Almost done...

Well the semester has flown by. Now all that's left are three finals. Then my brother gets married. And then I'll start packing away my life to move to GP. And there will be Christmas festivities in there at some point.

We move on the 23rd. Joe has found us a nice apartment to live in and I am excited to see what it looks like. Once we get all our crap into the new place, we'll go out to spend Christmas with Joe's family who only live 3 hours away from our soon-to-be home.

Moving is a big process. Especially when you're moving 10 hours away. Thankfully we still have half our house packed away in storage from when we moved at the beginning of this year which I mentioned a couple times on the blog. All I need to worry about now is packing up all the junk I brought with me to my parents house, which shouldn't be too bad (in theory!).

Wish me luck!

5 minutes of blogging. Go.

Hey gang!

I've got 5 minutes so I thought I'd write a quick lil something to let you all know that I'm not dead.

School is going swimmingly. It has taken over my life as it always does, but I am working hard to not get behind on my projects and assignments and preparations for finals. I actually need to start studying soon if I am going to ace these babies.

Preparations for moving in December haven't really happened anywhere except in my head. We still need to find a place to live (ack!) And I am not going to start packing until finals are done. I'm basically just trying to enjoy my last month home before I move to the cold, cold north. It almost feels as though I'm preparing for death. lovely.

Joe was able to move his next set of days off back 2 weeks so that he'll be home for my brother's wedding in December so that means I am not going to see him for 4 weeks! Arg!

PS, did I tell you my brother's getting married? Well he is. And I am incredibly happy because the girl he is marrying is awesome. I don't know how he got her, but I'm glad he did.

And my 5 minutes are up! See ya next time kiddos!

Love what you've got!

Stop! Watch this video. Then move on.


Ladies, we all need to love our bodies no matter what our size. If you are in good health and your body can function properly and do the things you need it to, then you can be happy with the body you have.

I am 5'8" and a size 12. I have a curvy figure and I will never have a gap between my thighs. I probably won't have as nice a shape as I have forever, but I'm okay with that. I love my body, come what may!

Whether you are straight or curvy, round or thin, tall or short, black or white or red or green -- you shouldn't have to feel like you aren't enough!

I've met women who have the "model look", but still criticize everything they see in the mirror. And then I've met women who you will never find on a catwalk, but are more comfortable in their skin than anyone I know. It really doesn't matter how you measure up to magazine standards, it only matters how you measure up to your own.

We all have insecurities. Every single one of us. There are some days that I look around and feel like everyone else looks good but me. But when I stop comparing myself to others and stop trying to be just like everyone else, that's when I can look in the mirror and like what I see. You can do it too. Just because you aren't skinny like your pretty friend doesn't mean you can't be pretty too.

We can all be pretty. We can all be beautiful.

Favourite Friday II

Hello!

Yes it's been a while. School has certainly been keeping me busy this semester. I feel like I've never worked harder in school than I have this year! Maybe that's why I feel smarter too...

Anyway, I hope the rest of your October was wonderful and your Halloween was enjoyable.

I've got a bit of spare time on my hands this morning so I decided to write a Favourite Friday post! You know, since it is Friday after all.

Today's favourite comes a friend of mine who took her kids out Trick-or-Treating last night. I guess it was her youngest son's first time out on the streets, so he was pretty excited. She shared a video of his excitement and it is just precious! So precious that I had to share it with you too. Enjoy!

Apparently he did this at every. single. house. All night long. Adorable. 

Favourite Friday

Do you want to know my favourite thing about my school?


The view.

I'm sure gonna miss it. 

Go ahead and share in the comments what one of your favourite things is. I might make this a regular occurrence on the blog! 

The Month of Change

It's that wonderful time of year again.

October!!! 

My most favourite month for selfish and non-selfish reasons:
a) My birfday. I just turned 23, boo yah.
b) General Conference! If you've never seen it, you should! There are four 2-hour sessions. There were two today and there will be two tomorrow (Sunday) at 10 am and 2 pm. To tune in live via the internet, go here.
c) A billion other birthdays too, including Joe's and my dear friend, Trudy's!
d) Hallowe'en. I love any excuse to put on a costume!
e) It's pretty. I love watching the leaves change colour as long as I don't think about the imminent winter on its way.




