Another year down!!

This year started out dragging, which is unusual. Usually the months fly by. But now all of the sudden we are at the end of this year. It is satisfying to look back and see all the things I have accomplished year. Many of the accomplishments were official and unofficial goals that I have had for myself. Official meaning it was something that I wanted to do before I die. Unofficial being I thought it would be fun to do one day.

• Graduate with B.S. from BYU-Idaho (official goal)
  
• Internship (official)
  
• Work in a untraditional school (The Leadership School) (unofficial)
  
• Live on the East Coast (Maine) (Official)
  
• Go to Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire (unofficial) Making the # of states I've been to 28, I think.
  
• Go to Boston (unofficial)
  
• Go to Washington DC (surprise treat)
  
• Climb Mt. Timpanogos (unofficial)
  
• Sew three quilts (unofficial)
  
• Started a leadership course here in Utah (official)

philomathy

This is actually a word that my mom sent to me and I love it. Definitely a favorite.
Philomathy: fi-lah-mê-thee (Noun)
Meaning: The love of learning.

Notes: It is amazing that this word, dating back to the end of the 16th century, has found so little work since then, that it has almost slipped from our grasp. Well, here is alphaDictionary's effort to jumpstart this word and its entire family. Its family includes an adjective, philomathic or philomathical and an adverb philomathically. The agent noun is philomath. I hope all read this will have many uses for the whole family.

In Play: Wouldn't you like to hear people say things like this more often: "Pure philomathy drove Aaron Spelling beyond his AB in medieval philosophy to a PhD in the subject". Unfortunately, we are more likely to hear things like this: "I think Archer Bowman was motivated to go to college less by philomathy and more by his interests in the athletic programs." (Can you guess Archer's sport?)
Word History: This word began in ancient Greek as philomathia from philos "beloved, loving" + mathos "learning". It was borrowed by Latin, which apparently had plenty of use for it, passing it on to French as philomathie, where English nabbed it. Philos appears in many words English borrowed from Greek, including philosophy, the love of wisdom, bibliophile, a book lover and, of course, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Mathos you have no doubt already associated with mathematics but did you know that this word, Greek mathematikos, was originally

philomathy - alphaDictionary * Free English On-line Dictionary

Brobdingnagian

Brobdingnagian • Pronunciation: brahb-ding-næg-i-yên (Adjective)
1. Relating to the imaginary land of giants, Brobdingnag, described in Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) or the people living there. 2. Humongous, enormous, gigantic, the antonym of Lilliputian.

Brobdingnagian - alphaDictionary * Free English On-line Dictionary

That's fun to say!

Snow Fun

Hurray for Snow

...And the lake effect. I still feel like a kid when the first big snow comes in. I have an urge to go jump in it and make a snow fort. This definitely the best way to welcome in December and get into the Christmas mood.

The 2nd Great Commandments

1. Thou shall not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities.
2. Thou shall not be fearful, for most of the thing we fear never come to pass.
3. Thou shall not cross bridges before you come to them, for no one yet has succeeded in accomplishing this.
4. Thou shall face each problem as it come. You can only handle one at a time anyway.
5. Thou shall not take problems to bed with you, for they make very poor bedfellows.
6. Thou shall not borrow other people's problems. They can better care for them than you can.
7. Thou shall not try to relive yesterday for good or ill, it is forever gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life and be happy now!
8. Thou shall be a good listener, for only when you listen do you hear different ideas from your own. It is hard to learn something new when you are talking, and some people do know more than you do.
9. Thou shall not become "bogged down" by frustration, for 90% of it is rooted in self-pity and will only interfere with positive action.

10. Thou shall count thy blessings, never overlooking the small ones, for a lot of small blessings add up to a big one.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

I love Thanksgiving and I love the holidays. But I am not ready. I haven't even thought about Christmas shopping and I don't know that I am ready to think about it yet. However ready or not its here. Doesn't feel like it should be here. It might be due to the lack of snow.

