For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

With a full heart this Thanksgiving for the many blessings of the year, for a Heavenly Father who answers our prayers, for a best friend I get to spend my life with, and for friends and family who are always just a phone call (or snapchat) away; I am especially thankful this year that we have a season dedicated to being grateful for all the things in our lives that make it the experience that it is.

My dad sent me the video above a few days ago, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Wishing you all a very, merry and happy Thanksgiving!

seriously the happiest place on earth.

Somehow I managed to convince my parents a few weeks ago that our family was in desperate need of a trip back to Disneyland (although lets be honest, when it comes to Disneyland they never need too much convincing :) And I know I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again and again: Disneyland is the happiest-est place on earth. And when you add the holidays and twinkle lights and the smell of peppermint on Main Street, USA? Well, my heart explodes.

Above are just a few of the photos I snapped on my phone, but I think I took about a thousand. My all-time favorites still include: Peter Pan, Splash Mountain, and all of New Orleans Square. New highlights had to be Aladdin the Musical, watching the holiday firework show from a boat (!!!) on Storybook Canal, and the twinkle light fireworks above our own beds at the hotel! Who comes up with these things??

Until next time, I'll be missing every single last bit of it.

ps. especially excited to see this movie now!

pss. download this app next time you're visiting. time/live saver. 

espérer designs

My sister recently started a small jewelry business (for those of you who don't already read her blog, you can find it here) and I must say I am one proud big sister. She has sure been through a lot over the last 18 months, which certainly hasn't been easy for her, or for any of us to watch who love her so much. With that being said, she has grown tremendously and has come such a long way, inspiring many people while doing so, including me. I love her so much.

If interested, you can check out her jewelry website here: www.espererdesigns.com
Or you can read the Deseret News series on LDS bloggers, which features her personal story and blog here.

mortgages, medical school, and life i guess

As Max grows closer to taking the MCAT, more and more of our conversations are centered on "the future" and everything that means: medical school, beginning a family, all the places we want to go. As daunting as it sometimes feels (I swear I still don't feel grown up enough to pay for a mortgage), I do get more and more excited about all of the possibilities, raising children (even teenagers), packing our life up, starting a life somewhere else, etc etc, and getting to do all of it with Max.

Before we were married, I think I made Max promise me at least 27 times that there was no way we'd stay here in Utah for forever. And I love Utah. I grew up here. Most of our friends and family live within an hour of us, which I've been so thankful for. Plus: Fall. Utah in the fall is so gorgeous. But I guess a part of me (a huge part admittedly) has always wanted to leave too.

And kids! Gosh. When did this start? I think I maybe babysat twice as a teenager, and although I know I thought about having kids, I really can't say I thought about it a lot. If it weren't for our sweet sunbeams who we get to see every Sunday, and my new little friend Erin who sits on my lap and looks back at me with raised eyebrows every time she answers a question waiting for my approval (it really stops my heart) I don't know if I'd think about it as much as I do now. But I do. I can't wait to have a little girl who I can read to at night, or a teenage son I can help get ready for school dances. THIS IS SO WEIRD. Mainly because these thoughts feel so new, but so exciting.

And my personal goals. Which sometimes I don't write about as much online because I think, what if it doesn't work out? What if my essays aren't published? What if my books don't go through? It makes me nervous.

And then, of course, there's housing to consider, living costs, job opportunities, saving our money/investing our money, good schools, residency, etc etc and the possibility of one day ideally living in Sydney, Boston, Southern California, Devonport (one can dream?). And I know I might romanticize certain places or people or living a life with a future family somewhere exotic, but I also refuse to forget what my favorite professor(/mentor/person/hero) would always say, "remain tremendously idealistic about the life ahead of you" - mortgages and all.

november, november

I can't believe it's already November. This summer seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago all at the same time! I can't complain, though, this fall has been good to us. I had a to-do list on the calendar of all the fun things I wanted to try, and we nearly crossed off every single one by the end of October! Now that it's November, I've placed a new to-do list on the fridge and after listing all the things I am hoping to fit in, I announced to Max that November has got to be one of my favorite months of the year: the occasional Christmas song on the radio, or the Hershey kisses commercial starting to play on TV (I don't know why I have always loved that commercial so much), plus pumpkin pie/chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin spiced hot chocolate -- Thanksgiving day has to be tied with Christmas Eve in my book. And this year especially, I'm really hoping to add a few new traditions to the holiday.

This weekend, though, I've really been counting down the minutes for. Max surprised me with tickets to see the Utah Symphony's performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I might have mentioned it in a post before, but I can't think of many other songs I love as much as Vivaldi's Winter. My dad tried raising me and my little sister on classical music, which honestly, we mostly complained about at the time. My dad would take us to the store every time we wanted to buy a CD like the Backstreet Boys or B*Witched (does anybody remember them??) and would always make us pick out a Beethoven or Bach CD to go along with it. I usually just picked a name or composer I was familiar with, and only listened to it when my dad asked me to, but there were two single classical exceptions that I loved as much as anything else: Pachelbel's Cannon in D and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It still makes me wish I was a concert violinist whenever I hear these songs, they are so, so pretty. Nowadays, I find myself listening to "Classical 89" and (sigh) talk radio more than I do other stations because everything else is starting to sound the same (and I am starting to sound way too much like my parents!) but any excuse to dress up for a night and pretend we're fancy is a-okay with me!

Anyway, this post is getting lengthy but all I really just wanted to say is that November is great as long it's not election year (lets not talk about Obamacare ever) and I hope the month is as special for you as it is to me. Now if only there was a way to keep all the red and golden leaves on the trees for just a few weeks longer?

b.y.o.f.

Halloween this year was a successful night of mystery and murder. Although I've been to several of these mystery dinner parties before, this was by far a favorite. We sent out invitations with only one request: b.y.o.f. (bring your own flashlight) and after dinner, we turned out the lights and slowly pieced together the clues which ultimately revealed Mr. Lewis as the murderer, and the rest of us as one pretty sketchy group of friends at our class of '54 reunion. I loved it so much I think I might just add this activity onto a Halloween tradition list. I have also officially come to the conclusion that the tradition of watching Halloween movie marathons on TV has got to go. Michael Myers never dies and that drives me crazy.