Trip to AZ...

I realized the other day that I never posted any pictures from my trip to Mesa, AZ. It was a very short trip and I about missed my flight home (literally... I was running through the airport terminal... and yes, when I got there the doors were shut and I couldn't see the plane through the windows and I almost started crying right then and there because there wasn't another flight out until the next day and I HAD to get back for work! Then the airline attendant asked if he could help me and I told him that I was supposed to be on the flight... luckily for me got on the radio and told them to not leave and then he opened the door and let me down the walk way! I have never been so happy to board a plane! It was not the best night of my life... but somehow the Lord answered my prayers! Or maybe it was the attendants prayers... I don't think he would have liked it if I had cried...)

Anyway, I had a few good days of rest and some awesome long runs! as well as a fantastic nap by the pool one afternoon (it was around 85-90 degree's!) and one night I went to a Halloween party with Sarah's roommates. It was a much needed break and helped open my eyes to the vast possibilities of places I could move... Yes, I think that I would like to live somewhere else for a bit, but I don't know when or where I will make that move yet... but this trip helped me to feel more confident about the idea! (I'm open for suggestions...)



The day I was going to leave, Sarah and I drove over to Phoenix to shop and visit and then we headed to the Mesa Temple for a session. I thought the set up of the temple reminded me of the St. George temple but there is one part of the inside of the temple where you walk down these stairs and the walls look like a castle (which is unlike the St. George Temple)- Sarah said it reminds her of "Hogwarts"... I think I agree (Can you say that about a temple?)... maybe we were both on crack!

40 Days of Change

Tomorrow, November 16th, marks exactly 40 days until Christmas Day. It also marks the beginning of a "challenge" that Paige and I have decided to call the 40 Days of Change. Now I don't take any credit for the idea, but Paige is a little shy about sharing, and as we all know, I am rarely shy of sharing my feelings about anything:). SO, I invite you to join in on what I hope will literally be a life changing experience.

What is the "40 days of Change?" Well, for everyone it is going to be a little different, but the whole idea is to find something in your life that you'd like to change, and for the next forty days, do whatever it is you need to do to accomplish just that. It can be a physical, "secular", or spiritual change that you would like to make in your life. It doesn't really matter what it is, as long as it makes you more of who you want to become. So, I invite you to sit down and come up with a list of 1 - 3 things that you'd like to really focus on over the next 40 days and then watch what happens.

To help you with "ideas" I am going to try to be "open" and share what I am planning on attempting! I would love to see your ideas too!!!
My Goals: (Now that they are out there, I have to really do this!)
1. To do what I need to do to FEEL the love of the Lord in my life DAILY!
2. Watch for and write down how I have seen the hand of God bless me and those around me on a daily/weekly basis (like in Elder Eyring's Conference Talk!)
3. Work each day to have an "open heart" that I can give to the Lord.

Then you need to find a way to chart your progress - it could be a journal entry, visit with a friend, or if you'd like to be as festive as Paige and I are planning to be, it can be a chain of sorts. I am going to choose to make mine a "counting up" chain (becuase for one of my goals I am going to try to write down how things went that day on a slip of paper and then use it to make a chain) but a count down chain would be good too! You decide what works best for you and go with it.

I hope that if you DO decide to join in on the fun, you'll find some way to share in your experiences. I will be trying to "blog" some of my experiences and invite any and all to "comment" on how they are doing themselves. I think that participating in this "challenge" will be a a great way for me to prepare for the upcoming holiday season and am excited to see a "new ME!" in the process!

I look forward to seeing us become the best we can be!

My Tomato Plant:)

This was my Tomato Plant. I planted it just after school got out, so about the middle of June. I was VERY excited to have a "garden" item of my very own to take care of. Yes I know I am a nerd - no need to point fingers and make fun. I'm secure in my nerd-ness.

Over the summer I watered and tended to my little tomato plant, but there were few tomato's growing on my precious little "garden" plant. My flowers started to take off, but I wasn't seeing any buds on the plant so I began to worry a bit. In fear that I may fail at being a gardener (I don't do well with failure... its rather sad) I talked to the master gardener (My Father) and he told me to stop watering it so much, self attempt to self-pollinate(is that spelled right - probably not:) ) some of the flowers, and maybe step on it a bit. So I slowed the watering and broke a few minor branches and rubbed all the flowers together in hopes that I may get a few tomato's out of the plan... yet beginning of september, only one ripe tomato was visable! So I broke the branches a bit more, and we got maybe 2-4 more tomatoes. Not very exciting! So a few weeks ago I went to "look through the massive moster bush, and see if there were any tomatoes hiding inside the dense plant and I ended up knocking the dang thing over!


HOWEVER to my suprise, there were at least a dozen tomatoes ready for picking on the back side (fense side) of our plant. So, I proped the plant back up and gave it a MAJOR hair cut. I filled up two and a half garbage bags with "tomato plant" remains. Moral of the story, sometimes our treasures are there, they are just hidden and we have to knock everything over to find them. Okay so it's not a great moral, but I'm doing what I can:)

(Yes, I put on this outfit special for the "harvesting" of the tomato plant... Arent' you glad I decided to look the part!)