10 Days of Relaxation

I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving for months. This year, I missed some classes to prolong my break as much as possible. 10 days of not thinking about school has been awesome. I got really on-top of my work before the break, so I would not have to think about it. 

My break started with a Ditto tradition known as AGW which stands for All Girls' Weekend. I flew into Spokane on Thursday, November 20th. We left for AGW Friday morning which was in Yakima, Washington. I had such a fun weekend! On Friday night, an awesome cook came and taught us how to make tamales and carne asada. We also made homemade tortillas. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. The meal was absolutely delicious. (I don't know that I will ever attempt it on my own though.) 

On Saturday we got pedicures which was enjoyable. My feet are quite tickleish though which always makes things interesting. Too bad nobody will get to see my cute purple toenails because we are in the dead of winter in Rexburg. There were only 2 workers for the the 8 of us getting pedicures, so it took awhile. When it was finally my turn to get my toes painted, my feet were so pruney and my water was cold. The massage chair was definitely a highlight.

Saturday evening we went and saw the movie, "Mockingjay." This was my favorite movie in the series. We went to a really nice theater that serves dinner while you are watching the movie. Even though I could hardly walk after eating too much at Olive Garden for lunch, I found myself ordering a pizza. ( I may or may not have undone my pants at one point during the movie. ) No children are allowed in the theater and I was asked for my I.D when entering and then received a congratulations for barely making it. I sat next to my sister-n-law, Sara, and during one part of the movie, she was caught off guard and jumped and screamed while grabbing my shoulder. This scared me. 

Andrew finally arrived on Wednesday and I was so excited to see him. We spent 6 nights apart. He had a mandatory field trip on Tuesday to Utah which was kind of annoying. He finally made it though, despite the dreadful road conditions. 

One of my favorite parts of this vacation has been having the time to read. I haven't really had the time to read anything other than my textbooks lately, but this trip, I have read 2 fantastic books. The first book is called, "The Rent Collector" and it is by Camron Wright. I highly recommend this book. It's about a family that lives in the dump and what they do to survive. The second book I read is called, "Because of Mr. Terupt" by Rob Buyea. This book screams Jenna. It is about a 5th grade class. Each chapter is written by a student in the class. The book is broken down into each month of the school year. An event happens in the middle of the school year that crushes the children and teaches them some valuable lessons. I had a hard time putting this book down. Read it!

I'm sad this break is coming to an end (we drive back to Rexburg tomorrow), but I am also ready. Only a couple more weeks of school left and then the semester will be over. Christmas break will be here before I know it. 

Hope

Andrew and I have moved A LOT in the almost 2 years that we have been married. (5 times to be exact.) Based on the number of times we've moved, you're right to assume that we like moving. Wrong. It is not fun. We will be moving in May of next year and I don't even want to think about it. (But, this move means we're finally done with this college thing which is exciting!) Anyway, because we have moved so much, we have been in multiple wards.

Andrew and I seem to be walking targets for speaking assignments in church. We really have nobody to blame but ourselves though. It seems to be the thing to do to ask the couple that just moved in to speak in Sacrament Meeting. We have lived in our apartment since September and I bet you can guess who got asked to speak in church today.

Because of all the practice I've had, I am finally getting better at not being nervous. I used to get so nervous my entire body would shake and everyone in the audience could see my skirt swaying back and forth due to my fear. Boy am I glad those days are over. Today I was pretty calm. I still do write my talks out word-for-word which helps me.

Andrew and I were both given the topic of hope. At first, we were both a little concerned because we were given the same topic and no specific talk to go by. I think our talks turned out well. It's always such a good feeling to be done speaking. What a relief. We celebrated by having homemade Cafe Rio. Yumm.

I based my talk on President Uchtdorf's talk from 2008 called, "The Infinite Power of Hope." I used Stephanie Nielson as well as Elizabeth Smart as examples of hope. Both of these women were put in situations that are incomprehensible and both didn't lose hope. Meeting both of these women is definitely on my bucket list. 

I want to share a story from Elizabeth Smart's book that gave her hope. (pg. 131) One night she was starving and extremely thirsty. She hadn't had water in a very long time. Elizabeth went to bed and had a restless night because she was so thirsty. In the middle of the night, she woke up and noticed a cup of water. It was cold and filled to the brim. At first she thought she was dreaming, but she touched it and knew it was real. Making sure her captors weren't awake, Elizabeth drank the cup of water and said it was the best-tasting water that she had ever had. She says that she knows this water came from God.

Even in such a horrible situation, Elizabeth was still able to have hope. Luckily her family didn't lose hope either because she did end up returning to them several months later.

I'm grateful for the opportunity that we had to speak. I love hearing Andrew give a talk. He never lets me read his talk beforehand, so I'm never sure what he is going to say, but it's always good. :)

The good news is that we are off the hook until at least May for speaking. Hooray!