Quote-Attitude

So I was cleaning out my room and I found a quote...


We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.  And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes.


My mom gave this to me but I don't know who it is by.

First Flight with Pilot Dad

So on the last day of 2010 I took my first flight with my dad who has his pilot license (I can't remember when exactly).  This is a big deal for me because I am not very fond of flying, turbulence scares me just a little...haha.  But surprisingly this was not bad at all!  It was a calm day and we did not go nearly as high as commercial jets go.  This was nice because we were able to sight see a little, I even saw my mom's house!  Well we flew right next to the Bay Bridge and landed at the airport on the other side and met up with an old friend of my dad's who he hasn't seen in a long time.  He seemed to have a great time catching up, I learned some funny things he did... Like throwing pine cones at cars...oh dad... After we had lunch we flew back to Virginia.  It was really a great experience because it is very different then flying in a big airplane.  I think it would be something cool to learn how to do... maybe someday down the road haha.

Lunch Group

Bay Bridge

Mom's House! (Its there I promise)

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How The Grinch Stole Christmas on ICE

My family and I went to the National Harbor in Maryland where the Gaylord National was putting on an event where people sculpted the store of How the Grinch Stole Christmas out of solid ice.  It was really amazing how they made all the sculptures in the exhibit!  The place it was kept in looked like a tennis bubble and it was a whole 9 degrees in there!  Felt like early morning in Utah in January and February haha. We were given big blue parkas and we were bundled up under that as well.

Nativity

The tree was made out of Peeps!

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I Love to See The Temple... Lights!

Friday night Greg and I grabbed some dinner and then drove to SLC to see one of my favorite things.  Lights on the Temple grounds.  Unfortunately I wasn't going to my favorite lights, The Washington DC Temple lights.  These worked for now until I go home :)  We met up with Diana and Katie as well and walked around until my toes felt like they were going to fall off from the cold! Here are some pictures of the lights :)

Me, Diana, and Katie

Sign Language for Ma-g and Me - Joy

Spanish for Greg - Amor

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Home Cookin' Weekend

This past weekend I wanted to make this yummy dish that I got from Kim Harrison's mom who actually got it from her mom.  I got it at a recipe exchange and I have loved it ever since!  Well so I decided to make it for Greg and me.  It has still lasted to this day it is so much food!  since I am a poor college student this works for me because it was about 15 bucks for about 5 days worth of dinners including other eating too.  Then I think on friday Greg and I went to target and he bought.... a turkey... a WHOLE 20 LB TURKEY. Why you ask... he wants real turkey sandwiches!  Haha oh goodness.  The turkey took forever to thaw and took just as long to cook.  Greg was probably up until 1 am cooking and pulling appart the bird. Well needless to say we had a weekend of good cooked food and have enjoyed it throughout the week :)

Me the Domestic Goddess... I get it from my mommy ;)

    

THE TURKEY

                                     

Pecan Pie

For Thanksgiving break I was lucky enough to go home and see all of my mom's side of the family but before that Maggie and I had spend about 8 hours in the SLC airport.  Here's the story... so Maggie and I got to the airport early so I hopefully didn't have to drive in the storm.  Driving to the airport there were clear skies so we were both wondering if there was going to even be a storm.   OH THERE WAS!  After we tried to change our flight to an earlier one... there wasn't one... we sat there with about an hour delay which wasn't bad but the plane that came in was broken.  The flaps on the plane were damaged from the high winds so we had to wait for another plane to come in which was going to be now a 9:30 pm departure... GREAT!  The people coming off the broken plane looked horrified from the flight and one lady said that it was so bumpy it wasn't fun it was just scary.... EVEN BETTER since I am afraid of turbulence!  Well since we had a long wait for the next plane of course what do I do... SLEEP :)  only for a little though then I watched as the snow piled up and the wind was blowing it parallel to the ground.  The wind was so strong that the food things couldn't be raised up on the risers because they would blow over... that signaled me to get dinner! After I had bought my food Delta gave us a voucher for food so that means I went and got a Cinnabon :) YUM! needless to say I was very full on airport food at that time.  Well eventually we got on the plane and I feel asleep off and on while Maggie did some work and was on the internet... yes the plane had WiFi which was pretty cool and it was free because of the holiday.  We finaly reached our house at 5:30 am EST... I slept until 2:30 that afternoon :)

