Journal vs Blog

So lately I've been wondering, should I treat this blog more as a journal of the things that happen in my life (like I've been doing) or should I dig a little bit deeper and talk about my ideas, opinions, thoughts, memories, and the like? So I did a quick search and found this website with over 300 journal prompts. It made me pretty excited so I figured I would start doing that too, along with the events of my life.

The one I picked today asks me to start off with "Sundays are..."

Sundays are the day I wake up early, get super cute and try to flirt with as many guys as I can at church. Okay, obviously it is more than that. If I was shallow, that is how my Sundays would be. I look forward to Sundays the most, because they are a day of rest! I know what you're thinking, isn't every day for you a day of rest? I know, I have a pretty easy schedule/life right now, but Sundays are so much more than just a day where you don't go to the store.

Sunday is a day for me to go to church and try to learn something about this wonderful Gospel that I didn't already know. For example, today was stake conference. And today in the afternoon session, I witnessed a miracle that I would call the "choir of angels." We had a stake choir perform the number "I Believe In Christ", one of my favorite hymns. They were a good-size choir, but still not very large. Well, midway through the song I felt the Spirit swell up inside of me in such a way that I had tears in my eyes and the most intense goosebumps ever. The sound coming from that choir was like that of a choir four or five times their size. It was simply amazing to hear their testimonies being sung in such a way that it hit me in the heart. I do believe in Christ. It was affirmed to me today in such a way that I will never forget. The stake President got up afterwards and told us, "Today you have witnessed a miracle. That was literally a choir of angels. Thank you, choir, for accompanying them." I felt so blessed to be there to witness it! It made this Sunday so much more special.

Sometimes I feel like Sundays can be too cluttered with meetings to make it truly a day of rest. Especially for my roommate Jaclyn, who is our wonderful Relief Society President. From 8 in the morning until well after dinner time, she is in meetings. I do suppose that in order to make a ward run smoothly, sacrifices must be made. Where would our ward be without a Bishop and his counselors, who are also in meetings from dawn to dusk on Sundays? My Sundays aren't nearly as busy, but they still consist of the regular 3-hour church block, ward choir right afterwards, visiting and home teaching on some days, and ward prayer that night. Lots of stuff going on, but that is the norm for a single's ward, I suppose.

I am also glad that there is a return of the Sunday nap!! My previous ward started at 12:30, but my new ward starts at 9:25, the perfect time :) That means after ward choir I have a glorious nap, along with plenty of time to read scriptures and books and to skype with family.

All in all, Sundays are the best day of the week :) There's no denying that!

What does Sunday mean to you?

Halloween Half!!

I ran my second half marathon today, but it still felt like my first because my last one was in January. Anyway, recap time!!!

Got up 4:50. Got ready real fast because Dustin and Heather were already waiting out front at 5:10. Me and Heather were one of the lucky people who were able to get on the first wave of buses. The bus was warm and made us sleepy! After the ride up Provo Canyon and past Sundance we disembarked into the freezing dark and made our way into the huge tents that they had set up for all the runners. It was pretty awesome not to have to stand out in the cold forever! We had a couple hours to spare so we just picked a spot, sat down and chilled. I mostly people watched, and I tell you what there were some GREAT costumes. I'll talk about my favorites at the end...

So we decided to go with the first wave of runners, which would start right at 9 a.m. and was for the people who had a goal of 2:10 or faster. We wanted to run 2:15 but we also didn't want to wait for the second wave. A little after 9 we were off! And HOLY FETCH was it some steep downhills! Now you may be saying, wait, downhills are awesome! Let me tell you, they are awesome for a little bit. 12% grade tends to get pretty old after a couple miles! It was so cold at the start that basically the only warm part of my body was my torso. My legs were completely numb, as were my feet. This created a big problem! Usually I am in total control of my feet, and I have a very soft landing, so soft that people don't even hear me when I'm running behind them. Well, I had ZERO control because I couldn't feel my feet. I could tell I was pounding them pretty hard on those downhills, and even though I tried my best not to over stride and to let gravity take me, I couldn't do much about the pounding. Between miles 3 and 4 I could already feel shin splints coming on, and my quads and knees were killing me! But, on a happy note, we were able to make up a ton of time on those first four miles. I do believe we hit an 8-minute mile at one point, and it felt really good to see the time we were making! 

