General Conference

This past weekend was general conference!!! In the past few years I have become more and more shocked with how quickly conference starts and then ends. I remember as a little girl going to the stake center for what felt like days. Now conference starts, and before I know it the amazingness is ending. I kind of dread the man who gives the closing prayer on Sunday afternoon sessions. 
On Sunday Jeff and I had the blessing of going to temple square. We didn't have tickets and we did not even try to get into the conference center. Instead we watched the speakers on the big movie screen in the Joseph Smith building. I wanted to go just to see temple square.

 There is some kind of beauty and peace that is there all the time, but especially during conference time. At one point Jeff and I were walking by the reflecting pool and a man with a HUGE camera lens was pointed right at us just shooting away. Who knows we might just be in the ensign :) Last general conference Jeff, a few other friends, and I went to temple square and sat out on the grass and listened to conference as they projected it out on a loud speaker. Doing that is my favorite. I little of me always feels like we are the people in the Book of Mormon who are sitting with their tents facing King Benjamin as he gives his address to the people.  

(Salt Lake City Temple Reflecting Pool 10-7-12)

 

April's General Conference       

(Allisham, Amber, Jeff, Carrie, Jeremy)

For the second session we drove to Janneke's home, Jeff's sister, who lives near Salt Lake. Her home is always so fun because it feels like a home. Such a nice break from college apartments and the bubble of college life. 

                                                       
This is Christopher and Benjamin, Janneke's little boys, that Jeff are holding. The above picture of Christopher is of him falling asleep while cuddling with Jeff and I during conference :)  So adorable!!!

Now for the reason why I began this blog post :)

For the past few days I have had time to ponder and think about conference. A couple things from two talks keep being at the foremost of my mind. The first has to do with the saying:

"I LIVE IT"

It comes from the quote that Sister Dibb said during conference," I'm a Mormon, I know it, I live it, and love it!" The funny thing to throw in real quick is that in BYU's book store three days after conference they are already had t-shirts with this saying printed on it. A little quick there to make money? It definitely made me laugh :) 

I loved her testimony shining forth about how proud she is to be a Mormon and how we ought to be as well, but what I keep remembering is the "I Live It" part of her quote. I keep thinking is

1. LIVE THIS MOMENT

    * feel the dancing more and move to the music

    * study and learn, enjoy the learning process

    * escape in the reading

    * get lost in the running

    * feel the love I have towards person that I am with or that I am serving

There are so many things in life that we just do. They become normal as they turn into the pattern of our daily lives. We don't live forever. Why let those mundane things pass without truly living the experience. I know it is a little silly, but I do not want to miss on seeing something amazing at all times in this life. This is the life I have and I don't want to miss it, I want to live it!!! Walking home from school last night I saw a tree that I had never noticed before even though I am sure I have done that walk more than a hundred times. Today I called a friend and talked to her for an hour. As Pres. Uchtdorf said in his talk, which is the other talk that I keep thinking about, "Spend more time with loved ones, don't waste your time on things that don't really matter." People truly are the most important blessings we have in our life.  President Uchtdorf said, "Give people the gift of your precious time." I know that other things in life are important. Spending time studying is a need to get us to where we can work and do what we love. And with a good a job that gives us comfort of income, less stresses, and more leeway in choosing time so we can spend more time with our loved ones. I also feel that other than time, meaning long periods of time was, really focusing on those we love with the allotted time we have when we are with them. There is a difference in giving someone our undivided attention and being destracted by other things such as work or school when we are with them. 

Basically I do not want to regret when my life on this Earth is almost over. And to put it in a smaller scale. I do not want to regret when my college life is over. I do not want to regret when a vacation is over or when my years of being a mother is over. I do not want to regret about what kind of spouse or daughter I was.  It makes me sad to think of reaching an old age and thinking

 "I never became the person I wanted to"

I am making a goal right now to not allow this to happen!!!

(my little secret from conference. I became a stalker

and took a picture of this beautiful orange vehicle because I 

kind of fell in love)

National Smile Day

October 5th is National Smile Day!!! 

“If you're reading this...

Congratulations, you're alive.

