Forget-me-not

"You may at times feel a little like the forget-me-not—insignificant, small, or tiny in comparison with others... I hope (the forget-me-not) will be a symbol of the little things that make your lives joyful and sweet."

"Forget not to be patient with yourself.

Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice.

Forget not to be happy now.

Forget not the why of the Gospel.

Forget not that the Lord loves you."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Birthday Weekend

Do I look another year older?


Last weekend was crazy and busy but so fun!

I realized last week that my driver's license was due to expire on September 18, so I thought "no big deal, I'll renew it online."  Problem.  In Utah you can ONLY renew your license in person... no more online or mail renewals... problem is, I am in California.  Then I panicked and realized that if I wanted to fly home for Thanksgiving or Christmas I'd have to have a current ID.  So I decided to fly home for the weekend for this main purpose... and it happened to be my birthday too!

I flew in Friday after work, and straight from the airport I went with Jon & Emilee to see the new movie Contagion.  I didn't love it as much as I hoped I would, but it was good.

The next morning I woke up bright and early to drive up to Logan to cheer my sister Heidi on in the Top of Utah marathon!!  We saw her at about mile 14, and then again three more times before she crossed the finish line.  This was her first marathon and she finished in 4 hours flat!! And she did it in basically horrible weather conditions... downpouring rain, thunder, and hail!  She is amazing.  If you have not ever watched runners come in at the finish line of a race, I highly recommend it!  It was very emotional for me to watch everyone come in... some finished strong, some were literally leaning on others, and some collapsed just before the finish line.  But they all finished this major accomplishment!

My parents also ran the 5k that morning.  I didn't get to see them cross the finish line, but they both did awesome.  They each finished 3rd in their age groups!

On our way home we stopped by the Brigham City temple (still under construction).  Beautiful!

That night we watched the BYU/Utah game, ready to watch the big rivalry game.  Let me just say... MAJOR upset.  BYU played horribly.

Sunday morning we headed up to Kaysville to watch my niece Kaitlyn and my nephew in their primary program.  I always love primary programs, and they both did such a great job.  I loved Michael's line... "I wuv the temple because it's a pwetty pwace."  So cute!

Oh yeah, and Sunday was also my birthday!!  I am now officially 26 years old... although I don't feel much different from 25.  The whole fam came over to my parents' for some Cafe Rio-style pork burritos and red velvet cake.  My brothers' birthday is on the 21st, so this was a combined party for all three of us!  As the night went on, I was just feeling worse and worse, and by the end of the night I had a temperature of 102.7... which is why I am so red in the picture!

We were trying to get a picture of Logan's shirt, but he clearly was not too happy about it.  Here's a better view of the shirt he wore in honor of my birthday!

Monday I got my license renewed, and went to Zupas for lunch with some of my family.  I love that place!!

The trip home was interesting... I honestly believe I have BAD luck when it comes to flying.  Almost every time I have flown, the flight has been delayed or canceled.  This time was no different.  My 4:40 flight was delayed and then eventually canceled and I was rebooked onto the 9:50 flight.  So my dad picked me up for a few hours to have dinner back at home.  By the time I flew into San Francisco and drove home it was 1:45 on Tuesday morning.  I was so glad to have made it back so I could sleep!

To-Do Lists

I am big on to-do lists.  At work I have Post-it notes all over the place, and at home I usually have a running list going on my phone.  The big things just carry over day-to-day (sometimes for weeks!), and the small things basically only go on the list because I love crossing them off (does eating lunch count as a to-do?).  It's such a good feeling!

Here's my to-do list for the weekend:

• Make butternut squash soup
• Wedding present for H.
• Turbo Jam
• Put up apartment decorations
• Go grocery shopping
• Mail birthday presents
• Lady Antebellum cd
• Deposit check
• Write on blog (check!)
• USU license plate cover
• Return Redbox game
• Wii Zumba with Best Buy coupon
• Get flu shot
• Sephora free gift
• Pay tithing
• Trade in phone
• Find Harry Potter audiobooks (find library?)
• Unpack from weekend
• Do laundry
• Paint nails
• Costco membership?
• Passport application

Whew!  That's a long one.  Is it sad that I can already say that chances are really good I won't get everything done this weekend?  I can accept that... it just feels good to just write it all down and clear my mind!

Today

• I slept in and had a bad hair day.  I am definitely not a morning person.  Never have been, never will be.

• I drove 192 miles, all for work.  I'm definitely racking up the miles on my car... but the good news is I'm almost done listening to The Help audiobook.  I've read the book once, but this audiobook is so good I just can't get enough of it!

• I totally judged the girl who helped me at Best Buy.  She had crazy colors in her hair, a tongue piercing, and her clothes didn't fit quite right.  But then we started talking and she was the most friendly and helpful girl I'd talked to in a long time.  I learned my lesson on that one!

• I didn't plan it, but I got a full-on makeover at Ulta.  Who knew that all you have to do is ask what color powder you should use and they will do all of your makeup for you?!?  Maybe my new makeup will be enough motivation to get me up on time tomorrow morning... hmm... we'll see.

San Francisco

First.  Check out the new look for my blog... what do you think?  It was ready for a facelift.

