this is see you soon.

I never planned to create a blog. It just sort of happened. I was heading to Jerusalem for 4 months and, after looking at other people's "travel blogs," I thought it would be something fun to try. Knowing my love of writing, pictures, and wit, I should have figured that the whole blog-thingy would continue once I came home.

While I'm sure some people have stumbled across my adventures in this little corner of the web, I mostly look at this blog as a chronicle of my life for me and my future. Not to sound selfish or anything. I just hope someday my kids will enjoy looking back at it and laughing.

Tomorrow I start the next adventure of my life. I am serving a mission for 18 months in France for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I plan to serve with all my heart, mind, and soul.

To continue chronicling my adventures, my family will be updating my blog with my weekly emails (and hopefully pictures!). I'm excited to have these 18 months documented here and when I return, we'll see if the blog bug is still itching me or if blogging even exists. :) Until then...

I leave you with one of my favorite songs. Don't Panic, by Coldplay. haha.

Au Revoir.

i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately...

... to front only the essential facts of life, 

and see if i could not learn what it had to teach...

i wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...

our life is frittered away by detail. 

simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?

we are determined to be starved before we are hungry...

let us spend one day as deliberately as nature, and not be thrown off the track.

- h. d. thoreau

All this warmish weather and the winding down of the school scene has got me itching to go exploring in the great outdoors. I love the first big hike of the new year. It's like you've been hibernating inside a dark cave all winter, sometimes acting like a grumpy bear, and then you escape to the mountains one fine day and you stretch and feel the breeze and smell the flowers and life is better. Always. 

life is beautiful.

Joy is what happens to us 

when we allow ourselves to recognize 

how good things really are. 

~Marianne Williamson 

Yay for happy weekends! They typically consist of food, family, sunshine, and babies. :) Yesterday, my cousin Jann's beautiful baby Eva was blessed. She is an adorable, happy baby with a tight grip. ;) She didn't make a peep when I held her, so that's a good sign. Seriously, though, babies are the best. I think it would do everyone in the world some good to hold a baby for twenty minutes a day. After the blessing, I got to see my cousins who came all the way from California. It was great to catch up with them.

Temple Square was beautiful on Saturday. The tulips were blooming and the grass is now officially green. I wanted to run around barefoot, but I restrained myself.

Easter arrived with a beautiful church service and then a scrumptious ham dinner. I thought a lot about Jerusalem. Oh, and there was plenty of Easter candy--chocolate bunnies, French and Belgium chocolates, tangerine jelly beans, dark chocolate eggs, cadbury eggs, and peeps.

P.S. peeps, in my personal opinion, are nasty. But my brother loves them, so what can we do? :) The way I see it is, it's all sugar, but if you're going to get fat eating it, the stuff better taste pretty darn good. And peeps are just like eating straight-up sugar with no flavoring. So I'll stick with my European chocolate thank you very much.

P.S.S. When we were little, my mom hid Easter baskets around the house for us to find in the morning. And we always had a huge Easter egg hunt in the afternoon. I loved racing around my grandparents house in St. George looking for the eggs. I always got less than my brothers, though. They are legit Easter egg finders.
My mom didn't like the Easter Bunny idea when we were little, so we always knew the Easter Bunny didn't exist. Which is funny because we still believed in Santa and fairies. Go figure. Anyway. The Easter Bunny still kind of creeps me out. And I think I have some solid reasons to back up this fear.

Exhibit A:

Seriously? That is the creepiest bunny suit
I have ever seen. It's like the killer bunny
from Mounty Python. (source.)

Exhibit B:

Yeah, kid. I would be trying to get away
too. I'm so glad my mom didn't make
me go through that. (source.)

Exhibit C:

And finally, the Easter Bunny at the White House. Don't be fooled by their
smiles. Look closely at Natasha--she's giving the bunny a worried look.
And Malia looks a little scared too. Plus, notice the wide gap between
the family and the Easter Bunny. Need I say more? (source.)

