Serenity

As I walked out of my grandma's house last night and headed for home, I took a deep breath of fresh air and stared out the stars. It was pitch-black and there wasn't a soul in sight. I walked home and began to realize that I'm gonna be okay. I've had my doubts, but I think I'm gonna be happy here. :)

I like my new place, my ward is great and my family is wonderful. *Sigh* Life is good.

*This is what I see every night when I walk out of my door. :D

2400 miles later...

We've been traveling for 3 days and covered over 2400 miles. We still have about 350 to go before arriving at home. We detoured Memphis today to avoid an ice storm and spent lots of time wandering around remote Mississippi. Details to come :D Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

I don't exactly know right now how I feel. It's a mixture of anxiety, excitement, trepidation, love, longing, and a little apprehension. I know things will turn out for the best and I have faith that God is guiding me where He wants me and I am so excited to discover what He has in store for me...but it doesn't come free. :S

Home?

It seems absolutely surreal to me that I have attended my last class as a BYU Undergraduate student...my dad will be here in less than a week and shortly thereafter, we'll be headed to Alabama. Crazy, huh?

I've lived here for so long--I have so many people here that I love...it's a little scary to be moving away and leaving it all behind. I do, however, hope to be able to visit again soon.

p.s. And, yes, life really is as simple as it is portrayed the movie. ;)

A Celebration of Christmas

I could tell you how wonderful tonight was. I could share my beliefs that friends can be angels in the hands of God. I could tell you how good music just lifts the soul. I could share how attending BYU's "Celebration of Christmas" that showcased the combined choirs, the philharmonic orchestra, and Jennifer Welch-Babidge made my semester brighter. But my point is really that great friends and excellent music can lift the soul to new planes of existence and act as an elixir for all maladies.

As I searched for an image of the "Celebration of Christmas," I came across this amazing video entitled "Joy to Everyone." It's a song and video created just to bring joy into the lives of every person on earth. It's free for download at joytoeveryone.com. Enjoy. And spread the Joy of Christ this season.

Happy Holidays, everybody.

We're Adults.....

"We're adults...when did that happen and how do we make it stop?" ~Grey's Anatomy

What does being an adult really mean? I mean, I've technically been an adult since I was 18...but have I?

I've experienced lots of things for only having lived 25 years: I've done my share of traveling--I've been to Canada, France, Germany and I've lived in Mexico and the Philippines. I've learned lots of life lessons from the people I've met in these places. I've spent 18 months living the Law of Consecration--something I didn't think I'd ever get to experience. I've seen what poverty can do to people and how having nothing generally increases one's capacity to love and have faith in God. I've studied at one of the best universities in the nation for many years now. I've studied the humanities, both in English and Spanish. I've studied the physical sciences along with lots of general studies classes. And you know what I've learned? The more I learn, the less I know.

I've lived away from home, essentially, for 6 years. I've learned to live with countless roommates--some I've loved and some that taught me patience and charity. I've had my heart broken several times and I learned that it never fully heals, but each crack left on the heart has special memories etched into it and I wouldn't erase those for anything.

I've learned that sometimes you're born into a family, sometimes you're adopted into one, and sometimes you create one, but you can love each equally. I've learned that life moves on--it flies forward at a steady pace and you can embrace the changes that come and allow yourself to experience new things and grow (no matter how painful that may be) or you can hold on to the past and stunt your opportunities for development.

I've learned that no one can put you down without your permission. This was a hard lesson for me to learn and I still struggle with it. But when I forget or get down, I have a loving Heavely Father who reminds me. You can fly and you can make a difference. All it takes is initiative and vision. Just do it.

I've learned that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is worth any sacrifice. This is the truth and it will roll forward unto all the end of the earth. If ever there was a cause worth supporting, even unto death, it's this one. And our message is simple: You are a child of God. He loves you. He has provided a way for you to return to live with Him. And it's simple: learn His commandments and obey them.

I know there is so much to learn, and I look forward to that adventure. But as I begin to close another chapter in my book of life, I stand here grateful for what I've learned and anxious about what's to come and excited that I get to have new experiences.

