This Tale is Over

Well I have some very exciting news.... my Tale from Fleur de Lis has ended and now a new Tale has begun. Dan and I got engaged April 20th and I am just sooooo excited. One of the first things Dan and I actully talked about was getting a new blog going that the two of us can write hahaha so you can continue to follow what I am up to along with my handsome fiance at :

laurenanddan.blogspot.com

You Spin Me Round!

A couple FHEs ago, we learned how to salsa dance! Here are some pictures my roommate anna took!

And now im sure you want a killer song to stand up and dance too... here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJv5qLsLYoo

Dr. Vuttski is in da house!!!

I am just ecstatic about starting dental hygiene school! I have spent the last two weeks getting everything all ready to go. finally everything this week that i have ordered online has come! actually that reminds me... i still need to order my shoes.... but aside from that, i have my clear protective classes, my stethoscope, my white lab coat, my scrubs... it's all coming together!

I took a quick picture:

just a few more days! may 8th is coming soon!

Stories that make me laugh

I really love this picture of us! It was back when we first started dating and I got an eye infection. Dan skipped class to drive me to the eye doctor, that's when I knew he was a keeper! This picture was taken at our ward's chili break the fast.

Here are some funny little stories (well funny to me) about Dan.

A few days ago we went hat shopping. Dan wanted to get a Seattle Mariners hat. We drove down to the Provo mall and he tried on all the different sizes trying to find the right fit for him. Dan was struggling with the fractions and kept asking me which one was bigger until finally I had to dumb it down and put it into something he could understand (that's what you get with a poly sci major lol). He asks me "which one is bigger, 7 and 5/8s or 3/4s?" and i responded saying "now dan, which would you rather? have 5 out of 8 pieces of pizza or 6 out of 8?". We both laughed and at least now he knows his fractions a little bit better!

My second funny story. We had driven somewhere in my car and I had dan drive for me.We'd driven for a good 10 minutes and were about to get on the ramp to the interstate when dan realized my e-break was still on lol. He felt bad but I couldn't help but laugh.

My third funny story makes me laugh every time. We were at Target getting him a Bocci ball set and before checking out, we walked over to the girls sundresses to take a peak at what they had. As I was looking, he saw some really short shorts and said to me "wow, those shorts are so short!". An older woman was standing right next to us and she agreed saying, "yah, you'd need a brazilian to wear those". All three of us laughed and the lady walked away. Dan turned to me, still chuckling and said "that was really funny, but kinda racist."
"Racist??" i said, really confused.
"yah, cause brazilians usually wear short clothes"
After he said that, I died laughin.

My apartment door here at Fleur de Lis will fly open with a simple push if it isn't locked. Even if there is a gust of wind, our door will fly open. One night Dan and I were saying good night outside my front door and dan picked me up to spin me around. we lost our balance so he leaned back to catch his balance against my door, but the door wasn't locked and we just about fell right through!

One time Dan walked me out to my car to say good night. After he left, I got in my car, locked the doors and turned it on when suddenly this figure reappeared in my window! Super startled, I gave out a little yelp (and a little piddle) only to realize it was dan coming back to say good night again. We both burst out into laughter because he had scared me so badly.

Everything Going Back to Normal

It's been a weird week without a computer! But yesterday my charger came in the mail (it was only $2.75! WAYYYYYYYY better than the $100 chargers the guys at Office Max and Radio Shack were quoting me!).
In addition to getting my computer back, I got my little car back today. Jana's friend backed into her so it was in the shop for a day. Yesterday was chaos trying to find a ride to Salt Lake for my CPR class. I tried so hard to not let the stress get to me!! I was a little behind schedule so I was relieved when I pulled up to my class. Except one thing was wrong... the door was locked. I walked around the building, trying all the doors, and ya... i was locked out. So I glanced down at my directions and I had mixed up my East and South's mixed up! Another blonde moment to add to my list. But I ended up only being a few minutes late.
So im certified, immunized, and now i need to get beautified (i need a haircut and my eyebrows done lol)

Fainting.

To begin... my laptop charger died to I haven't been able to get on my computer. It's been weird not having a laptop!! And weird not getting to blog. Anyways, here are some things that have happened here at fleur de lis!

I have been trying to get all my things together for Dental Hygiene School. I met with my financial advisor, signed up for my first loan ever (ouchhh) and have been spending money left and right to get everything in order. White lab coat with my name on it, $75. My own stethoscope, $50 (on sale). Three sets of scrubs, $70. CPR class, $40. TB test and Hep A shots, $55. Cost of getting accepted, PRICELESS!!

