A Dream I Remembered

I rarely remember my dreams but this morning I woke up with my dream fresh in my mind. I was at the beach with my friends and we were walking back to the car. For some reason, I went a different way than they did and to get to the car, I had to pass through a hotel. I stepped into the elevator from outside and started going up. At first, there were two guys who worked at the hotel in the elevator with me, but they got off on the first floor where we stopped. I didn't get off, though, because I wasn't sure if it was the right floor. I kept going up and down, waiting for the elevator doors to open at each floor so i could take a look, but there were no signs on any of the floors to tell me I was at ground level--where I wanted to be. During my ride on the elevator, many others kept getting off and on. Finally, I decided to get off at one of the floors, even though I didn't know where it was. I ran into one of the hotel workers I'd seen on the elevator and he led me down some flights of stairs until I got to the ground-level floor.

I thought this dream was interesting since I'm in the middle of making some big decisions, and so I decided to take a lesson from it. In my mind, I keep going back and forth between different decisions I could make, waiting for some sign to tell me which decision would be best--which floor to get off on. But then the more I think about it, the more I realize that any of the decisions I made would be good ones, I just need to pick one. As long as I know my end goal (which was the floor that was level with the ground in my dream), I'll find some way to get there, even if I end up having to take some extra steps (flights of stairs) to get there because my first choice wasn't a direct path. As we take the steps to make choices, we run into people who affect our lives for good and will help us reach our destination.

Home is where the Heart Is

I never thought I'd admit to missing Provo, but I do--snow, school, work, all of it. I'll always be a California girl, but now a big part of me is in Utah. I think I've done more growing up there than anywhere else. Coming back to California is now more like a vacation. It's nice to have a break, but sooner or later you want your life back.

Tis the Season

It snowed on Saturday! Normally, that doesn't excite me, but it's just been so long since I've seen snow that it almost make me happy. TyRee and I decided to take a break from studying to play in it for a little bit.



Then on Sunday, our hometeachers came over to give us a spiritual message. In light of the season, they decided we would act out Luke chapter 2, about the birth of Jesus. We made makeshift costumes from around the apartment and every few minutes we would stop and sing a Christmas hymn. We got our roommates to join in as well. Our hometeachers are the best!

Joseph and Mary

The angel visits the shepherd

The wiseman brings frankincense and murr

The whole cast

After publishing that last post, I realized I've been writing so much but posting hardly any pictures! I should probably start taking more interesting pictures to post up here, but here are some to catch you up on my life...



Me with some Arizona friends



Audra eating cake at her first birthday party



Me and Audra



Jamie and I...I can't believe it was this pretty at the end of November



TyRee and Jamie walking down a dirt road in Layton

American Heroes

Tonight I'm going with Jon to the Air Force ROTC closing social. They're playing broom hockey and then ice skating. While there are a few girls, the Air Force mostly consists of guys and the Colonel is always trying to get them married off. I know this from interviewing him a few times and from the way he talks to me about Jon and others. The other day TyRee, who is in the nursing program, received an email inviting all the nursing students to the closing social. We laughed because we know the Colonel was the mastermind behind it, playing matchmaker with the Air Force guys and nursing girls.

I talked to the Colonel again this morning, because I'm writing an in-depth article (my very last article...I'm a little sad) about military families. Out of the 28 years that he and his wife have been married, they have spent a total of 9 years apart-that's about 1/3 of their marriage! And he said that they had moved about 27 times--including moves in college, but still. The way he talked about it seemed a bit casual, like that's just the way it was, which I thought was interesting. He said being in the military had strengthened his relationship with his children, and helped them be closer to each other. I suppose you'd adjust to whatever lifestyle you take on, but still, that just seems like it would be so difficult. People who manage that lifestyle and are still as amazing as the Colonel are my new heroes.

So much to do, so little time

I hate when I start to feel like my life is so consumed with little errands and chores that I don't have time to do the other things that are really important...like writing my paper. You're probably wondering why I'm blogging when I should be busy...I guess I just wanted a little therapeutic break.

Anyway, it should be a pretty good weekend. Hopefully I can get done even half of the things I actually need to do. We did get to go to the temple this morning and that was nice. And work went well and TyRee and I are going shopping this afternoon-somehow we have to figure out how to go to about a zillion different stores in a period of two hours. Being a poor college student with no car, it's a rare treat to go to any stores, so we have to squeeze them in all at once!

Ups and Downs

Today was a hard day. I had to wake up without an alarm clock because my phone is dead. Fortunately, I was able to wake up as early as I usually mean to get up. Work and class were a little tough today. More criticism today. Useful, constructive criticism, but still...some days you wish you were receiving more praise to balance out the more critical comments and today was one of those days for me. I'd call mom to make me feel better but I won't be able to use my phone for another day or two. Oh, and Kellie was going to come down for her birthday this Saturday, but now she can't because she has too much homework.

I have to write an article for BYU's bridal guide. It should be fun, except that I just can't get a hold of the source I really wanted to talk to and the article is due Friday.

I just finished a long paper for one of my classes yesterday, but now I have to get to work on another one that's due on Friday. I'm just glad the end is in sight-next week is the last week of classes!

To end on a good note, let me list some of the things that have made me happy this week:

-TyRee and I ran into Breezy from our freshman ward at Wal-Mart
-Jon and I went running together
-I got some Christmas shopping done
-I get to have lunch with Heidi next Wednesday
-I ran into my freshman roommate, Brooke, and my friend from home, Meredith
-The devotional was excellent
-Pete called and it's been nice to talk to him after 2 years
-I got to talk to Cara from Arizona
-I worked on my 72-hour kit and food storage
-Knowing school is almost out
-The Christmas season!
-All life's simple pleasures: roommates, sunshine, curly hair, reading scriptures, the police beat, dancing, sleep, pictures, music, Gilmore Girls, jumproping, black boots, skinny jeans, popsicles, etc.