Christmas loves

I feel a little bah humbug-ish because I haven't updated for so long during this beautiful Christmas season. You all know how it goes. I think of something to write, forget to take pictures, don't end up writing, take a nap instead, etc :) Well, here are a few things I have LOVED about this Christmas time.
I loved my dad's birthday and the fact that he would always quote the Pearl Harbor speech which eventually got me an A in History class. "Yesterday December the 7th..a day that will live in infamy!" (His birthday is Dec 7). We ate at the Garden which had great views and beautiful Christmas decorations. The food was pretty good too. In the past I had never been very impressed.
I LOVED the annual BFF Christmas party! We had Sarah's baby shower right before. I love my girls!!!
I love that my parents will be home for Christmas. They have been helping out all over the world doing neonatal resuscitation training. They just got back from Guyana.
I love that my dad and Rob are in Peru right now doing humanitarian work. My dad is de-worming all the kids and Rob is planting banana trees and building school desks.

Ro: "Heid, you don't have to worry about giving me a present. For my present I want you to donate a banana tree or a desk."

He was so sweet. He was all excited and went around the neighborhood seeing if anyone would want to help out. Him and my dad are now living in a tent with no electricity in the middle of the jungle helping the people of Peru. LOVE this.

I love that I got to hang with 2 of my favorite people in the world in our beloved city of Boston! Or is it Russia? That sure was a coveted Russian hat that night Ang!!
I love that we got to hear the beautiful Choir's Christmas Program and David Archuleta sing. He was absolutely breathtaking!!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Norman's cousins

You've made it in life

I feel like I SHOULD be blogging about how much snow we got yesterday and how Alana's car looked like it had been sitting outside buried for a month this morning.

Or I should be blogging about how my nephew Chase is now taller that me and Hillary can now out drive me...congrats!! :)
Or I should be blogging about how we spent Thanksgiving in New Hampshire with the family and it was a blast!
BUT all I want to blog about today is going to work in your sweats!! It's the smartest plan. I don't know what got into me but one day I thought if I tucked my nighttime wear into my boots I could pull it off. I wore a cute jacket/ sweater thing on top and I got like 3 compliments at work on how cute I looked. Sweet! It seemed that the jacket totally overcompensated the sweats! That day probably shouldn't have happened because I've found myself wearing sweats at least once a week these days. It's just so nice on those cold snowy days... coz to the max!
Mergs saw me one day in my new attire and laughed and said "I say if you can wear those around in public for the day then you know that you have made it in life!"

Ha ha. Yep:) Ok...next post I'll get to NH and Boston time. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Saddle up!

"Saddle up!" is what Kelsey said to me as I walked into Texas Roadhouse for my BFF birthday dinner.

I replied "What?"

Kelsey "Oh nothing."

In the middle of our dinner the waiters proceeded to bring out a big saddle and called me up to go sit on it. She asked me "How old do you want to be tonight?"

I replied "Uh...21!"

Roadhouse waitress "Heidi is saddling up and celebrating her 21st birthday tonight."

I smiled and got on the thing. However, her kindness didn't stop us from listening to some other guy down the way announce it was his 25th birthday and our whole table was like "Oh riiight! Oh suuure! Like he is 25!" Come on us, give him a break ;)

The other night a few of us were talking about blogs and reading blogs and we read one of Alana's best friend's blog. Her honesty about the goods, bads, funny things, messy things in her life was quite refreshing. She encouraged us all to be more real.

So I'll go ahead and tell you the funny AND real thing about this night. See those glasses on my head? They were magic to me that night. It was just a rough day. We all have them. Every time I would start crying I would pull the glasses down over my eyes. Then I'd feel better. Glasses went back up on my head. Sad. Back down again. My friends then noticed that the glasses pulling down randomly coincided with whenever the server would come to our table. I'm sure she was thinking "What is going on with this girl who thinks she is nothing but Hollywood and HAS to wear her glasses inside."

Kelsey text me the other day "How's it going today? Glasses on? Glasses off? Glasses on? Glasses off?

Thank you. That made my day :)

I'll keep workin' on keeping those glasses off!

I survived..

My 30th birthday! My face just might display a little of how I was feeling about turning 30. A little uneasy and unsure about the whole thing! Maybe it was the big 3 0 on top of the cake that got me a little panicked! The birthday celebrations were fantastic and being 30 so far has been empowering in a sense. I think hey, I am not a little girl anymore (despite my little kid voices that will live on forever). I am a woman! This is GO TIME. It's actually motivated me to be more on the ball and goal oriented in the different areas in my life that are important to me. I love that movie that came out with Jennifer Gardner as a kid in the 80's (13 going on 30) and she wants to be 30 so bad and she keeps saying "Thirty, flirty and thriving!" That is this year for us 30 year olds!

It was a grand old time when Rob MADE me this heart shaped birthday cake and shared it with our waiters. You KNOW he did!!!

Family dinner at Carvers. Best steak I've ever had!!!
It wasn't big enough though. ha ha. Yea right. Whoa! Look that big slab of meat.
Alana, Beccs and I relaxed all day and got facials and massages and frozen yogurt. All that a girl could ask for in a perfect day! Later we had a friends dinner at Frida Bistro. It is such a cute and yummy restaurant down town.

