Go To Work

Okay Heather....please do not have a heart attack; I would miss you and I want to meet my nephew. So prepare yourself........

I AM BLOGGING AGAIN!!

Yeah, that's right. I have discovered that during the stressful weeks before finals that blogging has helped to alleviate the stress that has been present in my life. Another way of losing some of the stress is having your life thrown into perspective by having someone come to you and rely on you when they themselves are dealing with a situation that makes your problems minute. I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave me that responsibility. There is no better way to change your attitude and give you a better outlook on life than serving your fellow men. President Gordon B. Hinckley's father said it best, "Forget yourself and go to work." And go to work I shall. :)

General Conference

I think that this guy felt how I did about General Conference. He looks so happy to be there!

I did not get to attend General Conference in person, but the feeling I got listening to the prophet, apostles, and other leaders of the church, made me feel there in spirit. I loved General Conference, or as my New Testament teacher, Brother Griffin, told us to make it, Personal Conference. There are always messages there for me, that are exactly what I need to hear at the time for comfort, guidance, and growth. Like Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, these speakers are mortal messengers with angelic messages.

Elder Russell M. Nelson is one of my favorite apostles. His smile just warms your heart. I love his humble messages, especially since they usually include a sweet and inspiring story about his family, such as the story of his young grandson recognizing his grandfather on the television screen and blowing kisses at him. I really appreciated his message of combating fear with faith. He quoted President Monson, "My beloved brethren, fear not, your future is as bright as your faith." With the stress of the end of the semester: multiple papers, projects, and finals, along with all my other responsibilities in life adding up to almost no spare time, I was grateful for his comforting words. I know that the Lord is with me, and through doing my part and trusting in Him, I will make it through the next few weeks just fine.

I loved Elder Richard G. Scott's talk (and not just because he is from Idaho). If you have not noticed, I love their personal stories. His stories about his wife and children were so spiritually strong. One of his final messages was to pray to be an instrument in the hand of God. This is a gift and responsibility that I want to strive to always be worthy of.

Then, there is our sweet prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. To have one of the apostles, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, stand and bear such a loving and devoted testimony of our prophet today, Thomas S. Monson, was so touching and inspiring. Our prophet is really doing magnificently, just like Elder Holland said. Monson became an apostle at the age of 36, and I believe he was made a bishop around age 20. He truly has devoted his life to God and our church, to lead and guide us in these latter-days. The least we could to is to strive to follow him and his teachings. During his closing remarks, President Monson said that we need to try to be examples of honesty and integrity at all times. He then shared about how wondrous it is to be able to celebrate the Easter season, knowing that Christ has risen and that we can return to live with Him again.

All of the talks were wonderful. I cannot wait until October!

Allison's Baby Blessing

My beautiful niece, Allison Elizabeth Lewis, was blessed today. I love her so much! We had a little photo shoot with her when we got back to Brandon and Breanne's apartment. :)

This was my favorite picture from her little photo shoot. She has such a cute smile!

My dad, a.k.a the baby charmer, making little Allison smile and "talk". This picture of the two of them is priceless.

Festival of Colors 2011

I went to Festival of Colors with Matt this year (forgive my windblown hair). We went with his brother Tyler and Tyler's wife, Mari.

Waiting for the shuttle to come pick us up.

The official "before" picture of the four of us.

A close up of me and Matt. Just look at his smile. :)

The Temple

Almost there!

At the top of the muddy hill...covered with people.

I think Mari just got hit with some more color right here. We all made a similar facial expression at least once or twice while we were there.

Happy and partially colored, the coloring mostly thanks to Tyler.

awww!

:)

Purple face thanks to a random guy coming up to me and telling me to close my eyes. The group decided that I looked like an avatar, haha.

Mari and Tyler

SO MANY PEOPLE!!!

Quite a few people attempted to crowd surf or ride on someone's shoulders. Our group witnessed two people get hurt crowd surfing....none of us attempted it (although I think Tyler wanted to).

