Pirates, Masquerade Ball, Enrichment, Meghan, Car Troubles

So on Friday we went to the Pirates place- me, Tashi, Shannon, and Lori (the RS pres). It was so fun! We had to wait40 minutes for our table, but it ended up ok, we just took a lot of pictures. Then we waited forever for our food- like 40 minutes kind of forever, and people around us who go there later than we did had already paid and left by the time our food arrived. Apparently the pizza got dropped. I felt worse for this group date near us who still hadn't gotten their food by the time we left. We did get free tokens from Captain Jack Sparrow, and played in the arcade so we all earned huge rings that we wore to church on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, testimonies went fine, I'm glad it's over, filling 5 minutes wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Sunday was such a good day. It was so relaxing. Tashi's cute roommates were so sweet, one came up and gave me a brownie she made just randomly :)

On Saturday we went to the Masquerade Ball. It was so fun to dress up and look pretty.

On Tuesday, the beginning of car problems began. Scotty came over to study, and parked in this area that's not Raintree parking, so he got towed. I felt sooo bad for him. So that night I made him cookies and I wrote a note for his car. It said something like:
Dear Scotty's car,
I'm so sorry you got towed! I hope it wasn't too scary, and that the tow truck was nice and friendly. Hopefully, you make a full recovery soon. I know you can do it! The cookies are for you, don't let Scotty eat them all.
Love,
Kelly
PS- You are really really ridiculously good-looking.
I don't know how much the car enjoyed it's card, but Scott seemed to like it. And the cookies, even though when I made them, I added waaay too much water (they were cake cookies and I added the amount on the box, not online), and had to sit and spoon out as much as I could. It made them really soft though, so it was good.

On Wednesday, Meghan came into town. This was quite the visit. Tashi drove me to the airport, and when we got there, this guy who Meghan met at EFY when we were 15 who had not seen her since who had kept in contact with her and sent her a diamond necklace and asked her to wait for him (which kind of freaked her out) randomly decided to surprise her and show up at the airport. Thaaat kind of scared the crap out of her, so she decided she didn't want to go with him to Utah State. Which was great, because I didn't want to go either. It would be me, her, and this guy, who we'll call Joey. He tried to find another guy to go, but apparently it was impossible. But being in the car with the two of them for 4 hours and walking around campus for at least one, would have been torture.

On Thursday night we had Enrichment- well, not Enrichment. We're not supposed to call it that anymore. We made gourmet caramel apples. They were so good. It also kicked off our second dating scheme. The boys who wanted to signed up and said how many dates they wanted to go on. The deal is, the girls fill in the slots with their names and numbers, and they have to all get completely filled. And the guys must in turn actually take them out. I signed up for 3 random guys... the problem is a lot of the girls have an attitude about it. They don't want to do it. I've heard every excuse from "What if he doesn't wanna take me out?" to "My mother taught me better," to "Why don't they just be men and ask me out??" which I can see the merit in all of them. But the main problem is, if no one signs up, guess who has to? Yep. The RS presidency. So I don't even want to know how many dates I'm going to end up going on if people don't sign up. And I don't mind dates. But I have school and friends and other things. And I was always raised that I can say no to dates. And this will basically take away my agency in the matter. So that legitimately bothers me. Because I really want to be good in my calling. And so I know if I am asked, I'll sign up. Ugh, and it makes me sick. There's this one guy who has 5 slots by his name. FIVE. Most guys have 1 or 2, and a few have 3. But then it skips to one with 5. And he has had no one signed up for his name. And I don't want to go on a date with him at allll. So hopefully we'll be able to talk at least one poor other girl into signing up. Because if not, it won't fulfill the deal, because only 4 of 5 spots will be filled with the RS presidency.

So on Friday, since Utah state fell through, instead, he took us to lunch at Macaroni Grill. It was nice, especially because he paid, even though we definitely didn't expect him to. Then that night we were trying to figure out how to get to a party. We were gonna take the bus, but we couldn't figure it out. We invited him to come, but he said he was in SLC. We decided to just walk. Until like 10 mintues later he texted us and said he was coming to rescue us and pulled up next to us. So we got in and went to this Electronic Dance Party. While there, I saw a lot of people from my ward, which was fun. Then me and Meg started dancing with this random group of guys and we talked to them for like a half hour and took pictures with them by this really good photographer, pics are at davebrewerphotobooth.com. Then they said they were leaving, but turned back after about two minutes and asked us if we wanted a ride home. So, not being able to find Joey, we accepted. This one guy seriously thought Meghan was sooo cute. He was hitting on her all night. But he didn't ask for her number. Which kind of bothered her. A lot. So she took it upon herself to find him on Facebook. It took a while, but she did succeed.

