Christmas Break :)

Christmas break was so much fun... I got to be home for almost 4 weeks and it was so nice to spend time with my family and my friends :) There were just a few things I got pictures of that I wanted to post :)

Carter, Hayden and I made gingerbread houses together... with REAL gingerbread! I used this lovely recipe for the caramel glue and icing.... and it worked great :)

TEMPLE SQUARE :)

I had to borrow some of Carter's photos off of Facebook.. like this lovely one of me photobombing/creaping up behind him :)

Such a handsome boy... :)

Amazing reflections in the reflecting pool :)

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

 I think this year's Christmas was the best my family has ever had... Because our Christmas money is going to our Europe trip this summer, we all made each other homemade and low-budget gifts instead. It was so much fun and cool to see everyone getting creative to make gifts that were extra meaningful... we kept talking about how we wouldn't have many presents under the tree this year, and the kids complained about having "no Christmas", but I swear when we came downstairs on Christmas morning there were more presents under that tree than ever before. It was kind of cool :) and wonderful to get a feeling for the true spirit of Christmas as we focused more on what we could make and GIVE to each other rather than making our lists of all we wanted to receive. It was a magical Christmas... I could do it like this every year :)

I made one minion shirt for Hayden, but then loved it so much that I just HAD to make one for everyone else in my family... including myself :)

It took me a while to come up with something to give to my mom... I wanted to do something she could use and appreciate. I just have the hardest time thinking of gifts for people though! But a couple days before Christmas she had been digging through our stack of favorite recipes and they were sprawled all over the counter after she was done... and I had the most brilliant idea! I decided to put all of our favorite recipes that otherwise don't have a home into one cookbook where she could easily find them and add more when she found new ones :) Some of our recipes are like ancient artifacts... family heirlooms almost.. so I couldn't just type them all up... instead I made the cookbook almost like a scrapbook. With recipe cards and old random sheets of paper we've had for years with certain recipes... so that's what I have below.. a few of the favorite recipes stuck in in all their glory :)

"real" (American-style) German pancakes

Adina's hand written recipe for her actually German German pancakes

Nice orderly tabs to keep it organized...

Fish taco recipe from the newspaper... stuck onto fish paper... I was pretty proud of this one ;)

 That's all I had pictures of on my camera.... but pretty much it was a fun break with lots of fun memories :) I wish I had access to more photos we took on the family camera... but this is it! :)

Adventures with roommates and farewell to semester 1 of college :)

 My first semester at Snow is almost over! I can't believe it... I've just got 3 quick days of finals this week and them I'll be home for Christmas :) I'm so excited :) I haven't taken nearly enough pictures of my adventures down here, but I wanted to share a few from our most recent adventures as roommates :)

Kenzie and Daina stayed up super late decorating the apartment for my birthday last month... they spent hours making tissue paper flowers and other decorations. It was so lovely and I felt so loved! :)

Our stockings hung by our homemade fireplace with care :)

Our penguin-style fridge :)

Decorating for DAINA'S BIRTHDAY :)

Minions! Yellow balloons with printout eyes and mouth

Balloon avalanche waiting for her to come home :)

We moved the couch and tree, then pulled our mattresses out so we could have a movie night slumber party! It was so great :)

The birthday girl :)

Minion cupcakes that Kenzie made with her cousin :)

We're so darling....

I love my roommates and we've had some great times so far... I can't wait for another semester of great adventures! :) :) :)

10 things to be grateful for at home :)

Ok, well here's part 2 of gratitude... what I'm grateful for about my home in Bountiful with my wonderful family. You can read about my gratitude for school stuff here. I just think it's so important to realize the blessings we have in whatever situation or part of life we may be facing... there are things to be grateful for in every situation! :)

1. MY FAMILY. Obviously, this is a big one. How could I not be grateful for my family? They define my entire identity... they make me laugh and smile, cry and yell.. they make me sing (even if they typically wish I wouldn't... ;). My family members are the only people that I can get so upset with I want to scream, yet still love them forever and continue to be best friends. I can't really hold grudges with my family. I'm stuck with them forever... I might as well forgive them earlier on and make it altogether more pleasant ;) My family is so funny... I can sing in the loudest, most obnoxious voice possible, I can play my Christmas music all year (even if they turn it off :( ), I can get upset with them and they can get upset with me... but they still love me. Who else would do that? Not many... maybe no one else but my family. Yes, they're kind of forced to keep loving me ;) but... I'm so grateful that they do! They probably get really annoyed with me sometimes (just like I do them), but we just go on loving each other.

