...The New Hobby...

Everyday on my way home from work I pass by this pumpkin patch that this local church has going on... I guess when I ride by it with my windows down in the fall air (YES! there is a fall in Tallahassee!!!) I can't help but feel like it really is fall and it reminds me of why its my favorite time of year... I love Halloween, not for the scary, spooky aspect, but more so because of the cute carved pumpkins and then cute kids running around and all of the silly Disney movies like Hocus Pocus and Halloweentowns 1 - 1000.... It also really makes me miss my best friend from Leesburg, Laurel, who is going to school at UF (boooooo, like the kind of boo when you don't like something, not the trying to scare someone boo)... we used to relish this time of year together...

But back to what I originally was talking about, the pumpkin patch... Everyday I pass by it, the setting sun starts to shine through the trees by it and there are always a ton of kids running around picking out their pumpkin... To me it looked like the perfect picture of Fall... thus my new hobby: photography... I've decided that I am going to start taking a picture a day for 100 days while reading up on photogrpahy techniques so that I can thus have a new hobby/talent... hopefully by the end of it I will have that talent and a pretty tight portfolio! I've always wanted to be the mom who can take awesome action shots of her kids when they are doing their thing, be it sports or dance or just sleeping, so I think I need to learn now, so when they finally get here I'll be ready to document their lives in a really unique way! With all of that said, I created a new blog just for the pictures.... it's http://digitalcameradiary.blogspot.com/ and I'll post a picture that I have taken every day for 100 days (maybe more if I feel like it)... I plan on actually stopping by the said pumpkin patch today and take that piture of fall and post it tonight! Wish me luck!

...2009 October General Conference...

Like I said before I had the opportunity to go to conference... The Friday I was in Utah was more devoted to having fun, but Saturday and Sunday were all about spiritual growth... Saturday morning Tom Christensen picked me up bright and early and we drove into Salt Lake for the first session of conference... I'd never been into Slat Lake before, nor had I ever been to conference, so I was like a little kid that was super amazed at everything! It was cold, and beautiful and the number of members were amazing! There is definitely nothing like it and the excitement you feel isn't just excitement, its the Spirit too...We got there early enough to be moved up closer than our seats really were and we ended up being like 5 rows behind the families of the General Authorities... I was in awe and couldn't help but be excited the entire time... I'm sure plenty of the Florida members were excited when they announced the Fort Lauderdale Temple, but let me tell you what, actually being in the conference center for that announcemnt was something else... I started to cry and couldn't contain my happiness... I'm sure Tom thought I was a nuts.... Conference is always the best and always amazing, but being there in person to hear the messages that our Heavenly Father has for us through His servents here on this earth is AMAZING! I'm truly blessed to have Prophets and Apostles who are worthy preisthood holders that can deliver those messages and that truely love us Saints... After the first session, Tom and I went over to the Visitor Center and walked around and then we tried finding some lunch (which was a major fail!) and we had to hurry back to get into the second session.... It was amazing too! There were a lot of talks that reminded me of my family and that I need to tell them and show them that I love them more! Tom had to leave that session early so he could go pick up his former companion from the mission, so I was going to have to entertain myself for the two hours before Preisthood session and the two hours during and I was kind of bummed about it, until I saw sister Reid, Joey from before's mom.... seriously, SMALL WORLD! She was really excited to see me and invited me to go around with her girls and her to see all the sights at temple square! Seriously, the Lord was looking out for me!

We went to go eat at Crown Buger, which is pretty much the most delicious burger joint on the planet! And then after Crown Burger we went to the Beehive house, which was Brigham Young's house in Salt Lake... After that we hit up the Distribution Center and then the Church Bookstore was having Ladies' Night, where during the two hours of Preisthood session, everything is discounted for the ladies and they bring in church musical acts and speakers... I got to meet Hilary Weeks!!!! She is spectacular! After the Ladies night thing I went out to eat with Tom and tow of his former mission comps. and one of their wives...

