a look at the life of Mel

Christmas tree escapade

2011-12-31T16:01:00.000-08:00

Melodie and I decided we wanted a real Christmas tree in our apartment. So we went to Smith's and picked out a beauty:

Got her all strapped onto the car:
But on the way home, we had a tragedy...it's debatable who's fault it was:
We had a beautiful solution though, quick easy fix:
And the marvelous, dazzling, finished product:
I've loved having it in our living room, but we probably should be taking it out, it might burn down our house soon...

Escapade Number 4

2011-12-31T15:53:00.001-08:00

My last trip I have pictures from is to Mesa for Christmas the other day. As always, Christmas is wonderful with the family. It was a short, fun packed, three days. We ate, slept, ate, shopped, ate, visited, ate, did the nativity story, watched Scrooge, slept, woke up at 5, opened gifts, got ready for church, talked to Jeff, went to church, visited, ate, napped (well most of the girls did anyway), I held Nate a ton, had family over, visited, ate, visited, slept, visited, played around, ate, played Just Dance...I got out of order somewhere in there, but you get the gist of it. Twas a wonderful time. Here are some pics:

Escapade Number 3: DC

2011-12-31T15:39:00.000-08:00

I got to the airport and about a half hour later, Dave and fam met up with me. I held Annie for the first time, and of course she loved me. We had dinner and visited while we waited for the plane. The plane was pretty empty and so we each got our row. My 2 yr old niece, Hallie, was originally sitting next to Dave, but with a little of my awesome aunt skills, I had her sitting next me to in no time. We had so much fun:

I loved all my time with Dave, Nikkie, Janae, Steve, Hallie, Annie, and Nate. I loved visiting with Nikki and Janae during the day and playing with the kids, and then visiting with my brothers during the evening. I miss having them out west here with me. I'm so glad I go to spend so much time with them!!!

Escapade Number 3: Chicago

2011-12-31T14:27:00.000-08:00

I think I could get used to this travel thing...Steve and Janae's little boy was born on October 28, and I still hadn't met Dave and Nikki's youngest, so I decided that my nieces and nephew needed some quality Aunt Mel time (and of course I wanted to see my brothers and sisters-in-law...). In the process of deciding which flight to take, I saw that there were many stops in Chicago, where one of my bestest friends lives...so I decided to stop there for a few days :) I flew out the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Hope gave me a royally grand time in the Windy City and I loved every second of it!! We walked A TON, which is probably good because we ate plenty of the best eats. Here's the great time in picture form:

We drove from the airport to Hope's place, dropped off the car, and took the "L" to the city center:

I was so excited to learn how to use the ticket thingy...it kinda scared me the first time because it sucked up my ticket, it spit it back out though, phew!

Hope and I on the train

We went and found ourselves some lunch at America's Dog. It might not have been the best hot dog I've ever had, but it was definitely the most interesting one...

Then we started to meander around Chicago, I was amazed (probably because I'm easily entertained...)by the poster ads they had next to the bus stops, they moved!!! And I caught one in motion :)

We continued to meander, but we had to stop at the most incredible bakery with the most amazing banana cream pie I have ever had in my entire life. Magnolia's Bakery, I'm still dreaming about it...

Hope's friend, Myriah, joined us for much of our adventures, I liked her a lot :)

Macy's Holiday decorating and tree:

Bloomingdale's:

The "Bean":

Christkindlmarket (which I loved, it was like stepping into Germany for a minute...minus the random Indian booth...maybe someday I'll go to Germany for Christmas?):

We went to the Cultural Center to check out some awesome Tiffany Glass domes, but there was a wedding there, so we watched the wedding instead...well some of it anyway until someone kicked us out:

Another train picture:

Sunday was a really chill day. We woke and went to church, then hung out at Myriah's all afternoon. It's a pretty small world. Two of the people in Hope's ward I know from other places. One from serving in Boise, and the other from two places: my cousins' ward growing up and BYU. Crazy. That evening we went to a fireside with BYU basketball head coach, Coach Dave Rose, glad I went to Chicago to hear him speak...Our main activity on Sunday afternoon? Coloring (we're really good at it):

It was probably on Sunday and Monday that I fell in love with Chicago. As we drove home from the fireside, the skyline looked absolutely incredible! Monday morning Hope and I went to breakfast at a Swedish place called Ann Sather's. It was delicious, as is evident on Hope's face...but check out the cool Swedish background:

Hope had to go to work in the afternoon, so I took on the city on my own. Riding the train on my own was a little nerve-racking for a minute, but I met a friend and had a nice visit with him until I got where I was going. I checked out the Museum of Art, which was awesome, but I won't bore you with the pictures I took there. I loved the impressionistic artists though. Then I wandered up and down the streets checking out the awesome buildings of the city. I love the architecture there. Here are only a few pictures:

I checked out the Bean by myself (I can't remember the real name of it) I love seeing the city outline in the reflection:

That night we had Chicago Deep Dish Pizza=heaven:

A visit with Hope would not be complete without a good movie like Emma and some matching socks:

Tuesday morning we went to another little place for breakfast then decided to try check out Navy Pier. I REALLY wanted to ride the ferris wheel...I love ferris wheels...we had a slight obstacle...wind. Not just a light wind. Walking forward was quite the chore:

The ferris wheel...someday maybe, not that day

At the end of Navy Pier:

Some dude, it was kinda a one sided convo:
We hurried back to Hope's, had a dinner, and then I rode the train to the airport...headed to DC...

What a wonderful time!!!

"Escapade" Number 2

2011-12-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

Once upon an October day I learned that my brother Ben was coming home from his mission and would have a two hour layover in the Salt Lake airport. So I told my boss I was leaving for the afternoon, and did :) It was soooooooo good to visit with Ben. I loved every minute of it!

The next day we had a work Halloween party. Thanks to Carie for my costume:

That weekend, Will, a mission companion of his named Justin who was awesome, and I drove to Mesa to be with the family when Ben spoke in church. Twas a quick, wonderful weekend.

Escapade Number 1

2011-12-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time in July and August I went on two trips by myself that were super short but such a wonderful time. I had the opportunity to drive to Idaho and witness the sealing of a wonderful gal I worked with on the mission. They were sealed in Idaho Falls (because the Boise temple was closed) on a Saturday, so I drove up there by myself praying the whole way that my sweet car would not decide to break down that day. Putput and I made it just fine and it was a wonderful experience! I love Megan and am so grateful for her example of faith and love for the gospel she has shown me since the day I met her. What a blessed day that was!!

I love this place...

I loved every minute of the drive too...I love driving, but I specifically love driving in Idaho! (especially in the summer when I get to see the gorgeous "sunflowers" (or as my roommate would say noxious weeds), this is an attempt at a picture of them:

Then the next Tuesday (August 2nd) after this trip, I took a little trip to Oakland for the day. It was the first time I've ever taken a trip quite like it. I was ridiculously tired, but it was an absolutely wonderful day. Here's the reason in super short version:

Once upon a day as a missionary, my companion and I were walking around Hailey, Idaho and met a 28 yr old single mother of four boys. Turns out she was a member that no one knew lived there. Thus started a wonderful friendship. I spent a long time in that area and those boys became like my own. They never really got active when I was there...it took years...we kinda kept in contact over the years. Johnna married a nice man named Matt, they had another boy, and they worked on getting the family back to church for good. So I went for her and Matt's endowment and then all six of them were sealed as an eternal family!!! Oh how I love this family!!! We went to dinner right after the temple and then I flew home. Crazy, but likely the best day ever!

(Johnna, her mom, and I)

Those two days were beautiful seeing people I love make powerful covenants...I loved it, I love them, and I love the temple!!

Oh Eileen, you never fail me...

2011-12-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

Well it has been quite some time since I have updated, and I'm about to flood my blog with pictures from the last couple few months, but I must start with a story I just found from a conversation I had with Eileen when I approached her at snack time one day:

Me: You want some bread?

Eileen: Yes I want bread. And saf.

Me: Saf?

Eileen: Yes saf, I want saf.

Me: (trying to not laugh)What is saf?

Eileen: You know for Rocky.

Me: Who is Rocky?

Eileen: You.

Me: (Through my laugh) What?!

Eileen: Ha, got you there didn't I?

The Goodness of Fall

2011-10-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

I LOVE fall. The only thing I don't love about fall is that months of freezingness follow, when the sun forgets to shine to it's greatest glory. A couple of my favorite things about fall are:

The leaves

This picture is from a drive I went on last week. It was a wonderful time. To add to the wonderful time, the canyon was absolutely gorgeous. I'd love to drive up there again in the next couple weeks because I'm pretty sure it's even more beautiful now. I love all the different colors. Nature is incredible the way that it creates beauty as it is "dying".

Another thing I love about fall time is

I LOVE General Conference! I love how clear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is. I love that every time I listen to the words of the Lord's leaders on earth, I gain greater understanding and knowledge.

I also love the weather, cool air, upcoming holidays, pumpkin flavored deliciousnesses, sweaters, and well, football.

The Great Adventure Called Life

2011-09-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

eGee I'm so bad at updating this sometimes...and by sometimes I mean always. I have had quite a few adventures in the past couple months. Most of them are just too crazy to quantify in words. All the changes I talked about in my last post are going just fine. It's amazing how life just keeps going.

I wanted to publish tonight about a few adventures I have that I actually have pictures of...rare for me, but alas I have them. First is that I went camping with the best people ever (that I'm not related to...) Here are the pictures I have of that experience:

A whole two pictures, and not one of me. I make up for that with a zillion pictures of me in a minute. These pictures were while we were making delicious food...

I lived with each of these girls at some point in the last three years. They are by far some of my greatest examples and have had big influences on my life. I'm so grateful for them. We went to one of my favorite places in the world and had heaven for 24 hours. Highlights of the trip included: Successful (some more than others) pigs in a blanket roasted over an open fire, the Ranger man double checking on us giggling girls...I think he was a little concerned about our safety and survival skills, an incredible dinner, s'mores for breakfast, beautiful four wheeling morning and afternoon, random hikes blazing our own trail halfway down mountains and back up, lots and lots of delicious food...I think I already mentioned that. I LOVE the mountains.

This past weekend I went on a little retreat with some members of the Utah Recreation Therapy Association (lovingly known as the URTA). We went up about an hour and a half northeast of here to a place called Hanna, UT. It was absolutely beautiful We had a great time doing what we rec. therapists do best, recreate. ("fishing", canoeing, playing games, hiking, and rappelling). We did do a little "work" by doing a session for CEU's. I love the theories behind Recreation Therapy! Here are some pictures from our rappelling adventures...

The Ascent...we were basically crawling up the mountain, it was super steep.

The view from the top...I sat up there for hours and loved every second of it

Getting ready to go down...I wasn't quite sure what to do with those things in my hands...

Mentally preparing myself to jump off a cliff that was 180 ft. high...or maybe they just caught a picture of me mid-sentence while I was basking in the sun. I was probably saying something about how I wasn't going to get sun burned...I did.

The cliff...if you look, you can see a tree on the top on the right. That's where we jumped off.

I have a recording of my coming down, but it wouldn't work to upload it. So if you want to see how cool I am, feel free to come over and I'll show you... ;)

Down safe :) I'm a pro.

So that was a lot of fun. My life is a lot of fun. Recent fun experiences at work are taking the old people to Snowbird Ski Resort to ride the tram, going to the State Fair, lots of fishing, many a picnic, Sheepherding competition, and lots of other randomness. Now I just have to figure out what to do for the next adventure...

