Sister Stalker

This weekend I had the chance to spend some time with my little sister while the parents are off playing in Dallas. Before I left, I dropped her off at work (taking my cousin Sara with me) and Emi so kindly got us a rice bowl and drinks...free of charge! Isn't she great?! (p.s. Emi works at Rumbi's..yum!)

When she left us to go work, I decided to take a picture...or two...or more. It turned into "sister stalking". Here is a documentation of the adventures of Sara and Alyssa while stalking Emi.

There she is..serving a table

Walking away from said table

Still serving this table. They were kind of needy

Still serving them. See what I mean?!

Looking around to see where else she's needed. So good at customer service!

But she eventually did get to help another table!

She wouldn't take a picture with me, so this was the best I could get while she walked by

Sara and I hid any mess we may or may not have made. Rice bowl? What rice bowl?!

My encouraging partner in crime. She made that face on purpose. Silly Sara Lara.

Changing Times

It's crazy how fast time can change things. The number of friends I have getting married has calmed down significantly and now I'm on to my friends having babies. Two of my best friends are due in the next few weeks and I am very excited for them. I'm claiming these kids as my niece and nephew since I don't have any of my own. I'm pretty sure their moms don't mind :)

Yesterday I went to lunch with some girls I was friends with in elementary school. How many of you can say that?! It was a lot of fun. It's interesting to see where all our our lives have gone so far. Alisa is married and her daughter, Reagan, is almost 2 (isn't she adorable?!). Melissa is also married and pregnant with her first baby. Carli just got married this last year. Seeing a trend?? I mean, that's not all they have going on in their lives of course, but I was a little worried I'd be left out since I'm in a drastically different stage of life but it wasn't too bad. They didn't even press about dating, so it was lots better than family holiday parties. haha But really, I had a ton of fun with these girls and I hope that we can get together again soon!

Tomorrow is a big day. I have my interview for a job I really, really hope to get. I'm super nervous about it. It's a really big deal, my first potential big girl job. I know all but one person on the hiring committee and that almost makes it worse to sit there and try to market yourself as a potential employee. I'll let you know if I get it or not but please, if you're reading this, pray for me. Pray for me to be calm, to do the best interview I have the capacity to do, and then for the hiring committee to make the right decision for the program, whether or not that includes me. Hopefully it does though. My interview is at 12:20 tomorrow and they're also interviewing on Tuesday so depending on when you read this, pray for whatever is relevant. Thanks :) Greatly appreciated!

Well, I should go get ready for bed so I'm as rested as possible tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep! Good night!

It's an exciting week

I'm sure those people who I see often (namely my roommates and coworkers) are probably super sick of hearing me talk about this, but I can't help it! I'm not even going to apologize because I'm not sorry. Two of my friends return from their missions!!!

Kenzie "Gert" Lawlor is home already! She went to the Omaha, Nebraska, Winter Quarters Visitors Center mission. She even got to meet my friend Stacey Stanger and my cousin Marci Atkin! I was reunited with her this afternoon and it was a joyous occasion. This girl is hilarious and I'm so glad she's back. Here's us like 3 years ago at a Real Salt Lake soccer game. We always have a good time!

Then this coming Wednesday, my bestie Deborah Teuscher comes home!!!! I'm so excited!!! Des and I are driving everyone around us nuts with the excitement, even her mom. haha We're trying to figure out the soonest we can see her. If it was up to us we'd be at the airport, but that isn't going to happen, so hopefully Wednesday night! She is at the Rochester, NY, Hill Cumorah Visitors Center mission. Everyone keeps saying "oh she's back already? That was fast!" but no, folks. This has been a LONG mission for some of us. She's one of my very best friends that I was used to going to for everything in my life, so it's been rough having her gone. It's going to be wonderful having her back!!!

This is us getting ready for the school's Mardi Gras party a couple years ago. It's going to be so good to have her back! By the way, you may recognize her from last month's edition of the Ensign. No big deal.

A lot has changed in the last year and I don't expect everything to be the same, but it's always nice to have your friends home.

Forget Me Not

Last night I went to the General Relief Society broadcast with my roomies. See...there we are.

Our first roommate pic. How precious. We decided to make a day of it and went to the Gateway. While the other two shopped I enjoyed the nice weather outside and then enjoyed Barnes and Nobles' free WiFi when the sun got too hot for me. We then went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Maybe it's what I got, but it was meh. On our way back to the car we stopped in at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got a couple goodies.

