MLIA

For some random reason I feel that I am kindred spirits with those that post on MLIA.com*. When ever I feel a little down all I have to do is read a few stories on MLIA and I am always left laughing. I wish things like that would happen to me... but then again maybe not, but I wouldn't be against seeing people dresses as crayons running down the street chased by a empty crayon box! That would defiantly make my hour, if not my week!

*MLIA: My Life Is Average is a website where people share stories about things that happen in their lives, most of them are hilarious but some are questionable. These things used to be about average things that everyone does like "Today on my way to work I noticed the "low fuel" warning on the dashboard. I pulled over and got some gas. MLIA" but now includes stories about things that happens to average people that are quite funny like "Today, I opened my garage to see that my car was not there. I freaked out for a few minutes until I realized that I was driving my car. MLIA."

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

So I'm very sorry that I have been slacking in my blogging...

I have been working 11 hour nights at Amazon.com warehouse and have been using every spare minute to sleep. Interestingly enough when peak season was over a few days ago both Mom and I were some of the few that were kept on for a little longer. We are excited for the money but the hours are exhausting.

Today Mom and I came home early and have been making cookies and bread for the last 5 hours... right now it is about 3:30am and we are up making goodies, yes we are crazy but right now is our day. Eventually I will be on a better sleeping schedule but for now 3am is a normal hour.

Right now Mom and I are on our third type of cookies... first peanut butter blossoms, second chocolate chip, and last, but not least, white chocolate oatmeal cookies. The bread has been started and we are on the way to shaping and cooking the loaves.

The smell of cookies and bread are spreading throughout the house! I guess this is one way of spreading Christmas cheer!

Our adventure of last night...

So background info... I have been working nights at Amazon for the Christmas season so I have a tendency to sleep during the day and stay awake at night.

Well tonight we had a little adventure. While Mom and I were getting ready to go to bed at about 2:30am we heard the farm truck start. Mom went and woke up Dad and they called around but no one we know had the truck. Mom went out to start the car to go and look for our truck as she saw it drive by, as my mother is really quick she jumped in the car and started following it. Dad and I followed and along with our neighbors, who's drive they pulled into, caught them and after about an hour of statements we got our truck back and finally got home again.

Madison and Brent slept through the whole thing and are still none the wiser. So much happens when people are asleep!

Thanks friends...

I am so thankful for good friends who always just seem to know when I need to talk or just need to get out of the house to watch a movie. Thanks friends.

Craving Pizza

All of today I was craving pizza...
So I decided to try my hand at making pizza dough.

The process was interesting and to tell you the truth I was really surprised that it turned out.
I guess the pizza turned out well because it is pretty much all gone!
Yeah me!

Happy Nevada Day!!!

Today we finally finished with the grape jam and then I made over a pound of butter!

NCIS has been on all day, I haven't watched it before but after multiple hours of watching it I love it.

No trick-or-treat-ers came to our house. But then that was probably a good thing seeing that we didn't have any candy.

Photo of the day:


Thanks Dad!! Really enjoyed the good laugh!

Baby-sitting and Grape Juice-making

Today was my last day baby-sitting two wonderful, little girls! After many trips up and down the slide, books read at the library, puppies and cows, and imaginary friends/stuffed animals I'm exhausted! One day we tried to make sugar cookies but the problem was that the dough was so sticky that it got all over... so instead while we waited almost an hour for the dough to become un-sticky one of the girls that I was watching played with a little piece of dough, a rolling pin, and cookie cutters. She has an amazing imagination!


I was ready to go to bed at 7 when I got home but I came home to the family getting ready to make grape juice. 3 and 1/2 hours, 7 gallons of grape juice, and 1 and 1/2 gallons of soon to be jam later.... I'm pretty much in a coma now. Here are some pics to prove that I am indeed becoming more domestic!

More Bread!

Baked bread again today, this time there were 12 loaves and only two dozen cinnamon rolls. Go Mom! I still have not mastered the bread shaping so the credit must go to my amazing mother, although I was in the kitchen with her the whole time, does that count? She is a wealth of knowledge. There is so much that I can learn from her and I am starting with bread...

Thanks Mom!

This is what happens when...

Mom leaves me to finish making the bread.

Instead of making perfectly lovely loaves like this:


The result was this:


Out-of-control amounts of cinnamon rolls.

