Life so far

When I started this post I was only going to post about the fall semester, but then I procrastinated (big surprise) and now it's the end of the year. So now you get to see my entire year in recap. Get ready for a lot of pictures.

2011 started off great. Jeff and I got to watch little sis Michee dance as a Lone Peak Chevalier. It brought back some crazy memories seeing her at state :)

Ya, we're really good dancers, as you can tell.

Then more reminiscing and more dancing. I got to finally sit in the audience and watch the Cougarettes in Concert. It was a little weird watching and not dancing, but kind of nice to just show up and watch instead of working for months and months and being ridiculously stressed out. And the girls were absolutely stunning, of course.

And since last winter it snowed like crazy, my family and I found ourselves frequenting the cabin. Here are a few pictures of our escapades.

Memorial Day weekend was great, too. We visited Spring City where mom bought some art at the auction, and then we rode our bikes to Ephraim which was tons o' fun!

Summer rolled around and Mindy came out to visit, so naturally she got all the siblings together for a little evening up the canyon. Please don't be jealous of me and my sisters' photogenic qualities.

We also got up to the cabin for a Dalton family reunion in the summer. Quite a different experience visiting the cabin in the summer rather than the winter.

The girls and mom also found a weekend for a girls night out up in park city. That was almost too much fun. Hopefully mom will let us do it again next year :)

One of the highlights of the year was when Tyler came home from his mission. It had been a little too quiet at home without him.

Gifts from Tyler from Russia. 'Nuff said.

Each summer I get to work at Basic Dance Training, and these are some pictures of the girls I was a "mom" for. Loved my baby girls, and I'm so glad I get to stay involved in the dance team community.

For our second anniversary Jeff and I went to Culebra Island and San Juan in Puerto Rico. It was crazy beautiful and so much fun to play in the ocean and hear Jeff speak Spanish.

Best breakfast/pastry shop ever.

Our 10 seater plane that took us to Culebra Island. So cool.

Our Hotel in San Juan!

After we got back from Puerto Rico Jeff and I made it out to Florida for little Cole's baby blessing. We hadn't been back since our wedding so it was good to go and see Jeff's family.

Part of the time we were in Florida we stayed at a beach house at Flagler beach. One morning Jeff and I got up really early to watch the sunrise. This picture doesn't do it any justice, but it's better than nothing. Jeff actually proposed to me early in the morning long ago and was hoping for a sunrise like this, but in Utah with mountains in the way it's harder to get a really dramatic sunrise, the morning just gets brighter and brighter with no actual sun. So it was fun to finally get our sunrise like he wanted :)

Before summer was over we made it out to California to visit Lauga and Blake over Labor Day. I love that picture of Lauga directing Blake and am so lucky for friends who live in fun places :) Thanks again, Lauga and Blake.

Then school started. I finally got to watch a football game instead of dance at one, haha. And Jeff and I finally got some BYU shirts that don't have Cougarettes written all over it.

Fall on campus is my favorite, and with this being my last year at BYU, (FINALLY) after stake conference on campus we strolled around and took some pictures of the leaves. Doesn't Jeff look good?

With fall comes birthdays, and since Clint and I have birthdays 4 days apart we end up sharing our birthday dinners at the house. Clint and I tried to blow out candles together, but I couldn't blow out a particularly stubborn candle, so Michelle blew it out for me, and Clint then joked about my struggles. I love this picture because it captures all of that at once.

Thanksgiving rolled around, which means, MORE CABIN! haha. This time we went up with Jeff's family, who had come in from Florida. Pictured is sassy Olivia, finally smiling (kinda) for the picture.

And of course, more dancing :) Michelle competed a solo this year and won 1st place! I was extremely proud/thrilled/excited/happy for her. She is a beautiful dancer and I love getting to watch her.

With Christmas time comes another bird ornament. This year Jeff and I found this little blue bird and we affectionately named him Lloyd (the name is stamped on his bum, must be the artist or something). I'm really excited about this tradition we have going and can't wait for our tree to fill up with birds.

