Summertime

"Summertime and the living is easy."

Summer term has been my favorite for the past two years. Something about the sun being up all the time, having classes that start and end before you even know how to pronounce your professor's name correctly, and constantly being in the pool just makes life so wonderful. 

I'm not sure if this summer has beat last summer but it is absolutely fantastic thus far.

We had a mud fight! The construction next to our complex has just been absolutely ridiculous. They take up the entire street when they are there with the parking. They leave us notes on our door that say they are pouring concrete at 4 AM (which I think is against the city noise ordinance) and apologizing for the inconvenience. So we decided to enjoy the construction for once and we had a mud fight.  (For those of you who are wondering, the mud did come out of my white shirt).

I've learned how to longboard. It all started because all of my friends began longboarding. I basically had the choice to learn how to longboard or be totally left out as all of my friends went longboarding. So I decided to try something new. I'm pretty terrible at it but it's still pretty fun.

I shot a real gun for the first time in my life. For some reason I thought the guns we shot at Girl's Camp were real guns. Oh how wrong I was. I shot a revolver and a mag. It was kind of scary but mostly awesome. I even hit some of the targets. The best part of the trip though was watching a watermelon explode after being hit with a rifle bullet.

I won Iron Chef for the first time. Iron Chef was brought to Utah by my friend Gina. It's basically a cooking competition. We pick one secret ingredient, which isn't really a secret ingredient, it's more of a common ingredient that everyone uses in their dish. It was on a Sunday and on this particular Sunday I was giving a talk. So I picked an easy but delicious recipe, peppermint lemonade. Here's the link to the recipe: Peppermint Lemonade

We had a ward camping trip down in Manti, Utah. We saw the Mormon Miracle Pageant which is definitely a bit on the cheesy side but it's still good. It's a pre-recorded soundtrack that was recorded a long time ago. I can't find the exact year it was recorded but from what I can find it looks like it was first recorded in 1970 and if it's been re-recorded it hasn't changed much. The pageant was really good but the camping was even better. We slept under the stars (first time I've ever done that). It was way fun. :)

Once a year Chick-Fil-A hosts cow appreciation day. Basically if you dress like a cow you get a free meal. So we did it! We even went cow-tipping afterwards...

On Monday after FHE I felt like going to grab some shaved ice. So a few of us went over and I ran into my old Young Women's president, Sister Gurr! It was the happiest moment ever. I love her so much. The picture above is from Monday and then the picture on the right is from 2008, four whole years ago! Man, time certainly does fly.

Recently, I've fallen in love with this quote from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin:

"If only we would look beyond our present suffering and see our struggles as a temporary chrysalis. If only we would have the faith and trust in our Heavenly Father to see how, after a little season, then we can emerge from our trials more refined and glorious.

What parent would say to a child, 'Learning to walk is such a painful and difficult experience, you will stumble, you will most likely hurt yourself, you will cry many times when you fall. I will protect you from the struggle?' I have watched our youngest grandson, Seth, as he was learning to walk. Through this process of gaining experience, he now walks with confidence. Could I have said to him, 'Out of my love for you, I will save you from this'? If so, because I could not bear to see him take a tumble at times, he may have never learned to walk. That is unthinkable for a loving parent or grandparent.

The child, if he or she is ever to walk, must pass through the stumbling and often painful process of learning. We encouraged Seth to learn through his experience. Yes, even knowing that the process would be difficult, we knew that the freedom and joy of walking would outweigh any temporary pain or adversity."

I just love this quote so much. It's simply fantastic. Sometimes we don't realize that our stumbles and falls are just helping us learn to do something even greater in the end.

I've also fallen in love with this quote from Stephen King:

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.”
 

I've never been one to let go of friends easily. I understand that people always come into our lives for a reason if only for a season. But unless I can see why the season is supposed to end I struggle to let go of the person. I've recently learned though that it's okay to let someone go even if you can't see the reason why or don't understand why the season is now. 

That's all folks!