Becoming One With Nature

A couple of Sundays ago, I learned that I was going to need to make a HUGE leap of faith and that it had to be soon. As I stressed a little, I decided to take the advice that President Uchtdorf gave and become one with nature and take time to slow down and make good decisions for life. A friend invited me to go to her institute classes with her the next day, and where it was a federal holiday I decided to go.

Here is the rest of the story:

We decided to ride bikes up to campus. At that point, I did not have my own bike so I borrowed one from another friend. We lowered the seat and were on our way. At one point, I realized there was a slight problem. The bike was too big for me and stopping was very difficult. Also, I had not been on a bike for quite some time. I am sure some cars got a laugh as I went running across the street, pushing the bike, because I could not get on it. It was a woman's bike and because I am somewhat vertically challenged, I only fit on youth bikes. After that little incident, I thought I would be fine. Boy was I wrong.

You see, there is this little ledge between where the sidewalk and grass meet. The bike tires got caught in that, and dear little me lost control of the bike. My friend turned around in time to see a scene like from a movie as I grabbed the bush to try to stop the fall and failed miserably. Needless to say, I become one with nature at the moment and probably gave a few more people a good laugh. Needless to say, once the bush and I separated, it made sure I have little souvenirs. Long story short I was pulling leaves out of my hair, had dirt all over my pants and later found a chunk of mud on my shoe and dirt on my forehead.

So, what did I get from all of this. Well:
Some pretty fun bruises (The pictures don't do them justice)





The opportunity to limp around and be sore for a couple of days.

And I finally got around to using my birthday money (six months late) and getting a new bike and helmet!

That is my story about how I literally became one with nature!

Whitney's Bits of Wisdom

Here is a list of things that I learned the past four days, starting Friday night and ending this morning.

1. When going to a restaurant with a big group, make reservations first or else you will end up waiting for over a hour just to get seated.
2. Sleeping in is so great.
3. Those days when you want to stay in your pajamas all day, end up being the days when you are asked to become a movie star and you have to get ready in 5 minutes.
4. Don't argue or try to compromise with spiritual promptings.
5. Big news can affect the rest of your day.
6. When you plan a day of "me time" it usually does not turn out to be "me-time".
7. I need to remember that I do not fit on adult bikes. I have to ride a youth bike.
8. No matter how beautiful they are, bushes are not the nicest things in the world (Story to come later. I need to get a picture of the culprit bush).
9. Walking around with dirt on your pants, shoes, and forehead (thanks Andrea for not telling me ;)) gets people looking.
10. It is important to live by principle and not circumstance.
11. Riding a bike is really fun.
12. The Dollar Store has some good buys.
13. Not having a washer and dryer leads to mounds of dirty clothes. (So glad we have one now).
14. Spending time outside reading, pondering and praying is FABULOUS!!!
15. We are ALWAYS divinely guided, even when we don't understand why.
16. Having good friends is the best!
17. Making a good peach milkshake requires less ice cream and more peaches. YUMMY!!!
18. Being creative can be fun.
19. After combining items 7 & 8, pain will follow. It may take time to appear but it comes. Believe Me!!!
20. Also, with 7,8, & 19; the morning after you will find yourself walking like an old women (or man) and bruised all over (Maybe in the story to come later, I will include pictures of the bruises!).

Look for a story soon!

What a "One"derful Weekend!

Back in July, we were able to spend a lot of time together as a family. Since then we have all been busy with different event such as my brother moving to go to college, one nephew starting Kindergarten, the other nephew starting preschool, and keeping up with our lives. Needless to say, I had not been able to see them since July. That made this past weekend extra special and fun.

The main reason for the gathering was BIRTHDAYS!!! My niece turned one earlier that week. It is so hard to believe that she is one already. The last time I was at their house was when she was blessed. Also, my dad's birthday was on Friday. It was so nice to be all together again. We met at my sister's house. I arrived on Friday and my brother was already there. I know it had been less than 2 years, but I realized that I missed that boy. My parents arrived early the next morning as we were finishing breakfast.

We were all able to watch conference together, which is something that I missed last conference. There is a different feeling watching conference with the family than by yourself. In between the Saturday sessions of conference, we had a small party for my niece. She got some cute clothes and toys. I stole this picture from my sister's blog.



So Cute!!!
After the second session we went to Dinner as a family. Then the guys took off for the priesthood session. Sunday was much of the same with conference. My parents and brother left that night. However, I wanted to have a little extra time there, so I stayed through Monday. On Monday, I got to experience the life of a stay-at-home mom. They are amazing. We took one kid to school, did a quick shopping trip, went to a play group, picked up the kid from school, lunch, naps, homework and played.

I had so much fun and really did not want to leave. I learned so much from the kiddos this time. I will share one thing I learned from each. C~ Pure love. He gives the best hugs and when I told him I had to go, he wanted to hug me so I could not leave.
T~ Happiness. He has the cutest smile and knows how to make those around him happy. It was so fun seeing him share that with his little sister. K~ I can't think of a word to describe this, but whenever she was a little grumpy, we would sing "If You're Happy and You Know It." She would calm down and usually by the end start doing different parts with us. That showed me that you can changed and be happy whenever you chose to. :D That was a great lesson.

Thanks Heather for playing hostess and letting us all have a great weekend.

Conference Time

For those of you who know me really well, I love General Conference. It is a time when we are able to hear inspired words from out leaders and also make new commitments to do and be better. The October General Conference was no exception. There was so much said and I am grateful for the opportunity that we have to live in a time when we can participate in such events through modern technology.

I would love to hear what everyone else thought of conference and the thoughts and ideas that they had. What were you favorites talks and why? What were the themes that you saw? Call me strange, but it is always fun to hear what others learned and liked and share your own thoughts. Since this is my blog, I will share my thoughts first, but I look forward to hearing what everyone else has to say too.

One of the talks that impacted me the most was President Uchtdorf's talk. This was one of the talks that I needed in my life at this point. I loved how he told us to slow down and simplify. Life does not have to busy, because a lot of times when we make it busy, is when we forget to do the small and simple things. Also, I loved the four relationships that he outlined between, family, fellow men, God, and ourselves. His advice to us to get to know God better by making sure we made a quiet time for him was much needed. Also, I loved the part where he talked about our relationship with ourselves and how we should not be so hard on ourselves.

There were a couple of themes that stood out to me. There was a lot said on gratitude and trust, as well as agency. There was also an emphasis on paying attention to the spirit and making ourselves worthy to have the spirit with us throughout our lives.

Please share your thoughts and ideas and check back frequently. Hopefully, from other thoughts and ideas we can all learn and apply more of the conference in our lives.