We went and ate at this Brazillian resturaunt named Tucanos! It was fantastic! They bring around like 13 different meats and cut them right off the skewer for you... It was delicious! After that Tom and I needed to find a Wal*Mart so I could get lunchables for Aaron and my picnic that we were going to have before the Sunday afternoon session... The cool thing about Utah is you pretty mcu hcan see everything because of the elevation and all the roads are on a grid system, but we could not get to the Wal*Mart that we could see.... It took us forever!!! Needless to say, we did finally accomplish our goal and I did get the lunchables... Tom was disgusted in the lunchables, but I had to explaint to him that that is what every kid begs thier mom to put in their school lunch in the US (he's from Canada)... Also I was amazed that in Wal*Mart out in Utah they ahve an LDS book, music, and MOVIE section! HOW AWESOME!
That night I literally crashed when I hit the bed and was ready to sleep until Sunday morning session...
Aaron picked me up in the morning and it was raining, but we were determined to have our picnik anyway, so we huddled together under the conference center eating our lunchables getting the weirdest looks from people... they just can't appreciate a good time when they see it! Then we went into the conference center and it was one of the best sessions ever! Elder Holland gave the most amazing talk which was really his testimony of the Book of Mormon.... it was so great!
After conference, I was supposed to get to see Morgan Boone, an old friend that lived in my home ward growing up, but her phone was off, so Aaron and I decided to go to the MTC and answer some phone calls that the referral center, but I guess they'll keep it open every SUnday EXCEPT conference Sundays? werid if you ask me.... but by that point Morgan called me and we drove to go see her... I got to meet her boyfriend, Brad, who is just awesome for her! He s hilarious, and totally didn't take offense to me going on about how much older a person in when they are 30 and you are 19.... Well Morgan being 20 and him being 30 made me really feel like I should have quit while I was ahead, and I guess I should have noticed the looks Aaron was giving me to quit, but I think it was all good by the end of the conversation.... they seriously are perfect for each other!

At that point I was really tired, so Aaron drove me home, where I packed, got one of the most exciting phone calls ever from my friend Lauren Baas, and then slept to prepare for my 9 hours of flying I had to do the next day..... Morgan picked me up in the morning and drove me to the airport and I flew from Salt Lake to Denver, Colorado, then to Dallas, Texas (both of which had INSANELY HUGE airports) and then into Tallahassee, Florida by 9 pm where my amazing roommate Tiara picked me up....

Pretty much I miss Utah and the mountains! I loved the trip and it was one of the best exeriences I could have ever asked for! I was very blessed to be able to go and to see the things I'd never gotten to before and to make more friends and to make a lot of great memories!

...In The Valley...

I had the opportunity of a lifetime to get to go to General Conference two weekends ago.... I found out that I'd be able to go the Sunday before and the week following I quickly had to make all my arrangements because I was flying in on Thursday... Thanks to the amazing packing knowledge that my friend Katie posses, I was able to pack 4 church dresses, 6 outfits, numerous scarfs/beanies, sneakers, heels, 2 pairs of clogs, flip flops, belts, tons of undies, tights (thanks Aunt Jodi for the heads up) and a couple of hoodies all in a carry-on.... yes, right now you should be doing a slow hand clap that gradually build louder and louder and faster and faster.... Trust me, it was a skill that Katie passed on that I will now have to pass on..... See I heard it would be cold in Utah, but I know their cold and my cold (being a Florida girl and all) would be COMPLETELY! different.... thus presenting the dilemma of not knowing what to pack to keep me warm... that's my explanation of all the clothing I dragged (which by the way, I has the biggest purse that I borrowed from my roommate to carry tons of stuff on the plane too... This included a wool jacket)... Needless to say, I was prepared!

