I Heart Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day all!

Things I love:
God
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
My family - everyone and especially Aidan and Chloe
My friends - everyone and just kidding! Everyone!
Seattle
The Temple
My hollyhock picture
My 30th Birthday Scrapbook - see #3 and 4 although they're not numbered...
My job
Convertible Mini Coopers
The Book of Mormon - is it bad this came so late on the list?
Well - all the scriptures...
General Conference - So much. Come on. Love it.
General Relief Society Conference. Even more.
Of course -- Julie B. Beck!
BYU Women's Conference - I love conferences apparently.
Music
Flowers
My photos
Blogs - see the huge list on the side of this page.
My books and my Winnie the Pooh bookends
Disneyland
byubroadcasting.com find a talk database feature
Speaking in scripture :)
My mom's egg rolls and chicken dumplings
My visiting teachers
Homemade oreos
Singing at the piano with ELJ or talking in the kitchen or sitting in the comfy seats by the fire or watching tv with JEJ too or...
Talking on the phone to EJR or watching Golden Girls together or just reminiscing about old episodes together or talking about the Gospel together or...
Ok so I do have favorite friends...
The Golden Girls
The Trying Harder Girls
The Book Club Girls
The Second Saturday Girls
Dancing
My polka-dot umbrella
Walking around Green Lake
Dolly
Lots of dead people - well it's true... I'm just saying.
Traveling
Trader Joe's
ANTM
The Sound of Music
Parties to watch either of the last two items
The Turkeys and all the emailing
Miracles
Pickles -- and snickers pie and lemonade but I don't think Mrs. C reads this....
Pizza
Memories
Future Plans
Promises
Visiting Teaching
Mail - you know, good mail - not just junk
Argentina
Driving
Sledding with my family even though I almost died walking so far in the snow...
Good jokes - got any?
Lists
Being So Happy.
(Hope your day of love was filled with it! Think about what you love and it will be!)

Calm on the Water

Monday I was disappointed. It's ok. It happens.

But I decided that it's important for me to express my faith before the blessings come.

I mean - I want Heavenly Father to know (if He reads my blog... :)) that I trust Him now. Before a miracle happens.
Not just after I get the blessings.

I believe in miracles. They've happened in my life and in lives of others I know.

So today I made a list of miracles that I can readily bring to memory. I started with scriptural miracles - but quickly moved on to personal miracles and they've just kept coming to memory
all day long.

**Moses parted the Red Sea.
**Moses was found by Pharoh's daughter - of all the women by the river - and what a huge river!
**Crickets and Seagulls.
**Nephi. He built a boat. He shocked his brothers. The Lord made their raw meat sweet. He kept forgiving. Nephi is a miracle.
**Getting UT residency for tuition right in the nick of time.

**Finding $500 after my young woman Ali told me the story of our meeting 15 years ago on a plane when she was 5.
**Calling Carolyn to my presidency before I even had seen her and she was PERFECT.
**Getting a job at the Social Research Institute which paid a huge chunk of my tuition. I saw the flyer for it the day the application was due but I still got the job. Amazing Blessing.
**Becoming friends with the Disneyland Girls.

**Being at the intersection in the right moment to see my young woman need me.
**Being able to go to Europe with Catheryn.

**Meeting Anastasia in Germany.

**Aidan.

{That kid is a genius and I'm not kidding or exaggerating!!
He knows his opposites which we were practicing here while he played my favorite exercise game of up and down (which consists of him riding on my leg while I move his like 20 lb body up and down. I can go about 4 times before my leg dies.)}

**Finding my condo (on craigslist!) And it didn't sell before I bought it. MIRACLE.


**Being called as YW President on the very day I was going to change to the single's ward.

**Being inspired to do the project for Sister Beck.
**The project worked!
**Running into Sister Beck on Temple Square with all the YW.
**Colleen's family waited long enough to have her FUNeral that I could come during my fall break.
**Going to see Luella after Women's Conference 2006, even though she was already a pumpkin, and that was the last time I saw her. If I wouldn't have gone I wouldn't have seen her the whole time I lived in Salt Lake.
**Linda Johnson came to Temple Square. (Pictures soon to come!)
**Getting called to the BYU Women's Conference Planning Committee.
**The Turkeys. Connecting with them initially. Reconnecting with them recently. Totally worth more than $5000. (So glad Cora made it into the pic with us!)

