Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving! One of my favorite holidays. The family, the food, the atmosphere. It's all pretty fantastic. I was able to have both Thursday and Friday off, and we had a great weekend down in Utah.

Fun things included lounging around my mom's, eating a wonderful and delicious Thanksgiving meal prepared by my momma, Black Friday shopping (the clothes! the CD's! the movies!) with Ayisha, eating Chick Fil A, visiting Grandma Hanson in Price, checking out the new Gap Outlet in Lehi, hanging out with Nate, Mel and their kiddos and Alan and Jess and Claire, eating In N Out, and just relaxing and being together.

We didn't take any pictures.

But we had a great weekend.

Happy (belated) Thanskgiving, everyone.

I am thankful for my life, the Gospel, my family, and my amazing Kyle.

I am so blessed, and God is good.

My life is great.

5 Things

1) Last night was YW in Excellence and I was able to speak. I spoke to the girls about Personal Progress, and how the habits and skills they develop while earning their award will bless their lives and most importantly, lead them to the Temple. I shared a (long) quote from President Uchdorf's talk "Happily Ever After" and struggled to keep my composure. I love my girls. I want my girls to be happy and to go to the Temple and to feel the love and peace of the Lord. I love my calling.

2) Kyle and I went and saw Skyfall last Saturday. It was SO GOOD. I've liked the other James Bond movies alright, but I loved this one! It was more reminscint of a Batman trilogy type of movie (including that creepy Silva who reminded me of the Joker) and I enjoyed it so much. Really. Go see it. Now.

3) Last night I had a dream that our country was in a civil war because of states seceding and we were in a bunker type place. A little scary. But also a little funny that I dreamt about it.

4) Kyle and I are back on the Pretty Little Liars bandwagon. I get realy worked up about Aria and Ezra's relationship. I know I shouldn't approve, but I love it so much. I yell at my TV. 

5) Lastly, I am SO EXCITED FOR LES MISERABLES. Holy crap. I cry during the trailers. I get the chills. I want to see it right now. SO EXCITED. AHHHHHHHHHH.

Luke

I found out last night that another friend of mine has passed away. His name is Luke Bateman, and he was a great friend of mine in high school. I'm sad that he's gone, but I wanted to share some memories I have with him, to celebrate the life he lived. I hope you will indulge my little trip down memory lane, in memory of Luke.


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I don't remember exactly how or when I met Luke. The majority of my memories come from the first few months of my senior year of high school. One of my best friends at the time was Jamie Pond. We had been YCL's at Girl's Camp that summer (2006) and had become really close. Jamie started dating Luke, and I was dating Braden. Both were on the football team, and so we naturally spent time together.
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Homecoming 2006. Braden took me, and Luke took Jamie. We had a huge group for the dance, all of our closest friends, and I can honestly say it was the most fun dance I went to all of high school. We went to a BYU football game, had dinner at Caleb's, Braden's mom took our pictures, and the dance was at the Provo Towne Centre. The four of us spent the majority of the time together, took a bunch of pictures, and had a lot of fun.

Luke and I at Homecoming

Luke and Jamie at dinner

Jamie and I

Our group - Luke in the back middle

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That same semester Luke and I had Photography 1 with Mr. Cramer together. Oh my heck. That class was hysterical. Luke and I talked throughout the class, and often went out to do photo projects together. We cracked jokes constantly.We passed notes back and forth, and talked about relationships. During the course of the semester Luke and Jamie broke up, I believe, as did Braden and I. We were able to chat and give advice and be there for each other. (Because as you know, break-ups are hard in high school.)
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I have a specific memory of hanging out with Jamie and Luke. It was a late night - perhaps after a football or basketball game? Or just a hang out session in general. For one reason or another we were in north Orem, and as we drove down to south Orem, we stopped at every Wendy's on the way - I know there are at least 3, maybe 4. I don't know why we did that, but it was so fun. The same night Luke and Jamie would kiss at every red light or stop sign, and it cracked me up every time. At one stop sign they played chinese fire drill, and ran around the car. I just remember laughing and laughing and laughing, being with the two of them that night.
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I'm sure I have a ton of notes in a box somewhere, from both Jamie and Luke, describing their relationship (and other important high school things, of course).
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There was also a specific party that Luke, Jamie, Braden and I attended and just hung out together. The four of us got along so well, and always had a great time.
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In general, Luke was just a great guy to be around. He was one of those large, cuddly, teddy bear type of guys, with a huge heart. I have some regrets - I regret not staying in better contact after high school. I regret not asking him more about his life. I regret not knowing what was happening in his life that made him decide to take it.

But I am grateful I had the chance to know Luke and to be close to him, even for just a small period of time. I'm grateful for his friendship, and his smiles, and the laughter he shared and inspired.
I know Luke was loved by so many, and that he will be missed so much.

Until we meet again, my friend.
Rest in peace.

Online obituary here.

The Monthly Update

(where monthly really means whenever-I-decide-I-want-to-update)

We are busy.
I know everyone is busy.
But we are busy.


Kyle: A over half way through the semester. He is enjoying his classes, mostly, but it's definitely not his favorite semester class wise. He is still interning at one site two days a week for about 5-6 hours each day, is doing one hour of intern at SOH, is working 10 hours a week at SOH, is busy planning activities for CSI, is busy in his calling as a counselor in the Elder's Quorom, and is always being awesome. He generally leaves the house around 8 or 9, and gets back between 6:30 and 9, depending on the day. He is the hardest worker ever. He is currently looking into different schools' PhD programs.... And other options..... So we'll let you know how that goes.

Me: I got a promotion/change in my job last week - and it came into effect on two Mondays ago. They decided to merge the front office and the billing office, and I am now the manager of the new combined department. My desk has moved over to the front desk area, and one of my billing employees was promoted to be my assistant manager, and she moved into my office in the billing department. She is going to keep the billing portion afloat while I take hold of the front office and learn all the policies up there. This week went by pretty fast, and I think things went pretty well. I am enjoying it. The majority of my work experience has been in front office and customer service type settings, so this is not too new to me. Other than that, I am still loving my calling of being in YW. And of course there is always the never ending list of things to clean in my house.

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I typed that up last week. And never posted it. I feel like there is more I should blog about, but I can't think of anything. I worked 50 hours this week. That was.... ok. Although I came home on Friday with a sore neck/shoulder, and it's gotten worse :(

But what else have we been up to outside of the above mentioned things? I guess I can update what we did for Halloween. Neither K nor I are big lovers of Halloween. Two Friday's ago was the Counseling Department's Halloween party, which we went to, and was a lot of fun. We love our friends there. Kyle made his famous sugar cookies, and I helped chase around our friend Kasi's little boy, Enzo, who we just love. On actually Halloween we went and grabbed Costa Vida, then watched the Jazz season opener on TV (basketball season already, what?!).
Yesterday I went to Super Saturday, which was a bunch of fun. We had two women in the ward talk about the spirit of Christmas, family traditions, and we learned how to make chocolates. We had a delicious lunch of meatball marinara subs, with some salads and desserts. Then it was craft time. I didn't finish all my crafts (a menu board, three varying sizes of wooden snowmen blocks, coasters) but I will post pictures later when I do finish them. I love our ward so much, and the friends I/we have made there.

And with that little update.... That is the end. I'm so sorry for the boring state of my blog.