Kick Off to Christmas

On December 2nd...

We had a marvelous little Olsen Christmas Party complete with prime rib, presents and the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. 

Presents for our White Elephant/Dirty Santa (whatever you want to call it) game.

The Dinner set up.

Neil reading us How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Christmas Mad-Lib. A tradition.

Sasha was enjoying all of the Christmas stories, too!

 

At the Christmas Devotional.

Temple Square. :)

I was able to get a handful of tickets so the Olsens AND the Andersens got to go. 

 

AS WELL AS some really dear friends of ours.

It was a great second day of the month!

Kick Off to December

Well, December 2012 was quite the month for our little family. 

Travel, parties, shopping, blogging (haha, okay, that didn't really happen) "fun" car problems, no heat...

It was a great month. Really!

On December 1st, however, me and the sisters (all but Michelle) decided it would be fun to hit up City Creek Mall. 

And fun it was! 

Just shopping with them and going out to eat and catching up was a nice little refresher from the norm. Plus, Lauren and Elyse were down from Idaho (for the Devotional the next day) so it was really fun to see them. 

In the car on our way to City Creek!

The fancy drink Julie and Kimberly got. It was tasty.

I would just like to say that each one of those chicken pieces was the size of my face. It was yummy but I took half of that plate home for Neil.

Sisters. :)

New Posts

I have finished the work week. 

I am free now to catch up on blog posts.

I will get on that ASAP! 

I have a new computer now so it can handle new posts. 

NEW POSTS TO COME!!

The Day After Thanksgiving

I struggled for awhile as to what this post should be called...

"The Most Rewarding Act of Service"
"Fabulous Friday"

"Musical Medicine"

"FREAKIN' AWESOME DAY!"

I decided that though those titles represent exactly that the day after Thanksgiving held for Neil and I, it was probably best to stick with something simple. 

The day after Thanksgiving is the beloved by many, though not really myself, "Black Friday". 

Neil and I did our Black Friday shopping earlier, meaning late Thursday night, with Anna and Kyle at the Wal-Mart in Ephraim. (Pandemonium, by the way...)

No crazy day of shopping for us! Nope! We were given an opportunity to serve and I am so grateful for it!

Neil and I were given the opportunity to present a musical program at "Friday Forum" held for the inmates of the Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, UT. 

They were respectful, responsible and very kind.

I can't express how absolutely spiritual the experience was. They had their choir sing two songs and it was beautiful. They brought a strong spirit with them to the forum. So much so that it became hard for me to sing, which is rough because I sang two solos.

A few of them bore their testimonies and said how grateful they were to be in prison. To have a place that they can be to work and to learn and to repent. They were grateful for their bonds because they knew someday, those bonds would make them free.

I was uplifted and so grateful that Neil and I agreed to go. Our closing song was hymn #93 Prayer of Thanksgiving the last line of the hymn says: "Thy name ever be praised, Oh Lord make us free."

That line lingered with me. It touched my heart. All of these men in prison singing to the Lord to make them free. Not judges, not the officers of the prison but the Lord.

It was just really cool to be there and experience that. 

Wanderlust Wednesday (The Day Before Thanksgiving)

Do to some "recovery" from the day before, I took Wednesday off. 

I cleaned basically all day and got packed up and ready to leave for a little vacation down to Manti. 

All the preparation for going out of town for a few days really made me miss the old days of moving back and forth (okay, so like two times) between the states and abroad.

I miss traveling and having the opportunity to just up and go somewhere.

I want to live abroad but I digress.

Anyway, I got to ride down to Manti with cousins because Neil was still at work and I wanted to hang out with the family and it was a lot of fun! That evening we made pies and pies and MORE PIES!

Neil's family has this (super awesome) tradition to have a pie breakfast the morning of Thanksgiving. So you eat pie for breakfast because everyone knows that after dinner on Thanksgiving you're too full to eat delicious pie! It's really a very logical tradition and I LOVE it.

Anyway, it was a fun day spending time with family and friends.

But Thursday, Thanksgiving that is, ROCKED. 

 

A Silver Lining

So, this is one of those posts where I open up a little bit and emotionally vent. 

This week has been really rough for me. 

