festival of colors: round 2

If you remember, a year ago we attended this very same event! The festival of colors is a Hindu celebration at one of their temples. I honestly do not know much more about the religious background of the event but it is the thing to do for BYU students :)  I had a great time with the people in our little group and I am so glad that they came with us! (Thanks Kim, Derek and Rowley!!) Getting this stuff out of my blonde hair, however, proved yet again to be extremely difficult. A small risk I was willing to take.

Let's just start off with my favorite picture of the day :)

Rowley, Derek, and Kim

the hiding place

A few weeks ago I finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. It is a true story of a Christian woman and her family in the midst of World War II in the Dutch town of Harlem. Because of the strong Christian beliefs of the ten Boom family, they are obligated and devotedly help their Jewish friends in any way possible. While they struggled daily to keep the Jews safe, the ten Boom family risked their own lives and safety. The inevitable happens as they are discovered by the Gestapo and suffer the consequences of helping Jewish people. This book tells their whole story.

I don't know exactly why but I have always loved reading of the accounts of World War II. It is such a grim and low time in history but yet, such a reminder of the sanctity of human life and of choice. The Hiding Place gave me a new outlook and challenge my own faith in ways. Would I have the strength to do what these women (main characters and sisters Corrie and Bestie) had to do? Would I have their faith in every little thing in their times of desperation and seemingly hopeless times? I honestly do not think I would be able to stand as strong as these women did.

This book was one that brought me strength in knowing that there are genuinely good people out there who are trying their best. It reaffirmed my knowledge that God loves me and is aware of me. It humbled me. It helped me remember that bad things DO happen to good people. Terrible and unimaginable things happen in this world. But God is over all, and he cares for us. Most of the time He will not take away the agency of His children even if they are choosing to use their agency in bad ways. That was his greatest gift of all to us all. That is all that we truly own in this life, our agency, and it made me reflect on am I using my ability to choose in the best ways? As I read through the pages of this book I enjoyed learning more about myself as I reflected on these things.

There were so many great quotes from this book that I loved. I'll paste in a few of them (this ended up being harder than I expected... I just love so many of the quotes!). But if you have not read this book already, it is a MUST read. With so many great messages and such a great hope, there is not a single person who would not benefit from this book, regardless of your religious background or situation. We all need to remember that there is hope and that we are loved.



"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength"

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

“If God has shown us bad times ahead, it's enough for me that He knows about them. That's why He sometimes shows us things, you know - to tell us that this too is in His hands.” 

“And for all these people alike, the key to healing turned out to be the same. Each had a hurt he had to forgive.”

“All through the short afternoon they kept coming, the people who counted themselves Father's friends. Young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate servant girls—only to Father did it seem that they were all alike. That was Father's secret: not that he overlooked the differences in people; that he didn't know they were there.”

“Surely there is no more wretched sight that the human body unloved and uncared for.” 

"Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings, Corrie. It's something we make inside ourselves.”

“Do you know what hurts so very much? It's love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.” 

the birthday boy!

Monday was Josh's birthday and we celebrated with school and work! Woohoo :) I am only partially joking here. We had classes and work all day, but we did manage to find time to do some fun things! We had a little break in between classes so we decided to go bowling. We have not gone bowling in a long time and we still had our free game just waiting to be used at the BYU bowling alley. It was the perfect time! I even whipped out some Martinelle's sparkling cider to celebrate ;) Then right after I finished work and Josh was out of his evening class we went out to dinner with Josh's grandparents. They came down from Park City to take us out for Josh's birthday and it was such a great present! I always love getting to see them. After that we went back to all the homework that was due the next day. I would still say that it was a successful and fun day.

Josh, I hope that you felt like it was your special day. Your are so incredibly amazing I cannot even begin to say how lucky I am to be with you and how grateful I am for all of your hard work and love and patience for me. You are 24 years old now, and I believe that we will stay young forever! :)

Happy birthday again, my love! 

filling out another March Madness bracket in between games

all natural minus the lipstick

Beauty is a concept that is ever evolving for me. I've struggled many times with feeling okay about the way that I look and feel about myself. Especially during my middle and high school years I felt insecure, overweight, uncomfortable about who I am and the way that I look. Other girls were all pretty, slim, naturally beautiful, great skin, bubbly personalities, and confident in themselves. Everything I felt like I wasn't. There were times that I lost relationships over my own insecurities and missed out on some great experiences because I was scared or unaware of my own potential.

But as the years have gone by, I have learned more about what beauty is and how I feel about who I am. I am realized that I am curvy, but women are SUPPOSED to be curvy. It does not make me better or worse than other people. It makes me, me and it makes me womanly. I have learned that everyone has something they don't like about themselves, its not just me that feels like I'm not even close to perfect. No one is perfect. I've realized that I actually don't wear make-up for other people, but I wear it for me because it makes me more confident throughout my day, but that I also don't need it to feel okay about myself. I just know that when I feel confident, I look better.

The way I look I feel like has a lot to do with what is on the inside of me. Am I doing the things that  I should do? Am I eating healthy foods that make me feel happier? Am I taking care of myself physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? Am I increasing my relationship with God? Am I being a good friend, sister, daughter and wife? Do I realize that I can do hard things or things that are out of my comfort zone? Do I push myself to try a little harder to be a little better? Do I think on the positive things about life and myself? If I am doing these things, I feel better. And when I feel good, I also feel like I look good.

Happiness is the prettiest look that anyone could possibly have.

I admit that I do not always feel pretty. Those are the times that I start to compare myself to others, to not move forward in my faith, that I just get down on myself. But I have to remind myself that it is a life long process of self discovery and pick myself up and remember what I should be doing with my time, thoughts and energy. I love finding strength in places that I did not expect inside myself, and becoming a strong woman and daughter of God.

So here I am with no make up on, other than my pretty pink lips, and my hair is not fixed and yet I feel pretty because I feel happy!

absent

I just thought I would pop into my blog real quick and explain my absence. Well, my main problem is that my computer won't turn on! I know it is actually on but the screen is black and so I can't see anything. It is really frustrating but I just have not had the time or the money to fix it yet. My pictures are on my computer from the past couple weeks. What good is a post without pictures?? :) So I am hoping that will get fixed soon that I can update you all on our lives right now! We have had a busy but fantastic past few weeks with amazing dates, trips to Park City and most recently having my best friend Kelly and her hubby Colton in town visiting. Maybe I will just have to post on these fun times without pictures anyway...

So we are alive, busy and doing well! I will try to work on getting my computer to work. If you have suggestions, I would definitely love that! :)