Yesterday I woke up early to head over to the walk-in Health Clinic. As the nurse was walking me into the back room, I told her I was nervous and she told me to just relax (easy advice). She gave me my two shots and then walked me out to the waiting area. She asked me if I was okay and I lied saying 'yes' and she told me to call her if I started to feel sick to let her know before she walked off. I called her back quick, I felt like I needed to throw up. Next thing I know, I am waking up in her arms. I was so embarrassed it was hard to fight off the tears. The nurse was so nice and felt bad and ended up giving me half her lunch! Her apple juice, sunflower seeds, a chocolate muffin... I was so grateful and couldn't help but laugh at myself. My pain tolerance is pretty poor and my sister and I will faint pretty easily.
Jana faints every time she has to get her eyes dilated at the eye doctor.
Here is a funny story about Jana. Back when I was in 5th grade, Jana was in 3rd, we got our ears pierced. After a few weeks, my mom told us that we could take our earrings out and sleep without them in. We did. The next morning I woke up to Nate running down the hallway outside my door yelling "Jana's dead! Jana's dead!" I flew out of bed and ran down the hall to Jana's room. She passed out in her chair and my mom was calling her name. What had happened was the hole in her ear had closed a little bit and my mom told her she needed to re-pierce it. I guess that freaked jana out and she passed out! lol
Again, our pain tolerance is pretty poor!!

Yesterday Dan and I had such a fun double date. We met up with the Barnes and went rock climbing and then got ice-cream at Spoon Me. Let me say that rock climbing is hard but it is such a rush. We did some free climbing and the adrenaline that pumped through me as I jumped down from the top was amazing. I did realize that my upper body strength has gotten pretty pathetic. Dan was an awesome teacher (and catcher.. he caught me every time I fell!) I was impressed at Caitlin's skills and Billy was a first timer like me so that made it fun and low key.

Awesome Week with the Fam

It has been such an awesome week having my parents in town. They flew in tuesday night and my sister and I had the change to drive down to Lehi and meet up with them and my uncle and his family who were visiting from japan! Wednesday I got to meet up with my family on campus and have lunch followed by a fun evening and getting to watch modern family.
Thursday I took a test and did well on it, then met up with my mom, jan, and dan for some dinner at zuppas.
Friday was AWESOME. I got to go boarding with the boys and we had such a blast. It was 65 degrees at the base of the mountain and yet the snow was perfect.  It was so hot that I was wishing I had just worn a sweatshirt. I really feel like I finally have gotten a grasp on the concept of boarding too and again, I have mountain fever... just dying to get back up on the slopes.
Saturday we watched conference and in between sessions I got to eat at Tucano's. It was delish as always. Dan and I have kind of made it our tradition to go in between saturday's sessions. To think that back in October we went and two days before we did that was our first date at Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point. It's crazy! Saturday night i got to spend time with my sister and mom and some family friends and we ate at Macaroni Grill (I am so full.. i haven't eaten this much in so long). I spent the night with my sister up in Lehi.
Sunday Dan met up with my family in Lehi and I woke up with an infected eye. It was blood shot and soo painful to see out of. I had to wear my sunglasses and felt like a dork with them on inside. We all got to watch conference together and eat the delicious food my mom prepared.
It's been a fun week, that is for sure. Now time to crack down and study for my anatomy lab midterm.

What do your possessions says about you?

Today marked the end of the 181st Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What a treat it was to be able to sit down and listen to all the messages our church leaders had prepared for us, and what made it even better was the chance to get to listen to it with my family! What a fun week & weekend it has been. (more to blog on that later!)
I've really enjoyed sitting down tonight to read over my notes and decipher my chicken scratch handwriting
One thought I wanted blog about a little bit tonight was the talk given Saturday morning by Elder Quentin L. Cook.
He talked about a girl that had left her purse after a church dance. Of course the youth leaders wanted to return it, they said:
"we didn't want to pry, this was someones personal stuff, so we gingerly opened it and grabbed the first thing on top to identify her. It did, but in a different way."
The first thing they pulled out was a strength of youth pamphlet, followed by a notepad of personal notes and favorite scriptures, mints, soap, a brush, a homemade coin purse, a recipe for cake, then finally her ID. Her church leaders said "oh good things come out of her mouth, she's clean, and tidy, creative and prepared"
She was a quiet example of a young lady living the gospel.
I was reading through my notes on this talk and I had written down, "what do my possessions say about me?". If someone found my purse, looked in my car, glanced in my room, or saw what I was wearing.... would I be giving off a quiet example of a person living the gospel? Elder Uchtodorf said this morning "Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words". My youth leaders back in high school would always tell us that we are always being watched by our peers. And boy wasn't that the truth. I loved the high school I went to because it literally gave me the opportunity to speak with someone about the gospel at least once a week.
Now that I am in college, I do not necessarily have as many verbal opportunities, but I do have the opportunity to be a quiet example to those around me.
Wouldn't it be amazing for someone to find something of ours and be able to say "wow, this person is a quiet example of someone living the gospel"?
Another goal to add to my list! Which just reminded me of another talk given today by Elder Lynn Robbins. He talked about how we make lists of 'to do' to remind us of what we want to accomplish but not very often we make lists of 'to be'. Why??