2. NOISE. I'll want to erase this one as soon as I go home again... but it's honestly one of the things I sometimes miss the most while here at school. Sometimes it is quiet, and that quiet sometimes gets lonely. When I'm home with my loud family I can do nothing yet still be entertained by everything else that's going on with everyone else. I realized my first day down here that being bored here wasn't like being bored at home. Here I discovered the true meaning of boredom... at home there is always something going on. Sometimes it's a pain... sometimes you wish you could get your siblings to all quiet down so you could finish your homework or a movie. But you start to miss it when it all disappears at once.

3. FOOD. I know I talked about cooking in my list of school things... but there are also many things I miss about the food at home. My mommy can't cook for me anymore :( And when your mother cooks as good as mine, it's definitely an adjustment learning for yourself how to match that excellence :) It's nice having independence and choosing what I want, but at the same time... leftovers get a little old. At home my family all eats so much that there are really leftovers... and if there are we often fight over who gets them. Here I might fight my siblings to get them to eat my leftovers... as good as a meal is it gets boring and significantly less enjoyable after a week ;) Also, when you go grocery shopping for a big family you can get lots of different things at the grocery store... all sorts of varieties of produce and other food. But for me at school I can only buy a couple different veggies at a time because if I get all the kinds I'd like they'll go bad before using them all ;/ . So yes, sometimes it's a blessing having siblings that eat all the food :)

4. BOUNTIFUL. I miss Bountiful in general... Ephraim is beautiful. I really mean it. I love the nature and the farmy-ness around here... but sometimes I really miss Bountiful. Ephraim is teeny tiny. Like REALLY teeny tiny... like 2 miles wide tiny... Sometimes I miss having access to the stores in Bountiful and those in Salt Lake and Centerville which are just minutes away. Ephraim really doesn't have a whole lot.. which is fine most of the time. It's just that sometimes I miss good ol' Bountiful :)

5. FRIENDS. I have the greatest friends. Everyone might say that... but really... my high school friends are probably the coolest people ever :) It's weird being here at Snow while my friends are scattered around... literally around the world. Some are on missions while others are scattered around to different colleges. Sometimes I miss the close proximity of these friends I've known forever. I'm grateful for the fun I can have with those friends still in Bountiful though when I come home. Quite a few are still living in Bountiful- going to school nearby or just working... and it's nice when I get to come home and see them. I honestly can't say how grateful I am for my friends... they are the greatest examples to me. In a way they're like an extension to my family... I love them so much :)

6. GIRLS NIGHTS. Girls nights are the greatest... and I'm reminded of this every time my mom tells me they're having one on a Friday night... without me. It's okay though... it makes me realize how much I should appreciate and enjoy those moments when I am home and get to take part in them. Girls nights used to be somewhat of a hindrance sometimes (like when I wanted to hang out with Carter instead ;). But now I realize how much I should value and be grateful for those times I get to spend with my mom and sisters. When I'm at school I realize how much fun it can be to make dinner and watch a chick flick with the girls :)

7. SLEEPOVERS. I mean with my siblings... Almost every night that I'm home for a weekend I'll do this... whether sleeping in Heidi's queen sized bed, or camping out on my floor with Hayden... I guess I realize that I want to spend as much time with them as I can while I'm home.. so I like sleepovers :)... (is that weird?) Thank heavens for roommates though! I really don't like sleeping in a room alone... :) I guess I'm afraid of the dark and monsters/evil spirits :)

8. FOREST. I'm so grateful for the beautiful forest that is my own backyard. I'm grateful for the hikes that are SO CLOSE. Like Elephant rock.. I could do that hike over and over again and still love it. I love the beauty that is so abundant at my house in Bountiful. IT IS AMAZING. Those trees are so beautiful... I mean, Ephraim has trees... but I don't have a beautiful mountain and forest in my own BACK YARD. That is unique to Bountiful and I absolutely LOVE it... so much :) And those hikes... I love the elephant rock hike so much as well... I wish I had time to do it every time I came home.

