, picked up some Sour Patch Kids, and watched a movie.  Totally perfect!

This weekend we did the "Out" date.  We went to Carrabba's for dinner, where Sam had some kind of tasty chicken and I got lobster ravioli.  It was dang good. Afterwards we went to the Tin Tin movie, which was surprisingly hilarious!  I definitely recommend it.  I am notorious for falling asleep in movies, but I stayed awake the whole time ;)

Well, that pretty much catches things up with what we've been doing (other than my running and both of us doing homework).  We've mostly just been plugging along, looking forward to graduating!  Soooooon. Soon.

Good weekend!

Last week was very hectic, but we had a very nice weekend to make up for it.

On Friday night I worked on a quilt, which looks fantastic so far, but I can't decide how to finish it.  I started to free motion stitch it, but it looked really bad so I picked it out.  Then I started trying to stitch around the blocks, but that looked bad as well so I picked it out.  I think I need more practice.  But if you know me, it has to be perfect! I also made this pumpkin/cream cheese bread I found on pinterest, but I did mine in muffin tins.  It was pretty good, but you could taste the Stevia pretty strongly and we don't love the aftertaste.  If you don't mind it, though, it's pretty decent health wise with the whole wheat flour, applesauce rather than oil, egg whites, etc.

Funniest thing that happened on Friday:  I'm sitting there sewing, and Sam turns around from the computer and exclaims, "you fed me TOFU!?".  He had just read the blog post about tofu manicotti, almost two weeks after I fed it to him.  Hehe :)

Saturday morning I headed up to the Provo temple.  It was a lovely session, and I felt a lot of peace and clarity :)

After the temple, I came home and made sweet potato and red chili ravioli.  I used my Grandma Frache's pasta dough recipe and rolled it out with one of my favourite Christmas presents ever-- a pasta machine.  I have used it to make noodles before, but this was my first time doing ravioli.  It's so easy, a lot of fun, and way better than store bought stuff.  It takes more work, sure, but I have such fond memories of making chicken noodle soup 100% from scratch with my grandma, so I am very thankful that I have the equipment and know-how to be able to make pasta with my own kiddos some day!  I'll post the recipe sometime :)

My new shoes, and the shirt that
 makes me look like I don't wear pants
(I have running shorts on, I promise!)

Next stop was the gym for a good 10 mile run.  I just bought a second pair of running shoes-- the same ones as the ones I have right now-- that I'm working on breaking in.  I'm going to alternate between the two pairs this time around for marathon training.  Just a tidbit of knowledge: if you have a high running mileage and you run every day, you should rotate between two pairs of shoes.  It takes 48 hours for your shoes to retain their form.  This helps reduce injury, allows you to rotate between shoe types (like if you have road shoes and trail shoes), and it increases the life span of your shoe.

When I got back from the gym, we ordered our dinner from a local deli.  They had come around earlier that week offering us a free meal as a promotion, which we definitely accepted with happy hearts.  It's called the Red Deli, and they're a pretty good price for pretty good food!  The fries were very good, and the bread is made in the store so it's super fresh!

Saturday evening was the adult session of stake conference.  It was fantastic.  It was one of those meetings where it felt like every talk was written specifically for you.  

We didn't get home from conference until 9:30, so we decided to hide out for the rest of the night watching a movie.  

Sunday was the general session of stake conference, which was also very good.  Sam picked up a massive bag of potatoes at the grocery store, so for lunch I did a lighter version of twice-baked potatoes with fat free sour cream, low fat cheddar, garlic, and onion.  Later we went up to Alpine to celebrate Chris and Jamie's birthdays, then headed back home to get ready for a new week!  I made "quinoa bites", another recipe I need to share!

It was a productive and uplifting weekend, and a great recharge for what lies ahead (a LOT) this week!

PS: I set my alarm to go running at 5am. LOL.  That didn't happen.  If I "had to" go running in the morning I would never go.  Work out when you work out best, people! If you can get up at 5am, that's great, but I almost always do it at night and that's just fine. 

St. George Half (pacing)

Don't I look soggy? And I'm pretty sure I was
squinting because I couldn't see through
the rain!