This year, however, October is special to me for another reason.

Remember when this happened?

Today is the anniversary of the fateful day I crashed our favourite car. Although it was an awful experience, I am grateful it happened (and more importantly, grateful we came out of it okay!) and it is the reason why I am where I am today.

Did you ever wonder what made me choose to move up to GP this summer? It was this stupid accident. Before the accident, I was completely set against living in GP, even after I graduated. It was just too far away from my family. I wanted to at least move to a middle ground where we'd have family 3 hours away on either side of us. After the accident, I changed my mind. Joe had stayed home for a whole month and given me a taste of what it's like to live like a "normal" married couple. When the time came for him to go back to work, I was so sad that I knew I didn't want to do long distance any more. Initially I wanted to quit school after that semester and move up with him that year, but that was just the concussion talking. Luckily I came to my senses and knew that I needed to finish school before moving up with him. So the next best thing was for me to move up to GP for the summer. And I am so glad I did. My summer there changed my attitude about the city and made me realize there are good things there too.

So for my Lethbridge friends and family, now you have something to blame for me leaving you. And to my new GP friends, you now know what brought me into your lives. I just hope that for future life changes, God chooses a more subtle way to point me where I should go.

Be nice to me or I'll dance on your grave!

It's random fact about me day!  

I may or may not have unintentionally danced on someone's grave. I never knew the person to whom the grave belonged to, so it was nothing personal. But still, it happened. I felt bad about it but still laughed at myself because who actually dances on people's graves??

Here's the story:

One summer, many years ago, I was invited by a not-so-close-but-close-enough-to-say-hi-to-in-the-hallway friend to come play night games with him and a bunch of other kids in the local cemetery. I had spent several summers in my childhood playing night games before, so when he asked me to come out, it was a no brainer to say "YES!"

We all arrived at the cemetery in the late evening just as the sun was setting. While we waited for it to get darker, me and another girl decided to explore and check out the graves of the cemetery. We went around reading the headstones and learning what kind of people were buried there. We came to one headstone and when we read the name, something about it sounded like something you would hear in a song so we started singing their name to a funky beat. Inevitably, I started dancing to the beats we were putting out. When I stopped my friend laughed and said "You just danced on that guy's grave!"

I immediately apologized to the deceased individual and promptly got off their grave. We laughed about the situation for a moment and then joined the rest of the group to start the night games. The rest of the night was pretty fun, and don't worry, I haven't been haunted by the angry spirit of that grave!

In case you haven't found true happiness yet

Dear friend,

I wish I could tell you to stop worrying and stop comparing yourself with others. Stop worrying about chasing the picture perfect life you have imagined in your head. I hate to break it to you, but if you keep waiting to be happy until you find your soul mate, buy a house, pay off the car, have a child, find your dream job, etc., you'll never be happy! Whatever that goal is in your mind that you are trying to reach isn't what will make you happy.

Stop feeling like you aren't good enough just because you don't have the same things as your friends. If you have friends that appear so happy because they have things that you don't, be happy for them but don't hate them for it. Odds are, they probably feel like their life is missing something too.

If you live your life waiting for that one piece of the puzzle to complete your life and ultimately make you happy, it's not going to happen. Because life isn't that simple. There's always more to being in love, owning a house, having a child, and having a job than we think there is. If you build something up in your head to be so amazing that there is no way you could be unhappy with that thing in your life, it's probably going to let you down.

Let me share with you a story.

I was in grade 10 when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire became a movie. I was so excited to see it because it was my favourite book of the series and so I expected it to be the best Potter movie ever. When I got the chance to see the movie, I went with friends to the theatre and was ready to have my life made. Except - ugh, Harry, Ron, get a haircut! What happened to the Quidditch World Cup? I was so excited for that bit! Wait wait wait, why'd they leave this part out? Why didn't they show this? What happened to that? The movie had left out so many of my favourite bits from the book that I left the theatre disappointed. It wasn't what I expected at all.

