25!

Tomorrow I turn 25. I'm excited and think it's going to be a fabulous year!

I want to spend my day being as kind as I can and helping others have an amazing day! I want to have lots of fun with people I love.

I also remembered a blog post my friend had written of 24 things she had wanted to do when she was 24.I want to do that. So here it is, my list of 25 things I want to do while I am 25:

1. Volunteer at least three times in the community
2. Be brave
3. Host a dinner party
4. Take horseback riding lessons
5. Visit or make specific plans to visit Nashville
6. Go to Disneyland
7. Perform on my flute
8. Improve my piano skills to the next book level
9. Hike more often
10. Send snail mail to at least eight people (snail mail is the best!)
11. Participate in my classes in graduate school (rather than trying to just be a listener)
12. Do well in my classes in graduate school
13. Learn Spanish
14. Go to the temple at least once month
15. Write thank you notes (messages, emails, etc.) every week
16. Read
17. Take pictures
18. Learn to cook at least 5 new recipes
19. Be me
20. Even though I'll be busy starting in the fall with school, make sure I have time to be there for friends and to help
21. Overcome a bad habit
22. Audition for a musical
23. Love more
24. Go skiing!
25. Keep my room and kitchen clean

I may change a few of these, but I am so excited! Those last two were hard to think of, but once I thought of them, they felt perfect. 

Like Dessert

So, I was just eating some raspberries--one of the most amazingly delicious things on the earth. Eating raspberries just makes me happy. I'm pretty sure that it's just like eating dessert to me. It got me thinking about last fall. I was participating in an 8-week health challenge. One of the rules was that you could only eat dessert/sweets one day a week. This was very doable, but I do have a bit of a sweet tooth, so some days I really wanted something sweet, so I found non-desserts.

For me, several fruits can satisfy my sweet tooth. Raspberries definitely can, along with peaches and strawberries and mango and pineapple. Sometimes apples and oranges can. I just really love fruit, so it makes me pretty happy to eat it.

Something else that is like dessert to me is sweet potato. I just would cook up a sweet potato like a baked potato, and then I add a bit of butter and whichever spices I'm in the mood for, and it is heavenly. Squash can be eaten similarly and is delicious.

Avocado is not as sweet, but it is so good to me that it is like dessert. I'm pretty sure I could be happy about eating good avocado daily.

One thing that I also love is smoothies. I have a Ninja blender, so it chops things up pretty well. I would typically add lots of fruit and sometimes some greens and sometimes milk, and I would have a heavenly smoothie. One day, I decided to try to make a new type of smoothie. Yum! I used a little milk and added frozen fruit (I think I used  a blend of fruit from Costco). I then added just the littlest bit of vanilla. It ended up tasting like really good ice cream, but it was so much healthier!

I just was thinking about how my sweet tooth can totally be satisfied by healthy deliciousness and how that makes me happy!

Rough Weeks

I just wanted to say right now that I am very grateful for rough weeks.

I love how I learn a lot from them and how, not every time but fairly often, people will randomly reach out to me on those weeks.

Rough weeks sometimes become the best weeks.

Angels Among Us

Alabama sings a song called Angels Among Us. When I was possibly around the age of 9, I was in a singing group. In this singing group, I was first introduced to this song. I think we sang it at a Christmas concert. This song touched my soul, I believed it, and I loved singing it.

I seem to forget about this song, but then it will pop up, and I remember. The song came on the radio this morning, and it was what I needed to hear today.

I particularly love this line:

And ain't it kind of funny that at the dark end of the road.
Someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope.

Even though there is a lot of sadness in the world, there is good too. I know that Heavenly Father watches out for us. I hope that I can help others and be someone who can light the way with hope.

Here's the song. It's just the words, nothing exciting, but it is just a wonderful song.

Happy

Hi,

So, I haven't written in a while. Life has been quite busy with lots of things. I got into grad school and have been preparing for that. Yay! And Kaylee's wedding is coming up soon. I am so excited for her! There are lots of preparations to make though. I also recently got back from a quick trip to Texas. It was highly beautiful and wonderful. I would love to devote a post specifically to the trip. I loved it so much there, and I am missing the friends I spent time with there. Work has also been pretty busy.

I just have been really happy recently. I don't know if it's the change in weather or if my vacation refreshed me or something else, but I am just very happy to be me and have my life. I am excited for General Conference this weekend, and I'm just excited about life!

I really want to be a better me, and I am working on serving more and overcoming the things I struggle with. Life is lovely and I am so blessed!

And that is all for now.