Happy Monday!

sun today, snow tomorrow.

the weekend consisted of...

sunshine, rain, snow, hail, wind, sunshine, clouds. in no particular order.

hiking a little ways up Mt. Olympus with Peter and pretending to make a movie.

watching quite a bit of this.

playing with peter's clicky-camera (or as Nicole likes to call them, Digital SLR cameras). I really miss using Danielle and Nicole's one in Jerusalem. Focusing the big lens and then pressing the button and hearing the "clicky" noise is so. awesome.

listening to James talk all about tour and feeling a little jealous.

spending half of Sunday making cinnamon rolls. huge time commitment. huge success. proof? my dad ate three in a row. and then proceeded to tell us that if we kept making them he'd get fat. good thing they take forever to make.

eating pork burritos with the cousins.

finishing the hunger game series. i know, i've read them before. but i forgot most of the details and what with the movie out and everything, i figured it was a good time for a refresher.

playing the ultimate april fools joke on my dad.

teaching ginger to roll over. hooray!

happy monday!

slow down, you crazy child.

This morning I woke up and it was still dark outside, thanks to daylight savings. Lying in bed, I sorta felt like the life had been sucked out of me. Picture that scene from the Princess Bride with Westley in the pit of despair and you get the general idea.

source. 

To be fair, I probably shouldn't blame my exhaustion solely on daylight savings. The past few weeks have been crazy busy. I feel like I'm a rat running on one of those little treadmills.

So, continuing the hectic pace of the past week, I raced up to campus to not be late for work. My mind was running through the endless list of things I had to do for the week. I got right up to the corner of the Clyde building when I heard the music. What the, I thought. But don't worry, I wasn't going crazy. It was the national anthem. I've just never been on campus early enough in the morning to hear it. As soon as it started, everyone stopped walking and faced the general direction of the flag. At first I was a little annoyed about stopping, but the longer the national anthem played, the more I realized how grateful I was for this little reminder to slow down and breathe. Into my mind started flooding all these things that make my life wonderful. It was warm outside. Birds were chirping in the trees. My backpack was lighter then usual. I had a lunch packed for my job. Hey, I actually had a job! And the anthem was playing the final chord and everyone was honoring the U.S. by standing so still and I wanted to shout out loud that I loved America! Ok, that's taking it a little too far. :)

The song ended, everyone started walking again, and my day was ten times better. It's amazing those little moments that can change your whole day for the better.

Coincidentally enough, the song Vienna by Billy Joel popped into my head shortly after this experience, and it's been there all day. I thought I'd share some of the lyrics because they describe my feelings perfectly right now.

Slow down, you crazy child 

you're so ambitious for a juvenile 

But then if you're so smart, tell me 

Why are you still so afraid? 

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about? 

You'd better cool it off before you burn it out 

You've got so much to do and 

Only so many hours in a day 

But you know that when the truth is told.. 

That you can get what you want or you can just get old 

You're gonna kick off before you even 

Get halfway through 

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you? 

Slow down, you crazy child 

and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile 

it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two 

When will you realize...Vienna waits for you? 

source.

For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.  

~Lily Tomlin

Reading in the rain.

photo source here. 

Well, not exactly. More like reading in my room while it was raining outside. But you get the general idea.

I love the rain. I love the moment right before a big storm, when dark, angry clouds roll in across the horizon and the wind makes the trees dance and my hair fly. My brothers and I love to make movies right before the storm, when there’s a palpable excitement and thrill in the air. When anything could happen. Then we race inside before the big downpour and wrap ourselves up in blankets and listen to the patter of rain on the roof. Secretly, I love it when the power goes out because there are no distractions. No TV or computer or phone or appliances. Just me and my family in the darkness with candles flickering on the table. Then, after the storm, I love walking outside and smelling the rain.

photo source here.

So yesterday I had my Old Testament final from 7 to 9. At night. This might possibly be the worst time to take a test. But I got through it! When it was over, I wasn't quite sure what to do. I decided to walk back to my room and when I went out along our corridor I realized it was raining. I was so giddy I did a little jig right there in the rain! This is the second time it has rained here in Jerusalem. I got ready for bed early and curled up with a good book. The rain was super loud and the room occasionally lit up with the lightening. I loved combining two of my favorite things: reading and the rain. 

photo source here.

The last good book I read was The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Here's a quote from the book that I love. 

"Sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story."

