November 1, 2009

Sunday

Wednesday night, I spent a lot of time talking to my mom about the things that were bothering me. I just felt like I should, that she would be able to help a lot, and she did. It felt really good to talk to my mom like that, and it’s been a while since I have. She really gave me some good advice. She told me that I should just try to be the best that I can be and not worry so much what other people think (which is something Daniel has told me several times, so I guess it must be wise). She also told me to be patient with my sisters, that sooner or later, they’ll realize that I still want to be in with my family. And she told me to keep making the effort.

That night, I didn’t get to sleep when I should have. I didn’t want to go to bed, so I stayed up watching TV and eating Cheez-its. I definitely slept in the next morning and didn’t work out. I had a fairly relaxing day. I didn’t go to shadow, mostly out of laziness, but also out of having a lot of studying to do. I went to my class, my seminar class, and it was really good.  A professor from Brown University, Kenneth R. Miller (I think is his name), came to speak at this huge university-wide science seminar. He’s a really pretty famous guy. He’s written a bunch of biology textbooks for high school and university classes, he’s been on talk shows, and he’s written other books about evolution for the general public. He spoke to us about the debate of evolution and intelligent design being taught in the schools, and how he’s been involved with those. It was really interesting. It’s a subject that really fascinates me, and I’d love to study more about it. One of the main points that he made at the end of his presentation is that believing in evolution and science does not mean you have to deny the existence of a supreme creator; contrarily, evolution enhances the idea of a creator. The two can coincide, it doesn’t have to be one or the other, and he gave a bunch of examples of scientists, and evolutionists, that also believe in God.

After school, I just studied, basically. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. I did a short workout at home and watched some TV. Then, Liz McMurtrey came over late at night to have something to eat. Her husband, Adam, (they are our neighbors across the way) left to go to Europe for a business convention (though he’s studying Chemical Engineering). I just thought that she’d like some company, and she had a long day anyway, it might be nice for her not to have to make food for herself. It was nice to have her over. She is really nice and fun. And we talked a lot about different things. It was great.

Friday, I worked out in the morning, and then went to school as early as I could after going home to get ready. I wanted to get some studying done. I studied, went to my classes, and worked on my sociology paper. I went in to the sociology writing lab to have it looked over. The guy that was helping me looked really familiar to me, and I to him, but we couldn’t figure out where we knew each other from. After school, I didn’t do any studying. I did work on my paper for a bit, but I really felt a little burnt out and I missed Dan, so I just lazed around, ate, and then I went to pick up Daniel and Ryker from the airport. Ryker got an offer on our way back to Provo. That night, Dan and I just enjoyed our time back together. I missed him, and I think he missed me. It wasn’t fun not to have Daniel there.

Yesterday, neither of us got very much studying done. We slept in, got up and went to the temple. When we got home, we cleaned up a little bit, and then, my package arrived and we opened my presents. Mom had sent me a lot of fun stuff: a cute Halloween decoration she’d made, a children’s Halloween book, creative memories picture organizing computer program (which I’m really excited about), snickers, and some fun Halloween pillowcases (one for me, one for Daniel). We also got the wedding video Uncle John had made for us, so of course, we had to watch it. And it was so fun! We felt like we were living our wedding day over again. Stake Conference was this weekend, so we went to the Adult session last evening, and then studied when we got home.

We had a very relaxing Halloween night. We had one trick-or-treater, and then we just played Skip-Bo, and watched “The God’s must be Crazy”, which I got from my friend Drew for my birthday. It was very fun. We actually enjoyed our Halloween even though we didn’t do much, or anything scary.

Today, we got to sleep in because of conference. And it was daylight savings, so we got an extra hour. Stake Conference was good; there were many, almost all of them, about enduring to the end, and I wondered if it is because everyone in the stake have entered into all of the covenants needed for getting to the celestial kingdom. Now all we have to be concerned about is enduring to the end. It was very interesting to me.

When Daniel and I got home, we made some delicious food. I made taco soup, and Daniel made Dilly Bread. Our house smells so good. I worked on our wedding scrapbook today while Daniel read to me from the Joseph Smith manual. We had a nice relaxing day. This evening, I talked to Julie for a while, and thanked my friend Drew for giving me that movie. And then Daniel and I watched the CES Fireside and noticed how much the firesides are directed towards single adults. Elder Uchtdorf talked about marriage and finding eternal companions as a major part of his address. He also talked about finding happiness and meaning when we are sad and depressed, and about asking questions and how important it is to receiving revelation. I especially liked that part, because I feel like sometimes I brush off my questions rationalizing that I don’t really need to know, and that I’ll know someday. I should be more careful about that.

Well, now I’m going to play with Daniel, read scriptures, hopefully work on our blog, write Brian and go to bed. We’ll see if I can do it all in two hours!