You Know Where You're Going

"You know where you're going."

Those words hit me smack in the face during class today. And then I promptly zoned out (sorry professor) to review and reflect where I am and where I'm going.

Yes, I DO know where I'm going. And I DO know where I want to be going. The answer to where I'm going and where I want to be going should always be the same, but it's not always like that. What I realized amid all my pondering today was that there is only one thing that can cause the answer to those questions to be different from each other, and that one thing is action. I have many goals for where I want to end up and what I want to accomplish, but I won't reach a single one unless I know what to do to get there, then do it.

I know I want to graduate from BYU.

In order to do so, I must prioritize, study hard, and do well.

I know I want to coach gymnastics as my career.

Well, I'm going to have to put myself out there and actively work my way up the job ladder. And getting a degree certainly will help me along.

I know I want to be a mother one day.

We all know how that one's going to happen.

I want to be a great wife to my husband, and one day a great mother to my kids.

I'll need to work on my patience, that's for sure. but I'll also have to learn to focus on the millions of beautiful things, rather than on the few dozen damper things.

I know I want to an active, serving member of my church and my community.

That will take some volunteer work and some effort.

I know, most of all, that I want to live with my Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom after this life.

I will need to be taking constant action, to make sure that I am always one step ahead of Satan and am strong enough to resist the worldly tendencies and habits that I have previously fallen into so easily.

The outcome of my life depends on my actions. I love this snippet from President David O. McKay's talks in Conference many years ago:

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="243"]

I may not tell of myself by the things I play on my phonograph (boy, does that date this quote...) But maybe more like the things I play on my iPod. Anyways, to accomplish the goals I have, I have to strive to act like, and be the person that I want to be. Because that person is the one who will achieve all those goals (and many more). When applied to the same situation, I want to answers to both, "Where are you going?" and "Where do you want to go?" to be the same.

Bucket List

My bucket list currently has about 100 things on it. Those things range from relatively simple (paint war) to huge life events (get married in the Portland LDS Temple). I was looking through it the other day and realized I get to cross off my first accomplishment for 2014!

Donate Plasma.

I did it!! I FINALLY was able to donate plasma!

Or, to put it in McKay's words, "You're selling your body for money!"

But, whatever.

This obsession to donate plasma or blood began years back in high school. I was, and still am, a healthy person. I've never had any major illness or even broken a bone (despite my long gymnastics career).  My career choice of a Personal Trainer and gymnastic coach stems from the fact that I have never been happier than when I have watched people gain confidence, fall in love with a sport, and improve their physical health. I am an Organ Donor, the proof of that one's on my licence. I have this strange gene that makes me want to help people (so weird, right?) and I've never had a problem with needles. What does that sound like? Oh my gosh, it sounds like I'd be the PERFECT candidate to regularly donate blood or plasma!

Oh, but wait. (and I'm not complaining here) I'm also petite.

There goes my chances.



So, back to high school.

Since I was under 18 at the time, the required weight limit to be able to donate was different. There was this weird chart that had a required weight to correspond with your height. For my petite 5' 2'' frame, I had to weight at least 135 pounds to donate. WHAT? Now, here's where I got a bit desperate. Despite me being 20 lbs below the required weight, I still signed up to donate blood during school. I was going to at least try! I was pulled out of class and taken to the red cross trailer to fill out some basic paperwork. And you know what? I lied. I exaggerated my weight by 10 pounds but it was no use, the lady didn't even glimpse at my paperwork or put me on a scale, she simply looked me up and down and said, "Nope, you can't donate. You're too small."  Attempt #1 was a fail.



Fast forward another year or so: my best friend and I signed up for a community blood drive. We were pretty darn excited! It was just before our senior year and we felt "sooo adult" as we were filling out the forms and getting ready to donate. All on our own! Long story short, we were both turned away. Why? Too small. Attempt #2 was also a fail.

But try, try again!

My third try donating I decided to do plasma. It took a little while before I actually got around to it. All those horror stories about huge needles and feeling light headed afterwards kept getting to me. But when my awesome sister in law called me up to see if I wanted to go with her, I decided it was now or never! Donating came with a whole handful of great news:

1. Free yearly physical.

2. Thanks to the free physical, I know I'm as healthy as can be. (that may be a slight exaggeration)

3. I'm am optimal donor for the above reasons, as well as the fact that my veins are ridiculously visible. I've never liked that trait until now.

4. For me, it goes by fast! I donate in about 28 minutes, which always surprises the employee supervising me.

5. Knowledge. I'm a curious girl, so I asked, and still ask, lots of questions. The human body is amazing!

6. They play movies all day, so I'm never bored.

7. Last, but not least, it is NOT a giant needle. At least no where near what I had imagined.

8. Some extra cash to put into savings. $55 doesn't sound like much, but it adds up to over $1,000 in just 5 months. That sounds awesome to me.

I've donate 3 times so far in a week and a half, and it's all gone smoothly! This is something I definitely plan to keep doing. If you live in Provo area and have wanted to donate plasma but you're just to chicken to do it all on your own (because that was my position just 2 weeks ago), call me up! I'll gladly go with you!

[caption id="attachment_217" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My 1st time donating![/caption]

Tender Mercies

*Warning, lots of feelings ahead*

It's amazing how the Lord works, really. McKay and I have been incredibly blessed. Honestly, they're the typical blessings that a young BYU couple experiences at about this time in their lives. Blessing such as, despite both being in school, you're out of debt, you both have jobs in this economy, free things virtually everywhere, etc. With what we heard about from our parents, most young married students feel very very blessed in their finances (thanks FAFSA!) So these are all wonderful blessings, but the thing that truly amazes me is how specific and personalized a seemingly general blessing can get.

