Watch Me Grow

By reading this blog, you get to take part in watching me grow and progress. EXCITING! My newest adventure? Learning to play the guitar! So far I know four chords: G, D, C, and E Minor. I can't exactly transition smoothly or strum prettily...yet. The goal is to learn Hazy by Rosi Golan and impress Chloe when she comes home from Thanksgiving. We'll see how that goes.

Today in my Family Proclamation  class, we talked about the sanctity of life. Our bodies are so amazing! We can learn and grow and do really cool things! I thought this video was AWE INSPIRING. Watch and be amazed that you began like this.

Kissing Rugby

Oh yes, you read that right: kissing rugby. Rules: one person sits in the middle of the room. A person of the same gender guards the sitting person. A person of the opposite gender tries to get through the guard and kiss the sitting person (on the cheek). The guard tries to kiss the attacker (again, on the cheek). First to kiss wins. It gets a little crazy.

Now personally, I don't like the idea of giving away even cheek kisses in a game. My kisses are special. They mean more than winning. But that's just me. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I've only ever kissed one person. And I loved him. That being said, I didn't feel like it was morally wrong for others to play the game or for me to watch. In fact, I found it quite entertaining.

After almost everyone had gone home, Megan and Leland had a rematch. Megan had lost the first time they went against each other, and she wanted to prove she could win. Since there weren't any other girls around to be the sitting person, I got peer pressured into participating. I made Megan promise to win so that I wouldn't have to get kissed. And I held my hands on my cheeks so that if Leland won, he would only be kissing my hand.

Well, Megan lost. My favorite part of the video is the very end when Megan says, "I'm sorry, Lisa."

The things we do for our best friends...

Walking on Sunshine

This has been (in one of my favorite phrases from junior high) a stellar amazing week! I figure I can do an end of week post now since tomorrow officially starts the WEEKEND! Wooooo!!!

Monday was average and absolutely wonderful. Added bonus: we (roomies and I) watched multiple episodes of Parenthood

Tuesday was spectacular. We (again...me and the roomies) went to Salt Lake to see a pre-showing of Savior of the World. It's this amazingggg musical about the events leading up to Christ's birth and following His resurrection. Such a testimony builder. Loved, loved, loved it!

Wednesday was (obviously) the best day ever. See yesterday's post for details. Elder and Sister Oaks, President and Sister Samuelson, and Daryl Hoole. Yeap, BYU is fantastic.

Thursday. Oh yes, today was equally wonderful. After a longggg and busy day, I was able to attend a ward health and wellness activity. We ate yummy, healthy food and danced the night away. btdubs, I rock at xbox Just Dance. Now to end the night with more Parenthood with the roomies :)

Life is GOOD!!!!

Mormon Celebrities

*insert explosion of excitement here*

There are certain persons in the LDS culture that are "famous". These persons may be completely unknown to the general public outside of the church, but to me they are so much more of a big deal than Hollywood celebrities (FYI, writing this like I am cool, calm, and collected is killing me - in actuality I'm squealing with excitement). Tonight, I had the opportunity to meet multiple Mormon celebrities. Eeeeek!!!

Because I have the best major in the entire world (Family Studies), I was blessed to be informed of tonight's School of Family Life Distinguished Lecture by Daryl Hoole.

She is an accomplished author, loving wife/mother/grandma/great-grandmother, and an amazing speaker. She was so funny and such a good teacher! Sister Hoole's lecture was entitled "The Home--An Apprentice Shop for Children". I learned so many good mommy tips. Gosh, she made me so excited to be a mom. 

After the absolutely wonderful lecture, I gathered my courage and went to meet the Mormon celebrities. I got to the lecture early, so I was sitting super close to "the celebrities". After a quick prayer for courage, I waltzed right up to President and Sister Samuelson (BYU president and his wife) and introduced myself. They were the sweetest people ever! President Samuelson shook my hand and then proceeded to hold my elbow the rest of the time we were talking. I normally don't like people touching me, but since there were a lot of people around it was nice to know he was focusing his attention on me for those few minutes. 

Next, I met Elder Dallin H. Oaks. He is an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Just like in Jesus' day, we have twelve apostles - and tonight I shook hands with one of them! TWICE! I shook his hand once, and then a few minutes later he reached out and shook it again. I'm pretty sure he didn't remember shaking my hand the first time, but hey, I'm not complaining. He can shake my hand as much as he wants. I was able to tell Elder Oaks and his wife how much I enjoyed the fireside they gave earlier this semester. They are just the cutest. I love them!

Before I left, I was also able to meet Daryl Hoole. She is such a sweet lady! She was so glad students actually came to the lecture because she was worried it'd be all old people, haha. She said to tell my professor to give me an 'A' for coming. 

Basically, tonight was just the greatest night ever. I am on cloud nine. Some people are concert people. They love to be front row and reach out and touch the hand of their favorite musician. Me? I'm a Mormon. And I like Mormon celebrities. Spiritual giants. People I can trust even before the very first handshake.

Dear Toilet

Dear Toilet,

I would like you to know that you are not a fountain. I know you've had a major identity crisis today and decided to grace us with your flowing waters all over the bathroom and hallway floor, but really. We love you just the way you are: a toilet. Don't worry, we understand that you are going through a rough time in your porcelain existence. We will let you (and the apartment manager) hash things out. Until then, I would really appreciate it if you'd at least keep the outpourings of water contained to the restroom.

With love,
Lisa

SO MANY TESTS

I had so many tests this week. And papers. It was very very very busy. Unfortunately for you, that means I didn't have time to blog about the ups and downs of this week. I thought about trying to remember everything that happened, but I quickly gave up. My week's worth of brain power is all used up. So, let's skip straight to the weekend...that's the best part of the week anyway, right?

Friday night = date night. Kevin and I went to Divine Comedy (BYU sketch comedy group that our pal Stacey is in) with Megan and Stuart. It was super duper funny. Afterwards we went back to their apartment for hot cocoa. Kevin had bought some ski stuff at DI, and since it had been snowing all day we decided to try it out...on the lawn outside of the apartment complex. The flat lawn, haha. It was silly, but quite fun.

Speaking of the snow, it snowed a lot. A lot a lot. More than all last winter combined (granted it didn't really snow at all last year...) The snow was so heavy that lots of branches and trees fell down!

I don't know why snow is trying to steal the Thanksgiving season. Snow should definitely wait until after Thanksgiving. But don't worry, Thanksgiving is in full swing for me. The snow hasn't fooled me into skipping turkey day. We even had a delicious ward Thanksgiving dinner tonight :)

I made this Thanksgiving sign for work and I am oh so proud of it:

Hmm... what else? Oh! I went to the Men's Chorus concert tonight. It was absolutely fabulous. And a cake exploded in our oven. The two are in no way related; I just wanted to tell you both. THE END.

Falling in Love

I fell in love with the temple all over again yesterday.

My ward (church) went to the Mt. Timpanogos temple yesterday and I fell completely, head-over-heels in love. All temples are beautiful, but this one is especially spectacular. The glass work in the windows is amazing; it is iridescent and changes shades of blue, purple, and green. I loved the interior as well. It is absolutely perfect. I can imagine heaven looking exactly like the Mt. Timanogos temple.

There was an hour and a half wait (I love how busy the temples are here!) so my roommates and I had our apartment scripture study on the temple grounds. I can't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday than at the Lord's house with some of my favorite people studying the Word of God. Yesterday was pure bliss.