Well, here I am in Iowa City, Iowa. Wednesday morning I made the decision to leave Thursday morning. Wednesday afternoon I just thought leaving immediately was best, so I told Mike and Annie to pack up and we would leave around 6 pm when Annie was done with work and ready. I didn't get any nap time in between going to bed at 2 am, getting up at 9 am and leaving at 6 pm. Leaving Wednesday night turned out to be perfect. We took the southern route due to bad roads in Wyoming. As expected, we encountered lots of rain on the way out of Utah and partly into Colorado, but the roads were completely dry through the high country of Colorado and we did not see any of the snow predicted to fall. That made the trip go much easier. Annie juiced up on energy drinks and drove for 8 hours. I managed an accumulated total of maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep, so I took over driving. I drove for an hour or so but it was very foggy, so I decided to pull off at a rest area for 45 minutes to rest and let the fog clear. The fog just moved further down the road, but I wasn't as tired so I continued driving. After another hour or more we finally got out of the cursed fog. The dawn broke too, making staying awake a little easier. After Denver all signs of real life disappeared. Most cities were off the freeway or blink-and-you-miss-them in size. Mike switched off to drive for a bit while Annie and I slept more. Eventually we made it to Nebraska and then Iowa. In Iowa I took over driving again. During that stint of driving, we put Annie's car over the 100,000 mile mark. We celebrated the occasion with a cheer. There was a small storm that I guess put a bit of snow in Des Moines, but the roads were dry when we got through. Other than the rain and fog, we had no weather problems. We arrived in Iowa City right when we expected to at 5:20 pm Thursday. A couple hours later, the family arrived from Virginia.

I was EXTREMELY excited to have my guns brought out from Virginia. Unfortunately, my family is lazy and refused to pack the van the night before, so when they crudely threw in everything minutes before leaving, they somehow had no room for my guns. To say I was bummed out would be an extreme understatement. I had been waiting for a long time to finally have my guns so I could go shooting. The perfect opportunity came and the perfect opportunity was missed. So, sadly I will not be going shooting anytime in the foreseeable future.

Today we found one of the few hills in Iowa and went sledding. It's snowed 5 inches or so today on top of the couple inches left from their last storm, so sledding was great. It's actually still snowing now. We'll definitely have a very white Christmas here. Christmas is actually today for us, by our German tradition. We had our traditional bratwurst dinner with sauerkraut and rolls and great gravy, followed by streuselkuchen and cookies. Usually we wait playing games until midnight and wait for St. Nickolaus to come. When the Christmas tree is plugged in and lit up, we come out and open our gifts. Tonight, I don't think we're waiting until midnight. Everyone is tired from driving and sledding, so we're doing Christmas early. Tomorrow, we'll just play board games and do stuff like that. I prefer this format to the regular Christmas morning.

Just a heads up, I will be overhauling my blog after the holidays. I know the play-by-play of my days is so exciting, but it bores me, so I'm going to either make it into some sort of video blog or something more interesting where I talk less about me and more about other things. I'd like to increase my following and see if I can get lots of people interested in my blog.

Merry Christmas!

Well, the first non-weekend day of my vacation was pretty dang good. I cleaned up and organized my room and got a pile of stuff for DI together. In the afternoon Phillip and I went out and ran errands. We dropped off stuff at DI, went to Deseret Book, went to Old Navy, went to Ross, went to Wal Mart, went to Hobby Lobby and then went home. At home Mike and I watched some movies. It had been snowing since Sunday night so we had a few inches of wet snow on the ground. It snowed all day yesterday, though pretty lightly, so the roads were just wet, but after dark it started covering the roads again. I did the one thing I hate and drove in the snow. We expected a couple inches overnight so, since Mike's scooter is incapable of driving in snow, we arranged for me to get up at 7 so he could be at work at 8. Well, this morning when I got up, I looked out the window to check the roads. When I saw about 10 inches of snow covering everything and the roads with several inches of slush and snow on them as well, I immediately told Mike he would have to walk or miss work because there was no way I was driving a borrowed car in that weather. He had already told his boss he wouldn't make it in, which is odd because an hour later he walked to my place. Anyway, the snow fell through mid-day today and is expected that we'll still get a bit more today or tonight before it warms up a little. They didn't expect a white Christmas here, but I think there will still be a good little bit of snow on Saturday.

Unfortunately, this series of storms, which won't move out until late Thursday, may delay our departure to Iowa. I'm sure Annie wouldn't hesitate to drive regardless of road conditions, but that's why she almost wrecked just trying to make a simple turn on an icy road during Thanksgiving. 14 people have died in accidents since Thursday night when the rain and snow began, with all but one of those accidents having weather as a major factor. I absolutely refuse to drive up through Wyoming if it's snowing. We'll evaluate our options as these storms move out, but there is a very real chance that we won't leave until Christmas morning. Time will tell.

This week is Christmas. Over the next few days, many of us will be running around, trying to find last minute gifts. Some of us will be traveling long distances. Some of us will be sitting around chillaxin'. So, since this week will be so busy, I wanted to put my Christmas message out early, so that, one, I can have time to write it, and two, so you all can have time to read it. This message will be posted both here and on my blog.

Also, to my little sister Angela (aka Pootie Tang), I'm sorry, but this will be one of those "deep and boring" messages, but you should still read it. I promise we'll do plenty of fun and not deep and boring things in a few days when I see you!


