Christmas Extraordinaire

Christmas on Euclid

One of the few traditions we've kept since I was little is going to Euclid to see the Nativity. It's changed a lot over the years, but it now looks better than ever. It's fun to go with my nephew Tyler and share that experience with him. Enjoy!

Christmas With The Kelly's

We made the movie for my sister Amanda on her mission. :)

He is the Gift – Christmas Video – #ShareTheGift

I rewatched this video this morning and it made me start thinking.

We have two holidays, one that focuses on His birth and a few months later one that focuses on His death and resurrection. I think that it important that we personally don't only focus on those things. What happened between his birth and death (and resurrection) are what we should really remember and celebrate during both these holidays. That is the Gift we are to share with others during the holidays and all year round.

To me, Christmas is a time to recommit to living a Christ-like life, specifically to pray for and recognize (and take) opportunities that are all around me to serve others, even in small ways. I do what I can and improve what I can without being hard on myself about my weaknesses. Christ was born, lived, died, and lived again that I can have HOPE and FAITH in Him to help me become all that I can become. THAT is the spirit of Christmas. I want to EMBRACE and SHARE the gift He has given me.

Christmas Wonderland

Giving Thanks

Okay, Ready? Go Be Awkward!

Fall is Fantastic

Fall is getting cooler and pretty much all the colored leaves are gone now. Last weekend I took my last chance to see the fall colors with some friends. I will definitely miss the fall. Next time I think I will go earlier in the fall because I think it would look fantastic up there. Even with the weather changing, I hope to keep going on adventures somehow.
This week's adventure was Halloween! At work I had a ton of fun carving pumpkins and playing different games with the kids. I even let them mummify me with toilet paper on our Halloween dress up day. One class only wrapped it around my head so I couldn't breathe. I meowed at them like I was an upset cat and they thought it was hilarious, so they kept wrapping my head and covering my breathing hole. I love my preschoolers.
On Halloween, I hung out with friends and handed out candy with the Bishop's granddaughter. The next day we had a ward Halloween party, so one of my friends gave my cat costume a makeover. It's been years since I straightened my hair, so many people didn't recognize me at first. I loved it! Check out the pictures below.

And by the way, I've lost now lost 27 pounds since I started my health plan. I finally fit back into the dress pants that I wore to job interviews after I graduated college. I also fit into the red formal dress that I have. I now just need to wear it some where! :) Those were my two goals when I started this health plan. Woohoo! I'd love to lose a few more, but if not, I hope to at least maintain the healthy habits I've developed these past 7 1/2 months. Despite being in a baking mood recently, I've managed to maintain it so far. Homemade pies, cookies, and ice cream... it's too hard to resist. :)

Beautiful Day

I'm really going to miss the fall colors. I am grateful this year I got out a lot more and could see them for as long as I did. The colors just make everything looks so beautiful. This is cheesy, but I'm having lots of beautiful days right now, too. Life is good. :)

YOLO

I've got a new roommate after living by myself for about 2 months. She is awesome. She and I have quickly become great friends. We laugh ALL THE TIME. She is pretty laid back and willing to go on adventures. YOLO is her thing. She says that a lot and it's become a funny thing we say when we are just going with the flow of things, especially in crazy situations. This is one of my favorite canyons. We did some exploring and saw the awesome Fall colors. I loved it.

Y?

I'm sure many of you are tired of all these videos I'm posting and wish I
would just write an update. The truth is, I just love making these
videos so that I can look back and kind of experience it again as I
watch it. Kind of like digital scrapbooking, haha. Anyway, whether you
watch them or not, I'm going to keep doing the videos. Some future day
someone besides myself might enjoy watching them, too. Who knows.

Anyway, if you're going to watch any of my videos, you should watch this one. I recently heard this song that made me start thinking about the fact that I've lived in Utah 10 years come this January. It's amazing to think about all that I've done and experienced in that time. I've seen so much and have done more things than I ever could have imagined. I had some really difficult experiences through which I learned so much about myself and about life. I don't ever want to go through them again, but I am grateful for the things I learned from them. I can honestly look back and say that I gave it my all. I lived. I experienced many "broken bones," but they've healed in the most amazing ways to make me into who I am today. I know it is because I relied on the Savior Jesus Christ and tried to apply His atonement to my life. I also know I would not have made it this far without the loving support of my family and friends. In the back of my mind I still sometimes ask many why questions about things. Instead of focusing on those, I intend to go confidently forward in the direction of my dreams. I have hope and faith that everything will work out.

