Sunday, January 29, 2012

New Shoes

Because I'm taking a jogging class this semester, and my running shoes were from cross country my sophomore year of high school, and were falling apart, so I bought these lovely Nike running shoes. They're so light and comfortable and I'm really starting to love running. This next week I run a total of 3.5 miles. I'm so much happier with my body! I just need to start eating a little better. If you're looking for running shoes, definitely get these ones!
Bear got me these sequin TOMS for Christmas. And I love them. 

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Baseball Cuff Bracelets

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I just wanted to post about these cool baseball cuff bracelets that my friend Brandy made for the SVU baseball wives/girlfriends. Brandy is due to have a baby boy at the very beginning of March. These pictures are from her birthday party back in November. 
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It's a horrible picture of me, but we had fun singing karaoke. I'm glad that I have made friends through baseball. And I love my bracelet! She got the idea from Pinterest, and you can too by clicking HERE.
 
But ours look more 'baseball' and have our men's last names on them. Even though the first game in Savannah was cancelled, I'm still excited for baseball to start in February! You can visit Brandy's blog by clicking HERE.
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Monday, January 23, 2012

Excited

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Sorry, these are old pictures from Thanksgiving break in South Carolina on Myrtle Beach. It was over 70 degrees that day and the sand was white...I was in heaven. The Price family are going to be staying on this same beach for Christmas 2012. I'm so excited! I'm also excited for baseball season and to move out of our current apartment! And to stop reading about the depressing Holocaust!


But I got a handsome husband ♥  
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Life is Beautiful

So life is beautiful but crazy. But mostly beautiful. It's always hard for me to get into the swing of things. I tend to get overwhelmed and have melt-downs...which broke one of my resolutions. So I decided the smart thing to do is not set a goal to completely stop them, but to figure out why I melt down first and go from there. I expect too much out of myself and compare myself with other people to no end. I get into the same cycle over and over again. I push myself too far. 

Which is when I need to step back and see how beautiful life really is. 2-3 days out of my week might be crazy busy, money might be tight right now, I may not love our living situation, I might be drowning in homework, and I might miss my family, BUT I still have 4-5 days of peace, I'm lucky to have a job, a hard-working husband, have the opportunity to go to an expensive school for free, I do have a place to live and we aren't starving on the streets, and I have a family alive and well that loves me. I have good friends that keep me happy. 

Even though my phone broke this week, a new one came in the mail the next day, even though ice skating was too full in Roanoke we were able to go to Chik-fil-a etc etc. I for one don't believe in chanting "I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy" and forcing positive thoughts or a smile while still being bitter on the inside. Sometimes we need to be sad and let it out. But I think it helps to step back subjectively and say "hey, most of the troubles in my life are in my head" and start being happy from there. 

I'm learning so much this semester because all of my classes are ones that I'm really interested in. Right now we're deciding if we want to do internships or go work in California again this summer, but I'm not going to stress about it. And I'm going to start taking more pictures. I promise.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Beginning of the Semester


Baseball practice starts tomorrow for Bear. Which means team weight lifting at 5:50 am, which will wake me up...but on the upside, I'm so excited for the games! We're also both in an opera workshop, which is our only class together. Who knew that would ever end up happening? Opera? Really? haha


But my class work load seems manageable so far. I'm finally settling into my major. And I'm only working 10 hours a week, with no class on Fridays. I'll be busy all day Tuesday and Thursday, but I hope that I can make it to most of Bear's home games. And...the best part is church is at 1 pm. So I don't feel like counting down the days til the end of the semester (to be put out of my misery) like last semester.


Bear asked me to marry him a year ago today. Of course choosing to come to SVU was the first good choice, but I really am so happy that I said yes to him. We've been married for a little over 7 months now, and every day things get better. So far, we've been able to keep up reading our scriptures every day and praying together for the past few days, but let's see what happens once baseball starts.


It's also been a week since New Years Day. In a way, I don't know where the past week went, but at the same time, I thought, "I've only been working on my resolutions for a week?", and I understood why people give up on their resolutions so fast. But I think it's important to set hard goals. Not to over-burden yourself with them, but to have at least one long-term goal that really pushes you. At least for me, I love looking back on how far I've come, and to be able to say, "I fulfilled my dream" or "I feel like I can do anything now!" So, when I really realized that I've been working out 5-6x a week for a month and half, instead of just a week, I really felt good. Not all goals have to start at the new year. The good thing is, I don't feel over-burdened with my goals. So I think I can do it. You can too.

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Emma

I watched the 2009 version of Emma last year when Bear and I were still engaged. I know British dramas are not Bear's favorite (that's mostly what we watched all of Christmas break), and he only suffers through them for me, but I really do love them. I guess it's because I grew up on them. I just love British humor, and my current obsession is Downton Abbey!


So, although not all the British dramas I watch are super mushy Jane Austen movies, Emma really is my favorite (even though Downton Abbey is keeping me on my toes). I love the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version and didn't really like the 2009 version when I saw it a few months ago. But my dad gave it to my mom for Christmas, so I watched it again with her. And I like it a lot  better now. Mostly because of this video:

It just makes me so happy. I don't romanticize and yearn about my own future love story any more now that I'm married, but I would like to say that I'm happy that I grew up on Jane Austen. It taught me to not settle for anybody and to marry your best friend. Now that I'm married, I can feel as happy as Emma does in the above video every day if I want. It's the best time of my life. It's so worth the yearning-ful wait of my teenage years. I don't compare my own love story to Twilight, Jane Austen, or any other silly fictional romance, because the best love story is your own. Because it's real, and you get to live it every day. I made Bear promise me today that we will keep falling in love with each other our whole lives and not turn into Mr. Elton's definition of an "old married man". 