As this year draws to a close and the Christmas season is in full swing, I have had many opportunities to reflect on the year and to experience many inspiring moments. Many of you have been keeping an eye on my life and have watched as I have struggled over the past couple years. I regret to say that I was very good at hiding my emotions from people and that I shut everyone out from helping me. It was a time of rebellion for me and I let things like my chronic fatigue take over my life. For a long period of time, I felt nothing. No happiness, no sadness; not even depression. It is difficult to describe and even more difficult to understand what I went through. I will simply refer to it as my living death, because though I was alive, I felt as though I was not. After this living death had engulfed my soul for over a year, the influences of those around me punched the tiniest hole in the darkness that surrounded me, letting in light. For the first time in awhile, I felt something real and noticed it. Slowly this year, I began to realize things. I began to set goals for myself and to make improvements, and ever so slowly, the darkness around me grew a little bit lighter. Then came my summer. If you have read my summer story, you know what happened. If you have not, I will recap it. This summer I set out determined to finally read the entire Book of Mormon cover to cover. I purchased the replica edition to make following and understanding it easier. As I read and as I fasted and prayed, I experienced a change of heart that words cannot describe. As my desire to really change grew, I one day came to a full realization of the state I had been in and I poured out my soul in tearful and sorrowful prayer that I could be forgiven. And I was. My troubled heart was calmed, my burden lifted and my soul was saved by my Savior.

My dear friends and family, my Christmas message to you is that Christ lives. I have experienced his perfect love. He came to this earth for you and for me. He was whipped and beaten, spat upon and made to wear a crown of thorns. He suffered pain that we can never comprehend. He bled for us. He died for us. And he did it because he loves us. Please do everything you can to feel of His spirit this Christmas. Listen to Christmas hymns, watch those cheesy but heart-warming Christmas movies, give service to someone who needs it. Pray for the Christmas spirit and I promise you will experience it. I have been full of the Christmas spirit this year and my heart is truly full of thankfulness and love to those I am around.

I stand firm as a witness today that He lives and loves you perfectly. May your Christmas be full of joy and love and I pray that this coming year brings good change to us all.

God Bless,
Jon

Well, I have had one successful weekend. Since I only briefly recapped Friday I'll give the full run down now.

Thursday I drove up to Salt Lake to take Evan to the airport. We stopped at the Gateway to look for some shoes for me. We ate some dinner and everything was closing down so I didn't find shoes. I did, however, find a $5 olive oil dispenser. I've been wanting one for cooking for some time. The ones I've seen were always like $10 or more, so I couldn't pass up such a nice one for $5.

olive oil dispenser

After dropping Evan off I now have the car through the break. Friday, after finishing finals, I celebrated by going to the mall to get the shoes I've been looking at. They were $45, but with my $10 gift card to the mall, they would be $35. I got lucky though, because when they ran the card, they said it covered the entire purchase. I told them the card had only $10, and she double checked that it went through, but she assured me it was covered. So, I ended up getting my shoes for FREE!! I was super happy, so on my way out through Sears, I looked at the men's department. I had just bought a pair of jeans at Target for $20, which turned out to not be very comfortable. I had planned on returning those and the wal mart shoes I bought that totally fell apart. So, having not spent any money on shoes, I found TWO really nice pairs of jeans, one for $12.99 and one for $17.99. Then I found a $10 striped thermal henley shirt. I bought those and then went and made my returns. If you followed this all right, you'll realize that my bank account did not go down $70+. The shoes were free. The $30 in returns covered the two pairs of jeans. All I really spent was $10! It was pretty awesome. I've been looking for a good sweater, but I haven't found a good one for the right price yet, so that'll either have to wait or I'll go without.

thermal henley shirt

Today I went shopping with Phillip and helped him get gifts for his family and friends. I admit I was tempted to spend money, but all I got was some q-tips. I've been out for awhile and no one had a good price. But wal mart had 500 of the good brand (in pink too!) for only 2 bucks.


That's the most of the awesomeness of the weekend. Football dominated, basketball struggled and lost. I'm going to Iowa next week!

I just finished my last final and my last hours of work and I am officially in vacation mode until January 3rd!!! I've wanted a vacation for the past couple years, but I now realize that you cannot really appreciate a vacation unless you have something to vacation from! Anyway, I am done and I am glad.

I totally bombed my final today. I studied all afternoon yesterday and all morning today. I felt pretty confident going in, but, as usual, this test was a beast. He pulls questions from who knows where. I didn't know how to be ready for his tests the first time I took this class and I still don't know how. Thankfully though, I will pass this time with somewhere between a C and a B, depending on what kind of curve we get and I will NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, have to deal with that stuff again.

I'm way excited to be done with such a great semester, so I'm having a party. Got a coupon for half off take-n'-bake pizzas from Papa Murpheys, so we're gonna grab a couple of those, kick on the projector and PARTAY!

BYU bowl tomorrow. GO COUGS!

This week seemed like it was going super slow at first. Now all of a sudden it's Wednesday night and time is flying by.

The absolutely gorgeous weather we've had finally ended today. We awoke to around 4 inches of snow and, compared to what we've had, bitter cold. The cold will stick around, the snow probably will melt off in the next couple days as the sun shines.

School is just about done for me this semester. I have one more final and I know it is going to kick me in the pants. But, I do believe that I secured an "A" in writing with a great final today. If that is so, that replaces two failing grades with "A"s on my GPA. My third class will go from a failing grade to who knows where. Hopefully in the C range. It's so hard I'm totally fine with any passing grade. I'm just glad to have it done.

