2007 in Review

Well folks, here it is. The end of another year. Crazy how fast times fly is it not? SO much has happened this year, so I have decided to do a little flashback/review of the year. Here goes!

January 2007

January was a new beginning for me. I had an awesome school schedule, I got to go country dancing. Overall, I was very happy with my life at that point in time. Things were good.

February 2007

February was an exciting month. My sister turned 16, I got asked out on a date. And then got extremely frustrated with that boy. My February ended with me going to my former studio's performance and trying to figure out my life.

March 2007

March was an awesome month for me. I turned 21, had a performance, and welcomed spring with all my heart. Other than that, march wasn't all that exciting...but I did turn 21. Yay me.

April 2007

I began the month of April watching General Conference. I remember that conference like it was yesterday. It was very good and I enjoyed it muchly. Following that i suddenly became very thought-provoked and was really taking a hard look at my life. I finished my Junior year and moved for the first time since moving out of my house in 2004. At the end of the month I had a crazy dating weekend, and felt very lost. April was a psycho crazy month.

May 2007

May was pretty exciting. I started to settle into my new place and tried to get into the ward. I bought a fish, (who is still alive btw) bought a new compy (i love dominic) and went to they eye doctor. Oh...and I got a summer fling.

June 2007

well...June was pretty much the middle of the summer for me. I made a lot of self-discoveries and some weird kids thought I was my brother's girlfriend. Oh and I went country dancing, again.

July 2007

July was an incredible month. Highlights include: breaking up with a boy, having a mid-week crisis, having amazing FHE brothers who helped fix things, realizing for the zillionth time that boys are stupid, and I decided that I was in love with paper clips. It was a crazy month.

August 2007

I started off August right by having to go the Student Health Center's Emergency Care unit for my finger. I finished summer term with a bang, got a date (because I rock) oh and I watched the meteor shower. Oh yeah...started packing so I could move (and remembered that I HATE moving?) Went home...and realized how much Heavenly Father loves me through my dad. Then a MIRACLE happened...along with getting a plethora of dates. ;) Oh and I made this...which made my life go like this... and that's pretty much how August went down. It was a busy, busy month.

September 2007

Let's see...September was sort of eventful. I was dating SS Prez. And then shortly after that I stopped dating him. However, he was good for me, and really helped boost my self-esteem. After that era ended, I decided to be spontaneous and crazy. Which actually ended up being a good thing, since he's now my boyfriend. [sigh] After all that went down, September ended up being somewhat disappointing, but I got over it eventually.

October 2007

October started out with the best General Conference I have ever had. seriously. Then I fell in love with this, followed by watching a great football game in the snow. Halloween was sort of uneventful...although around that time i did become "official" according to facebook...gotta love facebook.

November 2007

November started off with the real reason why I dance, followed by my show, which I did breakdown for, and got shingles. Other than that and Thanksgiving, November was fairly uneventful.

December 2007

It all started with the presidential campaign speech of the year: Faith in America. Then I experienced the weirdest feeling in the world, honestly it was freaky. As the weather tends to do in Utah during the winter, we got lots of snow and even more snow. Don't forget that finals finally ended, and oh yeah...I had a sad day. However, Christmas came and went and it was fantastic.

This year has been a great one. It's gone by so fast, yet holds so many milestones for me. I became an adult, started my fourth year of college, realized who I am, what I need, and where I can go with my life. So 2008...what kind of changes do you hold for me? I can only imagine....

What I learned at church today

So being the 5th Sunday, Priesthood and Relief Society were combined and we were taught by our bishop. Now, I'm still at home, so this was no Singles Ward 5th Sunday chastity, dating, or marriage talk. It was quite refreshing, if I do say so myself. Instead, we talked about resolutions, and how if you take the word apart it looks like this: re - solution, so it's where we already know the solution but decide to resolve it. It was interesting.

So that led us into discussing the life of Peter the disciple of Christ and how we are like Peter. My favorite part was where we discussed Christ's commandment to Peter to

"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs." (John 21:15)

We broke this down and talked about 3 different parts, "lovest thou me", "more than these" and "feed my lambs (and repeated 2x as sheep)". Under "lovest thou me" we discussed how this represents Christ and how we can show him we love Him. Then we talked about how we can "feed my lambs/sheep," and the many different areas that that commandment covers. We also discussed that to feed all of his other sheep, we must first feed ourselves, because we mustn’t forget that we are part of His great fold. In conjunction with that we discussed the "more than these" and what parts of life deters us from feeding the lambs of God. There were so many things on this list that it felt somewhat overwhelming that I need to overcome all of those things in order to feed the sheep. However, it all tied into Sunday School where we discussed the latter chapters of Revelation and discussed that this gospel is one of optimism, and the plan was created with the purpose of every single one of us returning to live in the presence of Heavenly Father.