Now is the time...

2011-07-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

First off, having nothing to do with anything else I'm going to write, who in their right mind pounds on walls at midnight?? We're talking hammer to the wall pounding. And I can't tell if it's my roommate next door or if it's the people above me, but still. Really? Come on people! So instead of sleeping, I'll vent thoughts that have been going on in my head for some time.

Thought one: now is the time for change. I suppose life is always changing, every day is different than the day before, but there have been so many changes recently. Friends I've had in my life for many years are moving on past the Provo life(who does that anyway? they do I guess). There are a few people I've known and loved for eight years that have left in the past couple months. While you don't always see each other, I think half the comfort is in knowing that if you need to see them, you can.

Steve and Janae are moving tomorrow. The only times I didn't have Steve with me here in Provo were my freshman year and right before my mission(and then he was in the MTC for most of that semester and I saw him five times a week). I don't think he could ever know what he's been to me in strength and support. Much of my sanity has been kept because of ways he has helped me. Steve is just a good brother and Janae has only added to his awesomeness. (for all other wonderful brothers of mine who might view that...you know I love you dearly and you have all been good to me too...but you aren't leaving me in Provo right now so you don't get an ode to you).

There also have been TONS of changes at work in the last couple of weeks and things are going to continue to change. I won't go into that now...

And I'm moving in less than two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm very excited for that. Not going far, just across the street, but it will be wonderful.

Thought number two: now is the time to prepare.

It's coming up on two years now that I first talked about what the Lord had taught about preparing. If you want to revisit that post it was in November of 2009. (I know there is a way to connect a link or something but I'm not that computer savvy)

Since I've been working at Alpine, I have often recognized the lessons and powerful experiences I've had and how they will help me in the future. Recently I have been thinking about preparing once again. I found notes from a time when I was counseled to do a lot of preparing through the experiences that were to come. I feel like that was more of a counsel for now, that I need to take what I've experienced and prepare from them. I've had some amazing experiences as I've had the opportunity to love and serve the elderly. They are amazing, powerful, children of God. I've learned some amazing lessons from them. I need to take this opportunity to reflect on what they have taught me and place the changes needed into my life. While I still will be learning so my much from them as I continue to work there, I want to write some of those lessons learned down now:

1- the power of gentle patience

I definitely could work on my constant use of this lesson. It is quite the experience to have to explain basic simple concepts to five plus people who not only don't comprehend but ask all the same question as the person next to them. Answering the same question seven times in less than a minute is mighty frustrating. (ex: Bingo me: "I have called out all the numbers in column B" resident 1: "did you call B15?" me: "yes, I have called all b numbers" resident 2: "did you call B7?" me: "yes" resident 3: "what about B4?" me: "yes all numbers with B have been called, cover them up" resident 82: "have you called B13?"...you get the picture...I hate bingo)What is amazing is to see the love they receive in their eyes when I have successfully been patient and gentle with them. They smile, they have a twinkle in their eye, they tell me they love me, that I'm wonderful, and well how could I not love my job getting treated like that?

2- the power of silly fun.

As a rec therapist, of course I have always believed in having fun, but loving these wonderful old people, I've learned a new level of fun. They accept me for whatever I am and think I'm all the more great for it.And when we can laugh at any situation and run with whatever any of the residents with dementia says or does, there is no stress involved. We just have fun and laugh all day long.

3- the power of gentle sincere compliments

I've seen this throughout my life for sure, but definitely more in the last couple of years. When residents hate you, are distressed and frustrated and won't give you the time of day, nothing will stop'em like a good ol' compliment. Warning be told that fake compliments don't work. I've learned from experiences that won't be shared here. But there is never a time that I can't find some good compliment for someone.

4- the power of hymns

They are calmed so easily by hymns

5- the power of gentle touch

People who don't even respond to their own name respond in amazing ways to you holding their hand or gently rubbing their arm or cheek

6- the power of unselfish love

On the days that I am filled with the Lord's love for them, there is no limit to the number of times they can say the same thing or the messes they can make or the number of times I have to say the same thing...His love had no limits for all those things.

There are probably so many more I can write but I'll stop there. These aren't even considering all the things I've learned from other aspects of my job...and those are usually the harder things.(I mean the things I'm not as good at learning from and that I don't love)

Ok that's all for this novel...life is good, very, very good!!

A birthday surprise!

2011-05-16T22:51:00.001-07:00

So my birthday the other day was great, really great. It really was. And what made it so great are the wonderful friends and family that I have and love. I don't know what I would do without them...

Birthdays are a funny concept because...well as I often say to people, it is not technically the day of your birth. So I don't know why we call them birthdays. We should call them anniversaries, just like people say "happy anniversary" instead of "happy wedding day" to celebrate year marks of wedding dates. Just sayin'....

The excitement of my birthday began when I arrived home from work and found:

This last picture is of me and my stuffed hippo, Huckleberry. I was so thoroughly surprised to find this when I came home. Work had been kind of junky that day, so it was beyond nice to come home and see that someone in my life cared. Actually though, family and friends had been texting/calling throughout the day too and reminding me that way. ANYWAY, oh my dear friends (Amy, Carie, and Sharla) that decorated my room...here a week later I'm still finding little confetti things in new places. Quite exciting. AND they were so kind to wrap some of my things for me to open...like my scriptures, my duct tape, my hymn book, Huck, some bubbles I have in my room...not very often do people get to open regifted items from their very own shelves... :) It was funny, and they really did have other things to give me like my favorite kinds of candy and my favorite pens. AND my favorite drink in the fridge which I didn't even find until the next day... :) Amy made a beyond delicious dinner, then we went to the BYU baseball game. It was a perfect evening, I couldn't have asked for better. I'm so glad I got to talk to my family that day. So the anniversary of my birth day was a wonderful day. And I feel so grateful to be surrounded by those who love and care about me :) Couldn't ask for better.

I JUST WANT TO:

2011-04-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes I do....someday...

Spring has brought me such a sweet surprise....

2011-04-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

So this morning, I looked out the window and what did I see??? SNOOOOOW! And not just a little, like a foot of snow on the ground. It looks like this:

If you look close you can see the little buds on the tree that I was so excited to see yesterday. Poor little guys are probably dying of coldness.

And this is the poor bush outside my front door. It looks like it got murdered by snow. Half of it was completely smashed.

Yesterday, when I was wearing my dinky little sweater, I was sweating. But no, not today. There is snow outside. It sure is beautiful though. I love it when the skies are full of luscious beautiful clouds like they have been today. I don't mind one bit that I can stay inside and enjoy the view.

Spring has brought other surprises this year. The last couple months have been crazy, I guess I should say the last year. I think that I keep saying "After ________ is finished, things should calm down finally." First it was my surgery stuff, then it was the fundraiser at work and my vacations, then catch up work from being gone, then a big 20th anniversary party we were throwing at work for Halloween, then the Christmas party, then a combination of taken a 3-credit course in a month/getting ready to be gone for a week at Christmas/catch up from being gone at Christmas/applying to grad school, then there was the the application that I was involved in at work which consisted of writing an 18 page paper about the clinical services we provide at Alpine Valley Care Center (that took about a month and a half and took ALL of my time), then there was the catch up work from that...yep, just one thing after another. Every day brings a new adventure of something that could happen. I always look forward to what can happen.

S0 one surprise I got this spring was the news of not getting into grad school. That was a big bummer. Definitely not what I had expected nor what I wanted, but such is life. I have been reminded of the feelings I felt a year and a half ago when I was laid off and having that which I'd work so hard toward not granted. (here's the link to my post I wrote right after being laid of... http://melssweetlife.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-sweet-life-today.html) I again feel so lost as to what I am actually supposed to be doing. I get little promptings daily that are leading me somewhere...That will be a fun surprise when I learn what comes next!

Another surprise is that by the end of the year I'm going to be an aunt to three adorable babies! Well...I'm not sure how adorable they will be, but they're my relatives, so they will surely be mostly adorable.

Meridian, Idaho is getting a temple!!!! Though I never "served" in Meridian. it does lie in Great Idaho Boise Mission! Therefore, I'm stoked about it.

Um...I can't think of other surprises that are of large enough note to comment on here. Truly every day is a fun new adventure. I continue to feel the Lord's guidance in my day to day experiences and am only truly happy because of His gospel.

Out of the Mouths of Elders

2011-02-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

An all-time Sunday video favorite at our house was "Mouths of Babes" that asked kids a bunch of doctrinal questions and had their hilarious answers. Ever since I have worked at Alpine Valley, I have had numerous beautiful quotes from my old folk friends. Eileen was especially funny this week. here are a few of our conversations. Of course, being with her in person makes it about five hundred times funnier...

Numero uno:

Me: Eileen, I love you.

Eileen: I love you too. You're a good boy.

Me: Um, I'm not a boy, I'm a girl.

Eileen: Oh I know, you're a girl...

Numero dos:

Me: Hey, Eileen!

Eileen: Quit fooling around and I'll break both your legs.

Numero tres:

Me: Eileen?

Eileen: Yes, come in for a minute.

Me: Do you want a blueberry muffin?

Eileen: A what?

Me: A blueberry muffin.

Eileen: What will that do?

Me: Um, it will be good for your body?

Eileen: No, I already have a body, and it's all broken into pieces, and I don't need no more.

Numero quatro:

Me: Eileen, here's your hot chocolate.

Eileen: Where are the feet on it?

Me: Are there normally feet on it?

Eileen: No, I just thought I'd ask. I normally don't get anything.

Oh brother...

Swoosh!

2011-01-22T16:09:00.000-08:00

So, life is mostly back to normal these days. I finished my independent study class the day before my grad school application was due, and sent that in. I'm supposed to find out if I am accepted by the 15th of March. If I don't get in...well I'll figure that out if it comes, but right now I have high hopes.

This past week I have felt like I have had so much time on my hands. I can usually keep myself busy, and I'm getting the hang of it now, but for the first few days, I didn't quite know what to do without having a chapter to read or a paper to write or something. The most exciting thing that started this past week though is intramural basketball. I love playing almost any sport, but basketball has always been my favorite.

Good news is, we won our first game. Sadly, I didn't add much to that win. I guess you could say I was a decoy. I forget sometimes that it has been eleven years since I ruled the basketball courts of Carson Jr. High. "Ruled" is a loose term...we did manage to win two of our sixteen games that season. (I was going to insert an awesome picture of me from that season, but I can't find it)

In high school, music won my time and pushed sports to the back burner. Sometimes when I play now I wonder if I shouldn't have put more effort into cultivating my skills. Back in the day I used to watch Dan Majerle play, and I loved the way he shot those three pointers! I wanted to be just like him. While I have always had an ability to beautifully arch the ball into the basketball for a marvelous sounding swoosh, my hold back is accuracy.

After Tuesday's game, I decided that I really needed to work on it, so I meandered down to the neighborhood park this afternoon and shot some hoops. I got a little better, but I'd been there about twenty minutes when a father and his two sons came over. They asked if they could shoot too, I had no problem with that and so we all just shot around for a bit together. They were nice people, the two boys cracked me up though. The older one was probably nine or so, his name was Asher. Gabe was maybe seven. Asher was a fair amount bigger than Gabe and they played a little against each other, sadly Gabe rarely kept up or could keep Asher from taking the ball. I felt bad for the kid.

They'd been there about five minutes when I heard Gabe say, as he bounced the ball, "Hey Asher, What's that one guy's name? He plays for Lakers, and he's really good, and he runs....?" Oh kids.