This is my first touchy-feely blog post, bear with me. The first Sunday of every month is Fast and Testimony Meeting. Which is where I can conclude that yes, many young married students feel financially blessed. Anyways, bearing my testimony is rare. The last time I bore my testimony I was asked (*cough* told) to. Since I was an older youth, a leader asked me to bear my testimony first to get the meeting going during Youth Conference. I was mortified, and I'm pretty sure I sounded like a squeaky, 7 year old primary girl because I was so nervous. That was probably 3 or so years ago. And wow it is shameful to realize that it has been even longer than that since I've voluntarily shared my testimony. If during a meeting the thought crosses my mind to go up and share my testimony, immediately my stomach gets queasy and my mind goes blank, the only thing I can think about is how I can't think of anything. Example number one of my fear of public speaking: Once, McKay played a seemingly harmless joke on me, while up preparing the Sacrament he mouthed that we had been assigned to give a talk the next week. I was mortified, and immediately felt like throwing up. A few minutes later, McKay joined me I started to lightly cry right there in the pew from fear. McKay had no idea what was happening! He though I had understood his joke, but if he mouthed something after "Talk. Next week." I certainly hadn't caught it. Even after it was clear he was completely joking, I couldn't stop crying! Ugh, just another one of those girl problems I have.

I shouldn't have labeled that story as "example number one" because actually that's the only one I can think of right now. But here's where the Lord's tender mercy came to play. He knows my fear of public speaking, especially when it comes to my feelings. He knows how quickly I can over think the simplest task resulting in making myself sick. I work at BYU Independent Study and many students come to our office to take tests. The other day we had a missionary companionship come in, one took a Book of Mormon final while the other waited in our lobby. The elder waiting in the lobby (I wish I remembered his name) walked up to the desk to chat. We got talking about how each one of us in the room spoke a different language. We had Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and French (seriously BYU is sooo cool). He asked to bear his testimony in Swedish, the language he was learning in the MTC. It was lovely, although I had no clue what he was saying haha. As I listened, I noted how happy I was to be there to give this missionary an opportunity to grow. When he finished he turned to me as said "Your turn, in Portuguese". I was completely surprised and taken off guard, not given anytime to even start to freak myself out. So, I did. And it felt wonderful! Granted, it was way less nerve wracking because nobody in the room spoke Portuguese. I didn't realize until after I spoke about my eternal marriage, that this was the first time I'd ever been able to express how important it is to me. And what a blessing it is! Marrying McKay was a great idea, but marrying him in the Temple was the absolute best idea. I get to spend the rest of my life and beyond with the man I love more that I ever thought possible. I love him, and we both love the Lord most of all. These last 9 months of my life have been the best time of my life, and with him by my side, I know that things will only get better and better.

 I want to truly try and overcome my fear of public speaking. I'm probably not going to bound up to the podium next Fast Sunday, but maybe I'll volunteer more in Relief Society or share my thoughts in Sunday School. Baby steps.

If you haven't seen the movie What About Bob?, You're missing out.

The Stump Is GONE

Once spring came around, McKay and I decided that we wanted to start fixing up the yard. We both still have two(ish) more years of school, and we are planning on staying right where were are, so we though we might as well fix it up. After yanking out all the weeds, planting a beautiful garden, and creating a step stone walkway to the mailbox, we started to tackle the big stump right outside the front door. The thing was huge. Seriously, look at it in comparison to our car! It was a bit over 4 1/2 feet wide. We've slowly hacked away at it for the past few months, some days only getting small chips, and other days ripping out huge chunks. Here is the before and after:

BAM. Look at that grass!!

We are so lucky to have some wonderful neighbors! Three walked up without warning, each with an ax, the first day we were out there picking away (and not getting very far). We got half the stump gone that day, and we made some new friends. 

So, Here's the trick:

The stump in our yard was really old and half of it was rotten. Which is why we got half chopped away in one day with axes. The other half wasn't rotten, so it would hardly chip when an ax came swinging down. Weeks after our 1st day of success, McKay woke up early and headed outside. After about an hour and a half of hard work (seriously, he is amazing), and with the help of a car jack, the stump was GONE! Our secret weapon was a CAR JACK. McKay would hack a hole between the thick roots, wedge the car jack in there, and crank up the jack until "Crack!" and the chunk was split into a few pieces. It was that easy! ...If you don't mind all the sweat and aching muscles, that is. Once again, one of our wonderful neighbors walked over and offered to haul some of the wood away on his trailer. Perfect! Once the stump was removed, McKay yanked out a majority of the roots which left us with a clear patch of dirt, which within a couple weeks, was grass!

This is how McKay feels

And this is how I feel

We were/are feeling pretty great. I'm definitely not used to seeing flat ground, because I'll get startled when I walk outside in the morning and there's no stump! We plan on grinding up all that dirt, leveling the ground, and planting some grass! We haven't let our land lady know about the stump yet, but I can't even begin to explain how blessed we are to have such a nice lady to rent from. She has been so good to us. Once we had our garden looking nice, we sent her some before/after pictures. Just last week I received an email from her, she thanked us for all the things we've been doing to the yard, and gave us a free month's rent. Wait, one more time, a free month's rent. I don't know about you, but that is a MAJOR blessing for us. And it's not like we're not having fun as we work outside, because fixing up the place has been extremely rewarding and bonding for us, we love being outside together.  To try and get an idea of how happy we were, refer to the above gif. And also this one:

'cause I'm pretty sure this is what I looked like at work.