Matt and me after our group's throwing of pink color at each other (and perhaps a few other people) :)

lol

The official "after" picture

We had an awesome time! Tyler and Mari were so nice. Sadly, my hair took to this event a little too well. A piece of it was dyed pink for a few days. Thankfully, it was where no one could see it that well! :)

What An Experience

The other day (February 28) I went to the BYU Testing Center to take my New Testament test. I got off work an hour early, so I would have enough time to do a good job (the test was supposed to take about 2 hours). When I got to the Grant Building, I was in shock to see the line.....going out the FRONT door. The line has never been that long, even during finals week. So I randomly make the comment, "I think this is the longest line I have ever been in." When to my surprise, I guy behind me begins to talk with me about the whole situation. Throughout our wait in line, this guy and I talked for the whole 45 minutes (like I said, looooonnnng line). His name is Matt, and he is from Draper, Utah, a senior majoring in nutritional science, who is applying for medical school, and who is a returned missionary who served in Tennessee. Matt also worked with WIC, which I thought was pretty neat and interesting. He was so sweet, reassuring me about my test (he was pretty confident about his test, a nutrition test), curious about who I was, and telling me about his strong connection with his family (his nine older siblings and about his great twenty-four nieces and nephews) and asking me about my family. Suddenly, he whips out his phone, right before going in to check out our tests (making it in about 10 minutes before they stop handing out tests), and I think, "This is it! He is going to ask me for my phone number!" But to my disappointment, he simply turns off his phone and returns it to his pocket. Matt wishes me good luck on my test, and I think to myself, "Well, I most likely will never see him again...."

Two days later, I return home from work, when once again to my surprise, a turn of events is in store. I check my Facebook to see a friend request from a Matt Witzel. I'll admit, I began to freak out. Not only did this guy Facebook stalk me, but he had enough courage to admit it, by adding me as a friend. Better yet, he seems to be selective in who he adds as a friend and is not addicted to the virtual world that is Facebook (the last thing he did on Facebook was two months ago). Still waiting to see what happens, but I guess we will see. :)

Just to add on to how funny the universe has been lately, I will share a last tidbit. Sometimes, when I am bored, I will look at random Daily Universe articles. I had an interesting one on food myths opened up for the past two days, that I just had not had time to read. I read it this morning, only to find that the student comment is from who....Matt Witzel.

BYU professionals and students debunk common food myths | Universe.byu.edu

Life is funny, isn't it?

(Heather Lewis, I dedicate this blog post to you) :)

What Would You Do?

Okay, quick question. If you were going to take a shower, and the curtain to one of the showers was closed, would you rip it open?

Apparently, for some, the answer is yes. I am getting ready to take a shower, when suddenly my curtain is flying open. Yeah, a little AWKWARD. The thing I don't understand is the fact that there were three, count them THREE, showers with the curtains open. Why would you go to the one that was shut?! Seriously people!

My advice: If there is a shower that has a closed curtain but seems unoccupied, you might try asking if someone is in there. You may be just talking to a curtain, but that seems a little less awkward than walking in on someone taking a shower. But it's your choice.

Guess What!!!!!!

LOL!!!! So kidding. I have noticed over my two, count them, two weeks at BYU, that I seem to have a knack for attracting RMs. Almost every guy that has sat right by me in class and struck up a conversation with me is an RM. I think they got the hang of the pushing an idea upon people. They sure know how to sell themselves. They always start off their conversations like this: Hi, I am (insert name here). Are you a freshman? I just got back from (insert name of place here) a few months ago, but technically, I am a freshman......(You get the idea.) I think I am going to have to be on my guard, haha.

I have had a guy talk to me about rings though, and I know that this particular guy likes me. This is the ring that he was telling me about:

It's called a claddagh ring. It is Irish (the guy is Irish too, big coincidence, haha). The ring has two hands which stand for friendship, a heart for love, and a crown for loyalty. The expression which was associated with these symbols in the giving of the ring was: "With my two hands I give you my heart, and crown it with my love." The expression, "Let love and friendship reign forever" can be found as another meaning for the symbols.

