Mis Padres

I am currently doing a project on self-exploration and as a part of it, I am interviewing people about

me.

Sounds pretty selfish, eh?

Oh well. What can you do?

But don't worry. I'm not here to talk about me. I just wanted to tell you that in my last interview, my interviewee told me that sometimes I talk about

my awesome family
too much.

But only sometimes.

I really am trying to be a better person and work on those things that the lovely people I have been interviewing have been saying, but you just can't got through a month's list of gratitudes and NOT mention the fam.

So here I am. Part 1 of my thanks for my family:

The parents.

Again, I think that I was just pretty dang blessed in this department.

My
parents
rock.

Maybe it just has to do with the fact that my mom
-is an excellent cook (her bread, more specifically)
-keeps active and stays in awesome shape (and after having 7 children!)
-can sew virtually anything you want
-makes the most lovely quilts for me to take to college
-is willing to teach me all of her mad skills

Or maybe it has to do with Pa's
-crazy abilities to fix absolutely anything that isn't working at a maximum functioning level
-commitment to stocking us with meat, cheese, butter and ice cream
-surprising tendency to talk on the phone
-mathematical genius
-patience with my non-technical mind when I'm trying to fix something over the phone

Or perhaps it's their combined effort to teach us what's right through example.

Whatever it is, I have some insanely amazing parents. My only hope is that somehow I can be half the parents they are to my own children.

So If You Get the Choice...

This one will be short. Cause sometimes, with being grateful, and not wanting people to think you are a freak, less is more.

And so, folks, I just wanted you to know that:

I am super grateful for spontaneity.

I'm pretty sure that life is more fulfilling when you can just let yourself go. More fulfilling and more exciting. And just plain old better.

That's Why They Call Us Mr. Farenheit

Once upon a time, the roomies and I decided to be insanely hardcore and not turn on our heat. In a nutshell, we freaking didn't want to pay that bill. So we went without.

And, gosh, we're awesome. Oh, there was complaining, but we did pretty much everything you can do to keep warm. I came to appreciate:

• Rocking awesome Queen dance parties
• Staying in warm showers for much longer than usual
• Hanging out at the library (or any other heated buildings)
  
• Wool socks
• Layers and layers and layers of clothes
• Lots of blankets
• And cuddling with the roomies (in front of the stupid space heater that hardly works)

And, for the record, it was totally working. We were rocking it down to 55 degrees! We joked that we wouldn't turn it on until we could see our breaths.

But as grateful as I am for all the aforementioned things, I think that I'm most grateful that one of the roomies (whose name coughamandacough won't be named) was willing to claim wimp-dom and turn the blasted heat on. I think we're all feeling a little better at a toasty 63. We might even be able to shed the mittens and scarves.

Thanks!

Just in case you were wondering, my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, which just so happens to be this very month. It has everything you could ever want: Family, Friends, and Food.

And, I mean, on what other day can you eat as much as you possibly want and be sure that no one is going to judge you? Uh-huh. True love right there.

And so, in light of this, the most fabulous holiday, I am going to dedicate my November blogging to talking about things that I'm grateful for. I've been feeling extra whiny lately, so this will be especially good for me. I can't promise a post every day (cause, who am I kidding? I have a hard enough time posting twice a month, let alone thirty times), but I will post as often as I can. Get excited!

I'm not really feeling a super long post right now, so I'll choose a simple thanks to start off with: I am grateful for my job at the library.
I've actually posted about it before, but I love my job. It's so bomb. In the best way possible. Even if the only hook up I get is that I can check out books without my student ID (insert oohs and ahhs).

The up side is that most everyone is friendly and/or entertaining (like the chick who told me that we were keeping the library too hot and someone was probably going to pass out. Yeah. It wasn't too hot. Or even hot at all. Menopause?).

Anyhow, Cedar City doesn't really flaunt job opportunities so I was looking for forever before I was found this job. And I will tell you what, I was a blink away from crying when they offered it, that's how insanely happy I was.

And the tears should probably have been shed. I'm thinking that in my short list of jobs that I have had (I have a great talent for keeping jobs a ridiculously long amount of time), this one is definitely a fave.

Pure Genius

My sweet grandma passed away just over a week ago (more on this later). My family had to quickly get everything ready for us to be able to drive up to Montana for the funeral.

Amidst the hurry and packing, Leslie expressed her sincere worry that our computer would be stolen while we were away. Her anti-theft device? This:

Seeing such genius makes me think, "Now, why didn't I think of that?"

The printer doesn't look too suspicious does it?

BYU vs. SUU: Sensitivity

I've been thinking more and more about BYU since I have recently had to start looking seriously at graduate schools. BYU is a tempting option. That's mostly because it's outrageously cheap in a world of very, very expensive grad schools.

And the more I think about BYU, the more I see the differences of BYU and SUU. And there are a lot. One example:

I attend SUU. And I know that yesterday, October 11th, is National Coming Out Day.

How many people at BYU knew that?

And did BYU provide an actual closet set up in the middle of campus for people to "come out" of?

Slightly Incredibly Astronomically different?


I rest my case.

A Confession

Here's the deal:

I am kind of a sinner (in lots of ways, but especially) in that I kind of really hate it when people try to get all preachy and religious on blogs. I know it's awful of me. But it just bugs. When people get all preachy on their blog, I'm thinking:

A) They're trying to get points by how spiritual they can come off
OR
B) They had a really awesome experience but they don't know the time and place to share it

And I'm guessing that my hatred simply comes from the fact that I have a really hard time letting my spirituality get across via the inter-web. I mean, it is just really hard for me to figure out how to give my feelings any justice without sounding cheesy. You know what I'm saying? Of course you do.

So, while I won't be whipping out a lengthy rendition of my testimony, I just wanted to say:

Gosh, I love general conference.

I mean, seriously. For a short weekend, God is letting us know what he's been thinking about. And, somehow, in all those messages we can gain a lot of guidance and revelation. What's more is that we can get a tiny little glimpse into how much our Heavenly Father loves us.

And that is just pretty awesome.