What She Did Right: Taking Time

My room is dark and a pile of used tissues lay next to my damp pillow. I hear a gentle knock at the door and my mom tells me that dinner is ready. I tell her I'm not hungry. A couple minutes later I hear another knock and my mom enters my room with a concerned look on her face. She sits at the foot of my bed and gently rubs my leg as she quietly listens to me as try to explain in high pitched voice interrupted by the occasional sob what is the matter. She obviously hasn't eaten dinner and there are things on her to do list that still need to be done, but I can tell that all of her attention is focused me and my problem. I can't remember what these problems were that felt so insurmountable at the time, but I can remember that she listened, that she cared, and somehow magically knew what to say to make it better.

What She Did Right: Modesty is Worth the Sacrifice

My mother and I stood in the junior's department in Macy's and were looking at a beautiful lavender empire waist gown with a beaded bodice. A sales associate saw my mother and I looking at the dress and told us that the dress also came in green. "It's beautiful," I said longingly, "but what it needs is sleeves.".

I had been invited my sophomore year to go to Senior Ball with a group of friends. I love to get dressed up and so I couldn't wait for the prom dress shopping to begin. It was spring break when my mother and began the search. All the dresses had spaghetti straps, halter tops, or were strapless. It turns out the sales associate was also LDS and had faced this ordeal before with her own daughter. She recommended that we search online.

We went home that afternoon and I took a nap. When I woke up, I went downstairs to the computer room and my mom had found a website that sold prom dresses with sleeves. I was amazed as I scrolled down the screen and saw how many choices I had. The pictures were only thumbnails and I couldn't expand but I got the feeling of what the dresses looked like. The dress I wanted had a corset bodice and box pleated skirt. Unfortunately, there was no option to order the dress from the website and have it shipped to the house. The closest vendor of this line was in Citrus Heights, an hour and a half away.  My mom felt that it was worth it. She called and placed the order to the bridal store.

My dress came in on a Friday. The next day I had a choir performance and so my mom left our house in the morning, drove the hour and a half. I tried on the dress and I felt like Cinderella. We were probably at the store for a total of 30 minutes. Then we drove another hour and a half to Hayward where my choir performance was held.

The next year, we would drive up to the Sacramento area again for a dress for Junior Prom. I remember as we drove home, I turned to my mom and thanked for making that trip. She turned to me and said "Thank you for dressing modestly."

I'm glad that I didn't lower my standards for "special" occasions and for having a mom that taught me that modesty is worth the sacrifice.

What She Did Right: Mother's Day

When I was home this past Christmas, I had mentioned to my mom of something she had done for me when I was younger. Her response to that was "I'm glad someone remembers the things I did right because all I can remember are the things I did wrong." In honor of Mother's Day, I will write an experience each day for this week of the things my mother taught or did for me. Happy Mother's Day, Mum. I love you heaps!

Mario Kart Love Song

This past weekend, Nate's younger brother, Clint, participated in Mr. CHS. It was a fundraiser for cheerleaders. It was basically a beauty pageant for guys, just not taken so seriously. Like in any beauty pageant, the guys had to do a talent. One of the guys sang this song. He wasn't the one who wrote it, but I still thought it was pretty creative for whoever wrote it. I loved playing Mario Kart with my siblings on the Nintendo 64.

Patience and a GPS

"Now, brothers and sisters, we have available to us a tool even more remarkable than the best GPS...It is through the promptings of the Holy Ghost that we can be brought safely back onto the right path, and it is the atoning sacrifice of the Savior that can return us home."

-M. Russell Ballard

I'm taking an institute class where we read general conference talks from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency. This past week, we read two talks by President Uchtdorf. One of them was Continue in Patience. In that talk he said, "Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience. Often we can’t see the Lord’s hand in our lives until long after trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity, understanding, and happiness."

In our institute class, our teacher has stop and reflect after each talk. He has us write what the message was saying and how are we supposed to apply it to our own lives now.

