Anthropology Museum

Here are about a million pics from the Anthropology Museum

Thankfulness Blog

Alright JoLynn, I am taking you up on your Challenge. But first, I finished the book of Mormon last night and took the challenge found in the last chapter, I asked God if it was true, and nothing happened. Then, today at church it was stake conference, and while we were giving our support to The prophet and other church leaders, I got goosebumps, I knew this church is the true church and I knew that the Book of Mormon is true, and it was an amazing feeling, because having felt it, I knew that I already knew all of this. It was a really great experience for me.
Now, on to my thankfulness, I also composed this list during church today, it just kept growing so here goes:

Things I am thankful for
My family
My friends
Holidays
Good food
Bookstores (especially those with coffee shops, that is like my all time favorite smell, books, and coffee combined.)
Consistency
Maritza
My extended family
My dogs
The knowledge that you should hate the sin but love the person committing it
Museums (all kinds, art, history, everything)
Trees
Mountains
Camping
Christmas (particularly this year)
Eyes
Shoes (I love shoes! But I don't actually love wearing them)
Fruit
Strong Values
My quilt
School
Good talks
Curling up to a book
Swimming
Baking cookies
A body that usually works pretty dang well
The internet
Stars
My Testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The holy ghost
Missionaries
The smell of rain
The color green, and all other colors for that matter
Homemade anything
Tammy and John McNaughton
Advent Calendars
My past Young Women's leaders
Taking random trips
Free time
Knowledge
Flowers
The temple
English
Jackets
"My" Young Women
Sundays
Movies
Sleepovers
Denny's runs
The priesthood
Animals
General Conference
People who love me
Chocolate
Target
Panda Express
Email
Pie
Hard things that happen, but always end
Hand holding
Having a voice
Freedom
My salsa class
cereal
Kisses hello on the cheek
An open mind
Freedom from addiction
Burt's bees
prayer
Faith
America
Cheesecake
You've got Mail
Fast Sunday
Priesthood Blessings (I really miss those)
Good Examples
My Spanish class
Getting packages
Bread (possibly my favorite food out of everything)
The Prophet
Diversity
Truth
Snow
Music
Hot Chocolate
Having people to talk to
And I am sure this list is too long already, so I will stop, but there is so much more to be thankful for. Being here in Mexico has made that even more obvious to me. It turns out though, that being a nanny is harder than it seemed. That there are days when I just want to go home, and I wonder if I really made the right choice. And that makes things difficult, but I am experiencing a new culture and learning a language, and I am safe, so I have a lot to be thankful for.

Phew, it's been awhile

I feel like it has been a really long time since I have last written, so I am now finally composing my blog post. Life is interesting. I made this decision to become a nanny and I was so excited to come, I could hardly wait, and now, I am going home for Christmas in 36 days and I am at least as excited if not more. What can I say, being a nanny is hard, I need people.
It is almost Christmas and I am so excited. I love Christmas and have loved it forever. In the past I have tried to claim that Halloween was my favorite holiday, but it is not. Christmas wins. I believed in Santa Clause for an especially long time, this fact should probably embarrass me, and in the past it did, but I love the idea of Santa and I wanted to hold on to it for as long as possible. I am usually a very logical and especially literal person, but when it came to Santa, I made all kinds of ideas and theories to support his existence. I had friends who didn't believe, who even helped their parents play Santa and still I held on. Convincing myself that Santa just stops coming when you stop believing, it made sense to me. I suppose I just liked the idea that someone who I had never met cared enough about me to try to make my Christmas special. And yeah, at 13 I finally gave in to the idea that maybe Santa is more of an idea than an actual person. It was sort of crushing, I had been hiding the truth from myself forever, I really just wanted to believe. Even now, I cannot sleep on Christmas eve, I maybe get 2 hours in before I am bounding up the stairs to check out my stocking with my brothers, who, came to grips with the truth at younger ages than I.
I love buying Christmas presents, and making cookies, and singing carols while drinking hot chocolate. I love how happy everyone seems to be, and how there is an emphasis on kindness. I love Christmas movies and Christmas traditions, I love the tree and the lights everywhere. I love the snow, and I love that it gets cold so you can sit at a window with hot chocolate and read a book with a blanket. I love Christmas, and I know this is far to early and that I am breaking like a million rules by blogging about Christmas before thanksgiving, but I feel compelled.
Now, you are probably thinking, what a nerd! And it is totally true, I embrace my nerdiness. But I thought I would give you an update on my thoughts and since this is currently what I am thinking about, you get to hear it, if you choose to read my blog. I also included some pictures of Halloween and a couple of others. I miss you all, and will try to be a little more consistent with my blogging.