This past summer I saw Ironman 3. I didn't really want to go, but Joe really wanted me to go with him so I went. And you know what? It was better than I expected because I wasn't expecting anything from it! 

It's a true talent to be able to enjoy the journey of life rather than wait for the joy to come at the destination, but I promise you that you can learn to enjoy your life where it is right now - despite the fact that you are still single or you don't yet have the keys to the beautiful house you've imagined, or you don't yet have the child you've been yearning for. Find things about your life today that make you happy. You don't know how much time you have left, so allow yourself to be happy now before it's too late!

Love cake! Baby, love cake!

Here's a snippet of the text conversation that's gone down between me and Joe today:

J: Good morning to you as well my love cake.

L: Mmm, love cake. I bet that would taste good. 

J: Making love and eating cake?

L: Is that what love cake means? I imagined it as a specific kind of cake. Like a rich, velvety, chocolately, raspberryish kind of cake.

J: Oh well I was just being obnoxious. 

L: I know, but now I want love cake! 

J: Well which one?

L: The cake. I am now craving something I've never even tasted.

So, like any hormonal woman with a craving would do, I searched up my imagined love cake on google to see what I would find. And low and behold I found this!

See?? A rich chocolatey cake. With raspberries too!

A recipe was included with the picture, so I am going to have to try it out for myself and if I love it, I'll share it! 

Aaand just because this song is stuck in my head now: 

The Final Countdown

Hey friends!

After my 10 day challenge it seems like it's been f-o-r-e-v-e-r since I blogged anything. But really it's only been a week, calm down, I didn't forget about you.

This week has been pretty good though. Joe and I got ourselves moved back into my parents' house on Monday and on Tuesday we took time to enjoy my final day of summer because my classes started on Wednesday! After spending the summer working in the GP clinic, I've come back to school with a whole new attitude. I've been making so many connections already with things I learned in GP and I can see how useful they'll be for me in the future. There was one class I dropped though and I am so glad I did!

Joe went back to work yesterday and while it sucked to say goodbye, I took comfort in the fact that we'll only be doing this for one more semester and then I'll be moving back up to GP with him. One semester, four months, 13 weeks, 91 days, a butt-load of hours, a crap-ton of seconds. It's been a long time coming, but I'll be getting out of University soon and on to what they call "real life".

Bring it on.

 

10 Awesome Things

Finally! Day 10 of my super-awesome, totally creative 10 day blogging challenge! Be sure to check out the original post to make sure you didn't miss a single day.

And now on to day 10's post:

10 Things That Made My Summer Awesome
1. Muskoseepi Park. 

I discovered this park within my first week there and I loved it. There are awesome trails all over the place and tons of areas to explore. I can't wait to do all sorts of fun things in the park when I'm there next year.

2.  My summer job. Even though I wasn't being paid to be at the clinic, the things I learned there made it so worth my while. I learned that physiotherapy is what I want to do. I learned that the human body is so cool and I learned that I love people.

3. Joe. Are you even surprised he made this list? Of course not. This summer we got a taste of what it's like to be a normal married couple that see each other almost every day. And we loved it. We're a little sad to go back to long-distance life, but we'll manage.

4. GP Rugby. I can't believe I was even debating whether or not I'd play with the club in GP. The people I met there became my main social group and I had lots of fun with them. Can't wait to come back!

5. In-laws. Living up in GP brought us within three hours of Joe's family and I'm so glad for the time we spent with them. I feel bad for people who don't like their in-laws because I love mine :)

6. Cooking. I hate cooking when it's just for me so having Joe home on a more consistent basis gave me plenty of opportunities to put my cooking skills to the test. And I'd say I passed! I had fun trying new recipes and perfecting old ones. Housewifery definitely suits me.

