Mom is putting these on -- I'm emptying my groupwise mailbox.
Let's see this week-
well it has been crazy busy- I have just had so much to do. I had a couple of nights I didn't get home till about 11:30. Hopefully things will get better. I am just amazed at how busy this semester has been for me.
Let's see, some highlights of the week... On Friday there was a 'girls night out at the gym' and I was able to teach pilates for it. I had a great time. When I got home John tooke me to Chornicles of Narnia. It was the second time for both of us, and I really enjoyed it. After we went and played Rook- and ended up winning!! It was amazing.
Saturday was the championship iron chef round- very impressive dishes!
Today I had a Mexican friend come over and show us how to do tostadas for dinner. They were yummy and now I have this good salsa (well, hot sauce)- Valentina- it's cheap- $.79 for a bottle and pretty authenic- now I get to figure out what to do with the left overs- My mexican friend said he likes it on chips or popcorn. The best part of the tostada- I think was the avacado! Yum!! -something intersting- he pureed the refined beans- in the blender with a bit of water. It was a fun light meal.
John and I went to the fireside. I enjoyed it a lot. Elder Bateman talked about how Alma 5 and 32 talk about faith specific to the audience and how 32 gives you the way to be able to answer the questions in 5. He then went on to speak about The purpose of mortality:
1. To gain a body
a. sacred power of creation
b. Instrument of the mind
c. receptacle of light
2. To gain truth and light
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
From an e-mail a long time ago. . .
| Sunday - February 26, 2006 4:07 AM | |||
Wow, what a day :). I woke up and did some wonderful scripture reading, and then went to step aerobics and pilates. then I came home, showered, ate, did a bit of homework, went on the shopping trip of the semester!! Hopefully I won't have to go back to Walmart ever again! Some groups of friends had a iron chef competition- two of the winning teams from last week faced off in the tourment- their secret ingredient was coconut milk- wow. The first group did coconut-blueberry crepes for their appetizer, a coconut pesto sauce on steak for they main dish, and a, I think it was a coconut cream custard with chocolate sauce for their dessert, the other, winning group, did a coconut soup-served in a coconut for appetizer, the most amazing coconut creamy curry sauce that I think had a kind of red pepper with rice looking pasta that had sun dried tomatoes and some chicken for their main dish, and then they tried making coconut ice cream baked alaska- the ice cream didn't set, but it was a beautiful presentation anyway. Oh, fine food ;p.
I went to work and made biscuits with one of my residents-Rulon, because another on of my residents-Helen, had some huckelberry jam- so we made biscuits and put the jam on them--ooohhh yum! i love biscuits- I had forgotten how good they are! We played a bit of jepardy with the things we had learned about this month- Hersheys was founded, Charles Dicken's birthday, Presidents' day, and Red Dress month- heart. It was great to review. We then played a good bout of hangman and called it a day.
Now for all the dance goings on... so we had Sadie's Hawkins tonight- well, I didn't really realize it was tonight till about Thursday- so yesterday I e-mailed John to see if he wanted to go, he didn't respond to the e-mail- so I found out when he came over last night that he wouldn't mind going... so today I was wondering how I was going to work this out- when one of my roommates told me of some girls that were going- who happened to be John's FHE sisters- so I called them up and we were able to join their group ;). it was a retro them- so I borrowed a 70's dress from Roz, got all ready, with more make up on than I have ever had, oh, what one does for a theme ;p. well, we met at 7 had tacos, then cut up cartons of ice cream onto cookies sheets, and put toppings on and dug in- ya- I have not eaten that much ice cream in a very long time!! It was fun, for dinner they had put different activities that we had to do on the bottom of the plates that we had to do during dinner and then we had to guess what everyone had- like I had to bring up hippos seven times- and it turned out a boy had to dance anytime some said hippo... another boy had to copy everything that the person to his right was doing- it was soo funny because he was sitting besides a girl... it was a fun game. We went to the dance and had a good time. The group was really fun. After the dance we went and played murder in the dark in the lounge- the one where you turn off the lights, and walk around- it was really fun. I really love John's FHE sisters-they are soo cute. I went over after all was said and done and talked with them for another couple of hours-particularly with on girl named Kelah, they are just so sweet. It was a great night.
Oh, by the by, this week I played battleship- I am on a team- it is a game in which you get a canoe, put it in the swimming pool. You have your buckets and shields and go around and try to sink everyone else's boats- it is wild! We did pretty well. There are three rounds- the first round we survived, the second round it was between us and another boat, and the third round we barely survived! The only problem is that after kneeling in the boat for 45 minutes(each round is 15 min)- my knees hurt sooo bad!!!