Finals is about all anyone is doing around here. I helped Annie try to get some major gas smell out of her car last night. I think we lessened it a bit, but it is still potent. Phillip and I were in her car for less than 10 minutes driving to the store and when we got out our clothes already smelled.

I'm looking forward to having some vacation time. I haven't had too many days where all I did was loaf around. I'm always kept busy with something. But next week I plan on doing little other than watching movies and getting ready to drive to Iowa.

My Monday started off pretty lame. My projector was dead. I had to work. Nothing was going on today. But, I ended up having a pretty good Monday. I was treated to a big hunk o' fudge at work today. I was thinking how great my job is. I get treated really well. This semester we've had 2 hot dog BBQ lunches. I got a shirt, a hat and a tire gauge as a Christmas gift. My boss has given me amazing mint truffles, pieces of holiday bread from Kneader's, fudge and Hershey's Bliss Meltaways. I think there may have been more but I don't remember. Anyway, it all kind of makes up for the hours spent in either blistering heat or freezing cold. In all fairness to Mother Nature though, today was an absolutely gorgeous day. Up until about 2:00 it was sunny and around 50 degrees.

I did manage to split my fingernail from my finger peeling an orange. I have a history of hurting myself on food. I remember drawing blood from a frozen baguette. What was funny is that it took me a long time before I finally cut myself with an actual blade. It was always food that got me. I'm just weird like that.

Before work I called around and found that the only projector repair place in town was the one that had already looked at my projector twice with the old owner. I determined that they were worthless and not worth the $50 analysis fee, so I did what I do best. I got online and within an hour after work had my projector working again. That alone relieved my Monday blues exponentially.

So my Wal-Mart temporary shoes did not last at all. It's been probably less than 30 days and they collapsed on the inside and the heel is now almost fallen off the outside. I'll be taking them back, getting my money back and going to get real shoes. I'm driving a friend to the airport in his car Thursday and we're going to stop at the Gateway in Salt Lake. Hopefully I can find something there. I need shoes desperately. Very desperately.

It's 1 AM and I still have work tomorrow, followed by an evening of finals review, so I best get to sleep! Someone has pictures of the dinner, but I may not be able to get copies until after the break since the person is heading home to Brazil today.

Today was AMAZING! In church we had a Christmas program. That was pretty enjoyable. Lots of good music.

After church it was immediately down to business. I started whipping up Jello, Double Layer Pumpkin Pie and Cinnamon Cheesecake. I took a quick break to do home teaching and be home taught. That was actually pretty awesome because we combined 3 groups and did a round robin on the love sac and couches. I had moved the love sac down to Phillip's so it was down there. After the group home teaching, it was back to work. We set up the tables and chairs (we borrowed some possibly illegally from campus) and I got back to cooking. I got the Jello and pies done and then went to work on cleaning the living room and decorating the table. Once that was done, with all the festive colored plates and such and the gift bags and Christmas cards, the table looked AMAZING. I loved it!! I popped the yams in the oven to soften up and got the ham going in another oven. Next door, the rolls were going. Everything came along flawlessly. The timing was all working out perfectly. By 6:00 we had rolls, deviled eggs, yams topped with gingerbread marshmallows (which were HEAVENLY!!!), ham, green beans with almonds, and Jello with whipped cream. 20 people sat around 3 tables lined up to make one big table. We took pictures, prayed and began the feast. I have never had a more memorable dinner. Everything worked out so well and having my best friends there made it all worth it. The food was absolutely delicious. The yams were seriously to die for. The ham was so juicy. The jello was great. The green beans were...healthy-ish.

After enjoying such a good meal, we had a little entertainment by Evan and I. We did a tap dance out on the balcony for everyone. It was my first public tap performance and it was really fun. Right after the tap performance we tore down the tables and set up the couches and love sac again. People began to file out and we were left with a reasonable number for my small apartment. We busted out the pie and cheesecake and started Muppet Christmas Carol on the projector. The cheesecake turned out really good. I was pleased. Sadly though, the great night came to an early end when the projector turned off. Apparently the fans must not have kicked in right and it overheated. I'm letting it rest overnight and hoping no damage occurred, but this has happened to the projector with the old owner and he warned me if it overheats, the part that is causing it to overheat could damage some piece that will cost a bit to replace. We didn't expect it to overheat, but, technology never does what you expect. I'll see if I can get it looked at for cheap or free by someone maybe on campus. I can't afford to replace the part. UGH!! It's so frustrating.

Anyway, the dinner went so well. I'm really glad for everyone that came. This was a good way to start what will be a busy and stressful week for everyone.

I spent a good part of today getting things ready for tomorrow's big Christmas dinner party. I moved the love sac down to Phillip and Evan's apartment. I moved a couch into the back bedroom. I set up the tables to make sure we'll have enough room. I wrote out Christmas cards for my guests and I also put together little gift bags for my guests. I have all the food ready to cook and I have 3 ovens to cook in. I sampled the rolls my baking friend Trevor will be making for us. I am very excited for this dinner. My biggest concern is space, but we have room for one more small table, so I'm not too concerned. It will be a bit of a tight fit around the tables, but it is going to be a memorable night.

This isn't a great picture, but here's what the gift bags look like:





Inside are 2 cowboy cookies, 3 mini candy canes, 2 Andes mints, 1 raspberry and 1 orange bite size chocolate balls, and 4 caramel kisses. I also have full sized candy canes that will hang on the front when I put these at each place setting along with the cards. I think it is a nice little gift for my guests. Normally I probably would not do so much, but this dinner is for my closest friends, so I thought I would do a little something extra for them. I'll take pictures of the table when it's all set tomorrow. It's going to look really fancy and festive.

