Day Four

Take amazing friends to see the Lights at Temple Square for the very first time!

Lexi, Katie, Me and Zoe


Meet my sweet friend Zoe who is from Sunderland, England. She has been studying at the U this past semester. Zoe loves Christmas and I wanted to make sure that she saw the lights before going back home. :**( She leaves on the 16th.


The fun surprise was that Katie had never seen the lights before either. So we had a challenge to make it extra special.


Luckily, Lexi and Trevor came along to join in the fun. Kevin also came with me, which was nice because we haven't had a lot of time to go out together lately. 


We started at the Lion House, one of my favorites.

 Zoe and Katie at our table. All of us except for Kevin, ordered Italian chicken. Kevin had a pork pot pie. It was all delicious.
Plus, don't forget their world famous rolls!


Everyone loved the lights. It's such a beautiful time of year.

We made sure they also had a chance to see the Christmas Tree at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Lexi, Katie, Zoe and I


It was a perfect way to remind us what Christmas is all about.

The Nativity


Remember the Reason for the Season.

A night of Settlers and Movies

You're probably thinking, well, you've done a post about Settlers of Catan. It just happens to be our favorite game! Or should I say currently because we love playing games together.

Tonight was no exception because Lexi and Trevor came to join in the fun!

Settlements and Cities. We can't wait till we're able to afford the expansion packs like Seafarers (it adds boats to the game).

However in the meantime, it's always great to have friends over for a little competition.

There were also pumpkin chocolate chip cookies involved and some frosted sugar cookies, both were just too good to appear right here. We ate them all before we could get a picture. :)

The evening's entertainment ended with the beginning of "Fiddler on the Roof." We were all singing "Tradition! Tradition!"

Yay for a fun game, friends, cookies, and movie!

The day I felt I let everyone down

Saturday, was just a hard day. I was really sick and my mouth was hurting really badly. I think I've developed some sort of toothache and probably an infection in my gum. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it would hurt so bad. I broke my tooth back in July and thought nothing of it because it didn't hurt. Plus, while we have insurance, we just didn't have the money to go see the dentist. (I'm almost done paying off the doctor bills) I pretty much forgot about my tooth until it started to hurt.

Sadly, on Saturday it was the day of the big race. I trained for it and everything. Somehow, I just had to catch a cold the week of, miss lots of class, sleep away the days, not update the blog, not finish my homework, not read textbooks, not unpack, not clean and just sleep the time away. I hated it. There's a famous quote from my favorite book. "When you're in bed, you're dead."

I certainly felt like that. My sister-in-law Bethany came over the morning of and must of freaked out by the mess she saw. I bet she couldn't believe the amount of clothes that were everywhere. I did have them organized but the flimsy rack that they were hanging on decided to break. We just didn't have enough time to get a new one.

While they were gone, I did a lot of sleeping and when I woke up, a lot of cleaning. Mostly because I was pretty upset that I have lost Nie Nikon once again in the same week. I found it earlier in the week in a HUGE pile of laundry. So I attempted to search for it once again while trying to organize everything. Second let down, is because I had some amazing pictures of the Nixon family and their garden, which I still plan to share with you (once I find the camera). I just hope it's around the apartment and not in the Comm building.

I literally waste so much time looking for things around this apartment. I think I've lost my mind and I feel so behind on everything. However, I have a plan to buy hooks to put keys and cameras on so I don't lose them. I just don't know where to put my glasses quite yet.

I felt bad not running the race. They had such a great time! Just look how dirty they got. Lexi ran with my team and replaced me. It was nice of her to do that and be covered with mud, literally.

When Kevin came home, there was no sign of Nie Nikon and the place still wasn't that clean. Too many boxes still, if you ask me.

Luckily, I have a forgiving husband and took me out to buy a new rack to hang my clothes on after he came home (and showered, of course). Then he gave me a coupon to Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt to use after Women's Conference. Good thing too, Jen and I had a wonderful time just catching up. We both had cake batter mixed with red velvet cake, with cheesecake bites on top. Way to end a hard day.