**Working on the Thursday night shift at the Temple. It was perfect. Those were my people.
**Getting my job at Life Care at Home so I could move to Utah.
**Feeling inspired to move to Utah.
**My money that should've run out in January of 2008 has lasted until now (with a little left still).
**Getting my first job at ManorCare.
**Meeting Hilda.

**Making the connection from Hilda to Jan Conger.
**Getting to do Hilda's (and her family's) Temple Work - and the Burnham's were there for it all!
**Being in the Temple with Elder Scott.
**Getting to introduce Sister Kapp and her husband in Seattle at a conference. To the conference participants - not each other. ;)

**Sister Kapp sitting in front of ELJ and me at the concert two weeks ago.
**Visiting teaching assignment that let me be friends with Maria.

**Maria and I deciding not to move to that FANTASTIC apartment because we didn't know I'd be moving here. Then I moved here.
**Sitting by Elder Wirthlin on the plane on the way home from Ricks College.
**They found Catheryn and Steve.

**Seeing Dolly in the park. What a miracle.

**The Blue Notebook.
**The Antipas recipe.
**My mission president and his wife being here for dinner with ELJ, EJR and their husbands.

**Getting to be in the Solemn Assembly session for President Hinckley and President Monson.
**Picking the very right songs for Stake Conference May 2006. Wow.
**Being in the foyer of the Temple so I could see my friend Sister Chris when she visited Seattle.
**Being called to the Argentina Neuquen Mission.

**Totally embarrassing myself on the phone with President Monson - the miracle is I didn't lose my membership in the church after calling him a liar. Ask me sometime.
**Getting to be with President Hinckley in the Salt Lake Temple for a devotional.
**Being friends with ELJ. Of all the people she knows, I get to be one of her friends. (One that gets to sit at her kitchen counter a lot and eat ice cream and one that calls me when I have blind dates to see if I need rescuing and takes me with her to the symphony - oh how I love her.)

**Being friends with EJR. Of all the people she knows, I get to be one of her friends. (one that she shares jokes with and buys dresses for and watches The Golden Girls with and lets read her manuscripts and plays dominoes with even when it's hard - oh how I love her.)

**I was born! Into my family at the very time I needed to be born.

(Come on that is an awesome picture.)

**I was born into a family that embraces and lives the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!

**So many Luella miracles.

**Luella herself was a miracle.

**Thinking to call the American Cancer Society about the job posting and finding out about the other available job.
**Just deciding to send my resume to Caresource even though there were no job openings.
**Passing the Social Work Licensure Exam.

My dad always says, "The Lord loves a coincidence."

I think it's true because you can choose to see His hand in all things or not. He never forces. So I want to be a part of the righteous generation - not seeking a sign like the wicked generation - but seeing the signs of His Love everywhere.

I doubt not the Lord nor His goodness.
I've proved Him in days that are past.

So while waiting, I will not doubt. I will be patient. I will be hopeful and I will live my belief that if I have to wait until eternity for some blessings, the blessing of the Atonement is enough until then. More than enough. And the amazing thing is - that's not the only blessing He has given me. See above list for proof.

What miracles are you most grateful for?

Past, Present and the Promise of Future Blessings make me,
So Happy.

Pioneer Amy talked as she drove and drove and drove and drove...

Two years ago today I drove my U-Haul Wagon into the Valley.

Isn't it beautiful?
I talked so much on the way that I was WAY over my minutes
-- by 800 minutes!
Fortunately Verizon helped me out and changed my plan.
Phew!

We were so tired after unloading.
Then about a week later I had to move everything again because my apartment flooded.
So move #2.

Then I moved into my condo! Move #3.
That's it.
No more moving.

I Love my condo!
Except it really needs to be painted.
Sometime soon. Get ready everybody!

Those first few months here were so fun!
I went to Vegas,

Enjoyed BYU Football with Ryn, Steve and Wesley,


Enjoyed BBQ's with the Pyro-Pit and the Fam,

(who has the pics of the pyro-pit?)

(Lani had pics of the pyro-pit! Thanks!)

and had my first favorite dinner party ever!

Then -- there was a lot of death.

(not me)

There was more. Not So Happy.

But there were lots of other really happy things in
the last two years!

Aidan!


Seth and Katie got married!


Grad School!


Stacey's having a baby!


Disneyland!


Sister Beck!

So many miracles!

Young Women!

