Spiritual Salad

I had an analogy pop into my head on the drive home from church today.

So allow me to elaborate.

In Gospel Principles class, we were talking about missionary work and how to be good member missionaries using today's technology.

And through that conversation arose types of conversations we've had with other people not of the Mormon faith.

We talked about how through living our values and our way of life, we tend to stand out which leads to lots of questions from those who interact with us.

And typically, they are questions like:

"You don't drink?"

"You don't smoke?"

"You don't drink coffee?"

And then the inevitable: "Why???"

To non-Mormons, it may seem like we have a lot of rules.

It may seem like we have a lot of "Do Nots" and not too many "Dos".

And they don't get it.

Or don't like it.

And this is where my analogy begins...

...take spinach.

It's gross, right?

Well, at least that's what we first think, when we're kids.

Spinach is gross.

Just the name is gross.

Well, spinach is a commandment.

Spinach = Not drinking.

Because drinking destroys our bodies.

And our bodies are temples.

People hear we don't drink, and think, "That's weird." Or "Why?"

They don't understand.

Let's make it broader.

Let's add other stuff to the mix...

Tomatoes = Modest Dress.

Cheese = Not Smoking.

Croutons = Tithing.

Cucumbers = Language.

Lettuce = No Coffee.

Dressing = Scripture Study & Prayer

Separately, all these things seem like a lot of rules.

Singly, they may turn you off.

You may not understand, or even like them.

But toss them all together in a bowl, with the "dressing" on top to bring it all together, and suddenly, it makes sense.

Suddenly, you have an entire salad instead of random ingredients.

Suddenly you have something edible and good.

Take away an ingredient, such as tomatoes, and suddenly your salad isn't the same.

It has less nutritional value.

It's no longer whole.

That's what church is like.

When you look separately at all the "rules" or commandments, it may seem like a long list of "Don't"s.

One may not understand why we do the things we do.

But look at it as a whole.

Everything we do, we do for our Heavenly Father.
Our lifestyle is one big salad.

When it's all brought together, it makes sense.

It's all one giant plan.

A plan that one day brings us back to Heaven to our Lord.

We follow the commandments our Lord sets for us because they all are designed to bring us joy and salvation.

Each individual commandment may not make sense, or may be hard to follow, but we choose to follow them because we love our Savior and we want to return to him one day.

We need our Spiritual Salad to do that.

Tangets on Time

Today was my last day of work at Target for the summer.

Oh how bittersweet.

I actually love my job.

Even if I "just" cashier.

I love the people I work with, and the people I interract with.

It's great.

There's a reason I've worked there for six years.

It was a good day of work.

Worked with some good people,

Said some goodbyes,

Got a handful of hugs and good wishes.

And best part?
I had lots of contact with some of my Prucha Ladies today.

It was kinda weird.

I happened to be on break when three of my staff members called me.

They were all together, they didn't all call me separately.

Although that woulda been a cool coincidence!

And then a couple were texting me today too.

It just made me suuuper excited to get my butt back to campus.

To get back to my girls.

And then it hit me:

I'm not going back to my girls.

I'm not going back to my staff.

My work in Residence Life is done.

No more RA business.

No more HM business.

No more residents.

No more programming.

No more staff meetings.

No more staff.

I wanted to cry.

It finally hit me that it's over.

That this year is going to be extremely different.

No more nights staying up till 1am with my staff laughing about absolutely nothing.

No more quote boards filled with {mostly} inappropriate, but oh-so-funny staff quotes.

No more 1-2-1 meetings with my girls.

No more staff meetings on monday that end up going till 11 or 12 cuz my girls stay late and talk and goof off.

No more staff.

It's going to be incredibly hard for me.

To the point where I almost wish I wasn't living in the hall this year.

I stayed because I just didn't have the heart to leave.

And now, I think it's going to break my heart to stay...

...to watch another staff take over.

To watch another staff make memories in our apartment.

In our office.

In our building.

I poured my heart and soul into that building, into those girls, and now it's hit me that I have to pass the torch.

Perhaps to some I may seem to be dramatic,

but this job, it changes you.

It defines you.

It molds you.

And now I feel almost purpose-less.

And as I was driving in the car after work, on the verge of tears, wanting to rewind time to be with my staff, I started thinking about time in general.