We played Speed, the four of us. Good times. So hopefully with a little practice I can become like Downtown Dan. Here's to hoping...

Christmas in Mesa...and a few other things

2011-01-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

Hopefully this post goes quickly. There are so many things that I should have posted about months ago and haven't even thought about it...Example: Steve and Janae's wedding which was at the end of October. Awesome? Yes it was. My family drove up to Provo from Mesa on a Thursday, then we drove up to Washington on Friday, Jeff went through the temple that evening, then the wedding was on Saturday, and we drove back to Provo Sunday after church. It was an adventure but so much fun! I'm so happy for Steve and Janae and love that two of my favorite people are eternally related now :) The following pictures are from the trip.

Jeff, Will, Jenni, and I just as happy as can be to be riding for ten hours together to go see Steve get hitched.

Emily by her mountain's sign.

Steve so excited for his wedding that was going to take place in less than 24 hours. He could hardly contain the excitement.

The Columbia River temple and surrounding area was absolutely gorgeous.

On the way there we had a little conversation with my parents about the temple since Jeff was going through that night. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Neat to sit and visit with each other to share our feelings about the temple. I have the best brothers and parents :) Mike tried to make it into the picture back there. Sneaky, sneaky.

So that was back in October, great times. November was a good month, I enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with one of the best families that I know outside of my own. I was grateful for them and letting me join them. December has been a crazy busy month. I decided that I want to go back to school to get a masters so that I can have more opportunities to work with youth like I originally wanted to. Applying to the program requires that I take a prerequisite. Since I signed up for the class on December 9th, I have read the entire textbook, 22 chapters and 415 pages. It has been an intense month. Other fun activities have been multiple parties at work for the holidays, fun parties with my friends, and random bonding with wonderful people.

The best part of this month has been the last week and a half that I have spent at home. It has been quite a growing experience for me and I loved the opportunity to do so. Here's an explanation of everything through pictures.

The gorgeous drive down the I-15, HWY20, HWY89, and I-17. We had pretty good weather overall, but also had a few scary spots with driving through clouds. I loved the opportunity to get to know a gal in the ward that I drove down with better. There are some amazing people in this world that have gone through some amazing experiences. They are such good examples to me. We left early on the 24th and got home about 2:30pm, I dropped her off to a friend and headed home. We spent the afternoon getting ready for Christmas (wrapping last minute presents, etc.) After dinner that night we went and looked at Christmas lights around the valley. I love this tradition. When we got home, it was straight to bed so that Santa could come...

(I love coming home to the smell of a Christmas tree!)

Waiting in the hall Christmas morning at 5. Tradition is that we wait until then to wake up our parents, then we have to sing our Merry Christmas song, then we have to wait for Dad to make sure Santa came and turn on the lights....then we run in!

Mike was probably the most excited out of everybody this year. He could not hold still all night before and was up at 3. You'd think that at 14 he might have grown out of it at least a little bit...

The kids all got ukuleles and we haven't heard much else since.

Will and I both got new cameras!

After an exciting two hours of presents, I took a beautiful nap, got up at 8:30, got ready, and then the fun tradition of eggs on toast and hot chocolate with all the Andersen cousins! One of my favorite Christmas day traditions.

Then there are pictures of what everybody did all day on Christmas:

Mom working away in the kitchen as usual. I think she was just making lunch for us :)

Dad, reading an instruction manual. This really is an all-day event for him every year, trying to figure out how all the new things work.

Will, eating...

Jenni, on the computer, an every day, every hour thing.

Jeff and Mike playing the wii. All day.

Us playing card games. We did this most of the break. It's a favorite family pastime.

Christmas was a wonderful day! Then the work began. Monday-Wednesday involved getting ready for a family reunion we had with Mom's side of the family, the Andersen's. I mowed the lawn, weeded the flower beds, we picked up nuts and leaves (twice), and then I felt like I was eternally reading...

And then the party really began...We had our "Andersen Magic" reunion. It was so much fun to be with my cousins! I love that when I'm around my family, I feel that I can be the best me, meaning I feel their trust in me and that I can be awesome. There are so many parts of reunions that are my favorite, some of them are: the millions of little dudes that think that I'm cool, playing sports with the cousins, visiting with my awesome older cousins and my aunts and uncles, the meals every three hours, and...well I think that's it all:

(Speed with all the cousins was soooo fun. There were probably about 30 of us at the beginning of every game. I had some pretty sweet shots myself, once maybe twice.)

We played Dominos on New Years eve. Afterward, my Aunt Sue and I had the marvelous idea to write our "Happy New Year" with the tiles. Sadly, she would not pose with me for the picture.

Two of my favorites...There were five of us that were the same age and graduated from the same high school the same year. Neil and Becky both have two kids now and live here in Mesa so I don't see them too much. It was so fun to play with them!

So it was a wonderful break, and I'm headed home tomorrow. This has been a good trip but I'm ready to hit the ground running in this new year!! I'm so blessed to have the family and home that I have. What a wonderful life I've been given!!!

New (OLD) Adventures! Part 2/3...and then some

2010-10-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

So....back when I posted the other post about my family I had already experienced other fun adventures, and I'm not sure how it happened, but I never actually posted about them. So I'd like to take this opportunity to post about them now.

Adventure number 2 was the grand experience that I had of going to California with some of the

best people I know ever. I sure love them. A lot.

We set out for our adventure very early in the morning on Thursday. By early I mean midnight. We got to California about 8/9 in the morning and went to Seal Beach. It was a rather beautiful day. We spent a bit of time walking up and down the beach:

We ran away from the waves:

We walked the...oh what are those things called, the wood thing that extends out into the ocean and people were fishing off of it, and a boat can dock on it, is it just called a dock? A pier? I don't know, but we walked up and down it, just had a grand time.

The sun came out to play and...well I don't know what the others did, but I slept, out cold (the shirt was to keep the sun out of my eyes, it did a great job):

(can you say "farmer sunburn"?) It was a beautiful sleep. They slept too and read and who knows.

We traveled up to our hotel, got ready, and went to Downtown Disney, which wasn't as cool as we had expected, and we were all exhausted. We found some cool things though. A telephone booth...I don't have the picture of all of us fitting into it, but there is such a picture somewhere...

A lego store with awesome things built:

The sun did wonders on the back of our thighs too...so, well walking around that night, and for the next week or two actually, was painful.

The next day began our Disney adventures.

(Sharla looks SO excited...)

I hadn't been to Disneyland in years and it was SO much fun. Especially with these people. We spent Friday in California Adventure (which I had never been to). Saturday we were at Disneyland the whole day, and it was a blast.

We made cool Mickey/Minnie hats

Amy was trying to break into this place and it set all kinds of electrocution stuff off...trouble Amy...

We were sitting on this bench waiting for Carie and Erica and this little girl named Sophia totally became our friend. She was the "bus driver" and she bossed us around and everything. She had theories about why the trolley wouldn't move like there was a fork underneath that was keeping it from going. It was hilarious.

Pretty sure that Amy and I set a speed record for the teacups...just saying

Carie and Sharla imitating the funny caterpillar behind them...

Oh Friday night we went to an Angels game. I have no loyalty to the Angels necessarily, which was good because they lost horribly, but it was fun to be at a pro game.

Sunday was full of driving, we got to see some of the beautiful coast...this is sure a wonderful earth we live on. Monday we checked out a random museum and flew home. Overall it was a great trip. I'm so glad that I went.

I'm not totally sure what this had to do with anything at the museum we went to, but it was there. I'm a pretty fierce hockey player...

As for adventure numero tres....I'm not sure where I got the idea that there was an adventure number three. But let's be honest, every day is an adventure in my life. Ah, I moved! That was an adventure. Right after we got back from California, we had two days to be out of our apartment. I moved to south Provo where I am in the nicest place I have lived in for a real long time. Here are pictures of my room:

An example of me pondering at my desk. It was the second piece of furniture that I bought.

I have since bought an actual nightstand, so no worries, my laundry hamper is out of sight...

It's kind of fun to have room for my piano in my room, then no one knows when I play it :)

...I still haven't necessarily finished putting the room together. I am lacking some cute wall decorations...if you have any that you want to give me, let me know.

Everything is going great. I love my new ward and situation down here. I love work still. I can't believe that I'm coming up on a year of being at Alpine, but still love it a ton. I think I'll be there for a while more still. We've had more adventures at work, from ice skating to the zoo, and we're going to Wendover this next week. It just never ends!

Steve and Janae are getting married this week! And I'm so excited for that!! The family is driving here on Thursday and then we'll drive to Washington Friday, wedding Saturday, then return to Provo. My poor family has to finish the drive to Mesa the next day. It will be great fun!

Yes as always, life is great!!

New Adventures! Part 1

2010-08-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

So...I still haven't written about either of my trips which were both tons of fun. Here are a couple pictures that tell the tale a little:

I got to spend lots of wonderful time with each of my siblings but it was especially fun to be with Will after having him gone for two years.

The family in front of the D.C. temple. It was an absolutely gorgeous night. After we had a beautiful week all week long. Only one nastily hot day that I wished I could have just used a mobile swimming pool to keep me cool. Pretty sure I sweat out all of the water in body...I'm sure you wanted to know that too...

Jeff and I in front of the Washington Monument. We got to go to the top of it another day.

Me in front of...well obviously, it's the White House. Had to get one of those pictures.

Mike and I in the backyard of ...well it was some old built home in Georgetown after dinner one night.

This was on the hot hot hot day. We were standing outside the building, that I can't remember the name of right now where the Constitution is...We were so awesome with our little fans. Good thing Mom brought them...

We toured the Capitol Building, (which was awesome! It was so amazing to learn about the lives these men/women that founded our country lived. I have no doubt that they were inspired and guided in creating this land of freedom. We went to the homes of many of the founding fathers and I LOVED learning about them.) And I loved being with Mom.

My wonderful sisters and I outside of Mt. Vernon. I miss being with these two gals.

Exciting random quick 20 minute visit with one of the neatest people on the east coast that doesn't belong to my family. I loved visiting with Meagan whom I hadn't seen for months. We had a good visit! :)

We saw lots of wonderful things and met lots of fun random people that, as always, were astonished at the size of our family and that we weren't beating up on each other. We had one tour guide who talked about it for the first five minutes of our tour and then as a couple of other tourists joined us for the tour, she had to say it again. It was so fun to spend so much time with my family, it has been years since I've done that. We've grown a lot since then too. It was so fun to have Janae be there with us.

But it couldn't have been possible without Dave and Nikki, and all the work they did to get ready to have us be there. And all the work they did when we were there. I sure have the best older brother and sister in law...and they have the cutest little girl :) I loved spending time with her. We probably we entertained by her for more than half of the week's time.

Love them...

And her :)

I've got friends in all places :)

2010-07-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

So, pretty much I don't know where to start because there have been about five different things in the last month and a half that I have meant to post on that I haven't, which means that, knowing how long it takes me to say some things, this could be a super long post. But I'll do my best to consolidate it all. Through the experiences of late I have felt so amazingly the love and support of good, good friends who have been angels in my daily travels.

On June 28th, 2010 I went under for a surgery that has changed life as I have come to know it for the last 6 years. It has been quite an experience, the last six years that is. I began having acid reflux symptoms at the beginning of my sophomore year here at BYU and it has progressively gotten worse. There have been periods of not so awesome pain, and others of sweet relief which often came I know only because the Lord hears and answers prayer.