One might ask "Why are there not 8 loaves of bread like there are suppose to be?" My reply is simple. I don't know how to shape the bread into those perfect loaves without my mothers help, so instead I decided to make cinnamon rolls because I DO know how to put butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar on the bread dough and create this outrageous amount of gooey goodness...

YUMMY!

Laughed so hard I cried...

Say this video on Facebook and laughed so hard that I cried... here is it on youtube! Enjoy!!!

I cant figure out how to post in on the blog so here is the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xi4OsIdmn8

In all of my spare time I have had a chance to finally read a book that I really wanted to read, The Magic of Ordinary Days. I really love the movie that was made by Hallmark and was shocked to find that the book and the movie are remarkably close. It is a Hallmark movie, so keep that in mind if you are going to read or watch it, but I love it! And I want to thank Danielle Duffy for lending it to me so I could watch it again!

Whenever I come home...

I always seem to get a cold. Currently I am sitting in my bed with my Robitussin, Chloraseptic, water, blankets, and sleeping! It is giving me plenty of time to go through my things and work on my scrapbook. Hooray for time spent decluttering and getting better!

I'm coming to Provo!

I decided about 20 minutes ago that I am officially going to Provo this weekend to see my fabulous best friend and my equally fabulous little sister (and meet the little sister's boyfriend!) It should be a wonderful time!

Locks of Love

My hero for today is my little sister!

Maddie got her haircut today and she donated it to Locks of Love. Way to go little sister! I love your new sophisticated hair cut! Doesn't she just have the prettiest red hair you have ever seen!

Corn Silage

Today was a pretty interesting day... cleaned up part of the house, sent a fax that took about 10 thousand years to actually send, drove with Brent, and most interestingly of all, saw pretty much the whole process of corn becoming corn silage. (For those of you who do not know what corn silage is I suggest that you look it up on Wiki (just like I did) and that should give you a pretty good, perhaps overly good explanation, of the nitty-gritty's of silage but my explanation will be short, dumbed down, and hopefully easy to follow.)

For multiple days every year the only answer to what Dad had been doing all day was "he was out packin' the pit." Although I have ridden in the tractor with him for many hours as he packed I had never been able to see the whole process of corn to silage until today. My day started out with a thoroughly frustrating experience with the fax machine and then a little jot over to see my daddy. This was pretty much the scene that met my gaze (although I didn't take the picture it is a pretty accurate representation of what was occurring on my farm.)

I rode with the "Pops" for a hour or two as he "packed the pit" and was about to head home when he trick/mislead me into seeing the rest of the operation at work. The Wadsworthswere doing the cutting and hauling of the corn and I was able to ride along and see everything first hand.

So first the corn is grown (this is the step that takes the longest and of course it is the easiest to explain... corn seeds planted, corn watered, corn grew.)

Next when the corn is sufficiently dry yet still yellow-green wet it is cut by this enormous tractor with lots of blades that turn the whole stock from the-stocks-of-corn-you-see-on-peoples-porches-in-Autumn to something that resembles confetti all in just a few seconds! The corn is then blown from the corn cutting machine into the truck that is following along side.


Once the corn is in the truck it is brought back to wherever the "silage pit" is going to be and dumped and that is where my daddy's job starts... He is the pit packer. He uses a tractor to push the silage into a pile and then runs over and over it to pack it down. (This job according to my father is mindless work and is when he gets to make a lot of phone calls and does his thinking.)

The last part of the process involves covering the "pit" with heavy plastic and tires... this part will probably be coming in the next few days!


Thanks Dad and Ben for a wonderful education even though I am no longer in school, well in organized school anyway!

(The pictures have all be stolen from different places on the Internet... I know I am in so much trouble!)

Monday Night means FHE!

Tonight I attended was able to attend two FHEs, the YSA FHE and our family's FHE.

For YSA we drove out to Sand Mountain and climbed up (who am I kidding! Y'all know that I didn't climb all the way to the top but I did make it about halfway up! no mocking!) and then I made the traditional run-down-and-tumble and was pretty sandy but I did get a good look at the Nevada sky and realized how much I really love to look at the stars... if only I knew what I was looking at. Research before tomorrow night will have to be the constellations and the stories of their origin.


