A Wedding of Friends

The start of this week (ya know when all the storms were and stuff), we headed down to a wedding of two of our dear friends.  Tess and I both lived with Brittanie last year and we just love her.  She ended up not living in the house this year, but she was our most frequent visitor, and we love her!  She's always just so happy and full of life and energy.  I admire how she always looks on the positive side of things.  She is so good at looking at the big perspective and having faith that everything will turn out for the best.  She's always so fun and we always have a good time when we're with Brit.

Luckily, Brittanie married a guy who is just as fun and full of life as she is!  Adam has this special way of making everyone in the room instantly happier when he enters.  We passed each other between classes a couple of times each week this semester, and it always brightened my day talking with Adam for a minute or two.  I'm just so happy for those two and I'm so glad they let Tessa and I be a part of their day :)

Between Tessa, Eden, and I we were able to get some fun pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Brittanie asked me to do her hair for her big day.  I was both honored and excited!  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  She seemed to be happy about it too :)

 I have been loving the dutch braids lately! 

That temple is just so huge and beautiful!

 Me and my sissy :)

Mary, Tess, Adam, Me, and Eden.  What a guy!  

A great group of friends that all showed up to party at the reception.  We had so much fun talking, laughing, eating, and dancing.

Brittanie and the bridesmaids from the Sherwood House

The fastest stretch of traveling.  Good visibility, 3-4 inches of snow on the road, and no other traffic!

These past couple of months I have been realizing even more how important it is that I marry someone who is not only going to take me to the temple to get married, but who will take me back frequently. The Gospel is not something to be casual about, and being on the temple grounds and waiting for all of my friends to come out from the sealing strengthened my testimony of the importance of the gospel in my life.  

22

Well, I've been 22 for almost a week now, and it's been great!  My birthday weekend was just perfect for me.  On Saturday Tess and I went over to Kamas to watch the Cokeville boys wrestle.  We rode with Jesse, Celinda, and that cute baby Jacie and had a good time visiting and laughing.  Mom and Dad came to the wrestles to and it was so fun to see them.  Three weekends in a row.  That's pretty darn good.  We went and ate lunch at Subway, and while we were sitting down to eat, Mom snuck out and back in with a pan of brownies.  These are seriously one of my favorite treats ever!  No one makes them quite like Mom.  

So, Saturday was fabulous.  Then on Monday, my real birthday, the day was pretty normal.  Just how I like birthdays.  I'm not in to all the big riff-raff that normally accompanies this day every year.  Tessa did make me some delicious pies and we had a few friends over.  I was a wind-jammer and blew out all my candles :)  haha  I didn't do any homework, and I just loved the day.  

This week has been pretty darn awesome as well.  We decided we were going to do something scary or new every week this semester and we started off this week with snowshoeing.  So. Much. Fun.  It was a good workout and a good time.  The perfect combo.  

While we were up at Stewart Falls (our destination point) I whipped out my handy dandy JetBoil and made Tess and I some Chicken Alfredo for lunch.  Worked slick as a whistle.  I mean, it wasn't the best meal I've ever had, but it'd definitely keep me alive!  And that JetBoil is just about the neatest little thing.  I'll definitely be using that more in the future.  

So many other great things happened this week as well.  I'm excited to be 22.  As of right now, 21 was the best year ever.  I might never top it. (If you don't believe me, look at this past year of blog posts!) This week though, 22 definitely showed some good potential, and I'm excited to see what this year brings!  

Oh, and yes, I'm feeling 22 :)

Calm

Looking back at the past week and a half I have been so blessed to feel calm.  When I step back, I really don't have that crazy of a life.  It's busy, but busy is good, and I know most of you would LOVE to be in my shoes as a college student.  It's a great life!  Anyways, I've had a couple of situations the past week that I've been able to feel calm about when it seems I should have been nervous. 

First, when I returned to school on Monday night I had to face the realization that I hadn't looked at anything that was going on the coming week.  When I finally sat down and took a peek at how the week was going to be I found out I had a LOT to accomplish.  All week I was able to be calm and just do one thing at a time.  I know the Lord was helping me remain calm so that I could get everything done.  

Then, I was driving home from skiing at Sundance on Saturday.  It had been snowing ALL day and I didn't get out of there until about 3:45.  I have a front wheel drive car and I was driving down a steep, windy, snowy canyon road.  I was fishtailing everywhere!  No matter what I did, I could not get my car to go slow enough.  This whole time I felt so calm.  I thought my hands would be gripping the steering wheel, my body leaned forward, and that I would be freaking out!  Even when I ended up stopping completely sideways across the road stopping traffic in both directions I was able to remain calm, get back in my lane and keep on.  I know that I was being watched over that day not only in safety, but in sanity.  

Finally, there's finals.  I feel like so many people around me are stressing out over finals.  I can not tell you how glad I am that I'm not?!  It's not cause I feel super prepared either, cause I'm definitely not.  Right now I'm just thankful that finals are one of the biggest worries on my mind.  There are so many people out there who have so much on their plate and so many matters that have much greater effects on their lives than final exams.  Now, I'll definitely be relieved when they're over, but for now I'm just glad I get to take them!

I know stress is a real thing and so many people deal with some bad anxiety.  I count being able to be calm as a blessing.  It's just another way the Lord lets me know He loves me. :) 

God Really Does Love Me!

You know how I know?  This sign was posted on the door to my class from 4-7 tonight.  

There's a lot of other things in my life that make me realize God loves me, this one just made me especially happy :)  

Also, my feet were neither cold nor wet today because of these new boots!

  

Mom came yesterday and she got them for me for my birthday.  I can't even tell you how grateful I am to have them.  It was so fun having mom here, even if it was for only a couple of hours.  We had fun shopping and talking.  I definitely needed some "mom" time.  It's like a mini vacation every time she comes down.  I love it!