25

25:

• a natural number following 24 and preceding 26
• the 2oth anniversary of my kindergarten year
• Manganese
• silver anniversary
  
• min. age of candidate for the House of Representatives
• the size of a full roster on a major league baseball team
• 1/4 of a U.S. dollar
• quarter of a century

1925:

• Mussolini takes over Italy
• the New Yorker magazine is first published
• F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatesby
• U.S. turmoils over Darwin's theory of evolution
• Hitler published Mein Kampf
• double decker busses are introduced in London
• Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke are born
• "The Phantom of the Opera" opened at movie theaters
• Earl Wise invented the potato chip

For me, 25 is

• being 5 more than 20, and not feeling it
• an age I thought that I'd never reach
• time to graduate from BYU and close this chapter of my life
• start a new chapter of life in Alabama

This year I turn a quarter of a century old and I have lived 1/3 of my expected lifespan. The learning and changes I anticipate this year will hold should be incredible.

Appropriate

They say "it's always darkest just before dawn." Well, in my case with school and finals right now, this [see pic below] seems more appropriate. lol. However, time marches on and all too soon, I won't have to worry about anything except attending my good friends' wedding. *Sigh* I wish I could work out a way to have 36 hours each day in the 2 week period before finals. :D

On a happier note, the Christmas season makes me smile. And I welcome anything that can make me do that these days. :)

Yes, please. :)

As I rounded the Point of the Mountain today entering Utah County, I was stunned by the beautiful scene before me. Just beyond the clouds, I could see the brilliant pink sunrise peaking around the mountains. Under the cloudcover of the storm,  amid the snow on the mountains, my breath was just taken away. I'm grateful for God's grace and love...and this beautiful world He has gifted us with. 

!Vivan las Mariposas!

In many latin american countries, today is International Day Against Violence Towards Women. :) This day is help in memory of the Mirabal sisters who fought bravely against a vicious tyrant and in so doing have become models for women fighting against injustices of all kinds.

The 4 Mirabal sisters were born into a middle-class family in the Dominican Republic in the 1920s and 30s. Their education coincided with the rise of the cruel dictator, Rafael Trujillo. Minerva went on to study law although her rejection of Trujillos romantic advances kept her from being able to practice law.

All of the sisters eventually married and raised families. However, Minerva and her husband Manolo were highly involved in risky underground revolutionary activity in overthrowing Trujillo and before long Maria Teresa, Patria, their husbands and Patria's oldest son, Nelson were involved. Their activities led them to prison, torture chambers, and eventually death.

Dede survived. A sole sister left to tell the stories of her 3 sisters who helped undermind Trujillo's regime and in their martyrdom, became symbols of freedom and liberty. Their code names in the underground were Las Mariposas (The Butterflies) and they are still remembered and respected today.

Today, November 25, 2008 marks the 48th anniversary of the murder of the Maribal sisters. Here's to their memory. !Viva las Mariposas!

P.s. The book by Julia Alvarez is incredible and gives you the historical facts while leaving you with a sense that you were really able to get to know each sister individually.

Emerson

This Sunday, we had Ward Conference and it was amazing. Our stake president is an incredible man and I know that I was fed plenty of things to chew on for a while. Our theme for the year is Moroni 10:8-18 and we learned a lot about spiritual gifts. Then he taught us a bit from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance. I looked up the discourse and several things stood out to me. I've included a few comments below, but would suggest that everyone invest the time to read this piece in full (it is readily available on Google).


"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;"

President Wilkey tied this particular quote to a story about envy. Then we discussed envy in relation to spiritual gifts and how it usually leads to ingratitude for the gifts we've been given. My friend was teaching a lesson to her Young Women about individual worth and she wrote the ingredients needed to make a cake on individual ziploc baggies. Then she filled each baggie with 1/2 c. flour. She handed out the bags and instructed the girls to make a cake. Get the picture? :)


"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events."

In a world where we all rely on what others think of us, we place too much emphasis on their opinion. I would put forth: Trust your instincts. We are all sons and daughters of Heavenly Father and we have notions and inspired greatness within us all--we just need to tap into our resources.


"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world."

While we are warned not to rely solely upon our own knowledge, we are only instructed to rely on that of God and His anointed servants. We do not need to listen to the world--we can all become agents for good, once we've figured out what "good" is. Go forth in intelligence and might. Be a force for good in this world. We all have a responsibility and a calling to make the world a better place. Don't listen to anyone who says you can't...because God and I say you can.