7. My Housemates. I'd be ungrateful if I didn't give these guys a shout out for opening their home to me and Joe for the summer. Two couples sharing a home isn't always easy, but we had some good memories and I certainly hope to see them again when we come back.

8. Edmonton trips. Okay, half the time Joe and I went to Edmonton this summer it was usually not for a good reason. But our trips would have been 10 times more miserable if it hadn't have been for our good friends Becky and Justin. These guys gave us a place to stay on several occasions and we are forever grateful to them!

9. Video Calls. I am so grateful that we have magical things like the internet to keep us connected to our loved ones. I wasn't too mopey about missing my family, but it was sure nice to be able to see them once in a while and share all the exciting things going on in our lives face to face.

From a call I had with my mom where we discovered the fun things to do in google hangouts

10. Mila. This is probably silly, but she was a dog my housemates were looking after and I'm pretty sure we loved playing with her more than they did. But she was awesome. 

Chocolate Chip Cake

Thank goodness, day 9 is an easy one.

I have loved chocolate chip cake since I was a kid. I have it for every birthday and I even served it to my guests at my wedding. My mom didn't want to have it at the wedding because it wasn't fancy enough, but this cake is so dear to me that it is the one thing I may have went a little Bridezilla over. If a chocolate chip cookie and a cake had a baby, this cake would be that baby.

I found this picture online. Don't know if it's the same recipe, but this is how it should look. 

Ingredients
1/2 c  shortening (or margarine)
1 c  brown sugar
2 well beaten eggs
2 c  flour
2 3/4  tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp  salt
1 1/4 c  milk
2 tsp  vanilla
1 c  chocolate chips

Oven: 350 F

Cream shortening. Add sugar and blend well. Add eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, milk, vanilla and chocolate chips. Put into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes.

As for icing, I don't like icing so I've never had icing with this cake. But it is yummy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce!

Enjoy!

Inspiring!

My gramma is an awesome lady. Okay, I have two grammas and they are both awesome. My brown gramma is 88 years old and still spunky and it’s cool to see how my brown side absolutely loves and respects the heck out of that woman.

My white gramma is the gramma I’ve grown up living not too far from my entire life, so it’s fair to say she has had a considerably greater influence on my life. Gramma Joan is awesome. What inspires me most about her is her ability to love everyone and to be a friend to all. She is really great at reaching out to others who may not be part of the “in-crowd”. Whenever I talk to someone new at church or make a new friend, I try to channel my “Inner Joan” when I am first reaching out. She is seriously the sweetest lady that I don't think it's possible for anyone to dislike her. I hope I turn out like she has as I grow older.

Sorry this is a short one! I'm still trying to catch up from the days I lost moving.

What am I good at?

Gasp! This post for day 7 is happening a day late! Sorry, this is what I get for thinking I can maintain a blog while in the process of moving my butt back home. I'll get these up when I can, just be patient :) PS - I apologize for the weird formatting going on here... I didn't have internet when I wrote this in the car so I had to copy and paste which always makes for a hassle with formatting.

Before I entered singles ward I really enjoyed planning little get togethers with my friends. In my grade 12 year I planned an “End of Semester No More Exams Mafia Party” and invited some friends over for games (Mafia, particularly) and food. I loved party games, therefore I loved planning parties to play these games at.

When I started going to singles ward I was called to be a Family Home Evening (FHE) Ma, where together with my assigned Pa, we would plan an activity for a small group of people one Monday out of the month. I loved this calling and I eventually was called to be an the FHE Superma or coordinator where I was in charge of dividing the ward into families and planning 2 activities a month for the entire ward to enjoy. Having an even larger group of people to plan for put my party planning skills to good use. I really did love this calling. Of the many activities that I planned I think my favourite was my Johnny Lingo night. It was also the biggest activity I pulled off where I provided Polynesian food along with Otai, the drink of the gods, for over 70 people. While we ate we watched Johnny Lingo and after that I had some good friends of mine come in and show the boys how to do the Haka and the girls how to dance to Pearly Shells.

