It's Been Awhile...

HELLO ALL! Here we go again! I have decided that my blogging commitments have been long overdue, and that it is FINALLY time for me to create a new entry. You can only imagine what my journal writing is like.. YEAH. Non-existent. On again, off again... not only that, but I think I start a new one every time I decide to write an entry so none of my journal entries are even together!! Gosh I am pathetic haha. Anyway, I have a lot to post, so let's get started. Seeing as it has been awhile, I am going to post the most recent episodes first, and then branch out from there.

(#1) Recently, I have been going to the hospital yet AGAIN for some more tests. I had some chest pain on Sunday and decided that it was heartburn, so I took some Prilosec in hopes that it would just go away, and yes. You guessed it. It just got worse. That whole night, my chest felt like someone was pushing a pin into my heart and no matter which side I turned to lay on, the pain never subsided. The next morning I woke up and I found that the pain was not only in my chest anymore, but it had moved into the upper left portion of my back as well. It hurt so bad. I was on my way to school when I called my Mom and asked her to get me an appointment in Draper/Riverton where I was supposed to be teaching that afternoon. After talking with the doctor, he had come to the conclusion that I needed to have some testing done to see whether or not the pain was caused from pancreatitus or bleeding ulcers. I had blood work done immediately and the following day, I set up an appointment to have a CT scan done in order to check my abdomen. The day before my CT scan, my doctor called to tell me that the results of my blood tests showed that the bilirubin in my system was slightly elevated (which meant that my kidneys weren't functioning properly) and that I needed to go back into the office for more blood tests after my CT scan. Fortunately, my CT scan results showed no sign of ulcers or pancreatitus, (I still wonder what was causing the pain) and I haven't heard back on my blood tests yet. I will definitely keep you all updated! I hope you all stay healthy and happy!!

(#2) At work on Thursday I received some beautiful flowers from my boyfriend. He is such a sweetheart. One out of the many things that I love about him is that he doesn't ever need an excuse, an occasion, or a national holiday to show that he cares. On the card, all it said was "Just because I love you". I am blessed to have him in my life. Everyday is a holiday. :) I can honestly say that I have THE best boyfriend in the world. I love him to death.




(#3) Welcome to 2009! I still cannot believe that another year has already gone by. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years flew by way too fast this year.

For Thanksgiving, my Aunt Nalani's family came over for dinner. Dinner seemed such a small one since there were actually places to sit. Normally, we have a ton of family over, but with my grandparents gone on their mission, not many came over this year. However, we enjoyed being together with the time that we had! After dinner, all the cousins ended up in a major ping-pong tournament in our basement. It was a lot of fun, AND a great way to work all of that great food off haha.






For Christmas this year, my family (and extended family) headed out to my Aunt Sally's house in Bountiful. My Aunt had assigned each family a job, whether it was food, preparing a Christmas message, entertainment, etc. It was my family's responsibility to be in charge of the games. That night we started off with tons of Mexican food. It is tradition for my Aunt's family to have Mexican food on Christmas Eve so we had tamales, an enchilada casserole, bean dips, chips, rice, pinto beans, and my Mom made some INCREDIBLE flan. Yes, it was heaven. :)

After dinner, we all sat down to have a Christmas lesson that my Uncle Rich had prepared. He talked about some of the Christmas traditions in England, and how they differed from what we do here. It was very interesting!

After our lesson, my Aunt had all of the cousins act out the Christmas story while my Uncle read from the Bible. We even got to dress up! My family has never done that before so I thought it was really special to be able to do that this year with them.

Very last, we played games! My sister LOVES the game "Curses" so we thought it would be fun to try it out. Because we have a bunch of actors in my family, it turned out to be quite funny and entertaining haha. If you have never played the game before, I suggest that you do. We had someone with a Transylvanian accent, an Elmer Fudd accent, an Irish accent and an echo, someone who was a compulsive liar, a barking dog, someone who fainted every time the bell rang, and someone confined to a walkie-talkie haha. I was impressed! I love my family! :)



The last week in December, my boyfriend's parents went out of town for a week so I got to babysit his cute sister Savanna and spend New Years with she and her two brothers Jared and Jordan! It was a blast. All week we played nintendo, watched movies, ate (of course! That IS my favorite past time haha), lounged, and finished this huge 2000 piece Coke puzzle! We stayed up until 5 AM one morning just to finish that thing!! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed myself. :) Thanks for having me! I love you all!

Isn't this puzzle amazing? It took up almost the entire width of the table!



(#4) My brother's girlfriend Katie is currently in the culinary program up at UVU where she is learning how to... well... you know... cook haha. My favorite part about this is that she practices on my family! :) Every time she is over, my family has the opportunity to either learn how to cook something, or she will bring something over for us to try. So far, my sister and I have learned how to make creme anglais with frozen fruit, a variety of pies, and the art of cake decorating! Yesterday she brought us some great gourmet macaroni and cheese, which is actually one of the recipes from a new restaurant in Highland called "Blue Lemon". She was hired to work there as a chef! We are so proud of her. :) Love ya Katie!

The pie-making...







Cake Decorating!





Yeah I don't exactly know what Ann was going for here, but it was definitely abstract haha..






(#6) At the beginning of the school year, I was asked to leave my position as a Young Adult Leader in my home ward and serve in the Primary Presidency as a Secretary. It was a complete turn around from working with 18-30 year olds, but it has been so much fun and really... quite refreshing. I feel so blessed to be working with children. If it's one thing that I have learned from them, it is to love everyone unconditionally. I still remember the first week of being in the Primary. It had been a hectic morning, I wasn't feeling so well, and I KNOW for a fact that I didn't look well, but near the end of middle exercises, one of the little girls from the sunbeams class came up to me and gave me a huge hug. This little girl had no idea who I was. Honestly, I was shocked. It was then that I realized what I was missing in my own life, that unconditional, "no matter what" kind of love for everyone- whether I knew them or not. I really missed my YSA calling and that little girl welcomed me with open arms! Since then, I have kept a little notebook of all of the funny or memorable moments that have happened in Primary. This has helped me to really love my calling! I just thought I would share a few:

Little boy (turns around to the boy behind him): "You sing like CRAP!"

"When can we go home?"

"Please bless we won't run in the halls..."

Teacher: "And the moral of the story is?"
Boy (puzzled): "Uh... never mess with God??"

Teacher: "Do the scriptures tell us that we are loved?"
Sunbeam: "Silly the scriptures can't talk!"

Sunbeam (confused with the song "Angels We Have Heard On High"): "Angels are singing sweetly o'er the "planes"?"

Teacher: "Do you ever get down on yourselves?"
Boy: "Nope. I'm awesome."

As you all can tell, things have been going great. I hope that all has been well for all of you. Thanks for being patient with me! :) Loves!