It's been a long time, sunshine

It is SO BEAUTIFUL here in Provo. As I was outside enjoying the sun with some friends, I mentioned how much I love Spring. I said, "Everything is like a baby." And they laughed.

OK. Maybe this is a funny way to look at it, but it works for me. All the flowers are new (and baby-like), the trees have new leaves and the birds sing in the morning again.

I love fresh starts. It's a miracle to see how the earth starts anew after a long season of dreariness and dormancy. The good news is that we have opportunities for new starts quite often.

At this time of transitions, I hope everyone I love ends up doing the things that make them happiest; I wish you all a great new beginning.

Working weekend

It felt so good to finish finals. This semester was very good for me; I learned many new things and expanded my skills greatly. After weeks of studying and working on projects it was good to get my hands dirty this weekend.

First project: unloading 3 Layers of Heaven

The house we've lived in for the last year has been really good to us. One benefit it provided was plenty of storage space. But ample storage space isn't good when it's time to move out. WHAT A MESS! I didn't realize how large the house was until it was time to clean it. It was especially hard because Mattheu from England, our property manager, is very particular in his cleaning inspection.

On my way home to Idaho I was able to help my friend conduct some focus groups. It was a good experience once we got "un-lost." Sometimes Google maps are wrong, I guess.

Second project: renovating Aubry and Trevor's new house

My sister Aubry and her husband Trevor just bought a house in Heyburn, ID. I'm so proud of them for their growedupness. The house was quite "fixer-upper" when they began, but with a week or so of hard work and lots of help, it looks AMAZING now. It was good to spend a few days helping them out. Here's a bead board wainscot I put up in the kitchen.



I didn't, however, touch the wiring.



It is good to be at home, but now it's time to head back to Provo and real life. I look forward to a fun summer there!

In Loving Memory

Today I’m thinking about my amazing father. This day marks the fourth anniversary of his death. Dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was twelve years old and fought a courageous battle with the disease for ten years until he eventually could fight no more.


Although I admit I occasionally felt sorry for my situation when I was young, I am truly grateful now for the experience of watching my father face his trial with faith and determination. The positive attitude he maintained, in spite of his tremendous struggle, taught me more than I could have learned from him had he been a “normal” dad in good health.

When someone we love dearly passes on, they are not completely removed from us; there’s a part of them that remains as part of who we are. Although our faith teaches our hearts they are spiritually alive in a place superior to the earth, we still long to be with them again. The miracle in all of this is that as we emulate the qualities we admired in our loved one we help their legacy continue. We can help do the things they desire to have done on the earth--the things they would do if they were permitted to stay here longer.

The other day this song randomly popped up as I was listening to Pandora Internet Radio (this is just a version I found on YouTube):



I think it’s important for us to remember that those who have died aren’t gone to us. They live on in the world of spirits, waiting anxiously (as are we) for our joyous reunion. They are doing important work.

I know we can have special moments that help us feel connected to them. I love the quote from Scottish Poet James Barrie that President Monson always says:

“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”

During the hard times—the “December”—days I hope we can all remember our blessed memories that we hold sacred. I am so grateful for the memories God graciously allowed me to create with my inspirational father. I hope to use those memories of his strong character to pattern my life after.

To do: blog

I've been a bad blogger lately.

With final exams and projects, it's hard to find time to post. I guess I should put my blog on my to-do list.



I know that some people are huge fans of making lists. I'm usually not one of them. But lately I have had to to keep track of everything I'm supposed to be doing. Hint: Gmail has an amazing to-do list; look in labs.

The downside to making lists is that at the end of the day, sometimes you are dissatisfied with the number of items you checked out that day. Some days, however are super-productive. Yesterday was one of those days.

Because hardly anyone was on campus, I was able to focus really well. I love my newsroom friends and buddies from the Brimhall building a lot, but sometimes I spend more time chatting than working. Whatever.

It feels great to tie up loose ends. It feels great to reach the culmination of a semester of learning and growth. I feel blessed to have learned from amazing professors this semester. I also am so privileged to have made some wicked sweet new friends.

I guess I can check another great semester off my list of things to do. (If I survive finals, that is)

Weekend Eve

The day before Christmas = Christmas Eve.
The day before the weekend = weekend eve.
The day before the start of Easter weekend = today. Blessed day.

I can't tell you how excited I am for it to be the weekend. This has been one of those crazy weeks.