I was able to subsitute teach pilates- it was fun- but rushed!! It was uplifting- I was able to talk with some of the girls afterwards, and they had liked the class :).
I taught about healthy heart living for enrichment. It was really good for me- I have somethings to improve on (my diet!!), but I am afraid I might have overwhelmened the girls a bit by giving them too much- but it was fun-a few of them said they liked it.
I went to a personal trainers meeting- I think I am going to try to be a personal trainer this summer. It is nothing official- just on campus, but I think it would be an incredible experience :).
Yesterday was kind of discouraging. I studied five hours for my physics test, then I didn't do very well- humph! I am hoping that it won't turn out too bad.. and I did really well on the first test-so maybe they'll average out to be okay--we'll see...
Last night was fun, John and I played Rook with Roz and her boyfriend Landon, I really like the game. then Roz and I stayed up and talked a bit:).
I think that the quote of the week was from work- when Helen and I were being a bit silly playing the games and Leah, another resident said to one of the workers: 'Aren't you glad we're not related to either one of them?'- I busted up- it was just so quick and witting for her to say- and let's just say she's not the sharpest pencil in the can...
Oh, last Sunday, I went to my old roommate, Monica's farewell- it was really good to see her- she is going to make a wonderful missionary! It was also nice because I was able to get a ride with Jenn, my other old roommate, and her husband, so we were able to catch up.
Oh,did I tell you about Valentines? John MADE me a card- it was really cute- he even made the envelope! and he gave me a dozen roses. We went to one of his old companion's house and had dinner, and went sledding- I froze!! I have never been soo cold- I was getting sick because of it, and my hands were soo bad- two of my fingers ended up swollen- and one is still swollen- the skin is now peeling off- ya pretty bad- We then came back and played uno- so it was a nice night besides the frozenness... I heart attacked his door, gave a plate of cookies and his favorite ice cream.
On Saturday I made homemade ice cream at work- oh, boy is that good! our owner came in and told some great stories about meeting his wife- I about rolled over laughing! in the evening John and I went to a choir concert and that was great- I love good choir music!
Well, I think that is just about all the exciting things going on in my life. I hope you had fun reading this forever long e-mail, and hope you have a wonderful day!
lots of love!
Heather
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The Ultimate California Road Trip
It started on a sunshiny, but frigid winter day. We had packed out bags and loaded the Cim's car. Three young women in need of a weekend adventure.
I had daringly asked a Friday off (daring because it was my first time asking work off) three weeks before, and thankfully was approved to go. So after work on Thursday we piled into the car and we were off. With groceries we had bought the night before, road trip CDs provided by Cim and Megan, and a plethora of girl talk. The trip down was smooth and we made good time- listening to an incredible talk by Elder Maxwell, and updating each other on the latest 'boy scene'- or rather the latest boy dilemma :)... We hit California at about 2 am- Utah time. We marveled how well we had traveled, only to hit incredibly thick fog- the kind that London has on a night when someone is murdered in a Sherlock Homes mystery. Well we ended up with our own mystery.. how to get to Cim's sister's house... We got off at the wrong exit and spent an hour of driving back and forth, finally stopped at a gas station and asked a man, who didn't know English, where Chino was- he pointed and said Chino.. and so we went and thankfully found our way.
It was so delightful- Sweet Cim's sister bought us fresh strawberries for breakfast... I love California- through the whole trip I kept saying... It's January!! weather in the upper 70's, flowers blooming... it was so nice!!
We started our trip agenda with attending the Los Angeles temple. It was stunning. Each room is so large with brilliantly colored muraled walls. Never have I seen larger rooms in a temple- the size was truly impressive. As we were in the Celestial room Megan received a confirmation of her need to go on her mission- the spirit was sweet and it was so joyful- I felt we could have gone home from Los Angeles and the whole trip would have been made.
We left the Los Angeles temple and drove down to the Newport beach. The ocean was so lovely at sunset- the sky in delineated tiers of color of blue, yellow, orange, and red, reflecting off the ocean as the waves gently rolled in and the breeze blew the lighter sand across the beach. We left our mark by writing in the sand and taking pictures.
How lovely it would be to have beach side property.. I couldn't imagine how expensive it would be, but each home was so lovely, and the beach so inviting...