I was officially diagnosed in December of 2005 and since then have tried a handful of different prescription medication and doses to treat acid reflux. As I tried lots of different medications and lifestyles to lessen the symptoms of the disease, nothing ever fully worked, and eventually temporary relief subsided.

This past fall I decided that it was time to quit living with it as it was and seek more professional help than just a family doctor. Through a good friend I was able to quickly get in to have a test done that would have otherwise taken extra appointments and expenses. At that time, the doctors shared the good news that I didn't have any damage done to my insides but they increased my medication yet again and suggested that I consider having a surgery done called a nissen fundoplication.

The medication was working great so I decided to wait, but just as all the other times before, that particular medication quit being effective for me and I decided to go forward with it. So this is a picture of what they did to my stomach:

The flap of skin/muscle, called the lower esophageal or cardiac sphincter, inside my body didn't work to prevent food and acid from having a hayday up and down my esophagus anytime they wanted. So what this surgery did was tighten that passageway. I now have six cute little incisions on my abdomen where they went into me.

My wonderful mom flew up and spent a couple days with me, my superb roommates and friends entertained and watched out for me. I was on a liquid diet for two, almost three weeks and so many people were willing to get me whatever would make me happy. They were all so good to me (not that they aren't always...) Friends at work helped out so much so that I didn't feel too horrible about leaving them with my job.

I'm reflux free now for the last four weeks and two days. I still feel quite a bit tired now and then and my incisions are tender to the touch but overall I'm GREAT! I'm eating almost completely normal (I just can't have hard, sharp foods like chips) now and eating has never been such a wonderful experience! I feel so blessed to be able to have had this work for me, and that everything has turned out perfectly so that it could happen.

A super hard thing about the last couple months is watching everyone around me play sports and not being to join in the fun! I've missed playing this summer so very very much. I've decided that it isn't the smartest thing to take yourself out of the active picture during the middle of the summer. At the same time I have enjoyed watching my friends play. They sure are wonderfully good people! How I LONG to swing a bat!!

A huge question that has been on my mind has been where I'm going to live next year. Just for everyone's information, I found a place and I'm rather excited about the adventure I'm about to have. More info to come on that one soon as I get moved in and stuff, I'll post pictures I suppose. Again it was the help of a friend that led me to where I'll be. Yay for friends.

A wonderfully fun experience I had the other week was my younger but far from little brother coming home from his mission!!! Steve and I decided last minute to venture home. Not trusting our loyal but appropriately named "Putt-putt" car, we rented one and left after I finished work on Friday evening. We drove late into the night to arrive home about 1:30am Arizona time.

It was SO wonderful to be with my family and friends in Mesa. (Being at my home ward on Sunday made me realize how many wonderful friends I have. While Provo/Utah has become my place of living in the last couple years, Mesa will always have the people I belong to. I love that blessed place.)

It was marvelous to be with my cute brothers and sisters. I miss them so much when I'm here in Utah. Yeah I have Steve here, and he is pretty great, but I still miss the other 7. Will got home on Saturday evening. I could've stayed another week with him :) I sure did miss him.

Speaking of my wonderful family. Exciting news is getting to have a new sister-in-law in just a couple months. I'm soooooooo excited for Steve and Janae! I sure like her A LOT!

Lastly, to end this novel, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited for my upcoming trips that start in one short day from now! I'm going to be flying to DC to see Dave and Nikki and Hallie with my family (-Elder Ben Merrill). I'm so excited for have us all together. I'll for sure write that one up. And then just a couple days after we get back, I get to leave again with my awesome friends, and go play in California!

LIFE IS TRULY SWEET, FULL OF GREAT FRIENDS AND GOOD STUFF!

The end of the story

2010-06-16T18:21:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm back in P-town. Every part of Denver ended up being an adventure. Here are the pics:

This is me being ever so excited to embark on our forever long trip to Denver. Little did I know what was in store for me...

This is my boss being super excited about our trip. I sure like him and am grateful for him often. He is one of the reasons I love my job. He is just a good man.

The gorgeousness of this earth out in the middle of nowhere. This is probably my favorite picture I took and it doesn't compare to what my eye really saw. It was just the beginning of all the clouds we saw for the next 24 hours straight of rain. blah.

Monica was our ever faithful driver. She brought many laughs the entire trip. While we don't necessarily agree on the appropriateness use of a handful of words, she is a pretty fun gal to have around. We bonded a lot us two in the front seat. She was even subjected to some of my Grandma Andersen's stories. Twenty hours in the car together, plus almost three full days of being together is quite a lot...

These are the people from Mission Health Services, the corporate of the place I work for. There are five "sister" homes owned by this place.

These are my fun friends from the great Alpine Valley Care Center. Kenzi (far left) is an awesome CNA and Monica's daughter. Then Rod is our maintenance man. Good soul that boy. Then Monica, and Kay (I spent the most time with her because we shared hotel rooms just the two of us twice and we also got to be bed buddies our last night), then Bruce, and me.

This is the one and only Eagle Diner in Eagle, Colorado. On the way home we stopped at the gas station across the street called Loaf n' Jug. I'm telling you this town is priceless. They also have a Kum n'go gas station... oh boy.

My last picture is of Monica and I at the Cheesecake Factory with our socially/politically correct napkin bibs. A huge thing in the culture change movement is to promote the dignity of the Elders. Part of that is not having them wear "bibs" or "clothing protectors" while they. (We're working on getting rid of them at our place). Well Monica and I felt like it was good to model the Cheesecake Factory's napkin size as a possibly replacement to our clothing protectors.

There were so many things that I wish I had pictures of that happened, or even that there was a way to capture and share what I experienced. There were definitely some way too fanatical people at the conference. Some of the large group sessions, my co-workers and I would look at each other and, knowing the other person was thinking the same thing as us, just smile and shake our heads. Some people are just extra special and different. :)

Then there were the two dinners with friends. I got to catch up with a dear friend I haven't seen in five years, and I'm soooo grumpy at myself for not capturing that one on film. It was so, so, so good to see her again. She is amazing. Then to see good ol' Kristen Anderson-no longer Anderson. Oh happy friends.

Then the millions of funny moments. All my new friends that I met on 16th Street. There is this place in downtown Denver that the whole street doesn't allow cars on it. They have pianos sitting out, and artists, and street performers, and bicycle rides, and fun friends all over the place. Bruce, my boss, and I played chopsticks on the piano. We were so good, we shut up the street performers. Next stop, Carnegie Hall.

So yes, the trip was marvelous, but it is so wonderful to be back home. I had a weird experience while there. Everyone would ask where you were from. My whole life I have said that I am from Mesa, Arizona. I still say that. I feel like I am just visiting Utah...but I do believe I might almost should actually be saying I'm from Utah...yikes.

An Addendum

2010-06-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

I was reminded that I didn't share about some other friends. And I also remembered I forgot a story that has been a huge part of my experience here :)

The most exciting news is that I have a bunch of England rugby players running around the same hotel as me! They aren't too shabby to look like at, they are wonderful to listen to talk, and they don't smell too bad either ;). (Happy Carie?)

The second thing I forgot was a fiasco I had last night trying to warm up some dinner. I didn't want to worry about getting dinner so I saved leftovers from Saturday in our cooler. So yesterday evening I went to go warm them up, there is not a microwave to be found at all. So I went and found a worker. He goes and looks, doesn't seem to see one, so he said that he'd radio someone. Which he did as I stood there next to him. This was there convo: "Hi, I've got a lady here that would like to warm up some food, do we have somewhere she can do that?" "No, we don't. Where are you?" "I'm upstairs. We don't have anywhere where they can warm up food??" "NO. Are you talking about this in front of her? Stop. Come find me now." ...yikes. Anyway, so this 4 star hotel I'm staying in doesn't own a microwave. I guess people are too ritzy to need to warm up food that normally stay here...

Okay, it's time for more classes I suppose...

Adventure in the Mile High City!

2010-06-13T19:30:00.001-07:00

I'll post pictures when I get back because right now they are upstairs, and I am downstairs, and the elevators take eternal amounts of time. So they will have to wait. I'm just proud that I have taken pictures period. I need to take more.

But truly this has been an adventure. It all began yesterday at 1:30, we left beautiful Alpine Valley Care Center so gently situated on Alpine Dr in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Little did we know we were about to have the drive of a century and experience every type of season possible within ten hours.

We took the route through Price and weather was pretty good. It was overcast and a little sprinkle would happen here and there, but nothing we couldn't handle. Every now and then though, we would drive right through a heavy pour, it was like we were swerving in and out of a nasty storm. It was pouring so hard we could hardly see out of the windshield. Well upward and onward we continued, and pretty soon the storm was constant. Not so bad that we couldn't see, but constant so that our wipers had to be on almost full speed. That started about five pm.

It was about the time that I started to drive actually. We headed ourselves into the canyons of the Colorado mountains and there were sooooo many huge puddles of water. We were definitely hydroplaning in different spots. There was one point where the road had nasty potholes in it. A little Toyota red truck was in front of us and hit a pothole so hard, he lost control of his car for a minute swerving back and forth as his car hydroplaned for a good fifteen, twenty feet. For a moment I thought we were going to slam straight into him.

It would have been a not so happy experience if that were to happen...I'm grateful for the gentle whisper of the Spirit that prompted peace and what I should do. Thank goodness all was well.

We stopped for dinner at a small diner in Eagle, Colorado. Wow, what an experience! They were out of half of their main courses and our waitress talked very loudly and with a slow ...stringy? voice. I'll have to imitate it for you if you want, just ask. It was a true 50's diner though decked in awesome fashion. Besides that fact that they took forever to get our food, forgot one of my co-workers' order, didn't have a lot of the food, and the waitress' voice, I recommend the stop.

We continued our trip through the mountains, the rain never stopping, except for when it turned into a crazy snow storm. We could barely see twenty feet ahead of us. Since when does it blizzard in June????

We finally arrived and got situated in our hotel at about eleven, oh happy day.

The purpose of my visit is the most wonderful Eden Alternative Annual Conference. In short, the Eden Alternative is an approach to long-term care that is devoted to proactively fighting against the plagues of helplessness, boredom, and loneliness that are so common among those that are aging. In some ways, I feel like these people are a little fanatic about something that seems so much like human nature, to treat our wonderful wise sages of the world in a respectful loving way, but you'd be surprised how many of them are treated. There is much culture change being attempted in the field of long-term care. So...that's why I am here. (there are some real um...you could say tree hugger type folks here, bless their hearts(that's why I changed my background of my blog. Eden is represented by trees and stuff I guess))

Today we toured three homes in the area that were (maybe they weren't because one of them reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally was a sad place to be) supposed to be examples of good Eden transformed homes. I've met a lot of interesting people from all over the world today, and had the opportunity to talk about things that only those that work in long-term care really understand and problems and solutions. So it's been neat. But by far my FAVORITE part has been meeting my new friends. I LOVE OLD PEOPLE!!! From Dora from Buenos Aires, to Bea, and Sid (I'm now his sugar for the day), and Miranda, and Goodam (a Norwegian name of a lady I met), and Joy, and Vivian. My favorite thing is looking into their eyes. I love seeing them as my brothers and sisters. It's soooooo awesome.

So the next two days will be full of classes, which should be good to learn from others' experiences. And then a drive home....I hope the weather is more happy then.

The thoughts of Mel for your reading pleasure...

2010-05-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

I hope this isn't too boring of an entry. I just have been thinking a lot lately, so this might be more of a serious entry than anything like the stories I tell lately, but here are the thoughts...