If you didn't hear, Jimmer and the BYU Men's Basketball team creamed Arizona again. It was a great game to watch. Mike and Annie went up to it, but I stayed back to make it easier on Annie. Mike is staying at Grandmas tonight and will come down for the party with Annie tomorrow so she doesn't have to make so many trips this weekend.

Well, I have a lot to do tomorrow so I better get off to bed.

Well, having just taken a nice, long nap, I can finally say the rush of this week is over. A TON has happened this week and I'll do my best to recount it.

Monday I met with the Food Science/Food Management adviser. That went well and he told me about the major and gave me an idea what classes I would be taking. He told me where to go to officially declare my major so after deciding that this is something I want to pursue, I went there and scheduled an appointment with a class adviser to officially declare the major. The appointment was set for Thursday. Monday after work I made a day to day list of what I needed to do to get everything done without anything having to be last minute. For Monday, the main things I needed were to get cleaning done for Tuesday's cleaning check and write about 2 pages on my research paper. I was skipping FHE since it was nothing too spectacular and I was busy. But, at 7:30, our FHE family called and said that they only had one person with a car show up and they needed another person. So, I decided I would go with my roommate, who has a car, and save them. We forgot that FHE was in Payson until we picked them up. And so we drove almost 30 minutes down to Payson, made some gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, then drove almost 30 minutes back. The entire thing took two and a half hours. When we got back just after 10 pm, all the driving exhausted me, so I worked on cleaning and went to bed sometime around midnight.

Tuesday was a busy morning. I got up a few minutes early so I could maybe get a little written on my paper before my 8 o'clock class. I didn't get much. After tap I met briefly with my teacher about the draft I turned in of my paper, then ran home to finish the cleaning. I took a Evan's car into work and spent the hour we were closed for devotional cleaning the inside out well and then washing the outside. Story of my life. When I went to park it again, there was no student parking available. I waited and waited but nothing. I went to other lots nearby and waited but nothing. It literally took me almost 45 minutes before I finally found a place to park 4 blocks from work. After work, I was able to use the car I had to take care of the most important thing I had to do outside of school this week. I went to the driver's license place in Orem (because the Provo office doesn't do new licenses). I have had an application filled out and the required documents ready to go for 2 months now, so I was ready. After convincing them to accept my proof of residency, I took a photo, took a quick eye test, paid $25, had my documents scanned, took an open book highway law test, and got my temporary license. This is important because 1, I need a valid license for my job; 2, I can legally help drive to Iowa for Christmas; 3, when my real license comes in a couple weeks, I can add it to my papers; and 4, it's always good to have a valid license. With that done I had a few minutes to eat before heading to class, where I worked on my paper. After class, I went up to Aspen Grove with my ward for a Christmas party. We had a nice turkey dinner and sang some songs.

Wednesday dawned with a lot of stress. I had a test in Music 201 I was not very ready for, a huge paper to finish for writing, an evaluation of my dance to do for tap, a Thursday test in tap, I had to go to the writing center as a requirement for my paper, I had to do a research tour and a test from earlier in the semester I forgot about, I had to peer review two 8 page papers and I had to work. What was worse is that the email I had attached my paper to in class was corrupted and so I had to re-write some stuff. (I later found that I had printed a copy but completely forgot it was sitting at the foot of my bed.) I got as much as I could done with my paper and ended the day with about 3 or 4 pages to write. The test went ok in Music. I'm pretty sure I passed but beyond that I have no high hopes.

Thursday was crunch day. I tested my tap dance and with the A- I got on the test, and having turned in my self evaluation that was 5% of my grade, I ended the class with a 93%, which secured my first complete college "A" (Jazz Dance was an "A-"). I was VERY stoked from that, which gave me the boost that pushed me through the rest of the day. After tap, I went and met with the adviser, talked about all the classes I would have to take, wrote them all down and signed to become an official Food Science Major taking the Food Industry Management track in the College of Life Sciences. That also gave me a big boost that also helped push me through the rest of the day. Work has been slow, so Thursday, since I didn't bike to work, I left a half hour early to give me time to walk home and still have a few hours to finish my paper with. At home I got to work with the goal of having the paper done by 4. I managed to have it done by 4:30. I ran to a computer lab, wrote a required reflection paper, printed my paper and my updated annotated bibliography and headed to the writing center. At 4:50, with 20 minutes before class where the paper was due, I got some MLA formatting advice that will save me several points on my grade. I ran down to a lab again and fixed the formatting errors and printed again. Having already read the papers I had to evaluate, I filled out the evaluation worksheets, put together the portfolio with all the different parts and turned it in, effectively completing all classwork for my honors writing course. My grade is currently an "A" and if this paper goes as good as I hope and the final isn't too bad that I'm taking next Wednesday, I should be able to pull an "A-" or "A" out.

When I said I ran places, I meant I literally ran there. Unfortunately, my cheap Wal-Mart shoes couldn't handle that. The right side of the left shoe's sole collapsed, so I have spent the past couple days walking around with a lot of pain that I'm sure is also not good for my foot. I'm looking at how to remedy the problem, but I know I can't afford any other shoes.

Having finished everything, Thursday night I went to a birthday party, had some food and talked to my friends in the ward. Then I went home and turned the projector on for almost the first time this week. I had it on but muted for the Jazz game and I think that was it this week. So I kicked back and watched some Netflix.

