What Would Chad Buy?

So, I have mentioned that Chad and I spend money differently. As evidence, here are Chad's top three picks (at least, what I think are his top three picks, based on the frequency with which he talks about, drools over, and researches each of these things. :)

1. Google glasses. Apparently, it's like wearing a computer on your face! With these things on, you will enjoy notifications and updates flooding your retinas ALL. DAY. LONG. You're driving down the road and you want to know the temperature? How to get to the nearest Wendy's? How your March Madness bracket is doing? Who's tagging who on facebook? BAM! But seriously, they actually seem kinda cool, even if I'm a bit overwhelmed by the idea. And you can't beat that fashion. So chic. Right?

2. A 3D printer. Apparently, you can print up anything you can think up! We watched a video yesterday of a guy printing up a little plastic whistle. Chad says this is the future of dentistry. I am documenting it so he can say he called it before they were popular. Also cool, and also a little overwhelming. Are we so opposed to delaying gratification that we need to have a means to "print out" anything we want, whenever we want? 

3. LED lightbulbs. We also watched a fancy shmancy video on these babies a few weeks ago. Apparently (do you like how much I'm using that word? I don't mean to sound like such a skeptic), you can control everything about these lights from your smart phone or computer. Turn them off while lying in bed, adjust the intensity, change the colors, create a light show right in your own home! 

And those, my friends, are the things my husband desperately wants for his birthday and which I have no means to provide for him. Oh, this is sad. Really though, don't these inventions seem fake? Like, straight out of a sci-fi movie from like, 3 years ago. Unbelievable.

Happy Birthday, Mary!

So, I really don't expect 10 year old Mary to read my blog. But it's her birthday today, so I'm thinking of her.

Mary is really awesome because she makes everyone feel good. I have noticed this about her since she was way too young to feel the nagging feeling we adults often feel when we are nice to people out of a sense of obligation. (I mean, she's only 10, but I remember watching how nice she was to a kid with disabilities in her kindergarten class. It just seems to be natural for her.) I always loved bringing home friends from high school/college, because she would snuggle right up to any visitor and make him/her feel like the most special person ever.

My favorite thing to do with Mary is play Pet Shops, her favorite. I also think Mary is really good at sports, like basketball. She looks cute these days with her braces. Mary, if you're reading this, I hope you have the best birthday ever! Love you tons.

Guest Post: What Makes YOU Happy?

I mean really, truly happy. When do you feel your best? Today we've got another weekly write-in from my little sister, Emma! I love the thought she has to share today on where we can find genuine happiness. This is something I think about a lot. I work with a lot of clients who are decidedly unhappy, and I want SO BADLY at times to point them to the gospel. I know it is the thing that brings us peace of mind, purpose, and joy. Even knowing this, I still need the reminder myself from time to time.

Emma's thought brought to mind a couple of scriptures. This one, in Matthew 11: 28-30, which tells us to "come unto [Him]. . .take [His] yoke upon [us], and [He] shall give rest unto [our] souls." And a line from this verse, which states simply that "wickedness never was happiness." I don't know how to say how true this is.

So maybe I'm not gonna try right this second. I'm always happy to hear your thoughts, though! And of course, here's Emma.

It is easy to spend time doing worldly things that won’t really bring us happiness. It is cool to look through the Book of Mormon and see how when the people are being wicked, things usually go wrong and the people aren’t happy. To me one of the great reminders in Fourth Nephi is that righteousness is what brings us happiness. Fourth Nephi 1: 15-16 says, “And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.”

This is a powerful statement to me. By the time this was written, tons of people had already inhabited the earth. Many of those people probably came up with their own philosophies and tried their own ways to be happy but were never as happy as these people in Fourth Nephi, a powerful thing. This scripture reminds me that I don’t need to look very far to learn how to be happy. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is what can make us most happy if we choose it. I am grateful for this knowledge because things that bring me temporary happiness aren’t going to last forever. My good grades from last semester aren’t going to last, clothes will go out of style, etc. But what was true thousands of years ago about righteousness bringing happiness is still true today and that is great news!