When we got to Provo Canyon, I starting struggling pretty bad. Those downhills took a lot more out of me than I thought they would! Somehow, someway, I managed to keep a 10 minute mile pace! I was pretty amazed, usually that takes a lot of effort to maintain for any amount of time. I know, I'm slow, ha ha! Once we got on the Provo River trail I felt like I was super sluggish, but finally my GU kicked in and gave me some energy. The rest of the race was pretty much deja vu from last Saturday, it was the exact same trail that me and Heather ran on. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, the weather was perfect and I managed to keep a pretty even pace. I think our slowest mile was a 10:44, the rest of them were just above or below 10 minute miles. It was pretty awesome! 

With one mile to go I told Heather, "If you're feeling good, go for it!" I knew we were on pace to get a 2:10,  (we could have done a 2:05 but had to take a bathroom break around mile 8) so I told her to go ahead. My calves were cramping up pretty bad and I was putting so much effort into just maintaining a 10 minute pace. So Heather pulled ahead a little bit towards the very end, I could barely see her through the sea of runners around me. The finish line was kind of hidden around a little bend, and as soon as I saw it I sprinted with all I had left! I crossed the finish in 2:07 (according to my watch, I knew my official time was a little bit more than that), got my finishers medal, found Heather and Dustin, took some pictures, found our clothing bags, and headed home. Me and Heather were excited that we had achieved our goal!! 

Official time for Heather was 2:09:50, and my time was 2:10:14. Perfect in every way!! We could not be happier with those times, and I know I put everything I had into that race.

Okay, so some of my favorite costumes! There were so many! One guy was a shower. Literally, he had a shower rod connected to his body to where it circled above his head, complete with red shower curtain and shower head. Hilarious! I saw him ahead of us at one point, picked him out easily. Haha! Another guy was dressed as a Swedish girl, complete with green skirt, fluffy white blouse, little brown vest, and blonde wig with pigtails. Oh, and don't forget the best part. He filled out his blouse with two big white balloons. We are pretty sure he was not straight. Hahahaah! But he looked pretty convincing! My all-time favorite was a guy dressed up as a missionary, with white shirt and tie, bike helmet, sunglasses, and he even carried a Spanish Book Of Mormon. We passed him pretty early in the race and I told him as I passed, "That costume won't be legit unless you can pass out that Book Of Mormon by the end of the race!" He laughed and said he better get to converting then. It was pretty funny! One last costume that really got me was two buddies who were dressed at Jesus and Satan. Oh my gosh, so wrong yet so funny. One guy had the long hair, beard, and robes so that he looked like Jesus and the other was dressed all in red with devil horns and pitchfork. Good thing we passed them around the middle of the race, wouldn't want to be nearby when the lightning inevitably struck them. Ha ha ha! 

Keep in mind, these people ran the entire 13.1 miles in these costumes! Me and Heather kept it simple, we went as roadkill! We took some white shirts, laid them in front of the car, painted the car tire with black paint, and rolled over the shirts. In five minutes we had some pretty awesome shirts! Then we smeared black and red makeup on our faces and legs to look like road rash. We looked pretty awesome, but most importantly, we were comfortable! Haha!

Well, I apologize for the long post, but I love doing very detailed race recaps :) 

p.s.- I get to go home to AZ in less than two weeks!!! Then again for Thanksgiving! Life is good :)

One day I'll actually have someone to cook for....

So I decided to make these delicious sweet potato fries that I found on Pinterest. They turned out super delicious and I was so proud of myself for being so home-makey. 

They were so delicious that I promptly ate about half of the pan. That's probably about a pound of sweet potatoes. Aaaannnnnnndd....that's all I've eaten today. But I'm not complaining! Next time (oh, there will be a next time) I'm going to bake them a little bit longer so that they get slightly crispy and I also won't forget the salt :)

Maybe my new goal should be trying a new recipe from Pinterest every week? I like this idea :)

12 miles of awesome.