The talks were great, of course but my favorite was definitely President Uchtdorf's. That man is amazing! His talk particularly touched me and I feel like sharing it. He started by talking about Forget Me Not flowers and then went on to give us 5 "Forget me nots". I'm going to write them down and then if I have thoughts on them, I will share:

1) Forget not to be patient with yourself

This one is so important. We really are so hard on ourselves all the time. God knows we're not perfect. We know we're not perfect. And guess what? Everyone else knows we're not perfect and they don't expect us to be! While we may compare ourselves to others during very human moments of weakness, we have to remember to be patient with our short comings. Nobody else is perfect either.

2) Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice.

While he used a couple of silly examples to illustrate this one, I liked the general message. So many times I think we are humans forget what a good sacrifice really is. This is when the "Good, Better, Best" philosophy comes in handy. "Am I committing my time and energies to those things that matter most?"

3) Forget not to be happy now

Oh boy. This is one I have struggled with lately, if you couldn't tell from my last post. I heard him say this and I wanted to stand up and say "Sorry, President! I'll be better I swear! You don't need to single me out like that". Ok, I didn't really think that. But I did feel like he was talking to me. It's a nice reminder. Be happy NOW.

4)Forget not the "why" of the Gospel

Awesome statement. So many members get so caught up in doing everything right, in attending to everything that needs to be done and trying to be the best at it that they lose sight of why they're doing it in the first place. This Gospel is not about one upping your neighbors or the leaders from the year before. It's about individual improvement and the journey to exaltation. It's about love, service and charity. It's about following the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and being able to live again with our Father in Heaven and our families forever.

5)Forget not that the Lord loves you

This seems silly at first. Of course God loves us. We're his children. But that's what's beautiful about it. He loves us BECAUSE we are HIS children. It's something we hear a lot (and occasionally sing about) but do we really take it to heart. It's not a metaphor. God is my father and I am His daughter. Literally.

I know I'm not a parent, but as a child I believe that there is no love more pure than that between a parent and child. It's the most natural relationship and form of love. I know that because God is my father, He will always love me and watch out for me. What more can you need?

Before he ended his talk, President Uchtdorf said something to the effect of the Forget me not flower being a symbol of the small things that make life sweet.

We need to learn to cherish our own, daily "forget me nots"

Gratitude

One of my new favorite things to do is sit on my balcony. Even though it's kinda chilly out right now and I definitely need to get to bed really soon, I just linger out here, enjoying the night air. I love just sitting outside and thinking. I love watching the sun set, looking at the stars and trying to catch a glimpse of lightening out on the horizon. I feel at peace out here. It's totally a stress reliever for me.

I've been a terrible blogger lately. I still read everyone else's but I've been terrible at updating. I can't promise that I'll change any time soon, but a plea for more posts to read on a friend's blog inspired me. And since she's moving half way across the world next week, it's the least I could do. :)

Something I really need to work on is gratitude. Lately I've been feeling very selfish, impatient and down on myself and the things I'm missing in my life. I have to constantly remind myself that I have a great life. I have an awesome apartment with great roommates. I have a good job for the time being and prospects for an even better job. I have the Gospel and a Father in Heaven and Savior who are aware of me and always there for me. I have an awesome family and parents I know I can always turn to. My car works, I have a new computer (I bought a Macbook Pro by the way...), and I have all my basic needs met. I'm educated, I'm intelligent, I'm healthy. My body functions properly and I have legs capable of getting me up the two flights of stairs to my apartment...and office now that I think of it.

I read a quote today that said "Nature, Time and Patience are the three best physicians". I completely concur. Although the patience one is a little hard to access sometimes. haha I have to remember that things that worry me, hurt me and cause me stress will one day be gone and replaced with other things that do the same thing to me. I just have to learn how to handle each situation and pray for the help I need.

Things will start to look up and until then, they certainly are not bad! I have to remember that.

TOU Half Marathon

I'm sure some of you are sick of hearing about my half marathon but I just loved it soo much! I'm not even kidding. I had a grin either literally on my face or was thinking how fun it was the whole time. Now you may be thinking "what could possibly be fun about getting up at 4:30 am to go run 13.1 miles?" My response, what could be more fun!? Even though I admittedly have motivation issues when it comes to running/working out, once I'm out there doing it, I feel amazing. Racing is even better! Nothing makes me feel more alive, more aware of myself, than running and especially racing. I feel strong, I feel invincible, I feel like nothing can bring me down.

I was really nervous for this race. I signed up for it back in April because it was something I had always wanted to do. My training wasn't completed as well as it should have been. So when I was getting ready for bed and found myself knowing my time was up for training, I was nervous.