Today, Friday, I took the van driving certification course at 8 am, then worked from 10-2. The van course is for anyone who drives vans and though we at vehicle rental don't have the certification, they want us to now I guess. It's just watching some videos to make you not text and drive, some discussion about driving vans and then a video on defensive driving. You fill out a paper as you go and it's super, super easy. It was fun for me because the class was double booked, meaning twice as many people, and they were all on the men's and women's swim and dive team. So, I spent the morning surrounded by athletes who I'll likely cheer on later this year and talked a little to some of them. At work, with nothing to do but keep-me-busy-work, I worked out all the logistics for my big Christmas dinner party. Evan has a friend who has an 8 ft. table and he let us borrow it. It's sitting in my living room now. Without that, there is no way we could seat 19 people in my apartment. Now I just need chairs. Tonight I'm going out to get all the food. 2 hams, enough sweet potatoes, jello, veggies and kool-aid for 20 people. It's going to be a fantastic night Sunday and I really can't wait!


I think that's about everything that happened this week. It was super busy and super stressful and full of so many ups and downs. As my Facebook status said, it really did give me lots of perspective and I definitely felt very alive. I don't know if I'd volunteer to do it again (though I know I'll have lots of weeks just like this in the future), but I would definitely call this a great week.

I got an A in tap dance! Still a good chance for an A in writing if I can get this paper done!

I'm halfway through my 8 page paper right now. I had written some stuff in class yesterday but when I emailed it to myself the file was corrupted and I lost all my information. So, today I re-wrote that and I'm now trying to get the rest of it done. I hate writing long papers.

Music 201 is done. Just a final left.

Tap will be done when I test my last dance in the morning.

Writing will be done when I turn my paper in during class tomorrow. Also a final next week for that.

I changed the Christmas music in case you were tired of Christmas Shoes.

Apologies for not updating this. Since yesterday I've literally been running from place to place getting the millions of things done I need to do this week. Just renewed my license. Now heading to class then ward party, then studying, then paper, then maybe sleep...I'll put a big update up when I have time.

Fast Sundays usually go ok, but generally seem a little longer and can be difficult at times. This one was by far the best in recent memory. My lesson in mission prep went very well from my perspective. I had several people come find me after to thank me for the lesson. I was just proud that I managed to make the lesson last as long as it needed to. It seemed like I was halfway through in the first five minutes, but I was able to slow things down and get discussion and make a good lesson out of it.

After church I did some home teaching and then quickly made my secret brownies for break the fast. Break the fast was great, well, the company was. The food was food storage soup that apparently was not wanted by someone or something like that. The creamy cheese potato soup was ok, but they had some veggie thing that wasn't re-constituted well and just tasted odd. But, my brownies were delicious and I was flattered again to have someone tell me they were the best brownies they had ever had. I'm starting to think people actually mean it when they say that about my food, but I don't know if anything I make is really the best of it's kind. Still though, I am very honored to receive such feedback and I'm happy I can share my food with such nice people.

As I mentioned before, I have a big Christmas dinner party coming up. I am very excited for this dinner for a few reasons. Obviously, I love to cook and the prospect of creating a banquet for 20 friends is way exciting to me. I just can't wait to get started with it all on Saturday. More importantly though, there are a lot of people who have been great friends, mentors and examples to me in this ward, and, given the amazing turn-around year I've had, I feel especially thankful this Christmas season for friends who give so selflessly to myself and others. I know a lot of people would go out and buy gifts for everyone, but I don't feel like a store bought gift would be a sufficient way of showing how much I appreciate my friends. Most of my excitement for this banquet is the opportunity I have to offer a place at my table for the people I care about and to share with them the joys of this season. I'm really looking forward to next Sunday's dinner party.

Having said that, here is a copy of the invitations I made and delivered this week, along with the poem I wrote and inserted with the invites.




This evening I watched a heartwarming, albeit cheesy, Christmas movie: The Christmas Shoes. I actually enjoyed it and it was a good end to a great Sunday. For the song of the day, enjoy the Christmas Shoes song.

Today was a very busy and fun day. This morning I prepared my lesson for the Mission Prep class I'm teaching in church this week. There are some things I am good at teaching and some things I do not teach well. Church is something I don't teach as well. I think this lesson will go pretty well though. I've spent a good amount of time preparing it. My only concern is that I'll be done in like 20 minutes. I plan on starting a minute or two late, singing a long hymn, picking the longest prayer-giver and then maybe having some random talk about life before starting my lesson. Hopefully then I'll finish without being too early. Sadly it is Fast Sunday, so I won't be tying food into this lesson.

After preparing most of my lesson this morning, I went out and ran some errands with Evan (from two doors down). He had to go to the bank and exchange some pants. I had to price shop spiral sliced hams. I think I'll be getting my ham from Costco. They had very nice sized hams for much lower prices.

Immediately after getting back from errands we headed up to Salt Lake for the basketball game. It was a great game and, of course, we won. I had hoped to spend a good hour or so in downtown after the game, seeing the lights (our ward went up to see them Monday for FHE but I skipped to write that paper I never wrote on Monday anyway) and enjoying the sights, but, alas, Annie was in some super hurry so we high tailed it out ASAP. We had pizza at Michelle's then came home. At home I watched a movie and then finished up my lesson. Now it's midnight and past time for bed.

Tomorrow I'll give you an exclusive look at my Christmas Dinner Party invitations, poem and menu, as well as tell you how many I'm expecting and what kind of awesome decorations we have.

