Of Passions and Dreams

-this is not a serious post-

For my internship, I work with people in cardiac and pulmonary rehab at IMC.

One day, I discovered the IMC cafeteria.

this is not your typical hospital food, people. 

It has probably ruined my life.

Because I am addicted to their Whole Wheat Crust Vegetarian Pizza. *moment of silence* (I alternate between marinara and alfredo sauce)

Seriously: artichoke hearts, cucumbers, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, cheese glorious cheese, on WHOLE WHEAT. 

(Did I mention you get a honking huge slice for $2.20?!)

You know that quote from Camelot? "We must not let our passions destroy our dreams."

Today, I was on my jolly way to the Cafeteria, dreaming of my Vegetarian Pizza.

And I got distracted.

Today, they were offering taco salad. I adore taco salad.

I'm pretty sure I experienced something akin to WWI, the conflict was so terrible. Pizza or salad?!?!

So then I did the stupidest thing ever and listened to Robert Frost and took the road less travelled to the taco salad. 

All I'm saying, is I let my passion for taco salad destroy my dream of my Vegetarian Pizza with marinara sauce on Whole Wheat. 

It won't happen again. 

Brykaitlaurnatmama

Come drink

When I was younger, I became very fascinated with the story of the Woman of Samaria in John chapter 4.
   I didn't understand why He was asking her to draw up the water. Normally in stories about our Savior He is serving the people, not the other way around.
   My cute mom asked a few of her very dear friends (women whom I admire and try to emulate) to write me letters with their viewpoints on this story, why it is significant, and what it means to them.
    Since then, I have come to love this story. It is so beautiful. This woman, whom I like to think had a very broken heart and was living an isolated and rejected life, was completely and suddenly wrapped in pure unconditional love in the middle of one of her chores. He knew her. He knew her story, her sins, her heartache. He knew her desires and hopes. And He gave her a beautiful gift: He let her serve Him.
     I can learn a lot from this. I've noticed that I don't really let people serve me or take care of me. I am the caregiver. I am the strong one. I cannot be broken. It doesn't matter what happens to me, I've seen worse/felt worse/lived through worse, you cannot hurt me, blah blah blah. It's not healthy people! We're supposed to let others care for us, as the Savior showed us in this story of the Woman of Samaria.
    Bottom line: it is as important to let others care for you, as it is that you care for others.

Relaxation+Free Stuff

This will bless your life!

For an assignment, I have to engage in 15 minutes of relaxation a day.
Ironically, it was one of my more stressful assignments. There is simply not time in my day to spend 15 minutes relaxing? I should spend that time studying/driving/sleeping/cuddling, anything but relaxing!!

I was wrong, my friends. I believe that God, in His great wisdom and mercy, wants us to take time to relax and love ourselves. So take 15 minutes of your facebook/pinterest/email time and relax.

BYU has this great website with some skills and audio files to help you. Wait, did I say the word free? Oh yeah, its all free. Just download it, listen to it, and watch how the tension slips away.

I recommend the Creation Visualization (under Visualization in the Audio Files) and "A Walk to the BYU Testing Center" (under Performance Rehearsal). This one is best if you are a BYU student and are familiar with campus, but it has some really important skills in it even if you aren't a BYU student. I listened to it right before taking my midterms in September and I got an A on all three. No lie. (I also studied, but my history at BYU was that studying was overruled by panic and self doubt so this audio file made a huge difference.)

So anyway. Point: listen to some stuff. Relax. It will bless every area of your life.

Link to the audio files:  https://caps.byu.edu/audio-files

Link to other stress management goodies: https://caps.byu.edu

I feel blessed.

Remember this post?

Well, it lead to this:

Look at how perfect he is.
God works in mysterious ways. Who would have known that the girl who lived two floors below me who was assigned to be my visiting teacher would later marry my cousin and then have this perfectly beautiful baby boy?? I love it. I love it so much.

Makes you wonder what small things will become big things in your life. What human orbits are occurring each and every day.

Also, yes, he and I are dating. We are happy. <3

My Soap Box

I can approach this topic in a number of ways.
Aggressively.
Rantingly.
Passively.

I composed it in each of those ways and decided to just be honest.

It hurts my heart when girls dress immodestly.

How can you claim to want to make covenants in the Temple and then turn around and dress the same way people of the world dress?

When you look at someone, can't you tell something about their family life and the way their home is from the way they look, present themselves, and dress?

Shouldn't they also be able to tell something about your relationship with the Savior and what you know and believe and what your "home" is like from the way you look, present yourself, and dress?

The standard has been set. We've been told what is and isn't appropriate. They don't lower the basketball hoop (commonly referred to as the basketball standard) for shorter players. Instead, all the players adapt to perform their best with the same hoop. Likewise. We should not make exceptions for ourselves. Instead, we should change and adapt to the standard, and increase our skills and abilities in the process.

Please let the way you dress be part of your testimony. Please be consistent. You will never, ever regret it.

Another One Bites the Dust...

I stalk people.

Not in a bad way, in a really good you-are-inspiring-so-cute-love-your-life-happy-for-your-happy kind of way.

Nigh about a year ago I stumbled across a blog that I fell in love with.

Yes, I went back and read every post from 2008. Because the girl reminded me of me. And she made me laugh. And her love story was so sweet. And I just liked her blog, okay?

As of about 20 minutes ago, she made her blog "open to invited readers only"

And I'm not an invited reader, because I've never met her in real life!

WHAT?! You mean you don't want random strangers reading about your life and your cute baby and the picture you posted of his cute little bum when you painted a pumpkin on it??

I can't really blame her....I mean....I'm probably the reason....but still.

Also I was talking to Bryan about this today. I'm going to get arrested. Because since I work at my awesome job and have an infatuation with babies, I just feel qualified, authorized, and entitled to all the babies. In the whole world. And I literally forget that its not socially acceptable to walk up to people and offer to hold their children for them. Like the guy who was up and down and up and down in church with his screaming baby. My muscles were tensed about to stand up before I realized what this would look like:

"Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but I'm not a pedophile, so can I hold your baby??"