The way that a Claddagh ring is worn on the hand is usually intended to convey the wearer's romantic availability, or lack thereof.

Traditionally, if the ring is on the right hand with the heart facing outward and away from the body, this indicates that the person wearing the ring is not in any serious relationship, and may in fact be single and looking for a relationship: "their heart is open."

When worn on the right hand but with the heart facing inward toward the body, this indicates the person wearing the ring is in a relationship, or that "someone has captured their heart".

A Claddagh worn on the left hand ring finger facing outward away from the body generally indicates that the wearer is engaged.

When the ring is on the left hand ring finger and facing inward toward the body, it generally means that the person wearing the ring is married."

These are a few of the fancy claddagh rings I found. I am pretty sure that those top ones are for marriage. One of the diamond ones costs $3,500.

I find things like this really interesting, and I thought I would share it with you. Sorry for the scare. :D I am pretty sure that if I had a claddagh ring, I would be wearing it on my right hand with the heart pointing away for quite a while.

Brigham Young University

I have nearly completed two weeks of school at BYU. It is a huge school, but I am already making some new friends. The experience has been great so far! I just want to thank my parents for driving me down and helping me get here. I wouldn't be here without them. I also want to give a big shout out to Jason and Heather and Emma (of course) for teaching me the ropes, driving me around (including to Idaho), and for just putting up with me. I love you guys!! You're the best!

Aberdeen Daze

For the last couple of days this week, I have been working on the Simplot Float for Aberdeen Daze. The theme was "Hometown Heroes". They had built a metal framework. My job was to make it look like a water tower. I constructed, painted, and "decorated". Then I helped make signs for the float. It was a lot of fun. Here is the final product in the parade.

Abigail was so cute during the parade. We helped her find candy for her bucket. I even added an Aberdeen Football to the mix that cousin Tori was kind enough to throw to me.

It was a great parade. I think it was a little longer than it has been the last few years; maybe that's why it started half an hour late, lol. Breanne's mom, Diane, came to celebrate with us. It was great to see her. Later in the afternoon, Brandon, Breanne, Abby, Diane, and I went to the fish fry. I even tried a little of the fish; it's not my favorite but it wasn't horrible. Breanne's sister Ashlynn and her husband Chris met up with us at the fish fry, as well.

It was a great Aberdeen Daze. It's always nice to see those that you haven't seen in a while, so you can catch up. Hopefully, next year will be just as good or better.

p.s. I would like to thank Breanne. I "stole" the pictures from her. Thanks Bre!

New Moon Trailer

I cannot wait until this comes out! :)

...

I just thought that I would let everyone know that I got accepted to Brigham Young University today. I also found out that I am eligible to get a scholarship for half of my tuition. This is great since I haven't even filled out the scholarship application for BYU yet. Maybe I can get an even better scholarship. Provo, here I come!

Typing Test

199 words

http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com">Typing Test

Hanging Out at the Lewis Hotel

On the way back to Idaho, my family dropped me off at a hotel, the Lewis Hotel, aka- Jason and Heather's house. I got to spend a couple of days with them until Natalie came to get me on her way back home. We went on some walks, rented a movie, and got a chance to talk about recent events. It was really fun to get to hang out with them. Emma is getting so big!

My totally awesome sister-in-law, Heather, took me to Borders to pick up the long awaited book Breaking Dawn. Thanks Heather! I also got a Borders Rewards Card, which will be absolutely cool since I am a total bookworm.

I read some of the book while I was there and Heather snapped a picture (yes Heather, I stole a few pictures, sorry). I finished the book when I got back to Aberdeen, and it was an excellent read.

I had never been to the school that Jason works at, so Heather, Emma, and I took lunch to him and he gave us a tour of the school. It is HUGE!!!

