My Goal for November

So! For the entire month of November I want to do a random act of kindness everyday! But I'm going to need help thinking of ideas...
I have never done something like this, and I haven't been very good at doing service in the past. So this is my goal for the month of November:)
I need help thinking of ideas!! So please comment anything small thing you think of!
Also, I extend this challenge to anyone else who wants to join in! Think of how much good we could do!
November is a month to be thankful for what we have been blessed with, and we realize our blessings most when we are serving others. I can't wait for November.
Comment ideas!!
Thanks!

“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.” President Gordon B. Hinckley

 

 

Two months down:)

Well two months down folks!
It's crazy how fast things can change in two months.
But let's start with the most recents matters...

TODAY! Today was a glorious day (even though it's only 11 am.) I woke up bright and early and went and ran Deer Creek Dam trail. This is my favorite place to run ever. EVER, including all my Vernal spots. It's the most beautiful place!
We ran about 8 miles in an hour and 10 minutes, so yeah it was a nice, slow pace:)
I ran with my teammates and amazing friends Mikesell and Shae. I love them! We have a good time together, and I am excited to spend these next years with them.

Days like today make me realize how thankful I am for a body that allows me to do something so satisfying and amazing as running.
I just love running. I don't even know how to describe it. I just feel so good when I go, nothing can really compare.
It's a blessing, really.
So funny story?? Okay.
Mikesell, Shae, and I are just running along and we are alone on the trail. We start telling scary stories about creepy stalkers and getting kidnapped, and as we are talking our teammate Seth came up behind us. I don't know how we didn't hear him coming, but we didn't. He says "Hey Girls!" and out of the corner of my eye I just see this man in a ski mask! (He was wearing this running head warmer thing because it was pretty chilly.)
It scared us so bad. We all screamed and I like crouched down into the fetal position,a nd Mikesell jumped into the bushes. Haha it was hilarious.
He chose a bad time to come up behind us. Hahaha.

Running has been going pretty good.
As I've said before, running in college was a huge change for me and it took time to get used to. But I'm feeling good now. I'm no longer injured and I almost feel like I have a hold on everything. (almost...)
We had a race at SUU a few weeks ago. It went really well. Both the girls and the guys took first so it was awesome! It was a 4K (2.5 miles). I like the shorter distances better, so I had fun!
It was my best race so far! My time was in the 15 minute range. So I was happy!

I'm super stoked for track to start up.

Weird coincidence???? Let me tell you a story.
Hillary Enloe held the 300m hurdle record at uintah high before I broke it last year.
Yesterday I was looking at the all time top ten record board for UVU and she is 3rd for the 400m  hurdles! #1 I didn't even know she ran here. #2. I need to break her record again. haha :)

I went to the high school state xc race last wednesday. It was so great watching everyone, but super weird to not be running in the race. I miss highschool xc sometimes...

I love getting letters from my favorite kidos:)

This is what we do on Sunday afternoons. Ride bikes and have a chalk fight. It's great fun.

I got to go home!:) I love home, and I miss it alot.

So as I'm sure you all know, our beloved prophet made a big announcement in General Conference. :)
I think this change is just awesome and so right. And I've been thinking ALOT lately...
I have always said that when the age of 21 comes, I want to serve a mission. I have always had that desire, especially after reading emails from my friend Elder Watkins and being in seminary council.
Now the age is so much closer. I could leave next spring

I have alot to think about.
I really do have the desire to serve a mission.
I want to go. I always have wanted to go. I don't want to miss out on that opportunity.
I just need to keep praying and talking to the Lord and my Heavenly Father to ask if that is what they want for me. The Lord's will is much greater than my own.
I don't need to make the decision now. I certaintly have time to think and ponder. :)
I sometimes wish I could see into the future so I could have the answers now!
Life is an interesting thing. :)

Vernal's Ocean...

In my english 1010 class we were assigned to write on this topic:
A distinct moment that changed your view on a person, a situation, or your life.

So here is my paper! (It's the first draft...so I have some revisions to make, but here's what Ive got thus far.)
Here goes..