I'm sorry if I let you down. This whole sick thing better end soon.

I also really hope that this teacher has Nie Nikon. I have two classes in the same room. I'm hoping that it was an honest mistake there.

I'm going to the dentist later today, lucky me. First time in almost two years. Poor person who has to clean my teeth. I think they'll have to pull that tooth out. We'll see.

It started and ends with a list

I decided that for one of my upper division classes to take a Magazine Writing class. I was pretty excited to get into the habit of writing again and having someone critique my work. Little did I know how hard it would actually be.

These past few weeks we've been focusing on a personal essay and I have to say my colleagues and I have come up with some pretty interesting stories.

When it came for our first draft, I completely forgot about the assignment. I have a break between my classes and chose to print off a story from my blog. It seemed okay since it was a favorite experience and I didn't think she would linger long on the subject.

She liked the story but it just wasn't deep enough, not a story that would move someone. The example that she then gave me was about another student in my class who had saved an older woman from drowning and changed his life because of it. My thought was that not everyone has the opportunity or change to save someone's life. Even if we do save someone's life, we may not even know it because it may just be a simple act.

Then came the humiliating moment. She had us write down our top three of our highs in life, lows in life, and turning points in life to try to get everyone to think more deeply. I did this pretty quickly thinking that this would only stay in my notebook. The teacher then called on me and said, "What did you write?"

Gulp. I wasn't planning on sharing but participation points are a huge part of our grade and so I let it go.

Highs

mission

getting married

graduating high school-finishing the yearbook

Lows

miscarriage

getting sick in Pelotas (while on my mission)

failing my first year of college

Turning Points

going to Woods Cross

joining yearbook

going on a mission

miscarriage

The teacher proceeds to write these up on the board one by one and I can hear this huge gasp from everyone. I flinched but stayed strong only because Lexi was sitting next to me. She then proceeds to highlight which ideas she wants me to write about. She highlights two, mission and miscarriage, lingering over the miscarriage. I gulp again, knowing I don't even want to go there. I want and need an A in her class more than anything, I weigh my pros and cons to see if I can get out of it.

I thought about it for about a week. I didn't want to touch my book or any of the homework until I decided.

I knew it was coming and the real subject that the teacher wanted me write about the miscarriage. Another girl in the class starts to ask me about it, she's only 18, with her whole life ahead of her. She tells me that she is interested because it probably has happened a lot to students but no one will talk about it. She then proceeds to help me list ideas on what type of angle I could take.

That did it for me. No matter how difficult it was, it was time to let it out.

I come up with another draft, this time something that is deep for me and has forever changed my life. The teacher asks me to read the first few paragraphs and has to stop me at two because I can't go on. Lexi takes over and later tells me how writing can be very therapeutic. I agree with her.

What I don't think what the teacher knows is exactly how hard it was for me to do this. Right now, if the miscarriage hadn't happened, I wouldn't be in school, I would be taking care of my newborn baby.

I still haven't finished the final draft because I have to take it in increments not to fully break down, but this is what I realized.

The story begins like this:

It started with a list. A list about joy and things that make me happy. The list was "100 things of joy" for me to complete during the entire year. Most of it, was centered around our baby that was due in September. We were thrilled with the idea of becoming parents.

There is a feeling of the greatest joy, at least for us, when we found out we were going to be parents. Just the thought of it made my husband Kevin and I, fill with immediate happiness. We felt we were ready for this next step in our lives, that we would have a family. My list included several things such as "buy a crib."

The story will end somewhat like this:

It ends with a list. A list that is growing everyday about joy and all the things that are wonderful in this world. I have learned to cherish everyday and to not waste time. My motto has always been, "Live life to the fullest." By finding joy everyday, I know that I will accomplish this and will be able to overcome everything difficult in this world.