This past weekend Dave and Nikki came from out east to say hello. It was soooo fun to have my cute little niece here and to get to know her a little better. And it was fun to play with Dave and Nikki. My parents came up too so they could spend some time with all of us. Probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend was spending one on one time with my mom. Oh how I love that woman. I think that one of the saddest things about living so far from home is living so far from my mom. I love talking to her and just hanging out with her. During one of our little chats we got to talking about experiences I've had since coming home from the mission two and a half years ago (I can't believe it has been that long). Mom made a comment about it being a hard couple of years. Life can just be hard sometimes. I won't go into super amount of detail about the experiences but it got me to thinking about the opportunities for growth that I've had over the past years.

There is a man at work who is in his early 70's. He had a stroke a number of years ago and his left side is basically completely out of commission. In the last six months he has gained 50 lbs. making him reach an almost immovable friend at over 300 lbs. He constantly acts very rude, demeaning, inconsiderate of others, and negative. The world owes him everything. He waits for people to wait on him and push him wherever he wants to go even though he is completely capable of moving himself (but that ability is diminishing with the more weight he gains and the less he moves). He sleeps almost all day every day. But he talks about the day that he would like to leave the nursing home walking. Looking at him is very sad for me. I think about a few good talks we've had, they've been uncommon but have occurred, and it is so sad to see how his actions will NEVER lead to his goal. He has been dealt a hard hand. I can't imagine not being able to move one side of my body, or losing a spouse years before it is your time to go. None of that sounds fun to me. But can you be happy?

I think of another friend at work. She is...I don't know how old, but likewise had a stroke losing the use of the right side of her body, her dominant side. She has a very happy demeanor, always has a thank you and a smile ready for anyone who offers her service. She always asks with a please and is patient. She works hard to do things on her own and only asks for help when she has tried to accomplish the task by herself. She lost her husband a year or so ago, a hard experience for her. What makes her so different from my first friend?

Both of them have the knowledge of the restored gospel. They both have "testimonies" of it. They have similar situations, but why such different reactions? I guess it would take actually personally asking them to know their own reasons for their method of response, but as I've thought about my responses in the past two years to hard situations, some of which it was hard for me to choose the right response originally, I know what does help to reach the happiest outcome.

Looking back I'm so grateful for everything that has happened in my life and the lives of the people around me so that I could learn, by experience, to be where I am at now. About a year and a half ago I wrote an email to a friend in Canada who was having a rough time. I knew her through the mormon.org chats that I was doing for the MTC. What I wrote then, I feel describes very what I feel this morning as I write this:

Lots of things happen in our lives that we don't really expect, and we might often look at our situation and wonder why on earth it happened to us at the time and the way it did. I have found in my life that when those things happen, I am left with one beautiful constant. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and its restoration. I love the understanding that I have of my relationship with my Father in Heaven because of the restoration. I understand that I am really His daughter and that He knows and loves me so much, and I feel that love every time I read the Book of Mormon and the Bible and go to church and go to the temple. And so even though I'm not sure what is going to take place in my life coming up here soon and how everything is going to be accomplished, I love the peace that always comes from the gospel.

(Funny that that paragraph applies just as much right now as it did back then when I was still in college and didn't know where I was going to do my internship.) I continuously feel so blessed whenever I think about the hand of the Lord in my life. Yeah, there are a lot of stressful things going on around me, but inside I feel a deep peace and great love. So that is the first thing that has made all the difference in those moments of exhaustion, not knowing what to do, and confusion. It makes me think of a quote from Elder Groberg's talk years ago on love. He described a time when he was physically drowning. Check out the whole talk because it's one of my favs, but this what he said:

But swim I must if I wished to stay alive. Every time I complained I found myself underwater, so it didn't take long to quit complaining. Things are how they are, and complaining doesn't help. I needed every ounce of energy to keep my head above water and make it to shore. Having earned my Eagle Scout Award, I was a pretty confident swimmer, but over time the wind and the waves began to sap my strength. I never quit trying, but there came a time when my muscles simply would move no more.

I had a prayer in my heart, but still I began to sink. As I was going down for what could have been the last time, the Lord infused into my mind and heart a deep feeling of love for a very special person. It was as though I could see and hear her. Even though she was 8,000 miles away, the power of that love came rushing across those miles and, penetrating time and space, reached down and pulled me up—lifted me from the depths of darkness, despair, and death and brought me up to light and life and hope. With a sudden burst of energy I made it to shore, where I found my shipmates. Never underestimate the power of true love, for it knows no barriers.

A second thing that I thought about when I was thinking about all this stuff going on and what has helped me to stay afloat, positive, and in the end helped me to make the best of the situation are the people around me. I'm a pretty lucky/blessed gal. I have the best family, the best friends, and the best influences in the people that surround me. Without them, I would not be where I'm at. There has not been a day go by in my life that I haven't thought of those around me, and their example of faith, and used it as a pattern for my own choices.

The next thing I thought about was service. One of my new favorite songs is "Smile". I LOVE going to work and making people smile, they make me smile. They make me smile so much, and it makes work and everything it brings with it so wonderful. There is no real description for what it feels like to serve. Random thought to help explain: Last year we had a service project with the stake at a woman's house that had sooooooo much trash in the backyard. I worked for about an hour, then met the woman on her front porch. It was amazing to me then how much love I felt for her. Of that experience I wrote: As I drove away I thought about the great love I felt for those people we'd been serving, the love I felt from the Lord, the beauty that I saw all around me...I just felt like I was going to explode with happiness. I decided that service truly does ignite the soul with a passion for life and that it is a pretty happy thing.

So service makes life amazing. Real service though, done with the right intentions.

I guess those are the main three things, the Lord's constant, merciful love and peace, those around me, and service. I'm so grateful for opportunities to grow :)

I should add a little update though on what's happening. I turned 25 the other week. That's odd.

I have surgery scheduled for the 28th of June and I'm really excited about it! It's going to hopefully correct something that has been giving me pain for the last five and a half years!! I have acid reflux disease and have been on a myriad of medications and tried a ton of different methods. So at the end of June I get to have my stomach tied...the only sad thing is that it should reduce me stomach size by a 1/3 :(

Work is going great I enjoy it very much.

Come the fall I don't know where I'll be, if anyone has any suggestions let me know :)

Okay, that's all for today!

Dear Readers,

2010-03-10T20:18:00.001-08:00

It was kindly brought to my attention that it has been a large period of time since I have entered the recent happenings of my life on this thing. Truth be told, Carie told my life almost in complete truth. My life pretty much consists of eating ice cream, working, hanging out at the apartment pretending like I'm working on my grandma's journal (although I am ecstatic because I just recently finished the part when she was a missionary, which means I'm almost done...almost), wrestling Carie to the ground (she wasn't fully honest in that one because I do win, if I don't have mercy on her first), watching Amy do P90X(...I've found that you can't get fit just by imagining yourself doing it, just in case someone was hoping it would work for them), and eating more ice cream.

Our regular season of basketball has finished and we're awaiting the beginning of the tournament. I've reflected on my actual ability to play basketball recently and have decided that...well there are other things that I'm better at than basketball.

Work continues to be entertaining as it could ever be. It's amazing that I get more popular the more odd that I am.

Example 1: Every week we have what we lovingly call "Rhythm Band". My boss plays the piano really, really, really, really loud and all the residents have maracas and tamborines that they, very loudly, bang to the beat. Most definitely not the most pleasing sound to the ear. Well add to that sound, me singing at the top of my lungs the old time songs of "In the Good Ol' Summertime" and "I've been working on the Railroad". The louder I sing, the louder they hoot and holler.

Example 2: I've started a new tradition of dance parties. If you think having a dance party with your roommates is fun...come hang out with us some afternoon. I've never considered myself one with dancing skills, but they think I'm alright. I continue to love bringing joy into their lives. Nothing lights up my day like seeing them smile.

To add to the joy are the funniest conversations that one could ever imagine. It's like talking to child by funnier because their sentences have nothing to do with another.

Example 1: Lester...oh how I love this man. Two quotes I've heard in the last week spoken aloud to no one in particular, he was just speaking his mind. "Happy Christmas, We love you, down to the barrow of the little baby's shoe." "And if you're Scotch Irish you have to say that you're ancestors were from the bottom of the sea of Galilee!"

Example 2: Eileen, I don't even know how to describe this one by writing it, so if you want to hear about Eileen, just call and ask me.

Example 3: Ruth, oh Ruth. One morning I was walking past her and she just starts laughing and says in her very low raspy voice "OH BOY! That's funny" "Well good morning Ruth! Are you laughing at me?!" She nods. "Oh boy" "What's so funny?" "I just thought I'd see if it would fill the bucket." Later that morning she is sitting staring at her pearl necklace in her hands. "Hey Ruth, what are you doing?" "Oh, I'm just trying to figure out if these are fish."

'Nough said.

Let's see...I've been sick lately, as in the last three days, I've been sick. It knocked me completely out for one day, and made me a grouch for the other couple of days. Bless my roommates' hearts for dealing with me. They are awfully kind. But don't feel bad for me or anything, I'm still living and who doesn't get sick now and then...

In the next week and a half I have to finish my great-grandma's missionary journal so that I can give it to my family at our annual Legacy conference...which I'm very excited about...and I think that pretty much gives all an update on my life.

The end.

a look at the life of Mel...by Carie

2010-01-18T22:14:00.000-08:00

This is Melanie's life, in a nutshell...according to Carie:

Eat ice cream with Carie

Shoot hoops at Carie's work

Go to church on Sundays and compile her grandmother's missionary journal

Play basketball for the BYU 69th ward women's basketball team

Hang out with Lester, Aloha, and Eileen at work
Clean the apartment, the dishes, and the bathroom
Started her own plumbing business last night (named after Smelly Mel's Plumbing in San Fran) by fixing our kitchen sink
Look for updates about Hallie on Dave's blog
Eat ice cream with Carie
Play wii with Amy (ask her about wii basketball, it's her favorite)
thinks about updating her blog
laughs at Carie daily (and then denies it)
watch Amy do P90X
ponder
Attempt to wrestle Carie to the ground

Feel free to add anything you know about Mel to this blog. She'd like to know what you think of her and your first memory of her. And, if you have an embarrassing story, please share. I'd like to hear those ones.

Thanks everyone! This was fun!
Love,
Carie (her favorite and most wonderful roommate EVER)

Oh the Beautiful Spirit of Christmas

2009-12-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

I had a conversation with a lady the other day who is one of Jehovah's Witnesses. She is quite a wonderfully nice, caring, and good woman. Our conversation went the way of talking about the celebration of the Christmas holiday. She said, "You know that Christ was probably not born on that day right? The Bible, when read correctly says that He was born in the Spring." I agreed with her and said that I believed the same thing. She then asked why then did I celebrate Christmas.

The meaning of Christmas, for me, has been created throughout my life through many memories and learning by watching those around me. There is one person that I would say that has taught me the most about the true "Spirit of Christmas", my grandma, Erma Andersen. I can almost still hear her singing in my mind "Oh the beautgiful Spirit of Christmas, It came at the Holy One's birth. When the message of gladness and glory was brought to this slumbering earth.
Beautiful Spirit of Christmas, Beauitful Spirit of Love. Sent by the bounitful Father, sent from His mansions above.
Oh the Beauitful Spirit of Christmas, it broods o'er the spirits of men, and the hearts that were hard and unthankful, grow kindly and tender again.
Beautiful Spirit of Christmas, Beauitful Spirit of Love. Sent by the bounitful Father, sent from His mansions above."