Vernal’s Ocean

 

I remember when I was about eight or nine years old, I would spend my summers playing with my friends throughout my neighborhood. We would ride bikes, build forts, catch snakes in the ditch, and create many other invented games to keep us busy. One of our favorite games to play was ‘house’. We would all fight over who got to be the mom, the dad, the baby, and the teenager. There was a sense of excitement and delight that came from acting out our not-so-far away futures.  I would often claim the ‘teenager’ role. I would pretend to have my license and go on dates, and I would spend my imaginary nights going to the high school prom, and then off to graduation. As a child, I looked forward to the days of being able to do all these things for real. And just like that, it happened.

It was my senior year of high school. I had fought for the past three years to make a name for myself, and by my senior year I had finally found my niche in school. I had made so many friends, and had formed close relationships with most of the teachers. I was known as the ‘runner girl’ as my obsession with track and cross country soon created a reputation. I was supported and watched in sports, and I knew exactly what I wanted in life.

It was the last week of school, a week that is expected to be full of emotions and anticipation for the next step in life. But to me this week felt no different than any other week. We were herded from final meetings to graduation practice, and we got to miss a lot of class, but all in all I really felt as though nothing was changing. Finally graduation day had come. The day started off with our graduation class picture, and followed with lots of festivities spent with friends and family. The actual graduation ceremony flew past with a few tears, lots of smiles, and good byes to my younger classmates. And that was that. It was over. I felt no different than I did months before this moment. I felt no glorious sentiment of success, no big moment of triumph. I felt like Harley, the runner girl of Uintah High. I felt like the red headed senior that many knew and loved. It wasn’t until the next morning that everything hit me.

We spent the entire night inside the school for one last hurrah. We had a senior stomp and dance party, and then played various games for the rest of the night. For once, in that night, there were no cliques, no groups, or no divisions among us. We were one, and we were all friends. We were 2012. It was the last time many of us would ever see each other. The next morning, at about five a.m., we all tiredly shuffled out of the high school for the last time. The sun had yet to rise, so my best friend Matthew and I decided to go to Vernal’s Ocean to watch the sunrise. Vernal’s Ocean was a favorite spot on the outskirts of town. We hopped in his green Chevy Malibu and, after a breakfast run to 7-11, made our way up the dusty path to Vernal’s Ocean.

Vernal’s Ocean sits high on a hill right outside of town, and is made out of a cement slab covered in spray paint and messages. As Matthew and I began walking to the cement pad, I was reminded of the night my best friends and I joined in on the tradition and made our mark on the cold cement. Matthew and I laid our blankets over the faded paint, and ate our breakfast consisting of our favorite snack; A&W Cream Soda and a king sized Hershey’s Cookies and Cream chocolate bar. As we laid waiting for the sun to rise, Matthew slowly drifted to sleep. I carefully got up and went to sit on the edge of the cement.

I let my legs dangle off the edge and watched a rabbit scavenge the earth and hop through the sage brush several feet below my toes.  A constant breeze ungenerously brushed across my arms and legs, but it brought with it a sort of awakening. Light beams slowly started to pop up one by one over the eastern mountains, and in that moment of solitude, everything hit me. I finally realized that from here on out, nothing would be the same. It was like this realization had been bottled up, and when I was least expecting it, the bottle exploded. I’m not sure what set it off. Maybe it was a combination of the awakening breeze, the scavenging rabbit, and Matthew’s slow breathing mixed with the silence of the morning. But in that moment, I finally felt different. During all the days leading up to graduation and the last night being a senior I never felt different. I never felt the change that was looming ahead.

Sitting at Vernal’s Ocean that quiet morning, I become conscious that I was no longer the runner girl of Uintah High school, the records I set in track will be broken, and new athletes will take my spot. I realized that the friends I spend countless nights with all through high school were now beginning a journey of their own. Sitting on the edge that morning I didn’t know that the summer ahead would be filled with my first love, and my first heart break. Sitting on the edge that morning I didn’t know that I would fail a class for the first time at college, and I didn’t know that my friends and I would slowly slip apart. I didn’t know exactly what the future held, but I knew everything would change. As the sun came up that morning, my new life began.

The end! haha:)

ps...I promise another post is coming with what has been going on here in good ol orem ;)