3 trips to Seattle!

(Isn't that an amazing pic? I took that!)

Like 1000 blind dates - maybe not really so happy!

Happy Birthday lunches!

And lots more.

Yesterday on Shutter Sisters there was a wonderful post about time passing.
She said that when we say, "This too shall pass" we always think of the bad things.

But the truth is - it all will pass.

The good times with friends, the happy moments with family,
the peaceful seasons with God --
it all passes.

Their question was- what are you doing to pass the time?
And how are you making sure you remember it before it passes?
Interesting isn't it?

These last two years haven't been entirely happy -
but I am so glad that I live in Utah now.
It's wonderful to be close to family and friends here.
I love living close to the Headquarters of the Church --
getting to go to Conference and special events like
President Hinckley's Funeral.
(He died too in the last two years.)

I love Utah.

I'm so grateful that Brigham Young brought the Saints out here and that they followed him!
Leaving Nauvoo couldn't have been easy.
But they did it.
And so did I.

And I really am So Happy.

Random Happiness

#1 - Sister Beck got to tour Air Force One (President Monson and President Uchtdorf were also there (and fabulous)). Why that makes me happy... Just glad for a reason to mention again how fabulous Sister Beck is!

#2 - Rolos. Yum. Who thought of that perfect candy? So good.

#3 - Funny blind date stories. Did I tell you the one about the restaurant where there was a "little person" (is that pc? maybe if you don't put it in quotes, oh well) with three fingers making balloon animals? Awesome. Remind me to tell you someday. It's been a while since the actual date - but believe you me - the details are still ever so fresh in my mind.

#4 - The prospect of seeing April, Noah and Aidan tomorrow!!! Yeah!!! It's been like a month and I can't wait to get my hands on that little drooler! Just thinking about it makes me HAPPY!!! (yes it's #4 but this list is in no way in order or importance or level of created happiness.)

#5 - Facebook chatting. So fun. You know who you are. So happy.

#6 - Hilarious cell phone rings. My friend has one that just says - Ring. Ring, Ring and gets more and more like Seth screaming "Catheryn" until you answer.

#7 - Having tickets to Stomp, Young @ Heart and a midnight showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (what are your favorite quotes from the movie?)! Can't wait!

Well - seven makes me happy. Now bedtime... So happy!

Da, da da da, da, da (Song to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance)

Well, Hello world!

Sorry about the long absence... There has been so much happiness since you last heard from me!

I haven't actually graduated - but I did get to walk through the ceremonies and have a par-tay!

Another happiness is that my mom was here!! She came to watch me walk across the stage!

(My dad wanted to come but he had to farm...
We missed him a lot!)

We had so much fun playing with my nephew and being with the family!

And Seth and Katie came and surprised us!!!
And Stacey and Cody were here too and I loved being with everyone!
And I got the cutest banner from April that is so adorable that
I can't wait to have another party to use it!
Family is So Happy!!!!
(but not getting pics with everyone is not so happy...
What were we thinking! Oh well...)


My graduation party was so super fun!!

(Annie and I had some fun taking funny pictures on graduation day...
Anyone else excited to see "Stepbrothers?")

Everything was RED at my party which made for some good eats!

There were so many people here that I love
(even my friend Sister Brown clear from Seattle!!!!)
and I loved every second of it!

Graduating is So Happy!

A long, long time ago...

On April 28, 1998, I left Argentina to come home from my mission!

They have been ten great years! Who could believe they've passed so fast!!!
Here's a synopsis (a brief one picture synopsis) of what my life has been since then...

BYU

(that's me and my BYU Roomie, Sharon, and her grandma during our end of the year Disneyland trip! I didn't have a digital camera then and it's too late to scan pictures right now... but I had some great roommates and great times at BYU!)

Seattle


The Temple


Lots of Old People

(That's my friend Stella, she'll be 100 this year! An amazing woman!!!)

Mexico


Europe


Mexico again


Europe again

Salt Lake City

My condo


Aidan


Young Women


Sister Beck


Grad School
(ok that's us on the way to Dis but these gals have been the best part of grad school for sure!!!)
(and the Hoff... our entertainment on the roadtrip.)

Disneyland

Lots of hair styles(you wish I'd post those! Maybe I will!) and so many good friends and family!











Who could ask for anything more? (well, a husband, maybe....)




It hasn't all been easy, but for ten years now I have been
So Happy.