9. MOMMY. I am so grateful for my mother. I've already mentioned some of her wonderfulness... but really. She needs her own place on the list :) My mom is AMAZING. She is WONDERFUL. I don't know what I would do without her.. really. It's so nice when I can come home and just talk to her- even if all she can currently think or talk about is our trip to Europe ;) I love her so much though. She is the most selfless person... she does so much for me... and I realize this even more now that I'm at school. Life gets harder when you don't have your mommy to take care of you all the time.

10. EVERYTHING. There are too many things to just say one final thing. There is so much to be grateful for at home. I am grateful for a real fireplace.. (not a cardboard one.... but one that can have real fire in it! :). I'm grateful for my sisters' clothes... really though... it is so nice that I never have to pack to come home. I just live off of their things for a weekend :) I kind of miss the variety granted by their wardrobes :). I'm also grateful for the ability to drive a car... I don't have that at school. Although I'm just fine not driving... it's just nice being able to go places when I need to. The independence in that aspect is wonderful! I'm grateful for Carter... he'll either be embarrassed that I mentioned him or sad that he didn't get his own place on the list... so I guess my alternative is writing about him in this final point with other stuff :) but I have to recognize everything he does for me. He is AMAZING. Really :) He is so patient with all my craziness and occasional moodiness. He watches Frozen with me- way too much ;) , he gets me fishy crackers, wakes up early to make breakfast with me, and so much more. Really he does TONS. He is the person I cry with when I'm having a bad day and he's the person I laugh and be silly with. He is my best friend. I can't describe how patient he is with me and everything he sacrifices for me. Words can't tell all I wish I could say about that boy... :)

All in all, there are a lot of really great things about being in school. There are definitely the hard times when I miss my family, friends, and Bountiful in general... Sometimes it's hard for me because I don't totally know why I'm supposed to be at Snow- but for whatever reason that was I still feel strongly that I was prompted to come to Snow. I don't know why. There are some times when things at Snow frustrate me and I find myself comparing it to BYU where I would have gone... but there are definitely things that I do love about Snow, and reasons that I'm grateful to be here. In those hard times I just have to remember that I'm supposed to be here... for whatever reason that may be, and remember all the wonderful blessings I'm grateful to have here :)

10 things to be grateful for while here at Snow College :)

In this season of gratitude I thought it could be fitting to write about things both at school and at home which I am grateful for. It's interesting to me.... I'm usually counting down til the next weekend I can come home. At school I miss my crazy loud family and the fun (sometimes obnoxious) things they do, yet at the same time whenever I come home I almost immediately realize the things at my apartment that I've come to love and appreciate... I guess I just need to be grateful for both when I am there.... living in the moment of each. :) But anyways... here are just a few of the things I love about being at school, and some other things about being at home. I'll do them in two separate posts though since it will probably seem really long if they're paired together in one post... :)

THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR AT SCHOOL

1. COOKING. I love the experience I am getting with cooking meals and baking all sorts of lovely desserts. I feel like I'm learning so much about cooking, food, grocery shopping, budgeting... there's just lots to do and learn when it comes to taking care of my own stomach. Really though, sometimes it's really fun to make cooking creations all by myself. It's fun looking at all the amazing recipes on Pinterest (although sometimes I torture myself... like on fast Sundays ;) ) and then making them myself. It's fun to decide what is worth spending money on and what foods really aren't as necessary. I think I understand a lot better now why my mom says "no" when we want certain treats from the grocery store... It's not always about buying everything that sounds good... this is money we're talking about! Also, as I make my own meals here, I'm so so so grateful that my mom has taught me how to eat right. I mean not eating fast food, mac and cheese, or ramen noodle... instead she's taught us how to cook basically from the moment we could talk. (And she taught us to cook GOOD things too :)