Instead of sitting around waiting for things to happen, I've developed some goals for myself to make things happen, or at least be doing my part to make them happen. I'm excited for what is to come.

Go

There's this mountain that I see every day at work that was calling my name to climb. No, it's not Timp. It's called Big Baldy. It was a lot longer and harder than I expected, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Evolution

With work in full swing, it was really nice to squeeze in a quick drive up Payson canyon to Devil's Kitchen. It's not quite what I expected, but my friends and I had fun hiking to the Grotto in the dark afterwards.

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. I love the fall colors and the weather cooling down a bit. Not to mention BYU football, my favorite TV shows,  and the holidays that will be here before we know it. I'm feeling so blessed. I couldn't be happier.

Backpacking Extempore

My very first backpacking trip! I literally had 30 minutes notice before going. Talk about an adventure! I was not very prepared, but I learned a lot and loved every second of it!

The Sweet Stuff

Solace

With work started again, I really needed to do something to get rid of the stress. This was it.

Long Way 'Round

It's been a long time since I've gone on an hike with my good friend Tyler. It's always an adventure with him. :)

Ready or Not

I Rock!

I went rock climbing for the first time... watch and see how I did! I think I still prefer rappelling though.

The Deluge

Sometimes you just have to hike in a thunderstorm to really let it go....

ALS Awareness Challenge

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a disease of the nerve
cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle
movement. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

I've been hearing a lot about this challenge lately. I never thought I'd actually get nominated to do it and honestly didn't care. But, then I got nominated and decided, what the heck, why not? So here it is:

Chill Out

Worth a Thousand Words

You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, I think videos are worth a whole lot more, so I hope that you've enjoyed the videos I've made this summer of all my adventures. Yeah, I know 90% of you who read this actually watched them, but that's okay. I really love making movies and sharing them even if nobody watches them but me. I love going back and watching them and experiencing the adventure all over again through the video. I started making the videos really because my brother has a vlog and he said I should start doing one, too. I didn't know how much I'd enjoy it until I started doing it! I'm not that great at it, but whatever.

This summer really has been amazing. I had a blast. Before summer started, I was actually kind of bummed because my hiking buddies from past summers were gone and I only had really one big thing happening to look forward to. But then I decided to MAKE it a great summer full of adventures. I managed to find many different people to go hiking with and made some new friends in the process.

Work started again and the kids come back to school next week. I will be teaching 3-5 year olds this year. I'm getting most of my kids I taught last year as threes again this year as fours, which is super nice. It was a very challenging year with those kids, but I love them and am excited to work with them again. I'm a little nervous about my morning class because somehow the most challenging kids I had last year all got put into the same class this year whereas last year they were split between the two classes. We are starting a new way of doing thing called Conscious Discipline, which I am very excited to learn more about and incorporate into my classroom.
Here are two links to give you an idea of it:

This first one is kind of long, but it's worth it to watch the whole thing. http://youtu.be/RXJGcqcJckA
Here is the second one:


I have half a class of threes this year, which will be a challenge since the other half of the class is fours turning five and they are on a completely different level. Hopefully I will keep my sanity this year despite it all. Head Start is trying to lighten the load of teachers a little bit, which is already proving to be very nice.

It will be a great school year!

No Big Deal Springs

The Tube of Fun

I Love To See The Temple

Here To Stay

Rendezvous

Pretty awesome group date hike I went on this weekend up Provo Canyon. :)

T2T5K 2014

Into the Wild

I think I found my new favorite hike! This canyon will be AWESOME in the fall. I lost count of how many waterfalls there were. My most favorite part of the hike is the very last part in the video where we turned around. The view was amazing-the video doesn't do it justice. I just wanted to sit on that cliff edge forever, it felt so good. I can't wait to go back. The best part is that not many people know where it is and I hope it stays that way, so I'm not telling. I will only say it's in Provo. :)

Dinosaurs Alive!

Premium Seating

Paradise

Can You Dig It?

Feel The Fire

Finders Keepers

Chambers of Wonder

The NeverEnding Waterfall

Yeehaw!