Solamente Asiano

Where else in the world could you find these? :D

I think I need one of these...the blue, definitely.

Hugh, Kris....does the burrito need this from Santa this year? ;)

Angie--wouldn't these be great for those rainy days in expensive shoes?

Hmmm....

Yum!

Wow--I should've thought of this years ago...

Hope you got a smile out of these...I know I did. :D

Until There's a Cure

• Over 22 million people have died from AIDS.


• Over 42 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, and 74% of these infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa.


• By the year 2010, five countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, China, India, and Russia) with 40% of the world's population will add 50 to 74 million infected people to the worldwide pool of HIV disease.


• There are 14,000 new infections every day.


• HIV/AIDS is a "disease of young people" with half of the 5 million new infections each year occurring among people ages 15-24.


• The UN estimates that, currently, there are 14 million AIDS orphans and that by 2010 there will be 25 million.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xstLRWHgD2Q

Until There's A Cure:

http://www.until.org/

What the....

So, BYU just decided to hand Utah the game. Apparently they decided to exercise charity and let Utah have a chance to represent the conference this year...oh wait, no they didn't. They just choked. You wanna hear the choke, feel the pain we (everyone watching) experienced? Well here's your recap: 6 BYU turnovers, 4 of them in the 4th quarter and 3 of those resulting in a Utah touchdown. We entered the 4th quarter only down by 3 at 27-24, then after we handed them the 21 points (MERRY CHRISTMAS!), final score was 48-24. Way to drop the ball Cougs. And to top it all off, in the last 3 minutes of the game Unga and Reed joined Pitta on the injured list--there goes any hope we might've had of winning our bowl game. Crap.

I still love my Cougs, but there's no denying that they messed this game up. Royally.

GO COUGS!

The most amazingly awesome Cougars face the undefeated (thus far) Utes on Saturday. This is the place to be.

Inspired by Lynn, my blog is also blue until after tomorrow's game. GO COUGS!

Spring cleaning

My sister sent me this...and I found it interesting. I wonder ...............



So, someone-who-shall-not-be-named heard buzzing from their grill when they decided to clean it after the winter. They decided to let a flea bomb loose under it and just see what happened. when they returned a few minutes later, this is what they saw:

Well, you may wonder "just where did all those bees come from?" I'll answer that one for ya, too. ;)

...........if they'd known, would they have found some other way to kill the bees and not sacrificed the potential honey to the flea bomb? :D

Chocolate Therapy?

It's NOT just an old wives' tale...medical studies show that SMALL amounts of dark chocolate* can be healthy. It's not healthy to just binge on chocolate claiming that it's good for you...but, the antioxidants found in dark chocolate have been proven to reduce blood pressure.

Ladies, the next time you feel guilty for indulging yourself--don't. It's all about staying healthy, right? ;)

*health benefits are only present in dark chocolate...white and milk chocolate remain, as always, only delicious. :)

Resiliency

re⋅sil⋅ient. adj.
1. springing back; rebounding.
2. returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched.
3. recovering readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyant.

So I wonder...can resiliency be taught? I mean, it's something we all need--how in the world can we be expected to endure to the end of this life if we aren't resilient. I met someone lately who made me wonder...are some of us just born with it and some of us without it? Or should this become a new subject taught in our middle schools...

Yellow Cake

Okay, confession time:

I'm having a love affair.........







....with yellow cake.

I like it hot, cold, fresh, left-over and most definitely without any frosting.

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Just plain old yellow cake from a box.

That's it. :)



Life's full of CONTRADICTIONS:

I don't drink a lot of soda, but I can't live without my Diet Coke.

My closest relative lives in Alabama, but I have people here I care for more than life itself.

I don't like watching tv, but I never miss Grey's Anatomy.

I don't really like reptiles, but I love Scheherazade.

When I'm busy, I want more time alone, but when I'm alone, I want someone to be with.

I like trusting people, but I don't appreciate being taken for granted.

And I trust God's timing, but there are days when accepting that is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

I know I'm quirky, I mean, I love Children's books, Scrubs and burning candles.........