It just goes so flippin' fast.

I know we hear that all the time,

How time always flies.

But I don't think we ever really look long-term.

It's always things like:

"Man, I can't believe summer's over already!"

or "Man, it's already Christmas-time!"

But we never seem to look beyond a year...

It's hard to think how I'm finally becoming a grown-up.

How I've finally reached this part of my life -

And I don't even know how I got here.

In less than four months time I'm going to be a {wife}.

Can you believe it?

And in less than a year, I'll be graduated from college.

And soon after that, I'll be a mom.

Crazy, huh?

I swear, just yesterday I was wrestling with my brothers.

We were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my dad on his bed.

I was April, kidnapped by my dad, the big, bad Shredder.

Just last week I brought my dad into my kindergarten class for show-and-tell.

Just the other day I was learning how to ride a bike.

And now look at me:

Planning a wedding,

Saving money for a house,

Graduating college,

Talking about babies.

Is this really happening?

When we're little, we always talk about how excited we are to grow up.
We have all these big hopes and dreams.

We want to be astronauts, veterinarians, and movie stars.

We couldn't wait to grow up.

And then when it finally hits us that we actually are growing up, we want to rewind the clocks.

Life is scary.

And it's hard.
And it's full of change we can never escape.

There's never going back.
There's never even pausing, standing still.

We are constantly moving forward.

Time is constantly slipping through our fingers.

It's impossible to grab.
Impossible to keep from slipping away.

Which is why it's so important to make the most of every moment.

I'm going to miss my life in Residence Life insanely much.

It's going to break my heart to let it go.

But I will never forget the times I had, the memories I made.
I will love all those Prucha women forever.

They changed me, in so many ways.

Prucha Hall defined who I became.

For now, anyway.

Because isn't that the biggest part of life?
Isn't that one of the greatest lessons we learn?

That because time is continuous, so are we?

We get to continually grow and discover ourselves.

We get to continually move forward,

Live new experiences, make new memories.

Let there never be a dull moment.

Make every moment the best moment of your life.



The Dresses are Here!

The bridesmaids dresses arrived today!!!

Eeeek!!!

They look wonderful!!

I don't think this picture does justice to the brightness of their colors,

But just know that they are beautiful.

I love them!

I'm probably going to get slack from some for putting pics up of them, but oh well.

I wanna show them off.

Besides, I'll keep myyy dress secret... ;)

So the men will be in matching vests and ties.

It's gonna look great!

Things are still coming together beautifully.

We signed our contract with a caterer (finally) last week!

Our buffet will feature:

Carved roast beef and chicken cordon blue

Garlic mashed potatoes

Green beens

Glazed baby carrots

A mango nutty salad thing (it's delish!)

A veggie tray

Dinner rolls

Punch & Lemonade

December 17 is gonna be here soo fast! 

Birthday Goodies

Remember this amazing cookbook I raved about a while ago?

Well, it's still amazing.
I still love it very much.

And I can cook pretty decent with it!

Well, I got a new cookbook.

I got one from my brother and sister for my birthday.

I love it.

It's called The $5 Dinner Mom.

Can you say perfect?

Not only is the actual title of the cookbook perfect (can't wait to be a mom, love to cook, trying to save money...)

But the actual book is awesome itself.

Next to each ingredient for each recipe is the cost of that ingredient.

[For example: 1 egg ($.11)]

Then, at the end of each recipe is the total cost of the meal and a "frugal fact".

[For example: Apple prices are lower in the fall.]

Yes, I love this book.

And then in the introduction are tips about grocery shopping and couponing.

Yes, I'm aware I'm a nerd.

On a sadder note about my birthday...

I got $30 for DSW.

Okay, that part's not sad.

That part is actually awesome.

I knew exactly which shoes I was going to get for myself.

And you should too...

...know what I'm talking about?

Yeah.
The Katie Jo shoe.

She is my dream shoe.

The shoe that was literally {made} for me.

So, I got super excited when I got my DSW giftcard.

I was going to get my babies!

I went there on Thursday.

I had three women helping me.

What did we discover?

They no longer carry that shoe.

It's not even in the clearance section.

Yes, I did walk out of DSW with tears in my eyes.