So this weekend was a bit crazy. But at the same time it totally wasn't. I think my definition of crazy is a lot different from other people's. Anyway, Friday was work most of the day and then a date that night. Saturday is where the real fun came in. I had work from 11 to 4, which made me think- do I want to do a long run before or after work? Before would require waking up at 7, so obviously that meant I was running after work. Hahaha. So I texted my sis-in-law Heather and asked her if she wanted to be crazy and run 12 or so miles with me at 5 in the afternoon. Luckily we're both training for the Halloween Half so of course she said yes!

We decided to start at Vivian Park, at the top of the Provo River trail. We ran the first two miles super fast, and the whole time I was thinking, there's no way we can keep up this pace for 12 miles. We should probably slow down. So I tried reining back a little bit, but then decided to heck with it! We were gonna finish no matter what! Those first six miles were in the canyon on the river trail, and it was soooooo gorgeous! Why can't AZ have fall colors like this?! Haha, we just go from green-ish to brown. Anyway, the whole trail was covered in yellow, red, and orange leaves. So pretty! It made the miles go fast. It made me even more excited for the Half this Saturday, because the majority of it is in the canyon, the finish line is less than a mile outside the canyon.

So we stopped around mile 6, ate some GU, took a short walking break, and we were off again! By the way, the GU I ate tasted like chocolate frosting. Can you say amazing?! Haha. So we cruise down University Avenue, hit a long hill at mile 8 that we KILLED, and somehow make it back to Heather and Dustin's house after just over two hours of running. We were just amazed at how freaking amazing that run had been! We kept up an even pace the entire time, and the miles flew by so quickly. We had to wait around for a while so Dustin could get back with the car so that we could drive back up and get mine (he didn't realize we needed her car). The whole way we were just saying over and over, "That was awesome." haha! Our knees hurt a little bit from the downhill but I was mostly worried about shin splints. That was the farthest I'd ran since June, and twice as far as I ran last week! Luckily the next day I was sore, but not in a bad way :) Which made me very happy!

Anyway, after that run I just KNOW we are going to kill the Half. I want to break at least 2:15, but we might be able to pull a 2:10 if we race smart. Wish us luck!

Oktoberfest 10K

So I haven't done a race since the marathon in June! Crazy to think of, when I usually have one at least once a month! When I moved up to Utah and realized that their racing schedule is complete opposite of Arizona's, I signed up a race right away. See, in AZ they have all of their races from October, all the way through the winter, until April or even May. In Utah, they have all of their road races from early April, all the way through summer, until November-ish. So when I got here I knew I had to sign up for a race if I wanted to get any racing in before winter!


I picked the Oktoberfest 10K, which was in Highland, only half an hour north of Provo. Cute little town, and the course was only through neighborhoods on the streets. I love doing race recaps, so here goes...


I always like to be at races an hour early, but apparently in Utah that's not a rule. Haha! I think I was one of the first runners there, so I picked up my bag and shirt and had 45 minutes to kill in my car. Thank goodness for smart phones and seats that go back really far! So I cruised facebook for a bit, read some news, closed my eyes for a little while. Ate some GU (note: pineapple flavor=gross. Mint chocolate flavor=yum!) and was excited and rearing to go at 8 a.m. The field was small, only 150 people, which made it the only time that I was worried that I would be last! Haha! Anyway, the race director said "Go!" and we were off!


It was wonderfully chilly and overcast, my favorite kind of running. My legs felt like lead for some reason, I was starting to get worried that I wasn't ready for racing right yet. Well, the GU hadn't kicked in yet! I hit the first mile in 10:45, which was what I was aiming for, so I wasn't that worried after the first mile. Then I found myself pushing it for the next three miles. At first I was telling myself, "slow down! Save it for the last couple miles!" But then I had one of my favorite running quotes come to my mind, "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn’t run hard enough" (Steve Jones). So I told myself, "Okay, I'm gonna push it the whole time and see what happens!"