To The Limit

The Tube of Death

Here We Go

Twisted

Lost & Found

6:1 Upper Falls

14.9

That's right! I've lost 14.9 pounds since I started my health plan back in March! I feel great! It was a very happy day to fit into some old dress pants that I had from years ago. I have gone down one pants size. I HATE wearing baggy clothes, especially jeans, so it felt good to buy some new jeans. As I expect to keep losing more, I got one cheap pair just so I can feel comfortable again. The baggy jeans were driving me nuts. I'm definitely making progress toward my goal of getting back to my college weight. If I remember right, I have about 10 pounds to go. I've got this!

Do It

Veni Vidi Vici

Rule # 17

Big Springs AKA Butterfly Springs

On My Way

Happy & Free

The Great Escape

Adventure Starts Here

Health Plan- 1 Month

After one month of my health plan, I've lost 10 pounds! I'm sure no one can really tell the difference, but I feel the difference! I am excited to see how much more I can lose. I feel amazing!

Per suggestion of my health plan buddy/landlord who knows things about health and the body, I also started taking a couple supplements- Kelp and Potassium Iodide to see if that would help me with the underlying minor depression and seasonal depression that I've had for many years. It was a test to see if maybe it could be a thyroid issue, which is also related to weight issues. As you know, I've had weight issues all my life, so it was worth a try. I am so grateful so say that it has definitely helped! I can't describe accurately the difference it's made except to say that I feel so much happier. Even on very stressful and exhausting days I now have energy at the end of the day and can easily smile and laugh about everything and not feel that I'm betraying myself in some way. (I think the dark chocolate on those days helps, too, haha.) I don't feel that undercurrent of depression anymore. I didn't realize there was that undercurrent until it was gone. It's pretty amazing.

On top of all this, Spring is finally here and I can begin doing again what I love most-hiking, gardening, and being outdoors.

I feel awesome. :)

Because of Him

Yellow Looks Good

This weekend my ward stayed at a cabin in Heber that's owned by a member in the bishopric. It was awesome! I got to go snowmobiling on Friday night and then three more times today. I hadn't been snowmobiling in 9 years, so it was great! I just sat on the back and hung on for dear life, but on the last run I drove the snowmobile a little. It was less scary than I thought it would be. It was the perfect place to go snowmobiling, too. Huge open space with lots of hills and flat area to do lots of things. The scenery was beautiful. It was fun to hang out with friends in the ward and have little adventures with them. On the last run, the snow was getting really soft, so three of the five snowmobiles got stuck in the snow on a hill that wasn't really that steep. Every time I tried to take a step, my let went down into the snow up to my knee. Of all the trips, I chose that last one to not wear snow boots or snow pants. Awesome. At one point I basically face planted into the snow with all my limbs stuck deep into the snow. I couldn't stop laughing. It took a good 20 minutes or so to get the snowmobiles out and turned around. Not too long after that, a girl in the ward got stuck really good, but fortunately that time two other snowmobilers were there to help her out. I should have been nervous that we were stuck and all, but I had a great time laughing about it even when it was happening, soaked jeans and all. I am so glad we all made it back safe and sound.

On the way back to Provo, once I got cell reception again, I got a voicemail from a police officer. No one likes those messages. Before I heard what it was about, I racked my brain trying to figure out why in the world a Provo police officer would be calling me. My family is in CA and I wasn't in an accident or do anything bad.... I was shocked to hear that my car, which was parked in the church building parking lot, had been vandalized overnight. Of course, I thought the worst. I called the officer back and learned that my car had been hit by graffiti. She kept saying hit, so I had to ask if there was any other damage, but fortunately there wasn't. I was imagining red spray paint scribbles all over my car. There was another car also hit with the graffiti as well as a couple things in the church parking lot.

When I got to the parking lot, this is what I saw.

So, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The other guy's car only had it on two of his windows, not any where on his paint. There is also graffiti on the passenger side of the windshield. The officer told me that she knew of stuff that could take it off, so we went to Home Depot and got it. We then proceeded to spend over an hour getting it off my car. Awesome, right? I am just grateful that it wasn't worse because it really could have been worse. The graffiti came off, but I still filed an insurance claim just in case it really did damage the paint job.

I think my car has taken enough abuse for one week, what do you think?

Upper and Lower Calf Creek Falls

Once upon a time I was driving down a highway when all of a sudden I saw a turkey cross the road. Fortunately for him, I saw him, otherwise he may have became my supper. He was a really handsome turkey, but I have no idea what he was thinking in that little bird brain of his when he crossed the road.