What I Would Buy

Chad and I spend money differently. I spend it on trinkets and clothes and snacks. He is better about not wasting it on "little" things, but he likes to make big purchases. At least, he talks about making big purchases. We both talk about making big purchases, which only occasionally ever happen.

Here, in no particular order, are the little things I think I would buy, given unlimited resources. I know they are kind of silly. Also, at least one of them isn't really little at all! Hmmm.

1. Bahama Mama bronzer. Because I watched this makeup tutorial about highlighting and countouring, and I got totally sold on this product! Kind of silly. I am 27, and I still don't really know anything about makeup, but every now and then I see something that I'm so sure would revolutionize my whole beauty regimen. Probably not likely.

2. Isn't this Target swimsuit so adorable? Chad made me throw out an old favorite after our Aruba trip because it was stretched out in places. I only relented because he said I could get a new one. Still, NOT a necessary purchase. But tempting.

3. Baby clothes, baby clothes! Ever since I found out my sister Elise is expecting, I can't stop looking at baby clothes. And it's gotten even worse now that we know she's having a girl! I could spend A LOT of money in this department.

4. Okay, not a small purchase. I just think antique-looking hutches are cool. And our kitchen needs some serious organizational help, not to mention a complete aesthetic overhaul. 

5. Pride & Prejudice piano solo music. We have an awesome upright piano, and I have been playing the same stuff forEVER now. This kind of music is perfect for me, because I can sightread a lot of it, so I don't have to put in hours and hours perfecting it, but it sounds really elegant and solo-ish. Perfect for showing off. (kidding)

6. Maybelline bouncy blush--also something I saw on that makeup tutorial (along with #1). I lose interest in makeup products so quickly, I feel like just posting it on here has gotten the need out of my system. What a relief!

Gotta go run my 9 miles today (ack) and I've got an evening-full of appointments. I also have a guest post from Emma coming at you tomorrow! Happy Tuesday!

Pineapple Tofu Stir-fry

This recipe came highly recommended. "Since we found this recipe, we eat it at least twice a week," said Maggie. (Note: I never knew Maggie to be a tofu eater in all the 10-ish years since freshman year of college, so I felt like this was really saying something.)

"I never thought I liked tofu, but I would definitely eat that again!" said Chad. I agreed: and I have eaten (and enjoyed) tofu before.

So, whether you are intimidated by, grossed out by, or just plain too good for tofu, this recipe is definitely worth a shot, imho. Enjoy!

Pineapple Tofu Stir-fry 

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you will need:

• 1 8-ounce can pineapple chunks or tidbits, 3 tablespoons juice reserved
• 5 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 7 ounces extra-firm, water-packed tofu, drained, rinsed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 3 teaspoons canola oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 1 large bell pepper, cut into 1/2-by-2-inch strips

 

1. Whisk the reserved 3 tablespoons pineapple juice, vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup and sugar in a small bowl until smooth. Place tofu in a medium bowl; toss with 2 tablespoons of the sauce. Let marinate for 5 minutes. Add cornstarch to the remaining sauce and whisk until smooth.
2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Transfer the tofu to the skillet using a slotted spoon. Whisk any remaining marinade into the bowl of sauce. Cook the tofu, stirring every 1 to 2 minutes, until golden brown, 7 to 9 minutes total. Transfer the tofu to a plate.
3. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil to the skillet and heat over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add bell pepper and cook, stirring often, until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in the sauce and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 30 seconds. Add the tofu and pineapple chunks (or tidbits) and cook, stirring gently, until heated through, about 2 minutes more.

Summer Vacation

Just made a LARGE purchase. I balk at large purchases, but this is my very favorite kind of large purchase, for what it's worth.