She loved the Savior, and she loved Christmas. She was the best giver I've ever known. I can remember that with every Christmas that came, there was also a focus on serving. I suppose that through her love for Christ, Grandma was able to teach me that Christmas was about making a way for everyone to be happy.

Grandma had a figurine of Santa kneeling at the manger side of the Savior. She loved to give, but not because of all the hype and "commercializing" that everyone complains about. She loved to give because of the love she gave with each present that was unwrapped.

I feel so blessed to have that continued example in my life with my parents and the way they go about Christmas.

How grateful I am to know the true meaning of Christmas, to have been taught to understand the gift of the Son.

Oh Sweet Tender Mercies

2009-11-05T12:39:00.000-08:00

The last week has been full of incredible miracles from friends being at the right place right when I needed it, to being led and guided in every way. I just wanted to give an update on my sit. I was offered a job this morning as a Recreation Director at a care facility nursing home type setting. I'm a little nervous about the completely different situation than I have ever put myself in before and doing rec. therapy with a completely different group of peops, but I'm pretty excited. I know that I've been led to this experience and that it'll all turn out great! It will be fun to interact with my new fun friends...I love old people...that's another thing that I don't know the politically correct name for...senior citizens...my elders...old people...? So yep, I start the job on Monday and I'm super amounts of excited about it!!! Life is wonderful and I'm so blessed!

My sweet life today

2009-10-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

I hope that I'll be able to fully capture my feelings and thoughts in this here post....my life completely changed from where I thought it was going in a matter of ten minutes yesterday. Since those ten minutes, I've felt feelings I've never felt in such depth and I've learned things I didn't even know I needed to learn or understand. I'm humbled by the goodness of the my Father, to whom I owe everything.
On Monday, my boss pulled each of us rec. therapists in one at a time to tell us that they'd have to be eliminating one of the positions and he was wondering if there was anyone who was planning on moving on with life soon. Come to find out, no one was. So yesterday, after having being there for about two hours, he asked me to take a walk with him down to the admin building. This I willingly did knowing it was almost certainly my last along that road as an employee.
We made small talk about...random stuff :) really I was thinking about the past six months and how good they had been. I'd learned so much from those kids, felt so much love for them, learned so much from my co-workers...colleagues...whatever the professional name is for the people you work with. There have been many times, walking back to the office from a group along that same pathway, that I just couldn't help but smile and laugh to myself at how much I loved what I did and who I got to do it with. There were other times that I would walk back to the office so frustrated and confused at what else I could do. And now I was walking the road for the last time.
The HR woman explained everything to me, they wish they didn't have to let me go, but they had to. No money meant no choice. I was pretty proud of myself for holding everything I was feeling in there while at her office. I don't remember most of what she said, I was focused more on what I was feeling.
I wasn't even quite sure if I could pinpoint the feeling. Was I angry? No, not angry. Hurt? A little, no, a lot. Not by them letting me go, but because I had to go, that hurt. Sad? Very. Confused? Yes, about what I would do next. I wanted to stay. I almost wanted to tell them, I didn't care if they wouldn't pay, I wanted to stay.
She took my badge, and I walked alone back to the office (my boss had left after the HR lady was done explaining that I would be laid off). I went up the stairs, and there were the people that I like so much and have been incredible examples to me. Because of them, I am who I am right now. I won't go into detail, but yep, they've helped me so much as I've learned by observing them and talking with them.
I'll fast-forward (sorta) through the rest of yesterday. I cried a lot some. Spent time with friends. And spent a lot of time thinking. I felt so beautifully the Lord's love and assurance, I still do. People ask how I'm doing...it's kind of a hard question for me to answer. I'm doing okay, I feel hope, peace, love, and I'm gaining understanding. So with that in mind, I'm wonderful! It hurts, but I'm wonderful.
I had the opportunity this morning to attend the temple with a wonderful friend. I was taught a principle there that has helped me to gain confidence in all that is taking place and hope for the future. It is something taught in the book of Abraham and I'll call it the "be prepared" principle.
It is actually taught throughout the scriptures in about...well I didn't count...but a lot of places. I'll start in Abraham though.
Abraham uses phrases like "prepare the earth", "order the (fill in the blank)", "organized the lights", and "Let us prepare the waters". In Alma 18:39 it talks about the plan that the Lord has "prepared from the foundation of the world". Alma 13 uses that phrase multiple times to describe the Lord's planning. The earth had to be prepared step by step in order to be ready for the children of God to inhabit it. Prepared and organized in every detail and way.
The pre-earth life was preparation for this earth life, and this earth life is preparation for eternity (Alma 34:33). The Law of Moses was preparation for the coming of Christ (Mosiah 13:30-31; 2 Nephi 11:4). The baptismal covenant is a preparatory covenant to the covenants made in the temple (Elder Bednar, April 2009).
The Lord tells us that "[He] prepared all things..." (D&C 104:17). If it is a preparation process, that must mean that there is something coming next.
In Ether it talks about the Jaredites and their journey across the sea. The Lord gives them specific instructions and then says "And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come" (Ether 2:25). I would have to say that the Lord has truly prepared me throughout my life to experience what I have to this point. Surely this is preparing me further.
I'm not quite sure what tomorrow will bring. I'm excited to find out. All the same, I know the promise the Lord makes in 1 Nephi 17:13, the "[He] will prepare the way before [me], if it so be that [I] shall keep [His] commandments...and [I] shall know that it is by [Him] that [I] am led." I know preparations have been made and I'll see the way laid out as I choose to be an "agent" (D&C 104:17).

Killing some time...

2009-08-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well it has been past my six week earring mark, which technically means that I can take out these studs I've had in my ears and spice up my ears' lives, for some reason I have yet to do so. Maybe I will in the next week...I'll add that to the happy list of fun things to do in this next week.
I finished my internship a week ago today. That was a happy happy happy day. Now that walking thing I did in April is officailly official. I finished writing my last paper that morning, thanks to a good friend that helped me edit it so it sounded somewhat educated. Kind of crazy that I wouldn't have to write any more papers if I didn't want to...
Monday I started my officailly grown-up life at a full-time job as a recreation therapist. A happy happy thing in my life is that the place where I have been doing my internship hired me...have I said that before? If not, well I'm saying it now, I got hired, oh happy day! And so this past week I've been being an employee and stuff. It's been fun!
To celebrate this event of getting a full-time job, I'm taking a week off! Pretty awesome yeah? So right now I'm sitting at the airport, waiting to board the plane to happy Arizona to see my family!!! I'm soooooooooooooooooo excited! Then I'm going to go play with my wonderful friends Carie and Amy in San Francisco for a few days. Can life get any better? I don't think so...
I moved out of beloved Regency apartments where I have been living for the last year and eight months (the longest I've lived anywhere besides with my family) and moved in with Carie's parents for about a week and a half. It has been a wonderful blessing. They are pretty neat.
When we come back we're going to be moving into our new place which will be an adventure I'm excited to have.
Yep so my life continues to be sweet. Can't believe how beautifully everything lays itself out. Nothing short of a miracle from a loving Father. :)

A little somethin' new

2009-07-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

So...for many months now I have been tossing the idea around to pierce my ears. After much debate I finally did it...so now I have pierced ears. The deed is done. And that's about it. Kind of weird to just post a picture of my ear...but nothing else was turning out postable.

Mid-summer update

2009-06-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

So, because I can't decide between all the things that I should/wanted to get done this morning, updating my blog became the thing to do in the moment. Much has happened since May 3, but then again, not too much either. I found myself twice down in Moab. That's kind of a funny way to say that, I wasn't lost, I knew I was going there, so I should just say that I went twice to Moab in the last couple weeks. We took the kids from my internship. It was an amazing trip both times and I loved every second of having the opportunity to get to know them better and being one with nature like I like to do. There is nothing like smelling like sunscreen, river water, bug spray, and sweat. The views were amazing, cameras don't really do it justice at all.

They were such wonderful trips in every way possible. I have love every second getting to know these kids and working with them. I wish that I could write and post pictures of them and our fun adventures together...but since I can't I'll just say that I love them and working with them and the fun we have together.

Everything else in life is going grandly. With the spring term ending I lost a few roommates and gained a few more. I can't believe I just have two months left here in the Reg. Besides the internship I end up just playing a lot and hanging out....yep, it's a pretty wonderful life.

This isn't much of a post because I pretty much lost the zeal for writing it the minute I started writing...but things are good and wonderful and happy!

almost graduation!

2009-05-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

So this here is a picture of Brandice and I...we were in the same freshman ward, and we served in the same mission, and then how precious-we were able to sit next to each other graduation. Last weekend I "graduated". It was only a "graduation" because I won't technically be done until August when I'm done with my internship that I'm doing this summer. Another monumental moment in my life took place this past week was that I quit my job at the MTC. It was pretty much the saddest moment in all of forever...so that might be a little dramatic. I woke up Saturday morning last with a feeling that I needed to do it. It was quite an experience being that I had no idea where funding for my life was going to come from, but it all happened quite rapidly. The decision was made Saturday, confirmed Sunday, executed Monday, and Tuesday was my last day. Bam, el fin. Though it was quite a drastic change, I'm feeling really good about the gained beautiful summer time time that I have. Hm...other news in my life would consist of...five new roommates, that are wonderful although it was quite an adjustment to my past roommates whom I miss with all my whole heart. (I guess that is what the term "all" refers to, a "whole"). And that's the life of Mel today...

Another day, another trip, more new unexpected friends

2009-03-28T17:41:00.000-07:00

I go on adventures every day. Some days my adventures are a little bit different than other days. Friday's adventure was such an experience. I decided the other week to travel home and surprise my brothers and sisters with my graceful presence. The plan was to arrive home right before the kids got home from school. I enlisted Erma my cousin, a gal in the ward named Heather whom I love, and another gal named Nicole whom I didn't know until that morning but now I have a huge place in my heart for her. The last two both served their missions in Mesa. So at approximately 6:16 and 24 seconds am MST on Friday morning we left on our merry way. We had a beautiful drive making great time all day, timing was working out great and I was very much looking forward to our surprise. As we approached Flagstaff I was a little nervous because of our last experience coming in Flagstaff but we reached our regular gas fill-up stop without sign of trouble. We got onto the road again and had been about a minute when the battery light came on (we just bought a new battery a week ago) then the car over-heated and the power steering went out. Luckily we were able to get off the interstate pretty quickly and pulled of into a Conoco station. I sure realized that I would be a lot buffer in the arms if we didn't have such a thing as power steering. Heather had to help me pull the wheel a couple times. I feel like I have truly come to know cars a lot better lately, at least I've come to know mine, inside and out. I called my dad and told him we were having trouble and I'd keep him posted, looked under the hood at everything. It all looked mostly normal to me except that the belt looked kind of loose and there was fluid of some sort pouring out of some hose...I called Carie's dad...who has been more than generous with helping me through my pathetic knowledge of cars, and as I started to talk to him, some man stuck his head under our hood and said "well this is your problem" and pulled the hose right out...well almost right out, it was still connected. Carie's dad said that that sounded like it was the problem and to get that worked out...so our friend Alvin told us to go to Jiffy Lube...well we inched our way there and met some more friends...who's names I don't know...oh wait, one really nice guy who called people for us, his name was Larson Spencer... who told us that that wasn't the real problem, we had a broken idler...whatever that is....and that is why the belt came off. Hm, so we call a tow truck and have an appointment at Randy's garage. So then we sat in the car for an hour waiting for the tow truck man to come. An hour passes, and then some, and we finally see him coming, we were rather excited. Our tow truck man, we decided to call him Frank, said that we could ride in our car on top of the tow truck!!! It was super fun, kind of like riding on a ride at Disneyland...or six flags. He tilted the bed of his truck, hooked some hooks onto the bottom of our car, and then it pulled us up on top of the bed. It was rather exciting. We got to Randy's and found out that Frank's name was really John...but people around there called him Juan, so we did too. I'm sure we brought light and happiness in Juan's, Randy's, and Curt's (who was the guy who actually fixed the car and offered the borken part to us as a memory of our adventure...we declined offering it to him as a souvenir...he declined too...so it got thrown away) lives yesterday. Sure enough they found this thing that was supposed to hold the belt on totally broken and no longer holding the belt on, they replaced it, and just over three hours after breaking down we were back on our way car fixed and all. I don't know that I'll ever drive through Flagstaff without getting scared that my car will break down now. So...yep, there you have it. Great fun with my new friends. While they were fixing our car we took ourselves a little walk up and down the street in Flagstaff, it was a grand walk...and that was good too...thus ended another adventure fourteen hours after it started. Oh my happy life...we're super blessed that it broke down when it did and that we could meet Alvin, Larson, John, Randy, and Curt...timing and everything was perfect... :)

ah life :)

