a conference of love.

conference center in salt lake city, ut

a week ago today my family and i were gathered together to hear the words of our prophet in the 180th annual general conference for our church. i love general conference. i love getting my notebook and pen and writing down the words of inspiration that i feel. 

two days is all we get as members of the church to listen to what those chosen speakers have to say to us. but a month later my favorite thing happens. we get the conference issue of the ensign where we can study those words over and over and over again.

the main message for this conference was love. what a perfect message to share during the easter holiday when our hearts and minds are already set upon the savior and his love for us. the words inspired me to be a better person and to treat everyone with kindness no matter who they are.

i think love its something everyone could use these days.

a trip to utah...

efy theme for 2010

so it's been forever since i last posted and i am sorry. i have been insanely busy traveling and finishing up my online class. i finally have had some time to sit down and blog about a few things that have been going on.

utah - what a fabulous time i had! i got to see lots and lots of friends, which i was so impressed i was able to do because i never have to chance to see just about everyone that i love that lives in utah. i also got to do lots of different things like watching one of my florida girls in her hilarious show, chili's date with the rest of the florida girls, eating out with other friends, painting a cup, easter dinner with family, visiting jessica's family, and loads more.

efy training - this was the main reason i flew out to utah for a week. training....where do i start? i had 2 days packed with food, friends, and the gospel. how much better can it get than that? not too sure. i was able to meet a majority of my team and i already love them and can't wait to work with them more this summer. i am so excited for the adventures that i will face starting in about a month. oh boy! i haven't even started my lessons and i already feel the pressure to finish them...i better get started now!

utah was a lot of fun and i can't wait to go back in a month for the summer which will be full of friends, family, and of course...alright, alright, alright...E-F-Y!

cabin fever.

cabin in bruce, wisconsin

so i just got back yesterday from the best weekend trip ever. me and about 13 of my other singles ward friends decided it would be fun to rent a cabin for a weekend to just get away from "real life" and have some fun. the lucky cabin we chose was located in the small town of bruce wisconsin. 

just looking at the picture you can see that it was quiet the cabin! it was probably one of the nicest cabins i have ever seen, let alone stayed in. we all got a killer deal on it too. all my friends and i decided that this cabin trip is a must do again real soon. we're thinking august :)

here's a list of the things we did that made this weekend the best ever:

• hooked up a projector to rockband and rocked out for hours
• stayed up til the wee hours of the morning just talking and laughing about random things
• non-stop watching of glee season 1
• playing music over the sound system and having dance contests
• cooking juicy lucies (aka lucy bruceies) at midnight
• hot tubbing
• making cookies and other delicious treats
• sitting on the 3-seasoned porch with a huge blanket talking about life
• walks around the lake
• played with bree's dog, nori
• eating pancakes until we were stuffed

basically it was a great weekend and we were all sad to see it come to a close, but we are excited to get back in the summer and have a whole new experience.

thank you bruce for showing a group of crazy singles a great time!

warm weather = need for summer

california 2009

ok, i am not in california, but it sure does feel like it here in minnesota! for the past couple of days it has been sunny and warm and delightful. I was driving home from church yesterday with my window down for the first time in months! it was fantastic. experiencing this warm weather has got me itching for more. unfortunately with me living in minnesota, i don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. 

i do get to escape the "cold" for a bit though. in about a week i get to fly to utah for my efy training. can you say exciting?! i am pumped. i get to see a ton of friends that i haven't seen in months, and i also get to be near the mountains. 

life couldn't get any better than this :)

it's official.

efy 2009

so i wanted to wait to create this post until things were official. yesterday that happened. i accepted all my contracts for efy 2010 to work as a building counselor! i am so, so excited for this new experience. among the excitement i am also kind of scared. this is a whole new position, a whole new set of duties, and something i've never done before. there is one thing that i do know : the program. i know the ins and outs of this amazing program and i trust that the experience i've had will be a good cushion for me. hopefully. 

in my past 2 summers of working for this program, i've learned a lot of things. things about teenagers, about other people my age, about myself, but most importantly about my Savior. He has guided me through the lowest times during those summers when youth wouldn't listen, or co-counselor's weren't working well. i've been able to trust in Him who knows all. He helped me see my youth each week in ways that i thought i would never be able to. it was amazing.

this summer will be different. the counselors will be my youth. youth that are my same age, if not older. that's a tedious thought, but i cannot wait for this new journey. i can't wait to see how the Lord uses the Spirit through me to help the counselors see how important not only they are but their role in this program. that's what it took for me to see it. great bc's. i owe a lot of my experiences to them. i just hope i can be as humble and loving as they were. 

efy 2010...see you soon.

sore. sore. sore

today marks day two of my workout routine. oh boy am i sore as can be! i'm taking it really easy and trying not to push myself here in the beginning. i decided that since i have no money and that the reason i moved home was to save, that buying a gym membership would be a.) stupid, and b.) pointless. 

we own an elliptical machine that sits in my basement and so i figure that i can get a pretty good workout from that while i'm waiting for the snow outside to melt. by then i hope to power walk or run. dream would be to run miles on end. that will take work though. work that i'm willing to do. 

it's been a long time since i've been sore. it's a good sore though. my abs are sore. my arms are sore. my butt is sore. all the areas i'm working on. hopefully procrastination doesn't kick in and i can keep this routine up.

today also marks day eleven on the sugar cleanse. i'm doing great as far as not drinking pop. it's the not having chocolate that is starting to hit me real hard. especially at night like i said before. one of my favorite treats that i have been snacking on though is california strawberries (strawberries dipped in sour cream and brown sugar). yum! if you've never tried it, it's time you do. it's so yummy!

moral of the post...i'm kickin butt! holla! 

new designs.

i've been working on some new stuff this past week. it's a series i saw on Etsy that i want to do my own version of. i haven't been able to come up with a name for the series yet, but i figure that can come later. what the series is made up of are different sayings that will be printed on a cream colored cover weight paper. here is the first one that i've created. this individual piece is called p.s. i love you.

             

another project that i've been working on is something for my friend jessica. she's the one serving her mission in mississippi. she wrote in a letter to me one week that while she was out tracting she came across a word in window that she really liked. the word was "forged". she told me she wanted me to design something for her with that word along with some other things. my idea is for it to be a 5x5 inch print on a cover weight paper. i took a stab at it and here are a few of the different designs that i came up with:

design 1

design 2

design 3

design 4

so those are the newest designs i've created. let me know what you think on the p.s. i love you, and tell me which one of the forged designs you like best.