Then today we went to SLC. Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong today did. We couldn't find parking at U of U because it was a game day, so Heather and Meg just got out and walked around and it took 45 minutes after we started looking for them to find them. I felt bad because Jordan Lee was driving and everyone was getting so frustrated because no one knew where to go. Finally we found each other, and then we went to lunch at Cafe Rio and dessert at Spoon Me, because we decided there wasn't enough time to go shopping. Then soda spilled all over the back of the car, and Jordan got a ticket for expired something and speeding, but she just got a warning for speeding and a citation or something. I felt so bad. We got back just in time for the game, which we left early and lost dramatically. So sad. Now I'm going to Walmart with Crystal and Heather! Bye!

PS- Update: Philip called me to talk to me for the last time before he goes on a mission. I will miss him but he will be great! <3

Oh I have mono... I hope you don't mind

Haha did that title surprise you??

Well read on, and you will know why I said that.

Okay, I know this is early, but I really don't want to study for Isys right now, and I'm worried about having time to do this on Saturday, so I will summarize what I have done this week and what I will do in the near future.

First of all, my lesson went pretty well. It was about families, much like my talk, but I managed to think of more stories about my family so the girls didn't get too tired of them. It was only about 15 minutes because we tried to organize visiting teaching that Sunday... that was an adventure haha.

This Monday we had FHE, as usual. It was okay... we played baseball.

I don't think I've talked about my lack of ability in playing sports, but it's pretty bad. It's never that big of a deal to me, I'm willing to participate, but I prefer to have as little responsibility as possible. That's why when I was constantly called up to re-demonstrate my utter incapacity to hit the ball, when I struck out over and over again, and they continued to make me take another turn and told me I could do it, I got really really reaaaaallllllly frustrated. They had a team of like 15? and only 5 of us were girls. They decided that it should go boy girl boy girl alll the time. It literally made me sick when I heard them call out "Girl? Girl?" every other person and I knew that it was getting closer to my turn. I got so excited when we got outs because it was less likely I would ever have to fail in front of everyone again. In my opinion, the first time it's nice because then you're just being inclusive. The second time it's nice if I act like I want to because I want to prove that I can.... but when I know that I can't and everyone else does too, it's just torture to make me prove it over and over again. Every time they asked, I said I didn't want to, but it didn't matter; I still had to demonstrate why I didn't want to... which was painfully obvious to anyone around me.

So I was in a remarkably bad mood by the time I left. Then, I came home and after about an hour of studying... or wasting time on the internet, I heard voices in the living room. Male voices. So, naturally, I wanted to see who was visiting, and I was hungry so I brought out some soup to heat up. It was these boys who are friends of Katelyn. One works with her, and the other two are his friends. They invited us to come hang out with them, and we decided to drive separately so that they didn't have to drive us home. When we were about to leave, we ran into these other random boys who were from the other side of Raintree. They were looking for ice cubes so they could make a slushy, so we gave them ours, and they said they would bring some back to us the next night. Then we went to the other boys house, and they decided we were gonna watch a movie called Drumline. Which was kind of disappointing because we thought we were going to actually go out and do something, and movies with boys aren't thaaat fun if you can't cuddle with them anyway right? But we were pleasantly surprised. The movie was pretty good, and whenever anything upbeat came on, we had a dance party on my couch, so it was really fun.

On Tuesday, those slushy boys did make good on their word, and brought us some slushy. I was the only one home, so I accepted it happily. Here's the thing: They gave us a slushy in their container. So I think what we're going to do is return it and something else in our container and see how long we can keep it going... should be fun :)

On Wednesday, a girl in my ward, Kaleigh, who lives upstairs with Tashi (the 2nd counselor in RS), was having an open- invite birthday party, so I rode with them to the tumbling gym in Provo. It was amazing to me how everyone suddenly became gymnasts. The boys, expecially were so daring in their ridiculous stunts. It was way fun to watch. I met a lot of fun people, too, and it was way fun to hang out with Tashi and her apartment. They are the sweetest group of girls.

