Roadblocks

This week I was reminded of an experience I had on my mission. My companion and I, along with 3 elders were crammed into the teeny mission car on our way to Malargue. Malargue is the furthest area from the mission home—about a 5-hour drive. We were headed there to perform in a musical fireside (we had been touring the mission doing these firesides in each of the stakes). The rest of our group was in a big van, and we were supposed to meet them there. Well, none of us had ever been to Malargue before so we really had no idea how to get there. We took one wrong turn and ended up on a very long, bumpy dirt road. We eventually made it to Malargue—about two hours later than planned.

Now we could have taken two approaches to this situation. 1) Freak out and worry the whole way about how we were going to be late and whether or not we were actually going to get there, and what was going to happen to that little car after 100 miles on a crappy dirt road. 2) Enjoy the moment. After all, when else would we have the chance to be on an open country dirt road out in the middle of Argentina surrounded by sheer beauty?

I opted for the latter. Even though we were late for the concert, and the car’s oil pan got totally busted, the memory of that gorgeous Argentine countryside will forever be engrained in my memory.

The reason I thought about this is because just two days ago, I thought I had my professional life figured out. I had finally found a graduate program that would lead me to the career I thought I would love. I applied to said program, and was confident I would be accepted. I was well on my way to professional bliss. But, come to find out, they did not have the same vision as I did, and I’m now faced with a roadblock in my path. I still have the same final destination in mind, but I’ve now got to find a new way to get there. Maybe the alternative will be a long and bumpy dirt road, but I hope the scenery will be worth the detour.

A wise old man once said, "Always take the scenic route. The joy is in the journey, not the destination."

An ode to the doctor

See them, see them up above.
These are classic books I love.
Would you read them in a car?
Would you take them to a bar?
Could you read them with a cow?
Do you read them even now?
Would you let them gather dust?
Or are they in your life a must?

Let's pull those classic greats off our shelves, and take a moment to remember a little piece of our childhood in honor of the one and only Dr. Seuss, whose birthday it is is today.

I could never get enough of that ABC book! I think the local librarian would automatically go pull it off the shelf for us when she saw us walk in. What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

Wild boars and roasted pig

Happy Chinese New Year! We had great fun parading the wild boar dragon around Provo.... ...and eating Chinese food and performing some Chinese fire drills. We even took the dragon to the bowling alley. Good times.

Oh, and here is the piggy dragon tail that Caron made. That is me bringing up the rear. :) This is actually the first year that I was able to attend the annual celebration. Man, I really have been missing out!

It was a busy weekend. We also hosted a luau for about 180 people. I love my church calling. I just get to plan big parties and have lots of fun. Aloha!

So, Sunday is Lent. 40 days ‘til Easter. I know the Lent tradition is to give something up for the 40 day period. I am all about traditions, but what is the point of this? Honestly I have never understood it. I know about sacrifice and all that, and if it’s going to be good for you to give up whatever it is then I’m all for it. But, what is the point of giving something up just for the sake of giving something up?

For example, in the mission, our district leader told us we should sacrifice something every week. Like not reading your mail. What is the point of giving up your mail just for the sake of sacrifice? I can understand giving up something like getting up a half hour earlier so that you could study more or something like that. That makes sense to me. But I just don’t get it. If anyone can shed some light on the subject for me, that would be super.

So my brother who is on a mission in New Orleans had to leave the city for 3 days because of Mardi Gras! Funny huh?!! He said when they came back to the city, there were beads and stuff everywhere. OK, I’ll confess that one of my secret dreams is to see a Mardi Gras parade someday. I just think it would be so cool to see the masks and feathers and floats and all the bright colors.

El Dia de Amor

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I love this holiday. OK, well I love all holidays, but this one is pretty fun. I mean when else can I get away with wearing things like this... OK, let's be honest. You will probably see me wearing this shirt and the shoes year round, but it's extra fun to wear them on Feb. 14. Over the years, I've learned that Valentine's Day can be just as fun even if you don't have a special someone to celebrate with. I just love celebrating all the wonderful people in my life. Some of my favorite memories are the S.A.D. parties Teri and I used to have in college on Valentine's Day. Our slogan was, 'You can't come with a date, but you just might leave with one!'. We'd even have poetry readings and a killer game of UNO. We had requests months in advance for this annual event.

