The Rock of Our Redeemer

"Hope, Happiness, and Joy are not products of circumstance but of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." 
I definitely needed this reminder today as I was studying/writing an essay for German, trying to finish my Modern Art class, trying to prepare singing time for Primary, and missing my husband terribly. I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed, and then I read Elder Wilford W. Andersen's April 2010 Conference address entitled, "The Rock of Our Redeemer." I was reminded of the Savior's infinite love for me when he sacrificed Himself to atone for my sins, and that he has felt every pain, every stress and every heartache I have ever felt. I know that through faith in Jesus Christ we can find peace in our everyday lives, and that no situation is too insignificant for the Savior to care about.

Highest of the Highs and Lowest of the Lows

This past week has been full of ups and downs. First the Ups: Michael surprised me with Carrie Underwood tickets for the 4th of July! Do I not have the best husband ever? We went to the concert and it was absolutely amazing. Carrie sounds just like she does on her recordings, and I was loving every second of it. We left the concert nearly deaf because we were on the 9th row on the east side with a huge speaker system right in front of us, but it was definitely worth it! On Monday July 5 we went boating with my family and we had a great time. We all got sunburned but it felt wonderful to get out of the classroom and get some vitamin D! I've been needing that for a very long time. After boating we went to G&G Denning's house for a 4th of July well really 5th of July bbq. It was so much fun. We love hangin' out with the family! Classes have been going really well for me, I'm nearly done with Modern Art and I'm doing well in German. I'm so close to graduation I can just feel the freedom coming! :D Michael took the GMAT this past week and he did really well! I'm so proud of him and all of his accomplishments. He really is the best husband in the entire world and I can't believe he's mine! Now for the Downs: Michael left on Friday morning. He moved to New York and I won't see him until I finish my class at BYU and move on August 15. Dropping Michael off at the airport was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. He's my best friend, the one I go to for everything, the one I laugh with over the stupid things I say (and let's face it, that definitely happens a lot). He's the one who supports me in every goal I've made, and the one whose smile just carries me to cloud 9. He's my best friend and my everything. When he left (granted it's only 5 1/2 weeks, but that's the longest we've ever been separated)  I felt so sad and hopeless. I'm doing a lot better now, I have a lot of new goals and I've just been called as the Primary Chorister for the month that I'm here, so I definitely have things to keep me plenty busy. Michael started his job with Citigroup today and he had a great first day! It's kind of weird that I'm almost graduated and Michael and I are starting "real-life." I'm excited for everything the future has in store, especially to see my incredible husband again!

Carrie Underwood! 

Dad waterskiing

Michael getting ready to wakeboard

Chelsee and her friend Kelsie getting ready to double wakeboard

Grandpa and Michael all tuckered out. 

Just a close up :)

My adorable Grandma!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

This is my new toy.....

What else can i say but.... 

Happiness. 

(Expect some photos of the Carrie Underwood concert this weekend! If I can figure out all the buttons ...hahaha lots of reading in the manual!)

Modern Art Midterm

Done and Done. And I definitely just showed that test who's boss. YES! 

Oh Life...the last couple of months

It's happened again. It seems like I always do really well at keeping up with the blog for about 3 months, and then inevitably life happens and then it gets neglected. Well, such is life. These past couple months have been great. Graduation hasn't offered as much freedom as I thought it would, I'm guessing that's mostly because I'm not officially graduated yet. But I have significantly more time on my hands as right now I'm just working on my Modern Art class and completing an internship at Springville Museum of Art. I start my final class at BYU on June 21. Michael's preparing to take the GMAT the first week of July. Between that and working on his golf swing he's keeping pretty busy. :D We're doing really well,  just loving life and keeping kind of busy. We're really looking forward to our big move to New York and I'm really really looking forward to officially being doing with school! :D

Encouragement & Approval

While at the library today the lesson I was taught was not by a book or a lecture or from intense study, or even research. It was by a 3-year-old girl in a pink dress and snow boots. She was running through the aisles until she caught my eye. She looked at me slowly, carefully measuring if I was a friend or not, I smiled and she just looked back with big brown eyes. My eyes dropped back to my book and she bent down to pick up some garbage on the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I watched her slowly bring it to her mouth, I looked up and whispered “no, no, that’s yucky, can you put it in the trashcan?” I motioned to the trashcan 3 ft away. She ran over threw it in and looked at me for my approval. I smiled at her and gave her a thumbs up, and her cute chubby 3 year old face broke into a grin to melt any hard nosed New Yorker. She looked around for more trash, inevitably found it and ran back to the trashcan and after disposing of it, eagerly looked back at me for approval, I gave her another thumbs’ up and she started giggling. This went on for several minutes until her mom came around the corner and seeing her daughter picking up trash ran to her and said “No, no throw it away!” (Her Mother was very unaware of the good her daughter was actually doing, and instead only saw the "bad")

Children seek for approval from adults, and when they don’t find it in their parents, they turn to complete strangers, as shown by the adorable brown haired, chocolate eyed, little girl who picked up handfuls of trash at the library all for a simple thumbs’ up from me a complete stranger. So make of that what you will, but as for me I learned a great deal from this little girl. 

On Art

"Only through art can we get outside of ourselves and know another's view of the universe which is not the same as ours and see landscapes which would otherwise have remained unknown to us like the landscapes of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists."  Marcel Proust

And, that is the Power of Art.  


With this in mind, look outside your own views and try to see the world as others see it. Whether through art, music, literature, or poetry. A greater understanding of the world and yourself is in store by trying to look through another's eyes.