just a little note....

I was just sitting here thinking about how AMAZING 2011 has been to me. I normally like to do a recap of the past year...but I just haven't had the time to put something together. Maybe another time... ;)

in the meantime (and probably forever) here's just a list of things I feel I have accomplished in the past year:

I have grown. lived. loved. cried. laughed. planned. had adventures. seen new things. experienced. trusted. risked. jumped. danced. been overjoyed. dated. flown. spread my wings. sewn. decorated. 

in short...I have FLOURISHED.

Enjoy your new year's eve celebrations. :o) And I'll see you next year!

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 52nd Edition

Today's tender mercy comes in the form of my family. I am so blessed to have the family I do. They are the bestest ever.

I have really been enjoying my time here in Virginia. I haven't had to be up at a certain time. We've gotten to play lots of games and get to know the newest edition to our family. There have been movies, lots of good food, and new traditions. My family is just awesome and they make life bearable when times are gray.

I am so thankful for my family and the support they lend to me constantly. I really don't know where I'd be in this life without them. :)

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all are enjoying this wonderful time of year and the time you (hopefully!) get to spend with your families! I know that I am enjoying every. single. minute (all the while missing Monkey Man). Here's a little something that I wanted to share with you that will hopefully put you in the proper mood. Much love!

Friday Things!

Hello my dearest Internet friends! I apologize that it's been several days since I last posted, but with spending a whole day on a plane/in an airport and then enjoying the lack of responsibility that I have right now, I just haven't felt like posting! However, I thought on today, this being Christmas Adam and all, I would leave you with a few things..... :o)

• Being with my family is awesome. I haven't seen them since my sister's wedding in June and it's great to be able to spend time with them.

• I am starting to catch up on sleep and it is wonderful. I really love not having to wake up to an alarm clock every day. :o)

• Having the Brother-in-law around is...different. It definitely makes things more interesting. Not bad, just interesting. 

• I am intrigued to see what happens when there is more than one significant other around here. That will be fun times.

• I wonder what the coming year will bring. While I had a year full of growth and flourishing - it still feels like I did a lot of the same old same old. I guess that's an adult life for ya....but I still wonder what next year will be like. I'm excited for it to come so I can see. :o)

• I miss Monkey Man like crazy. When we said goodnight/goodbye on Tuesday night (really early Wednesday morning) I thought that the next 8 days were going to go by SO SLOWLY. But then we were talking last night and I realized just how quickly my vacation was going to come to an end. I think it helps that I'll still have a holiday and a few days before having to go back to real life once I'm back in Utah.

• Monkey Man got me a great Christmas present: a really pretty brown infinity scarf + black hand warmer things. (like fingerless gloves without the finger parts) He did a great job for the first gift giving-ness in our relationship. ;)

• I haven't been to the gym since Monday evening...but I'm going later this afternoon AND I am going running with my dad tomorrow morning. So that's good.

• Virginia is not that cold right now. In fact, when I stepped off the plane it was balmy 63 degrees. I love it. The house is a little cooler than that - it's the way the house was built, but the fact is there is NO snow, NO ice, and NO need for crazy amounts of layers. I am totally okay with this this year. In fact, I prayed for it. ;)

Basically, I am really enjoying my time off and my first real vacation in a LONG, LONG time. I don't really count the week I took off for my sister's wedding or any of the times I took off for other reasons and had a "staycation" as vacation. This is my first REAL vacation in a year and boy, do I deserve it! I hope you all have the best Christmas weekend ever! I'll be in touch...eventually. ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 51st Edition

Well m'dears. The fact that I haven't posted in a week should be a testament to how busy I really have been in the past week. Since last Tuesday I have:

• gotten my hair done - it looks fantastic! I'm in love with it.
• Played volleyball
• Hung out with Monkey Man countless times.
• Made pumpkin bread and white chocolate popcorn as gifts.
• Done my visiting teaching.
• Collected sub-for-Santa gifts from people in my ward
• Sung in my ward's Christmas program
• Hung out with Truit + Husband. They met Monkey Man. It was good times.
• Went to temple square...again. :o)
• Went to a wedding reception
• Caught the bouquet without trying. (seriously. It fell into my hands. No jumping required for this girl!)
• Had roommate Christmas
• Have my bags 75% packed (checked bag is 99% packed, carry-on and personal item are almost done)
• Checked into my departing flight :o)
• Taught several ballet classes
• Went to they gym and worked out with my trainer - twice!
• Worked on my day off. :(

It's been a very busy past seven days. I still have a few things to take care of this afternoon/evening. But once my ballet classes are taught I should be go to go and then I'll get to hang out with Monkey Man all night and have Christmas with him. :o) I'm excited. I'm also sad to be leaving him for so long. Thankfully there is plenty of technology to help us stay in contact for the 9 days I'll be gone.

This is not the point of the post  - the main point is to tell you about the most wonderful tender mercy I had this past week.

Life has obviously been really, really busy for me and I've been very stressed - especially the past couple of days. However, I have had times when the spirit of Christmas has been so strong and has blessed my life and reminded me why I do what I do at this time of year.

I've had the wonderful opportunity to help organize a sub-for-Santa for a couple of families in the home stake that feeds into our single's ward. It has been a wonderful experience to see people from my ward step it up and shower these families with generosity. These families that weren't going to have any kind of Christmas are now going to have a wonderful Christmas filled with love and laughter. There are so many wonderful people in the world and I feel so blessed to be able to know so many of them.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 50th Edition

Hello my dears! I hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday. My brain is feeling a little on the fried side, but I had the most wonderful evening last night. After frosting cookies, Monkey Man and I along with some friends played with the xbox Kinnect. Totally counting that as my workout last night. The dancing game rocks my socks.

But let's get to the point of this post - my tender mercy of the week. Saturday was going to be an insanely busy day for me and I had 5 different things that I needed attend because of my responsibilities. However, as Friday evening progressed 2 of those 5 things got canceled. This made me so happy and honestly made my Saturday much more bearable.

It is always the smallest things that will make me realize how very blessed I really am and I am so thankful for all the blessings I have been given since I started this meme. It's hard to believe that it has been over a year already since the induction of this meme.

As I reflect on the past year (and get ready to do my yearly recap) I am blown away by the love that has been shown to me in SO many different ways. My word of they year - Flourish - has been so very good to me. I'm currently brainstorming different words for next year's word of the year. Any suggestions?

In the meantime....I'm starting to freakout about EVERYTHING that needs to get done between now and next Tuesday....I'm not really positive on how that's all going to go down :P Here's hoping I can be productive this evening! Ciao!

9 days and counting!

I leave for Virginia in NINE days. I have so much to do between now and then I'm not sure how everything is going to get done.

Also, work is crazy busy and my brain is fried. I'm sure I was going to tell you something amazingly interesting (or not) but I can't remember what that might have been.

hmmmm.

Yeah, I gots nothing. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting. ciao!

A Friday!!!

Hello dearest friends.

Guess what?

It's FRIDAY! Oh how I love that today is Friday. Tomorrow is going to be my busiest day of the month BY FAR, but I'm still excited for it to be the weekend. This is mostly because this is my last FULL week of work until the middle of January. (I have planned my vacationing/time off well.....  ;) )

Last night Monkey Man took me salsa dancing. It was a blast. I loved every minute of it. He's a very good dancer and I enjoyed being in his arms throughout the evening. Loved it.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Don't implode! ;) (that's my one goal this weekend - don't implode)

Thursday Things

Hi guys. things are crazy. When are they not crazy right? but really....this time of year is always nuts-o in the office and this year is NO exception. I have just a few thoughts that I want to share with y'all today.

• I went to the temple last night with members of my ward. It was so wonderful to be there with my friends. I love going to the temple and last night was no exception. I had a wonderful expereince and can't wait to repeat it sometime in the near future.