Then we went to an after party at a house that I learned was the same house I went to for Dew Fest or whatever a few weeks back. There was this bar tender guy their making virgin drinks that were really good, and at one point I asked this girl Caitlin (Tashi's roomie) if I would taste her drink. Right after I did, she said "Oh I have mono! I hope you don't mind..." "What?!" I choked, trying to remain calm. "Yeah, I hope you don't mind!" she said. "Are you serious???" I asked, incredulous. She finally admitted she was kidding, but she really got me for a minute haha. I also met this guy who Nate is setting up with Crystal, Heather's roommate. His name is Ford. It was fun because then I got to tell Crystal about him when I got home. I'm kind of excited about it because it almost makes me feel like a matchmaker. Even though I'm not setting them up... but I talked to both of them about the other... anyway it was a fun night. This other random guy there got my number too. It was funny how he asked. He'd talked to me earlier that night, and I noticed my wallet was missing. I didn't find it before I left, so he came up and said, "Hey, I hope you find your wallet." I smiled and said me too, and turned back to the girls I was with, mostly because I knew what was coming next. He tapped me again and said, "Could I get your number so I can know if you get it back?" So I laughed and said sure. I'm pretty much completely uninterested, but I did think that was kind of adorable. I love how awkward boys sometimes get when asking for numbers. So funny.

So now it's Thursday, and tomorrow Scotty and I are studying all day for the Isys test. Lovely. Then I'm going out with my lovely RS ladies, to this pirate restaurant thing and the Nickelcade. I'm excited :) I seriously love these girls. Then on Saturday I'm going to the Masquerade Ball! I'm super excited, at first I thought I was only going to know Crystal, Heather, and Christine, but last night I learned Tashi and her roomies are going too. I think a bunch of us are getting ready together :)

Also, on Sunday, all the members of the RS Presidency are bearing their testimonies in Sacrament Meeting for 5 minutes. That seems so long to me. Especially because i already spoke in church and it was ten minutes. When people bear their testimonies for 5 minutes I'm usually like omg get offfffff the stand.... usually they're not ever testimonies, they're like I know my roomies are true and I'm so thankful for ________, and I'm gonna tell you how great my family is, and this is my travel log, and this is my hospital log and I wanna just be like.... SHUT UPPPP. So hopefully thats not how everyone feels by the time it gets to me.

Anyway, now I suppose I should study. Bye :)

Sick....

This week, starting Sunday, I was sick. I'm pretty much over it now, but it was annoying all week. I was lucky because I only had one test this week, which I actually took today-- the grammar test, which wasn't that bad. I think that being sick makes me less productive, which I'm sure is a usual effect, but the reason is my mind-set. I just think that because I'm sick, I shouldn't have to do anything. That makes me more chatty than ever. My poor study buddy was probably dying because all I wanted to do was talk. So mostly this week I studied (Accounting had 3 quizzes due...) and chatted. On Thursday I watched the Office, of course, and it was the wedding! So adorable. I still haven't talked about the first time I watched the Office this season, and I have said I would for awhile, so here we go:

A guy in my ward invited me, Christine, and Heather over to his apartment to watch it. So we happily trooped across Raintree and talked for a few minutes until it began. One of his roommates came out, and we said he could watch with us if he wanted to. He said no, he had homework, or something, and then stood to watch the first part. At one point, it shows Meredith rubbing herself all over one of the interns pretending to be reaching for something... so I mean relatively funny, but this guy laughed for the ENTIRE REST OF THE SEGMENT INTO THE COMMERCIAL as loudly as possible!!!!! It was so loud that I could not hear the lines and it was seriously pissing me off. Like legitimately. Then he left and I was like Praaiiseee the Lord!! ... except he came back and said, "You know, I think I'll watch this," as he sat down RIGHT NEXT TO ME. He continued to laugh obnoxiously the entire rest of the episode. I seriously wanted to die. I hate not being able to hear when I've never seen something before. And I am serious about the Office.

Also, it was Heather's birthday this week!!! I have the most beautiful wonderful sister and I love her a lot! It was Winnie's birthday this week too :) I love her too!

On Heather's birthday we went to lunch at Tucanos. It was so good! I had never been there before, and seriously the guys came with food soo quickly, it was pretty much impossible to keep up with them. It was really fun, though. The plans for the night changed multiple times. First, we were invited to party #1. But they kept asking if we were coming. Every. Single. Day. It was so intense it made me not want to go. Then we were invited to party #2. It sounded pretty fun... but we didn't know which we should go to. So we finally decided to go to party #2. Then, Heather called me a half hour before we were about to leave, and asked if I wanted to go to a Haunted Forest instead.

