{memorial day weekend}

Here's a recap of our excellent three day weekend in pictures {we got to spend part of it with two other couples too!}

{last weekend}

Highlights: Travis got to eat at J.C.W's for the first time ever which was awesome! We saw a movie, walked to autozone to get some oil for the car and grabbed snow-cones on the way. We had a fun game night with some friends and finished season two of White Collar. We just love the weekends. We also found out today that Travis received a scholarship to help pay for tuition next fall and winter; what a great, unexpected blessing! We had forgotten he had even applied. Such a tender mercy!

We also went to Target last week to buy me some business casual clothes, since I either need to wear a skirt or dress pants every day to work. I needed to hem the pants up a few inches and Travis thought it would be fun to capture the moment with some action shots!

{ali & nationals}

My sister Ali has been a gymnast since she could barely walk. I remember going to her competitions and my hands would sweat while she did her beam routine; she would do all sorts of crazy moves and flips on that tiny piece of wood! She won the Texas state gold medal for her level for the vault one year and that was one of the most exciting competitions I had been to! This year {her senior year} she made it to state and then qualified for nationals.

Ali is in Florida right now getting ready to compete at the national high school gymnastics competition; she is on "Team Texas." Ali has torn both of her ACLs and has had to have extensive knee surgery and physical therapy both times and, yet, she kept bouncing back to make it to where she is today; one of the tears even happend the day before the state competition one year.

She has been such an amazing example to me of hard work, dedication, persistence, and patience. I know her extremely positive attitude desipite major physical setbacks is what helped her to keep succeeding. She never once competed on a Sunday {a decision she made long ago} and she was blessed for it. Her coach would work with her when a meet was on a Saturday and Sunday so that she could get it all done on Saturdays. And everything always worked out because of that {a tender mercy is that this national competition isn't on a sunday and she was able to even book one of the only flights back Saturday that will get her to Houston right in time for prom!} This is her final time to compete this weekend and a great way to end her gymnastics career! Good luck sis!

{recent happenings}

So much has happened these past few weeks! We had fun Skyping with Nate on Mother's Day; he has quite the accent! It was fun to talk to our moms too. We are so grateful for their examples and for all they have done for us!

I also {after many tender mercies} started a full-time job as the assistant to the president of the company at InsideSales.com {http://www.insidesales.com/team} and I love it. It's stressful but it's the kind of stress I like! I get to organize and manage his insanely busy schedule and do all sorts of projects for him including editing, writing, and social media networking. I also keep up on all of his voicemails and emails {his inbox gets more emails then I could have ever imagined could go into one inbox in a day}, and I go to meetings with him. The days fly by with so much to do! I'm learning a lot as well in the process. I seriously love this job and am so thankful to have it! Such a blessing.

We've also been catching up on White Collar episodes when we get a chance and Travis has been busy with school; he had two midterms last week!

{inspiring messages}

I love listening to General Conference talks {http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions}. For three of the years I was in college I was blessed with a job that I could listen to talks over and over as I worked. That resulted in me memorizing a lot of Elder Holland's words, whom I love to listen to!

Elder Hollands lastest talk in conference, The Laborers in the Vineyard {http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-laborers-in-the-vineyard?lang=eng&media=audio}, was as usual, amazing and inspiring. I listened to it this morning and I love his focus on the fact that when we say unkind things about others we are only hurting ourselves, so why even say them, or even think them? That person doesn't even know it was said and it doesn't hurt them. I love that counsel, and especially this quote:

"Coveting, pouting, or tearing others down does not elevate your standing, nor does demeaning someone else improve your self-image. So be kind, and be grateful that God is kind. It is a happy way to live."
-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

I've also been reading Stephanie Nelson's book: Heaven is Here {http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Is-Here-Incredible-Everyday/dp/1401341799}. I highly recommend it! What an inspiration she is! I don't think I can ever complain about anything after reading what she went through and how well she handled it. With faith, anything is possible. She even just had a baby!
http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

{dates}

We went on a couple of fun dates this weekend! On Friday we went to the Rooftop Concert Series with Matt & Jessica and heard Peter Breinholt and some other bands, then we headed to Sonic for some drinks. It was a way fun night! Saturday night we got Hot-N-Ready pizzas with Andrew and Caitlyn and then made boats and raced them down the creek at BYU! It was way fun! Our boats were l-e-g-i-t. The night was complete with a ceremony to dispose of the boats and a movie afterwards.

{talks}

This past Sunday, Travis and I had the opportunity to speak in church! He was so worried I would only take 5 minutes and sit down and leave him with 30. He even threatened to email our Bishop to request that he speaks first and I go last to leave me with the rest of the time! But, I ended up taking 15 minutes {thank you very much} and he spoke for about 18 minutes---he actually had to cut some of his talk, haha.

Our topic was "finding joy in the journey," which is the title of a talk President Monson gave in general conference {http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/finding-joy-in-the-journey?lang=eng}. I loved our topic. No matter what happens in life, there is always something to be grateful for and in turn, we can find joy in any circumstance {I based my talk on 2 Nephi 2:24-25}. Travis talked about four ways to find joy in this life: obedience, trusting in the Lord, setting goals, and keeping track of the journey.

"Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily." -Horace