We will be going HERE:

Ragged Mountain (Colorado)
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. . .and HERE:

Zion National Park (Utah)
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. . .and we will be spending a week and some change with family. (Both families have reunions, back-to-back! What are the odds?) I am just so excited. I've never been to Zion's before, but HELLO! (Reference above picture.) And Ragged Mountain is one of my very favorite places on earth. This Kentucky family is headed west!

What are YOUR summer plans?

Bad School Names.

I think names are important. And even if you're naming something other than your child, I still think you should think about it for like, more than 5 seconds. I am new to Louisville, but as a therapist I am getting to know many of the public schools in the area. Some of the schools have some downright silly names.

Noe Middle School. My Hispanic clients pronounce this as "No-way Middle School," but school officials call it simply, "No" Middle School. Like, everyone is in denial about this school. We're not sure if it's really a middle school, or if it's even really a school at all. Or maybe "No Middle School" is more like a collective groan from everyone who has ever been through middle school, is going through middle school, or works in a middle school. Nooooooooo!!!

Male High School. At first I wanted to include this one because my husband told me he thought "male" was actually being used as an acronym for something, since this is a co-ed school (as in, M.A.L.E.). I thought, "That is ridiculous, using an acronym that spells out a word that means something untrue about the object it is being used to abbreviate." Right? But then I found out the school actually was an all-male school. But only until 1953! So, still dumb. Their website is awesome, however.

I love this mascot because if you just saw him on the street, you'd be like, "Oh, you're a male bulldog!"

Moore Traditional School. My friend Maggie and I laughed about this name for like, half an hour one day. Because I was talking about the school, and she didn't realize it was M-o-o-r-e, so she was like, "More traditional than what?!" Are they hitting kids with paddles? Do the kids use slate boards? Is there a red-haired teacher living in a house behind the school?

It's just so much more traditional than most schools, Maggie. That's why I'm sending my kids there someday.

But really, what's in a name? I'd love to hear YOUR best/worst school names! Don't be shy.

Emma's Thought of the Week

*Not that she only had one thought this whole week. But this was one she shared with me. (If you're new here, welcome to little-sis-Emma's weekly guest post. I agree, Emma, taking some time to think and ponder makes such a difference in feeling really connected to God through prayer. Thanks for the reminder. Love you, Em!

"One thing I liked this week was in Third Nephi 19: 9 which says, 'And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them.' I think this is cool because the thing that they desired most happened to be a righteous desire and was certainly in line with God’s will because they got the gift of the Holy Ghost in the next verse. I think often times I pray for what I truly want, and that they are good things, but they may not be the best as far as “good, better, best” goes. Maybe if I took the time to evaluate my desires and intentions and what matters most before I prayed I could make my prayers more meaningful. This time for self-reflection may also help me to try and align my will with Heavenly Father’s will and pray for the best things. I may have stretched that verse in my head to get to that thought, so hopefully this makes sense. Anyways, I think it’s cool to think about ways to make prayers more meaningful and personal, and I think pondering about our desires before we pray is one way."

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Great news! It is this girl's birthday today. Oh, to be 19 again.

Here are some of my favorite things about Emma at the moment.

1. One time she came all the way to Alabama to visit me during her Spring Break her senior year, and made me run 9 miles with her because she was training for a race.

2. Emma and I have quoted lines from Freaky Friday for oh, like, 10 years now.

3. When I was a freshman in college, (and Emma would have been 11?) she wrote me lots of letters. With lots of stickers and Freaky Friday quotes.

4. Emma is a really hard worker, yet

5. is always up for a good laugh and

6. she rocks the ukelele.

7. She is one of the most loyal friends I know.

8. Emma is not condescending or proud, even though she has lots of reasons she could be that way.

9. Emma is going to be a missionary in Peru for 18 months!

10. Emma made Chad feel really welcome in our family when he tried to play footsie with her under the dinner table and she started wearing running spikes to family meals.

And of course, because she is my sister. Isn't that enough? Love you, Emmalene!