Like I said, I had my FHE calling for three years and I loved it, I really did. But after doing it for three years, the magic started to wear off, especially in the last 4 months I was there -- though that may have had more to do with the fact that I was engaged and trying to plan my freaking wedding! Ever since I’ve left the FHE calling behind, I’ve had trouble finding the spark I used to have for planning parties with my friends. I have done it, but I’ve only been able to do it once a year.

Every year on the anniversary of the day when Joe and I became an official couple, I’ve held a bonfire with all our friends where we can roast weinies, tell stories and play games. I haven’t played a good party game in a long while, but I’ve been getting a hankering to do it again. And I’ve been coming up with some awesome ideas for new games to play, so I think the flame is starting to come back to life…

Did that really just happen??

I don't get embarrassed too often, but there have been a couple incidents in my life that are totally worthy of the embarrassing stories section in a teen magazine.

One time I was going on a hot date with a guy to singles dance. It was a fancy dance and so I had gotten myself dressed up and eagerly awaited the arrival of my man (side note, my date wasn't Joe - scandalous!). When my date arrived I opened the door and there stood a rather dashing young fellow in a fine looking suit. The response to come to mind was, "hey, you look good!" but he beat me to the first line of the night with, "How are you tonight?" and instead of me answering with "I'm fine" I ended up mixing up my two responses to say, "I look good!" We both stood there for a moment unsure of what to say next. I couldn't believe that had just happened to me so I decided to pretend it didn't happen and rushed him down the side walk to get on with the night.

Although I was mortified in the moment, it didn't take me long to laugh about the memory. The next story, however, still makes me wish I could go back and do it over...

My favourite blogging friend, Trudy, is also my favourite singing friend. Seriously, I love to sing with her. We loved sitting with each other in church so we could make some beautiful harmonies. Whenever I'd go over to her house, we always would end up going through the hymn book and other songbooks with her mom on the piano just singing for fun. Naturally, we also got asked to sing for a lot of church functions. At one point there was one song that we sang a lot at different functions for one reason or another. It was a pretty song that talked about feeling inadequate, but strengthened through Jesus. The last time we sang it, however, was when disaster struck.

As I mentioned before, we had sung this song a lot. So much so that we didn't even feel any jitters when we were about to sing. Our preparation for the song had been standard. We'd run through it before the event began to make sure everything was sounding good. Trudy's mom had given us a tip to enunciate the d sound at the end of one of the words we were singing. So for the performance we were singing along and when that word came up, we remembered what we were supposed to do and we enunciated the d. Except, for some reason, we found it funny and these big smiles came onto our faces. All of a sudden, the unthinkable happened: I started to laugh. Right in the middle of the song. Trudy was a champ because she held off as long as she could before she too startled to giggle-sing right along with me. Meanwhile her mom kept playing the tune in a true "show must go on" fashion. Trudy was able to pull herself together to sing the last couple notes of the song and I mumbled an "I'm sorry" to everyone. The worst part? It was in the last verse that we had our breakdown, right when it talks about the saviour and how he died for us all. (In fact I think the word we enunciated the d on was "died")

Since the laughing fit, Trudy and I have sung many more songs together but we haven't sung that song since the fateful night - not even for fun.

3 haikus from me to you

Baby teacup pig

So curious to the world

I'munna eat choo 

Sunny summer days

Happy, care free, warm and bright

soon to fade away

Writing a haiku

has been harder than I thought

Frustratingly so 

Ha! But seriously that was hard. I remember being so good at haikus when I was in grade 5 so I thought I'd whip up this post in 15 minutes. But nope. Nearly took me an hour, dangit. 

Oh well I hope you enjoyed. Although it took forever, it was fun to do. Stay tuned tomorrow when I take on day 6 of my super-awesome, totally creative 10 day challenge! What has been your favourite day so far? I really enjoyed today's challenge so mine has been day 5. 

A week without my shoes...

Day 4: If you could spend a week in someone else's shoes, who would it be and why? 

