"Of Regrets and Resolutions"

This weekend I have been reading about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what different Prophets and Apostles have said in relation to it. One of the talks that I was reading was given from President Uchtdorf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, "Of Regrets and Resolutions", and although I had heard this talk before I fell more in love with his words as I read over them once again and this time they had a new meaning for me.

It is now a new year and it is time for those "New Year Resolutions!" I think it is safe to say that most of us picture our "perfect" selves and then come up with every resolution to get us to be that person. Most of the resolutions are pretty extreme, only lasting the first few weeks, and then discouragement sets in when we don't look like that Victoria's Secret model we were hoping to be shaped like! Dang it! Well, I want this year to be different. It has been 2013 for a few weeks now, and for these past few weeks I have been really thinking about what I want to work on to make myself better. Reading this talk couldn't have come at a better time, but that's just how Heavenly Father works isn't it?

In the talk, Of Regrets and Resolutions, President Uchtdorf tells the story of a nurse who would ask her terminally ill patients, "Do you have any regrets?" Most of their answers were the same and consisted of three main answers. 1) Many of the patients felt as though they had allowed themselves to get so caught up in the business of life that they did not take the time to stop and give larger amounts of quality time to their families/people they love. 2) Another regret was that the patients did not feel like they became the person that they knew they could have become. 3) The last regret that the patients experienced was that they felt as though they had not allowed themselves to be as happy as they could have been.

Taking a step back, I can recognize these regrets starting to form in my own life. Life is so fast paced and I feel like I can barely make time to call my family in between classes or even have an in-depth and inspiring conversation with my husband at the end of the day. Sometimes I feel the discouragement of not being able to become my best self and as happy as I am, I know that I do not allow myself to experience all of the happiness that is out there for me.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2013:

-Spend more time with the ones that I love.

-Strive more earnestly to be the person that God wants me to be.

-Resolve to find happiness, no matter the circumstances.

Yes, I have other goals, but these are the major ones and all of the other ones build these up. I am grateful for the loving leaders in this Church and for their inspiring words. I am excited to start working on these resolutions. :) 

Busy little bees we are.

The past few weeks have been busy to say the least. School has started and it is an interesting puzzle to try and figure out how everything is going to work out. Have you ever thought, "Why aren't there just like 10 more hours in the day?" I've been feeling like that quite a bit lately. Thankfully I have my amazing husband who is there to pick me up when I start to stumble and is constantly asking me how he could help to make things easier. Everyone needs someone like that in their life. :)

For me, classes started two weeks ago. I am taking 4 online classes and 2 classes on campus. The online classes are KILLER, but I keep telling myself that this experience is like cough medicine. You just have to do it and get it over with!
Online I'm taking:

•             Foundations Capstone. This class is amazing! The point of this course is to help students think a little deeper, a little bit more outside of the box, and to help us learn how to discuss with others our feelings on tough moral topics.
• New Testament. Pretty self explanatory. This class is just to study the New Testament. I love it.
• Natural Hazards. Within this class I am learning a lot about natural hazards, disasters, and catastrophes. Lots of reading, not enough time, but still great. I'm learning how to use google earth, so thats new and fun. 
• Environmental Stewardship. Learning about how to better take care of the earth we live in. Great so far.:) 

-After this semester I will be done with my foundations classes, those are the core classes here at BYU-I, and I will mainly be taking art classes. :) Happy day! 

On campus: 

• Figure drawing. I am loving learning about the human figure and how beautifully it was created. I could talk about this class all day...
• Medieval Art. This is an art history class. Pretty self explanatory. A lot to learn and really exciting material. 

Matt is busy as well. He is working on campus in the Graphic Services department. He loves his job there and he works with some really great people. He is also working on a few freelancing jobs. One job is creating a new logo for a photographer based out of Utah, Jason McGrew Photography. Another job that he is currently working on involves creating 25 illustrations for a book that a doctor and his lovely wife are looking to publish. Along with work, Matt is going to start playing soccer on the competitive league here at school. LOVE THAT! I love going to his games! He is also working on his BFA project for when he graduates. 

AND on top of all of that, he has said that he wants to take on the task of planning and cooking dinners since my time is lacking! Seriously, he is the sweetest man. He is going to start this week and I am so excited because he won't tell me anything that he has planned, it's all a secret hush hush!

BLOG CHANGE!

I've been thinking a lot about this recently and it's not what I want it to be, so I'm going to change it. I think it is very informative of our lives, but I want to make it more about our art  and our thoughts so that whoever reads can get to know us better as people. So be prepared! I don't know how I am going to change it yet, but it will be getting a face lift soon and I am excited! 

Quote from today that really inspired me: "You have no need to worry about the economy if you are making sure that you are living the Commandments and working on your relationship with God." -Elder Webb during Stake Conference this morning. 