Last weekend I got the chance to head down to St. George to pace a half marathon.  Sam and I had booked a hotel in Springdale a few months ago in anticipation of going to enjoy the relative warmth and sunshine, compared to how Provo would probably feel mid-January.
Well, the joke was on us, because it was pouring rain on Saturday morning!  The race was still fun, though, and it rained heavily for only about half of it, with a mist for the other half.  It wasn't dreadfully cold, either, and there wasn't a ton of wind.  I paced the 2:20 group again.  Pacing that time is a bit weird, because it's not a super "common goal".  I feel like people would rather round it out to getting a 2:00, and anything slower it's kind of "whatever I get" sort of mentality.  My pace buddy and I were more or less alone until the last bit of the race, at which point people would usually see us coming, curse, and try to get farther ahead of us.
Unfortunately, with the rain it was hard to find much to do the rest of the day.  Sam and I had planned on going up to hike around in Zion, but a lot was closed off.  Now, the rest of the story isn't supposed to sound like complaining, because I really just found the whole thing funny.  You just have to laugh.  So here's how the rest of the trip went:
Back in Springdale, we went to eat at this diner (the only place open) that was so deserted and "rustic" that we felt like we had walked into someone's house uninvited.  It was totally silent and we could hear the one worker doing the dishes.  I felt like I should get up and help her.  The owner's grandkids came in to visit, and a lady from the ward came to tell the girl about what the choir director wanted them to do for the song the next day.  Also, we could hear them using the microwave to make our food.  I also caught a glimpse of the kitchen, and I don't think it would have passed a health inspection.  Back at the hotel, our key cards wouldn't work, and rather than fixing it the lady asked us if we could just not leave our room until we checked out. Later that evening I got hungry again, but everywhere was closed, so I went to the hotel vending machine where there were about 3 items left, and the thing I bought was 2 months expired.  Then later I tried to buy a drink, but the machine was broken.  So I wandered across the street to another hotel and creeped around until I found a vending machine, but alas, it would only take quarters and I had 1's. That's what you get for staying in a remote tourist town in the off-season.
Anyway... If you don't remember, I fractured my foot in December, so I have only been using the elliptical and cycling in January.  It has been torture.  You know you really miss running when one day you see all of these runners out and you start bawling in the truck.  Yep, I'm cool like that.  Anyway, considering that the only running I had done before the race was a 7 miler on the Thursday before, my body felt really good during and after.  Being diligent in letting my foot heal has paid off, because now it feels totally fine and I can resume running just in time to start official marathon training for my next race!

Oh, and by the way, I guess that even with the rain we had way better weather than further north!  Check this out!  It gets craaaazy a bit into it. Yeesh!

Christmas Catch-up

I finally found my camera charger!  I have been waiting to get my pictures from Christmas before doing a post about it.  I didn't take very many because my battery died, which makes me sad, and they didn't turn out great because the settings are broken so it's stuck on a crappy ISO, but here they are anyway!

Driving to Canada was terrifying.  We had borrowed Sam's brother's car, which hasn't been on really icy roads since he bought it.  So when when we got to northern Utah with blowing, icy snow, we started fishtailing-- badly.  We slowed down to about 25-35mph, but we were still fishtailing like nobody's business.  It was terrifying.  Everyone on the road was going slower, but nobody was fishtailing as badly as us.  We decided that we needed to get some chains or something, or we were probably going to die on the road.  We finally made it to a Walmart, and went into the tire shop.  The back tire treads were completely gone. That explained a lot.  So we waited for a few hours while we got some new tires put on, and set out again.  For a while the roads were decent, but then the icy, blowing, drifting snow came back.  And the constant fishtailing started again.  And we spent the next several hours praying that we wouldn't die.  After a total of 15 hours of travelling (with almost constant fishtailing and barely any visibility), white knuckles, seeing flipped trucks and crashed semis, we finally made it to my parents' house alive.

