M.I.A.

So....I've been missing in action the past week or so. For this, I apologize. Being sick really threw me for a loop. After spending all day Saturday in Ogden I had to play catch up at home with my chores/other responsibilities. I have a lot on my plate right now and I'm getting really close to the end of my rope. Here's hoping things calm down before I blow a gasket or something along those lines.

I have so many random things to tell you that I think we'll do a little  Friday Things! :o) Enjoy!

• I keep trying to participate in the photo-a-day meme on Instagram, but I have failed miserably for the past three months. Maybe when life isn't trying to kill me....

• The year-end show for my company is in 3 short weeks. I'm excited to get things said and done for this year, I'm beyond burnt out with teaching and I am very much looking forward to not teaching this summer.

• The next two weeks should be pretty awesome. I have a three-day weekend (yay for Memorial Day! Paid Holiday! WOO HOO!!) then a three-day work week followed by another three-day weekend (yay day off!) so the next week or so should be GRAND.

• I get to spend all this weekend up in L* I'm rather stoked to spend the entire weekend chillaxin' with Soldier Boy + daughter.

• I got a new phone last weekend! Nothing super fancy - I'm still in the world of non-smart phones. But he's pretty cute and I'm a fan.

• Yesterday was just awful. I had a horrid dentist call me at work and yell at me. It was not fun times.

• Oh! I'm trying to find a cute craft to do for Soldier Boy for Father's Day. He's the best dad ever and I want him to know that. If you have ideas, please share! Pinterest only takes me so far....

• Pandora and I have  been really good friends as of late. I've got a shuffle of the 80s pop station, Today's Hits and Contemporary Country playing and oh man, oh man. GOOD STUFF y'all! I'm in love.

• My visiting teachers visited me earlier this week. I love visiting teaching. It always manages to lift my spirits.

• Today is a ridiculously busy day as I get ready for my long weekend not in O-town. It's okay, I can deal.

• I feel like I'm forgetting to tell you something. :P oh well....

 HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEKEND EVERYONE!! :o) Party Hard!

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!

just another....

MANIC MONDAY!!!

Seriously, it is crazy around here peeps. Work has just been one thing after another all day long. sigh. At least I can rest easy knowing that there are just two hours until my evening.

I have so much to blog about...I think we're going to need bullet points.....

• game night last night? EPIC. Seriously. At one point it was down to four of us and we played Go Fish! when is the last time YOU played Go Fish? (granted, this was a child version of go fish...with pictures of fishes and what not. not the real life GROWN UP version. WHO KNEW there was grown up version of Go Fish?!!) For me...it had been quite sometime. We had to read the rules. Also, we were hilarious playing this game. It was honestly one of my favorite moments of game nights so far.

• Surfer Boy....is my friend. And for now, i'm okay with that. At some point we might be more...but for now we are friends. Which is good. I want to marry my best friend. :o)

• I learned some interesting things about some back story on Blindman2 (remember him?). It makes me want to continue giving him a chance. I think I'll be seeing him in a couple of weeks with our mutual friends. We'll see what goes down at that point.

• I get to go to Tuachan this weekend! I AM SO EXCITED!!!! I can deal with ANYTHING at work this week if only because I'll be "out of town" for a mere 24 hours. :o)

• We've started having "ward prayer" again on Sunday evenings. I just LOVE going to this. There have been times in my life where I have despised ward prayer and have refused to go. Not anymore!

• TV Fall Season Premieres are upon us!!! I'm rather excited for my two favorite shows: Castle and The Big Bang Theory. YAY for fun things again!!!!

• I think I mentioned this the other day...but i'm totally doing my challenge for another week. It rocked my world last week, I'm going to make it rock again this week. :o)

• I'm going to go see 17 Miracles tonight. Don't be surprised if it shows up in my tender mercy post tomorrow. I have a feeling it could....

• I was visiting teaching this weekend and I read this quote in the message. It's how I'm going to live my life: “We prepare each day, right now, for eternal life. If we are not preparing for eternal life, we are preparing for something less, perhaps something far less.” - Elder M. Russell Ballard

I'm not sure if that's everything or not. oh well. Enjoy the rest of your Monday!

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 32nd Edition

Here we are....another Tuesday. Time seems to be just flying by these days. Before I know it the musical will be over, classes for my studio will have started again and life will feel a little more normal....maybe. What is normal anyways?

I mentioned last week that I was getting a new calling at church. I was sustained and set apart on Sunday as my ward's Relief Society President. Scary, right? My tender mercy today directly deals with this new calling. I knew right when I was called who one of my counselors needed to be to serve with me. I was unsure if she'd be willing to accept - it's a big call and a lot of work. However, she did accept and she and I worked together for a long time on Sunday working on Visiting Teaching. She is already such a blessing to me and I know we're going to work SO WELL together. In fact, both of my counselors are so amazing and I'm excited to work with them and help our Relief Society grow and learn and become more unified as sisters in the gospel. The Church is so true and I love being pushed to learn more and strengthen my testimony. I don't feel completely adequate for this call, but I know whom the Lord calls, he qualifies. I have definitely already spent a lot of time on my knees looking for guidance and I already know that this is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done, but it is also going to be the most rewarding.

Have a great Tuesday y'all!