And I'm not even afraid to admit it.

So, naturally, I went home and got online.

I looked everywhere to find these shoes.

No. Luck.

Heart. Broken.

Later that night I went over to Tom's to play video games with him and the boys.

(I've become quite the avid Halo player...well, not really. I still stink. But I'm learning!)

I arrived before the other boys, so I told Thomas all about my shoe dilemma.

And what did he say to me?
He laughed.

And then quoted scripture.

3 Nephi 19-21:

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and theives break through and steal; But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

He thought he was funny.

And what can I say?

It did make me laugh.

So now, I must find another pair of shoes to fall in love with.

But the good part about this time?
When I do go into DSW, I actually have moola this time.

So when I do find shoes that I love, I can actually buy them on the spot.

I just gotta find a new shoe that screams Katie Jo.

My Baby

Today was a big day.

Today I purchased my first "official" car.

I say official because I did have a car before.

But my parents had purchased it for my sister and I to share.

This car is all mine.

She is my baby.

She's a 2009 Kia Spectra.

42,000 miles on her.

She cost me $12,466.

I {heart} her.

Next step?

Picking out a name for her...



Bring on the Wrinkles

Today was my birthday.

I turned 23 today.

I hate getting older.

Did you know,

I actually cried when I turned 20?

Yup.

Because I was halfway to 40.

True story.

So I'm not big on birthdays.

But today, as I was sitting in church thinking about how I'm now 23,

I remembered a quote I had heard a long time ago:

"Never complain about growing old, for many are denied that privilege."

So, moral of the story I learned today?

I am grateful for life.

For this amazing, wonderful, blessed, full and healthy life I have.

I am grateful to have lived another healthy wonderful year.
And I hope there's many more years of growing old to come.

Thank you all for the love shared with me on my birthday.



To Teach or Not To Teach?

Sometimes I question if I chose the right major.

Kinda a dumb time to begin questioning it, I know.

I have my last semester of classes this fall, then I student teach this spring.

Bad timing.

But seriously, I question it...

...a lot lately.

I {love} working with people.

I love helping others.

Which is why I chose to be a teacher.

Thought it'd be perfect.

I didn't want to do elementary education.

I {adore} kids.

But I didn't think I wanted to be around 30 kids all day every day for the rest of my life.

So I chose secondary education.

6th through 12th grade should be more manageable, right?

But I'm an incredibly passionate person.

That age group isn't.

Is it gonna tire me? Trying to get them excited?

Maybe I shoulda done something with younger kids?
Everyone tells me how great I am with kids...

Hm.

And if my passion is helping others, wouldn't I be better suited for counseling or something?

That was my favorite part about being an RA and an HM:

helping residents (usually young women) with their struggles.

I loved helping someone feel better about themselves, or to see the silver lining in their stormcloud, or teaching them to handle stress and school better.

Sometimes I think I would have been a great counselor.

And it would have given me more opportunities to help people in a different way than teaching does.

Sometimes I think it would have been fun to be a marriage counselor, specifically.

Then, there's animals.

Animals are probably one of the things I am most passionate about in life.

I LOVE animals.

All growing up I thought for sure I was going to be a zoologist.

Or a marine biologist.

Or a wildlife biologist.
I knew I was going to work with animals.

My junior year of high school we had to rank in value different aspects of possible jobs in our future, to find what we were interested in.

I rated "working with animals" as my number one most important thing.

Then my senior year, for some reason, I decided on teaching.

I am super excited to teach.

Sometimes, I just wonder if I'd be better at something else.

Sometimes, I wonder if I made the right decision.

Mormons Aren't Satanists

When people comment on my blog, I have it set so that I preview all comments first.

No comment can be posted without my approval.

Originally, I had my blog set so that anyone could post anything they wanted, and I didn't need to approve it.

I didn't want to limit what people could say on my blog.

Free speech = woot!

But then, over the course of time, I changed my settings to the current settings.

Why did I do this?

Because some people are just rude.

I started getting comments from anonymous people I didn't know that were rude.

Now, normally I wouldn't mind.

You don't have to agree with anything I write about.

You are allowed to have your own opinion.

But when I started getting rude comments that trashed my religious beliefs, I started to get angry.

Say what you want about me,

Do not say what you want about my Savior.

