Redecorating

Like my new wallpaper? I don't! My roommate and former roommate did this to me. I was torn between being mad and thinking it was funny. So it's funnier if you know the whole story, which is... for the past month Christin and I have been hiding this bridal magazine on each other because we are sick of being single in this marriage-obsessed environment. Well I thought I would be clever and I picked up 5 more magazines and hid them in all of her drawers and cupboards and she thought she was going nuts. I didn't think she could top that, and I threw the magazines out. Well she dug them out of the trash and I came home to find this. So if anybody has any good prank ideas to get back at her, let me know.

So I've been slacking on the blog, oops... school is going well. I'm hoping to go home for Memorial Day weekend. I've been trying out new things on campus, like yoga and Latin dancing. I've decided that I want to go see the Vatican, my world foundations teacher showed us a bunch of pictures and it looks incredible! Oh and if you want to see a good movie I highly recommend "Water for Elephants", Christin, Chrissie and I saw it last week and LOVED it! Well I had better get ready for bed. I hope that all 2 or 3 of my readers are having a fantabulous week!

Randomness from the last few weeks...

My new outfit

My roommate, Megan, did my make-up for me (for a date)

I cooked! Delicious chicken enchiladas.

My how time flies, it's May tomorrow!! So I've kind of been slacking in the blog department (among other things), so I'll post some random stuff for my favorite sister-in-law. I'm all moved in to my new apartment, and I love it!! Except there seems to be a disagreement over the A/C. Personally I think if it's snowing outside, A/C is not required, open the window for heaven sakes. My roommate Christin and I have been playing this game with a bridal magazine where we hide it in the other person's room, hehe. I had quite an enjoyable Easter. It was my first Sunday in the 48th ward and I got to meet with my Bishop and say the closing prayer in Sacrament Meeting. After church Christin and I went and took pictures in front of the temple because it was such a beautiful day! Then we went to our friend Chrissie's house for a delicious dinner and an Easter egg hunt. We met a bunch of new people and a cute guy even asked for my number! We also went to a fireside, then played some games and watched Tarzan. Today I went to Idaho Falls with Chrissie, her roommates Mary, and Michelle, and Christin. I stocked up on Clinique products, looked around the mall, then we ate at Red Robin, then we went to Target (which is one of my favorite stores) and I got a really cute shirt, which I may post a picture of and some cheap-o turquoise flip-flops. Then we went to Win-Co for cheap groceries. It was a great day, but shopping is exhausting, and I had a bunch of homework and laundry to come home to. I love the feeling and the smell of clean clothes fresh out of the dryer, it's one of the best things in the whole world!! I do not like Shakespeare though. Sure he tells good stories, but I just can't appreciate his plays because I don't understand what the heck is going on. I have to study Hamlet AGAIN for one of my classes, and I no like-y. Boo!

Where are you Spring?

I think that it's rather ridiculous to have to worry about road conditions when traveling in April, but yesterday I had the pleasure of driving from Rexburg to Taber on slushy roads (actually the roads between Great Falls and Taber were nice and clear). Thank-you to Brittany for taking the wheel for a few hours so I could sleep. So the semester is over and I'm home for about a week. The end of the semester means that this is no longer a blog for my family relations class, so I guess it'll just be like another journal for me or there's a good chance that I'll need a blog for classes in the future. It's weird to be home without my brothers, it's kind of lonely, but I'm glad that Connor has struck out on his own and that Darren is serving the Lord in Mexico City. The last few days have been bittersweet, sure it's nice to be done with classes and finals, but the end of the semester means saying goodbye to roommates, classmates, teachers, and friends; it means white glove checks, packing, and driving all of which I hate. The saddest part for me is that I won't be living with Chrissie Yelton anymore, we've grown pretty close in our three semesters as roommates. But she's being replaced by Christin Humphreys, who is equally awesome! Being in Taber means delicious home-made meals (all of my favorites), fresh-baked cookies, a shower with excellent water pressure, a more comfortable bed, sleeping for as long as I want, watching NCIS with my dad, and viewing the last three months of pictures on the family computer. Whatever shall I do with all of my glorious spare time?

Blended Families

Did you know that 56-62% of children in the US will be raised in a blended family? Whoa!
Did you know that 70% of divorced people say that they could/should have made the marriage work? We had Brother Williams wife Ruth come and answer some of our questions this week. She had to jump back into the dating scene with 2 young children. Brother Williams advises that a divorce should be final for at least 6 months before you even think about starting to date again. It's important to be realistic when you're dating, don't constantly have your head in the clouds because marriage is tough. She said that the first time around she had certain goals which she ignored because of a cute guy. An idea that I liked was that when she and Brother Williams were dating they would take turns planning the dates, and that they were structured, not just hang-out sessions.

Active Parenting

Here's what we learned about this week:

To all you parents out there you should check out books by Michael Popkin on Active Parenting or activeparenting.com. We talked about it today and during Wednesday's class and it is quite interesting. I almost wish that I had children to practice it on. The idea is that rather than focusing on the undesirable behavior you should try to figure out the child's needs that perhaps are not being met. A memorable quote shared by Brother Williams goes something like this. You can never get enough of what you don't need because what you don't need can never satisfy you. I don't recall the original author of this quote. Anyway back to Active Parenting... One example would be:

Behavior
Undue attention seeking

Need
Contact & belonging

How to Help
Show interest in them before they act out, catch them when they're behaving, offer attention freely, they may just need a hug. Also teach them to contribute to the family or whatever group they may be involved with, it's not enough for them to just show up, and give them positive reinforcement and encouragement. Gotta go to class, ciao.

Week 10

I had the opportunity to read "One for the Money" by Elder Ashton for the third time in my BYU-I career. If it has been assigned in three separate classes it's probably important right?

To read the entire article please visit this website:

http://lds.org/ensign/2007/09/one-for-the-money?lang=eng&query=one+money

These are a few of the points that particularly stuck out to me.

~75-89% of divorces are rooted in problems with mismanagement of finances
~financial anxieties --> no love, peace, security, or contentment
~Elder Ashton strongly recommends that we teach our children early the value of work and earning. His opinion is that children do chores to earn their allowance instead of having it handed to them every week.
~Family unity comes from saving together for a common purpose. Each family member should contribute to family welfare (like a brother or sister on a mission) - I thought that this was a really cool idea, it will help the siblings feel more involved in the family.
~Don't forget to: use a budget, pay your tithing first and foremost, have medical and life insurance, build up your food storage.

H.A.L.T.

Don't you just love acronyms? I do! I learned two cool ones this week. The first one is in reference to communication. HALT... stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. These factors will make for ineffective communication. Someone in class made a comment that I enjoyed... "what's wrong with talking to yourself, who else do you have more in common with?" The other acronym is one that I heard in my Book of Mormon class, CPR. It could stand for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which saves lives or Church, Prayer, Read scriptures which also saves lives.

I just finished reading two articles by Elder Russell M. Ballard about councils. Apparently he has written a book and given several talks on this subject, so I guess it must be important. A ward or a family that is not taking advantage of all of its council members is a "shell of unrealized potential".
Possible Advantages of Councils (if used properly)

• great spiritual power
• inspired direction
• reservoir of insight and inspiration
• lives will be blessed
• the Lord's work is moved forward faster and farther
• UNITY!!
• better solutions
• prepares future leaders
• lightens the leader's load
• ongoing solidarity and strength

The council method is something that I definitely want to remember to apply in my own future family. I think it's important to not only discuss possible solutions between husband and wife but to get input from the children as well (when they're old enough to talk that is).

God, in His wisdom, has provided His children with the council method, let's use it!