If that's not something to smile about,

then I don't know what is.” 

― Chad Sugg, Monsters Under Your Head

Isn't the sound of that simply amazing!?! A couple weeks ago on September 26th  my roommates, a roommate's fiance, Man Shayn (yes that is the name we call him), Jeff, and I celebrated Lumber Jack day. We all went ALL out :

1.wearing flanel and other essential attire that it takes to be legit :)

      (Ashley and I totally pulled off the suspenders!!!)

2.parading the attire all day around campus and in our classes

3.eating pancakes for dinner

4.listening to lumberjack music

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7n5mEmXJo (a must watch)

5.playing games

6.taking lumbar jack pose pictures

     bellow is a small peak

Whoever knew that folks out there in the world have gone through the trouble of making so many official holidays!!! I do not know who they are, but I am fully impressed and supportive of their commitment to the cause.  If you have not taken the time to google "obscure" national holidays you SHOULD!!! Just to give you a sneak peak: 

Some of my Favs

May 3rd... World Naked Gardening Day

The Day after Thanksgiving... National Flossing day

May the Fourth of May be with you... National Star Wars Day

November 12... National Pizza with all the works except Anchovies Day

October 21... National Babbling Day

July 26... All or Nothing day

July 29... Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day

But best of all, I hope you all enjoy JULY 6th... INTERNATIONAL KISSING DAY

Sorry for the tangent there, just so excited to share the wealth of holiday knowledge :)

A good way to spice up life!!! 

Trying to celebrate the day I sat and pondered... always a great time to use the beautiful brain God has given us (but do not worry, I smiled the whole time. It may have creep-ed a few individuals out... but it is the spirit of the day). In this time of pondering I developed a list of just some of the things that cause me to smile, I hope you enjoy:

1.Family

2.Holding Hands

3.blueberries

4.chapstick

5.Holding babies

6.toe nail polish

7.Hummus

8.Rings (hands or toes)

9. REI

10.organic baby clothes

11.The warm sun beating down with a cooling breeze

12.Dharma and Greg

13. Trader Joes

14.Cute Bras

15.Peace in all its cute shapes and actions

16.The Piano Guys

17. Bare feet in the grass

18.Thai Food

19. Big ethnic earrings

20. Kissing and or dancing (in the rain)

21. Avocados and Yummy Cheeses 

22.Art museums

23. Spinning

24. Singing in the shower

25.Sexy blue jeans

26. A large class of fresh Peppermint Sun Ice Tea

27. Happy toddlers

28. Taking pictures

29. Zumba

30. Leaves changing colors

31.Hearing Chinese

32. Old Spice Aqua Reef

33. TRAVELING

Here are 33... my favorite number (which also makes me smile) !!! I hope these have caused a little upward curve of your lips!!!!!

A picture to leave you off with on this amazing day of days:

   This picture was a product of playing in Spanish Fork near the home of y Mission President.  Yes, today I went to my mission reunion. I can hardly believe I got home on March 17th 2012.. almost 2 and 1/2 years ago!!! Although it was a shock and somewhat exciting mixed with odd feelings of returning to the mission field peps I was happy to spend it with my man, who calmly helped me wipe away any insecurity and Amanda, who also served in the same mission right after me!!! Plus the three of us after the festivities rolled down the hill. It was a thrill to get lost in the tumbling of the motion with the view of the lights of the Salt Lake Valley below!!!

(Jeff and I)

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” 
― Mother Teresa

Orange Flower ;)

Tonight I received my first orange flower!!! 

Not only did this flower bring me excitement, and I have to say it was obvious... the whole way home I would randomly exclaim from my mouth with a little high pitched happy girly voice, "Guess what?" and then before anyone (Jeff or Amanda) could start guessing I would answer, "I got an orange flower!" Yes, I truly did that. I guess one could say it was a happy hormone and that were apparent in the moment. Although I look back at it and realize I was being VERY girly I do not regret it because

 "I got an orange flower !" 