Whenever I've run races, I always like to think that I push myself harder than just a normal training run. And this race was no different. I was booking it the whole time, and I was even passing people! ME! Passing people?? Who would've thought? I tried to keep count, and I think I passed about 8 to 10 people. It felt so good, because it showed to me that I really was pushing as hard as I could, and I felt like I was running a great race. I kept a pretty even pace, around 10 minutes per mile, until I hit mile 5.5 and really let it go. I rounded a corner and ran down a small but steep hill towards the finish, and I gave it my all into that final sprint. I crossed the finish line in 01:03:12, which surprised me because I was really aiming for a 01:10 finish at least, since it was my first race in a long time. I was very happy! I almost PR'd, too! My best 10K time is 01:02:42, so that means I missed a new personal record by about 30 seconds. Which I am TOTALLY fine with because I never thought I would get that close in this race.

This race made me super SUPER excited for the Halloween Half next weekend. Based on the pace I ran in the 10K on a flat course, and because the Halloween Half is straight downhill, I think me and Heather could easily break 2:10, if we both have good days. Having such a good time in the 10K was a huge boost to my "performance self-esteem" , and I CANNOT wait for the half. AH! 

Soapbox speech. Be warned.

Facebook always asks me, "what's on your mind?" Well, a boy has NOT been on my mind. Because the man-boys here in Provo haven't quite gotten their acts together. Rather, what's been on my mind is, what can I be doing while I am waiting for these boys to man up? There's a saying that I've heard that says, "Always try to be the person that you would want to marry."

So what does this mean? For example, I want a man who is strong in the Church, sure in his testimony, super spiritual, and honors his priesthood. This is only one of the qualities that I look for in a man, but I think it is one of the most important ones. So, if I wanted this in a man, it wouldn't seem fair to him if I didn't attend Church, have a strong testimony, and respect my womanhood, now would it?

On that same note, if I am looking for a guy who is outgoing, funny, kind, loves his family, loves the outdoors (and I am definitely looking for a guy with these qualities!) then don't you think it would make sense if I tried to be someone like that? I mean, let's get real here. I am funny (apparently), I can be outgoing when I want to, sometimes I can be kind to others (something I definitely need to work on) I love my family and all the fun times we've had, and I can't get enough of the outdoors. But there is always room for improvement in my life, like putting myself in situations where I might meet someone, such as going to Church and institute activities. Always a good place to find men :)

Sometimes I think that I am losing opportunities to meet guys because I want a man that hunts. Now, if hunting is one of the things that makes me really happy and is one of my favorite things to do, don't you think it would be important to find a man who shared this same passion? And this is me self-justifying, but I think I can hold out a little bit longer for that rugged man to come along. (On a side-note, I AM turning 23 soon, so I can't hold out too much longer! Yikes!!)

I can't date or marry someone that doesn't have the same interests as me. The whole "opposites attract" thing never, ever made sense to me! I've tried dating guys who I get along with great on a humor and personality level, but when it comes down to it, we just had absolutely nothing in common. Therefore, we had nothing to talk about and it was exhausting! So I don't think it's wrong to want someone with your same interests.

I know this post is getting long, but whatevs. I have one more point to make. I've noticed lately that most guys these days have absolutely NO plan for their lives/careers. Isn't it strange how us women in LDS society are the ones who are destined to be mothers and homemakers (which I am SO excited to be someday! seriously!) and yet they seem to be the ones who always have education and career plans? EVEN though they may not even use the education they get? (I realize that most moms are required to work these days because of the crappy economy, like my own Mom! But, the majority are still stay at home moms).

And then there are the young LDS men of our generation. Now, I know there are some men out there who do have a very real education and career plan, and I am so glad that they do. But, I would say there are still a lot of guys my age out there who have absolutely no idea what they want to do or become. And I say to them, guys, GET A PLAN. Please, for the sakes of the women that you marry and have to provide for, please know how you are going to provide for her and your soon-to-be family. I have a friend who broke up with her longtime boy friend because, as she put it, "He didn't have a plan, and he didn't know what he was going to do with his life." A woman should not have to live in the fear that she will be forced to live in poverty because her husband couldn't get his act together. I do realize that when you're first married, you're going to be poor. That's just the way of life. But you shouldn't have to scrimp and save your entire life. You can think whatever you want about me, but this is my opinion!