2. ROOMMATES. Sometimes it can be really fun living with just a couple girls my age.... It's so different from living in my crazy loud family household... but that different can be very good. There are no smelly guys to clean up after, the apartment is pretty relaxed and peaceful- no bickering siblings :), and it smells so good here. Two of my roommates have Scentsy candle-y things, and they smell SO GOOD. Spicy pumpkin scent is probably the greatest thing I could ever come home through after a day of classes. That always makes me feel happy. We also get yummy smells coming from the kitchen quite often, too, so it's altogether quite lovely! I also love all the crafts we do together as roommates.... how many other roommates make cardboard fireplaces and Christmas trees during their spare time? Probably very few. We put spider webs up for, Halloween, pumpkins and leaves on the fireplace mantel for fall, and made beautiful fall wreaths to show our gratitude for each other :) We started listening to Christmas music in September together. This is WONDERFUL. It's very often that you don't have at least one scrooge who won't let you listen until December... one month is NOT enough time to celebrate Christmas... After all, we should celebrate Christ's birth all year long. So shouldn't we be able to listen to Christmas music all year long? Just a thought... :)

3. MUSIC. Talking about Christmas music made me think of this one. I can't say how nice it is that Andrew isn't always turning off my music. I love him to death, but sometimes when he does this it almost kills me to death... and he ALWAYS does this. We have very different taste in music... haha we have a "truce" playlist that has songs that we can both tolerate. But when I'm listening to a song that I really love that gets turned off for one of those "tolerable" songs, they get a lot less tolerable. So yes, it's sometimes REALLY nice to be able to listen to my own music whenever I want to. No one turns it off or turns it down (not that I play it loud anyway).. but yes, it's sooo nice :)

4. CLASSES. I love my classes! I love all that I am learning here at school. It really amazes me that I spend half the time in actual classes than I did in high school, yet my classes are so much more productive and I learn so much more. I feel like it's so much easier for me to internalize what I'm learning now than it ever was in high school. I'm actually remembering what I learn. I feel like much of the time in high school I only learned enough to do well on tests and assignments, but didn't really internalize much of it at all. But now I'm just soaking it all in really well. I feel like I'm actually learning for real.. which is very good! :)

5. WALKING. I'll probably want to erase this once it starts to snow... but for now I love walking around campus so much! I feel like I was able to appreciate so much more this year the beauty of the autumn leaves and the crisp yet still pleasant autumn air. Fall has moved way up on my list after the last few months here at Snow. It is usually very pleasant when I'm going to my classes, and sometimes I wish I had a hammock so I could just sit out there and enjoy :) (really though... when I come back to Snow, the most important thing is that I can hang a hammock wherever I live ;) Walking to my classes is giving me such a greater appreciation for the beauty of the season around me! In high school I only spent a few moments running from the building to my car... I rarely took the time to walk in paths between orange and yellow-leafed trees. I'm definitely grateful for the beauty that walking has brought to my eyes this semester :)

6. TIDINESS. I am so much more tidy here than I ever was at home. I just care more about my own space and making sure it's nice. Maybe it's just that I have a smaller amount of space to myself, so I want to ensure it's tidy, maybe it's because my mom isn't here to clean... but I always put my clothes away and make my bed. I do my dishes, clean counters, and sweep floors. Everything is cleaner. Sometimes my house gets a little CRAZY with all the naught, rambunctious children running around and making messes... Sometimes they do close to nothing to help out resulting in an overwhelming amount of work for my mom and those who do help. So, more often than not things are often quite messy.... (those naughty children!). Here it's nice though because everyone is expected to clean up after themselves. We do our own dishes, or help each other out equally :) One of us doesn't have to slave away to clean up after everyone else... and sometimes that can be VERY nice. This sort of drives me crazy when I go home on weekends ;) I can't wait til my siblings move out and learn to clean up after themselves... :)

