Welcome Back?

Hi everyone!

I'm back from my long absence. I was on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 18 months. I was serving as a missionary in Salt Lake City at Temple Square, a historic site and visitor's Center. It was loads of fun and an amazing experience. I am so glad I was able to serve and share my love with those I met from all over the world.

Because of the focus we need as missionaries, we give up a lot of "normal" things. One of which was blogging for me. Which is why there was such an absence of posts. Sorry. I am back now and I think I will start posting stories from my time away. I am excited to share the many things I learned about myself and the world.

Anyway, I mention this because I had changed the settings of my blog so that I would moderate the comments. Well, I finally logged in to my blog and guess what? Yes, I have 55 unmoderated comments, which is not much considering how long I was gone, however, the majority of them were spam comments. I was appalled! Why would someone desecrate my writing space. I guess it is a good thing I moderate these comments!

Anyway, look for more updates here.

My life would suck without you.

I usually don't listen to podcasts. However, I have recently come across a website that has caught my attention. The website is called What You Ought to Know. They do these little video segments where they talk about a specific topic. The topics range from Duct tape to the war in Iraq. The best part is that it is informative as well as funny.

everyone should check it out!

Apologies

It has come to my attention that I have been slacking as a bloger. I know Elisa, I will try to make it up to you. It has also come to my attention that I can write posts and then set the time I want them to be published (aka in the future). This means that I can write lots of posts one day and spread the pubishing out for a few. That is the best thing since sliced bread. (okay, maybe that is not true).

I feel like right now a lot of people are having a hard time determining the purpose of their blog. I'm finding that I am having a hard time with that right now. One of my friends does lists of why she loves someone or something. I really like that but I don't want to steal that from her.

Recently, my blog has been more about my life but I get a little nervous about posting so much information about myself on the internet just open to anyone. Plus, I'm not really a writer. I'm a physics major for heaven's sake! We aren't really known for our writing abilities. That is part of the reason I wanted to start writing a blog. I figure if I practice writing even in an informal way, I will become a better writer. I'm not sure if this is successful.

I do have a lot of stories to tell. Maybe I should work on telling them. That was what my blog was sort of becoming a little while ago. I will keep pondering the reasons I am writing and maybe I will have an epiphany.

I'm back!

So, it has been a while and I was really hoping that I would update a lot this summer because after that I will be gone for a very long time and my blog will probably sit pretty idle. That makes me super sad. How long will my blog be saved if I am not using it? That's a sad thought. Hopefully a while.

So, I am reading North and South by Elizabeth Gaskill. I am LOVING it. I am still trying to figure out why I like books of that period so much. Especially since the way that the couples "fall in love" is so superficial. However, watching the BBC version of this book is super yummy. I saw Richard Armitage in Robin Hood and he looks even better in North and South.

Anyway, I should stop with my long list of yummy men who are in movies. Nothing really exciting is happening here except I am now being trained to be a server at Rok. We'll see how I do at serving.

I'm not sure what else I should write about except I am supposed to finish telling about my trip to New York. Hmmm.... Maybe I should get on that.

mmm...food.

So, I feel like I should write a post centered on food. I love food. I am curently working at a restaurant and I eat so I am around food a good portion of my day. Although, my attitudes about the food I am around are constantly changing.

It's actually really bad that I love it so much because sometimes I have a hard time balancing my caloric intake. However, I am trying to redifine my relationship to food which I think is important. I believe that the American people have a very bad attitude toward food and that is one of the BIG reasons that we are an obease, unhappy, unhealthy nation. This is also why the diet industry is huge.

The first thing I realized is that I don't listen to my body enough when I am preparing to eat. My body knows what it is lacking and I should satisfy that need. If I don't, I end up eating lots of calories trying to fill the void but end up constantly disappointed and hundreads of calories over what I need.

I also realized that we have a terrible obsession with meat. We are producing more greenhouse gasses by eating so much meat than we do from cars. The Word of Wisdom says we are supposed to eat meat sparingly. Eating meat at every meal is NOT sparingly. I also know people who are becoming vegetarians or vegans. It's not good to do that either. We need meat for certain nutrients that can't be replaced by other foods.

Also, one of the biggest problems is over eating. We have huge portions of food and we eat the whole thing. We are trained to think that we need to eat all the food in front of us. That is VERY unhealthy. It is bad to be wasteful but we don't have to overendulge to not be wasteful. I just wish we were better about food.

There's only 1 way 2 say 3 words...

By request, I am going to tell a little about my trip to New York. This will probably be a few posts of an update. I went to my cousin's wedding in New York but my family went for a whole week since we have never gone to New England as a family.

We got there Saturday night and drove from JFK to Scranton, Pennsylvania. We spent the night there. We did not go to Dunder Mifflin but we did go to church there. It was kind of a weird sacrament meeting and it was SUPER hot in the chapel. We also got lost on the way to the church, which was kind of a reoccurring theme of our trip. The rest of that Sunday we spend driving to Palmyra, New York and looking at the sites there.

We first went to the Grandin Building and saw how The Book of Mormon was published originally. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. Then we drove to the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove. It was really cool to be in the places where the church was restored. The Sacred Grove was beautiful and very quiet when my siblings weren't being loud and whiney.

These are some of the pictures I took of the Sacred Grove.






















We then called it a day and grabbed some dinner and then some ice cream at a place called Brad and Dad's. The ice cream was delicious and some of the best ice cream I have ever had.

To be continued...

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears...

So, tomorrow is my birthday and as far as I know, it is going to be the same old, same old lameness. I have gotten to a point in my life where I usually don't end up in tears on my birthday espeically now that I go to BYU and I am usually home for the summer when my birthday occurs (aka, friendless). Plus, two of my friends are leaving tomorrow. (well, one of my friends is leaving Chicago to go to France, so she wasn't really close by anyway, but still...)

I don't mean to sound whiny or complainy or heartless. Mostly, I don't really get the big deal with birthdays. Yay, it's a day to celebrate ourselves! That seems a little self centered to me. And it is a time for people to show how much they appreciate you. Well, I generally find that people show how much they love you spontenously and in ways that mean more than the obligation of a gift on your birthday.

I feel this same way about Valentines day. Why on earth should I celebrate the love I have for someone on a day dictated by "the world?" The nicest things people have done for me or said to me have not happened on my birthday or valentines day, they happen randomly.

Who doesn't like a little random?

Oh, and I think I am getting sick. But I had fun at my cousin's wedding which I will update about a little later.