On Thursday at 2:30 my roommate picked me up and took me to the Tallahassee airport (and she got a speeding ticket going back to work! talk about a great friend!) where I boarded the smallest airplane in the world! After I flew over the water and landed in Tampa, I sat around for like a half hour and then boarded a bigger plane to Huston,Texas! Let me tell you what! You know you are in Texas when there is a Bass Pro Shop in the airport! I was super excited because they had Panda Express in the airport and we don't have that in Tallahassee, so of course I jumped on that opportunity! After my delicious Panda dinner accompanied by a phone call to Rachel to pass the time, I boarded my flight to Salt Lake City!!! Well I was super excited about flying into the Salt Lake Valley at night because I would be able to see all the lights pop up over the mountains and see the temples.... NOPE! I got on the wrong side of the plane... instead as I flew in I got the view of the Great Salt Lake, which, at night, is a giant black abyss... Either way, I loved getting to fly... The second they opened the plane door, a huge gust of freezing cold midnight air hit me! Seriously, I about froze.... It was like winter in Florida! I immediately put on my wool coat that got me so many strange looks in the Tallahassee, Tampa, and Huston airports... I guess no one realized that it would be winter in Utah! We landed at like 11:45 pm (yes.... 9 hours of flying!) and I was picked up at the airport by my friend Tom, whoe's form Canada and who was also there for conference... He drove me to Sharon Lowder's cousin's house where I stayed while I was in Utah.... The next morning my friend Aaron picked me up birght and early (11am MST/ 1pm EST) to go around and see as many temples as we could get to in the Valleys... I stressed to him the crazy obsession I had with the temples, so I told him that I hoped he didn't think me crazy for taking tons of pictures of the temples... We were driving to the Oquirrh Mountain temple first, but somhow the Jordan River temple popped up out of no where! I really liked that temple, but it kind of reminded me of a bowtie... It was packed at 11:30 am on a Friday... insane! Then we hit the Oquirrh Mountain Temple that was dedicated the month before... It was by far my absolute favoirte temple in Utah (yes, it even beat Salt Lake.... don't judge me!)... After Oquirrh Mountain, we visited the Draper temple which was not even five minutes away from the house I was staying at... It was also dedicated in 2009, and it was up on the mountain... it was super pretty too.... not to mention the insanely huge, and I mean HUGE! houses next to it...

These are some of the pictures of the houses.... They were insane... pretty much a small modest house.... NOT!After the insane Draper houses and the Salt Lake Valley temples, we headed into Utah Valley and saw the Mount Timpanogos Temple... It looked a lot like the Orlando one, but a lot bit bigger... plus there was some intense neon green and teal blue stained glass.... On our way out of the temple grounds we saw some kids at a private school playing soccer... I thought it was cute and took a picture!

At this point it was like 3 in the afternoon (like 5 at home) and I hadn't really eaten, so Aaron and I went and got some FIve Guys Burgers and Fries (with the famous Utah Fry Sauce) and went and did the cliche Mormon kid thing and went and had a picnic at the Provo Utah temple... In pictures the Provo temple looks a bit, how do you say it, well, different, but in real life, its beautiful!

Once we left the Provo temple we went to go get me a BYU t-shirt so I could go to the BYU v Utah State football game... Pretty much I'm, free of chrage, coming up with better cheers for the cougars... They can thank me later... I made Aaron take a picture of me tomahawking the BYU cougar statue since we pretty muched owned them on their field AND Elder Perkins, an elder serving in my ward right now, didn't believe me that if he game me his family's phone number that I'd meet up with them.... well I did! They had some awesome seats at the game... They are the tightest family I know! I'm really glad I got to meet them... Perkins was super trunky after he saw the pictures... I loved talking to his mom and I think she enjoyed getting to tlak ot someone new about her son :) After BYU stomped Utah State, Aaron and I went to go see my friend Hayden Liljenquist.... We all started watching a movie at his house and next thing I know I'm being woken up because I guess I dosed off.... Aaron took me home so I could sleep and get ready for conference the next morning... I'll be sure to post about the rest of the trip in the next blog....