7. PINTEREST. I'm not sure if I should be grateful for this or disgusted by it... but Pinterest has become a new best friend since I've been at school. Really. It's kind of sad, but it's also the truth. Yes I may spend a few hours more time here than might be healthy... but it's always to pin things for a good cause! I get the best recipes to cook... I think everything I've made here has been somewhat based on Pinterest. I've also gotten all sorts of ideas for my future home, crafts, gifts, and EVERYTHING else. I have an interesting relationship with Pinterest... part of me hates wasting so much time while the other says that I'm only finding ideas for all sorts of things in the future... futer planning is good, right? :) Besides, what else would I have to keep me sane when I'm bored after finishing homework if I didn't have Pinterest? Yes I may have tripled my pins since being here... but it's for a good cause? :) Think what you want. Pinterest is in some ways a blessing of being here at school (or a blessing for me here at school... not sure which).

8. CLOTHES. This one's a little ridiculous and maybe a little vain sounding... but I'm running out of things to say since I've kind of blended some things together. Basically, I just feel like being at school has encouraged and allowed me to develop my style and creativity and outfits more... I haven't bought any clothes here! But I've come up with quite a few outfits (which I find cute :) that I never thought of until now.. despite having these clothing items for a year or a few... I guess that's just something I'm proud of :) I'm getting more creative! So really I don't think it's that vain to be grateful for the way my clothing has improved since being at school... :)

9. INSTITUTE. First off, these really aren't in any order of how grateful I am for them... because Institute would probably be at the top of the list if that were the case. (I'm just writing them down as I think of them :) I am in Mission Prep.. and I LOVE IT. So much. It's interesting to me that I sometimes come out of that class feeling like I've had an intensely deep philosophical discussion... my mind is just bursting with thought... and it's after talking about the gospel. I guess that's kind of a testimony to me of the truth of these things.. because I think that feeling of intense and awesome knowledge could only come from studying truth.. :)

10. TEACHING. I can't believe I'm saying this, because I wanted to die when the bishop called me to teach the Preach My Gospel Sunday School class... because I felt so inadequate as a teacher (and still kind of do). Today was my first day teaching the class... I fasted in order to better have the spirit with me because I was TERRIFIED that it would go TERRIBLY. I was really so worried, because sometimes my voice gets really shaky and I turn really red.... and I hate it. But I taught and was really just fine! I felt calm and I think I was able to teach what the spirit wanted me to teach. I know I have lots of learning to come and I could definitely improve, but I think that as I continue to do my best and follow the spirit that will happen. I think this is really going to help me to prepare for my mission (teaching and familiarizing with PMG. It's a scary thing, and I feel inadequate being called to teach others... especially when some are RETURNED missionaries.. sometimes I feel like they should be the ones teaching. But I guess I just have faith that Heavenly Father knew this is what I needed... and I'm grateful for that for whatever reason it may be.

Read next: 10 things to be grateful for at home :)