'to do' can be checked off, 'to be' can never be done, it is not an event, it's something to always be working toward. I am putting 'become a quiet example of someone living the gospel' onto my 'to be' list!

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

"With great power comes great responsibility"This morning in my scripture study, I was reading when Alma warns the people of Ammonihah that they  need to repent or else God will "utterly destroy [them] from off the face of the earth; yea and visit [them] in his anger" (Alma 9:12). Alma also explains to them that even though the Lamanites were a wicked people at that same time, the Lord would look more favorably upon the Lamanites than upon the people of Ammonihah on the day of judgement because the Lamanites were following incorrect traditions that had been handed down to them, whereas the people of Ammonihah knew better. The people of Ammonihah were a "highly favored people of the Lord... above every other nation, kindred, tongue or people" (Alma 9:20)Now it's kinda cheesy but when I read this I thought about the movie Spiderman, when Uncle Ben is in the car talking to Peter and tells him "these are the years when a man changes into the man he is going to become for the rest of his life; just be careful who you change into" and then he later says "with great power comes great responsibility". It is true that this average boy, Peter Parker, ends up getting bit by a spider that turns him  into Spiderman and now he suddenly is blessed with all this power; along with that, he has responsibility to protect not only himself, but others as well. His uncle so lovingly tries to tell him and warn him and yet Peter gets defensive and leaves upset. Are there times in our lives where our parents, or teachers, or church leaders have given loving counsel and yet we get upset of by it? I know I have a few times in my life. What does that say about our character when we do that? Food for thought. We need to realize that they are doing it out of love, just like Alma when he is speaking to these people. Alma wants them to succeed and he knows that they have been given such power because they know right from wrong and because of that, they have great responsibility to live righteously.
D&C 82:3 "unto whom much is given much is required".... at times it can feel like the demands placed upon us seem heavy and almost too much to bear, but Sister Sheri Dew said "shouldn't we expect the journey towards eternal glory to stretch us? ...The Lord's standard of behavior will always be more demanding than the world's, but then the Lord's rewards are infinitely more glorious-including true joy, peace and salvation" ("We Are Women of God", 1999)As we continue to go on with our lives, we need to remember that we have a lot of responsibility put on us because of the amazing power the Lord has given us.

Come Ye Out from the Wicked

Today I was reading in Alma in the Book of Mormon and there was a verse that stood out to me...
Alma 5:57:
And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things;

Elder David R Stone of the Seventy gave the talk Zion in the Middle of Babylon which talked about the construction of the Manhattan New York Temple and how it provided an example of how to remove oneself from the influence of the world.

"Too many of the people of the world have come to resemble the Babylon of old by walking in their own ways and following a god 'whose image is in the likeness of the world' [D&C 1:16].

"One of the greatest challenges we will face is to be able to live in that world but somehow not be of the world. We have to create Zion in the midst of Babylon...

"My involvment with the building of the Manhattan Temple gave me the opportunity to be in the temple quite often prior to the dedication. It was wonderful to sit in the celestial room and be there in perfect silence, without a single sound to be heard coming from the busy New York streets outside. How was it possible that the temple could be so reverently silent when the hustle and bustle of the metropolis was just a few feet away?

"The answer was in the constuction of the temple. The temple was bulit within the walls of an existing building, and the inner walls of the temple were connected to the outer walls at only a very fewjunction points. That is how the temple (Zion) limited the effects of Babylon, or the world outside.
"There may be a lesson here for us. We can create the real Zion among us by limiting the extent to which Babylon will influence our lives...
"Wherever we are, whatever city we may live in, we can build our own Zion by the principles of the celestial kingdom and ever seek to become the pure in heart...
"We do not need to become as puppets in the hands of the culture of the place and time. We can be courageous and can walk in the Lord's path and follow His footsteps" (General Conference 2006)

The Manhattan temple is one of my favorite temples. I love how it is right in the middle of New York City, right amongst the hustle and bustle. The temple is so small that when we would go do temple trips, we couldn't go down with the entire youth, just a small group would go. 