When Emma saw her daddy, she went right into a big cuddle hug with him, and this is how she remained for a good portion of the tour. She is so adorable!

Here is a picture of Jason on the technology staff wall.

This is Jason's office. His desktop background on his two computers is a beautiful picture of his daughter, my cute little niece.

It was really neat to see where Jason works and what he does. His school offers so many different classes that most schools do not offer. But it is way too BIG to me. I think that I will stick to little old Aberdeen High School.

Lewis Family Reunion 2008

Here is a picture of the sunrise over the little town of Ramah, New Mexico. I love going down for the family reunion. It is great to go see everyone, and we all have a great time when we get together.

This year, Aunt Loretta was in charge of the reunion. The events were out at her house. The theme this year for the reunion was about our family history. There were a bunch of old fashioned games there, including metal puzzles, Ms and Js (for Tic Tac Toe- (M for Marvin and J for Joan)), and a classic- Chinese Checkers, great grandma Lewis's favorite game. There were also games with bean bags and rings, and there was also badminton (Uncle Rex and I were the champions of that game). One day was a scavenger hunt, and we got to see what crazy drivers (crazy but good) our aunts and uncles were. They were blocking people, racing, going off road, and doing some impressive maneuvering. We went all over Ramah. It was fun, and we learned a lot about our family history. We did a lot of fun things.

The kids were all running around playing games, and the tree swing below was always occupied. Here is my adorable niece Abby swinging.

Here is the Ramah Lake, which is absolutely beautiful. In this picture, it is like a mirror.

In the top of the picture, you can see The Point. An arch with a huge rock on top of it. A couple of years ago, we hiked up there, and that is where Brandon and Breanne took their engagement pictures. You can carve your initials or name in the arch to show that you have been there.

I love hiking around Ramah. There are so many neat things to see there. One morning, a bunch of us woke up early to go on a hike.

We stopped for a minute to rest. Here are Aunt Andrea and Aunt Irene sitting on a huge rock. A lot of people come up here on a walk, because there is a pretty view of the lake.

Here is my cousin Riley and my Aunt Brenda.

Natalie, freezing as always, has her arms wrapped up in a another shirt. It was kind of cold when we started off, but it got better early on in the hike.

We just hiked up to the cell phone tower. It isn't very far, but in the end you get a beautiful view. We took some pictures up here of the lake. We stayed for a while and watched the sun come up.
They decided to go back, but Tanner, Riley, and I wanted to keep going, so we went on our own little hike to a place that we hiked to last year.

When we got there, we climbed up. That rock there (above), is huge.

Tanner crawed between these two layers of rock (not a lot of space) to take other pictures. And I was right behind him. Then he kept going, right over a little ledge (I did not dare to follow).

I showed you those pictures that had the space between the two layers of rock. Here, Riley is standing on the top later. He was above me at some point, and I didn't even know it.

Tanner then came back, and snapped a picture of me. By where I am standing, is the path Riley took to climb up for his picture (above).
We had a lot of fun, but after a while, we headed back. It was really nice to see Riley and Tanner, because I don't get to see them very often. While there, we played a lot of badminton, chinese checkers, clue, hearts, video games, and other games. We had a great time!

This year was really special to me, because I received my patriartical blessing. That was an amazing experience, and it was made even more special, because my grandpa was able to give me my blessing. My grandpa is an amazing example to me. He is always so kind and strong. Grandpa Lewis goes out of his way to help others, and he always has a smile on his face and a kind word. (This picture is from last year)

We were heading home on Monday. Natalie and I stayed with Aunt Andrea, and the rest of the family had stayed at Aunt Laverne's trailor on the hill. So in the morning, they came to pick me up, and we drove around for a while. We stopped and looked at some of the indian cliff dwellings that can be found in Ramah.

Then we drove around to see look around and see if we could see any animals.

I had a great time at the reunion this year! It was awesome to see my family and get to catch up on what everyone is doing.