The pondering that has thus taken place since my so thoughtful boyfriend surprised me out of the blue with my orange flower took me back to my memories of flowers :

The five year old me. Can you imagine a mushroom hair cut, yes sadly I had them over and over. Why you ask, I can not know? Along with that beautiful hairstyle I showed off long dangly earrings that fell down to my shoulders. I was SO proud of them!!! I made them myself at the bead shop on the plaza. The plaza itself is its own world of exciting culture to explore that I will have to expound on one of these days!!! Oh my beautiful hippie childhood :)

(Here I found a picture of the mushroomness)

                                 

Now that you have "enjoyed" the hair I will get back to flowers. My mother is a huge lover of gardening.  She would try to instill this love into my core by randomly taking me to a store that had rows upon rows of flowers. She would get all excited, telling me "Now Amber, you can pick out any flower plant you would like and then we can take it home and plant it in the ground. If we take care of it and water it then we will get to watch it grow." Every time this trip to the flower shop came around I can only imagine she would hope for me to pick a new flower, but no, I always chose the same... the awesomely cool popcorn flower... which a few years ago I learned actually has the name of Snapdragons. The name "Popcorn flower" is SOOOO much better if you ask me. Not only would I pick out the the Popcorn flowers, but I would pick yellow ones because they were bright and yellow, and obviously because butter popcorn is the best!  I would love to pinch between the two round heads and make the popcorn talk!!!

The second memory:

I was in 6th grade, oh that lovely awkward stage of life. We lived near Boise Idaho at the time and my life consisted of GYMNASTICS!! I loved it, I lived it.... basically I was at the gym all the time... My mom took me to my first college gymnastics meet and I was in high heaven. Under my breath I would whisper every skill the gymnast performed in her routine and then if they made a mistake I would shake my head in a sad manner and whisper a correction. Oh ya know.. the little things like "oh honey point your toe, squeeze your bum"... as if I was knowledgeable to be their judge! I remember turning to my mom and with a very authoritative voice pronouncing, "Mom, please tell any man I ever date to never buy me flowers. If he is going to spend money on me he should buy us tickets to see a gymnastics meet instead. Such a better use of money." Oh man, what made me think of that at the time... once again, I can not know... but at the time, I was SOOO serious. Such an innocent little me... how things have changed :)

The third memory:

Number 13 Belmont Apartments... An amazing place I called home during my first four semesters at BYU Provo. Valentines day was coming around and the single me was not going to let the holiday get me down. Just when I was about to plan a way to keep a smile on my face An amazing adventure awaited me! For the seven days before Valentines I got a valentine on my door. Each one was new and exciting with fun poems and drawings on them. I spent the whole week guessing who they could be from. Finally, the day before Valentines arrived and in the card it said that I would be picked up for a Valentines dinner the next night. I was so excited to see who this mystery person was... I opened the door when it knocked and was SOOO excited to see my two besties standing there with a red flower, which they handed to me! After we went on a blast of a date to the Creamery... which I had never been to before.. I was so excited :)

I know that there must have been other times in my life that I was given flowers or had had amazing moments where flowers had been present... high school graduation, walking off the plane in Hawaii and being lei'd, so on and so on... but they do not stick out like the above experiences do...

And now today... My orange flower!!!

Just because he got it for me ... when I asked him why he said

"Can't I buy my girlfriend a flower just because!?!"

and then I kissed him ;)

Hippie vans!

This is the inaugural post for my  blog, and I'm not even posting it! Jeff is. Is this surprising? No. Well here it is.

For those who are wondering what is up with the name is this blog,it's plage, not plague. There is a difference. So for those of you who are not linguists, here's the definition, courtesy of Wikipedia: "A plage is a bright region in the chromosphere of the Sun, typically found in regions of the chromosphere near sunspots. The term itself is poetically taken from the French word for "beach."

So ponder that while you anxiously await for my next posting about the adventures and misadventures of my super awesome life. 

And secondly, why would I name my blog "My personal plague"? Seriously? The plague. That is probably my antithesis, because in case you didn't notice I like flowers and peace signs and trees and such. None of those things correlate with the dreary, downtrodden wasteland that typifies the plague. 

Well with that happy note, peace and love to you all!

~Amber