Song of the day: Carol of the Bells

The end of 2010 is drawing so close. I can't believe what a year it's been. I look at where I stood at the beginning of this year and I am blown away at where I am now. Here's a brief recap of what's happened to me this year:

In January I was working at Sundance. I enjoyed my job but the transportation wasn't working out, nor was the environment going well for me. Either the end of January of the start of February, I was out of a job again. I was a little more determined this year though to be better so I did a little better job hunting. In March I interviewed for the Seven Peaks Assistant Food Manager job. I didn't get that but I re-interviewed for the supervisor position that I was eventually hired for. In Spring Term I went back to school and took a half credit. That went amazing. My summer jobs saved my life. I grew a lot as a person and I eliminated all of my $700+ debt, plus saved up over $1,000 by the end of my job. I read the Book of Mormon cover to cover this summer too, which changed my life completely. With money saved up, I went back to school part time, just retaking the classes I failed before. I had another job before my summer one was even finished, so I had no stress from switching jobs. This semester has taught me a lot about myself and my limitations. I picked a major I'm excited about and feel right about and now I'm anxious to see where next year takes me. A mission, school, excitement...it's daunting for sure, but it feels good to have a handle on my life. The past couple years were out of control.

This week has been like a mini version of the year. Started out rough but ended wonderfully with high prospects for the future. I'm glad to have the weekend to enjoy and I look forward to finishing off the semester strong next week.

Here's some random pictures of me from today. One is me on the love sac playing my trumpet, the other is from me decorating myself as a tree tonight.




More Christmas music for the song of the day.

Well, today was pretty awesome. I was in a great mood because of my major so everything seemed a little better today.

Work was a breeze and it was warm enough to shed some layers working out in the sun. I do have a hilarious story from work. I was listening to a message on the machine and I got a real kick out of this message left for my boss...and this is a direct quote: "First things first, most important thing, is we have to form a golfing support group network, so as soon as this snow's off and East Bay's open, I'm relyin' on you brother to let me know so I can go down there and I'll do the same for you..." the guy then finished with his legitimate vehicle rental business. Anyway, if you remember me talking about my boss golfing every day for hours on end, you'll understand why it's so funny. With the snow on the ground still, he goes and plays racquetball instead. I actually wish I could go with him...I've wanted to learn racquetball for a while. I know the basics, but I've never had the chance to actually play.

I'm meeting with the head of the Food Science department Monday to talk about the major and get things squared away there. I'm pretty excited about that!

I had a serious moment today. Every day this week, with snow still on the ground, some high school students have made it a daily habit to chuck big snowballs at my holiday decorations on my door. While their aim has been off and they've only hit the railing and walls, I know that it's only a matter of time before my window gets broken. Today, they were at it again. One person threw one and then a few minutes later someone else chucked one. It's been really ticking me off hearing it every day and today I was just fed up. I swung the door open and immediately saw the little high schooler with another snowball in hand. I gave what I can only describe as the most serious and threatening look I've ever given anyone, thrown in with a little intimidating arm gesture. He looked about as scared as I was angry and he dropped the snowball and walked away. I slammed the door and then I actually emailed the principal of Provo High. He forwarded the complaint onto some school personnel who will deal with it. I swear though, if I hear any more snowballs hitting my wall I'm pulling out the bottle rockets. It's soooo annoying!

The weekend is looking great. I'm really excited that classes are almost over. I still have way more work to do than I want, but, that's life.

By the way, today saw the most page views (19) and the most diverse page views in my blog's history (only 4 of those were returning visitors). I had views in Provo; Orem; the USAF Academy; California; Georgetown, Richmond, Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky; then the usual Virginia and Maryland. I'm glad for all my friends who read my big decision blog.

Back to Christmas music for the song of the day.

So I've actually been thinking a lot recently about where I want to go in life. I know I've changed around a ton and it seemed like I settled with Communications, but, recently, with all the meals I've been making for people and all the fun I've had cooking and baking, I started looking again at the culinary industry. I've mulled over the idea of getting a degree in food science and doing BYU's track for food service management. I pushed that thought aside though because management requires math and I am no good at it. Last week when I was at grandmas, I had some unique and special experiences with grandpa. In the past, grandpa has never really offered much advice other than "go where the money is". Other than things like that, most of what he said to me is "what are we going to do with this boy." Anyway, last week he talked to Mike and I about his military service and other things he almost never talks about. One day we were talking about architecture and I said I could never be an engineer because I am bad at math. His reply was "No, you aren't bad at it, you just don't try hard enough and apply it." You all know that I'm somewhat stubborn, so it's no surprise that at first, my reaction was "pshaw! I am horrible at math, no matter how much I try to apply it!!" But, that's really stuck with me this week. Math is hard, yes, but he was right. Probably 90% of the reason I fail at math is because I believe I will fail and I make little effort to change that. I do that with a lot of things in life. I believe I will fail and then I do. I don't give myself the chance. Tonight though, I went to deliver my Christmas Dinner Party invitations. The last stop was my good friend Hilary...Hils for short. She invited me and my roommate (my chauffeur) in and we got to talking. I mentioned how I'm trying to decide what to do next semester and how I might try going to UVU and take culinary classes. I said how I didn't really want to go to UVU and how I would feel like I was abandoning BYU. She brought up BYU's food science degree with food management emphasis and I thought, yeah, that'd be fun, I've looked into it before. When I got home I watched the new Psych episode and then pulled up the food management degree page. I've read it in the past and the daunting classes of chemistry and biology and accounting that scared me away from it before looked back at me once again. This time though, I thought of what grandpa said and I thought of all the similar words of encouragement people have given to me recently. When I thought of all those things and as I thought of the prospect of going through with it, it felt really good to me. I then got really excited and I made a decision. Tomorrow, I'm going to make a change in my life. I'm not going to let a little math, or a lot for that matter, keep me from doing what I really love and what I am gifted at. Tomorrow, I'm going to see what I need to do to declare my major in food science.