This year, I had the opportunity to have a different sort of Valentine's Day than I've had in the past. I got surprised at work with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. That's the first time I've ever gotten flowers brought to my work. And, since my favorite flowers are plumerias, and they are nowhere to be found here in Utah, (or anywhere that ships them to Utah) I was also surprised with a "bouquet" of plumeria-scented lotions. Someone has learned that the way to win me over is by doing things a little bit 'out of the ordinary'. :)

So, this is my 2007 valentine. Everyone, meet Darin. And Nate, the answer to your question is yes. Happy Heart Day! Just so everyone is aware, the upcoming holidays that need to be celebrated are: Fat Tuesday, Chinese New Year, Curling is Cool Day, Dr. Seuss' birthday, and of course--St. Patrick's Day.

Lost and found

The other day I was reunited with some of my friends from high school and the ward where I grew up. I used to carpool to school every day for 2 years with these girls, and we would always have such a fun trip to school. They made me laugh so hard! I remember how dang excited Danielle and I were to turn 16 so we could get our drivers licences. We talked about it for like a year! And not to mention the countless times she talked about her crush Mike and how fabulous and hot he was. And then she ended up marrying him! That was a shocker. Good times man. And they made me laugh so hard again the other day. It was so fun to get together with them and be reminded of how many fabulous people the Lord has put into my life to bless it. I am so thankful for my friends and the ways that they make my life happy. So if you are my friend, thanks for being a part of my life!

So a few months back, I made a comment here about being an elf at heart. Well, this week someone surprised me with an "Elf at Heart" official certificate and some pointy little wooden elf shoes. It totally made my day! Thank you Darin! I hope I can live up to my status of an elf.

Too good to be true?

Can it really be? Mr. Phil Groundhog did NOT see his shadow today, and we all know what that means. AN EARLY SPRING!!!!! I'm so elated I can hardly contain myself. No more of this extreme bitter figidness...Hallelujah! I will be basking once again in the sun soon enough. Happy Groundhog Day to all, and I hope that someday I will be able to join in the festivities in Pennsylvania. Watch Phil's prediction direct from Punxatawney here.

However, with spring quickly approaching, that leaves me with only 10 weeks to finish training for my half marathon, which is in April. I'm definately getting better, but I'm nowhere near up to 13 miles. I was quite proud of myself though for running a total of 40 miles in the month of January. Time to pound the pavement extra hard this month.

And last but not least, I would like to report that I am now an official adult. I have purchased a vacuum. My first large cleaning appliance purchase...it's practically a Kodak moment.

Don't rock the boat

So, can I just say how much I love warmth and sunshine? It was so fabulous to not be cold for 10 days. The trip to the Caribbean was a complete blast, and I loved every minute of it. Mostly I just loved being warm and out in the sun, and lounging about in a lounge chair. That is one of my most favorite pastimes....just enjoying the sunshine. If I ever do a cruise again though, it will definatley be a singles cruise or after I get married. Too many couples!

So we started off the trip by flying to San Juan, Puerto Rico where we went to some cool forts built in the 1500s, walked around Old San Juan where we discovered the birthplace of the pina colada, a cool street fair with a live band and dancing, adorable neighborhoods with brightly colored buildings and old brick roads, and just enjoyed being near the ocean. We also stayed a couple more days in San Juan after the cruise and we went to El Yunque, which is a very cool rainforest. We went to church both weeks in a fun little Spanish ward. It was cool to go to church in Spanish again! We also went to the beach, of course! We stayed with Caron's friend from college, Celia, who showed us all kinds of neat stuff.
Then we boarded our home for the next 7 days, the luxurious Adventure of the Seas. That thing was huge! They had a jogging track, a spa, a gym, a rock climbing wall, miniature golf, an ice skating rink, 3 pools, multiple hot tubs, a few nightclubs, a ton of lounges and bars, a million restaurants with more food than you could ever imagine, rows and rows of lounge chairs under the sun, a library....I could go on and on. And, we got waited on hand and foot. Our maid even made us little animals out of our towels each day and left us chocolates on our pillows. Ahhh....the life.




The first night on the boat was kinda rocky, but the rest of the week we were totally fine with the movement of the boat. It's getting off the boat that's killing me! I don't know if I'm going through Dramamine withdrawls or what, but I can hardly walk straight, and every time I stand up I feel like I'm going to fall over. It's been almost a week since we got off the boat...I hope this doesn't last much longer.

