Christmas time is here

President Uchtdorf said that we, "like the Wise Men of old, should seek the Christ and lay before Him the most precious of gifts: a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We should offer Him our love. We should give Him our willingness to take upon ourselves His name and walk in the path of discipleship. We should promise to remember Him always, to emulate His example, and to go about doing good."
We cannot offer perfection, and the Savior does not expect it, President Uchtdorf said. "But He does require that we bring as gifts our best efforts to move ourselves, one foot in front of the other, walking in the ways He has prepared and taught."
"The Savior's gifts to us are breathtaking," President Uchtdorf said. He explained that through the Atonement, the Savior offers us immortality, forgiveness, and eternal life.
Though some of Christ's gifts to us will be given only when our time on earth ends, President Uchtdorf emphasized the many gifts that the Savior gives every day. "He promises to be with us, to come to us when we need comfort, to lift us when we stumble, to carry us if need be, to cry, laugh, mourn, and rejoice with us. Every day He offers to take us by the hand and help transform ordinary life into extraordinary spiritual experiences."

Orange Blossom Special

So anyone that has ever lived with me knows about my love of Florida citrus. It's true. Sorry to Utah and Idaho (and North Carolina) grocery stores, you don't compare.

It may because I am a little bias because of growing up in Florida and having orange groves just miles down the road from me but Florida oranges are the best.

Mom surprised me when they came up for graduation with a 1/2 bushel of oranges from my hometown orange grove.

They are soooo good!!! I end up eating 2 or 3 of them daily. I'm going to turn into an orange. :)

Ps. I've always been sad that there's never a song about Florida. They are always about California, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Texas, Georgia, the "South" (which Florida isn't included even though we are the furthest south you can get in the US)and so on. Orange Blossom Special is a Johnny Cash song- it's about Florida. Happy girl now. :)

I Do (Cherish You)

Warning: This post is a tad long. :)

I have been told many times in the last several years that "Oh, you had to move here for me." There are a few people that I had rather not met in that process as well though. Growing up in the LDS faith I had always thought that I would go out to BYU for college and not make it through without at least getting engaged. (Even though I would never tell any of the girls that I went through YW with that.)
My dreams were dashed when I received the letter from BYU stating that I wouldn't be joining them in the fall and then another letter came saying please join us from BYU-Idaho. I moved up there with no friends or family anywhere around. Looking back I had to go there to meet those that I did. Mandi told me multiple times that the reason why I was there was because of her. Some other roommates would say the same thing at different times in the 2 years I was there. Then there was a roommate that I would have rather not met and kinda made our living situation kinda awkward.
Then I finally moved down to Provo. My dream. I wanted to get into their nursing program. Plans changed and ended up doing something that I loved. Often I felt that I had moved there in order to meet people and for me to be in their lives. Again, there was people I had rather not meet but overall I knew that I was providing friendship and support to my roommates when they needed it the most. Dreams were dashed again when I didn't get into the nursing program at BYU.
My next move was to move to North Carolina. This time with family. I was still depressed that I wasn't going through the nursing program at BYU but knew that this was the only way to see my dreams fulfilled. Feeling like I was starting all over in kindergarten, trying to get new friends at school and church, I did my best to interact with those at nursing school. Little did I know I would become great friends with 2 girls. We can't remember the first time we spoke but we talked and became friends that would sit next to each other for months to come.

One of these girls just had a vow renewal ceremony this past Saturday. I was invited as one of the few from nursing school. Her story is a bit unique. Jess and Sean have known each other for years and went to school together. Last July they got married in a small family wedding. He was about to deploy to Afghanistan and she would start nursing school. These last 16 months were supposed to be a distraction for her so she wouldn't think about what he was doing. There were lots of ups and downs for her. There were several calls from her in tears about not hearing from him for days and she knew what that could mean. Gratefully he would always call after those long periods of time and tell her that not him but another comrade had fallen.

Me, Jess and Kelsy with Jess's dad in the back:

During her brother's toast at the reception it finally sunk in about how blessed she and her family had been during his deployment. He was able to come back after a 14 month deployment still alive, in one piece and mentally all there.
She told me how thankful she was that I was there for her. I realized that if I had gotten into the nursing program at BYU then there wouldn't have been any way that I would have met Jess. There wouldn't have been a reason for me to move to North Carolina. I'm not a swimmer and so therefore not in the same circle of athletes as she is.
So congrats to Jessica and Sean, for making it this far separately and for many more years of love and happiness spent together. Jess- I will miss you a lot as you move away but wouldn't want it any other way- this way you and Sean can finally live together as husband and wife.

Pomp and Circumstance

It's been a long 16 months but today was the offical end of those long 16 months- GRADUATION!!!!!