2009-03-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

This, again, has been quite a month. It's time to update the few readers of this here blog on the happenings in the sweet life of Mel. Last I wrote I was thinking that it was time to head east....so to help readers understand my thought processi through this whole decision experience:
Choice A: Stay in Provo, do my internship at Heritage Schools working with amazing kids and doing what I really want to do and what will help me a lot in the future with what I want to accomplish in the way of helping youth get out of their issues and live productive happy lives.
Choice B: Sun Valley Adaptive Sports. Not only is this in Idaho, but it is where I spent seven happy months. I LOVE it there. What attracted me to this opportunity besides the location was that I would have the opportunity to get a little different experience than I have in the past with therapeutic recreation. I would have the opportunity to work with mentally and physically disabled wonderful individuals. I actually really, really, really, really enjoy talking and working with disabilities, so this was an exciting thought of an adventure.
Choice C: Children's village, New York. When I interviewed with these people I realized that I didn't really want this one very much. It sounded incredibly fun and exciting, but my role wouldn't have been so much a recreation therapist as it would have been a play pal...which I love doing, but for my internship I really wanted to get a little more clinically involved and see what that is like.
So, by virtue of the interview alone, choice C was vetoed and got rid of itself. Choice B and A both offered me a position... Choice B was a no go, even though it was to be amazing...and so here I be. So for all those that shuddered at the thought of losing my presence from this happy valley, shudder no more. Now just to decide what to do in August....I think I'm feeling I'll be here....
Now that I have that decision out of the way, it relieved some stressfulness that I was feeling...I think it did anyway. School has been crazy busy. I think it is time to introduce the world to my friend, Sniffy the virtual rat. I spent an evening with Sniffy the other day. He was trouble if there ever was any. This was last week in the midst of decisions, and waiting for phone calls, four tests, a quiz or two, a late night of reading the wrong week's class material, and oh so much other stuff. And then I had Sniffy. He is a program for my learning behaviors class and we have been classically conditioning him to...oh boy, I don't even remember what we've been classically conditioning him to do, but this last week we switched to operant conditioning. My task was to condition my friend Sniffy to press the bar (that you can see right over him) above the hopper (where the food lands) in his little cage so that he could get a food pellet. You'd think that he would quickly oblidge since he was getting a good deal out of it, 'twas not the case. The manual that we have is supposed to teach us how to train Sniffy, it usually gives great directions. This busy night it was not so. I actually had to do two experiments with him. The first trained him that the hopper delivered food. I had that one out of the way in no time. I'm a great food-comes-from-hopper-trainer for Sniffy. The next task was to train him that every time he went up on his hind legs, the hopper delivered food, then that proximity to the hopper brought a higher possibility of food, then pressing the bar. I had a really hard time getting to that last one. It took an hour and a half, he kept untraining himself because he wouldn't go up on his hind legs next to the hopper, so he wouldn't get a pellet, so he quit going up on his hind legs. I was really grumpy at the virtual rat. However, after much suffering and frustratedness, he did what I wanted him to, and all was well. I can't imagine what others around me thought as I sat in the library with a rat on my screen just pressing my space bar for an hour and a half...hopefully no one noticed.
So that's my life...decisions, Sniffy, and...nope that's pretty much it. It's a pretty happy life.

Maybe time for somewhere new...

2009-02-05T22:32:00.000-08:00

I've had quite a mind pondering month. It's hard to believe that it is February. My lack of seriousness for the goal of August 20th as a wedding date never really materialized itself as manifested in my not doing anything to move toward that goal...it was fun to talk about though :). I sit hear right now listening to my Brazilian roommates ramble on and on with their Brazilian friend. I understand what they are talking about everytime they say an English word that they don't have a Brazilian word for...but mostly they could be making fun of me and I would have no idea...except for the fact that I think we're friends, I've been playing with them a lot latey, so I don't think they would make fun of me like that...
Anyway, back to my pondering. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do, what I want to be, and where all I want all this to happen. Actually, that's not true, I know what I want...wait, not I don't, but it isn't very much about what I want....
It's internship application time. I found out today about an internship in New York, a "quaint historic town" about twenty miles north of New York City. It sounds just like anything that I've ever wanted to do.
I think that next time it rains, I'm going to spend a little time looking for the pot at the end of the rainbow so that I can do all the things that I think would be amazingly awesome, because as of right now I don't have the money to do it all. That or I need to get into the money making business. Well, by that I mean the actually physical making of money, I already have a job. Which, by the way, I love and is a huge reason why I wish I could continue to prolong my moving on with life.
Or I could move to Jamaica, surely I could find somewhere there to do an internship.
Or I could stay here in Provo. Bonuses being things such as, being closer to people that I actually know, and my family, and have a car. ...so my Brazilian friends just invited me to join the Brazilian facebook....I like them. Back to the internship thing...And I would...well maybe if I went somewhere else I would get offered a job and I would live in Timbuktu for the rest of my life and fall of the western United States planet.
So I don't know, we'll see. Maybe it would be good for me to go far away...
This entry might not have made any sort of sense whatsoever, mostly because it doesn't include all of the thoughts inbetween the words... :) I can translate if you want

just two random things

2009-01-20T22:48:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a little bit since I've written anything, and a lot of things have happened, but since I don't have to time to include every exciting second of my life, which is basically every one of them, I'll stick with a two experiences that have occurred in the last couple days that make me laugh and bring joy to my life.
The first is that I have a new friend. Her name is Rita. I met Rita over the phone at the Referral Center at the MTC. She had called last month to receive a Joy to the World DVD and I was making calls to give an example to the Elders I am working with right now. Rita's information popped up on the screen, she being my twentieth try to catch someone at home, and so I was taken off-guard when she answered. Upon investigation, also known as simply asking her, I learned that she hadn't received her video and she was sad about it, really had wanted to receive it. It took me about a second to realize that Rita was not from the United States of America because she had a thick, heavy, Italian accent. It reminded me of my Aunt Doris, I told Rita so. Rita said she didn't want to have the missionaries bring her the DVD because she was a Catholic and was always going to be a Catholic, and she was a 63 year old woman and nothing in the world could change her from being a Catholic, she had a niece, in Chicago, or Michigan, or something that has the letters c, h, and i in it, that was Catholic, then Jehovah's Witness, then Mormon, then Catholic and when she was Jehovah's Witness, she quit wanting to work for Rita because Rita was earning too much money and money is not a righteous thing to go after and Rita thought that was weird because we need money to leave, it wasn't like she was worshipping the money that the Lord was blessing her to have, but she was Catholic and was always going to be Catholic. (She really did make all of that, and probably more, all one sentence). So I realized that Rita wasn't going to just say yes to having the missionaries come see her, I decided to take a different approach. She acted like she knew a lot about the church, so I asked her how she did, then she started to tell me again about her niece in that other place back east, but she knew all about it she said and she didn't understand how come religions couldn't just get along we all believe in the same thing essentially. Well I felt like she wasn't quite ready for my answer about that either, I knew I had to find a common ground with her, so I asked her about prayer. Bingo. She prayed, and boy did I hear many great stories. Actually I can say that she is pretty much amazing, she had some miraculous stories, and I felt the Spirit strong as she told me some of them. There was, however, the whole Mother Mary thing, so I decided to try for the Bible, this was my favorite part I think. Rita started to tell me about how her...daughter-in-law I think...gave her an Italian Bible since she didn't read English very well. She was given the Bible five years ago, but hasn't ever opened it. She explained to me that she felt bad, but that she had told the Lord that the day she opens that Bible, she will never close it again. So I invited Rita to open the Bible this week. We're going to chat again next week. I'm excited to talk to my new friend Rita. Oh her Italian accent makes me so happy, I wish there were a way to type in an Italian accent.
The second thing that is kind of new is that I decided that I could and should and why not get married on the 20th of August of this year. The fun part is telling people. I decided just this past Sunday. It is a lot just an act of faith, deciding on a goal and then moving forward with it. There are many parts to this goal that I'm working on. I'm going to ask boys on dates now a little more than I used to....that's not hard to do when you never do it :). And I'm going to employ a little bit of flirting maybe...I don't know, I haven't really thought about how I'm going to accomplish the goal, I just set it. I should probably work on the ligistics of the execution. I told my parents on Sunday night when I was talking with them. They laughed at me. I'm not quite sure how to take that response. My mom said that I should probably meet someone in order to get married to the in seven months...I didn't realize that that was all the time in between now and August 20th. I told my Bishop tonight...he laughed too. I'm not quite sure how to take that one either...so yes, it was random, I'm not even sure how it came up, but I feel okay about it...so we'll see :)
Hm, that's all I think for now.

Zipadeedodah-day

2009-01-05T13:14:00.000-08:00

The snow is falling outside and I get to be inside! That's a wonderful relationship. Sunday night I celebrated at one a.m. that it was the last time that I am obligated to stay up that late because of work. No mas! Oh happy day. I began the semester off right by sleeping-in yesterday. No classes Monday mornings I think just might be a very happy thing. So I did that, enjoyed a very relaxing morning around the apartment. I went to my class at one about. It was wonderful to be in school again. I'm excited this semester to be taking a bunch of psychology classes and to be philosophical and stuff. I've loved my classes and the way that the professors approach the topics so far.
I can't believe how much the snow has fallen over the last day, tonight, as I walked home from campus, I completely slipped and so now my bum is wet, speaking of which, I should probably change. It was pretty much embarrassing, but I am pretty smooth on my get-up procedure. Gratefully, the two guys that I had been walking next to just seconds prior had passed me up and I didn't need to have them watch me fall. That was a blessing. The last time I was around this much snow was in Sun Valley Idaho. I pretty much slipped every other day, maybe that is why I am smooth on getting up, I've had a little practice. It is a lot easier to get up in pants than it was in a skirt though. When I was there we had about this much snow on the ground, and we made snow angels in our skirts...don't worry it wasn't during proselyting time.
Hm, this is all a bunch of randomness, mostly just because I am procrastinating looking at all the things that I'm supposed to be doing...so I probably should be getting to that right about right now...

invaders...yikes!