Cim was so funny, as we pulled out of the parking lot, we saw two young men passing us. She mused that if we were not LDS our lives would be extremely different- we would probably be going with those young men to a bar that night- instead we were on our way to the Newport temple.
It was a lovely small temple- a similar layout to the Louisville, Kentucky. I loved the cherry wood rounded doors and the beautiful furnishings. It was so beautiful- a beautiful seascape in the endowment room, lovely glass doors into the celestial room. Everything was so elegant- we peeked in the sealing rooms- they were breath taking- the way the light shimmered through the chandeliers- was gorgeous. From that temple I was thinking the importance of making the details of our lives beautiful. In our homes, our behaviors, our habits, the things we create...
We drove from the Newport down to San Diego, only as luck would have, we drove along in happy conversation, only to see a sign that read, "international border 15 miles"- we had missed our exit.. we were tempted to keep going- I have never been to Mexico, but considering it was late, we turned around and found our way to Cim's brother's house. Cim's brother's wife had made us dinner- we enjoyed their company and then we had the privilege of sleeping in the boys' bunk bed- I got the bottom.
The next morning we went sea kayaking!! It was so funny- poor Megan had to put her wet suit on three times.. first it was inside out, then it was backward... We walked down to the beach and waited for our guide. When the guide came he gave us about five minutes instruction on how to row etc... and then we pushed out. The waves were rather small so they were easy to get past- I was nervous that I was going to wimp out- that it would be an exhausting activity, but on the contrary, found it to be a lot easier then I had thought- I really enjoy kayaking, and I wasn't even sore the next after the 3 hour tour.
The ocean was a beautiful deep blue. We enjoyed seeing sea lions and birds- unfortunately no whales- maybe next time... the most charming was near La Jolla caves there was a rocky spot with sea lions laying out- as we kayaked past them- I felt like I was inside a zoo exhibit. The rock face was seemed to have large black spots on it, but as neared, we found the black spots to be dozens and dozens of birds- it was really a neat sight.
We were able to try kelp- it was actually pretty good.. kind of like salty cabbage?? we also were able to take a dip into the ocean about a mile out- never have a been out in the ocean that far- the water was refreshingly cool- after kayaking in the wet suit in the warm sun. And it was great to watch Cim and Megan get back into their kayaks : p.
After the tour we got an ice cream and walked back to the beach, we enjoyed the beauty- sent our footprints to Hawaii, like we use to do as kids, wrote in the sand again. It was just such a beautiful day.
We went home and got ready for the San Diego temple. Oh, it was stunning!! It is truly like a palace- the large winding staircase- with views up to the towers, the atrium, the celestial room- incredible. We did not want to leave. The seminary song that says the temple is the place I reach for heaven and it reaches in return was truly felt there.
Reluctantly we left. We met up with Cim's brother and two of his children-he was so kind and took us out to eat- we had fish tacos- quite delicious. We drove back up to Chino that night- got lost as we dropped off a package for a friend in our ward convert, but we made it.
We went to church in Chino. It was a great sacrament meeting- a missionary reported- you could tell he was great missionary. I was able to remember the pure joy of missionary work.
We had Sunday school in the car- one of the best I've ever had- really I was traveling with some of the best girls in the world!! We stopped in Beaver to watch the CES fireside- we doubled their Single Adults attendance... sometimes I am very grateful to live in American Fork.
As we were driving to our homes we felt pang of returning to daily responsibilities and 26* weather, but so grateful for "The Ultimate California Road Trip"- Jan 2009
I had daringly asked a Friday off (daring because it was my first time asking work off) three weeks before, and thankfully was approved to go. So after work on Thursday we piled into the car and we were off. With groceries we had bought the night before, road trip CDs provided by Cim and Megan, and a plethora of girl talk. The trip down was smooth and we made good time- listening to an incredible talk by Elder Maxwell, and updating each other on the latest 'boy scene'- or rather the latest boy dilemma :)... We hit California at about 2 am- Utah time. We marveled how well we had traveled, only to hit incredibly thick fog- the kind that London has on a night when someone is murdered in a Sherlock Homes mystery. Well we ended up with our own mystery.. how to get to Cim's sister's house... We got off at the wrong exit and spent an hour of driving back and forth, finally stopped at a gas station and asked a man, who didn't know English, where Chino was- he pointed and said Chino.. and so we went and thankfully found our way.