Let me clear some things up about Mormons.

First and foremost: we are Christians.

We are not Satanists or Devil worshippers.

It's right there in the name of the church:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We believe Jesus Christ to be the divine Son of God.

We believe in our Heavenly Father.

We celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Savior, and Easter, the resurrection of the Christ.

In our church service, we partake of the sacrament: bread and water, in remembrance of the dying sacrifice our Savior made for us.

Second, we are not a cult.

No one is brainwashed.

No one is forced to join the church.

There's this thing called agency: free choice.

Everyone has a mind of their own.

Everyone is free to think for themselves.

That is something Jesus taught: we have the freedom to either accept or reject his gospel.

Third, the temple is not a place where all these crazy shenanigans happen.

The temple is the house of the Lord.

It is a sacred place where only those who are living the commandments of the Lord should attend.

Sacred ordinances happen in the temple.

Not actions that are to be mocked or defiled.

Fourth, we do not believe that only Mormons make it to Heaven.

That's just crazy.

Everyone can make it to Heaven.

God does not look at you and say, "Oh Helen, you lived a great life, a kind and caring soul. But I'm sorry, you are not Mormon, so you must go to Hell with Satan."

Um, no.

Fifth, yes we do have additional scripture than the Bible.

Key word being additional.

We still use, read, and study the Bible.

A lot.

We also have the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon was written by the earliest of those of the Americas.

It was translated by the prophet Joseph Smith.

We regard the Book of Mormon as sacred scripture right along with the Bible.

If you don't know much about Mormonism, I encourage you to check out this site:

All About Mormonism

Or you can ask me anything you want to know.

You can check out my profile on Mormon.org {HERE}.

There I talk more in depth about the religion.

Please do not listen to random comments people make here and there.

Don't "Google" Mormonism - you'll get a lot of crazy things.

Mormonism is such a misunderstood religion.

And people, for some reason, like to trash it.

Just don't trash it on my blog.

;)

Crazy Stupid Love

Thomas and I saw this movie the other day:

Crazy Stupid Love.

It's really a good movie.

Not what either of us were expecting, but really good!

And afterwards, it left me thinking...

...in fact, it left me thinking so much, that on the ride home, I was just staring out the window.

Thomas asked what was on my mind, and we ended up having a great conversation.

About love.

People always say love is so complicated.

That its messy.

But, in my opinion, love is not complicated at all.

Love is rather quite simple.

I think the scriptures say it best:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

(In the King James Version of the Bible, love is 'charity' and charity is the 'pure love of Christ.')

Rather put: love is simple.

It follows the simplest rules, plays no tricky games.

It has no secrets, no catches.

It is simply love.

But what makes considered by many to be "complicated," in my opinion, is that it is hard.

I think when people think of love, they think of perfection, of bliss.

People want to believe in fairy tales.

People want their happily ever after.

But happily ever afters don't come without mountains to climb.

Love is wonderful, it is bliss.

But with every ying, there's a yang.

You have to work to preserve love, to keep love strong.

You have to work to overcome hurdles that get thrown at love.

But perhaps what has the biggest impact on love being as hard as it can be, is the fact that love takes two people.

Love, to be truly enjoyed, needs to be reciprocated.

Love needs to be given and received.

Unrequited love is tormenting.

It is heartbreaking.

When one partner falters and stops working towards love in the relationship,

Love begins to falter with the other partner.
You have to continuously work towards love,
Always showing your partner (and other loved ones in your life) that you love them.
Never stop showing it.
No matter how you show it.
Whether it's doing acts of kindness,
(Such as doing the dishes for your spouse without being asked, or cleaning the house)
or whether it's loving gestures,
(Small kisses on the cheek, holding their hand in the car)
or whether it's grand gestures,
(Maybe buying flowers, or chocolates, or taking them out on a romantic getaway)
or whether it's words of kindness,
(Saying "I love you," telling them they're beautiful/handsome)
You can never show love too much,
and you can never show love in the wrong way.
But you can show too little.
You can grow to forget the importance of [showing] your love.
And maybe that's why people get the notion that it's complicated.
But love is not complicated at all.
Love is simply {L.O.V.E.}.

Cars and School

Life is just cruising right along for Thomas and I.