Happiness vs. JOY

Today in Sunday School, the question of the difference between happiness and joy came up. We only talked about it for a minute or two, but it was something I thought was kind of interesting to think about.
We talked about this scripture:
"Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have JOY." (2 Nephi 2:27)
We have this beautiful earth to live on and agency to do what we choose so that we can experience this joy. This doesn't necessarily mean being on cloud nine all the time, or even most of the time... so while we might be meant to have joy and we can always have joy, joy isn't necessarily the absence of sadness, pain, or suffering. These things are necessary so we can feel that presence of joy...
"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." (2 Nephi 2:11)
How could we experience the many wonderful things we're given in this life if we didn't also experience the painful parts of life? 
Happiness can be found in all sorts of things.. I am happy every time I finish a long assignment or a test that I've studied a long time for. I'm happy when I come home from the grocery store with a fresh supply of food. I'm happy when it's the weekend.. I'm happy when I do yoga, go hiking, and go home for the weekend to hang out with my family... These are wonderful things, which all contribute to the overall quality of happiness in my life.. but amid these things are all the things that might make me unhappy. I'm sometimes unhappy when working on that terribly long assignment, or when I'm home for the weekend but get stuck cleaning a messy house... but do these things affect my lasting happiness? If yes I think there's a problem... Of course, there are much bigger things that can cause much greater unhappiness.. death of a parent, child, sibling, or friend, divorce, abuse... there is an endless list of things that really can affect your happiness, and change your life. Pain is inevitable in this life- everyone will experience it, no matter where they live or how much money they make. But while this may affect our happiness, can it determine our joy?
At the end of Senior year we had a speaker come to talk to us Seniors on a Sunday evening... I don't remember his name, but he talked of his wife and baby that were killed in a car accident. This man suffered SO MUCH, yet the message he shared with us was to CHOOSE JOY in our lives. If a man who has lost both his wife and child can tell me that, I think EVERYONE is capable of choosing to live with joy... This man obviously experienced unhappiness. The pain probably lasted for years and he likely still aches when he thinks of his wife and baby- but despite those times when he may not feel happy, he still has JOY. He chooses to live a life filled with joy every single day of his life, regardless of what that day may throw his way.
 So can I allow any trials I go through to determine my joy? I say no! The only thing that determines our joy is ourselves... we may have countless trials that attempt to take away our happiness... but we can CHOOSE for OURSELVES whether we will have lives dominated by sadness, depression, anxiety, loss... or if we will live lives filled with overflowing JOY. :) We won't always be happy. Life is bound to bring its ups and downs and times of overwhelming sadness or hurt... but beneath that sadness can be a constant and underlying comfort of joy.
Where does this joy come from? The gospel of Jesus Christ! The gospel of Christ- our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness- provides a way so that we can be filled with joy ALWAYS. No matter our experiences. His atonement provided means so we could all be comforted, healed, and repent of our sins... "As we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He can help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with JOY, PEACE, and CONSOLATION. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." (Preach My Gospel pg. 52) Isn't this gospel and this plan wonderful? It provides means so we can experience joy despite the terrible things going on around us. Despite the death, disease, wars, conflict that pollute this earth, we can overcome it all through our savior, Jesus Christ. That is absolutely AMAZING and WONDERFUL to me :) Can I just say that I am so very grateful for the restored gospel in my life? It brings more joy and love into my life than can yoga, fishy crackers, chick flicks, or french toast... Without this gospel my life would be empty. It makes me so excited to go out and serve a mission next year so I can bring this wonderful message to other people too :)
One last scripture....
"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5)
Isn't it wonderful that through his atonement we are healed? From all the griefs, sorrows, transgressions, and iniquities we have or will go through... through the gospel of Jesus Christ we can be healed.
In my eyes, that is the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is in those things like yoga and french toast, joy lies in the ATONEMENT of Jesus Christ. We may not all feel like we have as many things as others to make us feel happy in this life... but through the atonement, we can feel the joy experienced from the love of the savior for each and every one of us. :)

What am I grateful for?

It's not Thanksgiving quite yet.. but I was reading my Book of Mormon tonight and came across a verse that overwhelmed me with such a desire to be grateful.. and to write and share those things. And after all, as soon as Halloween is over everyone will jump to celebrate Christmas, forgetting much of Thanksgiving and the importance of gratitude... so I feel like it's acceptable to share this post a little early in the season.. and really, we need to be grateful all year long. So I think it's alright :)
First off, I want to share that scripture I read... I don't know if anyone's read it the way I did tonight, but it just stuck out to me. It is Mosiah 24:22, which is talking of Alma and his people, who had been persecuted and in bondage by the Lamanites.... and were finally delivered with God's help. This verse says:

"And they gave thanks to God, yeah, all their men and all their women and all their children that could speak lifted their voices in the praises of their God." 

I'm not totally sure why, but the part that stuck out to me was the last part... that all who could speak lifted their voices in praise... That image seemed so powerful to me. Imagining this group of people who had suffered so much and were probably hungry and tattered from their trials, needing to distance themselves from the source of their bondage... yet they stood together and gave thanks to their God... All of them. Every person who was physically capable of speaking expressed their thanks to God. This group of afflicted people did everything in their capacity to show their thanks.
This made me wonder what I am doing to show my gratitude to God after literally giving me EVERYTHING... am I doing all that I am capable of to show my gratitude? Do I speak with every part of my existence that I am grateful for and love my God? Do I do so in every action, word, and thought? Do I worship him with every part of my body and soul? It made me think of the scripture 2 Nephi 25:26