Anyway, we got to stay in Canada for a week of Christmas break.  It was so fantastic to be home for all of the familiar traditions, places, an feelings.  I got to go to the gym with my parents, spend time at Grandma Frache's house, go shopping with my mom and sister, snuggle with my nieces and nephew, have dinner with my great aunts, uncles, and cousins, and spend time with my high school friends.  It was so emotional recharging to be home.

Where Sam and Kaden could usually be found

Maggie helping with the last-minute quilt project for Dad

Sam is now fully equipped to be Canadian

...and then my poor camera died :(

Anyway, it was a great Christmas!

Running update

Due to the high volume of running, I have fractured my foot :( I did an 18 mile run last week and since then my foot has been pinching and cramping really badly. I went to the doctor today, and he says no running for two weeks because it's fractured. What am I going to do with myself!?  It's really dumb to me, because I haven't been running more than usual and I've been fine up until now.

Although, I fractured my foot in high school as well, and that time I had to use a cane for a month. So I guess I'm getting off easy! I also should be back and good to go before the next half I'm pacing at the end of the month, thank goodness, and then in February the official training for the next marathon begins!  Fingers crossed for an effective recovery!

2011 Recap

January:

• I begin my semester of 18 credit hours and 20 hours working. And that's about all I did that month.

February:

• I turned 21! We had an early birthday celebration (at The Roof, which was awesome) because I was writing an American Heritage test until 9:30pm on my actual birthday.  

March:

• Rugby season!  Yeah!!
• My life got a lot easier with a block class ending.
• I got my travel visa in the nick of time to go to Canada!

April:

• Some sort of chemical imbalance led me to sign up for 4 half marathons and a full marathon.  So the training begins.
• I get to take the White fam up to Canada for Easter.
• I get my green card, thanks to a last minute miracle!

May:

• We go on a mini-vacation with my parents to St. George for my gorgeous cousin Meagan's wedding!
• Sam got an internship!
• I am a VERY VERY happy camper with a slightly less intense class load. 

June:

• I run my first and second half marathons!
• Went camping in southern Utah
• ...and ran some more.

July:

• Bear lake!
• Another half marathon

August:

• Roadtrip to Canada!
• Nearly got eaten by a pig (but it was awesome)
• Almost got caught in a thunderstorm on a mountaintop (but it was awesome)
• Another half marathon :)

September:

• Free work vacation to Park City!
• Went through a furniture painting phase, and even sold some stuff I did!

October:

• St. George Marathon!
• Parents and grandma came down to watch the marathon and go to GC!
• Moved from our first apartment to our new fancy one
• Paced my first half marathon!
• Sam and I dressed up like the characters from Up for Halloween

November:

• Persevered through school
• Thanksgiving pies!

December:

• Fulfilled my carollamaing dreams
• Totally owned my classes this semester.
• Got to go to Canada for Christmas! Blog post to come :)

Tree upgrade!

This year's tree!

Last year as we browsed the Christmas tree lots, we were shocked at how pricey Christmas trees are!  Last week I was at the grocery store and saw that they were selling trees outside, and I was shocked at how not pricey they were!  Our 7 foot tree that we bought from the grocery store was the same price at the 2.5 foot one we got last year from a tree lot.  That was fantastic!

We also got the chance to go to my work Christmas party, Sam's work Christmas party, eat gingerbread and hazelnut frozen yogurt (ohmybestflavoursever), sing with llamas (Ialmostcried), finish finals, and have our last days of work on BYU campus.  We get to have a bit of an early Christmas tomorrow with the White fam, and then we get to head up to visit the Brooks side in Canada!

Not going to lie, I always cry when I cross the Canadian border.  I'm really excited to see the rest of my family. Those little kidlettes who look SO grown up in the pictures I've seen.  It's hard to believe that my nephew is now baptized, my oldest niece is so grown up, and my youngest niece doesn't even seem like a baby anymore!  It's also going to be so nice to take part in those family traditions that I grew up with in the same setting they've always had.  Christmas eve fondue, Christmas day gathering at Grandma Frache's, Boxing Day gathering with the Brooks fam, and everything in between.  

I could go on and on about nostalgic things and everything I'm looking forward to, but now I'm just getting weepy, so I'll just end for now and instead give a report on the goings-on once they happen.  I'll see you soon, homeland!

