Birthday Celebrations Part 1

Wednesday was my birthday. The celebrations started Tuesday when I picked up my flute from the shop. Such a good birthday present. Tuesday night, I was invited to Hagmoth's house after school, and I was pleasantly surprised when I stepped inside the door to find a plate of cupcakes and a beautiful card waiting for me on the table. The birthday serenade from Hagmoth and her husband is something I encourage everyone to experience in their lifetime. Thanks!

Wednesday morning arrived, along with me accidentally sleeping in a little later than I intended. I got a shock of the morning when Hungry gave me a birthday hug with her cold, wet hair. If that doesn't wake a person up, I don't know what will! It was fun to eat breakfast with Hungry and get ready for the day. I even got to start my birthday service early by dropping her off at school on my way north.

Speaking of birthday service, I began a birthday tradition last year that I hope to continue for the rest of my life. On my birthday, I do some kind of service. It is my gift to myself and to my Heavenly Father. Last year, I went on exchanges with the Sister Missionaries. For this year, I discovered a service I have wanted to do for a while was available at my school on my birthday! I was so excited about it!! I decided to give blood for the first time as my birthday service.


I will admit that I was a little nervous to give blood for my first time, but the experience was wonderful. I answered some questions, had my finger pricked, sat down in a chair, watched my arm be covered in iodine and then felt the small stick of the needle. Other than the sting from the iodine, giving blood wasn't bad at all! I will definitely make it a regular occurrence in my life. I even go to drink one of my favorite kinds of juices after I was done. Here is a picture of me with my bandage of honor!


This concludes Part 1 of the celebrations. Please stay tuned for our next episode.

Landlord to the Rescue

Our landlord arrived in all his shining glory to fix the bathtub Monday! The drain was clogged with a ton of hair. I could have made a small critter with all that hair. (I saved you the gory sight!) My landlord was going to pour Drano down the drain after removing the hair, but I insisted on using the homemade remedy found in the amazing cleaning guide I received for Christmas! All it takes is baking soda and vinegar. My landlord was quite impressed and commented that vinegar smells better than Drano. Personally, I love the smell of vinegar, so I'll use that over another cleaner any day. Plus, it is inexpensive and usually on hand when you need it!

Instead of taking a shower while our feet take a bath, we now have a drain that drains! Ah, it's the little things in life!

Christmas Spirit

I had the opportunity to spend Christmas with my brother and his family this year. It was a wonderful holiday full of love and the Spirit. On Christmas Eve, it is their tradition to look at Christmas lights on houses. I loved it! We drove around town looking at the light displays while singing along to the Little People Christmas Songs nearly at the top of our lungs! After we finished, we read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2.

I would attribute how much of the Spirit I felt this Christmas to reading the Book of Mormon. My stake president issued a challenge to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year, so I decided to try my best to do so. The only thing is I started last week! I have felt my testimony in the Savior grow exponentially in the last few days as I have feasted on the scriptures. The increase of the Spirit in my life is without a doubt the best Christmas gift I could ever receive. In light of that thought, I wanted to share a video with you even though it is after Christmas. Enjoy!

May the spirit of Christmas be with you all year long.

The Wizard of Christmas

You know you have an amazing friend when he spontaneously dresses up like this while decorating a Christmas tree! Behold, the Wizard of Christmas*!

I sure enjoyed my time with JoJo this week. We talked and talked about everything. It's really wonderful to have a friend who can explain gospel topics to me and who can help me see where I need to improve. JoJo is amazing from his silliness to his devotion to the Lord. I'm so glad he is my friend.

Have a wonderful Christmas. May the Wizard of Christmas bring a bit of holiday laughter into your home!

* According to JoJo, this is what would happen if Santa Claus and Harry Potter were to run into each other at a very high speed.

Sweets for the Sweet

This week has been wonderful! I am finished with school until January, and I picked up my second pay check. The house is now decorated for Christmas. I'd say life is grand right now.