.......and I often wonder if there is any other person on this planet who can appreciate these things as I do and love me in spite of my quirkiness.

Obama

I do NOT think Obama is going to magically make things better.

I am NOT excited to learn what he means by 'change.'

He did NOT get my vote.

These facts aside, he won the election. He is now our President-elect, as voted by the voice of the people. And while he wasn't my candidate and I don't condone his campaigning methods or his lying to the people, he is our next President. And I will give him the respect deserved of anyone who holds that office. We will survive the next four years, then can reevaluate our situation. He may very well surprise us and act as "a President for all Americans." He might be great for the nation--only time will tell. I do, however, as of now, pledge to stop making fun of him and support him as I would any of my leaders. Now, if he ruins my country, I may not support him for long, but I am willing to see where this goes.

Best of luck to everyone dealing with this decision. May you all come to some sort of peace about this election and do whatever you deem necessary to bring that event to pass.

Allhallow-even

"Eve of all Saints, last night of October" (1556) the last night of the year in the old Celtic calendar, where it was Old Year's Night, a night for witches.

Well, here in Provo, it wasn't as exotic as it might have been, but we did the best with what we had. My plans to hit Studio 600 (a dance club in Salt Lake) fell through, but I have amazing roommates and we all went to our stake dance...not too bad as we live in Zion (not kidding, if you want to know what I mean be that, just ask).

The dance ended up all right, but the most fun part, by far, was dressing up and showing off my costume. :D

Twas the Night Before Voting

This is from my aunt...I laughed out loud and simultaneously recognized the truth of the message. PLEASE make time today to vote.

'Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

Ah, to reminisce...

Things (not an all-inclusive list) I remember about my youth that I love:

• playing cards and eating popcorn (with candy corn) with my family at my grandma's house on friday nights.
• making plum jelly; or homemade dill pickles
• devouring stolen jars of frozen blackberries from the freezer (sorry, grandma ;)
• visiting granny and having her teach me that a woman should always have some "mad money" tucked away.
• fishing with my dad when I was three and catching more fish than he did. :)
• being taken out of school randomly as a child because my parents impulsively decided to spend the week vacationing at the beach.
• riding horses on Saturday mornings and being so cold that I would run inside my aunt's house and run cold water over my toes until I could feel them again. lol.
• poking snuff and bread down the chickens' throats to help them lay better (where do you get memories like this these days).
• just playing in the creek that runs behind our house.
• being barefoot.
• riding the tractor with dad.
• shopping with mom after school just because.
• picking fresh blackberries, then explaining that we had eaten them and couldn't make cobbler after all... :D

Growing up in a small town on land was a great experience. I wouldn't wish to subject any child to having to grow up in the city. Now before I offend anyone, let me say that I've known some incredible people who were raised in the city and I love them much. As my aunt would say, 'different strokes for different folks.'

On a different note, public voting happens tomorrow and I urge everyone to take part in it. TAKE THE TIME. Don't be too busy. Don't say you don't care or that it doesn't affect YOU. It does. Take responsibility for being american and do your civic duty by voting. I'm not going to express my views in my own words here since I've found a couple of blogs that express my beliefs very eloquently. I invite you to read the recent posts here and here. If you have any strong opinions that you wish to express about what you've read, please comment on my blog and NOT on theirs; unless, of course, you wish to leave a positive comment, then feel free. ;)

*I will soon be posting pictures of what I was for Halloween, as I'm very proud of it. I just need to finagle getting the pictures from my friend's camera.

Favorite Poems

This is one of my two favorite poems...maybe I'll post the other one some day. ;)

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~Robert Frost

May we all take the paths that best suit us and never regret our decisions.

Eek! :D

Family finds dead mouse in cheese


While slicing some cheese for his children, a father in western P.E.I. recently uncovered a dead mouse in the middle of the block.


"This would have been the very last thing I would have expected to find… in a block of cheese, which I buy every time I do groceries," Deborah Atkinson of Miscouche, just west of Summerside, said of her husband's discovery.

Atkinson said her family loved Maple Dale's Caribbean brand cheese from Ontario, which has hot peppers and sun-dried tomatoes in it. A couple of weeks ago, while her husband was cutting slices from the last block he bought in Summerside, he gave his four-year-old daughter a couple of pieces to munch on.