Hours passed, trails were hiked, and I was once again driving down the two-lane highway when all of a sudden I see a large herd (20 +) of Elk standing in both lanes of the highway. I immediately thought of the movie "Leap Year" and wondered if we'd have to get out and push them away somehow. Elk are much different from cows though. As I slowly drove closer they all got out of the road and went down the hill.

Shortly after nightfall, we were merrily making our way down the highway when a rabbit ran across the road. It only took me a split second to realize that there was no point in trying to avoid him. He was a goner. And so it was. The rabbit met his demise by the speeding (60-70 mph) grey mass. He probably saw my bright lights from the side of the road and said, "Sweet, I can see the other side of the road now! Run for it!" He didn't even know what hit him. He hit the front lower left of the car and proceeded to go under the car for a little ways.

I hardly had a chance to recover before one of Mr. Rabbit's friends had the same bright idea. He was a lot quicker though and thus escaped his potential fate. Now, because Mr. Rabbit's friend made it across, another one of Mr. Rabbit's friends decided to do the same thing. It was his lucky day! I bet they both had a party on the other side of the road. Good for them.

About 15-20 minutes later, out of no where I saw a deer standing in the next lane. In the 2 seconds it took to come up to him and pass him, I silently pleaded with him to stay right where he was-DON'T MOVE, DON'T MOVE! If he'd ran into my lane, I think I would have been a goner! I hope he got out of the road before the cars coming his way came, for their sake and his. For the next several miles I hallucinated deers running across the road, but fortunately that never actually happened.

This morning I checked my car to see what damage Mr. Rabbit may have caused to my car. How much damage can a little bunny do?

It's impossible to really see in the picture, but there were little bunny hairs in that dent and on different parts of the bottom of my car where it hit. One of my first thoughts after hitting the rabbit and after seeing the damage was, "My brother is going to kill me." He'd die if this happened to his car. It just makes me laugh to look at it. I will never forget this adventure with that kind of reminder. It makes me smile every time. I am incredibly grateful for whatever angels were watching over me to prevent that deer from moving or being in my lane for that matter. Seriously. That would have been much worse.

Upper and Lower Calf Creek Falls are just outside Boulder, UT, which is about 4.5 hours from Provo. Three friends and I left early in the morning to be sure to do both hikes. The first hike we did was to Upper Calf Creek Falls. This one was rocky and had a steep decline at the beginning, which made for a more difficult return trip, but overall I really enjoyed it. My favorite part of this hike were the views of the area and all the possible places to explore. I kind of wish I'd explored more, but I knew we had the second hike to do still and I wanted time for that. Both the top and the bottom of the falls had pools of water that were really pretty. At the top, we took off our shoes and relaxed for a bit. It was exactly what I needed during this spring break! Hiking and sitting close to waterfalls just soothes my soul. I love it.

Bottom of Upper Calf Creek Falls

Top of Upper Calf Creek Falls

The hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls was 3 miles one way on a very sandy trail. It was like walking in beach sand, imagine that. So much sand in our shoes!! The red rock cliffs on either side of the trail were beautiful! That was probably what I liked the most about this trail. The trail wasn't marked as clearly at one point, so we went the wrong way for a little bit. Actually, it's more like we weren't looking and we missed the sign that said which way to go. :) There were lots of places to explore along this trail that were very tempting, so next time I go I want to check those out. There were markers along the way with numbers which corresponded with a trail guide we had, but we had fun making up our own interpretations instead. We saw a cool Indian pictograph on the wall, too!

Indian Pictograph- Three Warriors

Lower Calf Creek Falls

Lower Calf Creek Falls

Whitney, Jared, Lela, Michelle

This was the best way to start the hiking season! I am hoping to do a few more trips down south this summer in addition to the hikes I do around here. Only 39 days until summer begins!!

The Feline Fiend

Movie I made with friends in my singles ward for our ward's Fundance Film Festival. It won for Best Visual Effects.  My 7 1/2 hours of editing paid off!! The theme was "It was an ordinary day until..." We had to hide Where's Waldo somewhere in the movie, so try to find him!

For My Next 30 Years

About a week ago, my landlord approached me to ask if I would be interested and willing to do something for her. She told me that she is going to Hawaii in 6 weeks and wants to lose a little weight before then. She knows that if she is going to do any sort of diet, she needs support or someone to motivate her. She wrote up the "Health Plan" and we met to talk about it. Now, you have to know, I'm not really a big fan of "diets."