Miss Autumn Nelsen became Mrs. Autumn Hewlett and was the most stunning bride. So fun to see her so happy.

That same night we headed over for a Christmas party at Stacey and Andrew's. So great to get together and see friends.

Christmas Eve I made an apple pie. Yes, I actually made something and it tasted good. Crazy.

We finished off the year seeing lights with the family and I can't believe how cute Mindy's kids keep getting. Love little Finn and Nico.

Well 2011, you were great. Thanks for the memories. Can't wait for 2012! It's gonna be awesome. (Hopefully as awesome of this video of Finn dancing!)

I Opened a Can of Worms

Does anyone else think it's weird when someone you haven't talked to in years decides to comment on your Facebook status trying to convince you of your wrong doings and evil thinkings?

Should people's statuses be considered fair game for an open discussion forum? (And I know this might surprise you, but I wasn't even looking for an argument!  I knew putting a link to that article was a bad idea...)

I guess I should've known what I was doing when I accepted their friend request...but still!

(And any suggestions about what should I do with that nasty little post that's turned into a giant debate/bashing mess would be appreciated. Should I delete it? Let it run it's course?  Some of the posts are amusing...)

Sunk the Boat

Well, BYU removed my letter.  If you would still like to read it, I've listed it below.  For some context and background information as to why I sent in the letter, just see my other post, "Rock the Boat."

Hopefully I don't get too much hate mail...

Home-ophobia?

In response to “Modern immorality” and “Ways to raise,” I’d like to offer another perspective on children being raised by homosexual parents. 

I know a homosexual couple who are raising two beautiful children, and let me assure you, the environment those kids are in is far better than many others, even, if I dare say, ones with both a mother and father.

Qualifying the character and ability to raise children simply because someone is gay reeks of the self-righteous syndrome so commonly found in the bubble.  Categorizing situations as “good, better, best” solely based on sexual orientation is ridiculous.

Yes, homosexuality shouldn’t be accepted, but casting judgment and qualifying the home of a gay couple because they don’t live the same moral principles we do is outrageous.  We believe in Christ, but does that mean Buddhist parents are less capable of providing a suitable home?

Additionally, considering the neglect and abuse children often receive in foster care, orphanages, and heterosexual households to be better than the homes of loving, committed homosexuals is nothing short of crazy.

            The Family: a Proclamation to the World also states that parents should rear their children in love and righteousness, provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and teach them to love and serve one another, to name a few.  To think only heterosexual couples are capable of doing this is crazy talk. 

We should not accept homosexuality, but that does not mean we should consider those who do unfit to have a family.

Rock the Boat

So something interesting happened to me these past couple weeks.  I grabbed BYU's newspaper on the way home last Thursday and read the opinion section.  There was one that got me thinking, and parts I disagreed with.  Well, I looked up the article it was responding to and definitely felt Provo was being one sided.

You can read them here and here.

I decided to write back to the paper and offer my own opinion.  I figured it's my senior year and I'd yet to cause a ruckus at BYU.  I wanted to say I had at least tried to make a stand at least once.  Well, walking to school that next Tuesday I grabbed a paper on the way to class and the first article in the opinion section was mine.  I was a little surprised but excited it got published.

You can read my article here (WARNING:  This article might contain some blasphemy and offers an opinion you could totally disagree with)

Today is Thursday, so I opened up the paper today and found 3 of the 5 articles responding to mine.  I'm sure there were countless other articles upset at what I wrote that didn't get published.  Interestingly enough, I heartily agree with most of the responding articles.

But this whole experience got me thinking.  I'm not as one sided as I made out to be in my article, but I don't think people and situations should be so quickly classified as black and white.  We want to have a simple clean answer for problems and questions in life, but I think that's just not the case.  I know a lot of what I said doesn't seem to align with conventional Christian thinking, but in my own experience I fail to see a home that raises children with love and teaches them about fidelity, honesty, and respect could be detrimental.  I hope as I continue through life I will continue to work through these issues and find more ways to consider them.