It was so delightful- Sweet Cim's sister bought us fresh strawberries for breakfast... I love California- through the whole trip I kept saying... It's January!! weather in the upper 70's, flowers blooming... it was so nice!!
We started our trip agenda with attending the Los Angeles temple. It was stunning. Each room is so large with brilliantly colored muraled walls. Never have I seen larger rooms in a temple- the size was truly impressive. As we were in the Celestial room Megan received a confirmation of her need to go on her mission- the spirit was sweet and it was so joyful- I felt we could have gone home from Los Angeles and the whole trip would have been made.
We left the Los Angeles temple and drove down to the Newport beach. The ocean was so lovely at sunset- the sky in delineated tiers of color of blue, yellow, orange, and red, reflecting off the ocean as the waves gently rolled in and the breeze blew the lighter sand across the beach. We left our mark by writing in the sand and taking pictures.
How lovely it would be to have beach side property.. I couldn't imagine how expensive it would be, but each home was so lovely, and the beach so inviting...
Cim was so funny, as we pulled out of the parking lot, we saw two young men passing us. She mused that if we were not LDS our lives would be extremely different- we would probably be going with those young men to a bar that night- instead we were on our way to the Newport temple.
It was a lovely small temple- a similar layout to the Louisville, Kentucky. I loved the cherry wood rounded doors and the beautiful furnishings. It was so beautiful- a beautiful seascape in the endowment room, lovely glass doors into the celestial room. Everything was so elegant- we peeked in the sealing rooms- they were breath taking- the way the light shimmered through the chandeliers- was gorgeous. From that temple I was thinking the importance of making the details of our lives beautiful. In our homes, our behaviors, our habits, the things we create...
We drove from the Newport down to San Diego, only as luck would have, we drove along in happy conversation, only to see a sign that read, "international border 15 miles"- we had missed our exit.. we were tempted to keep going- I have never been to Mexico, but considering it was late, we turned around and found our way to Cim's brother's house. Cim's brother's wife had made us dinner- we enjoyed their company and then we had the privilege of sleeping in the boys' bunk bed- I got the bottom.
The next morning we went sea kayaking!! It was so funny- poor Megan had to put her wet suit on three times.. first it was inside out, then it was backward... We walked down to the beach and waited for our guide. When the guide came he gave us about five minutes instruction on how to row etc... and then we pushed out. The waves were rather small so they were easy to get past- I was nervous that I was going to wimp out- that it would be an exhausting activity, but on the contrary, found it to be a lot easier then I had thought- I really enjoy kayaking, and I wasn't even sore the next after the 3 hour tour.
The ocean was a beautiful deep blue. We enjoyed seeing sea lions and birds- unfortunately no whales- maybe next time... the most charming was near La Jolla caves there was a rocky spot with sea lions laying out- as we kayaked past them- I felt like I was inside a zoo exhibit. The rock face was seemed to have large black spots on it, but as neared, we found the black spots to be dozens and dozens of birds- it was really a neat sight.
We were able to try kelp- it was actually pretty good.. kind of like salty cabbage?? we also were able to take a dip into the ocean about a mile out- never have a been out in the ocean that far- the water was refreshingly cool- after kayaking in the wet suit in the warm sun. And it was great to watch Cim and Megan get back into their kayaks : p.
After the tour we got an ice cream and walked back to the beach, we enjoyed the beauty- sent our footprints to Hawaii, like we use to do as kids, wrote in the sand again. It was just such a beautiful day.
We went home and got ready for the San Diego temple. Oh, it was stunning!! It is truly like a palace- the large winding staircase- with views up to the towers, the atrium, the celestial room- incredible. We did not want to leave. The seminary song that says the temple is the place I reach for heaven and it reaches in return was truly felt there.
Reluctantly we left. We met up with Cim's brother and two of his children-he was so kind and took us out to eat- we had fish tacos- quite delicious. We drove back up to Chino that night- got lost as we dropped off a package for a friend in our ward convert, but we made it.
We went to church in Chino. It was a great sacrament meeting- a missionary reported- you could tell he was great missionary. I was able to remember the pure joy of missionary work.
We had Sunday school in the car- one of the best I've ever had- really I was traveling with some of the best girls in the world!! We stopped in Beaver to watch the CES fireside- we doubled their Single Adults attendance... sometimes I am very grateful to live in American Fork.
As we were driving to our homes we felt pang of returning to daily responsibilities and 26* weather, but so grateful for "The Ultimate California Road Trip"- Jan 2009
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