29 years of lovin

love according to President Benson:

"One good yardstick as to whether someone is the right one for you. . . in their presence do you think your noblest thoughts? Do you aspire to your finest deeds? Do you wish you were better than you are?"

Happy 29th to the best parents!! last week my parents celebrated their anniversary. I love and admire my parents so much! 

They have set wonderful examples to me and I can tell that they both motivate each other to be the best they can be. Love you Mom and Dad. 

29 years later and still lookin good!

mission preppin

so the countdown begins! exactly four weeks from today I'll be on a plane heading to Sao Paulo, Brazil.

People keep asking me how I feel, and honestly. . . I don't know how I feel! Time seems to be moving so fast, yet so incredibly slow. and sometimes life doesn't even seem real. This is my last week at home before I start EFY on Monday and there is still lots to do!

To do: 

cut my hair 

call the bank to cancel my credit card 

take the music off my ipod and upload church music 

get my HepA and yellow fever shots

pick up my malaria pills 

take my typhoid pills

go to the dentist 

buy toiletries 

pack my suitcase

write my farewell talk

order new contacts

learn some Portuguese words (try at least)

and sewing well, that's mostly my dear mother's job 

and I'm sure there are another million things I'm forgetting. It's coming up so soon! I can't believe it.

In the meantime, I have been. . .

sleepin in 

 watching my favorite movies

 being with/talking to my best friends & family

 eating American junk food & candy 

soakin up the rare sunshine

going to institute/YSA activities

listening to some of my new faves like "wide awake" & "fine by me"

& living it up!
oh. . .and of course reading the scriptures and studying Preach My Gospel :)

Ragnasaurus Rex

Ragnar is done and over and I have mixed feelings about it. I'm happy I did it, relieved nothing went horribly wrong, proud that I ran well, and glad that I woke up this morning and felt no pressure to go running.

On the other hand, I'm sad that it's going to be 2 years before I run it again and I've now lost all motivation to exercise. oh well :)

The race started early at 5am on Friday! I was the first runner, so I got to kick it off for our team. Each team consists of 12 runners, split into two vans. I was in Van 1 with my mom, cousin Jon and his wife Marti, my Uncle David, and my cousin's husband Ben. In the other van was my cousin Ryan and his wife Becca along with some of Becca's family.

Uncle David

                                                                            Ben

                                              

                                                                              me

                                             

                                                                        my mother :)

                                 

                                                                        Marti

                                 

                                                                          Jon

                                 

The race is 197 miles from Logan to Park City, with each runner handing off the "baton" from one person to the next. By the time your team finishes, it takes about two days with lots of driving, miles of running, no sleeping, and some eating here and there. I consumed more bananas, pretzels, and granola bars than a person should ever eat.

This is how it happened: 

Fri 5am: ran my first leg of 8 miles
Fri 3pm: ran my second leg of 8.5 miles


- - slept for two hours at the hotel - -

Sat 2am: ran my third leg of 5 miles
Sat 12pm: our final runner crossed the finish line! :)

We only hit a few rough patches, like extremely long lines for the honey buckets, Uncle David getting squirted in the eye with a spray bottle, and my 8 nosebleeds (sometimes double sided). I ran my third leg with kleenex up my nose, which made breathing a little bit more difficult. . .

But other than that, it was a blast! I loved being with my family and driving through Utah. Such a pretty place and the stars at night are absolutely amazing. I'm so proud of my mom - she is a rockstar!! She totally dominated.

This year Ragnar had 1200 teams, which means 14,400 runners. Of the 800 co-ed teams, our team placed 112th. Not too shabby eh? :)

                              

Can't wait until Ragnar 2014!! 

let the no sleeping, carbo loading, tired legs, 21 miles of running, power bars, stinky clothes, road tripping, & hydrating begin!! 

Ragnar begins early tomorrow at 5am. and I am runner #1. crossing my fingers I make it through without throwing up and without collapsing. yikes! let's go

heart melting

this literally melts my heart. slays me. gives me the chills.

think it counts as a song that "invites the spirit?" because I don't know how I'm going to leave jbiebs behind when I leave for Brazil. guess i've got five weeks to fill my jb canteen.

   

great talk! happy Sunday :)

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/06/you-know-enough?lang=eng&query=faith

Sunday Funday

Sundays always seem to be great days. And here's why:

a. Going to church! Went with Jennifer and Wesley :)

b. It was beautiful, sunny weather. Met up with Meels and Parker at the park.

c. Playing games with the fam. Tonight we played one of our favorites - Trivial Pursuit Junior.

I will keep this person's name anonymous, but this was one of the highlights of the night.

Question: "Which word goes best with dragon? Snap, vegetable, or mammal?"

Answer Given: "Fly"

????

self-timer mishap

d. Playing Boggle against Mel and Dave. We've played hundreds of times, yet I've only had two victories. Why do I keep trying? I don't know. But today was one of those victory days :) #addicted #theproudmoments

e. Movie night. Tonight we watched Ice Age which is a movie I haven't seen in a long time and I forgot how funny it is. We watched the 45 min condensed version by fast forwarding and only watching the parts with Sid in it. Too many quotable quotes. . . everything that comes out of Sid's mouth is stupidly hilarious.

