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.