Sooo we went to the one in American Fork. We also went to Psycho Manor. I was surprised at how un- scared I was. I went Freshmen year and I almost died. I remember the worst part was when we ran into this huge guy with a jack in the box. He said he wanted me to wind it up. I really didn't want to, so I whimpered "Nooo!" And all the boys decided to show off their manliness by offering to do it, but the giant would not hear of it. "No, I want her!" he said, pointing at me. I hesitantly went and began to wind,but nothing happened. "You broke my toy!" the giant yelled, and then chased me with a chainsaw. The entire time I was grabbing onto the people in my group in terror. This time I was definitely holding onto everyone in my group, but I was not nearly as scared. It was pretty fun I thought. A little too long, though. I was pretty much over it after we were halfway through. I think Psycho Manor was better.

The people who went were the following: me, Heather, Christine, Winnie, Lauren (Winnie's friend), Jordan (my roomie from freshman year), Danny, a girl he brought, Dallin (a friend of Winnie's we met before), and Jeff and Spencer, brothers who were friends with Lauren. The boys were so fun! Jeff is actually in a lot of the same classes with me, and I talked to him and Spencer most of the night. We went back to Lauren's house for hot chocolate afterwards, and it was really fun. I'm glad we chose that option :)

Anyway, I think I'm done. Tomorrow I have to give the lesson in RS, Shannon called me this morning and said they couldn't find anyone soo hopefully that works out. I've never given a lesson before, so I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure it will be fine... anyway I'm out :)

School, General Conference, The Big Country

So this week has been all about school. I had 3 tests: Isys, ASL, and Accounting 210. I don't know how I did on the 1st 2, because the grades are not posted yet, but I did pretty well on Accounting which makes me glad because I studied pretty much allll week for it. It's exhausting to do nothing but study, let me tell you. Scott is a pretty good motivator for me. He always wants to study so then I do too. Isys seemed pretty easy to me, and ASL was... interesting. I couldn't see anything he was doing for the finger spelling part because he would sign to just the sides and not the back, so no one in the back to see. It was probably the most frustrating thing of my life.

Speaking of ASL, I am overdue on a story about it. So the other day I ran into this guy, Andrew in my ward. I ended up telling him I was about to go to sign language class and he eagerly signed I love ____. I didn't know the last sign, so I asked what it was. He said it meant make out. So I laughed and went on my way to class. That day we were talking about directions, and how deaf people use their tongues to show that something is far away. Andrew (the teacher, not the guy in my ward) said "Deaf people use their tongues a lot!" This struck me as very funny, because what is one of the main and best things people generally use their tongues for? Making out of course! So I started laughing and made that sign. I thought it was a very good joke... Andrew just looked at me, and said (breaking the no-talking rule), "Necking?? Realllyyyyy????"... "Making out??" I said, repeating the sign, a little uncertainly. Andrew sighed. He then showed us the signs for necking, making love, and kissing with tongue. Everyone was fascinated. I don't think I've seen our class pay so much attention before. It was pretty embarrassing, though. I didn't think he'd react in such a shocked manner.

So anyway, after I finally took the Accounting test, I went to the game for about half of it until Heather, Winnie, and Christine decided to leave to go get ice cream at sub zero. Apparently some guys who were friends with Winnie invited us. But then we changed our minds when they informed us that they were on dates. That made me laugh... I mean if I was on a date and suddenly the guys started texting their other girl friends and asking if they wanted to come too I would be pretty confused about if the date was over.... or what?

So then we went back to Winnie's and then to Christine and Heather's. We hung out with Krystal (their roomie) and some guys she had over until we heard all this music coming from outside. Apparently some guys from Glenwood decided to start a spontaneous dance party in the parking lot, so we went and joined them (of course) for about an hour or so? It was very fun... really random. At one point 2 of the girls who are in the RS presidency came...

OH! I forgot. I was called to be the RS secretary last Sunday. It was interesting, because I was asked to meet with the Bishop at 9:30am, and was sustained at 10am. I just love my little presidency. I had met the president at 1st counselor the week before after I gave my talk. I never met the 2nd counselor before, but she's adorable too. Their names are Lori, Shannon, and Tashi. I am so excited to serve with them :) It will be quite an adventure because none of us have been in a presidency before, except if you count young womens, which I don't because I know I had lots of callings in it, but I honestly don't remember which callings (maybe I was Beehive President once?) and we did basically nothing.