Walk on the ocean

We had lots of fun line dancing on the pool deck, and listening to all the cool live bands they had on the boat. We even made it to the spa to get massages, and I even ran 13.5 miles during the week. Try running on a boat! It's not as easy as it sounds. And don't forget shuffleboard! Neither of us was very good, but you can't be on a cruise ship and not play shuffleboard.
We had lots of fun excursions. Our first island stop was Aruba, where we rode on the super-fun banana bus. Just picture a huge black bus driver, open windows, a multi-colored banana bus, and some jammin' tunes...good times. We rode the banana bus to a pier where we got on a pirate boat called the Jolly Pirate. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We rope swung off the pirate boat into the ocean, and they took us out to some cool snorkeling spots, including a sunken shipwreck. Here we are at the helm of the ship enjoying the "hammocks".
Later that evening as we were wandering around Aruba, we came across a local festival, where we got to experience some live music and dancing. I love all the bright colors of the Caribbean! We also made friends with the steel drum band player, who promised to mail us a CD of his band!
Our next port of call was Curacao. This town was so stinkin' cute! I love the colorful waterfront buildings. We went mountain biking with Hank and Frank and searched all over for a music store.
Here we are in St. Maarten where Caron is getting a lesson in steel drummage. We also went kayaking and snorkeling on St. Maarten and got rained on. The snorkel guide brought fish food so all the fish were swimming right around us...very cool.
Our final island stop was St. Thomas where we got in touch with our inner pirates. I am related to Sir Francis Drake, the pirate himself, so it runs in my blood! Here we are at Blackbeard's castle. With all the pirate paraphenalia I bought, I will have to throw another pirate parrrrty soon.
Also on St. Thomas, we went to Maegan's Bay Beach, which apparently is one of the Top 10 beaches in the world, according to National Geographic. It was simply lovely. Mr. Maegan, who owned the land, refused to let anyone build there so it would be open solely for beach use.

So there you have it. Fun, sun, indulgence....loved it all. Now it's time to start planning my next vacation! P.S. Check out Caron's blog for her version of the adventure!

One single word

I would just like to say that in exactly 72 hours from now, I will not be scraping snow from my car, or trying to locate my wool socks, or sipping hot chocolate, or even wearing a coat. Instead, I will be wearing my super cute new swimsuit, I will be lathered up in SPF 30, laying in a lounge chair with a good book, and drinking pina coladas in the luxurious Caribbean. Let the countdown begin cuz soon I will be here...Is blogging a trend of the past? Just wondering since it seems that people have jumped off the blogging bandwagon.

On another note, I was reading on Ali's blog the other day, and she issued a challenge to come up with one little word to describe your vision for 2007. She said she started this tradition last year, and her word for 2006 was “play”. Everything she did that year, she kept that word in mind, and it really changed her vision on the everyday things of life. This got me thinking. What one single word would I choose to describe an entire year? Well, I’ve come up with one. LIVE.

By this I mean things like:
-Live life to its fullest
-Live up to my potential
-Live in the present
-Live each day with no regrets
-Enjoy everyday living
-Make my life what it was meant to be
-Live in accordance to the covenants I’ve made

I read this quote the other day that says, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” I’m a big dreamer, but I’m not always a big liver. That is, one who lives--not an internal organ. :) I sometimes find myself living in the past or in the future, and not wholly embracing the present, so I'm going to try and work on that. Anyway, what would your word be?

Happy New Year times 3

Happy New Year and welcome to 2007! I would like to report that I had three successful New Year's celebrations this year. I spent the actual New Years Eve in St. George because it was my grandpa's 80th birthday party. So, the day before I left, I had a celebration here in West Jordan. It was great fun, complete with maracas and a drum and fireworks. Then we got all decked out for Gramps' party. We were the only table of young'uns there. Everyone else was at least 70 years old. They didn't play bingo or shuffleboard or have any festivities, so we entertained ourselves by making a Davey bird and a Davey pinata.
Then we had a Honky Tonk murder mystery. Dan, Dan the preacher man was the killer. What part of 'Thou shalt not kill' does he not understand?
Then we had the traditional countdown to midnight, and toasted with Martinellis, frolicked about the neighborhood in celebration, and made a ruckus. Then we got a brilliant idea. We got in the car and drove across the state line to Nevada. (They are an hour earlier in the time zone situation) So we could do it all over again. Here we are at the Casablanca casino in Mesquite. We got there just in time to see confetti fall from the ceiling and hear all the noisemakers, and then get kicked out of the casino about 3 minutes later because we had brought minors in with us. It was great fun.
Anyway, it's time to make my New Year's Resolutions. This year, I have big plans to:

1. Run a 1/2 marathon.
2. Learn to swim.
3. Take guitar lessons.
4. Get up on time in the morning to actually have a decent amount of time to study my scriptures.
5. Throw more parties.
6. Find a way to consistently use my Spanish.
7. Apply for graduate school.
8. Give away a Book of Mormon.

So, there you have it. I'm well on my way to becoming a better person in 2007. If you could all check up on me once in awhile to make sure I'm sticking with it, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and good night.