Married Blog

It is done. Okay, not really. But it's in the works and mostly ready for you. Dave and I now have our "married" blog ready for your viewing. I can't promise any more frequent posts than he and I already do, but let us just say that recently I have been inspired by many of my faithful friends to blog more frequently. I'll try to do better, and so will he.

The Thing is....we've switched over to Tumblr instead of blogger, I hope this doesn't throw off your groove too much. Hopefully our new posts will still come up on you blog rolls, but check in every now and then just to make sure.

Here it is!

http://theheywoods.tumblr.com/

Love to you all!

Too Clever

I know this is going around, but I simple HAD to post it. SO FUNNY. Love.

A New Dawn, A New Day

Alright Alright, so, I may be getting a little excited here. Last night my grandma did not host a "shower" for me, rather it was a "tea". And I would like to clear up any confusion right now and say that there was no actual "Tea" served, rather delux cup cakes, chocolate covered strawberries, candied almonds etc. the purpose for the tea was to have all my relatives who have recently been through a wedding to come together and talk about what they loved about their wedding, what they wish that hadn't spent so much money on, and what was the most important part of their big day. It was VERY helpful. Over whelming?-Yes. I have a long 2.25 months left, but I am resolved to get to work!

Technically, this wasn't a shower, but cousin Ariel and family is moving soon and will not be here when the blessed festivities occur. And so, I present to you, my first wedding gift!....

It's Official

It's official. We are engaged!

When: August 17 2010
Where: Salt Lake

We love you all!

Totally Awesome

One of my favorite movies! I thought this was crazy. Sorry, I don't know why it's a little off center, I tried everything, but it won't totally align. enjoy!

St. George/Birthday Pictures!

This year for my birthday I wanted more than anything to be WARM. So, the whole family (+Dave) took a little jaunt down to St. George to soak up some rays and shed some of those winter pounds. Pictures below are from the birthday celebration and hike to Angels Landing.

Fresh Scent

In all honesty, finals haven't been too painful this semester. Maybe I'm just a better student now that I'm home from my mission, maybe I honestly took easier classes (doubtful), or maybe I've finally got this college thing figured out ( hope so! I started at BYU in Fall of 2005!).

Amidst the studying and finals, the best parts of my day are when I get to walk by this:

I love the blossom smell in the spring. Sometimes I just have to stop and take a couple deep breaths because I know it's only going to last a short while.

Which got me thinking about the finer things of life.

The "small" things I am grateful for today:

-lots of hot water in the shower in my apartment

-Cafe Rio (guilty face)

-Doing homework in the sunshine

-Flip Flops

-Getting Wedding Invites from my friends

-My Mission president's wife called to check up

On a related note. Check out this blog http://1000awesomethings.com/ It's 1000 things of Awesomeness. Pretty Cool!

A Bit of Billy

Over the past couple of years I have acquired a great fondness for the poet Billy Collins. He's clever, witty, funny, and honest. I was thinking about this particular poem the other day amidst my crazy school schedule. Enjoy!

LITANY- By Billy Collins

You are the bread and the knife,         

The crystal goblet and the wine...        

 -Jacques Crickillon  

You are the bread and the knife, 

the crystal goblet and the wine. 

You are the dew on the morning grass 

and the burning wheel of the sun. 

You are the white apron of the baker, 

and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.  

However, you are not the wind in the orchard, 

the plums on the counter, 

or the house of cards. 

And you are certainly not the pine-scented air. 

There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.  

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge, 

maybe even the pigeon on the general's head, 

but you are not even close to being the field of cornflowers at dusk. 

 And a quick look in the mirror will show 

that you are neither the boots in the corner 

nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.  

It might interest you to know, 

speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world, 

that I am the sound of rain on the roof.  

I also happen to be the shooting star, 

the evening paper blowing down an alley 

and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.  

I am also the moon in the trees 

and the blind woman's tea cup. 

But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife. 

You are still the bread and the knife. 

You will always be the bread and the knife, 

not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.

Dream

I woke up this morning very disappointed. I had had this AMAZING experience (in my dream) and I remember consciously thinking, "wow, this would make a GREAT blog post, I can't wait to tell people about it!". And then I woke up.

I decided to write about it anyway.