On that note, it's General Conference time! I love General Conference :) I remember as a little girl we would go to the Stake Center and watch it. We would always try to get mom and dad to take us to the nursery room so we could play instead of sit in the chapel. They tried to keep us in the chapel as long as possible, though. We were to take notes on every talk, and if we did, they would pay for us to all go see a movie as a family. This guaranteed us listening to every talk. We would also do "Conference Reports" for the next family night, where we would each pick a talk (or ten if you were dad) and talk about it for the camera and bear our testimony. We always fast forward them when we watch family movies, but maybe that will change one day. I still remember claiming talks when a general authority would tell a particularly funny story and then fighting over them when more than one sibling wanted it. Usually we would find another story in a later talk and that would make everyone feel better. I remember one time making as many faces at the person giving their report as possible... sometimes we get really irreverent... but one of my favorite talks today made me feel better about our inherent random irreverence that manifests itself as the most inopportune times.

Elder Bednar talked about love and concern and diligence in the home. One part of the talk sounded so similar to my life. He talked about how during scripture study it seemed like the kids didn't pay attention or seem as spiritually edified as they would have hoped. Many times it would be interrupted with "He's touching me!" and "She's breathing my air!" This was so much like my home. We would be so irreverent! I remember one time tickling little Sarah all of scripture study and pretending I wasn't touching her. This was probably just this past summer... maybe we'll never grow up! Prayer usually ended up with all of us giggling about nothing in particular, but not being able to stop. It's so fun to be best friends with your siblings! The point of this is mostly that it was still effective. I still learned so much in our daily scripture study. We would often complain about how long it was, but the truth is I am incredibly grateful that my parents had the patience to do it. My favorite game we would play was fill in the blank. We got to be incredibly good at it. Someone would read part of scripture and pause and everyone would try to guess the word as quickly as possible. Sometimes we would count points. Another time, we had a tent that you would set up on a bed, and we set it up to pretend to be listening to King Benjamin. And one time, we decided to sing the scriptures when dad was gone. Mom told us excitedly that that night we would sing the verses, because daddy was going to be at a meeting. We'd asked to do that many times, because scriptures, like songs, have verses. Dad never thought it was a good idea, so we only got to do it that one time, but we had so much fun.

I also randomly thought of a daddy daughter date I went on when I was very little. Brother Potter, who was my parent's bishop when they were in singles ward, was having a party for his birthday maybe? He is very well off, so he got a whole theater reserved and had a bunch of his friends come to watch "The Big Country" with him. For some reason mom couldn't go, probably a calling or something, so daddy asked me to go with him. I got dressed up, if I remember, and we went to watch it. It's a very long romantic movie, and so there was an intermission in the middle. I remember lots of people coming to talk to me, because I was little, probably, and dad was going to take me home, but I wanted to see the end, so he let me stay. I remember getting little winks and elbows and "Oh, you wanna see how it ends, huh??" from lots of people. Anyway, it was just really fun, and I'm glad my daddy thought to take me :)

Next time I really will talk about the 1st episode of the office... promise.

This past week and a half

So, last week I didn't write anything but my talk, which I think is hardly fair, so I will sum up my week last week too. I guess the most eventful things were:

*3 dates, 2 on Friday night

*the football game.... soo saaadddd

*my talk

So I first went on a date with a boy who we will call John on Tuesday. We went to dinner at this Mexican place with his brother and his brother's gf and then watched a movie at his house. Dinner was really fun, and very good. It was kinda weird to meet his whole family at his house. Cinderella Man is a good movie. I got home wayy later than I wanted to, though, which struck me as inconsiderate? Especially on a school night? Usually I'm not like that but I had absolutely no say in the movie, even when I pointed out how long it is, he was very firm about how I would like it and that's what we were watching.

This may or may not have anything to do with this date, but it really bothers me when boys think that because they buy me dinner they're allowed to touch me. Especially when I am clearly showing that I would rather they keep their hands to themselves. I feel like I might be coming off like I just don't like people to touch me, which is very untrue. Actually, I'd say the opposite is true. I just don't appreciation the assumption that they have a right to. And I don't appreciate being forced into awkward situations.

Okay so that Friday I went on a date with John again, we went 4-wheeling. And I shot a gun for the first time in my life. It was very exciting! It was actually my first time 4 wheeling as well, except for maybe 5 minutes a few years ago. It was fun, but I was sore the next day. I think that 4 wheeling is pretty sweet, but I get tired of it after about a half hour. He also got me a Wendy's kids meal, which is pretty much my favorite thing.

I told him that I had to be home by 7 because I had a date at 8, but I didn't end up getting home until 7:40. So I took a shower, and my roomies blow-dried my hair while I did my make up. It was quite the adventure, but I was totally ready to go by the time my date arrived. It was a double date with Kali, which was fun.