In less life-altering news, the Jazz won, as did BYU's basketball team! Both are now on a 7 game win streak.

For the song of the day, it's only appropriate to have "The Times are a Changing"

PS- This week has certainly been interesting. Monday I thought I was going to kill myself suffering from writer's block and doing nothing for 8 hours. Tuesday I turn it all around and get the paper written and have an awesome day. Then today I make a life-changing decision. I'm kind of nervous for the rest of the week now...

Sorry I didn't get this updated last night. When I got on to do it my computer was being really slow so I just went to bed.

First, of all, HAPPY DECEMBER! I can't believe that this year has gone by so quickly. It has been truly remarkable for me.

Yesterday was a really good day compared to Monday. Work went great, I went to the devotional, which was a dance assembly a friend was in and that was awesome. After work I got enough of my paper written to turn in as a rough draft, and I did so without any writer's block. I wrote a nice poem to go along with my Christmas dinner invitations, which I will deliver today. I'll publish the invitations and the poem on here after I deliver them. I'm excited for my Christmas dinner. It's going to be on the 12th and we're going to have ham, scalloped taters, jello, some sort of veggie and then pie! It'll be fabulous and I hope to have about a dozen guests.

I think I forgot to mention  that on Sunday I saw LaVell Edwards at church!! He wasn't attending our ward, but while I was waiting to do tithing settlement, he and his wife walked down the hallway we were in. He said hello and good morning to us and it was pretty sweet. I've met him before and shook his hand once or twice but it's always cool to see a legend.

Speaking of church, I'm teaching Mission Prep this Sunday. Apparently I am in fact still a ward missionary and the other ward missionaries have been cycling through teaching and they realized I haven't taught yet, so hurray, I get to teach. I think the class will have a few more faces in it since I expect about 4-5 friends to come to my class with me. It stinks that it's fast sunday though. I wanted to bring food!

Well, that's about it for today. It snowed just a little dusting last night so everything is slick again. Work should be fun.

Song of the day- more christmas music

I thought today would go pretty smooth. I'd get through work, write most of my issue paper, maybe get far enough along to go to Salt Lake to see the lights for ward FHE and have a good Monday. None of that happened. Something in my brain would not turn on today and I had the absolute worst day I've had in months. I couldn't (and still can't) think clearly, my speech is dyslexic and slurred, I'm physically and mentally drained and I feel horribly...I can't even think of the word to describe it.

I left work early so I could afford a nap to reboot myself because I was so tired and unproductive this morning. The nap did nothing. I spent the entire afternoon at my computer trying to get the paper started. I did everything I could to get myself to write. I listened to music, I ate, I made an invitation for my Christmas party, I ate again, I napped, I prayed, I tried and I tried and I'm still trying, but to no avail. My eyes are bloodshot and my left eye has a nice fat red vein showing very prominently that also stings...which is a big, big sign that my body is, for some reason, very tired.

All I can hope for now is that in the next couple hours before sleep I can get something written and then tomorrow I can build on it and get something turned in. I've decided that the worst thing to do would be to try to stay up late to get it done. I would like to turn this in on time though so I hope I get good sleep tonight so I can be energized tomorrow.

Today was a wasted day.

The song of the day basically sums up how I've felt since I woke up: "Can't Seem to Get it Right Today" by: Joe Purdy

Well, the mourning day for BYU has passed, but now we begin mourning the return of school and work....BOO! I'm really looking forward to going out in the sub-freezing temperatures and 6 inches of snow for 4 hours at work. That was sarcasm. I'm not really looking forward to that at all. I'd almost rather be poor than go out in this weather...oh wait, I am POOR!! and I still get to go out in this weather...BOO! I also don't think I'll be riding my bike since the roads are still snowpacked and icy. BOO!

Today I also get to start on my 4-5 page rough draft for my issue paper that is due tomorrow evening...BOO!

On a happier note, my apartment is decorated and it looks super awesome! I'll try to get pictures of it soon. We're having a little Christmas dinner party in a couple weeks.

Not much else going on right now. Christmas music time, so the song of the day will reflect that.

Today we observe one full day of mourning for our beloved BYU Cougars, who fell to the team up north yesterday. Out of respect for our team, I only put up my white lights yesterday. My red string will have to wait a day. I will say nothing about the game except for this: that ball was not fumbled, Brandon Bradley was clearly, and irrefutably down long before they took the ball from him. We should have kicked a field goal on 4th an 1, not run a stupid play action pass. Our team deserved to win and I put most of the blame on our coaching, especially towards the end of the game. Down with the Utes!

In other news, the big blizzard was a dud for Provo and other areas, but another storm rolled in overnight and in the last 5 hours (and I know because I was up at 2:30 am) it has dumped 3-4 inches of snow with more expected throughout the day and night.

Making turkey tetrazzini tonight and having some folks over for The Princess and the Frog. Planning on a little Christmas Party probably on the 12th. Busy weeks ahead in school!