He made the unpleasant discovery a few cuts later.

"Obviously he cuts it in little squares because our children are three and four," said Atkinson.

"He kind of got to just about the middle and as he cut, he noticed what looked like fur."

He immediately took the cheese, a few pieces already gone, from the children. They hadn't eaten any of the cheese from near the mouse, and they didn't get sick.

Here Sucker, Sucker, Sucker

Now I understand that there are probably only two people in the world who read my blog (thanks Mom and Kristi :), so I hope you both thoroughly enjoy this. I think it's amazing and if I were gonna put a black man in office just to prove a point, I'd vote for this guy about a million times over before I'd ever even consider Obama.

Listen and be amazed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxhYampIl7A

This was cute, too:

Monday

Although most people dislike Mondays, I usually see them as a fresh start--a new week to do better.

"Smile! Attitude is contagious!" -Bob Moawad

"When you choose to be pleasant and positive in the way you treat others, you have also chosen, in most cases, how you are going to be treated by others." -Zig Ziglar

Completely Nuts!

Carpe Lunae - Seize this Monday!

Smile

For the sake of something happy... some pics I took from a fun blog, http://facesinplaces.blogspot.com/. Hope they make you smile, as they made me smile. ;)

Find something each day to be happy about--then smile and share your happiness with others.

Goliath and morning glories

"Envy, greed, fear, laziness, doubt, vice, pride, lust, selfishness, discouragement—all spell Goliath." ~President Thomas S. Monson

~

Recently my friend built one of these slings from some leather and twine--we spent a few minutes down at the creek learning to use it. I was incredibly impressed by the speed and strength with which the rock was released from this weapon. It took me by surprise.

~

Similarly, I have been surprised by how eeringly sneaky bad habits come into our lives. They are infectious and parasitic. I compare them to the morning glory flower: at first glance when they appear in your garden or on your fence, you may think they are quite pretty, or at least harmless enough. Think again. These flowers are fast-growing, twining terrors that quickly take over wherever they are allowed to bloom. They suck all the nutrients out of the surrounding soil, so strong, independent, useful plants are choked out.

~

So it is with bad habits. We may not even notice their presence in our lives...until they have quickly taken over and we wake up one day and realize that all those good, strong habits we've worked so long to build have been choked out by some, at the time, seemingly harmless habit we let into our lives.

~

We must be Davids and stand up to our Goliaths. We must need weed out the morning glories from our lives and take back control. Just like David has his surprisingly powerful sling, we have a supply of powerful weapons to help us weed out the unhealthy things from our lives. President Monson reminds us that Courage, Effort, Humility, Prayer, Love of Duty are in our arsenal and may (and should) be used at our discretion. He has said "Victory will be ours. I like to think of David as the righteous lad who had the courage and the faith to face insurmountable odds when all others hesitated, and to redeem the name of Israel by facing the giant in his life."

~

Best of luck to us all as we identify and conquer the Goliaths in our lives.

Wonderful

As amazing as our cold front was, and as much as I enjoyed wearing a coat and drinking hot chocolate, I reveled in our 80 degree Saturday this week. I just ambled and had lunch out in the sun and was content.

This weekend provided a much needed-for-my-sanity break from life. Here's just a short run-down of why it was amazing. :)

We passed our cleaning checks.

I saw my friend's band in concert (which means I got to leave my house!) and I won a free cd.

I got into the club where they played for FREE.

I got to visit Julie and Ryan. Just gotta love those guys.

Krista and I perused a farmer's market where I bought some cool earrings made of bone.

We had lunch at an amazing Asian place called Thaifoon.

:)

We got a free dessert. It was called the Banana Roll and consisted of a banana and cream cheese roll deep fried, then rolled in cinnamon/sugar and served over cream with caramel, strawberries, and ice cream.

We watched the fountains at Gateway Olympic Plaza dance to music. It reminded me of the Fountain of Rings at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta and, to a much less grandiose scale, the dancing fountains of the Bellagio.

We visited the state capitol building to remind Krista of home. Ah, good old D.C.

I put highlights in my hair for the first time. It is more blonde than I had planned on, but I think it looks really good.

I went to my friend Siri's farewell talk. Germany will be lucky to have her.