If you disagree with me, I'm glad.  That's the beauty of life, we all have unique experiences and opinions. I hope nobody agrees with me simply because I made an argument, but rather creates their own opinion based on what they feel is right.  Thanks for reading :)

For the Last Time

Last night (well, I guess technically it was super early this morning) I registered for the last time at BYU.  It's kinda fun to be able to register on the first day.  I guess there are some perks for taking an extra year to graduate :)
So far my schedule includes...

Ballet
Ballroom
some Statistics
random dance classes I need for graduation
and my favorite...beginning Cello.

I seriously can't wait for that last one :)  I have a feeling it's gonna be a good semester.

Reality

My ideal day would include:

Waking up refreshed because I went to bed at a decent time.
Reading the paper as I eat eggs and fruit for breakfast.
Having time to get ready so I can look and feel cute.
Reading scriptures before heading to school.
Attentively listening in class and not getting distracted by my to do list.
Enjoying the weather.
Doing my homework during the afternoon and spending as much time as I feel I need for it.
Making and eating dinner with my husband.
Spending an hour to do what I want - read a book, watch a tv show, go to a dance class, call a friend or sister to chat with, etc.
Finishing the day feeling I gained insight or felt inspired by something I saw or read.

Instead today went something like this...

Tried to wake up before 6am to frantically finish some homework.
Got to school by 7am with doughnuts for a meeting with the dance major council.
Emailed songs to a music designer during class so he could cut music for a dance that only yesterday I found out I would be teaching on Friday.
Snarffed down a doughnut and called it breakfast.
Apologized to my dance partner for not making it to rehearsal the night before.
Frantically tried to respond to the dozen emails I get each day about Relief Society, Dance Major Council, medical school applications, some guy wanting a choreographer to make up a flash mob so he can propose to his girlfriend (this is real), teaching, etc.
Changed from one pair of sweaty dance clothes to normal clothes which only got sweaty as I dashed up the steep RB stairs.
Quickly read the reading assignment during the 20 minutes before class started.
Tried to stay awake in my next three classes.
Made my way back to the other end of campus to work in the Chem lab till 6pm.
Finally got something real to eat, bless the Cougareat.
Headed to the library auditorium to listen to guest speaker for an English assignment.
Tried to stay at the library to do homework but realized I was just wasting my time.
Got home and saw Jeff for about 30 minutes before he headed to bed.
Tried to clear my mind of everything on the list that didn't get done.
Wonder how I'm going to get through the week...

The worst part is today wasn't even that bad.  I laughed a lot and only cried once ;) I thought my life was supposed to get less busy when I stopped performing.  Any suggestions as to how I might stay sane this semester?!

Skeptic

High Fructose Corn Syrup.  
Are you thinking things like "bad," "obesity," "unhealthy," and other such 'evil' sayings?
Let's try this again...
Fruit.
Ok, you're now probably thinking "natural," "healthy," "God's candy," etc, etc.

Guess what the sugar is in many fruits?  Fructose.  Shocker. 

Now I'm not going to post this trying to convince you that high fructose corn syrup is healthy for you, any more than sugar is "healthy,"  (although our primary energy source allowing us to live comes from carbohydrates, which are broken down into glucose, fructose, sucrose, aka SUGAR) but I do want to help people think for themselves.  Mostly I'm just sick of our society letting other people decide what they should think. 

I stumbled upon this really great article in Time Magazine that answered, or at least addressed, many of my questions about HFCS.  Is it used differently in our bodies than other sugars?  Where did the research originate from?  How is it different than regular sugar?

If you have some time, I'd invite you to take a few minutes and read it here.

Granted, the article is a bit one sided and a few years old, so there might be recent research about HFCS being metabolized differently than sugar and that it inherently posses adverse qualities, but I doubt it. 

I am not a chemist, nutritionist, or researcher, and eating habits and choices is a problem in our country.  We all need to cut out the high fructose corn syrup and the natural sugar in our diets.  But I don't think it's a wise decision to label foods either "bad" or "good" without also expliciting knowing why. 

Thanks for letting me rant a little.  I might be way off the mark, but when I find out I'm wrong at least I'll have discovered it for myself :)  Now I think I'll have a can of soda.