Carollamaing!

Sam used to be in the BYU Men's Chorus, and as such he still gets event update.  He sent me the information on a charity Christmas show they were putting on, and I all but demanded that we go!

The singing was fantastic:

But the event was certainly made MUCH more merry by the fact that I was holding a llama!

That's pure joy right there.

Wondering if I could acquire additional llamas.

Sam even gave in and let me take a picture.

A very merry llama filled Christmas to all!

Overcoming and rising up

Most of you probably remember the Provo Tabernacle fire that occured about a year ago.  It was a very sad thing to see that beautiful building destroyed.  It paid a homage to the pioneers.   It hosted general conference a few times, back in the day.  It also held some personal significance.  Sam and I used to go sit on the grass in the park next to it and talk for hours.  We used to attend stake conference there.  It was where I first met his parents after a choir concert he was singing in.  It was just a very iconic building and the loss felt rather tragic.

reactions to the destruction from the fire

Recently I was talking to a friend about the purpose of weaknesses, trials, and heartache.  I feel like there are some challenges that we can see quite clearly how their will benefit us.  There are others that impact us so deeply and painfully that it makes it a lot harder to see the good in it.  My friend and I were trying to think of specific blessings that come through certain trials, but were struggling a bit.

I then though of the Provo Tabernacle.  How horrible and useless was it for fire to destroy tthat building?  What possible good could come from it?  Would they restore it?  Was it worth restoring?  What was the point?

rendering of the future temple

Last General Conference President Monson announced that the Provo Tabernacle would be rebuilt and restored as a temple. My initial reaction was excitement that our beautiful tabernacle would be put to such great use and not torn down!

Only just recently did it strike me how incredably significant it is that the tabernacle is going to be a temple.  The tabernacle was engufled with flames, and then left charred and of the verge of collapse.  How pointless and tragic it had seemed...  But from that tragedy came something amazing.  That damaged building will become a sacred, clean, holy temple-- dedicated to the Lord in the highest order.

How alike we are to the Provo Tabernacle.  We may endure the burning and pain, leaving us damaged and hurt-- on the verge of collapse.  It might seem pointless.  It might seem tragic and unfair.  But something great can come from our deepest weaknesses and heartache.  Something great will come if we rely on the Lord and let Him transform us into the great people we are meant to be.  Like the Provo Tabernacle, we have the chance to rise from the ashes of our own tragedies and rise to become something greater.

The Parties of Halloween

Halloween really crept up on me this year!  All of the sudden it was only a few days away and we hadn't done anything "Halloweeny".
First we decided to throw an impromptu party.  Consequently, most people couldn't make it, but we were very glad for those who came!  I went a teeny bit overboard with the quantity of food, but it was mostly just for the fun of making it anyway.  A lot of it was pretty cheesy (not as in containing cheese).  It tasted good though!

My favourite pumpkin dessert.  It's better than pie!

Fruit salsa with homemade cinnamon chips

Caramel apple bites

Mummy dogs

Seven layer dip (with sour cream web and olive spiders :)

There was also a veggie platter with carrot organized to look like a jack-o-lantern, among other things.

On Saturday I paced the Halloween Half, which I already wrote a post about.  

On Monday I made cupcakes for a work meeting.  Sorry for the crappy webcam picture...   Unfortunately they got slightly destroyed during the transportation to campus so I couldn't get a better picture later when I found my camera :(    If you can't tell, the cake part is supposed to look like candy corn, and I used precious Halloween sprinkles on top.  I'd post the actual recipe I used, but they actually didn't taste very good.  They were very cute though! I'll probably just be lazy and make them with a cake mix next time.  

Monday night we went to the annual Halloween party that Mom and Dad White always have.  Sam and I came up with an extremely last minute costume:

Can you tell who we are?

We also watched a few movies-- The Exorcism of Emily Rose (decent movie, moreso just interesting imho), Hanna (very beautiful cinematography.  Seemed very European), and Devil (highly recommended).  

Now, time for Thanksgiving to creep up on me!