And it started on Sunday. It was great to be inside the Conference Center to hear the inspired messages from amazing leaders.

Here are some of my favorite quotes, as written in my article:

“One of the greatest consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path alone we do not have to do so,” Elder Holland said. “His solitary journey bought great company to us for our little version of that path.”

“Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are,” Elder Holland said.

It was great to have the transcripts of the talks to follow along with because I could hear and read the messages simultaneously.

Monday turned out to be a crazy day too. It all started when I picked up a copy of the newspaper and saw the worst possible typographical error on the front page. Under a picture of the Quorum of the Twelve it said, “Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates and other general authorities raise their hands in a sustaining vote. . . .”

That's right. "Apostates."

Now that would be a relatively minor mistake on any other campus, but here at BYU it was a big deal, considering the relationship between the people whose title was misspelled and the university.

Immediately the thousands of newspapers were pulled off the newsstands. The department wanted to take quick action so I was assigned, with my good friend, to write a story to be posted online as soon as possible explaining the situation.

Here's the link to the article: http://newnewsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/72090

I hoped, for the sake of the department and university, the story about the mistake wouldn't spread. But it was picked up and written about by many news outlets and is now all over the web and other media.

The week has been crazy since then. The end of the semester is a hectic time. On this day of Passover, I am very excited for Easter. And not just because it is on a weekend.

Spring Break

This time of year is great for many reasons. The weather is starting to get nicer (or at least that's how it is supposed to be), the grass is getting green and school is wrapping up for the semester. But with the end of the semester comes lots of work and stress.

Most students have a spring break that lets them get away from the stresses of school for a bit and provides a renewed energy to finish the term. BYU doesn't.

These last few weeks have been hectic at school and I was going CRAZY! But a couple of things the last few days have been a mental spring break of sorts and helped me get my sanity back.

On Thursday, my roommates and I decided to go to Salt Lake. We went to the temple and the film "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration."

It was so good to be in such a place of serenity and beauty for a couple of hours. I turned my cell phone off as I entered the temple, and was completely free to focus on spiritual things. It was a great opportunity to re-evaluate my priorities in life. Of course, after it was all over it was a drag to turn my cell phone and see missed text messages and voice mails. I'm in the middle of a fund raising campaign right now and am constantly contacted by confused students. Aah!

The movie was fantastic and helped me realize my trials are pretty insignificant compared to the ones my ancestors faced. I am truly blessed.

But the "spring break" didn't end on Thursday. The LDS General Conference started today. I spent 6 hours listening to inspired messages that helped me feel closer to the Lord.

For the Priesthood session, we went to a nearby church building. Because there is such a high concentration of Mormons in my neighborhood, the place was filled to capacity with people watching the satellite broadcast. The only seats we could find were in an interesting place.

This place was the one room we knew wouldn't be full of men: THE MOTHER'S LOUNGE.









I guess you can tell from the pictures that we had "filling" experience, both spiritually and physically. The talks were amazing, and so were the chairs. I am excited to be at the Conference Center tomorrow to cover the event for The Daily Universe. Yes, the fun continues.

A good day

So, today started out as "one of those days." When my alarm went off at 5:45 this morning, I had little motivation to get out of bed. But I put on my gym clothes and headed to my car.

And it was covered with snow.

I really am not anti-snow, but at this time of year? Come on! While cleaning off my windows, I broke my little scraper thing.

"Dangit," I thought. Today is going to stink.

But things got better. I was able to spend lots of focused time in the newsroom and knocked out a few articles. I'll have one tomorrow about Obama's trip to Europe and another about a book drive a student is doing. (newsnet.byu.edu)

I also got my media credentials to General Conference. I am so excited to have the opportunity to have unique access to the amazing event, and report on it for students to read in the newspaper. I hear there's a special media room backstage along with opportunities to get pretty close to the action. Don't worry; I'll blog about it Monday.

After not eating all day, I was so glad that I ordered TONS of pizza for our Public Relations Student Society activity.

Tonight, we had our elections for next year. This past year I served as vice president of fund raising. I ran to become the president of the organization for next year--and won.

I'm excited to have a chance to serve with a great group of people on the executive board who were elected tonight. It feels like I am in high school again because I have lots of friends in my major who I work with very closely.

Best news of all: I'm going to San Diego. That's where our first conference of the year will be held. As I sit here in my now wrinkled shirt and loosened tie, I'm glad that a day that starts out snowy and miserable can turn out with sunny and warm prospects.