FHE scavenger hunt

Yesterday for Family Home Evening my “family” and I did a scavenger hunt, and it was a blast. We had to do everything from shoot a 3 pointer on the basketball court to giving out numerous “high-fives” in order to win. As we were going to different apartments in our ward I realized how many people I didn’t know and who didn’t know me, and that made me realize something. It made me realize how important it is to put yourself out there and to be kind. I am a very naturally shy person, and I usually have to psych myself up before I will talk to someone new, but when I put myself out there last night, people were very open and kind to me. I met several new people in my ward and felt great afterwards. And I don’t know if you can necessarily call this “bucket list worthy”, but I have made a personal goal with myself to be friendlier. I am going to start out small with something like giving one compliment a day and by just smiling at people. Eventually I hope I will be able to make friends wherever I am and be able to comfortably chat with anyone J

You're kidding right?

"When I'm not working, I am the laziest person. I can literally lie on a couch and watch television for 15 hours. I hate people who say 'Oh, I’m addicted to working out', I just want to punch those people in the face." -Jennifer Lawrence

Maybe I’m the only one that can relate to this statement, but come on, how can you be addicted to RUNNING?! You know what I’m addicted to? Cookie dough. I think that’s more normal.

If you know anything about me you know that I dread exercise almost as much as I love food, which is a very bad combination. But almost a year ago I did something that I thought I would never be able to do— I completed a half marathon. It’s true that I was slow and that I did have to stop to walk multiple times, but the point is I did it.

And no matter how much I hated it, that experience taught me an important lesson. It taught me that hard work can break the boundaries we put on ourselves. I’ve always told myself that I’m not an athlete, and whenever someone tried to convince me to go running or join track I told them “it wasn’t my thing.” I may not be what you would stereotypically label as an athlete, but when I worked hard I did something that I said I couldn’t do countless times.

Next item on the bucket list? Run a full marathon.

I hope they call me on a mission

 I hope they call me on a mission, when I have grown a foot or two…. Or when I turn 19 J

With the recent announcement that women can now serve a mission at the age of 19 (instead of 21) I have added something new to my bucket list! I am excited to say that I have officially started my paperwork for serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I can’t wait to go. It has been a crazy ride for me ever since President Monson got up in the last General Conference and changed the face of missionary work. I never thought a mission was for me before that day, but ever since then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I went back and forth for a long time, and I didn’t want to make my decision right when I heard the announcement because I didn’t want to get caught up in the excitement and make the wrong decision.  But after much thought and prayer I have finally decided there is no better place I could be next fall than serving my Heavenly Father wherever he sees fit. I love the Gospel and I can’t wait to share that love with others!

Short News Break

I know I just finished telling you all about I will be sticking with my bucket list theme for the blog, but that’s not exactly true… I will still be throwing in the occasional news update in order to keep up with my special project, which is to watch the news at least an hour a week in order to stay up with current events and improve my writing.

So anyway, when I was watching the news this week I learned how the Pope is elected, which I thought was extremely interesting! I’ve been a member of the LDS Church my whole life so I know a lot about it but I don’t know much about any other religion. For those of you who may be uninformed like me, here’s one thing I found interesting: after each round of voting in the Vatican they burn the votes. When there isn’t a 2/3^rds majority vote they add a chemical to the voting slips in order to make the smoke turn black, signifying that a decision on the new pope has not been reached. Then when a consensus is finally made the Vatican burns the votes again, but this time without the special chemical, letting off a white smoke, letting the crowd waiting outside know that a new pope has been chosen.

Becoming a Fry Cook

This title is for you, Kiersten!

Anyway… As I have mentioned a few times in previous blog posts, I currently work at In-N-Out Burger in Orem, Utah. Before you scoff at me for working in the fast food business let me just tell you that my job is great. It is the perfect college job because it pays well, I can have a free meal every time I work, and they are really flexible to work your schedule around classes and all the other craziness.  

Now that that’s cleared up, I want to tell you about my current In-N-Out goal. My goal is to go from a level 3 to a level 4 before I transfer to the In-N-out in Centerville at the end of the semester.  At In-N-Out there are seven different levels of employees and each time an employee is certified in a higher level they receive a raise. As a level 3 I am specifically good for working the drive through, and I got my raise by becoming certified in taking orders over a head set, etc. For my level 4 though I have to learn how to make fries, which is not as easy as it sounds haha My goal is to become a “certified fry cook” by the end of April!

Hello Sunshine!

With the warm weather (okay well warm for Utah) I have been thinking a lot about summer recently and I can’t wait! I will be moving back up to my home in Salt Lake City and working full-time at In-N-Out, or possibly getting a second job. The details are a little shaky still, but the point is it is going to be nice to have a break from school. College has been a major adjustment and I think I need some time to recuperate haha

This brings me to another bucket list item, which may in fact be impossible, but that I am still going to try to do this summer. It is my goal this summer to be active and to spend so much time outside that I get a tan for the first time in my life. I’m not saying like a slightly darker shade of white like usual, but full on golden brown. I realize that this is most likely physically impossible (if you have seen my parents you would understand), but hey a girl can dream right? Really I just want to get out there this summer. I want to go on a road trip with my best friend, go on countless hikes, rock climb, swim… ah. All I can say is that summer cannot come soon enough!

Who knew I would like blogging?

This blog has unintentionally turned into a continual bucket list, but I am okay with it. At first I thought I would only post a few times about my “bucket list” items, but the more I wrote, the more I realized how many more goals I had to write down!  I realized that this blog is mostly just for me anyway because I’m usually the only one who reads my required three blog posts a week haha I started this blog because I had to, and I had no intention of keeping it around when writing 150 was over. But now I think that having a blog of goals will be a great motivation to me and will be interesting to look back on as my goals in life change. I have heard that you are much more likely to reach your goals if you tell others about them, so I figured this would be a good first step in becoming a goal reacher rather than just a goal maker. Even though I won’t post three times a week anymore I think I will keep this blog around, because it will be nice to have a place that I can always come and write down what I want to do before I “kick the bucket”