For real:

If I had to choose anyone in history to be for a week I think I'd like to be my one of my grandparents back when they were my age. I've heard lots of stories from my white grandparents and I would love to see what Canada was like back in their time. My gramma Joan was raised on a farm in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan and my grampa Chuck was raised in Parry Sound, Ontario surrounded by the best swimming holes in the country. I would especially love to see how they met because I've always heard stories about it. 

I think it would also be way cool to see what it was like for my brown grandparents too. I don't really know much about their histories because I haven't been able to spend a lot time with them and the language barrier makes it hard to really communicate. So I think if I were to be my grampa Vili or gramma Mele I would want to the gift of tongues to be part of the package. They both grew up in Tonga on the main island of Tongatapu (I assume.... I don't really know!) so I would love to see what the island life was like for them. 

For fun:

Okay this may sound weird but you know the centaur girls from Fantasia? I really love the entire fantasia movie but this was my favourite part of it. I loved it so much that my mom had written on the box the time it began in the movie so she could fast forward right to it when I wanted it. (You know, back in the day when scene select wasn't an option)   

credit.

Anyway, in the second part of the piece they bring in the lady centaurs and I loooove them. The blue one was my absolute favourite. I love, love, looooved her long tail with the flowers in it. If we were pretending to be horses, I'd always be her. So if I spend a week in the shoes (or hooves in this case) of any fictional character of my choice, it would be the blue centaurette from Fantasia. Why? Because it would literally fulfil my childhood dreams of being a centaur. 

credit.

5 years from now...

... I would love to be a mom.

... I would love to be a physiotherapist.

... I would love to own a home.

... Joe and I may be living in Australia.

With the end of my undergrad fast approaching, Joe and I have reached a crossroads: Do we stick it out another two and a half years so I can get my masters of physiotherapy? Or do we start trying to get a family started?

We have made a tentative decision for now, but I believe we still have some fasting and praying to do before we can solidly say, "yes, this is what we're going to do."

The Australia thing is a dream that may or may not come true depending on what we decide we want in regards to a family/home/career. I would love to do it, but if it doesn't turn out to be the right move for us, then so be it. There's always vacation time!

I am seriously so blessed to have a man like Joe in my life. With regards to our future, I get lots of people that ask, "so what does Joe want to do? Is he going to do the Halliburton thing forever?" and I've asked him the same question. Joe has never had that dream job he's always wanted to do that he wouldn't be happy without. Joe's dream has always been to be able to work and provide for a family and make their dreams come true. (I feel like such a dork because I started tearing up as I wrote that.) It's so great to know he feels that way, but at the same time I get so scared that I'll get so caught up in the chase for my dreams that I'll end up dragging a husband along who would rather do something else with his life.

5 years from now there are a million things we cold be doing. But right now, I'm just happy with where we are and I'm excited about what adventures our future holds.

My greatest fear

I know I've shared my fear of caterpillars on the blog before. They are disgusting creatures that make me gag just thinking about them. I also have a slight fear of the dark, but that is more due to the scary movies my friends have made me watch over the years (you know who you are!). I also get really weird when it comes to fake gun fights. Water guns, nerf guns, laser tag, Halo... Anything where people are shooting at me (life threatening or not) causes me more anxiety than the average participant. I'm also a really jumpy person in general so it is really easy to startle me. Like, ridiculously easy. As in, so-easy-a-loud-and-well-timed-sneeze-can-scare-me easy. 

However, none of these "fears" have a great impact on my everyday life. Unless I move to a dark place inhabited by caterpillars where pretend gun fights happen every time someone makes a loud sneeze, then I may have something to worry about. Until then, my life is relatively unaffected by my fears. 

I suppose there is one fear-like quality that affects the way I do things and that is my fear of hurting myself. That doesn't mean I'm afraid of everything and therefore live my life in a bubble. It just means that I am way less likely to do stupid stunts or have fun according to some people. 

Flips on a trampoline? Never tried them. 

Dirt biking? Um, no. If you can type in the words "dirt bike" into the search bar on youtube and "dirt bike fails" is at the top of the suggestions list, then mayyybe that sport isn't such a good idea.  

