Mr. Golden Sun!

The past two days, I have been awoken by the sun shining its glorious light through my window. Some would be grumpy that they were woken at 7am by the bright sun; however, I jump out of bed to open my curtains to see the sun in its full glory. I am told not to get too excited, that winter is coming to an end, but it usually is not fully over until middle of April. I will take as many sunny days as Utah will offer after almost 4 months of freezing cold weather, with the sun peeking through the overcast only a few times for about 3 seconds each time. I will keep my fingers crossed that spring is finally coming!


Dallin is here! He arrived late Tuesday night, after Courtney and I had a great book club meeting to discuss the recent book, "Eat Cake," and ate LOTS of cake. Seeing him was like a breath of fresh air (please excuse the corny, cliche simile-it was all I could think of). We have had fun this past week including a temple outing, ice skating, banana pancakes, In-n-Out, double date with Jamie, a good friend from SLO who is going to school in Logan, and her boytoy, Jed, and the Hillbilly murder mystery dinner, which he so kindly helped with. The dinner was a success! Everyone seemed to have a good time, even with half-baked baked potatoes and all. Courtney and I tried an internet guide on how to cook 100 baked potatoes. The site instructed us to fill an ice chest with hot water and let it sit for 30 minutes, while baking the poatoes for 30 minutes, then put the potatoes in the ice chest. They said the potatoes would continue to bake for up to 6 hours. The site lied. To our amusement, people were cutting into and actually eating hot potatoes with uncooked centers. It was great! They all thought it was on purpose to go with the Hillybilly theme.

A glimpse at the decorations for the Hillbilly dinner

While ice skating at the Olympic Oval, which is a pretty neat ice skating rink, we came across this little guy:


We first saw him pretend fighting with another kid on the side of the rink. The fight looked like a legit hocky fight. He had the other kid, who was about 4 inches taller than him, in a head lock and was pretending to punch him in the face. Then the headlocked lad got out and they glove slapped a bit...pretty funny. They then both sped off, skating as if they were born to skate. I do believe the kid could not have been more than 3-years-old.

Funny clip this week that had me giggling quite hard (disregard the weird beginning and end; it was the only version I could find):

Single Ladies

ANOTHER one of my good friends got engaged last week! The year of the weddings continues. Congratulations Alyssa and Jesse!

It has also been the year of the earthquakes. Reading about Haiti, and now Chile, I can't help but feel helpless. Donating money and articles doesn't seem enough, but when I really think about it, it is. The people need the supplies, and I can go out and buy them to provide for them, where they cannot provide for themselves the essentials.

This got me thinking about service. In a world that is growing evermore egocentric, selfless service needs to become more prevalent. I know that I have not been the best at this as of late, but am making a goal to be better. There are so many who can benefit from simple acts of service, whether it be volunteering at a food bank, or donating some food, clothes or time to those who have less than I. This brings me to the challenge of the month for all who read "Beauty of Being Human," because serving others is a beautiful aspect of being human. Find someone you can give selfless service to. It can be calling a friend who may just need someone to vent to, helping a mom load her groceries while trying to keep her kids in order, giving to Haiti or Chile, or even letting a person go ahead of you on the drive to work. Try it! I know it makes my life brighter.

Happy March!