Well, that night I got to see some Whitman friends which was great and always something I look forward to.  Then the next day, THANKSGIVING :) we got up to the smells of my mom cooking turkey.  We had a early dinner so we went over to Tootsie and Pop's house where the house was filled with the smell of food :) always makes me happy. One thing about my family is when we are together we never stop eating. So we had artichoke dip and shrimp (because the crab was bad... so no crab dip which made me sad) as appetizers and since we were cooking all day we all just pick at everything!  I stand right by the turkeys and eat little pieces here and there.  Debbie, Todd, Geoffrey, and I skinned the cooked turkeys pretty well :) we love the skin especially on the fried turkey!!  Then when it comes to dinner time I am usually almost full...haha... but I still managed to eat a full dinner :)  Then of course the pies come out!  Maggie and I take a large slice of pecan pie... oh it was sooooooooooo good :)  By this point I am in a food coma and I go home and pass out while Maggie the Christmas elf decorates the house.  I wake up and the whole house is put together and it looks great as always... I love when a house is decorated for Christmas it makes me so happy.  I love the glow of Christmas lights in a house.  Well since I took a long nap I couldn't fall asleep until about 3 in the morning so I just looked at old photos which some Maggie has put up on Facebook.

Ma-g and me :) 

the older cousins

One of the tables

everyone together! minus Tootsie because she is taking the picture :)

On Saturday Keva's Parents hosted a surprise birthday party for her which was tons of fun.  It was good to see friends from high school and to have a yummy but spicy dinner! hahah :)  It was so funny when the did the skit about Keva and my favorite part is when they did her laugh! I about died laughing! (pictures possibly coming later....)

The next morning was Sunday so I went to church and my grandparents were talking and Pop put me on the spot.  I sent him and email about one of the conference talks about names and how I was happy to be named after him and he used it for his talk.  I am glad that came in handy for him and also made and impression.  Here is the talk if you would like to read it.  Then Maggie and I flew back to Utah with another 1 hour delay because of snow and driving back to Provo from SLC was not fun either it made me want to be back in Maryland really bad :(  Thank goodness I will be back in about 3 weeks! Can't wait just have to get through these things called finals... ew....

Swim, Bike, Run

Throughout my life I haven't been the most athletic person other than skiing but I love to exercise (getting to the gym is the hardest part though once you are past that it is a great feeling!) hence why my major is exercise science (also for other reason too such as my fascination with the human body).  Anyways Maggie told me, back in the summer, about this sprint triathlon in St. George, UT that she learned about at the biggest loser ranch (my sister and mom went there for spring break... DEF not my mom's idea haha!)  So this past weekend (Nov. 12 - 14) Maggie, Greg, and I drove down to St. George and thanks to Jared's family we had a place to stay.  The house was amazing and perfectly labeled (Jared- I think your mom would pick you over your label-maker :) The bed was like a cloud! so Maggie and I slept great and went to bed really really early the night before the race (like 9:30 pm early!)


Race day was really cold that morning but once you got into the swimming area it was warmer but running from the transition area to the pool was FREEZING!  We thought we got there early also but we were one of the last people to go so we waited for an hour and half to even get into the pool and start!  Once I got close to the start line I got really nervous but getting into the pool and starting was a great feeling!

After the swim was done, which was harder than I thought but I did pretty well I think since I did swim team for about an hour then quit haha.  Getting out of the water wasn't that bad and since it was later in the day going to the transition area wasn't as cold as the morning.  And I must say wearing the swim cap kept my hair dry for the bike ride which was a little windy, so even though I looked like a chemo patient it was beneficial in the end.

Oh the bike... probably the worst part of the whole tri.  First of all I was dumb and didn't train on many hills so when I realized that I had multiple hills I just about died!  I have never breathed so hard in my life!  Maggie seemed to be doing ok so I said she could go ahead while I tried to finish.  By the end of the bike I realized that my tires didn't look like they were full of air.  I had pushed on them to see if they were full and they seemed full but I guess the cold weather and me sitting on the bike changes that so flat tires didn't help either.

When I finally finished the bike and got off my legs were like jello and it was hard to run to the transition station.  I should have practice the transitions more but oh well... next time!  So I thought the run was going to be hard because since I waved Maggie to go ahead I though she would have started the run but being the nice sister she is she waited for me :)  So I was relieved to have someone to run with. The run was not bad at all we did our best and keep each other entertained so the run went by pretty fast.  Then we came up the the finish line together which was a great feeling that we had finally finished!  I am so happy that I did this it was a great accomplishment especially for someone like me.

I thank my sister for pushing me to do this and helping me out through the training process.  I also thank my grandparents for flying out to see Maggie and me race and for Greg to tag along on the drive and to come support me as well.

After the race we got a huge lunch of Cafe Rio (YUM) probably not the most healthy thing to eat after but I was craving a big meal!  We then headed to the St. George Temple because Tootsie wanted to see it since we had time to spare.  It is a different looking temple than the ones I am use to so it was interesting to see it.  Then we went back to Jared's house to relax and hang out with everyone.  Then the next morning we slept in and headed back to Provo.

MORE PICTURES OF THE TURKEY TRI