I was at home recently (last night har!) when my mother asked me to go into her room to grab her hairbrush. I walked in and discovered some rather large (about 4-5 inches long) fuzzy caterpillars. Not just any caterpillars, red and green caterpillars whose heads resembled a shiny reflective silver "shooter" marble. Perturbed by the creatures I went back into the kitchen to grab a tupperware container so that I may dispose of them outside. When I returned to the room they had multiplied faster than rabbits. Instead of a few, there were now dozens!!! I filled the container and dumped them outside my front door. One particularly stubborn caterpillar refused to let go of the bottom of the container. Lifting it above my head to more clearly see the belligerent creature, I gave the container a serious hit and the caterpillar fell into my mouth! I continued foaming at the mouth long after I had spit it out and was thoroughly disgusted. All the while thinking, "Wow, this would make a great blog post"....

I Felt Pretty Cool...

I awoke this morning to a lovely surprise. I had three new emails (this is not the surprise, that there were 3 that is), two of which were from other MTC teachers both asking for subs today. Alright, even though I technically can't sub for them yet, because YESTERDAY was my first day of work, it did make me feel pretty special that I actually received the email. And the best part....One of the emails was from MY mtc teacher! Cool!

I love my new job. After I walked out after 5 hours of training yesterday I was utterly exhausted! I felt like crying (but didn't!) because I had just had a serious emotional workout. I was overwhelmed (by all the new info.), I felt the spirit a lot, and I was SO excited (I grinned the ENTIRE time).

This next week I will do a lot of shadowing and then I get my first district on Wednesday and I start teaching them by myself one week from today. ONE week, that's it.

I'm excited/nervous/overwhelmed, but mostly excited!

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

Rather than ramble off an apology and excuse as to WHY I haven't visited my own blog for the past two months, I thought I would write something I bit more enjoyable.

Generally, I am a pretty happy person. I find so many thing in life that give me joy. Here are a couple of the current things that I love:

Garlic-Lime Salsa (from Walmart) & Cottage Cheese with Chips

Catching Fire By Suzanne Collins

My new job working at the MTC (started today!)

Institute

American Idol (guilty face)

Phoenix weather (and a couple more things about phoenix...)

Tennis

My MAC!

Personal Finance Class (yes, it makes me happy)

Overheard @ BYU -it's a facebook thing

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take

After serious reflection and long hours full of nothing to do as I patiently wait for winter semester to start, I have come up with a list of things I want to accomplish before I head back down to happy valley for good. Here they are:
1-Memorize all the US President's in order
2-Read one book on Church material
3-Read two books on non-church material
4-Play the Piano piece of "Somewhere in Time" perfectly
5-Write 4 blog entries (work in progress!)

As for the non-church books I am having some debates over which books I should select. Those in the running are as follows
Cry the Beloved Country
Love is Eternal (By Irving Stone)
Three Cups of Tea
Left to Tell
Fellowship of the Ring
How Green was my Valley

Any suggestions?

Nauvoo Nostalgia

Here are the BEST 19 sister missionaries in the world.... okay, so maybe that's just my opinion. I sure do miss them though. Summer 2009, unforgettable.

Checking in and ramblings

I can't think of anything I did in the past week that you would want to read about (except for that I actually checked out Dooce.com, my curiosity got the better of me!). I still don't know how to rotate pictures and the mission preparations continue to move forward. So just quickly, I wanted to share this quote-of-the-day from today. I though it....profound :)
"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Oceanside, CA

I figured it out! After long minutes of trying to figure out how to get pictures from my camera to the computer I have met success! (I am the most technologically deficient person I know, sad) Here are a couple photos from this past weekend. The camera was only working for the last 2 days....Taking a walk with Mom. Weirdest question posed: "If you had to have a cartoon caricature on your bathing suit what would it be?" Answers: Jessie (from Toy Story 2) for me, Olive Oil (from Popeye) for Mom, Marlin (from Finding Nemo) for Dad.

I have run into another problem....
I can't figure out how to rotate pictures and all the other photos I wanted to post are vertical. Dang it. Yep, I love being deficient at this computer/blog thing.

I'll just post this one any way because it was taken at Balboa park, one of my favorite places in California. Until someone helps me this out, then ya'll will just have to crain your necks to see it rightly ("rightly"? works for me)Alright, enough of that.

Highlights of Oceanside Vacation 2008
-San Diego Temple-BEAUTIFUL
-WICKED at the Pantageous in LA
-Balboa Park
-First EVER manicure/pedicure
-The lovely Italian men that sang to me at Macaroni Grill ;)
-First time I didn't have to share my bed on vacation
-California Sunshine
-Giving Dad a hard time for getting a Lincoln Town Car as our rental

Back in the House with the Yellow Kitchen

Some Things I have forgotten about living at home:

Wedding Receptions for people in the ward-NOT optional

It's inevitable, parents will wait until the first week you're back to sign up to clean the ward house on Saturday morning.