A little bit of background on me. When I was 12, I weighed over 200 lbs and ate as much as my older brothers and very unhealthy. In junior high, I joined the high school water polo summer league with my brothers and my best girl friends. In addition to the exercise, I started REALLY limiting what I was eating. I look back and know that my "diet" wasn't healthy at all. You should never say you can only eat 7 things all day, including drinks.  Fortunately, that didn't last long. When I was in high school, I still limited what I ate and I ate a little healthier, but I was depriving myself more than anything. I was a stickler to not ever eating any sweets or junk food. Even though I stopped doing water polo and swim after my sophomore year, I continued to go jogging sometimes, but I don't think it was very often. I think the lowest I weighed was 140 lbs and you can ask my brother Steven, I looked like skin and bones. I look back at my senior prom pictures and I was skinny, but I look... unnatural. According to the BMI index, I was healthy and within range, etc, but if you looked at me, that was another story. The funny thing is that I didn't take advantage of my thinness. I still wore baggy, guy clothes. Man, I wish I hadn't done that! The other funny thing is that I still FELT big and fat. I was still "bigger" than my cohorts. I honestly think that it is the Swedish/Norwegian in me. I'm just... bigger boned or something. I don't know.

My parents supported me in college, so I was able to eat fairly healthy, unlike many college students. I finally started wearing girl clothes that fit better, thanks to my one of my first roommates at BYU. Boy, was that out of my comfort zone! However, I gained some weight, of course. I'm not sure when it started, but I eventually started going running and riding a bike when it was warm. I also discovered that I REALLY LOVE hiking, especially to waterfalls, so I started doing that. A roommate started counting calories and I did that for a while, but I HATE counting calories. It stresses me out. When I graduated college, I think I weighed about 185-190 lbs. I look my graduation pictures and others taken around that time and OH MY GOODNESS! I definitely didn't feel thin, but I was! I looked good! I didn't look like a walking skeleton! By medical standards, I would have still be considered overweight by BMI, but I was at the PERFECT WEIGHT for ME. What happened since then might you ask? Well, real life happened. Stress happened. I have a terrible sweet tooth and a terrible habit of stress eating. I gained the most weight when I lived with my grandma for a number of reasons that I won't go into in this post. What's funny is that when I did the Nauvoo Pageant the first time, I hadn't gained that much weight from the stress yet and so I looked alright. But even so, they didn't have a costume in my size and I had to wear an over-sized one. No wonder I thought I was so fat! Before weighing myself for this "Health Plan" I hadn't stepped on a scale in at least 3 years because I knew I wouldn't like it. It would depress me and begin the cycle of stress eating, etc. Yeah, it's bad.

So, I did step on the scale again, and no, I didn't like what I saw. But instead of depressing me, it gave me motivation. I like that we are calling this a "Health Plan" because I want to form life long habits from this. This isn't a diet, it's a change. I want to practice the principles in this Plan for the rest of my life if I can. What is my goal? Since this is a long-term thing, my goal is to lose a pound a week. Ultimately, I'd like to be back to 185-190 lbs and see if that is still the perfect weight for me and then try to maintain it. I will have days "off" of the Plan to begin with, but I think that eventually I will find some middle ground that works best for me to maintain the healthy lifestyle throughout my life.

Thanks to my landlord, I've discovered some guilt-free chocolate bars that I can eat when I'm really craving something sweet. Mostly that's at work, otherwise the temptation is usually ice cream. I will take days off to have that! I'm very excited to adapt recipes I know to fit the Plan and learn some new recipes. Once work is over, that will be much easier. For now, at work I'm eating only part of the lunch that's served (I get lunch twice) or I've started bringing a protein bar or something else from home to quickly eat between classes. When work is over, I will have a lot more options as to what I can eat when I get home from work. As it is, I'm eating salads for dinner. Every time I eat a salad, I hear my dad's voice in my head saying that I am eating rabbit food. I've found some really awesome tasty salad dressings and things I can add to salads so they aren't bland or boring. I'm actually starting to like eating vegetables and salads! That's a miracle! Number three is the hardest for me and I learned this week that getting enough protein is actually kind of hard for me, too.

Here is the Health Plan. There a few things that I'm not strictly following, so I guess you can say I'm doing the "moderate" version of the Plan.

Health Plan

1. Three quarts (96 oz) of water per day-No juice, soda, or sugary drinks.

2. Include at least one good serving of fresh or steamed veggies per meal- five servings per day and at least one salad per day (large salad counts for 2 servings). Iceberg lettuce does not count toward the five servings of veggies.