Bloglovin'

There have been millions of these posts swirling around blog land lately. So, woohoo.

Apparently Google Reader is closing shop in a couple months, so if you are one of those people who likes to follow your favorite blogs with the help of a handy dandy app, bloglovin is the new jam! You can follow me here. Leave me your info so I can follow you back!

Mint Oreo Brownies

Happy St. Patty's Day! Yesterday was not my free day (thanks to the flan episode with my Cuban clients; see previous post), but I still wanted to make a treat to hand out to the ward choir since they were singing in church today. My original idea was to make some variation of these mint brownies, sold famously at the BYU bookstore. But I wanted to simplify things some, and wound up with something fabulous AND easy! So I thought I'd share. The filling (which was really supposed to be frosting), turned out with the exact consistency and taste of mint oreo cookie filling. It was an accident, but I have made the frosting enough times that I know exactly what I did differently to make them turn out that way (melted the butter all the way on accident). So we ended up with "mint oreo brownies!" Get it? Like mint oreo cookies, only with brownies on the outside instead of cookies. Yummmm.

all you need right here, plus some eggs, oil, and water

this is what the filling will look like after you mix it up

the filling shouldn't be sticky or anything--you should be able to flatten it right out or roll it out.

I cut mine into little squares so they'd fit nicely between the brownie squares.

. . .like so.

you can smoosh 'em together a little if you want.

beautiful.

I was equally (if not more) excited about the sticker-buttons I made to go with the brownies. Kiss me, I'm Irish I sang in ward choir today! Cute, right? :) I printed them out on mailer label paper so I could cut them out and stick them over the plastic wrap.

I was pretty excited to tote these off to church.

here's Chad, sporting his sticker. he is my number 1 choir supporter/participant.

The choir did well. (phew). I think everyone was nervous (congregation included), but it came together just fine. I am proud of them. And I hope they all got lots of kisses. Oh, and here's the recipe in full, if you're interested. Printable version here.  

Mint Oreo Brownies

You will need:

1 Brownie Mix

Water, eggs, oil (per brownie mix directions)

Chocolate chips (optional)

3 cups powdered sugar

½ cup melted butter

¼ tsp mint extract

5 drops green food coloring

To Prepare:

Prepare brownies according to instructions on box, sprinkling chocolate chips before baking if desired. Bake in a large pan (9x13). Allow to cool before applying filling. For filling, mix melted butter and powdered sugar, adding food coloring and mint extract. Cut brownies into small squares. Roll out filling, and cut filling into squares. Layer brownie squares and filling with filling in between two brownie squares. Enjoy!

On Great Weeks.

When [it] was good, [it] was very good indeed
And when [it] was bad, [it] was horrid.

(Adapted from "There Was a Little Girl" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

"It" = my job. This week was really, really great. There are lots of reasons why. Maybe if I list them I can have another week just like this one sometime.

1// I decided to embrace my night schedule instead of feel sad about it. Right now, I'm working primarily with non stay-at-home parents (translation: if I want to be doing in-home therapy with them, I have to sacrifice my evening hours). This week, I just embraced it. I enjoyed my non-working daytime hours more. I also spread out my appointments more so I wasn't running frantically to and from appointments and I was actually able to take advantage of the opportunity to stretch out my appointments with clients.

2// I got a new family on my caseload, and I adore them. They are Cubans, and they are straight out of my dreams. We are working through a traumatic event, and tweaking some parenting stuff, but all the basic love/support/cohesiveness stuff is there already. And we have a blast together. Yesterday they made me FLAN! Best work surprise, ever. They may be the biggest reason I am feeling so much better about work this week.

[source]

3// I did fun stuff with my clients. Sometimes I get into such a rut of just talking with them. Talking, and making behavior plans, and following up. This week, I played football with a 7 year old and then we sat on the grass and talked. This week, I went into a high school (I felt like such an imposter!), attended a meeting, went to class with a special-needs client, made connections with teachers and school officials, and helped her create a system for identifying her emotions at the beginning of each class period and then using a plan to address the negative ones (we are working to decrease her occasional blow-ups). This week, I played the "thimble game" with one family and I played Jenga with two families. This week, I was assertive with one of my somewhat-flaky clients and I agreed to follow up with her daily about whether she was following through on her parenting goals.