2008-12-30T14:46:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back in beautiful Provo, we traveled up on Saturday and it was a beautiful drive. It has been good to be back here and I've just been getting some things done here and there that I have been putting off for four months because I was too busy. My 18 yr old brother Ben has joined us up here for a couple...well an undetermined amount of time I guess you could say, so we have been playing too. Yesterday we went up to Temple Square to see the lights, today we went and bunilt a snowman. I think that was the first time that I have actually done that on my own, out of my own volition that is. It was quite enjoyable. And I must admit, it was a pretty good looking snowman. I've been working and am finishing up my hours as a late night chatter. Provo is pretty much empty. There were four of us, plus Ben, on church on Sunday that belong in the ward. We joked that night as we had dinner together that we were at a ward party with 100% attendance. wahaha, we're so funny. Being that nobody is around, it makes for a beautifully quiet household, but at the same time, at night, when you go to go to sleep, it is a little bit eery. That first Saturday night I was quite scared, I kept hearing footsteps. I was relieved the next day to see one of the girls who lives upstairs at church. Sunday night started off great, until about 8:30 Monday morning when I awoke to men's voices in my apartment, and then my door began to open. Good thing was that it was just the maintenance men putting our furniture up so that the carpet cleaners could do their duty(relatively speaking, I guess it depends on what you define a clean carpet as...). However Monday night was way a lot more scary. I wasn't feeling great and so I went to bed about 9:30. I slept quite restlessly because I couldn't breathe and at about 11pm my bedroom door swang...swung...well it opened. I could hear, again, men's voices. I sat up quite hurriedly to see a girl I've never seen before standing in the door. She was just about as surprised to see me as I was her. It was one of our new Brazilian roommates who was just dropping her stuff off before she left out of town again for a couple days. Needless to say, I looked quite attractive, my hair was everywhere, I'd been sweating, my make-up down my face. Yes attractive is the right word. Anyway, I'm curious to know who will drop in tonight...I guess we'll see. It's good to be back here though :)

Running with Dogs

2008-12-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

So, one thing that I was very excited about with coming home for Christmas was that it was going to be warm, and I could run outside without losing a lung or two. Of course I didn't go running on Sunday, but yesterday, after washing our car that looked like it'd been through quite a battle(even though it was cleaned right before our trip south), I enlisted my twelve year old brother Mike to come for a jog with me. He suggested that we take our dogs with us. We've had this one dog, Patch, for years and years, I knew that that wasn't going to be hard at all to go with Patch. However, our other dog Muffy, or Muff, she's a beast. I'm not even sure what kind of dog she is. My family got her when I was on the mission, but she's big...I think a husky and german shepherd or something like that. So off we went. I decided that the lower altitude also brings with it a greater pull of gravity, that or I have gained weight in the last couple days because it was sure hard to get those legs a moving. I pretty much looked ridiculous. That's all there was to it. Here was the dog pulling me, more like dragging me down the street. After about a mile of being dragged...drug...whatever...down the street I finally got the dog to go a little more my pace. I decided that I probably won't ever run with dogs again...but running in Mesa is a pretty happy thing. Something that you can't really enjoy in Provo is being able to see forever because of the mountains. I love being able to see all of the sky and the sunrise this morning was gorgeous and then some. Oh happy happy Mesa.

A Sandwich and Smarties

2008-12-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

Who knew that three years after an event, my choice to do the right thing would pay off like it did today. Certainly I did not. But it did. Today was rather a crazy day, I didn't feel excellent this morning, so I sat on my bed and did chats from home instead of going into work. I started at ten, chatted until one, but then I had a project to do, so I stayed in the same spot for another two and a half hours. So after being stationary upon my bed, cuddled against the wall like I normally do for five and a half hours, I headed up to campus to print my paper and copy something that I needed to turn in with it. I decided today a new pet peeve I have. I went through the library looking for a computer that I could use for a mere three minutes. Alas, there were none. And yet I saw person after person wasting time, one person was basically asleep listening to music on the computer that I could be using to print my paper on. A few were playing random dumb internet games. Or scanning good ol' facebook. It was dumb. So after a half hour of looking for a computer, I found one. So I printed it. Then I walked over to use the copier, and it was dumb too. This was when my pay back happened. I was headed north in the library toward the no-shhh zone looking for anotehr copier when someone came running up behind me yelling(in an appropriate library sort of way) "hey!". I turned around to find a guy and a girl both holding a plastic grocery bag. Our conversation went something like this: Girl: (with the words coming ou between breaths, they had run to catch up to me...that or she was really out of shape, but I don't think that was the case...) "hey did you used to work at the MTC???" Me: "Um...yes, well I still do, but yes..." Girl: "Yeah! You used to swipe my card!" Me: "Uh, yeah yeah that was me, I would have done that."(all the while the guy is standing smiling on, and I'm thinking "why on earth does this girl remember me like this") Girl: "Yeah! My companion and I used to always forget our cards and you would make us go back to get them. At the end of our stay at the MTC we took a picture with you! What's your name?" "Melanie...Melanie Merrill" "okay! Great, now I can put it in my scrapbook with your picture"....("I'm in your scrapbook?!?")I chatted with them some more, but they were handing out pb&j's to people and smarties and wishing them luck on their finals. While many were getting them, I surely wouldn't have ever seen the two if it hadn't been for me sticking to those rules at the MTC many years ago so that this girl would remember me and come running after me...how odd...so I went to find another copier, it was broken. So I found another one. It had a line. The girls at the front of the line surely didn't know what they were doing. They took ages. Then the next guy was kind of confused too, so I helped him, sort of :). And then I made my copies. Then the staplers were all broken...Needless to say, I got my final turned in just fine. Quite a crazy experience though there in that library. You can never know what'll happen in the HBLL....

For the Beauty...

2008-12-08T21:36:00.001-08:00

Tonight it was incredible. We went as a ward up to Spring Haven, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed talking to a few people that I never really have before. Two of my favorite parts of the escapade up the canyon were going on a night walk by myself, and then driving down the canyon talking about Christmas memories with the girls in my car. They are all really neat girls in the ward and it was fun getting to know them better and hear about the traditions that they have with their families. One of my favorite things is actually talking to people about their lives and learning about where they came from and why they are the way that they are. It never ceases to amaze me the neat stories and memories that everyone has. They are always so interesting to me. So that was fun hearing about their memories and traditions. As for my night walk. It was kind of cold outside, so it was a brief night walk, but it was a good one. I walked out in front of the lodge/cabin/monstrosity of a building, by the pond that had swans in it. They were very graceful and beautiful. I thought that sure that was freezing for them in there, but I suppose they didn't mind it. I love nature at night. Is that a weird statement? I love the quiet peace, looking up at the cold sky and the moon shining through the clouds. I love the way that the moon lights up the snow covered mountains and the way the trees look. It was just beautiful. And the goodness of my Father filled my heart with His love.
Today I was walking to work and it started to snow. It reminded me of tracting in the snow. It was pretty fun, I miss that. The falling of snow has the same effect as the nighttime, that quiet peace. Just my companion and I walking down the road knocking door after door of empty vacation homes :) and then every five or so we'd have the opportunity to bear testimony of the restored gospel and feel the Spirit with that person, and all the empty houses were worth it.
So there are some of my thoughts today. It was a happy beautiful day.

a strange thing...

2008-12-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

So this morning when I woke up...I felt like dressing up...as in I had a strange yearning come from somewhere inside to wear clothes that weren't just my jeans and a t-shirt. The weirder thing than actually feeling that way is that I acted on those feelings. When I got ready this morning, I put on some slacks and a nice red long sleeve shirt...that wasn't even button up, that wasn't from the mission. And some dress shoes, and I even went into public that way. This is truly a miracle season, things are just happening everywhere. Oh my life.

Post #3

2008-12-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

Today was pretty much a good day, so I thought I'd write about it. It was fun because I got to spend a couple hours with an old old friend. I didn't know that I'd get to spend that much time with her, but I did, so that was happy. We just chatted it up for a bit, and then we went to the grocery store. That was a really wonderful thing because I pretty much was out of all food altogether. That makes it difficult to eat, so we went to the store. I actually got to save 75 cents on my milk, and that was happy too :) So then afterward, we went to Wendy's to grab so grub. We had ordered the food and were pulling up to the window and I was in the process of handing my card to the cashier when instead I hit the top of my window, and the card flew out of my hand down onto the parking lot. Oh dear. So I was pretty close to the building, but I took of my seat belt and cracked my door open to see if I could see it, nope, the cashier woman was laughing at me, so then I kind of stood up but got stuck in an awkward position of having my head out the window and I couldn't open the door any more, it was pretty funny, so I had to rewind my actions, and then open the door as much as I could, get out of the car, close the door and then pick up my card and give it to the cashier woman. We were laughing pretty hard. It was a good game.
That's pretty much it, I mean, there were other parts to my day, and I found them fun and interesting and great, but I don't know that I'll put them here now :) So that's it for now, over and out.

By popular demand...thoughts in winterness

2008-11-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

By "by popular demand" I mean that Amy said that she hates it when friends say they have gotten a blog and don't post anything on it after the first one or two. I decided, after feeling great amounts of guilt, that today I would at least move to the second post. Now that I think about it, maybe I could post two things today, just to get me to the next stage of postness. I don't think I will though.
I'm not quite sure how it has gotten to be this time of year, the end of November and all. Seems pretty incredible how quickly time goes.
I've been feeling really grateful for the lack of coldness that has been felt this fall. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the colors change and how beautiful that whole process is. I especially was glad to be able to watch it without freezing in the act of doing so. There was one very cold, wet morning though that I was returning home at nine o'clock after my eight o'clock class and had quite an interesting experience I guess would be of worth to relate that others may ponder the same thing I did. I was walking in front of the Thai Ruby place and there were a bunch of cute little birds that were huddling under a car trying to find a dry spot that they might stay warm in. I felt a little sad for them that they would have to go and under a car to find such a refuge, and was glad that I was headed to my apartment. I recalled though learning about how birds fly south for the winter to stay warm in elementary school. But growing up in Arizona, we had birds all winter long, I guess I just figured that we were "south for the winter". Seeing those birds under the car, I realized that surely they had to be very very cold, how come they didn't do what all birds should know how to do and go to Arizona. I thought about asking them, and thinking back now, maybe I should have, but I didn't. I wonder how come their moms forgot to teach them to fly south. So that's one thought.
This semester has been pretty crazy. I feel like I am just still learning how to not be a missionary anymore. I actually feel more on top of school and what is going on than I ever have in my entire life. Maybe it's because I actually spend all of my time reading the books like I never have before. What a novel idea!
I'm going to a see an counselor tomorrow about maybe doing grad school in psychology...who knows what I'm doing with my life...
Work has turned out to be way different than I would have ever thought, and maybe wished. Maybe I'll go into more detail about that another day and what work entails. I can't cover all possible topics in one post or else I won't have anything left to write about. haha, yeah right, I always have something to say...in fact today I was talking to Bro. Rawley and he asked me if I had anything to say about a certain topic, I said "of course I do, I always have something to say" and he smiled and said "I know." Oh dear.
Well I think that's about it for now, surely I will add more later this week and be better about this blog thing so that everyone that reads this...which isn't really anyone, will know what is going on in my life and my brain.

Inspired, as always, by the older sibling

2008-11-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

So....Dave and Nikki got a blog, why not me? So I did. That's why I made this up, today, just now. So we'll see how much I use it, but here it be...