Work is going good. I enjoy it. But I am not sure if I want to go into education. I enjoy working with youth and I enjoy teaching. But I am not sure if its the direction I want to go. I don't know what I want to do. I am starting to get restless. I want to try something new or go somewhere new. Yes, Already. Its been only three months. But for the last five or so years of my life I have hardly been in the same place for more than six months. Some places even less. But maybe my trial will be to try and stick somewhere for longer. Moving around is getting harder unless I just dump all my stuff at my parents' house and take my suitcase of a few items which I can live for months on. I'm not going anywhere though. I don't know where I would go or what I would do. I am getting the urge to look around. Having a degree is kind of discouraging. For the last eight years minus the mission time its been my driving force. Whether I was studying or earning money to pay for. I always had that to work towards and direct my efforts. Now what do I work towards or look forward to. I guess I could do more education but I am not sure what to study this time. Something will come to me.

Something about Idaho...

I went back to Rexburg for about 24 hours last weekend. The first time that I have been back since I graduated last December. Walking around campus made me miss it. I miss the campus, the classes, the small town life. I miss being able to walk everywhere. And for some reason when I cross the border to Idaho and start driving through the brown wide open spaces I have a desire to turn on the country tunes.

I went to go to my friend's wedding reception. Mandy had a beautiful reception and the prettiest wedding pictures I have ever seen. robinspencerphotos.com is the gal's website if any of you girls are looking for a photographer.

Happy Halloween!!!

This week has been abosolutely delightful and harmful to my bank account. I have enjoyed my time off from school. I have relaxed, had sleepovers with my sisters, went to lunch with Hannah at Sweet Tomatoes (One of the places to eat because you can stuff yourself and not feel guilty because it is all salad.) And I went on a major shopping spree. But I justify it with a couple of very good reasons:

1. It is the first one I have gone in over a year. Last year I avoided major shopping because I was in school and unemployed. And then I was living in the backwoods of Maine and I didn't care a bit about what I was wearing as long as it was warm. Any cute clothes were lost underneath of at least 2 other layers.

2. Everything I bought was five dollars or less. I scored big time. I found racks and racks of cute clothes marked down to five dollars. Originally $30 or more. It was fun.

This Week...

This week was a full and fun week. Grandma cooked dinner on Monday. Aka Cracker Barrell. On Tuesday we went to Red Robbins for Katie's (my roommate) birthday. And on Thursday the girls went to the Spa at Gardner Village and got massages. Heavenly!!! I found myself a new hobby. Definitely something that I will have to splurge on every now and then.

At school, "my teacher" has been gone for few days. So I have been the teacher. And that has been fun. I like teaching and I think I would like being a teacher if I could have all the lesson plans and other paper work done for me.

This next week there is no school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Yippee. Now what am I going to do with myself. All my friends are working or in school. Don't worry. I am sure I will find a few things to fill my time.

It looks a little sketchy, but it has a fun name.

On Saturday we had a birthday party for Grandpa who turned 80. Who know how many of us he remembered. But he knew we were related somehow and that we loved him. I'll post pictures as soon as we get them from my uncle.

Other things in life are going well. Nothing too exciting has happened. But nothing bad has happened either. I still enjoy my job. I'm busy putting together a course guide for the leadership development class I'll be starting soon.

Happiness is...

I have been in the greatest mood ever for the last two weeks. I am just happy. I've been smiling just because, I haven't been able to stop smiling. This past weekend was especially good because of Conference. It definitely added to my joy. Even a random bizarre phone call from my ex-boyfriend couldn't ruin my happiness. It was the greatest.
Where does this happiness come from you may ask...The only thing I have been doing is emerging myself in the gospel and good things. I've been attending up to three institute classes a week, attending the temple weekly. And trying to do every possible good think I can. And its been paying off because I am HAPPY.

Serendipity...it's just fun to say.

So friends and family have been encouraging to start a blog. And now what to write. I am trying to figure how to get it to look like I want.

A few hours later...
After a few hours and some sweat and blood it is ready to go. And I must say I am quite pleased with it. Now lets just see if anyone else will look at it. I will try to get some more interesting things on here. I don't want it to be just me rambling away. Although that will probably be a lot of it. I like to ramble. I guess I have to be true my title and have some good fortune on here too. Anyways it up and good to go for now.