Second.  Follow my blog! (over there on the right) -------->

Ok. Now on to San Francisco!  I am FINALLY almost caught up on my blog.  After our last stop to the Oakland temple we crossed the bridge to San Francisco.  I was so excited... this was my first time to this city!

We knew we only had the day in the city and we weren't quite sure where to spend our time, but we ended up at Pier 39.  After walking along the Pier, we decided the best way to see the most in a short amount of time was to take a bus tour throughout the city.

Two lessons learned:

(1) Bring a jacket when you visit this city.  I actually brought mine, but left it in the car because it was warm when we parked.  But as the day went on and we got closer to the Golden Gate Bridge, it was COLD. As Mark Twain put it, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."  Apparently summers can be colder than winters here!

(2) Wear sunscreen.  Because it was deceivingly cold outside, I didn't even think to load up on the sunscreen.  Sitting on the top of our double-decker bus for two hours, I got probably one of the worst sunburns I've had in a long time.  Not good.

Our bus driver compared the ride to a roller coaster ride, going up and down all of the crazy hills in this city!  We saw lots of sights... Fisherman's Wharf, China Town, Union Square, Civic Center, Lombard Street, Painted Ladies, Coit Tower, Ghirardelli Square, Botanical Garden, to name a few.

We also saw lots of awesome architecture and really neat historical apartment and other buildings...

And of course we saw the Golden Gate Bridge!  I was surprised to see that it's for sure NOT the biggest or longest bridge in the area, but it looks pretty awesome and definitely draws a crowd:

The bus tour was a great way to see a lot in a short amount of time, and it gave me a taste of what I want to come back and see!  We unfortunately didn't get to go to Alcatraz, but next time I definitely want to go on that tour.

    

While waiting for our dinner reservation we walked around Pier 39 some more.  We found a bunch of people gathered around and were suprised to find this sight: 

 They were so funny!  Each sea lion was trying to just keep warm and dry off, but as you can see there wasn't a whole lot of room for them to all fit!  Some starting wrestling and everyone cheered when one got pushed over the edge. 

Our last stop of the night was at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner.  It was delicious!  But by this point in the night I was miserable due to my previously-mentioned sunburn that was already in full force.  But I was glad to have the sweatshirt my dad surprised me with at the Bridge! 

 I loved, loved, loved this city and can't wait to come back!

Oakland Temple

Monday, August 8, we decided our next adventure would be to go to San Francisco.  We were so exhausted after our trip to Monterey, but after a good night's sleep we were ready to go again!

On our way we stopped at the Oakland temple.  Wow... this was an impressive sight!  There was some maintenance being done on the grounds, but they were still beautiful.

Monterey

On August 7 we found our way to church here in Turlock.  While we were there, we started talking to the bishop, and he happened to mention that he went to high school in Kanab, UT.  We were all a little stunned because that's where my mom grew up and to hear about that little town clear out in central California was unexpected!  It turns out that this man moved there after my mom left for college, but his father still lives there and is good friends with my grandpa.  This bishop definitely knew several members of my mom's family and had only good things to say about them.  We later discovered that I plugged in my address wrong on the website to find the meetinghouse, so we didn't even go to the right ward.  But because of this, my dad kept referring to this whole experience as a "tender mercy."  I guess we were meant to be there!

After church we did a little more exploring and made our way down to Gustine, CA where I heard I might be working this year.  Boy is that a small town.  It wasn't hard to find the elementary school... and of course my parents wanted a picture!

Next we drove from Gustine to Monterey.  On the way there, we stopped off at San Juan Batista.  We walked around the Old Mission, founded in 1797.  It was an amazing building!  And the town was seriously a step back in time about 200 years... except for all the modern cars driving around!

We made it to Monterey and walked down Fisherman's Wharf.  We met up with my friend Christina (my hiking buddy from last year) who is living there now.  For a few months, I really thought I was going to working in Monterey this year too, but it didn't work out.  So it was fun to see how things could have been!  We drove along the coast and through town to get a feel for Monterey.  Definitely a quaint tourist town... I liked it there, but I do have to say I'm glad I'm not living there.  It seems like a fun place to visit, but not for me to live.

Our drive back was TORTURE.  I think it took us a good 4 hours to get back (should only be about 2 I think).  There is only one road that goes inland from the coast, and we were with the whole weekend crowd trying to get back for work on Monday.  Luckily my dad happened to be driving my car for that portion of the trip!

We did pass by the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area, which is a HUGE reservoir hidden in the hills.  It was really pretty! 

We were so glad to make it back to Turlock for the night!

Move to Turlock - Day 2

On our way out of Reno (August 6), we stopped at the Donner Memorial State Park.  We walked through the Emigrant Trail Museum and saw the Pioneer Monument.  This monument is 20 feet tall, to represent how deep the snow was when the Donner party got stuck on their way to California in the 1800s.  It was crazy!!

Our next destination was downtown Sacramento.  We didn't have enough time to actually stop, but we drove past the governor's mansion, the state capitol, and through some historical areas.

Next up was the Sacramento temple in Rancho Cordova.  I always love visiting new temples (we got to see 3 on this trip) because they are always so beautiful and unique in their own ways.  This was no exception! 

We drove straight from Sacramento to Turlock, about an hour and a half south... and finally made it to my new apartment!