Two best friends!
Brandon and I actually had our first date at this restaurant. It was here where he told me a bit of his conversion story, about him being from Florida etc. It's funny because this place is like on 8th west and 7th south surrounded by all these dark buildings. When we pulled up Brandon said "Well, just when you are scared you know you are here!"
The waitress said to Lindy "Oh cute. I love it. An 80's punk rocker." She was kinda bugged and said back to me "Uh, I am not an 80's punk rocker!" I just kept my mouth shut after that because that's what I thought she had dressed up as too! Hhhmmm....
Loved the atmosphere and the company.
Best roomies and best friends!
After a few of us went up to Ace's for a cupcake tasting of sorts. Alana ordered these mystery cupcakes which some had lemon frosting, coconut, vanilla, etc. It was all a gamble on what you got and quite fun to taste a little of them all!
Brandon just LOVES that he is 6 months younger than me!

Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes and memories! I really feel so loved and blessed with amazing friends and family. I love you all!

BFF Fall picture

Can this pass for our fall picture together? Don't be fooled ...this was fall of 2002! In a way it looks like not much has changed. Smiles, friendship, laughing, eating at Teneil's work. In another way, SO much has changed! Moves, missions, marriages, kids, and all the ups and downs of life. I love these girls. I am so thankful for your friendship as we continue to see each other through all walks of life!

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

- Albert Camus
French Algerian author and philosopher
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1957
1913-1960

What does this picture say?

Vegas baby! BEATLES OF LOVE STYLE!

Ragnar Relay...Vegas style! 190 miles. Creative team names. Run. Eat. Rest. Run. Laugh. Eat. Run. Rest. Wish you never came. Loving that you came. Run. Eat. Run. Rest. Finish!!

Oh boy! Some team of boys thinking they are funny. Ok, it was quite funny.

The DREAM team! Members: An army sergeant, a bishop and 3 girl return missionaries. It was great!

Bon Jovi for life!

Is this shirt straight from the 80's? Yes!!

Doin the work!!!

It's time to "Llevar la carta" (pick up the slack). Trace's brother-in-law who had die hard trained for this race woke up that morning at 2:30 am throwing up with the flu. We had to do the honors of splitting up his first leg of the run before we got a fill in. And when I mean split, I mean she ran 3 miles and I ran 2 :)

"I'm a wild Burrow and I will come out to see all the runners. It's Brilliant!" (He is an English Burrow obviously) :)

Brandon came to see me finish the race and instead of resting after the long run...we hit up "the city that never sleeps!"

It was so fun that Brandon's two best friends were in Vegas as well and I got to finally meet the infamous "Jeff Taylor".
It's my girl's birthday! Get her some Tiramisu! We didn't know what was in it before we were almost done. Oops a daisies.
Homer moved from Springfield to Vegas!

DOH!!

Brandon's Baptism

Brandon was baptized 8 years ago today. This was the spot he was baptized in. The mountains in Alpine. He had seen in church movies that people got baptized in rivers or lakes so he chose this spot and told the missionaries "I'm getting baptized tomorrow. You can come if you want!"
His joining the church has not only changed his life but mine as well. I love that we can always related so well on spiritual matters. His excitement and fire for the gospel constantly helps and inspires me. I am so happy you made this decision to be baptized 8 years ago today. I'm so happy your best friend could baptize you and you have that special bond. I am constantly amazed by your missionary work you do daily and spirit that you bring to a room. The church is blessed to have you in it!

Back to the Basics

As I cleaned my room tonight (I know...shocker) I was thinking about President Uchtdorf's General conference talk about focusing on what matters most. To me it means to SIMPLIFY! Sometimes I think the busier I am, the more productive I am. I think this thinking came from in part from my mission. You run around, appointment after appointment, teaching, helping serving. You feel productive! Well, after this little experience...and a few others...I decided it might be time to get back to focusing on the basics.

Brandon opened up my night stand drawer.

Brandon: "Oh, I wonder what is in this Einstein bagel bag?"

He opened it up and pulled out an old, stale, half eaten bagel.

"What's this for? In case you get hungry?" After figuring out that it was as hard as a rock he said "Oh I get it, it's to throw at a robber when they break into your house!"

It's no secret to anyone that I put off cleaning my room and put almost anything ahead of it. I always use the excuse of "I am too busy!" Which i really feel that I am! However as I ate humble pie when Elder Uchtdorf talked and Brandon made the statement of "I didn't know Tornados hit in Utah!" (talking about my room) I was motivated to get back to the basics. So, what are the basics?

RELATIONSHIPS!

With who?

1-GOD 2- FAMILIES 3- FELLOW MEN 4-YOURSELF

I thought the last one was very interesting. Yourself? Do you even like yourself? Spend sometime alone in nature and think about God, you, yourself etc.

Fellowmen? I'll take time to improve my relationship with these 4 any day!

We can always also improve our relationship with God and our families. My mom made an interesting comment to me the other day. She said "You never arrive." In the gospel, your marriage, family relationships. You never are done. This could seem hard or overwhelming but it actually is a gift that we are able to think of new ways and new avenues to serve in these different capacities in our lives in order to improve our relationships in life.

Here's to focusing on the basics!