3. No more than one serving of fruit per day. (One serving= one whole fruit)

4. No more than one serving of complex carbohydrate per meal- preferably 2 to 3 servings per day. No refined flours or sugars. Only one piece of bread or toast per day of the hearty whole grain variety. (eg. Multigrain or 100% whole wheat, brown rice)

5. Don't eat after dinner-one or two nights per week can have a smoothie after 6.

6. Eat one serving of healthy protein per meal- fish, chicken, eggs and legumes (lean red meat or pork no more than one time per week). Eat protein three to five times per day. Raw nuts and almond butter are good. Avoid whey protein.

7. No more than one serving of dairy per day (this does not include eggs or yogurt (low-sugar, plain)). Use almond milk. Avoid soy.

8. Exercise four to six times per week- Each must include 20 to 30 minutes with heart rate in the fat burning zone (not above or below). Five to ten minutes of stretching after.

9. Use essential oils at least one time per day at night (up to three times per day).

10. May eat a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack. Must include at least half veggies.

11. Use dairy based condiments, ketchup, and salt sparingly. When a few dairy based condiments in a day are used it can add up to your one serving of dairy. (eg. Use dairy as an accent: sprinkle cheese on salads, eggs, etc.) Use vinegarette or other non-dairy dressings.

We'll see how this all goes!! Wish me luck!

Sister Amanda Kelly's in the MTC!

I had the great blessing to go home to CA and spend the weekend with my family and my sister Amanda before she entered the MTC yesterday. Here is the video. I will post about the adventures we had this past weekend soon.

New Year

These past few weeks have been busy at work with doing developmental assessments on all 30 of my preschool kids. We finished on Friday, which is awesome.Work is challenging me in many different ways, but I know it's preparing me to be one of the most awesome moms ever. I'm always learning new things and I have great moments with the kids that I will always cherish. I can't wait to have kids of my own!

Since the new year, I've started doing 15 minutes of exercise in the morning before work. I found a really awesome routine on Pinterest. It means I have to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, but I've been doing it! It helps that I don't have much a social life. ;) I feel more energized during the day and it feels great! I hope to keep it up. It is helping me with stress relief, too. :)

Right before work started up again, I went snowshoeing with my friend Tyler. It was awesome! I'd never been snowshoeing before and now I can't wait to go again!

At then end of the year, I was released from being in the RS presidency and now I am on the family history committee. I'm glad to be back into family history. I'm planning to help a couple people in the ward get started on family history as well as continue working on my own. In fact, tomorrow I have work off, so I'm going up to Salt Lake to meet with a distant cousin about a family I researched a lot this summer. Many little miracles led me to finding this LDS cousin, so I'm excited to share my information with him.

This coming week I'm auditioning for the Nauvoo Pageant core cast. I am very excited! For the past two summers I wasn't able to be a part of it, but this year I felt good about applying for family cast and auditioning for core cast. I auditioned a couple of years ago, so I know a little of what to expect, which helps a lot. I have to sing a song and with others act out a simple scene, usually just saying one line. I've been thinking a lot about it and really hope that I somehow will be a part of it this summer. I would be a missionary again! I was reading in Preach My Gospel under "My Purpose" and it made me have a greater desire to have this opportunity to serve and take part in the hastening of the work in a different way. I can't put my feelings into words, but I know that the Lord is preparing me for the audition and I pray that I will be humble enough to accept His will, even if it is that I do not participate in the pageant this summer.

The thing I've thought about the most is how being a part of the core cast of the pageant isn't about the position, but about humility. It's about being a light to others, sharing the gospel through example and testimony and who I am as a person. It will require relying heavily on the Lord for the strength to do all that is required of me, especially with lack of sleep and the excessive heat I would experience. Not to mention having to learn lines and act and sing on stage!! I had to work VERY hard to do the ward roadshow last year, so I know for this I would have to work 200% harder. I know that for this though, I would have even more of the Lord's help and support and miracles would happen. It's just like a mission, but the language and mode of teaching is different. I hope to find out if I am in the core cast sooner than later so I can make goals/plans of the summer to be excited about. I also applied for the family cast, which if I don't get into the core cast, but do get into the family cast, I will have to figure out how I will pay for everything. I know miracles will happen there, too. I also know that the Lord will inspire the committee to know if I am to be involved in anything of the pageant this year. I just have to trust that the Lord will do what's best for me.