I got up at 4:30 and at 5:00 am, Desiree picked me up and then we picked up Whitney before heading off to the finish line. After waiting in line, we boarded a big yellow school bus and heading toward the start line. The bus kept going...and going...and going. There were many times when I thought "ok we've gone far enough...bus, you can pull over now!" But the bus didn't. Not until we got ALL the way up to the start line. To see the milage I had to cover was intimidating! It was a little chilly up there but nothing too terrible. After a trip to the potty and some jumping around to stay warm, we lined up at the start line (by time...a very clever way to do it!) and after what seemed like forever, the final gun went off and the race started.

there were lots of porta potties...lots!

My friends soon left me behind (I tend to start slow) and I was on my own, just running. Within the first mile I started to feel great. I was in my element. I started looking around me at the beautiful canyon I was in and truly enjoying the moment. I even took pictures as I ran. Yes, you read that right. I took pictures with my iPod as I ran. I was having too good of a time to care what anyone else thought! As I listened to my playlist I had made for the race, mouthed along to the words and took pictures of the beauty around me, I felt to lucky to be running that race, so lucky to have a body capable of running and lucky to live where I do.

The race went well and thanks to my shot blocks I used (heaven sent! I would NOT have made it without them!) and also the positive atmosphere my music and all the people cheering along the sidelines created, I had so much fun. I kept thinking, ok, at some point this is going to start to suck. But you know, it never did. Not that it wasn't challenging! It was very challenging! But with each mile marker I was just so proud of myself for running another mile. I never would have thought I'd be able to run that far.

The last two miles were the hardest. I was tired and I could tell I was getting close to the end, but not close enough. The miles lasted longer and just when I was convinced I must have just not seen the last mile marker, I would pass it and know I wasn't as far as I thought I was. Then, I saw the finish line. It was still quite a ways down the road, so I knew I couldn't get into full force mode just yet. But I finally got close enough to kick it into gear and then I ran harder and faster than I have in a long time. I crossed the finish line and felt so great! My goal had been to complete the race at a 10:00 min/mile pace, which would have been a little more than 1:10:00. I finished at 1:05:28.3. That put me at about a 9:40 mile/min average. I am so proud of myself (little bragging moment) and I cannot wait for the opportunity to try it again. I definitely want to do another half marathon. I've caught the bug and I hope it doesn't ever go away!

I'm so happy I did this. I proved to myself that I'm stronger than I thought I was. It was the perfect end to this summer. A stronger, better, more empowered Alyssa.

A Manly Day

Today, I accidentally had a manly day. Accidentally, because all of the events were not planned. Here's what all went down:

In the morning I went shooting for a Relief Society activity. I'm in the presidency in my ward and we had talked about doing a shooting activity for about a month. The boys get to do fun stuff like that, so why should we be expected to sit in the church and paint cheesy sayings on blocks of wood? (or some other equally dumb craft) The Bishop was a little hesitant to let us do it but he let us as long as ONE boy went with us. I was kinda upset about that because they didn't ask one of US went with them when they went shooting to make sure they didn't blow each other up. But whatever. It was super, super fun. I loved it!

After we got back from shooting, my roommate Kaela and I went to Walmart to buy a new bookshelf for me. After that, we went to a couple different stores before we just went to a furniture store and I bought a bed frame for my new QUEEN size bed I'm getting next week! (from my lovely friend Julia G. Potter. She is a gem and a half!) We then took them both over to my new place and spent a couple hours assembling my bed frame and my new bookshelf. They're looking pretty good! Did I mention they were heavy and we took them up 3 flights of stairs? Yeah, we're tough. (yes, this is what my bookshelf looks like, minus the stuff on it)

The manliness took a break for bit while we went to Ross and found a steal on new bedding for my new bed (it's DANG cute! Pictures to come when I put my room together). But then the manliness picked back up when Dumb and I bought a family size pizza from Papa Murphy's and all four roommates basically devoured it while watching Northern Exposure (90s TV show).

After an episode (ok, two episodes...we're kind of obsessed), Girl and I went to see Captain America to top off our Manly day! It was a super good movie! I enjoyed it a lot. Plus I feel like there will be more Captain America movies to come, so I feel good about it.

All in all, it was a very good day! A productive day, even! Next week I will finish moving all the way in to my new place (Tuesday is the goal!) and then THURSDAY I leave for NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!! Bah! I can't wait. I'm also in the process of getting things fixed on my car. I have a busy week ahead! Good thing I have a "day of rest" tomorrow to save up my energy :)