I love this picture. It shows all the craziness going on downtown, cars driving, traffic starting to build up, but once you get inside those Temple walls, it really is peaceful. I really enjoyed how Elder Stone uses the Manhattan Temple as an example of 'coming out from the wicked' because you really are removing yourself from wicked when you enter.
I love the 2002 youth theme- Stand Ye in Holy Places which comes from D&C 87:8. I remember this theme really well, maybe because it was when I was a little baby beehive, or maybe because it is very short and powerful. Stand Ye in Holy Places. A simple commandment with such a great reward attached if we follow it. If we can 'come out from the wicked' and 'stand in holy places', Satan will have much less control over us and we will be so much closer to the Lord.

Alma 5:57: And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things;

One thing I want to do in my life is to follow this scripture, to really separate myself from wicked by avoiding R rated movies and inappropriate music, to not gossip or talk about people behind their backs, and avoiding slothfulness. I know by doing so, I am showing the Lord that I am desirous to follow him and he will bless me because of my obedience.

Here are some more beautiful pictures of the Manhattan temple:

Love this picture.

I downloaded Picasa from Google. It is a free photo editor so I used it to brightened up the pictures that I took with my iphone the other day... im so proud at how this one turned out!

Fifteen Minutes.

I always stress and complain to myself that I just do not have enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to get done. I just have this never ending growing list of things I need to do/improve on that it can really be overwhelming sometimes! I really want to devote at least a half hour of time each morning to quality scripture time and not have that little thought in the back of my mind saying you have this and this and this and this and this to do today. But if I really sit down and break it down, I have tons of time to do everything I need to do, and most things just take fifteen minutes. Here's a list of things I need to do each morning that should only take me fifteen minutes:

• go for a mile and a half run
• stretch and do my 8 minute abs
• shower/brush teeth/wash face
• blow dry hair
• style hair & do make-up
• cook a meal
• eat and make a list of goals for that day
• walk to school

total:  2 hours.

Festival of Colors!

Today was one of my favorite things to do in the spring... Festival of Colors! It is a Hindu celebration to welcome in the new Spring season called Holi or Festival of Colors. It's a day of singing and dancing and of course, throwing dyed corn starch at each other. This was my third year getting to go.

Here is me two years ago from the first time i went:

I drove and got lost (not surprising) and it didn't help that it took me 1 hour and 45 mintues to get there because traffic was so bad, so many people were trying to get down there that their were accidents all down the interstate.... by the time we pulled up to the Hindu Temple, we saw a huge pink cloud go up into the air. We had missed it. All that driving for nothing. Even all the colours were sold out so we couldn't even have our own celebration!

Last Year:

We made it in time! We got right down in the middle of it.

This year:

Was so fun. Dan, Jana, her friend and I all went down together. We got lost but in the end we found a better way of getting there! As we were driving, a car full of girls drove by (they were exceeding the limit, even the trunk was full of girls)... anyways, jana makes the comment "hey look at all those girls in the car" and Dan responds by saying "yah, you can tell cause it's sinking down low". Can you believe that? Rude.. but funny.

Anyways the car full of girls got their revenge by stealing our parking spot and cutting us off! That was rude. 

Here are some fun pictures for our day!!!:

Andrew and Katherine 

Dan and I showing our true colors!

We walked by a little kid who was standing by the stairs... he had a bad FULL of orange color. Dan threw some of his last color and him and in retaliation this little kid dumped his entire bag on Dan. It was really funny.

A view from the Hindu Temple... so many people there for 11am in the morning!

Hindu Temple

'The Dan Look'

Smile Dan!

Jana and I!!

Cute.

Cuter.

Cutest... aww

Peace.

Dan's teeth were purple

There was a huge air machine that blew us off so we were allowed into the Hindu Temple. We had to take off our shoes to enter and my feet got so muddy... i crinnge thinking about it again... i hate walking around barefoot where other people with gross feet have been walking.... anyways Dan felt the need to recreate the painting behind him (actually no, I told him to go pose like that)

I did the same.

Driving home!

Jana.... aww cute hair jana.

My unibrow from the color that washed off after my shower

One last highlight:

Dan slipped walking down the muddy hill and instead of me helping him I stood there laughing... karma later struck when someone bumped me and I slipped down into the mud too. It was too muddy for my flip flops to get a grip and I continued to slide down as Dan picked me up.

Great day and home by 12:30. Festival of Colors... see you next year! hare krishna!

Snow again??

Two days ago I was wearing shorts and playing in the park... yesterday I went running in a long sleeve-t and shorts.... today i woke up, and there was snow on the ground.

i wish i took the picture five minutes before when it was really coming down.

And in case you didn't already know, today is friday, friday got get down on friday, everybody is looking forward to the weekend, weekend, friday friday getting down on friday...

partying partying ya! partying partying ya! fun fun fun fun fun fun !! yesterday was thrusday thrusday, today is friday friday.. .tomorrow is saturday, and sunday comes afterward..