It was a great day- Jorden, mom and dad drove up to be at it. There were a couple of tears shed. But overall it was a good day.

I can't believe that I now have 3 degrees total- one A.D. and two bachelors degrees, all in the last 3 years. I have a NURSING DEGREE!!!! Cannot believe it still. I've made it.

The whole graduating class:

Getting pinned:

Another awesome part of graduating... presents. Cricut from Mom and Dad so I can start scrapbooking and Jennifer got me a Burberry purse (even though I told her not to).

Toys for Tots

Every year there is a Christmas party held in Maryland. Well, there's probably more than one in the state, but we only attend one. Jennifer started to attend while in nursing school and since, we have both gone, now that we are back on the east coast. Part of this Christmas party is the donation of toys to Toys for Tots. For those that don't know, Toys for Tots is a program started by the Marine Corp, and toys are donated to them and they hand them out to needy families so that their children can open up presents on Christmas morning. This year we decided to use Black Friday as our day of shopping. We hit up Target, Kohls and Walmart for toys. While standing in line at Target someone came up to me and asked if they could interview me. They asked why we were one of the crazies standing outside of Target waiting for it to open. I explained that we were there to get toys in order to contribute to Toys for Tots. That as a fan of Josh Groban we do this annual donation in the Baltimore area in the name of his foundation- The Josh Groban Foundation, now changed to the Find Your Light Foundation. They were very impressed by our reason of being there and then went on their way.
Afterwards, the couple standing in front of us turned around and asked if we were from Utah. Then asked what our connection to BYU was because I had on one of my BYU shirts. I explained that I had graduated from there last year. He then showed me his sweatshirt... it was a Utah Ute sweatshirt. It was entertaining if nothing else.
Here is what we were able to get and some pictures from the party. Oh, we ended up getting 130 toys ourselves, the grand total for the party was over 1,200.

Favorite picture of the night:

There's so much to be thankful for

Thanksgiving was spent at our apartment this year. Just Jennifer and I. We had a pretty good spread of food. This year it felt like I had so much to be thankful for. I had a degree from BYU, I had a sister to live with, I had 15 months of nursing school behind me and about to graduate, I have great friends, I've made some new friends in the past 15 months that will forever be in my life, I have the gospel and the knowledge that gives me, I have people that love me, I have people that are very proud of what I have accomplished so far, etc.

We also were able to go out to Biltmore Estate again before our passes expired. It is so beautiful at Christmas time. We snapped a few pictures outside then went in and snapped some inside (don't tell)!! :) While over there we also went to Grove Park Inn to see some gingerbread houses. These are a couple of my favorites. Some not so good and some that actually were.

The Bells of New York City...

This past weekend Jennifer and I were able to head up to New York. This visit was so much better than the previous visit a couple of years ago. The previous one lasted about 10 hours and it involved us running through Central Park from Penn station to get to where we needed to be.

We flew into LaGuardia Saturday afternoon and headed to our hotel- Westin in Times Square. I had worked the previous night and was pretty tired so we didn't do much but we were able to get out of the hotel and walk up to Columbus Circle and the Time Warner Building where there is a huge Whole Foods that Jennifer loves!

View out of our hotel window looking to NJ:

Time Warner Building:

Sunday- We went down the street to get pizza and Jennifer had the brilliant idea to take the pizza and sit in Central Park to eat it. We then walked through the beautiful Central Park. The leaves are changing, the air had a crispness to it, families were hanging out and music getting played by someone. If nothing else it was so relaxing. While walking back we went by to see the temple as well. It still amazes me that it is right on a corner of 2 major streets in Manhattan. The gala was that night. Got all dressed up in my cocktail dress and platform heels. Lindy and Jack Groban (Josh's parents) were there and as we were eating there was a surprise guest!! That's right... Josh made an appearance. He wanted to thank us personally for all the work that we have done for his foundation (raised $1 million) and talked about what the foundation means to him and his family. He also said something about another event similar to this soon. His mom told us how we are all like family to her and that we are close to her heart. Then talked about how special this foundation is. She talked about how the arts rescue children and how the arts give children a voice.

Central Park:

Manhattan Temple:

Gala:

Monday- I wanted to do some touristy things so we headed down to the Empire State Building and went up to the 86th floor and saw the city. Went through Harold Square and Macy's which was huge and already decorated for Christmas. As we made our way back up to the hotel we stopped by Rockefeller Center where they are currently in the process of putting up the tree. We went to the concert that night at Madison Square Garden. (I've always wanted to go there ever since the HBO concert thing for *NSYNC) It was an amazing concert. You could feel the energy of all the concert-attendees and Josh just fed off of it and you could feel like he was having an amazing night. It was the last concert of the US leg. After the concert we ran into his parents and his mom said that it was one of his best concerts.