So this year, I am not going to make a list of the hundreds things that I have solutions to; instead, I am going to focus on being a disciple of Christ and following the commandment to "feed my sheep." Knowing full well that this saying includes me, because I am a member of the fold, I know that by feeding myself it will become easier to feed others who need the nourishment that comes from the gospel. That is my one goal for this year, and I hope that one year from now, I can look back and say that I have done my very best and be happy with myself.

lazy

today i have been very lazy. i decided this morning that i really didn't want to get ready, i had nowhere to go and no one to impress today, so i stayed in my sweats all day long. it was wonderful. i have been very comfortable all day long. so with being lazy i was roaming some blogs and notes on facebook, and i found this little list that i had never seen before...so i filled it out. enjoy some randomness from the life of alishka.

1. Do you know someone named Amanda? Yes, yes I do.
2. Do you know anyone named Chris? Yup…I’m related to him!
3. Ever kissed anyone with a name starting with S? nope.
4. Do you have any siblings? Sure thang.
5. Do you look alike? People say we look similar…but I’m not so sure I believe them…
6. What color are the walls in your bedroom? White.
7. Who did you see in person today? My family.
8. Are you named after a grandparent? Nada.
9. Are you a heavy sleeper? Sorta…
10. Who did you last hug? My madre
11. Are you taller than 5'3"? why yes I am!
12. Eaten a bug before? Not on purpose.
13. Ever see a dead body other than at a funeral? Nope.
14. Do you like the color green? Yep…I wear lots and lots of green.
16. Who was the last person to send you a text message? My friend from high school.
17. Who did you last call?a friend from high school (but different than who text’d me)
18. Do you like to read? Yep, yep, yep! I’m reading a really good book right now too…
19. Are you a jealous type? In some ways yes, but I try not to let it get to me.
20. What made you smile today? Talking to my boy. ;)
21. What are you doing today? Absolutely nothing…I stayed in my pj’s all day, although there is girl’s night in tonight, I’m chillin’ with my mom and sisters. :) chocolate will be involved, that’s a guarantee.
22. What did you do yesterday? Worked all day, went to dinner with my friends from high school and then hung out with my family.
23. What's the first thing you would do with a million dollars? Pay off my school loan, go to Disneyland, buy a car, and invest the rest. Or something like that.
25. How many hours did you sleep for last night? Um…10 ish…I love Christmas break!
26. Who was the last person you had a sleep over with? My siblings on Christmas eve!
27. Who’s the last person that creeped you out? Uh….this boy that called me wanting to go on a date…
28. Do you like your school? Yes I do.
29. What jewelery are you wearing? A pair of blue earrings.
30. Anything fun happen today? My mom and I did 3ish crossword puzzles, there’s girl’s night out tonight, and I got to talk to my boyfriend…:)
31. Anything bad happen today? Nope.
33. Are you mad at anyone? nada
34.What's the last thing you bought? Italian dressing for dinner.
35. Have you cried today? Nope.
36. Do you think that someone is thinking about you right now? Perhaps.
37. Do you have shoes on? No, but I am wearing some funky slipper/sock things. They’re very comfy.\
38. Whats the closest thing to you that is pink? he he he…nothing really.
39. Do you get annoyed easily? Not so much, but some people tend to annoy the heck out of me.
40. Are you photogenic? People tell me I am.
41. Do you like to draw pictures of woodard? Um…I can’t draw.
42. Are you good at saving money? I try to be.
43. What should you be doing right now? Nothing. I’m doing nothing today. That was my goal.
44. Do you have a tattoo? nada
45. Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday mornings? When I am getting ready for rehearsal I tend to turn on some cartoons to help wake me up while I eat breakfast, but that’s because there is no news on tv on Saturday mornings.
46. Is there a secret you've never told your best friend? Probably. But not anything I can think of right away.
47. Have you ever told someone you hated them? To their face? Possibly, but it was probably in jest.
48. Have you ever changed your clothes in the car? Oh yes…many times. The joys of ballet.
49. What are you doing in 2008? Going to school, maybe going back east, definitely working, and making lots and lots of decisions.
50. What are your ringtones? Well, my fam’s ring tone is drums or something like that. My other main tone is the Little Mermaid “Kiss the Girl.” :) I like it.

White Christmas!!

Well...you can't ask for much more of a white Christmas than this:
Merry Christmas y'all!!!

It's Christmastime!

I love the smell of pine trees. Unfortunately, this year my family went the fake Christmas tree route (which it actually looks half decent, I have to admit, and maybe I'll post pictures later.) However, with having a fake Christmas tree one misses out on the smell of pine. *sigh* But guess what?! My mother was smart enough to buy a very good pine smelling candle. It's very good, and I love the smell of it. yum.

I came home the other day. Home is actually fantastic. I haven't killed anyone yet, so that's always a good sign that things are going well. :-) I've done a lot of family-things with my family the past couple of days and its been so much fun! Tonight we're going to make loads of cookies and tomorrow is Christmas Eve, which means we'll be cooking all day. See, our family tradition involves us doing the big celebratory dinner on Christmas Eve. Then all of us kids will pile into one room for the classic sibling sleep-over so Santa can come and no one will peek at the presents. :)

I love this time of year. It's so nice to relax and not worry about classes and the resulting homework. In other news I passed my Econ 110 class, hurray for me. All the rest of my classes I will get good grades in, so I'm not worried at all. I'm so glad that this semester is done. Only 3 more to go. Yahoo!!

Merry Christmas y'all!!