After the YSA activity I arrived home just in time to participate in the family FHE (but I did miss the annual "I AM HAPPY TO BE HERE!" from the whole family). For activity we helped make signs for Madison, she is running for West End Student Council Treasurer and the family wanted to make sure we helped out all we could, even if our creative juices weren't all we had hoped for. Today turned into a wonderful Monday Night!

I'm BACK!

SO this summer I had a wonderful time nanny-ing for Auntie in CA but now I'm back in Fallon! I have no idea how long I am going to be here (I am hoping it's just long enough to make some money to move somewhere else) but I am planning on making the most of the time that I am going to be here. I have been home a week but it seems like it has been much longer than that.
I have:

• been running my siblings around like a crazy person
• helped my brother study for his driving permit (HE PASSED!!!)
• cleaned out the play room and set it all up with the pool table, card tables, sitting area, and darts.
  
• then I moved all of my stuff from my car to the newly-cleaned-and-set-up-play-room (now it is no longer clean... sorry mom!)
• did a 500 piece puzzle... I dont really do puzzles so this is really exciting for me!
  
• worked on my scrapbook a little (almost done with high school, only senior year left)
• helping Mom feed, run, and play with dogs and the puppies
  
• deep cleaning the closets. threw a lot of junk away (mostly dads) but also brought a lot to Good Will (mostly moms) and there is still more to go through.
• went to the storage shed and looked at the tubs i have in storage. cleaning out those will be a few weeks chore in itself.
• got the family news letter that Mindy put together and we all enjoyed finding out what everyone else in the family is up to!
  

Life has been crazy but it just make me remember how much I love my family and how thankful I am to be here with them!

With all the busyness/crazyness that happens in my life when I come home its wierd but I always seem to show up back home right when I need to. I believe that God has a hand in everything that happens to us, good or bad, and it is that helping, loving hand that gets us through and makes us stronger. Family, I LOVE YOU!!!!

its about time...

I have finally:

• organized my last box and placed it in the storage shed.
• packed my car to go to Aunties for the summer.
• read the 5th Harry Potter book...
• got books 6 and 7 from the library. will start reading 6 tomorrow.
• did my laundry... its been almost a month.
• found my crayons and coloring books
• started my jean quilt by cutting out all the jean blocks.
• found that I have three coin jars and all are full. I either need to use the coins or get a new jar.
  
• started a new journal...my other one was just not working for me, the pages were just too big.
  
• found my contacts and my case.
• emptied out and cleaned my purse.
• realized that I still have not started the 1000 piece puzzle that it is my goal to finish this summer.
• relocated my planner and my post-it notes.
• blogged after a month and a half!

night!

Week-in-Review

Well at least the exciting stuff in review...

Monday: We painted and cleaned and then for FHE activity we did face masks. Brent (my 16 year old brother) refused to have his picture taken and Mom was too tired so here are the pics of Maddie, Dad, and I.


Maddie and I


Dad and I

Tuesday and Wednesday: I cleaned and painted a bit in the morning but then crashed from exhaustion for a couple hours both days...

Thurday: I went to the laundry mat because the clothes were pilling up because we were working on the laundry room... did a rough estimate of about 20 loads of laundry and had them washed, dryed, folded, and put away by the time Mom got back! Also when matching socks I found 20 bucks, pretty good for a day's work.

Friday and Saturday: At about 7:30 pm dad and I started laying hardwood floor in the mudroom/laundry room and we worked until about midnight. This was begun after we had spent a good portion of the week tearing out a closet that was in the empty space next to the washer/dryer... Dad made the wall skinnier as well as removing the top portion of the closet which required him to re-tape and texture the walls as well. Beautiful! On Saturday I was awoken by the nail gun at 7am and went down to help dad for another couple hours (he nailed and I placed the wood, measured, and used the chopsaw to cut (I knew that semester in wood tech would pay off!) and the result is this beautiful hardwood floor... Sometime next week dad and I start on the study which is about 4 times larger but now that we have a method hopefully it wont take too long.


View from outside/View from inside

Later on Saturday: Melissa had senior prom and I was chosen to help out... I did her makeup and her hair (pictures of her hair are forthcoming) and was so sore from doing the floor and then helping melissa that I went to bed early... Man I am getting old, I cant even stay up late any more!


Melissa with her date, Bobby

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Tally your total at the bottom.