Needless to say, I am excited for Ice Age 4 to come out. As we all know, usually too many sequels can be a bad thing (exhibit A: Land Before Time 13). But Sid is sooo worth it.

we watched this clip over and over again. Go to 1:28. seriously.

       

good news, bad news.

bad news is. . . .

Liam and Miley are engaged. Which means that I no longer have a shot at dating the hottie Aussie.

BUT the good news is. . . .

I am in Provo! Reunited with my bestie. Hanging with my family. and having a blast. For the last six months I've been itching to go dancing, so last night that is exactly what we did :) 

so excited!

Leaving for Provo in two days and I am so excited to see these people!
minus katy who is on a mission. . . 

"With even your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you, when it will yield the greatest advantage. Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow." 

- Richard G. Scott 

http://www.lds.org/study/prophets-speak-today/what-are-prophets-testimonies

^ if you haven't seen these videos, I would highly recommend them :) 

Found them last night and I can't stop watching!  

June-uary

It’s June! And according to my mother, June is also known as “June-uary” here in Washington. I had never heard that before, but it makes perfect sense! It’s June and still only 60 degrees and cloudy outside. On a good day. Hahah otherwise it’s 55 and rainy. Heck, today I even saw a woman wearing ear muffs. . .

And cold weather brings colds I guess! The past few days I’ve been sick with a cold. It hasn’t been too bad, except the fact that every telemarketer calls me Mr. Lambert. But, despite the colds (both the weather and my health), I’ve had a fun and slightly productive week!

-         Went to the temple with my mom

-        Saw Snow White and The Huntsman. Not sure how I feel about it. . .all in all, Chris Hemsworth is a hottie and so the movie was alright. Let’s be honest, that’s why people really go to see it in the first place.

\

-          Played volleyball with the YSA

-          Yogurtland and Breaking Dawn with Andrea. Yes, I admit that I finally saw that movie. And now I know that I wasn’t missing anything. When we saw this part, we really knew that we had red boxed a quality film. . .

-          Went to REI and got hit on hardcore by the guy helping in the shoe section. I guess when your hair hasn’t been washed and you are wearing the same shirt that you slept in, you suddenly become extremely attractive in the eyes of granola/outdoorsy men. Not only did I come home with a new boyfriend, but two pairs of shoes that I am obsessed with! I’m sure after wearing them every day for 18 months I won’t be so stoked, but right now I am so happy I am wearing them around the house.

-          Skyped up the wazoo!! Chatted with Jennifer, Stacey, and my sister/niece.

-          I spent a considerable amount of time creating the video below. Inspired by the Riding sisters who always have a cool/fun vid about their most recent semester, I made my own for New Zealand J Made me a little nostalgic! I loved that whole experience and miss all the girls I shared it with. Complete with music and highlights from all my NZ video clips. . .I am pretty proud of myself. Oh! And if anyone wants to know how to convert .mov video files to .wmv or how to download videos from youtube, I got your back. This whole video making adventure definitely increased my tech savvy-ness. Thank you google and youtube for teaching me everything!

                           

-          Bought a new watch for my mission! My old white watch inevitably turned brown in New Zealand and then died from frequent exposure to salt water and sand – who knew. So this time I went with a safer gray color. . .dull but practical. This puppy will be with me for the next 2 years (fingers crossed) and is going to give me a sick tan line in Brazil.

-          I laid out! Well kind of. Sunday afternoon my mom and I hit up the balcony in long sleeves and a fleece blanket. Gotta wait til July for the real heat. . .

       Shopped at my favorite store. Value Village (the best thrift store in the world) definitely delivered this time around! I am nearly done with all my missionary shopping, but there is always room in the suitcase for another piece of clothing, especially as one as amazing as this. One may ask. . .did you find that in the pants section or the skirt section? The answer to that question would be, the skort section! Naturally. Hahah kidding. P-day just got that much better, because I am going to be wearing this baby for sure. Light, modest, & practical for any activity – I am in love. My mom thinks it’s straight from a grandmother’s closet, which it probably is. But who can resist a perfect skort?

(i swear it's cuter in real life)

-          Watched Bones. What’s new. However, according to Taylor Berhow (http://disreport.net/2012/05/21/advice-how-to-have-the-worst-summer-ever/), watching a TV series completes your summer. Which totally justifies my addiction favorite pastime. The only downside has been my developing paranoia of people hiding in the trunk of my car and following me home at night. The other night I took the long way home to shake off the murderer that was tailing me. Turns out it was an 80 year old woman in a Cadillac. . . but who knows, you can never be too careful.

-          Oh, and I go running like I should be since Ragnar is in less than two weeks and I should’ve been training months ago instead of weeks ago.  However my mother has developed a good strategy to force me to go running by dropping me off when we go to the store and making me run home.

And this next week keeps getting better!!

Tuesday : going to the temple and meeting up with childhood friend Hannah. Can’t wait J

Wednesday: going to Seattle to be with Sean and Brittany!

Thursday: staying up at my cabin with my mom to leave the next day to GO TO UTAH!!!

Enjoy your week! Happy Monday! J