This talk made me think of an experience that I had last month. I had taken Nate home to meet my family. I took him to do some of the touristy things in the Bay Area. Even though I lived in there most of my life, I managed to avoid driving into San Francisco. Someone else always drove or we took BART. I knew that I would have to be driving, so I brought my GPS with me to help get around. To get to and from the city you have to switch several freeways, and the GPS would tell me when I needed to exit.

One afternoon, Nate and I went to the beach. As we headed back, we hit some heavy weekend traffic. My GPS sensed that there was traffic and told me to take a certain exit. Having only driven from the city once, I wasn't entirely familiar with the freeway system, so I decided to trust my GPS and exit. It took me to Macarthur Street exit. Nate and I soon found ourselves in a not so pleasant area of inter-city Oakland. We passed houses and stores with windows that were boarded up or covered with bars. I soon became scared and upset with my GPS for leading me into what appeared to be unsafe area. I wanted to get back onto the freeway as soon possible and just get home. However, the GPS continued to take us on a windy detour. Nate tried to joke around and that was making me even more agitated. Once I realized that he was simply trying to lighten the mood, I appreciated it.

Eventually, we began to driving through streets lined with buildings that had been kept in better condition. My shoulders began to relax a bit more and once again, we were back on the freeway and made our way home.

I found that I had to trust my GPS to get me back home. The satellites that helped guide the GPS were able to take in the bigger picture and as long as nothing malfunctioned, I would get back home. How often are we headed down a path in our lives heading towards a goal and we are taken down another? The road that we are traveling appears daunting and a bit unnerving. Sometimes, we may not understand why we asked to take a different road, especially when the road that we were on was comfortable and familiar. President Utchdorf said "eventually I learned that God’s promises are not always fulfilled as quickly as or in the way we might hope; they come according to His timing and in His ways... Looking back, I know for sure that the promises of the Lord, if perhaps not always swift, are always certain." I learned this past week that patience isn't just waiting and enduring, but also trusting and moving forward as best you can.

My Nerdy Valentine

My nerdy valentine

Sweet, comic book reading valentine
You make me smile with my heart

Nate had just suggested that we not give gifts but spend time together for Valentine's day. However, I really wanted to get him something (and it turns out he didn't stick to this plan either). I thought about getting him a gift card to a restaurant here in town. That was my plan until the day before Valentine's day. The night before Nate and I were talking about things that we could do together. He had told me about wanting to try out a recipe from a comic that he read online. On Monday morning, I was on pinterest and stumbled upon one of my pins.

Nate is a pretty big Star Wars fan. So I thought this would be perfect for making pancakes. As I continued to look around on the website, I also found these:Star Wars pancake molds!

A pancake pen. It helps put the batter into the molds.

Nate was super excited about these and apparently I am "the coolest girlfriend a guy could ask for." I was rather nervous about how they would turn out. There were mixed reviews on the website, but as long as we sprayed the molds really well and filled them up only half way they turned out pretty well.
I'm pretty crazy about this Star Wars nerd. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day. To me Valentine's Day is to celebrate love, romantic and non-romantic love alike. I really enjoy decorating for holidays and got a little carried away with my cricut this year.

This reminds me of a homemaking craft from the 1990's.

The one of valentines I made for Nate (this one had all the sappy stuff inside).

Nate got me carousel roses (one of my favorite flowers) and Reese's peanut butter cups. :)

Nate and I wanted to make dinner for Valentine's Day. We thought about making spring rolls. Apparently Idaho isn't the best place to look for oriental food. He was running all over town looking for ingredients. We ended up making fried rice. Nate's mom taught us how to make a recipe that is used in a bunch of Chinese restaurants around town. Can I tell you it made me ten times more nervous to be cooking anything with her in the kitchen. Nate's mom is not judgmental, but I am afraid of what she might think of my cooking skills (or lack thereof).

After Nate brought me home, I didn't want to go to sleep because that meant that Valentine's Day was over. It was a great first Valentine's Day with a valentine.