School is coming to a close so of course every professor has assigned a bazillion projects to be completed this week. School just isn't what I want to be doing right now. I'm not a big fan of classes that I "have" to take and yet I learn nothing from them. Yet, I work hard, try to do well and then when I see a grade that is...sub-par, I feel incompetent and stupid. Why does someone else not have to study at all and they ACE everything and I have to study 'til my eyes bleed and I barely pass?

Work is good and I am so grateful that I have a job and that I get paid well and that I can make a difference there but sometimes, when I get all the calls where everyone is mad and it's "all my fault" I just want to cry. Why do people have to be so rude? There is no need to call someone an ignorant *insert swear word* because the transcript was ordered (by the caller, mind you) incorrectly. I don't write or design the BYU pages, I don't even have a say. And really, if you would just calm down, you would know I'm trying to help BUT I still have to follow policies set in place because of FEDERAL LAWS. And just in case you didn't know already, I DON'T WRITE THOSE EITHER. 

Exercise has been almost non-existent these days. Being sick, not having the car or having to work on projects has totally messed up my schedule. For any of you who have followed my running experience, you'll know that I'm not allowed to for one more week and even then I have to get doctor's approval. I just don't feel good about my body. I'm surrounded by family members (both blood and in-law) and friends who have fit and slender bodies and it makes me feel like an elephant. I've been working hard (minus the last couple of weeks) to loose weight, treat my body well and get in shape and yet I still feel like the big balloon in the room. So what happens when I get pregnant? All pregnant women gain weight. I am willing to sacrifice my body to bring children into this world but what happens after? Will I have enough energy to play with my children like I should? To keep up with them while trying to teach them to be healthy? And when I don't look healthy, why would they take me seriously? (I'm not anywhere close to being pregnant and I'm already worried about this.This is definitely premature but here it is, taking space up in my head.)

All of this has just been piling up and piling up on me and today I cracked. (There was a catalyst but we won't discuss professor dummy-pants here.) Anyway, leaving said professor's office I LOST it. Completely. I was even trying to tell myself to calm down, be rational, this is silly, but no. Those good ol' tear ducts just BURST open. 

Here's the silver lining:

I made it to the bathroom, locked myself in a stall for about an hour until I was sure I'd be okay to get out of the building without losing it again. As I was walking down the hall, a young man crossed from his room to the water fountain. I was trying to keep my head down (so my helplessly splotchy red face would be hidden) but I wasn't fooling him. He stopped me, asked if everything was ok and when I told him I'd be okay, BOOM. Tears. Uhg. It's an annoying way my body recuperates but such is life. Anyway, he ushered me into his office and said, "I don't know you, but I know that you need to talk to someone. So here I am. Talk." And so I did. Just about the school stuff but it was a good feeling. When I was done he gave me some advice and asked if he could give me a hug. I left his little office (He was a T.A. named Shaun? Sean? Shawn?...IDK how you spell it) and headed down to my nest class. My face was still blotchy and red and I was trying to calm myself (still...). A girl in my class asked if I was okay and let me play with her baby. She said. "I'm right there with you. I just force myself to remember that my grades, my classes, don't reflect how good of a mother or a wife I am." THEN after class I got a text from my little sister who I hadn't talked to in awhile. She just asked me how I was doing but we texted back and forth for awhile and it made me feel better. Heavenly Father knew what I needed. And three people followed the Spirit and helped me feel my Savior's love. It is nothing short of a miracle.

How have you felt the Savior's love today?

Endoscopic Tuesday

Tuesday morning. 5:15am. Timpanogos Hospital.

That's the day, time and place I have my second endoscopy done. 

It's really not that bad at all. They knock you out, stick a tube down your throat, take pictures of your esophagus and check for any acid erosion.

Then you wake up. I was in an anesthetic hang over stage for only a few minutes this time! Last time, I was in it all day long and couldn't walk around. But this time? I walked out of the hospital on my own. 

They did find some interesting things (tissue) and so they took a biopsy of it. There are pictures but I'm not sure if anyone would want to see them. I should get the results by the end of this week. 

Anyway, after getting home and sleeping for the majority of the day, a friend of mine asked if Neil and I wanted to go see Lincoln. Which we did. BUT when we got to the theater the tickets were sparse so we opted to see Skyfall instead. 

Holy awesomeness. Probably the best Bond movie I've seen! Plus, the song Adele sings at the beginning?

UH-MAZE-ING!!

It was a great way to celebrate 4 months of marriage with Neil! He's so good to me.