Licking a metal pole in the middle of a Canadian winter? I've seen A Christmas Story, I know how that triple dog dare goes down! 

Sometimes I wish I was less worried about getting myself killed or breaking my neck so I'd try more things and end up looking like one of those cool kids doing all those cool tricks. But at the end of the day when the back flips flop, the bikes crash and the tongues freeze, I can rest easy knowing that I didn't have to try it for myself to know those are all bad ideas!  

What are your biggest fears? Have you been following my Super-Awesome, Totally Creative 10 Day Blogging Challenge? Has this been the greatest blogging challenge so far or what?

Something I love

Here we are, day 1 of my Super-Awesome, Totally Creative 10 Day Blogging Challenge.

I could write about a billion different things that I love because I am an easily amused individual. I get pleasure out of the simplest things and always see the glass as half full rather than half empty. But I can only write about one thing so I have chosen something that has had the greatest impact on my life.

I love being a Mormon.

My membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a huge part of who I am. I was born into the church and have learned for myself that the doctrines and principles of the gospel are true. As a Mormon, I've been taught that we are all children of God and knowing that I am a daughter of God has given me a sense of self worth that has made me a confident, happy woman.

This is the Cardston, Alberta Temple, the place where Joe and I were married. The church has many temples around the world. At the last count we had 141 operating temples with 15 under construction and 14 announced. LDS temples aren't just used for marriage ceremonies. As members of the church we have a duty to attend the temple regularly where we can perform ordinances of salvation for those who died without a knowledge of the gospel. As I attend the temple I learn about Heavenly Father's plan for us and I learn more about my role in that plan. Temples are places of peace and worship and I love going there because it is a chance for me to forget about my worries and feel the love that God has for me. 

As a Mormon I've been taught to pray. You can pray when you're happy, you can pray when you're sad, if you have questions in your life you can pray for the answers. I am grateful for the power of prayer. Seriously, whether you believe in Him or not, God hears and answers prayers if you pray with real intent and with faith that you'll receive an answer. I know I've had answers to my prayers. They don't always come immediately, but if I am living the gospel and doing the right things, the answers will come. Prayer is a way that we can all connect ourselves to God and get to know Him. 

This is just a small snippet of how being a Mormon influences my life. I could talk about so many more good things I love about being a Mormon, but these are the big ones. If this has raised some questions for you, feel free to check out the links I provided in this post. If you have any questions for me you can send them my way at l.moe32@gmail.com

Challenge Accepted!

I've decided I want to do a blogging challenge. It's my last week of no school so I want to write a little something every day. And since I am a free agent, I've decided to make up my very own blogging challenge. So here it is:

Leinani's Super-Awesome, Totally Creative 10 Day Blogging Challenge  

Day 1: write about something you love. (Not someone, something!)

Day 2: tell us your greatest fear. 

Day 3: where do you see yourself in 2 years? 5 years?

Day 4: If you could spend a week in someone else's shoes, who would it be and why?

Day 5: Create 3 haikus. Ready? Go.

Day 6: share an embarrassing story. 

Day 7: what is something you're good at? or what do you pride yourself in?

Day 8: who inspires you?

Day 9: share a favourite recipe. 

Day 10: make a top 10 Awesome Things list.

Fellow bloggers, feel free to try it for yourselves as I'm sure it will be awesome. Plus, it's 10 days so how bad can it be? If you do decide to try it, let me know so I can read all about it! Heck, you don't even need a blog to try this out, your own personal journal will do just fine.

Because you want to know everything about me

Oh boy, what a treat! 26 facts about me that you may or may not already know!

I was tagged by the lovely Trudy from Trudy Talk, so to be a good friend I've filled it out and passed it on! Enjoy. If you would like to do one for yourself you can find the blank answers on Trudy's post because I am too lazy to copy and paste it again for you here.

A. Attached or Single?

I am not single, but I don't want to say I'm attached because it makes it sound like I have a conjoined twin.   