"We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Am I talking, rejoicing, and preaching of Christ? Do I heed what the prophets and scriptures tell of him and personal revelation from the spirit? Do I write according to these things so that others and my future children will know of my belief? I realized that I want to do a better job of showing that I am a follower of Christ. That I worship him and love him. That I am eternally and overwhelmingly grateful to him. I don't just want to do this by expressing gratitude as I pray, or writing a silly blog post.. I want to live this! I want every aspect of my life to reflect my love for him. How I treat people, how I treat myself- in how I take care of my body as well as how I treat my mind- do I sit around wasting time? Or do I dedicate time to putting knowledge into that mind he's given me? Spending my time with good people who lift me and make me want to do even better, and spending time with people whom I can lift as well. Sharing these beliefs with people... whether it be my family, friends, strangers... whoever! Letting that love of the Lord reflect on who I am and allowing it to make me happier and therefore allowing that happiness and light to shine out to people and make them curious and willing to know for themselves. People who are entirely dedicated to the gospel are the happiest people I know, so why not do all I can to be one of those happy people? I think I can do so by showing my love and gratitude for my God :)

So there's my spiel on gratitude... :)
But there's more.... I need to share the Thanksgiving craft Daina (my roommate) and I did last night! We were bored of sitting doing homework, so looked at crafty ideas on pinterest (my new best friend since being here at school) and decided to make Thanksgiving wreaths! I found this pin... so we decided on the idea of making gratitude wreaths... :)

We got supplies and made a wreath for each of our doors... so we could tape leaves to each one saying things we were grateful for/liked about that person. I think it was quite cute and brilliant of us :) Here's the picture of the wreath on mine and Daina's door... It's going to be so nice and full of happy gratitude-filled leaves by the time Thanksgiving rolls around! :)

Here are pictures of us making them... :)

One of the other finished wreaths... without any leaves pinned on yet

Writing a nifty little poem to instruct our other roommates on what to do with the wreaths :)

It was quite a lovely craft... fun and good to encourage a spirit of love and gratitude for each other! I thought it would be fun to do at home with my family throughout the month of November... but I won't be home before thanksgiving to join in on the fun :( It would be a good little activity to encourage feelings of gratitude for one another though :) Or just one wreath on the front door could have general things you're grateful for... just some fun little ideas! :)

Italians know how to do it right :) - Amazing Farmhouse in Tuscany :)

My mom just got our tickets to fly into Italy and travel through Italy, Germany, and France this summer. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! :) :) :) Yesterday she sent me links to see the places we're staying at in Italy. We aren't a fancy hotel staying family. My mom searches out all the best deals and finds really cheap places to stay  that are really cool, authentically European homes/apartments. I am so in love with the timeless European style... These places are hundreds, sometimes even thousands of years old. Everything is just so REAL looking.... it is amazing to me. How is it that the Europeans just know how to do things... they just know how to live right :) At least how to make their homes look right.... I looked at every photo of every place we're staying a few times.... just soaking it all in and getting even more excited to go. One place was looked so amazing. Like it was out of a magazine or something. Sadly, it's the one place my mom and Heidi are going before I arrive in Italy (Tuscany), but I can still enjoy the richness of its character and love it so much that I have to make a blog post just for its sake... it's just too amazing not to share :)

It's hard to say all I love about this kitchen..... the simplicity is beautiful, yet every detail is so rich at the same time! I love the wooden window and the ledge beneath the window, the simple curtains, the large sink, the fabric curtain beneath the cupboard, the doors, the box of wood, the floor... it's so simple yet so beautiful! The basket of fresh fruit... with leaves still on it, a block if Italian cheese.... It makes me want to live in this beautiful place!

That bookcase built into the wall, the desk, wooden beams across the ceiling, and again the stone floor :)

The cool blue/white walls, the lavender in the pitcher, the bed...

I don't even get to stay here specifically.... but needless to say it makes me extremely excited to experience the beautiful simplicity of European culture. I've been to France once, and can't wait to wander again among the fields of lavender and taste the fresh baguette and goat cheese! :)