I want to remember to have weeks like this more often, because it is awesome.

Just. Keep. Swimming.

So. . .I almost forgot about this fitness link-up. Almost.

My big fitness moment this week was definitely at the pool yesterday. Swimming is always my biggest source of insecurity when I train for a triathlon. (I cannot tell you how many times someone says to me, "I could never do a triathlon--I'm just not a swimmer." Hello! Me neither!)  Something about swimming is anxiety-provoking for me. It reminds me of when I was a kid in swimming lessons and I couldn't make it across one length of the pool without grabbing the lap lane and gasping for air.

I had decided to swim 2200 yards yesterday (1.27 miles). When I hit about 1200 yards, I seriously considered throwing in the towel. I was having a really hard time breathing, and started telling myself it would be easier another day. (Some days it is just harder, I swear!) But I realized that giving up would just be selling myself short. I would pay for it one way or another--maybe not until race day--but I would pay for it.

I know what it feels like to be inadequately trained (let me tell you. . .it feels really bad), and I also know how amazing it feels to race when you've trained well. Trying to keep sight of the end goal and how it will feel to be doing that half ironman on June 1st--that's what keeps me going.

with Espy and Alisa in FL, 2010. I train so I can feel how I did that day. (sun, sand, and waves certainly didn't hurt)

Link up by clicking below and sharing your fitness story of the week!

                                                          

Emma's Pearls of Wisdom

I hope you all are enjoying these weekly write-ins from my little sis, Emma. She is wise beyond her years! This week, her thought reminded us of a great video, posted below. You can always learn more about our Church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) or about the Book of Mormon, which she quotes in these posts, here. I am also happy to field personal questions here. 


"Third Nephi 12-17 is packed with tons of awesome teachings in it because it is when Christ ministers to the Nephites. However, one part I especially loved when I read it was Third Nephi 14: 8-11, which is completely worth quoting. It says, 'For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then…know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?' 

I love this because it offers a wonderful comparison. I love my dad here on earth. He always provides for me and always has my best interest at heart. It is important to remember that my Heavenly Father is the same in that He always has my best interest at heart too. If my earthly father is so awesome and tries to give me what I need, Heavenly Father as a perfect being is an absolutely incredible Father and is always able and willing to give me what I need. If we need help from our Heavenly Father, all we need to do is ask. Being a perfect Father, He will never abandon us or ignore our pleas but will respond and help us always. Understanding how much our Father in Heaven loves us can help us in numerous ways, but it can certainly help us feel happier and develop a more personal relationship with Him."

This Weekend, I. . .

Honestly, this weekend was so good, I had no desire to return to the real world. Saturday, I had to work a tiny bit, but was done by about noon. We went to the UofL baseball game, and it evoked precisely all the summertime-childhood-carefree sentiments I hoped it would. We didn't even have to stay for the whole game, I was feeling that good by the top of the 7th inning. ;) Truth be told, we both got tired of no one scoring and ended up leaving on a "if no one scores within 2 innings we're leaving" ultimatum.

at the game. I don't know which direction to look when I take pictures on the ipad.

After the game, we biked to Iroquois Park for the first time since we've lived in Louisville. I liked it considerably, although Cherokee will always be my favorite, because that's where we got engaged. It sure felt great to be outside in the nicer weather.

Yesterday, I woke up early and got really ambitious about making a super-fancy visual aid for singing time with my primary kids. Check out how amazing this lady is. Mine looked like a pretty tacky knock-off, but it was still a fun way to teach the kiddos the words to the song.