B. Best Friend?

As corny as it sounds, my husband is my best friend. But I also think it's important for a girl to have at least one girlfriend that she can confide in and I am lucky enough to have several lovely ladies to be there for me. :)

C. Cake or Pie?

Cake. All the way. Though I will not say no to a slice of apple pie if you offer it.

D. Day of Choice?

Wednesday. Or Sunday. Sunday is best because it is my day to go to church and sing and be with family and rest. I don't really know why I love Wednesdays, but I just do. I think it might be because growing up, there was always something happening on Wednesdays whether it was Brownies, orchestra, mutual or rugby games; but now my Wednesdays are more quiet and it's perfect because now my other days are filled with things to do. 

E. Essential Item?

Hair ties. My hair is always getting in my face so it's important for me to get it out of the way when I need to. 

F. Favourite Colour?

Generally anything from the warmer side of the colour wheel can make me happy, so reds and oranges and yellows. 

G. Gummy Bears or Worms?

Gummy bears! Cause then you can bite their heads off. 

H. Home Town?

I was born in Kahuku, Hawaii but raised in Lethbridge, Alberta. 

I. Favorite Indulgence?

Cookie dough. And not the store bought kind either. I have to make it myself so I can feel like a rebel for not cooking it. 

J. January or July?

July. But if I lived in the southern hemisphere I would love January because I just want to be warm. 

K. Kids?

Yes, I want them. No, not yet. 

L. Life isn't complete without?

Sun. Love. Laughter. (I just found the title for my autobiography)

M. Marriage Date?

August 16th, 2011. 

N. Number of brothers/sisters?

2 brothers, 1 sister, all younger

O. Oranges or Apples?

I enjoy the taste and crunch of apples more than oranges, but apples always leave me hungrier than I was before I ate them :(

P. Phobias?

Caterpillars. 

Q. Quotes?
Favourite funny quote: "You see, beneath the clothes, you'll find a man and beneath the man you'll find his - nucleus." -Nacho Libre
Favourite inspirational quote: "I can do hard things" -Susan W. Tanner - when I went to Young Women's encampment in 2006 she spoke to us and shared this motto with us. It started out as her motto, but it became mine and I still remember it whenever I am presented with a difficult task. It's amazing what we can get through if we have the right attitude.

R. Reasons to Smile?
Sunshine, nature, corny jokes, Joe and cookie dough. 

S. Season of Choice?
Summer

T. Tag 5 People.
You're it. 

U. Unknown fact about me?
When I was a kid, my parents subscribed to the kids version of National Geographic and so we got a bunch of really cool things like magazines and books and episodes of Really Wild Animals that taught me all sorts of things about the animal kingdom. So I know a lot of useless facts about a lot of random animals like the lyrebird that lives in Australia and can imitate anything from other birds to chainsaws. 

V. Vegetable?
Broccoli! They're so easy to prepare and I make a fantastic cheese sauce to go along with them. 

W. Worst Habit?
I procrastinate so bad. I've been trying to be better, but I am still horrible. 

X. X-ray or Ultrasound?
Ultrasound! I've only had a couple Xrays, but I've never been able to see the results. Going for an ultrasound was super cool because I got to see my ribs and my muscles and my lumpy breast tissue. (I am not pregnant, I just have lumpy boobs and a family history of breast cancer so I get to have regular check ups! Yay!)

Y. Your Favourite Food?
I hate this question because it's hard to pick a favourite when you love everything so I'm going to change the question. 
Y. Yes or no, do you like ponies? Why or why not?
Yes I loooove ponies! I love them because they are pretty and I can ride them and make them go really fast and sometimes it feels like I'm going to fall off, but I don't and so it's a big adrenaline rush. Plus they're related to unicorns, so what's not to love?

Z. Zodiac Sign
This question is also lame, but I will answer it because I don't want to have to come up with something else that starts with a Z. I am a libra according to Western astrology, and my chinese zodiac is the horse which may explain my affinity for ponies.