To you my readers, thank you for being apart of my journey. It has been difficult, but I know we can all overcome hard things. I may or may not post my final draft when I'm done, I'm thinking about it. If you would be interested in reading in, maybe you comment on your vote. The teacher is talking about finding a family magazine to publish it, she liked it that much. All I can say is, we'll see.

Thank you for now.

To my brother Nathan

Happy happy birthday!

There are several things that I love about you. First of all, you are my older brother, my partner in crime, one of the three musketeers. I admire the way you are an amazing father and how you are working so hard to give them everything that they need. You inspire me to be a better person everyday and the strength to keep going when I feel I can't continue.

Thank you for being the one to give lots of advice and late night frosty runs. A younger sister couldn't ask for a better brother. We made it, you're 27 with another girl on the way, I'm almost 25 and married. Best wishes to you always! Love you lots.

For Nate's birthday, we kept it simple and fun. A nice family dinner with the exceptions of Mark in the Philippines and Kevin down at a conference for engineering students in Austin.

I actually heard about the dinner last minute. Luckily, we don't live that far yet. I racked my brain about what I could get him. The thought of providing some cash to attend the state fair came into my mind. However, I still wanted to give him something other than cash.

As soon as I got out of class, I was talking with my sweet friend Lexi who just happened to have a buy one get one free coupon for the fair. That came just in time. Thanks Lexi!

I then remembered having heard about a sweet cupcake shop over in Foothill Village, SLC, called the Sweet Tooth Fairy. I LOVE cupcakes and everything that has to do with them. So I had plan. Get out of class, go to the Sweet Tooth Fairy and get

a cupcake for Nate, and hit the ATM for money for his family to go to the fair.

The Sweet Tooth Fairy is such a cute little sweet shoppe. A place that I recommend anyone to head to anytime they want a cupcake for ANY reason.

I smiled when I found that they have a cupcake especially for NieNie. Her flavor is VaNIElla Squared. All proceeds of that particular cupcake go to her family and the Arizona Burn Center.

Nate's cupcake was chocolate peanut butter. He said it was the best cupcake ever!

We also had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen for him. Either way, you can't go wrong. The funny part though was the candles. The seven happened to break and so we used Scooby Doo instead. Katelyn was thrilled.

Not a bad present. I heard that Nate and Jen did end up going to the fair. Jen's post on Facebook said it all, "Jennifer Soules had fun with the kiddos at the fair. Aiden kept pointing to all the animals and kept asking "Whas dat?", and Katelyn says we need to get a goat. Haha!"

Glad you guys had a great time!

We love you!

Sweet Lexi

This semester I pretty much thought I was on my own. Most of my friends have graduated now or have just moved on. I took so much time off for my mission and being sick, I was pretty sure that this year I probably wouldn't know anyone on campus or even really take the time to make new friends. It's turned out to be just the opposite.

My sweet new friend Lexi is amazing. I love that girl and she impresses me with how much she does. This last week she was chosen as a nominee for homecoming queen. Today she had to give a presentation on what she stands for.

They have changed the way homecoming queen works. It's not a popularity contest, you actually have to apply for it and if chosen, give a presentation. They want the homecoming queen to really stand up for something and be a good person. I can't think of anyone better. She's already made it as one of the six finalists. Everyone should cheer for her.

In fact, if she's still single when Mark comes home from his mission, I'm hooking them up. They're the same age.

Last Saturday, Lexi and I went up to campus to take some pictures that represent her for the presentation. Some of these are fun with flare and others are all about the U. Here are a few of my favorites.

As a side note, where Lexi is standing there was once a statue of Brigham Young there. He actually founded the school. Rumor has it that our friends down south, from Brigham Young University came and stole it. Thus, creating the rivalry. The building was actually renovated this past year but they still haven't put another statue there. It's just part of U now.

Good luck Lexi! Either way, you're beautiful and always a queen.