Man, is it exciting!

Wedding plans, as you know if you've recently read my blog, are coming along wonderfully.

Simply wonderfully.

December 17th is going to be here before we know it!

Thomas and I are on the market for a new car.

Well, moreso me than Thomas, but hey, what's mine is ours now, right?

Right.

Car shopping is incredibly frustrating,

not to mention time consuming,

and I'm getting bored of it.

But! I feel like we're just about to find something we like, and I am SOO excited.

It will be my very first "official" car I will have bought all by myself!

I am looking for something sleek and pretty looking.

No bulky jeep or rusty old chunk.

Preferably something only about 4 or 5 years old,

with 70/80,000 miles or less on it.

I just need something more reliable than what I have now.

I have a '99 Saturn with 115,00 miles.

It runs, alright, but I share it with my sister, and the "service engine soon" light randomly turns on and off, which is a little nerve-racking on those long-distance trips.

Sometimes it gets stuck and jerks backwards when you put it in reverse.

And sometimes it doesn't start.

It's just time to upgrade, and I feel like right now is the right time to do it.

School is another area that just brings the biggest smile on my face!

I am almost finished and I'm finally getting to the exciting part of my college career!

I get to pre-student teach this fall, and then....drum roll please...full-time student teach this spring!!

I am {so} stoked!

I don't know where I'll be teaching yet, but I do know I'll be doing half of the semester in a middle school, and half in a high school.

And then I get to graduate and start my career!

Fingers crossed that I'll be able to actually find a job after I graduate.

But also with school, the biggest reason it brings a huge smile to my face, is Thomas found, quite literally, the {perfect} school for him.

It is [exactly] the type of thing he was looking for.

It's called the Minneapolis Media Institute, and it's pretty much brand new.

{Here's the school's website}

It's fully accredited, and perfectly designed for Thomas to get his Associate's in exactly what he's always wanted to do...and more.

He'll learn graphic design, 3-D animation, drawing...

Video and motion graphics. Game art and design. Digital art and design.

He'll learn to work with green screens and blue screens.

He'll compose 3D models.

Animation projects.

It's got everything for him.

It's a five semester program that will take him 20 months to finish.

After he's graduated, they have a department to help him find a job, and starting salary out of college is about $70,000.

He'll have options to work with a company, or on freelance projects.

He can work on movies, video games, for hospitals and other companies.
The class sizes there are only about 8 students to 1 teacher.

I went with him to tour the college and learn more about the programs they offer, and all I kept thinking was, "Wow...this is like Thomas' dream college."

I am sooo happy we found it.
And it's weird how we found it:

on a billboard driving downtown.

Good advertisement!

Life is good.

I feel like everything is falling into place.

We're becoming adults.

Scary.

But fun.



Lasers and Buns

My latest consuming thought?

Laser Eye Surgery.

Yup.

I've been thinking bout it looooads lately.

Speaking of "loads"...

...random, side-note story...

I was working the other day, and I actually used the term:

"Buttload"

To a guest.

Yup.

A woman came through my line, buying a load of hot dog buns,

And I said to her, "Wow that's a buttload of buns. Ya must be having a bbq?"

I don't think I've blushed so hard in my life.

Bad time to shut the filter down at work.

Not only did I say "buttload"

But it was a "buttload" of "buns".

Anyone else see the hilarious irony?

Anywho, luckily the lady was a good sport about it.

She just laughed with me.

*Whew!*

Anywho, back to laser eye surgery.
I really really want it.

I had a good friend of mine just get it done last week.

And up until then I had never really thought about it.

But now, all I can think of is how much easier life would be if I had it.

No more fumbling for glasses as soon as I wake up.

No more dependence on contacts.

I could just have normal eyes!

How wonderful!

I would be able to see things in front of me without any help!
I wouldn't have to drive at night with dry, tired contacts.

I would need to get headaches from the ear pieces on my glasses!

I wouldn't need to worry about going in and out of different temperatures and my glasses fogging!

Or getting rained on!

Oooh life would be simpler.

But what if it goes wrong?

What if I end up blind???

Meh, I don't think the odds of that happening are too high...

Now...to find the money for it.

Hmmm.

There's always a roadblock somewhere.
Ah well, some where, some day, down the road.

Maybe.