Our date was probably the most classically Mormon date I have ever been on. Our dates were pretty adorable about how pumped they were about the whole thing. We made cards and ding dong ditched random houses with brownies we made. Then, we went to this grove of trees and sat on some blankets and read scary stories. They were from those scary stories books that aren't really scary, but are very entertaining. So that was fun. We did have to change locations when the sprinklers turned on around us though. Haha.

Saturday was spent writing my talk, which you had the pleasure of reading last time, and going to the game. The game was the most devastating loss. It made me so sad. That's all I really wanna say about it.

Sunday, I gave my talk. I was super nervous, especially when the speaker before me left only 4 minutes, but it went really well. I hardly read from the paper, and the congregation laughed at all my funny stories and were just so nice about it afterwards. I have seriously never in my whole life been so complimented on a talk. So many people came up to tell me they enjoyed it. One boy came up to me 3 times to tell me that it was the best talk he had ever heard. Lots of people told me that I have the best parents ever, which I mean, it's the truth :). The Bishop complimented me on it at church and again at ward prayer. He told me that he told lots of people about how fantastic it was. Needless to say, I was very flattered.

Then this Monday we had our first FHE as a family. It was so fun! Kayla, my roomie, is the mom. She had us play pudding twister, which quickly turned into a pudding fight. Then we all went and jumped into the pool in our clothes. It was way fun. Not everyone participated, but I bet about half of the family was actively involved.

This Wednesday was True Blue Football. I went last year and thought it was amazing, so this year I went with Heather (my sister) and Christine, her roomie and our friend. Heather was very upset about all the foam getting in her eyes, but Kali, my lovely roomie, was very helpful with letting us use her clean t-shirt (she wasn't participating) to wipe them. Kali is the nicest girl :) Then we went to the Cannon Center and changed, washing our very blue clothes in the sinks and wrapping them in paper towels so they didn't leak through the bags. Then we ate dinner at the Cannon, which is always ridiculously filling. As Heather likes to say, we stroll in, and roll out.

I guess the only other thing I should mention is that now I have an official study buddy. His name is Scott, and we have 3/5 classes together: MComm, Isys, and Accounting 210. We aren't actually in the same MComm section, and we have different teachers (which makes him much less lucky than I am), but we still are learning the same things. Usually, we just sit next to each other somewhere in the library and study by individually until we have a question. Or we work through difficult problems together. I can honestly say it is probably the most productive studying ever. It's so nice because I'm pretty good at studying by myself, but I don't really like it. So, this way I kind of get the best of both worlds. I also have someone to explain things to, which is very effective in helping me learn. And, I have someone to help me understand things I don't understand.

I wanna go to bed now, but I am thinking of two things that I will include in my next blog... an awkward experience in my ASL class, and watching the 1st season of the office. I'm sorry to everyone in my class who ended up reading this.... I know it's ridiculously long.

Soo that's pretty much it. Now I'm just preparing for about a million tests so should be fun!

parenting talk

Good morning. I have been asked to speak about parenting and grand-parenting and how that relates to the gospel. This talk was an especially difficult one for me to prepare, because, as you can probably tell, I am not a parent. And I am certainly not a grandparent.

So I guess I will start out by introducing myself and talking a little bit about my family. My name is Kelly, and I’m from Maryland. I am the oldest of 7 children, and one of them goes to BYU with me and is here today. The rest still live at home. I was born into the church, and I have two wonderful and active LDS parents, who I will be talking about quite a bit in this talk. My mom was born into the church, and my dad converted when he was 25 and later served a mission in Guatemala. They were married in the DC temple and just celebrated their 21^st anniversary. I love my parents and I have always known that they love me. I wanna talk about a few things that they have done that I think exemplify some of the most important things in parenting.

One of the first things I thought of when I was given this assignment was how grateful I am that I was raised in a home with the Priesthood. Every time we began a new school year we were each given a blessing. I have always known that I can ask my dad for a blessing and he will be perfectly happy to give me one. Sometimes, he has even sensed my need for a blessing when I didn’t even think of it myself.