Free Food, all the time :)

Practicing musical instruments begins at 6:30 am

Bedtime- 10:30 = Heaven

11 year old soccer games-also NOT optional

Mom's friends know more about your personal life than YOU do. *Awkward*

Did I mention free food?

You think more about your friends than when you were actually with them

"Free room and Board" is a misconception; payment is in the form of your employment as a chauffeur, cook, personal tutor etc.

Oh yeah, and uh, free food.

One is Silver and the Other Gold.....

Finals can be stressful. Wow, I think that was the understatement of the century. Even though I only have 2 days left, it feels like I’ll never see the end. However, it’s times like these that I’m grateful for my wonderful friends who help make the stress seem so much less apparent.



Last night I went to the last Jerusalem reunion before everyone leaves for the summer, and people graduate, get married, go on missions, etc. Never mind that the slide show ended up being an HOUR long (heh, yeah, probably the only person who’d be willing to sit through that with me again would be Mom) I got hit with an overwhelming wave of nostalgia. I’m really going to miss everyone. It was with that group of friends that I really learned about pure compassionate service, and the importance of striving for a Zion-like community. I have been so fortunate to have known each and everyone of them, and can honestly say they have all taught me something beneficial for my self improvement.
As I embark on my mission I am sure to gain new friends-companions, service couples, tourists, church members. I look forward to gleaning more light and knowledge from them. How lucky am I that I will get to learn from and form new friendships with such a wide variety of people!
Let me not forget to mention the wonderful consistant friends that help me through the monotony and stress of everyday life. I feel so blessed because although this semester has been stressful, it has been from the labors of good fruit. I know more people on campus this semester more than any other. I feel like I have failed many of them because I don’t have the time to nurish every friendship like I would like to, but I hope that I have been able at least to convey my gratitude in knowing them. It is these people who truly deserve my biggest thanks. What have I done to be so fortunate?
So, to all of you, my wonderful friends of the past, present, and future, (this includes my relatives of course, because you all have been and will continue to be my longest lived and eternal friends) thank you.

Happy Birthday Mom

Well Mom, I'm not sure you remember how to check this, or that I even have a blog, but on the day of your birth I've decided to post 10 Things that I love about you. I won't be able to be there for dinner tonight when we all go around the table and tell you in person, but I hope this will do (especially considering I'm saying 10 things, not 3!)

Ten Things I Love About Mom
1- Extremely Creative: I never had to worry about what a good campaign slogan might be, or how I should answer/ask to a dance because Mom always had the best ideas.

2-Patient: considering how much Mom had to put up with from me through the years, it's amazing she's stuck with it, and continues to stick with it still after all the grief her children cause...:)

3-A Spiritual Beacon: Yes, I chose these words carefully, because this is exactly what she is. She shares light with all who know her.

4-Witty: Unfortunately this desirable character trait did not pass to her oldest daughter, but Mom can make anyone laugh. She's clever, AND she does it without making fun of anything or putting anyone down, now that's something I really admire.

5- Great Cook: The only thing I craved in Jerusalem more than Cafe Rio was mom's homecookin'. She spends a LOT of her time in the kitchen making us healthy meals, and what's more is that they taste really good!

6-Ability to put things in perspective: Mom is a really great objective listener, she can see the solution before she knows the problem. Why do you think I need to call her everyday?

7-Fast Learner: I'm so proud because mom has now mastered the art of text messaging! Also, when I give her fashion advice not only does she listen, but she remembers, so next time she can do it on her own! Well done mom.

8-Gentle/Sensitive Nature: Anyone who knows Mom knows how soft hearted she is. When she has to do something or tell you something hard she agonizes over it before hand for fear of hurting feelings. Everything is delicately put (unless I need a good swift kick, which is probably more often deserved than I actually receive) and only said out of the kindest and most innocent of intentions.

9-Takes Care of her Physical Body: I don't know any other woman who is in better shape than my mom. This is something I admire and am trying to emulate. She REALLY cares about her body and not only uses it well, but feeds it well.

10-Selfless: Her religion, her husband, her children, her friends, always come before herself. So many times she has been there for me when it's been an inconvenient time for her, lets me wear her clothes, take HER car (cause let's face it, I really don't like driving the "Vanimal"). What can I say, she's great.

Well, that's the list. Mom, I hope you have a happy birthday.

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."-Abraham Lincoln

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

I'm taking a study break now. I can think of a lot of things I would rather be doing, but this picture is extrememly appealing. Although, I think I only want to experience that thunderstorm once....