(X) 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
(_) 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
(_) 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(_) 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
(X) 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(_) 6 The Bible
(_) 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
(X) 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
(_) 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
(X) 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
(_) 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
(_) 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
(_) 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
(X) 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
(_) 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
(_) 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
(_) 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
(_) 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
(_) 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(_) 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
(_) 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
(_) 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
(_) 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
(_) 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
(_) 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
(_) 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
(_) 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(_) 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
(_) 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
(_) 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
(_) 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
(_) 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
(_) 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
(_) 34 Emma - Jane Austen
(_) 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
(_) 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
(_) 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
(_) 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
(_) 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(X) 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
(_) 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
(_) 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
(_) 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(_) 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
(_) 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
(_) 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
(_) 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
(_) 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
(X) 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
(_) 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
(_) 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
(_) 52 Dune - Frank Herbert
(_) 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
(_) 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
(_) 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
(_) 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(_) 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
(_) 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
(_) 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
(_) 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(_) 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
(_) 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
(_) 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
(X) 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
(X) 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
(_) 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
(_) 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
(_) 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
(_) 69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
(_) 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
(_) 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
(_) 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
(_) 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
(_) 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
(_) 75 Ulysses - James Joyce
(_) 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
(_) 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
(_) 78 Germinal - Emile Zola
(_) 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
(_) 80 Possession - AS Byatt
(X) 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
(_) 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
(_) 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
(_) 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
(_) 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
(_) 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
(X) 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
(_) 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
(X) 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(_) 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
(_) 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
(_) 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
(_) 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
(_) 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
(_) 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
(_) 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
(_) 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
(X) 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
(_) 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
(_) 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Total Read: 16

I guess my reading habits stack up ok but interestingly enough a lot of the books on this list that I haven't read are on my reading list! I will have to see how my habits stack up at the end of the summer!

DONE with COLLEGE!

So I finished my last final of my college career about twenty minutes ago and now I am officially graduating! This moment has been a long time coming and now that its here I really dont know how to feel about it. My high school time was spent learning and getting good grades as well as learning how to interact with others and my college career was busied with classes from which I learned so much about the history of the world and different ways in which to view information as well as alot about myself and the person that I have become. As of Friday I will graduate and be forced out into the real world where I will be required to use all of the knowledge that my high school and college experiances have given me.

Real Life: this is going to be one great adventure and I AM HAPPY TO BE HERE!

Capstone: DONE!

I have officially finished my 490 capstone class when I turned in my final draft of my paper at 11:32 am this morning!

Deep breath. I feel so free!

Once I have graduated I WILL NOT miss having to wake up at really random hours to make sure that I have:

1. gotten all of my reading done for that quiz we are bound to have in class
2. studied enough for that test
3. finished that paper

Just a few more days and then I will have no reason whatsoever to wake up at 4 in the morning... except maybe a take a long drive across Nevada or insomnia.

This morning I am up to study for the two finals that I am scheduled to take at 11 am and 2:30 pm today. Boy am I excited to be almost done!

0 down, 3 (and a paper) to go!

For all of you people almost done/done with finals already... Jon and my roommate Tricia... I salute you but am also extremely jealous!

I haven't taken any of my finals yet.

I have my capstone paper (sorry I know that everyone is sick of hearing about it. I am sick of writing it!) still to finish which I worked on today, two scheduled finals on Monday, and my stats final I'm taking on Tuesday still left to finish.

I just want to be done, graduate, relax, and get a tan.
Is that too much to ask?

Tomorrow I am turning in my capstone paper so wish me luck on my long day of writing/rewriting!

reading days

hot chocolate + thesis + warm bed/study + words of encouragement = one amazingly written paper.


When I was younger... well in high school... I would stay up late to write papers (always putting them off until the night before.) Well my dad being the thoughtful man that he is always seemed to know when I had writers block and would come into the study with two steaming cups of hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles and words of encouragement.

I have continue my dad's tradition of hot chocolate many times over the past four years, most of the time it was just really boring hot chocolate with no whipped cream and not sprinkles and no dad, but still... its the thought that counts.

Today starts the last week of my undergraduate and I have just two more papers to finish. I just made myself a cup of hot chocolate, cozyed up in my bed, came up with a thesis statement, and just called by dad for his words of encouragement! All of the ingredients for the perfect paper!

amazing paper here I come!

