There is Sunshine in My Soul Today!

It's sunny once again in Rexburg! After raining nearly every day for the past month, the sunshine is a welcome relief. Maybe summer can finally begin!!

You Can Make A Difference!

Margie is a family friend who could use your help.

***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***
My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time. We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FB I, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee. We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate. Thank you so much.

How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?
Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)

Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:
OLIVIA McCLURE - Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)
Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076
Fax # : (520) 629-1849
E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov

ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!

How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:
PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook...whatever you can think of.
Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!

GO TEAM RYAN HESS!

(E-mail teamryanhess@gmail.com to receive updates or to send a message!)

Father

Sorry, about the late posting. I meant to post this yesterday, but I had about a bazillion meetings and other things that distracted me.

I wanted to wish a Happy Father's Day to my dad, Keith.

Things I Love About My Father:

1. He is funny (Sometimes)
2. He has a fierce love for his family.
3. He is the most generous person I know.
4. He doesn't get offended when we joke about his blindness.
5. He wants the best for me.
6. He always makes sure that I have everything I need to be successful in life.
7. He says "I love you" to me every time we talk on the phone.
8. His nicknames for me: Johnny, Johnstone, Johnny Jump-Up etc.
9. He has absolutely no filter, anything he thinks, he says. While sometimes embarrassing, this makes for a never dull conversation.
10. He gets fixated on certain songs and listens to them over and over and over again until no one can stand to hear them anymore. I'm the same way...

Pretty much, he's awesome.

The Pie Maker

I made my first pie today, It's apple and it smells delicious!! I rolled out the dough and made my own filling! It turned out really good!!! I can't wait to try out other kinds. I haven't cut it yet, so I hope it tastes good!!

Good News!

Sorry for all the posts recently, after this one, I will settle down for a little while. But I just had to share the good news!

My roommate Beth got her mission call today. She was called to serve in the St. Petersburg, Russia mission and she reports to the MTC in Provo on August 26th! She gets to learn Russian I'm so excited for her!! She will be an amazing missionary!

It's really cool, because she taught English to kids in Ukraine last fall, which is pretty close to Russia. Again, I'm so excited!

P.S. She's the one with the red hair in the middle.

Epiphany

As I type, I sit nestled under the warmth of my down comforter. Despite the early hour, I don't feel tired. The light shining through the blinds means it might actually be sunny today instead of the endless gray that has been the last week and a half.

I woke up early to finish a reading for my 11:30 class and have yet to crack the book. Getting on my computer was a big mistake. I facebooked, looked at pictures, and read other people's blogs. I get distracted way too easily.

But whilst I was being distracted it hit me.

I'm happy.

Really. I am happy.

Not that I have been depressingly sad the past years of my life, but I've never been consciously happy that I can remember.

I have a pretty great life. I'm getting an awesome education, and even though it is a lot of work, for the most part I enjoy it. I live in a great complex and have my own room with pretty cool roommates. My family rocks my socks, and everyone else's too, for that matter.

I live right across the street from a beautiful temple of the Lord, that I can go to and do baptisms anytime I want. I have a calling that keeps me busy, but makes me feel needed too.

And I have friends. Friends that make me laugh so hard I can't breathe. Friends that I can be myself with, that except me for all the mistakes I have made and apologized for. Friends that have changed my life forever.

Excerpt from a conversation I had last night from some of said friends/the sister.

Stacy Chatterton at 11:58pm June 10

I think Kristi is both beautiful and witty!

Kristi Wallwork at 12:09am June 11

Stacy!! I love you even more than I did a minute ago before reading this!
Remember when I left the water in the kitchen on for a while and you and Katie were sitting at the table, and she was like, "Save some for the whales Kristi" , and I was like, "You seem to be doing just fine." Bahahaha! I'm dang funny. :)

Stacy Chatterton at 12:10am June 11

HAHA. That one killed me. That, and when you seagulled her graham cracker. What was the other thing you said about her? OH YEAH. Katie "Hey, guess what?" You- "You're fat and no one likes you?" Or something to that effect. I love you too!

Katie Wallwork at 12:59am June 11

I LOVE that most of the funny stuff that you guys remembered from last semester was where you guys were being mean to me... but I just remembered that one time that I locked Stacy out of my room and she was no so happy so she picked my lock and upon entering gave me this death glare and chucked the bobby pin and basically charged me like a bull... i literally peed my pants i was laughing so hard!! haha..

Sarah Smith at 12:16am June 11

Oh whoa I am excited to be your future roommate! It sounds like it will be a fun time in apartment 107!