It's been forever!

Dearest friends, family, and all other readers,
THIS BLOG IS BACK! It's been so long since I have had the time to just sit down and focus on the blog, but now I am finding moments of freedom and so I am going to try harder at keeping up with this. Too much has happened since my last post to try and give detailed summaries on everything, so I will try and do my best at telling what has happened and not leave too much out. Hopefully it all makes sense, but unfortunately I am a woman with a jumbled mind and sometimes my thoughts don't flow as nicely as one would like so please forgive me if you have to stop and say, "Uh, nice try Linds, but that just doesn't work."
OK SO...I pulled 70-74 hour weeks for the last couple of months of hair school to finish as fast as I could to get out and get a job. Those were hard months, December-February. I would get up and on the road by 7:15 and I would return home around 10:30/11:00 p.m. It was hard not to have my husband around during the day and by the end of the day, we were both so tired that we would just go to bed. Thankfully those days are over. Before graduating a friend of mine told me that a salon that she worked at was hiring and so I hurried over and dropped off a resume. I received a call from the owner and we set up an interview for the day after I graduated. Well, I graduated on a Wednesday, had my interview on Thursday and was called on Saturday and told that I would be signing a contract and starting work on Monday! Not only was that fast and crazy, but Matt and I were packing our apartment and moving to the upper part of the house. We needed to be moved out/in by Monday because Matt would be going to NYC on a class trip for the week! So between my first day of freedom on Thursday and Matt leaving and me starting work on Monday, we deep cleaned our apartment, moved apartments, cleaned our new apartment AND painted it all! Matt came back from his trip to NYC and that was the end of winter semester and we had a week together before Spring semester started.
Between semesters my brother Dustin moved in with us. He got home from serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in February and now he is attending BYU-I with Matt and I.
The Spring semester started and Matt and I were now both working and going to school. Just as we were starting to get to see each other more, Matt received a phone call from Penguin Group in NYC, a publishing group that he had met with while visiting NYC just a month before, and they asked him to be the summer intern. Basically that is the short of it; he had turned in a resume for the internship and interviewed, so really the call wasn't out of the blue. As sad as it was that we would not be seeing each other for two months, how could you say no to an opportunity such as this?! Well, obviously he didn't say no and on June 1st we said our goodbyes and he was out the door and on a plane headed to the BIG APPLE. Matt made a blog focused on his experiences within his internship at Penguin Publishing Group, so if you're interested in the publishing world or just interested in what all went on and the many many things that he learned, you can read all about it at penguininternship.blogpspot.com.
To help with the separation, we purchased iPhones. Seriously the best investment ever. We havent regretted the splurge and I don't see us ever regretting it! We were able to communicate so well with those amazing gagets and facetime, my oh my facetime, it really saved us! Just being able to communicate and see each other while we talked was such a blessing.
Two weeks or one, I can't really remember, after the Spring semester ended, I got myself on a plane and booked it to NYC to see that man of mine! We spent two weeks in NYC while Matt finished up his internship and then we went to Mass for a week to spend some time with my family. It was a much needed 3 week vacation where we could breathe and just forget about work and school.
Well we are home now, here in Idaho, and it is feeling more and more like home. We are happy to finally be together with no future plans to spend long amounts of time apart.

Matt and I on a ferry taking a tour by the Statue of Liberty. We are happier then we look I promise! 

I'm sure that there are things that I have missed, but for now I think that is just about all I can spend the time on. This is our last week of extra free time and next week starts another semester for me; Matt is off-track so he won't be going to school this fall. So we are going to soak up as much relaxation as possible, take a few extra breathers, and walk into this next school year with much strength to endure whatever is thrown at us!

Thanksgiving Preview

Haircut for Courtney

Before:

After:

New styles are fun and it seems like short is the new long! My friend Courtney Price was wanting a new do and so we gave her one! The cut is super cute on her and frames her face really well.

Holloween PARTY AT OUR HOUSE!

Coleman won the cute baby award!

Meagan and Steven as Superman and Louis Lane

Spence and Jamie as The Pac Man Game!

Jesse and Jessica dressed as each other...haha

Skylar and Katherine also dressed as each other!

Jenny and Mike as Flo and Mayhem, so cool.

We had fun with a doughnut eating contest!

Candy Poker!

Spence and Jamie won the doughnut eating contest (43 seconds) AND they won the candy poker game!

Holloween with our Ward!

We had A LOT of fun with our costumes. Matt was Jack Frost and I was Mother Nature. We took some pictures before heading off to the party just in case our costumes fell apart along the way!Watch out, I'm letting Jack bring in Winter!

A blue bird on MY shoulder!?

Seriously? That face cracks me up.

Okay, so can you guess who/what everyone is?

Who would have thought there would be TWO Mother Natures at the party?!