Oh happy day!

Good morning starshine, the earth says hello! Today is going to be a good day. I can feel it. Currently I am sitting at Hebrew U with fast, unblocked internet. In other words, hello facebook, youtube, movie trailers, and most importantly iTunes! Yes, for those of you who were worried about my sanity, I just downloaded the new Coldplay album, Mylo Xyloto. All is well. I am listening to the songs right now and they are brilliant. Coldplay, I always knew why we were friends. Later today I am going to get Indian food and tour Knesset, the Israel parliament building. Oh, and I live in Jerusalem. Life is good. :)

To wrap up my Jordan trip, here are some last pics. 

Visiting the King Abdullah Mosque. All the girls had to wear
black capes. We were just like Death Eaters!

Danielle, me, AnnaLeah, Susy, and Desiree on top of the Ammon citadel.

Danielle, Maddy, and me at the Jabbok river, where Jacob "wrestled
with a man." Check out Genesis 32 for the story. 

Practicing my chariot skillz at Jerash, an ancient Roman city. I think I'm
ready for some real chariot racing, like in Ben Hur. Bring it, Messala.

Not another headset lecture!

Ruins at Jerash. The site was as cool as Ephesus, just minus the crowds. 

My attempt at an artsy pic. 

Nicole, Elyse, and me at Jerash. 

I hope everyone has a great day! 

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." 

~Henry David Thoreau

I'm halfway gone, and I'm on my way.

This week marks my half-way point in Jerusalem. I am loving life in the Middle East! Immersing myself in the different cultures here has opened my eyes to new ideas and customs, but has mostly shown me how similar we all really are. I can't believe I have been living at the Jerusalem Center for eight weeks. Lately, I have been thinking about time and the importance of using every minute wisely. After all, I have less then two months to soak in all the sights, smells, and sounds of the Holy Land. This quote from General Conference has been running through my mind:

"Time is never for sale; time is a commodity that cannot, try as you may, be bought at any store for any price. Yet when time is wisely used, its value is immeasurable. On any given day we are all allocated, without cost, the same number of minutes and hours to use, and we soon learn, 'Time flies on wings of lightning; we cannot call it back.'" (Ian S. Arden, A Time to Prepare, General Conference Oct. 2011.) 

The past weeks have been full of exciting and memorable moments. Our student group got to help pick and press olives a few days ago. We spent one day picking all the olives from the 60 olive trees around the Jerusalem Center. Our director, Andrew Skinner, reminded us of the symbolism of the olive tree. For example, if you bite into a recently picked olive, it tastes extremely bitter. Let me just say, I tried this and it is very true. The taste stayed in my mouth the whole olive picking time. But once you press the olives, the olive oil tastes sweet. Brother Skinner also told us that when the Jerusalem Center was being built, the brethren of the church requested that there be an olive tree at the center. There is a tree here over 2000 years old, transplanted from the Galilee.

Me, Cara, Susy, and Adam picking olives.

The olive press. The green stuff = smashed olives. 

Nicole, Danielle, Me, Susy, and Callie mashing the olives.

The olive press. The smashed olives are in baskets underneath the circular press.
Weights press down the olives, and the liquid then seeps down into the round holes.

Another day, Eliza, Tiffany, and I climbed up a tower close to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The view from the top was stunning. It was really neat to see surrounding Jerusalem after we had been to many of the sites in the Old City. I felt like a giddy school girl spotting all the sites I had been to. 

Tiffany and I at the top of the tower.

One of the views from the tower.

After the tower, we got 10 shekel falafel and ate it at the Austrian Hospice. I'm going to miss the falafel and spices of the Old City.

Me and Eliza eating our falafel.

Random picture of the day: graffiti in the Old City. 

I had to put this last picture in, because it sums up walking home from the Old City every day. We walk through the Kidron Valley and 9 times out of 10 are really sweaty and hot. But there's a little shop in the valley that offers popsicles for 1 shekel. (That's around 30 cents, in case you were wondering.) It's brilliant! Somehow, with a lemon popsicle in hand, climbing the hill up to the center becomes short and happy. It's the perfect end to a perfect day.

Eliza and Me eating popsicles in the Kidron Valley.