I found a ride to Texas for Thanksgiving, so I can see my Rachel one more time before I relocate.

God is good. Life isn't always what we think it should be and we sometimes get dealt cards that we would rather not have to play, but as Elder Wirthlin reminded us, we just need to learn to say "come what may" and then love it. Perspective is everything.

Cheeky

CHEEKY: impertinently bold, impudent and saucy; SYNONYMS: audacious, bold

I have never striven to achieve a degree of speech or a character that could be interpreted as cheeky--I just have a firm understanding of who I am and I have no problem stating, what I consider to be, a well-informed opinion when I have one. However, in the last month, I have had 3 people call me cheeky, one of those being a professor in reference to a paper that I had written for him.

So, I was forced to self-evaluate and I think I'm okay with being cheeky--sometimes. There's definitely a time and a place for everything, but in general, I don't think that being audacious and bold is a bad thing. As long as it surfaces but occasionally, I am okay with being impertinently bold. What do you think?

Autumn Magic

I get a thrill every year when the weather turns chilly. I just love walking outside and filling my lungs with crisp air. Then I get really giddy and run to my room to unpack my sweaters and jackets. *sigh*

Today was no exception. It snowed briefly this morning, and I love nothing more than the first snowfall of the year (except maybe Spring when I can bask in the sun for the first time of the year :)

October
~John Updike

The month is amber,
Gold, and brown.
Blue ghosts of smoke
Float through the town.

Great V's of geese
Honk overhead,
And maples turn
a fiery red.

Frost bites the lawn,
The stars are slits
In a black cat's eye
Before she spits.

At last, small witches,
Goblins, hags,
And pirates armed
With paper bags.

Their costumes hinged
On safety pins,
Go haunt a night
Of pumpkin grins.

Happy Autumn everyone!

**update: I woke up today and it's as if my body just wanted to be better. So, I'm still a little sore, but I'm up and moving and feel 200% better today.

Luma Lynai? or not...

Lynai was, in fact, a superwoman from the planet Staryl whom Superman was in love with. :)

So, I'm pretty much a "live life to the fullest," "do or die," "push through the pain" kinda girl. At least, I consider myself as such. So when my surgeon said recovery would take at least a week, I thought, "yea, right....give me a couple days..."

So, here I sit (more truthfullly, lay). Wednesday. Unable to spend more than 3 minutes standing without passing out and definitely NOT attending classes. Dizzy and in pain. Wishing I were on Lortab, and refusing at the same time to take any. Cold (from the Polar Care ice machine borrowed from Laura and Rikson Z) and grateful for the cold since the ice dulls the pain. UGH.

Jess "Appendix-free" Jones

So, I started this weekend uber-excited for General Conference. I had plans to attend the Saturday sessions at the Conference Center, then come back and enjoy Sunday sessions in the comfort of my home from the apartment LoveSac. But, of course, the Philippines Olongapo Mission reunion came first. I went up to Salt Lake on Friday excited to see both of the mission presidents, which was great.

Not to leave out too many distressing details, but I ended the evening in the Intermountain Medical Center talking to a surgeon about appendicitis. You guessed it, I got really sick and had to leave the reunion early only to be driven to a hospital to be prodded and poked and catscanned and, finally, cut open. :)

Luckily, I have some family in Salt Lake that stayed by my side the whole time and nursed me in their home all weeked after I was discharged from the hospital.

So, here I am, on Monday morning, lying on my couch icing my stomach, trying not to let the Lortab control my thought processes.

The procedure was done laparoscopically, meaning they just punched 3 holes in my stomach instead of having a big incision. Then they inflated my stomach with air until I was about as big as a 10 month old pregnant lady. During the procedure, however, they DID grab some excellent pictures of my organs and stuff. So that's cool. Now that I'm appendix-free, my stomach is still really stretched out and although my incisions aren't really sore, the spot in my colon that now houses a couple of staples is pretty sore. I'm having to ice my whole stomach to get the swelling to go away, so that's an adventure. lol.

So, I'm sad that I didn't get to watch General Conference, but I'm excited to read the talks next month in the Ensign.

And the best part is that I know that I'll NEVER have to go through this ever again. I am officially "appendix-free."