Kristi Wallwork at 12:20am June 11

Stacy- I'm just sitting in the living room by myself giggling like a creeper thinking about last semester.
Sarah- You have no idea. Every night is like a stand up routine. We are all hysterical individually, but combined we will make you pee your pants,

Stacy Chatterton at 12:21am June 11

Oh Sarah Smith *shakes head* You are in for a real treat this Fall...oh yes indeed.

***I know it sounds like all we did was pick on Katie, but she gave as good as she got.***

I love my life. :)

Option B

Or do we like this one more? It's the same price as the other one. I'm a little torn...

Thoughts?

So I want to buy this duvet cover for my bed, since mine has seen better days. It's on sale for $30, including tax, shipping and all that jazz.

Thoughts? Yeah or nay on the purchase? Tell me what you guys think...

Fried Dough

I made donuts on Friday! They turned out pretty good if I say so myself. They tasted a lot like scones, which is fine because they are delicious as well. We had to make some of the donuts fillable for the pastry cream that we made, that was pretty good too!

I had a blast, even if the guy using the fryer next to me did splash me with burning hot oil. I proceeded to splash him as well after I dropped in my first donut, so I guess we're even.

Sugar, It's in Our Blood!

I am taking a family history class this semester, and today we learned about doing research on our ancestors. So I typed in a few names and got a couple of hits. I found 2 really cool things though. They're not hard to find, and I'm sure many in my family have seen or already know this stuff but I thought it was crazy!!

Any who, I looked up Oris R Wallwork, my great-grandfather and there he was on a census record! Along with his brother and sister-in-law. It's so cool to see his name in print!

It also gives you the occupation and various other details. Referring back to the title of this post, sweets have always been a big thing in my family. We love chocolate, pie, cake, ice cream, cookies and especially carmel corn. Seriously though, my family is famous for its treats. I don't know if my love for sugar is bigger than the next guy, but sweetness is one of my favorite tastes.

It turns out, that right there in print, nestled between the unemployed and a book keeper is Oris. As a sugar boiler. We literally have sugar in our blood! How insane is that!? I love it! I'm finding out the craziest stuff about my heritage in this class and I'm loving it!

My 2nd cool find is the World War 1 draft card registration from my great-grandfather on my mom's side. Nephi Spendlove Workman registered for the draft at age 21. He had blue eyes and brown hair. He worked for his father, Nephi Johnson Workman, and was not disabled in any way. I can just imagine him filling out this form, just like we have to fill out forms today. It's crazy!!! This guy is my family, and I found a little piece of him. :)

Learning to Leap

Life is never how we plan it to be. I always told myself that I would pay for college using revenue from my first best-selling novel. After I started taking drum lessons, I thought I could be this amazing drummer for a Grammy-winning all girl rock band. Obviously none of these things have happened, although I still maintain high hopes for the first one. The point is, our plans don't always happen. Things change, we get new dreams. Whether because we realize that our current dreams are impossible, or we find something else we want even more.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I am teaching a lesson on Sunday that has similar themes. Things don't work out the way we picture them. I never thought that I'd have the life I have. It's a good life and I am grateful for it, but in all honesty, if I was given the opportunity to pick and choose what happened to me there would definitely be some things that would not be repeated.

We get disappointed and hurt and sad. That's life. Through my experiences I've learned that denying that things aren't the way you want them to be is pretty useless. You only feel sad and end up having to meet with a D.A. about truancy. That's a story for another day :).

I just felt the need to remind everyone that there are so many other beautiful ways are lives can go than the way we planned them. I'm still learning this, it's sometimes a difficult concept to grasp.

Heavenly Father knows what's up. He's not going to give us a crappy life that we can't possibly work with. He's going to give us rich lives full of amazing opportunities and laughter.

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...
Our plans may go awry, but the Lord knows what He's doing. We need to remember that.

Finished!

Here they are! Completed pictures of my baby pants, shirt, and bib!!! They turned out pretty good. There's also a picture of the stitching on the shirt and the pattern on the pants. The bib is pretty much a hand towel with a hole in the middle of it.
It's been fun learning these new skills. We started our next project today. We are making blessing dresses. This project is a little scary, because we are allowed to modify the patterns to our own taste, so I'm pretty much the only girl doing the dress the way that I am.
I wish you all could see some of the utterly ridiculous outfits past girls have made. So many ruffles and lace, and ribbons everywhere. Craziness! Mine is pretty basic, but really cute and sweet. I'm excited to get it going!

Snapshot

How I spend my Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, stationed next to a sewing machine, working my little fingers to the bone. :)