Oh, and yesterday I made my first-ever roast. I feel like such a grown-up. It was also "free day" for the Gettin' Healthy challenge, so we had to find something delicious to make. I chose these cookie-caramel-peanut butter bars I found last week. They were pretty much to die for. Our good friends Duane and Andrea came over for dinner and to play Sequence. Andrea and I have teamed up and won the last several times we've played, so that is pretty awesome.



                                  

                                             

                                               

Overall, such a great weekend! Link up here or here to share your weekend fun.

On True Sportsmanship.

This is an amazing story all around. Not only is this sports coach willing to take a special needs kid under his wing AND give him playing time in an important moment of the game, but a huge group of his peers (teenagers, no less!) are there to cheer him on and sacrifice teenage ego for his success. So inspiring, I just had to share this. Happy Sunday!

Gettin' Healthy: End of Week 2.

We're closing in on the end of Week 2 for the Gettin' Healthy challenge. We have got some fierce competitors, to be sure! I made two stupid mistakes that have taken me out of first place (falling asleep before I meant to and not finishing my water for the day; accidentally snitching while I was making a cake for Sunday). BUT, this week, I have managed to stay on top of everything. Definitely the 5 servings of veggies/day is the hardest for me/takes the most planning, but Chad and I are in a rhythm with that. We each usually have one V8 per day and one huge salad, and then maybe some frozen veggies or something else veggie. It works pretty well.

On a personal note, I started my official training plan for the half-ironman. I am using this plan from Triathlon Plus, and so far it has pushed me hard (yikes, and it's only week 1) but also focused my workouts in a way I was really struggling to do on my own. I have been working out consistently (mostly) for 2 months now, but was burning out during my workouts once I hit 20 or 30 minutes. I felt like I had to FORCE myself to go any longer.

On Monday and Wednesday, I swam 1800 yards (just over 1.6 km) and it was great! I was not bored, and I was able to push myself to make it through the 200-yard front crawl intervals (previously, I would do 100 yards of front crawl and then switch to something else, exhausted). Running has gotten so much better, too--focusing on being at a certain intensity level and adding sprint intervals has made all the difference in terms of staying focused. So far, so good! Obviously, I am going to have to keep pushing myself even more if I'm gonna be ready for the race on June 1st!

A friend of mine, KT, blogs about her progress towards losing 100 pounds. I enjoy reading about her commitment to her goals, and she has a nice online community of people cheering her on. She is now hosting a virtual 5K on June 1st, which is really awesome because that just so happens to be the date of my Half Ironman! Whatever your fitness goal, you can participate--whether you are looking to get back in shape, or back into running, and would like to have some peer support, check out her challenge here! There will be weekly link-ups on Tuesdays for everyone to share progress.

Happy Friday!

Oatmeal-crust Pizza

I made this pizza dough recipe several weeks ago and it was probably some of the best pizza we've made at home. But now that we're doing this health challenge, I don't feel super great about consuming good ol' fashioned white-flour pizza dough. (There's no rule about grains/flour, but I sorta feel like if we're gonna eat healthy, we might as well eat HEALTHY.) So yesterday, we tried out the new grinder my mom gave us for Christmas! We had oats on hand, so we ground them up for our flour and replaced flour with oat flour in the above recipe. It worked pretty well!

We loaded the pizza up with fresh veggies and fresh mozzarella cheese (YUM!).

Oh, and in case you're wondering: the recipe worked mostly okay with the oat flour. It seemed to require a bit more of the oat flour than is called for in the recipe, just to make the dough not totally sticky. Since we ran out of oat flour, we ended up having to add maybe 1/2 cup of regular flour. Overall though, it was a success and SOO good! I am excited to use the grinder for wheat and rice and other things, too.

Emma's Scripture Thought

I've missed putting these up for the past couple of weeks! Here is Emma's scripture thought for the week.

