watermelon in winter

It's that time of year again!!!! As I sit here, my mom just commented that we have a peaceful house.  Pops already went to bed for the night, I am sitting here reading some things, the cat is sitting on the couch and purring, Mom is knitting, and the clock is ticking.  We really do have a peaceful house, and it's really good to be home again!  It's nice to not have to worry about school, though I am still keeping busy with my end of a deal with my parents.  :)  I love my family, and I love how supportive they are to me and the decisions I make. Today was busy, but this evening has been nice and relaxing.  I got to talk for a little while with my other half (Renato), and then I set up the Christmas tree with Mom, while listening to Josh Groban Christmas music.  After that, we worked on some Christmas planning (you know, getting in touch with Santa and all), which is great.  Tomorrow should be another bu...

So once again I am blogging from somewhere new.  Well, it's not really new to me...this is somewhere I've been far too many times, but I've never blogged from here!  I'm in the Salt Lake airport, heading home for Christmas! And the best part...I get almost  MONTH at home with my parents! I even get to spend my birthday with them! So, finals are behind me, stress is behind me, and now it's time to relax.  I'm on freedom time right now, and can do whatever I want!  I've got a list of miscellaneous things I want to do while at home, people I want to see, projects to finish with Mom, walls to paint with Pops, movies to watch, books to read, and obviously probably the biggest chunk of my time: lots of Skype time with Renato!  It'll be nice to just relax.  This last semester was all kinda of crazy with all kinda of stress in unexpected places and times.  Surprisingly, it wasn't even all about school.  It was a lot of learning that as much as I pl...

It's the final countdown.  I've been looking forward to being home in NH for MONTHS....and now that's only 7 days away!  I have to be perfectly honest and say that I'm not nearly as excited as I was, though I'm still excited to go home and goof off for a couple of weeks, with no worries whatsoever, nowhere to be, projects to finish, maybe some walls to paint, family and friends to visit....yeah, that part will definitely be great! :)  Plus it means I'll be one semester and 20.5 credits closer to graduation! But in the meantime....with the exception of Sunday, every single day of the next week will be absolutely INSANE, especially tomorrow and Thursday, as I try to finish up last projects (5-page scientific paper to write tomorrow, as well as a 65-mineral test to take tomorrow, plus a concert on Thursday night) and get everything in before their deadlines.  Funny thing happened, I had a short assignment due today for one of my classes that I had completely spac...

When you think about what "eternity" means, and what it means to have an eternal family (one that NEVER ends), it's kind of mind-boggling.  The greatest blessing, to me, about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the knowledge we have of eternal families, and the authority we have to perform those sacred ordinances in bind families together forever.  This doesn't mean all just being together...it means maintaining the same family relationships we have here, eternally.  Mom and Pops will always be my parents.  James, Steven, and Michael will always be my brothers.  When I get married (and sealed in a temple), my husband will always be my husband, and our kids will always be our kids.  And so on.  It extends backwards to Adam, and forwards to the end of "time."  It is a wonderful, amazing, HUGE blessing, and is the purpose of life.  It's the purpose of everything we do.  God created the earth so we could come here, gain a body and exper...