...A Girl's Weekend...

About three weekends ago I got to spend time with my roommate Tiara and her three lovely nieces Makai (8), Rayden(7), and Payton(3)... The are all so rambunctious and hilarious! They got here on a Friday night and we took them to the Downtown Getdown (the city of Tallahassee puts on this street fair every Friday night before a home FSU football game)... There was a DJ, street vendors, face painting, balloon artists, ice cream, jewelry making, Moon Jumps, and so much more... I think the girls loved it!

Saturday we went to the Brogan Museum in downtown and got to play around there and made play dough and got to do experiments on electricity... After the museum we ate at Chick-fil-a and the girls got to play on the playground... That night we ate at Sonny's (ummmm how I love Sonny's!) and went to go see the movie, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.... it was decent... hopefully my kids won't drag me to see movies like that though (knock on wood)...


Basically Makai and Rayden, who were sisters, Payton was their cousin, reminded me of Lindsey and I.... Makai loves to sing and is full of random knowledge... She knows EVERYTHING! while Rayden was the life of the party... She was always causing playful mischief and was always into how she looked.... I'll let ya'll figure out which one was me and which is Lindsey, but I think its obvious!


Tiara got a lot of pictures with her camera so I'll have to post some of them later but here is one of me and Payton with her butterfly

...Busy Busy Busy...

Between starting at the Clerk's office full-time and having to go between two offices now (the actual courthouse and then the remote office off Sharer road, an extra 15 minutes from my house) combined with church, missionary work, and trying to be a good friend, I am busy busy busy.... that has also made me get behind in the blogging area... that alone makes me want to cry, so I promise (and I write this as more of a reminder ot myself then as information to the reader) to blog about my weekend with Tiara and her neices, my trip to Utah for conference, my new job, and also the temple trip to Orlando this last weekend... Its sad when you have an addiction that you can't spend all your time on... sucks when you become a real adult and have to spend all of your time working instead of going to school for 6 hours coming home and doing barely any homework and watch Deadliest Catch while you sit on the computer and eat (ahhhhh the good ole days).... nope instead I get to deal with waking up at the crack of dawn driving to work and working with angry customers all day then drive home to go to church and then to drive back home and crash... but hey, its my life, and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

..."Real" Adult...

Today I read my friend Eric's blog... he posted something that really made me think and re-taught me a lesson.... A person that he was not very close to, but knew passed away and on her blog she posted about how time has a different meaning once you realize the amount of it you have left... you realize the things that are really important in your life, like flossing? Is ti really that important when you realize you only have four weeks left? So much in life is like that... For instance I have no clue what I would do with my time... I think I might quit my job and sell all of my stuff and (since I have life insurance now) not freak out about what my parents are going to do money-wise... I probably would just go around the US seeing all of my distant family that I probably don't even realize I'm related to.... I mean once we leave this life, they are all we have left... I probably would make my sisters Lindsey and Amber take off school and go with me... I think I'd try to convince my brother Tommy to do it too... I think I take them all for granted...

Basically, life is full of hindsight... I mean take today for instance... I became a "real adult..." what makes you a real adult you might ask? Well according to this almost 20 year old, its when you have to pick out your health benefits and doctors that YOU are now paying for and then you realize that you also get life insurance just in case you croak and you have to pick people who get your money... INSANE! but today I had the hindsight of wishing that I was force to take a class on becoming an adult once a year in high school instead of gym once a semester... Hindsight.... but then I just realized... maybe becoming an adult is when you have to tough it out through these life decisions that you have no clue how to make... that's what really makes you a real adult... if not you would be skating by and kind of living life too easy... I don't want that either... So here I am... an real adult who now needs to rethink what time really means to her and the things that she should really be doing with it.... so far three things are on this list: 1. Serve the Lord more... 2. Spend more time with my loved ones... 3. Be a positive impact im more peoples lives....

Ready? Lets get started!