'Seeing as the chapter heading of Third Nephi 7 starts out, “The chief judge is murdered, the government is overthrown, and the people divide into tribes…” I think I was kind of expecting a chapter that mostly went over some of the history and wickedness that had been taking place. But this chapter actually taught me a lot of great lessons about missionary work! Because there was a lot of wickedness, Nephi was able to do some great preaching. This starts out in Third Nephi 7: 16 where it says, “… (he) went forth among them in that same year, and began to testify, boldly, repentance and remission of sins through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. “I like this verse because it neatly summarizes what I think is our main message. I mean, it’s called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after all. Also pulling from that verse, the word “boldly” makes Nephi seem like a good missionary, but he’s actually way more awesomethan just good. Third Nephi 7: 18 says, “…for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily.” That is just so incredible to me, that people really could not disbelieve his words. They could not do so because he had angels ministering unto him. I like how it doesn’t say anything about Nephi being well-spoken or really smart. I bet he was, but the reason he was successful was because he had faith and had the help of the Lord. This is comforting because it’s okay that I can be ineloquent and a little awkward at times but that I need to try to be bold, have faith, and I will be able to teach people that Jesus Christ is their Savior. In fact, I know that principle is true for all of us! So don’t be afraid.'

Thanks, Emma! I love having your pre-missionary voice on here! (3 months until June 5th!)

This weekend, I. . .

Linking up with Sar for a "This Weekend, I" post. A day late. :)

This weekend, I made a cake. Sunday was Chad's and my "free day" from the health challenge, so we decided to live it up. This was my first time attempting to make my mom's carrot cake (which I found out is actually my great-grandmother's carrot cake!). My mom has always been famous for this dessert, and yummm, it turned out SO good! Like, amazingly good. There is no carrot cake I have ever tasted that even halfway compares to this one. It's got pineapple in it, which makes it super moist, and the cream cheese frosting is to die for. Email me and I'll send you the recipe (it's my great-grandma's, but I don't think it's a secret. right, mom?).

This weekend, Chad and I made Hawaiian haystacks (quintessential Mormon potluck dish--also yum!) and had some friends over for dinner. It's fun having friends with kids, because they come over and our house gets crazy for a bit and then they leave. :)

This weekend, I worked in the temple. Something Chad and I do every other week, but Chad had to study so I went alone this time. I love being there so much.

This weekend, I did not think about work once--at least, I tried not to. I made every effort to push the paperwork, the clients, the problems out of my mind every time they started weaseling their way in. Funny story about clients, though. This Sunday, we went to a stake conference, which is several congregations in the area meeting all together. Happens a couple of times a year. Anyway, I knew that some of my therapy clients would be there, but my policy (and I tell my clients this) is to not acknowledge them in public unless they do first. Sometimes it is tempting to tell Chad about who I am seeing, but I can't because often he knows them.

So we're driving home from church and Chad says, "So, the X family came up to me at church. . . [my insides are groaning at this point, but I don't say anything]. . ."and they both were like, 'You have a great wife! We just love her so much!'

Little backstory here: Chad, as far as he knows at this point, has spent more time with this family than I have; in fact, I think I only met them once before we were married, and probably haven't seen them since (until they were clients, obviously).

So heChad says, "Yeah, she's pretty great! But I didn't realize you guys knew her that well." (oh, Chad.) Then they say, "Oh, we're seeing her!" Poor Chad then says, "I don't think I'm supposed to know this. . ."

Funny.

Anyway, that was pretty much our weekend. Happy March!

Half-Ironman Girl.

It's happening. I just registered for my race on June 1st! As in, the half-ironman that I have been training for (sorta) but way too scared to register for officially. Now there's no turning back! Oh man, oh man, oh man. . . time to kick it into gear!

I need to focus on channeling my inner Danni, from the Biggest Loser. Chad and I have watched that show religiously this season, and she is our favorite. Not scared of anything. Wins everything on the show pretty much, because she's so hardcore. We also like her because she seems nice. Like, we would want to be friends with her in real life. Yes, we are sucked into that show right now.

Anyway, it's happening. Game on!

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