Men, here's an idea. Think of what you love to do, and find some way to turn it into a career! That's what I've done. For three years after high school, I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but as it turns out I was so wrong. It wasn't until I got a job at a physical therapy office that I found out that I LOVE that field. And now I am in physical therapy assistant school in Provo, somewhere I NEVER thought I would be living. Obviously it is the right choice for me because everything has worked out for the best and I love it so far!

Okay, this might be the longest post I've ever written, but I think Provo is finally getting to me. Something about this constant, never-ending dating game is exhausting but at the same time it is also very interesting. It seems like all we can do here is talk about what is wrong with the "dating scene", but then nobody does anything about it!! So these are my thoughts on how to fix it. You're welcome.

Somebody wake up Green Day, cause September is over!

Today I had one of my favorite runs ever! The weather was cold, about 50 degrees and cloudy. In my mind, that is PERFECT running weather! Not a gust of wind, of which I was grateful for :) I am super excited for the Halloween Half on the 29th, this run today just showed that I am right on track to break 2:20 again. I'm actually shooting for 2:15, especially since it is all downhill. I have a feeling I'm just gonna be cruising that whole time. Heather and I are doing it together, and since everyone dresses up for this race we'll probably just end up wearing crazy socks and/or a tutu. I hate dressing up anyway, but I don't want to be the only one without a costume! I think it'll be one of the best races I've ever done, though. Super stoked! Three weeks!

Utah can't decide whether it wants to be fall or winter! The last three days have been cold and rainy/snowy, like a typical early winter day! Where did fall go? I feel like it just started! Hopefully next week it will warm up to the 60's at least. I realized I have less than ideal winter clothing, so as soon as I get paid I'm going shopping! Woo! I haven't been shopping for clothes in MONTHS!

Provo is an interesting place. I feel like everywhere I go I have to look my best because you NEVER know who you might see or meet. I love the social scene here, there's always something going on. And luckily I am in a super awesome ward! The people in it are so fun and nice and totally chill. I've made some wonderful friends in this ward. Everything has worked out so great for me up here. I live in a cute little house that is almost always clean, my roommates are not catty AT ALL and we all get along so great it's almost scary. Ha ha. I love sharing the loft upstairs with Shantelle and Jaclyn. They are my new best friends, I love them so much!

Last weekend we went up to Shantelle's cabin in Bear Lake, Idaho with her family. We watched General Conference, ate so much amazing food, and went to the lake. It was actually not as cold as some people say, although by AZ standards the water was pretty chilly! Funny story- Shantelle loves to have a crazy time on the wave runner, and as luck would have it I have a huge fear or deep water AND of falling off the wave runner. So I was screaming and shaking the whole time because I was scared. Well Shantelle said she wouldn't tip us over because she knew how scared I was. Well, as we were heading into the marina to load up the wave runner, she decided to do one more crazy donut in the water. We tipped over faster than any of us could react, and of course I screamed and went into the fetal position in the water and Shantelle was just staring at me in shock because she felt so bad! Haha, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and it turned out to be really funny and totally made the trip to the lake.

This is us on the wave runner after we tipped over. So fun! 

Another fun part of Bear Lake was seeing a moose!! I was so excited! I love moose and have only seen two in my whole lifetime (now three) so I was super excited. I got an okay picture on my phone:

There was actually two of them, the one in the water looked to be a two or three year old and he was hanging out with a female. I don't know if it was his mom or not. But they were huge! I want one for a pet!!! Ha ha!

Anyway, this post has been too long, but I'll put a couple more pictures from the last couple weeks....

Winger's for Andi's birthday (she's the one next to me)

It was cold once we got out of the water and onto the boat! (Bear Lake)

This is from September. Amanda got married in the Salt Lake Temple, lucky! We have another picture like this from almost a year ago, so cute!

The first snow fall of the year. We had slushy snow fall in Provo but the mountains got covered pretty good. It's already almost melted! 

Anyway, the next couple weeks will consist of work and running and a little school here and there. I love only having one class :)

Have a good October!!