One example I can think of happened this summer. I went home for the summer to work as a floating bank teller, so I would go to whatever branch needed me. Sometimes I really loved where I was stationed, and sometimes I didn’t like it so much. So one Friday I was at a branch that was not as fun as some of the others, and it seemed like everyone was picking on me all day, whether it be the customers or the other tellers, and these tellers were now all older than me because the one guy who had been my age who I would usually talk to there had just left that branch. Fridays are very busy, so on top of all that I was very stressed, especially because when I would go to help a branch out, the other tellers usually took that as an opportunity to do less and let me do most of the teller work while they went off and did other things in the bank. When I finally got home, I was feeling very taken advantage of and underappreciated, so I did what any respectable college girl who had a hard day would do: I started to cry.

I’m usually a very cheerful girl, and my dad absolutely hates to see me cry, which I’m sure a lot of you girls can relate to, so he instantly went to work trying to help me to feel better. He kept asking what he could do, if I wanted him to go order out from whatever restaurant I wanted, if he could go talk to the people at my work, if I wanted to go do something, anything, and I just wasn’t very interested in any of his offers. He eventually left, and came back a few minutes later, and said, “Well there is one thing I can do for you.” I waited for the punch line, not expecting it to be something that would actually make me feel better, but I was very wrong. He said, “I could give you a blessing.” It caught me off – guard, but I was surprised to realize that that was exactly what I wanted and needed. So I accepted his offer, and I felt better almost immediately after the blessing. I am so grateful to have a dad who holds the priesthood and who uses it worthily to better the lives of the members of his family.

The church has always been an incredibly important influence in my home. We learned to read, as probably many of you did, from the scriptures. We had family scripture study almost every night.

President Benson said, “Increased love and harmony in the home, greater respect between the parent and child, increased spirituality and righteousness are not idle promises, but exactly what the prophet Joseph Smith meant when he said the Book of Mormon will help us draw nearer to God.”

The scriptures really did come alive for us, and we learned to apply them in our lives. One time, my little brother Joseph, who was 4, got in trouble and had to sit in time out. My dad felt sorry afterwards and asked my mom if they should just let him off the hook. My little sister Julie then looked at him very seriously and said, “Dad, mercy cannot rob justice.” She was 6 years old.

We also said family prayer together every night. It used to drive me crazy because we didn’t just have one prayer, but nine prayers, because every single person in our family had to pray. It would usually take about a half hour. Now we all are assigned a day on which we pray, and that has considerably shortened things, but we definitely learned to pray, and I have often heard my parents pray for me and my other siblings. We also learned “prayer defense”.

My dad told me a story about how one night, in a scene that was actually very common in my home, my sister Heather and I were having a hard time getting to sleep. We were and still are the best of friends, and since we were in the same room we would often talk late into the night. This particular night we were being especially loud, so my dad came downstairs a few times to quiet us down, but it didn’t work. Finally he jumped downstairs and said in his most threatening-but-not-really angry dad voice “Here comes the mean dad with the iron hand!” When he got into our room we were both kneeling down on your beds and Heather was praying with her bottom stuck up in the air – “Please help daddy not to spank our bottoms because our bottoms are so precious.” I’m pretty sure we got away with that one.

Another thing my parents did was take us to the temple often. I live about a half hour away from the Washington DC temple, so we would go to take pictures there, and to see various displays, and I always knew that the temple was important to my parents. I knew that that was where I wanted to be married someday, because that is where families can be sealed together forever. I was taught to love my family through the example of my parents.

I think that part good parenting is loving each other, and making that very clear to the children in the family.

President Hunter said to fathers, “You should express regularly to your wife and children your reverence and respect for her. Indeed, one of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”

I have always known that my parents love each other. Sometimes my dad will come into the kitchen when my mom is busy cooking and turn on the music and start dancing with her. They still act like teenagers a lot of the time, and I honestly find it adorable. Sometimes I’ll be standing there and my dad will run into the room and grab her around the waist and tell me, “I just love your mom, I’m so glad I’m married to her!” I have heard both of them express love for each other on numerous occasions, and it is important to me to see how happily married they are.

They also showed us that they loved us. There was never a time I could not ask my parents for help with school work or virtually anything else we were struggling with. I remember that middle school, mostly the beginning of it, was especially difficult for me. My mom would pick me up from school every day and talk to me about my day and just be my friend. I have noticed her doing this with all of the children since, and she told me that she just wanted to be with her kids because she knows that middle school can be a hard time. She always packed lunches for us, even up to high school, and sometimes when I was home for the summer too. Many times they had notes that she would write expressing love and telling us to have a good day. Whenever we came home from school, she would fling open the door with an ecstatic “Welcome home!” She was always sad when the summers ended and she couldn’t have us at home all the time anymore.