Two songs of the day, "Taps" and "Hymn to the Fallen"

Go Cougars!

Christmas decorating went quick today. What used to take a couple hours took two shakes and a wink today (That's approximately 30 minutes, by the way). We started around 10:30 and by 11:15 I was making lunch while they got the Christmas crafts ready. Lunch was great...good ol' grilled cheese with Tillamook Cheese. The craft was the same as last year, those window glass things.

After everyone had gone it was sports time. We listened into the BYU Basketball game, which ended with Noah Hartsock hitting a buzzer beater in double overtime to finally seal the victory over South Florida. We also watched a bit of college football and then the Jazz vs. Lakers game, which we REALLY wanted to get tickets to but opted not to...which was the WORST DECISION EVER because we WON!! IT was a great game...Utah rallied back from 19 points down (again). During the game they did a poll for the biggest rivalry in Utah. The results were: 1st place- BYU vs. Utah (duh!), 2nd place- Jazz vs. Lakers, 3rd place-and this is no joke- Jello vs. Fry Sauce, and last place was Bingham High School vs. Alta HS....interesting poll.


IT'S HOLY WAR TIME! I'm way psyched for this game and we are going to have a riot at my apartment. We still want to buy tickets, so it's best to get further from the venue so we don't wander over and go to it. This game should be intense. If we can keep our cool, we have not just a legitimate chance of winning, but I would bet on it. Emotion will decide what team we are, so it will be awesome to see what really happens!! MY prediction- BYU 24, Utah 20

GO COUGARS!

There can be only one song for today: RAH, RAH, RAH RAH RAH, RAH, RAH, RAH RAH RAH, RAH, RAH, RAH RAH RAH, GOOOOOOO COUGARS!!!

AMELIA!

Thanksgiving is over, which means all sorts of the things today. Amelia turns 25, people are trampling each other for good deals, you can play Christmas music non-stop without it being as annoying, and I'll spend the day decorating Grandma's.

There are also TONS of big games tonight. The Jazz host the Lakers (could have gotten tickets but, again, just can't afford it!), BYU Basketball is in Texas playing South Florida, and the entire BCS is holding it's breath with some crucial games tonight that will determine a lot of who plays where in bowls and championships.

No matter who you are or where you are, there seems to be a lot going on today!


My Thanksgiving was nice and quiet. It was the smallest I can ever remember. Just me, Mike, grandma and grandpa. Grandma said it was the most peaceful it's been in 50 years. Delicious meal though. Loved the cranberry jello salad this year...but I love it every year.

Anyway, I gotta run get ready for Christmas decorating. People are arriving in a half hour and if I'm not ready, I'll never hear the end of it!

Song of the Day is for Amelia: Happy Birthday!

First, although I'm writing this late Wednesday night... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Now for a quick Wednesday recap. I woke up this morning with an extremely painful and slightly debilitating headache. I felt queasy and weak and I couldn't move without pain, so I went back to sleep for a bit. I got back up at 9:30 and it was a little better, but still very painful. I knew I had a lot to do today, so I just sucked it up and went to it. Mike and I shoveled 4-5 inches of snow from both Grandma's and the neighbors sidewalks and driveways. After that and some lunch we got out the old hand grinder and ground up fruit for the jello fruit salad.

This afternoon at 3:50 we went to the IMAX and saw Harry Potter!! It was awesome! I love big screens!! It'll be hard going back to my measly little 6 foot screen at home. One day, Jon...one day!

My headache is a bit better now. Any kind of light jerking motion hurts. I'm trying to keep my head pretty still and move it smoothly. I'm also trying not to raise my voice at all, laugh too much, sneeze or any other similar thing that makes your head jerk lightly. Seriously though, this morning I thought I'd be in bed all day without moving an inch. I'm glad that didn't happen.

So a big pipe broke at BYU today. Tons of water spilled out, some into Heritage Halls On-Campus Housing. Here's a picture that gives you an idea of how much flooded. By the way...the high today was around 20, tonight it will get down to 1 in Provo and tomorrow it won't even make it much higher than 15, so there will be a whole lot of ice where this happened. A WHOLE LOT.

This is a good quarter to half mile from the actual leak. There's a whole lane plus the sidewalk flooded there.

All the students are gone too...they have no idea!

So, those are the big stories today. The blizzard is gone and bitter cold remains. It will warm up a bit for the big game Saturday, then more winter comes in Sunday.

I posted this to my Facebook, but here's a little poem I wrote for Thanksgiving:


Every year around this time,
we pause on a fall day,
and sit down to a kingly feast;
our "thankfuls" we do say.

Some are thankful for their meal,
and others for their clothes,
some are thankful just to have
ten fingers and ten toes.

I would like to pause right now,
and say a word or more,
and hopefully inspire you,
to share what you're thankful for.

I'm thankful for my family,
the closeness that we share,
with them I've had many laughs,
and I know they really care.

I'm thankful for the friendships,
that have blessed my life.
They inspired me to smile,
when my days were full of strife.

I'm thankful for the talents,
with which I've been endowed,
I love to cook up a big meal,
for a special crowd.

I'm thankful for the smiles,
that people give to me
It may seem like something small,
but they make me real happy.

These things that I have shared today
just represent a few
of all that I am thankful for,
now go make a list for you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh...and for the Song of the Day, there can only be one for Thanksgiving...just turn the radio on and I guarantee you'll hear this one: "Alice's Restaurant"...you can listen to all 18 minutes if ya want!

"you can get anything you want, in Alice's restaurant..."