Macys:

View from Empire State Building:

Rockefeller Center:

Concert:

Tuesday- This was a bittersweet day. I can't describe the feeling that I got in New York but I fell in love with it over the weekend. But as usual vacations come to an end... and we headed to the airport to fly back to North Carolina.

... Tell me not to go.

1 month is nothing

That's right!

1 more month of nursing school left.

I thought that I would never say that. But it's here. If I was able to get through the last 15 months... 1 month is nothing.

Party In The U S...

Well maybe just in my apartment in Durham. Today is the day that means that I only have 40 more days until Graduation!!!

Par-tay!! It's been good and I know that I've learned a lot but I am so over being in school that it's not even funny.

40 days and counting...

I'm noddin' my head like "Yeah!"
Movin' my hips like "Yeah!"

You Raise Me Up

This past Saturday Jennifer and I were able to take my mom to her very first concert. Of course it had to be Josh Groban. We drove down to Florida all Thursday night and spent some time with the family on Friday then pretty much all day Saturday was spent getting ready for the concert, pre-concert Grobanite dinner and then the concert. Sunday we spent driving back to North Carolina with mom in tow.
Saturday was the first time that Josh had been back in Central Florida in like 6 years. Needless to say he got a very warm welcome. He was recovering from being sick but in his typical fashion, he sounded great the whole time. He got a little choked up while performing "You Raise Me Up" and "Smile". So much so that you could tell through his singing. He came back out for 2 encores even though the house lights had been turned on already.
We walked mom back to the car and then ran down to where we thought that, if he came out, he would sign autographs. He came and I got an autograph.
I know that Jennifer and I had a great time. We absolutely love seeing him live in concert. I think that my mom had fun too, even though she claimed that she didn't know half of the songs.
Here are some pictures from that night:

Joyeux anniversaire

So I turned 24 on the 17th. Not so much a huge milestone but another birthday nonetheless.
It was fun except for the fact that I had to sit through a meeting and class that day on very little sleep. I had clinical the previous night and came home to a decorated room full of balloons and presents.
Presents from parents: Chi straightener and holder for it to be put in luggage. Presents from Jennifer: Taylor Swift perfume and bag. Joint present: Covert Affairs season 1 on DVD.
The Melting Pot for dinner where we had fabulous fondue and take home chocolate dipped strawberries. It was great!!

We made plans for next year, as I will be turning a quarter of a century and hopefully will have a big kid job with a big kid salary. We will hopefully be going to Italy and Greece.

Pictures:
Melting Pot-

Birthday cake (Thin Mint ice cream cake)

The presents-

P.S. The title is French for Happy Birthday for those of you that didn't take French in high school for 4 years and learned that particular dialect. (Unlike my friend who will remain nameless and resides still in Utah.)

Engaged

No. Not me.

When I hear this word there are certain words that come to mind: ring, marriage, temple, joy, congrats, yay!, happy, etc. But do those words remain when it's someone that you used to like? I haven't figured out that answer yet.
In all honesty I am happy for them. I could care-a-less. And I know that my guy is just waiting to make his appearance so it's at the right time. And I will patiently wait- well as patient as I can.

Congrats to the happy couple...

Head out on the highway

October 7-11:
So one of the good things about fall semester here is that we get a fall break in the middle of October. My dad thinks it's because of Columbus Day, however, I have yet to get the feeling that Duke pays any respect to any holiday. So I just think that it's a nice little break in the middle of the semester.
This year Jennifer and I decided to take the long weekend and go drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. For those that don't know what this is- it is a road that takes you through the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina that is about 460 miles long. It is supposed to be a relaxing drive with a speed limit of 45 mph. There are stops along the route to go hiking, see waterfalls, pinic spots and historic sites. It starts around Roanoke, VA and ends in Cherokee, NC. It was a beautiful drive the way down. We even got to drive through some clouds when we got to the highest elevation of the parkway and it got pretty chilly.
After the parkway we made a stop at Biltmore to see if they had it decorated for the fall. They didn't really but they did have an exhibit of Tiffany glass lamps that were pretty cool. Couldn't take any pictures of them though. It wasn't until we got to Biltmore that it started raining.
Here are a couple of pictures of what we saw along the drive with all the leaves changing over to the fall colors. And who can resist throwing a pile of leaves up in the air?!

Locals:

Crunchy leaves- perfect to walk in!

Pumpkin patch-

Christmas tree farm-

Driving through clouds, misty rain and cold-

Me, the Florida girl, at the highest elevation of the parkway in misty cold rain wearing capris and flip flops-