This helped foster a lot of love in our home between siblings. Although we have our occasional fights, I have a great relationship with each of my siblings. I believe that a lot of this is because my parents taught us that loving each other is so important. My sister here at college is honestly my best friend in the whole world.

The world has a view on parenthood that ranks it below many other good things in life, such as a successful career. Many times motherhood especially is attacked. President James E. Faust contradicted this notion. He said, “While few human challenges are greater than that of being good parents, few opportunities offer greater potential for joy. Surely no more important work is to be done in this world than preparing our children to be God-fearing, happy, honorable, and productive. Parents will find no more fulfilling happiness than to have their children honor them and their teachings. It is the glory of parenthood. John testified, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 Jn. 1:4.)”

God knows this and wants us to experience it because out of all the jobs he has, the most important is being a professional dad to each of us. He has said that “this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” His children are what bring him the greatest joy, and he wants us to experience that as well.

I bear my testimony that I know that parenthood is an important goal for all of us, no matter how far away it seems right now, and as we live righteously and prepare for it we will be blessed and later our families will be blessed as well. I know that part of God’s eternal plan is for us to be married in the temple and raise eternal families in love and righteousness and that raising children in the church is the best and only way to do that because it is the only true church. I know that he loves each of us and is anxious for our happiness and growth, and that is why he gave us a Savior. I know that through his perfect atonement we can become perfect someday as well and return to live with Him and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

BYU!!

So BYU, formerly ranked #20 beat Oklahoma, formerly ranked #3, 14-13 in their first football game of the 2009 season last Saturday!!! It was such and intense game, and I was pretty much dying the whole 4th quarter. I never liked football until I came to BYU, and now I looove it. I especially love to watch it live, but on TV is still good, especially if it's high def with everyone in your apartment complex! Which is exactly how it was. A guy who lives in Raintree is the son of a manager of Wilson Diamonds, or something like that, so they provided pizza and soda for everyone who came to watch the game in the common area. Today, I just got back from watching the game against Tulane, where we KILLED them btw, and they did the same thing except for at Glenwood this time. This week has been pretty good, I ran into a lot of people I didn't expect to see:

1. Vince Eisinger. I don't know if I've ever mentioned the Eisingers in my blogs before, but Brittany was my best friend as a child, then they moved, so we pretty much lost contact, and then she moved back and now we are still really good friends, I just love her. Anyway, so Vince is apparently in my accounting class, and we ran into each other as I was walking out of a door he was trying to walk into. He's engaged now, which seems super quick to me, but it was just crazy to run into him.

2. Curtis Penfold. Okay, I don't remember him very well, but I remember his dad used to play the piano with his feet. He randomly came and asked to sit at the table Heather and I were sitting at, and we said sure. He asked where we were from, and when we said Maryland, he said "Oh I lived there as a kid, I lived in Laurel, you've probably never heard of it." And we were like... oh contraire! If ever there was a city in Maryland we heard of, it was Laurel! So we figured out our families know each other so that was cool.

I think that's it, I did randomly see a lot of people I know at the game today, too...

Last night was Fall Fest at BYU, so me, Heather, Jordan, Kali, and my new roomie Kayla went. It was a lotta fun, we did speed dating which sucked... most of the boys were freshmen. I think they should be assigned their own tables and not be allowed to mingle with girls older than they are... because they are automatic "no"'s. The way it ran was you wrote down their names, and marked y or n next to them if you wanted to keep in contact. I said y to one, even though I'm not super interested, but he seemed nice. And he wasn't a freshman. So we could hang out. They give both people the other's contact info if both say yes. So I guess we will see... I'll be fine either way, though. We also did an obstacle course which I totally failed at because I was wearing all this super-hero garb, so I was sliding and dying everywhere. Those things are super fun though. The we went to Red Mango, which was also fun. We took a lot of pictures, they're in my "Superhero Day!" album on facebook. I was Fantastic 4, the one Jessica Alba plays. Heather was a Power Ranger, using Kali's costume from last Halloween that we got at DI. It's actually a kid's costume, and Kali cut it so the pants have no waist, and the top only goes past her boobs, so she just wore a shirt under. Kali was Mrs. Incredible. It was really fun, a lot of people complimented us on our costumes. And we took some pretty sweet pictures, too. We also went to Red Mango afterwards. I didn't really like frozen yogurt when I first had it, but Utah is obsessed-- there are only about a million Provo frozen yogurt places, and now I pretty much love it. Anyway, I have a lot of homework I need to be doing if I'm gonna go to Rock the Block tonight!

Love, Me