• Tonight Monkey Man is taking me salsa dancing. :o) 

• I'm nervous and I think I know why. See...the last time a significant other took me dancing it was SwingKid and it was @ Blue Tango - a venue we frequented often when we were dating and a place I still frequent. (In fact, I'm ditching Blue Tango tonight for salsa dancing.) And I'm just nervous about dancing with Monkey Man. I'm sure he's a fabulous dancer...but it's still a little nerve wracking. I'm sure it will be fine, but for now I'm nervous.

• I leave for VA in 13 days. I have WAY too much to do between now and then. I have no idea how I'm going to get everything done in the next 13 days. GAH!

• Have I mentioned that work is insane? Yeah. INSANE.

I am pretty sure there are more things that I was going to share with you. Unfortunately, my brain is not working very well these days. I think it has something to do with a) the insanity at work and b) being twitterpated. ;) Hope you all have a great evening. I'm pretty sure I'll be back tomorrow. ;)

thoughts of my heart

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Tender Mercy Tuesday - 49th Edition

Hello dears.

It has been a week FULL of tender mercies. It honestly has been one thing after another and I have been so blessed in so many different ways.

I think the one that stands out to me the most is in relation to my calling. Being over so many sisters and needing to know their needs and concerns so that I can help them can be very overwhelming at times.  This past week has been full of small moments of me being given ways to help these sisters and feel like I am, in some way, assisting these sisters to learn and grow. It's a good feeling to know that these sisters are being watched over and that Heavenly Father is working through me to help His daughters that he loves so very much.

How wonderful this gospel is to be full of light and happiness and a Heavenly Father who truly cares about each and every one of His children. It's amazing.

"it's busy season!"

that is our  go-to phrase here at work these days. My coworker is super cute when she says it to justify our three-week lead time on our product. The months of November/December are always crazy in the office, but this year it seems to be amplified 100x or so. Life is INSANE around the office.

Anyways. Seeing as how it's been almost a week since I last posted I figured a bullet-point list would be the best way to catch you up on my awesome life. (seriously, life is uber awesome.)

• Monkey Man is the sweetest guy in the whole wide world and I'm the luckiest girl ever. Seriously. I catch myself staring at him all the time and thinking to myself, "how did I get so lucky?" things are good.

• Went to Temple Square on Saturday night w/Monkey Man and another couple to see the lights, go to dinner (Z'Tejas @ Gateway. okay food. not my favorite restaurant) and then party it up at the Clark Planetarium. We took fun pictures on the moon and mars. It was a blast (although VERY cold).

• Had the annual Christmas tour day for my ballet company. that was a day full of driving and stuff. Nothing bad happened and it was a pretty good day overall. 

• Made Aebelskivers last night w/Sister B and her husband and Monkey Man. Also, we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and played games. It was fun times. 

• during the course of this week, Monkey Man and I have something together to do/attend 5/7 days. :o) I'm very excited about this.

• I'm finding it hard to believe that it's been a year. Part of me is shocked it has only been a year. At times it feels longer. 

• I'm addicted to cherry coridal kisses and m&ms. :o) yummy.

• I haven't been very good about going to the gym the past week or so. My trainer is going to kill me.

• I get to party it up with my ballet girls tonight. I'm rather excited to see all my friends. It's been awhile.

• I leave for VA in 16 days. EEK! Christmas is going to be here before I know it. :P

• I need an idea for a mass gift for my RS sisters. Any and all ideas are welcome. a DIY project is not really feasible at this point, but I need to keep cost down as well....so yeah. Please suggest something. ;)

• My office was a brisk 56 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. SO COLD. Stupid next door office that controls the thermostat and doesn't leave it on during the weekends. :P

• The world is very, very small. Roommate R (one of my favorite persons EVER) is friends with someone that Monkey Man knows as well. Insane how small the world is. ESPECIALLY in Utah.

Basically, I'm really  busy with life in general but I'm super happy, twitterpated, and joyful as an elf.  :o) Have a wonderful day!