Finished!

I FINALLY finished another journal!

I know that this is slightly pathetic, but I'm quite excited. It has been a long time, since this has happened. It has taken me almost three years to get through this journal, and notice it is quite small. But I finished it tonight. Happy day! Now, this may seem like not that big of a deal, but I began writing in this journal in October of 2007. Which, may not seem like that long, but consider this...

I went through this many journals in about the same amount of time. It took me four years to go through all of these journals. There is such a thrill in finishing the last page in a journal. It means you get to open a new journal, and fill its pages. Which I know is corny, but it's completely invigorating to complete an entire book with your writing.

Writing in my journal used to be part of my daily routine, and something that I loved, something that I thrived on. I just LOVED it. It was my release from the day, a place to dump everything, both good and bad. Even still I love to pull these journals out to read from and see where I've been. There are so many things that I have forgotten about. It's fun to see what I worried about, things that made me happy, things that made me frustrated, things I loved, and life in general.

When I was writing everyday, I was often asked how I could do it everyday and what was there to possibly write that much about. To which I never knew how to respond. But then I realized, my journal wasn't just a log of my daily experiences. Rarely did it touch on what I did I all day. It was a place to express thoughts, to vent, to work through problems, to tell a funny story, or to share excitement. It truly was like a friend to me. It was a place that was always there, willing to listen to whatever I had to say, was completely non-judgmental, a place to be completely 100% honest with myself. In the process it helped me find answers to my problems, and ultimately it helped me find myself.

I miss that. I truly do. Even still when I pull my journal out to write, it's like pulling out a long lost friend. I need to get back in the habit of writing frequently. I'm not sure everyday is completely realistic, but it needs to happen far more often than it does.

In one of my classrooms last year this quote was on the wall, and I have loved it ever since:

"Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how you treasure it. This practice enhances the likelihood of your receiving further light."

-Elder Richard G. Scott

This is how I feel about my journals, it is a strength in time of need, and it shows our Heavenly Father that I treasure the experiences and lessons I have been given in this life.

...and swimming too?

For the last few weeks Hallie has been pestering us to go swimming. We were debating going today, but realized that Eric has a training class for his volunteer stuff. But Hallie didn't know that, but she has been getting her swimming suit out and trying to put it on. After about 20 times telling her we weren't going swimming she put her swimming suit away and our conversation went like this...

Me: Hallie should we go to the library?
Hallie: ...and swimming too? (then gave me this look like "why are you laughing?")

Ha ha! The things that she comes up with! She always seems to keep us laughing.

The Ducks Again/Our Anniversary

5.19.2010

This year we decided to keep our anniversary pretty low key. When we asked Hallie what she wanted to do, she said "ducks!", so that is what we did. We went and fed the ducks...again.

We saw the turtles too. There were four or five of them.

Hallie was exhausted, so she took a little nap on the way to lunch.

We had a giftcard from Christmas to Terra Mia, which is an authentic Italian Pizza place, so off we went. Though we thought we'd be brave and try a type of pizza we typically wouldn't. So we got the Mamma Mia. It has wild broccoli, sausage, and provolone, with basil and mozzerella. We all like broccoli, it's actually our go to vegetable, so we thought it would be pretty good. Yeah, the wild broccoli is most definitely NOT our thing! I would not recommend it at all, it does not taste anything like broccoli and is gross. So we pulled the broccoli off and ate it, and it was much better. We'd definitely go back, but with a more conservative palate. Though the gelato we ended with was a HUGE hit! I think Hallie would have finished it off if we would have let her.

After lunch we took Hallie home to play with Angela, and Eric and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon. What a fun movie! We both loved it!

Bless Elder Holland

Hallie has started to say prayers with help now. So I was helping her say prayers tonight, and I was telling her to say "bless President Monson," and Hallie added on her own, "bless Elder Holland." It totally caught me off guard and it cracked me up and made me laugh. She LOVES Elder Holland! And I love how she loves Elder Holland

My mom gave each family a book with all of the First Presidency and The Twelve in it a few months ago and it's Hallie's favorite. She loves to go through and find the different people. But Elder Holland is her favorite, she loves to find his picture (and President Monson too). I'm glad that she has already has a love for the apostles, and wants to pray for them.

I Was Brave...

5.18.2010

...and we did fingerpaints.
Since I'm able to be home with Hallie now, I've tried to be better about doing more fun things with her. So we were at the craft store the other day, and I saw finger paints. My first thought was "no way!" but after some thinking I put them in the cart to decide later. Well the more we walked around the store, the more I realized how much fun Hallie would have with them, and that she was old enough to understand not to make a HUGE mess with them with supervision. So we checked out with finger paints in tow.

I was right, she loved them. She wasn't sure about them at first, but she had a lot of fun and it wasn't nearly as messy as I thought it would be. I just pulled out my "craft tablecloth" (which may or may not be our old shower curtain), and spread it out on the floor, and stripped Hallie down to her diaper. She was covered in paint by the end of it, but she was happy, and isn't that all that matters? :)

Squish!

Hallie thought that was the funniest thing to say while she was painting.

Hallie Girl

5.12.2010

BYU Family

5.12.2010

The same day we did pictures in my cap and gown, we decided to try and get a couple family pictures. Hallie didn't really want to cooperate, and we still battled the wind, but I think we got some fun pictures.

DUCKS!

Hallie wanted to swim, but this is as close as we got. It was COLD!

Tickles!