One of my roommates is moving to Idaho tomorrow. We are all sad to see her go, but what can you do? I'll tell you what! You throw a party to say good-bye, that's what! I was glad to have an excuse to bake while in my baking mood. I think I might have gotten a little carried away, but everyone enjoyed the results.

M&M Dream Bars, at the request of Hungry a few weeks ago.

Non-frosted Cupcakes because some people don't like frosting.

Frosted Cupcakes for those who do like frosting.

My famous Snickerdoodles.
If you haven't had one yet, contact me. I'll hook you up!
I'm serious about that.

Actually, I want to pause for a moment. Almost every time I have made my Snickerdoodles, I have read the recipe wrong during the process. One time, I was making once the recipe, which calls for two eggs, and I unthinkingly cracked four eggs. I ended up having to double the recipe that time. This time, I was mixing the cinnamon and sugar to coat the dough, and I somehow read 3 tablespoons of sugar and 3 tablespoons of cinnamon. Let me tell you, that is a lot of cinnamon! I had to add a ton of sugar to even out that mistake. On the bright side, now I have plenty of cinnamon and sugar mixture to put on toast in the morning. Also, I probably won't have to mix any more for the next time I make Snickerdoodles. I suppose it is my tribute to my mom's salt cookies! Fortunately, each mistake has been fixable (knock on wood).

The party was grand. I had invited several people from our ward to come. Most of the people I invited didn't come, but I am so grateful to gals who aren't afraid to make a ton of phone calls to get people over to a party! We played Apples to Apples and enjoyed the great treats and all the laughter. It was a great party! Here is a picture of all the people there minus two who had to leave early.

One more thought before I close. I don't believe in coincidences, not with big happenings anyway. My roommate had been looking for a bike rack since she knew she was moving. She asked if any of the girls who were the first to arrive had one. Lo and behold, one of the girls did have one! It was one of those moments when you realize that Heavenly Father is always looking out for what you stand in need of most. The girl ran home and brought back the bike rack for my roommate to borrow. After the party, two guys stuck around to help us put it on the car. It was freezing cold outside, but we finally managed to get the bike securely in place. I love how things like that just work out. You pray and seek and do all you can do. Suddenly, the Lord provides! I guess I believe in miracles instead of coincidences.

I love being a young single adult!! Life truly is grand!

Decorations of Red

It's Christmas time!!! That means decorations come out of storage and dusted off for another Christmas Season! Or it means decorations need to be purchased at the store so that next year they can be pulled out of storage! :)

This is my first Christmas away from home, and I noticed my apartment drastically needed some Christmas Cheer. So, I went to ShopKo (a fabulous store by the way) and purchased decorations for our fireplace.




I am quite pleased with how things turned out. What do you think?

What's next on my list? There's finish studying for my finals, see the Lights on Temple Square, obtain a stocking for Santa to fill, buy a few presents, make a few cards, listen to Cinnamon Bear, practice my flute solo for the Ward Christmas program, and enjoy the Christmas Season!

22 days till Christmas!

P.S. I'd like your opinion about the new background. Please answer in the poll to the right. Thanks ever so much!

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Nothing says "Happy Halloween" like carving pumpkins! That's right, my friends! For FHE on Monday, we carved pumpkins for our ward Pumpkin Carving Contest- to be judged at our Halloween Party on Friday.

Hungry and I spent some time Sunday night looking up stencils for something cool to carve. We found one we liked, but the printer had other ideas for us when we tried to print on Monday. Once at FHE, Hungry picked the perfect pumpkin for our design. One of the FHE dads cleaned out our pumpkin, and we started carving!



Despite not having a stencil, I think our pumpkin turned out rather amazing! Of course, with two amazing gals carving it, our pumpkin couldn't help but be amazing!

Here it is! Our amazing Americana Jack o' Lantern!!

Now, I have to put the finishing touches on my costume for Friday. It's going to be awesome!