Happy Birthday to Mom!

It is way past 10:00, but I made a 10-6 exception tonight for my Mom's birthday. She is 46 today, which always takes me off guard; it's weird to think that my parents are closer to 50 than 40. I would like to focus, however, what I love about my Mom. Being away, I missed out on the Wood family tradition of going around the table, sharing what we love about the birthday person, so I'm sharing it now. I already told Mom, but I want everyone to know. It's always hard to narrow it down to just one thing each year, but this is what especially stands out to me right now in my life.

My Mom is beautiful. She is definitely a primper--for which I am grateful, as she has taught me much in the makeup department--but she is by no means vain. Her beauty cannot be attributed to her skin care regimen, lighted makeup mirror, and great hair stylist. Her beauty comes from her dedication to the gospel, her commitment to her family and temple covenants, and her relationship with and love for the Savior. Even though I've been away for most of this last year, her beauty still reaches, inspires, and strengthens me each day, and that is such a gift.

Mom, you are one of my greatest gifts. I love you so much and am so grateful to have your beauty and light in my life. Happy Birthday! I'm so glad that you had such a great day. =)

Success!

This is a quick post tonight, but I am determined to post more of a life update tomorrow. For now, I would like to share the joy I am experiencing over my revived iPod. I've had my iPod since Junior year when I saved my cleaning cash to buy it. It's 30GB, and outdated by a couple newer versions. I love it. It has provided me comfort and happiness and study aid on countless occasions, and I have often shuddered at the prospect of ever losing it's friendship. Last month, I couldn't get it to turn on, so in panic I took it to the nearby Mac store, only to have the employee tell me that the battery was just really dead. I swear I plugged it in to charge and nothing happened; I'm really not an idiot who thinks her iPod is broken before attempting to charge it. So, when my iPod wouldn't respond to anything yesterday, I plugged it in, expecting it to surely turn on after an entire night of being plugged in. It didn't happen. Ahhh! I woke up to a still dead iPod, and throughout the day, resigned myself to the prospect of having to buy a new one once I saved for and paid my last housing payment. Just now, however, I tried one last time to charge life back into my music-storing buddy, and, drum roll please . . . IT LIVES! Phew.

Random Funny Remembrance

My family's nickname for me is Llamaly. I'm pretty sure it originated in Jessie's younger days, when she would come to visit, play with me and Charlotte, and teach me how to correctly pronounce "yellow." I've always been a fan of the name, and in high school, our friend Rachelle took to calling me by her own variation, Llamers. Again, I'm a fan. Last week, however, my nickname turned on me in the form of a text message from Sarah, sent from Dad's phone while they were on their way over to visit:

Hello Lamers! I'm so car sick. I can't wait till we get to Utah.

Now I'm Lamers.

Felix Felicis Day

I had a Shamazing day last week and meant to post right afterward, but as with so many things lately, I just didn't make it around to it. I'm posting now, however, because a day as amazing as last Tuesday cannot go without my expressing my gratitude and awe.

6:00 - 9:00 a.m. I got up, and had a stressful, guilt-ridden morning over trying to finish up a Book of Mormon assignment that was due that afternoon in class. I love love love that class because my teacher is so wonderful. She gave us the assignment at the beginning of the semester, but I underestimated the task and never made it a priority, which put me in my Tuesday-morning predicament. Because of this, I left for work feeling horrible, and that feeling lasted all morning.

9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. I fought tears at work and during devotional. I was tired, and felt physically and emotionally drained.

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Book of Mormon class was great as always, but I walked out of the building and felt everything coming down on me. I needed help because there was so much on my plate and so much to be working on that there was no way I could do it all. I didn't have enough time to do everything and I needed to know how best to use my time so that I could do all that I needed to do.

Let the magic begin!

3:00 p.m. I'm walking over to Charlotte's house to pick up the car, and as I was walking past Smart Cookie (an ice cream sandwich store) I felt the spirit prompting me to get some ice cream. I'm not kidding. I felt prompted to get a scoop of ice cream. I'm walking down 7th East, just wanting to get to my car because that's a safe place, so I go into Smart Cookie and buy a scoop of my favorite Double Fudge Brownie Dryer's ice cream. With ice cream in hand, I walked down the street, listening to Sting, enjoying the sunshine, and I couldn't help but smiling and just feeling happy.

When I got back to my room, I was ready to hunker down at my desk for some quality study time, when I felt a sudden desire to walk back up to campus and go to the library. What the?! I normally have to psych myself up for trips to the library or force myself to go while I'm still on campus. Normally, when I'm back in my room, I'm there to stay. Acting on my sudden excitement, I packed my bag, grabbed the Coke Zero from my fridge, and walked back to campus, loving the sunshine and loving my life.


I spent about three hours in the library, and left with everything crossed off of my to-do list for the day. Econ homework: check! Stats homework: check! Bio Paper research read: check! I was already on a homework productivity high, and on my way down the hill back to the dorms, I felt prompted to check my mail. Lo and behold, there are THREE cards waiting for me in my mailbox! Yes, I received out-of-the-blue Good Mail from Michelle, Rachelle, and Jill! Jill even sent me my own Good Mail labels. Sham. Wow. By this point, I was completely happy. I walked back to my room, reading my mail, listening to Supertramp.

At the end of the day, I was so amazed by how much I'd seen the Lord's hand guiding me every step of the way. I started out as low as I've ever been, and by the end of the day, I was as high if not higher than I've ever been. It was a testament to how the Lord knows every move we make and he cares about everything we do. It helped me see that I don't have to know the whole picture of how I'm going to do everything I need to do. I just have to follow every next step the Lord lights ahead of me.

Oh, and here's some Paula. Sorry I've been gone for so long. =)

I'm Still Here

I'm still alive and have many many posts in my head. My last month or so has been a whirlwind of tests, papers, and being an academic hermit, but I'm approaching a period of respite before finals hit. I'm finishing up my last paper for the semester tonight, and hope to celebrate with a little blogging.

Don't write me off just yet!