Now I get to buy all of my own Jane Austen movies ♥ 




THE END

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Exercise

So I have an adult body now with a slowing metabolism. I tried to workout during the summer, but I couldn't get a gym and the arid desert in California made it not fun to run in. Then I kept using the excuse of being too busy with school to work out. But like I said before, it's all about priorities. So I've been working out 5 to 6 times a week since the week before Thanksgiving. There's a free gym at school and I need to use it when I can! But since I've been at my parents' house, I've been using their Kinect fitness and Zumba. I love that it tells me that I'm not  doing it right and so I get a much better work out. I've never worked out this hard in my life. And the fact that I did it through Christmastime is a big thing for me. So I really feel like I can continue the habit on into this new year. And I really do look like the bottom half of the picture when I do Zumba. I know so because Mia, Noah, and Grace all started laughing at me. :( But I can do it! Priorities!

We're leaving to go back to school tomorrow. It will be a nice, all-day-long drive. With Bustard Kitty. School starts Thursday. This break has been exactly what I needed. I got enough relaxing time with my family. It's been 3 weeks! Bring on school. I'm ready.

It was also my aunt Nancy's last chemo today. I'm really proud of her! You can read about her story HERE.

Monday, January 02, 2012

Temple Goal


Every Christmas, our family gives a gift to Jesus by writing something we want to improve about ourselves. We put it in our stocking, and get to read it the next year. I found mine from a few years ago and it had to do with the Mutual theme for that year.


I couldn't think of what I wanted to do until I read Elder Russell M. Nelson's article in the December 2011 Ensign entitled The Peace and Joy of Knowing the Savior Lives. He states, "considering all that the Savior has done - and still does - for us, what can we do for Him? The greatest gift we could give to the at Christmas, or at any other time, is to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, worthy to attend His holy temple. And His gift to us will be the peace of knowing that we are prepared to meet Him, whenever that time comes." In Elder Patrick Kearon's article, Come Let Us Adore Him,  he talks about Simeon and how his "righteous and faithful life enabled him to be present in the temple so he could testify of the Light when at last he found it" and that because of his worthiness "he was in the right place at the right time". Likewise, Anna "departed not from the temple" (Luke 2:37). He states that even if we haven't made it to the temple yet, we can still enjoy the blessings that flow into our lives when we worthily hold a temple recommend.

There were many articles about the Savior that I loved in that issue, and I want to keep going back over them. And in general, people can set goals to exercise, drink more water, save money etc etc, and I really do believe in setting goals and bettering ourselves. Sometimes I want to set the coolest or most resolutions to prove myself to somebody else. And I did set goals to not have as many anxiety attacks, show more appreciation for Bear, and learn new crafty skills. I said I wanted to be more careful with money and share my piano skills to help at church.

But after reading all of these articles, and after seeing everyone's goals and reminders to attend the temple every month, it has finally hit me that that should be my ultimate goal. Getting to the temple every month is super hard, especially where we are at school. But like my high school classmate's facebook status today: "It's all about priorities. If you want something bad enough, you WILL make it happen." And I've already been to the Nauvoo Temple twice during the break. It's my favorite. I can do it. That is my gift to Jesus.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Here's to the New Year

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I am going to start afresh with posting this year. When I was taking 21 credits, even updating once a week became impossible. 


But I can report that we had a fun time dressing up as people from the 60's for Halloween (because I'm obsessed with The Help), enjoyed every last second of the 70 degree weather in South Carolina for Thanksgiving (and the amazing massage that I got from my sister in law Lora), survived finals and the craziness of December, and made it safely to Nauvoo for Christmas. 

I honestly don't know how I could have made it through this semester without Bear. He earned enough money for us this summer so that I didn't have to work during school, and he helped me get through the times I wanted to rip out my hair. Even though it seems silly now, it really felt like I wasn't going to make it through those last 3 weeks of school between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Even though it wasn't planned until last minute, a bunch of events fell into place so that the two of us could pick Tashi up from the St. Louis airport and surprise my parents. So the whole family was together for my dad's birthday, Christmas, and New Years. Seriously everything we've done has been as a family and we've hardly left the house. Even going to my grandparents' house in Missouri was spending time as a family! We have just been catching up on reading, quilting, and playing Ticket to Ride. Tashi has started The Hunger Games finally. I finished the quilt top for my baby niece Pearl's quilt. And the Prices got our own Ticket to Ride! I'm quite content. But because I've been spending so much time with my family, and because that has been the main focus of this Christmas, I keep forgetting about all of my presents and that Christmas is actually over. This is definitely one of my favorite Christmases. I've been in Utah the past 3 Christmases (for good reasons of course), but it really  felt nice to spend my WHOLE Christmas with just the Stouts in Nauvoo. I love Nauvoo.


I'm only taking 13 credits this semester. Which will be a nice change. I crammed my classes into Tuesdays and Thursdays so that only have one 1 hour class on Mondays and Wednesdays (at 4pm), with no class on Friday at all. I'll also be working again, but only 10 hours a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so that my weekends are still open. Bear won't be working, because baseball season will be starting and he'll be super busy with that. I'm excited to watch. 


Right now I'm signed up for these classes:


Historical Methods
History of the Holocaust
Topics in American History (1890-1940)
Jogging
Piano Accompaniament


I can finally focus on history classes and music classes. And I get to go to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. for a field trip and I get to read The Great Gatsby for my American history class, which I've wanted to do for a long time! I'm so excited for this new year and semester! What about you?