Those with weak stomachs DO NOT READ!

This morning I had class at 8am and as I was rushing out the door I almost stepped on the most hostile attack on my dinner group!

We had challenged all the other dinner groups in the Ward to an Easter Egg Hunt to which this was the response! My dinner group is so amazing...
We are totally going to win!

Springtime/ Easter Basket

So I didn't realize that we had to bring a container to class today for our spring baskets so in between lecture and lab I ran home and emptied out a potted plant (I had killed it earlier this semester) and brought in it to lab and the green and white of the pot as well as pink were the basic colors for this arrangement. I love it! and am glad to have something to brighten my room! BTW this was my first time using floral foam and I have to admit that it is a bit easier then just water! This class has been one of my favorites this semester and I would advise anyone to take it!

Just want to sleep in...

(Not me but what i want to be doing! (And look at that bed! doesn't it just scream heaven?)

With all of my papers and homework that I have to get done before I graduate sleeping-in is not something that I have done in a while... not that I did it very often before this semester but usually at least I had the option. On Saturday I think that I am just going to slack on starting my homework for a few hours and sleep-in... well at least until 9am!

Capstone

So my first draft of my Capstone paper is due tomorrow and what have I been doing today? Oh ya working on my thesis statement so that I could bring value to the rest of the 20 pages that I have already written! Go me! But for all of you that are worried that I will not be done on time don't because I am turning it in tomorrow at 3:35 pm whether it is ready or not!

I love deadlines... and procrastination.

Why I love Road Trips...

1. Roadkill... I saw a porcupine!
2. Drinking soda (and yes it was caffeinated.)
3. Port-a-Subs!
4. Listened to music for hours and not feeling guilty.
5. Maverick fro-yo.
6. Mike and Ikes, M & M, and pretzels.
7. Chatting with friends about life... solving all of life's problems.
8. Getting out of Provo!

Tax Season!

I am home for the weekend and what do I do?

I file my taxes, help Brent with a geology project, and played Ticket to Ride with Maddie... I live a rather exciting life! And in about 10 hours I am headed back to Utah with almost none of my schoolwork accomplished. But I did get to spend wonderful bonding time with my little bro and little sis

I love you Brent and Maddie and thanks for hanging out with me all weekend!!!

SO I realized that I had forgotten to post the picture of my floral cube that I made in floral design so here you go!

I am so proud of myself that I didn't use pink... I am branching out!

A year of hairstyles!

I was looking over some of my pictures from this past year and realized that my hair has done a lot of changing!

Exhibit 1:I started off the year with long hair. This picture was taken January 2008 at my sister's baby shower, hence the diapers (it was a game).

Exhibit 2:
I went to the beautician for a trim and ended up with this! This pic was taken later in the month of January.

Exhibit 3:
Before I left for London I got my hair cut again, this time with more of an A-line but still pretty short. Taken in London some time in September.

Exhibit 4:
Taken this January after I had let my hair grow for almost 6 months and after I personally had cut my bangs.

But the real question is what to do NOW!?!?! Grow it out again? Cut it? Keep it? I guess I wont know until it happens, but you are more then welcome to voice your opinion!

Shout out to MINDY!

So today is my big sister's birthday and I just wanted to let everyone know!!!!
She is amazing and I am am lucky to have her for a sister! She has taught me so much!

I love you sis!

Fat Tuesday (or in other words MARTI GRAS!)

I'm definitely not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the Catholic holidays. Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent all have a pretty important significance to practicing Catholics so I felt that I should learn more about their feast days seeing that they are already fast upon us.

I did not celebrate Fat Tuesday, for which I am sure my old roommate Paige would be extremely disappointed, but I do plan on giving something up for Lent. I talked about this with my mom and she said that she already knew what she was going to give up and that was despair. I am by no means that profound so I am going to give up something physical, sugar treats, and also something mental, saying negative things about myself. While both of these things are going to take a lot of conscious effort on my part in the end it will be worth it. Isn't the idea behind Lent that by giving something up in preparation for the celebration of Easter one becomes closer to God?

I want to encourage everyone to get ready for Easter in their own way, weather it is giving something up for Lent or just reaffirming their goal to read about the life of Christ in The Bible and/or The Book of Mormon. I am!