giving thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!! Well a day late, but better late than never. Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year. It allows us to reflect upon the many blessings we've been given. It amazes me how much Heavenly Father blesses us. I have so many things to be grateful for.

I'm grateful first and foremost for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is the true gospel here on this earth. I know that Heavenly Father lives and loves each and everyone of us. He hears and answers our prayers. He speaks to Latter-Day prophets and we can be blessed as we heed those words. He has provided a way for us to return and live with Him. I'm grateful for my older brother, Savior, and Redeemer Jesus Christ. I am grateful for His example, for His atoning sacrifice that we may each be made clean and pure and fit for His kingdom. To learn more about my beliefs, check out the "What I Believe" tab on the right of this page.

I'm grateful for my family. I have the most amazing family. I'm grateful for my hard-working and loving dad who supports me in all I do. I'm grateful for my kind, compassionate, and talented mother who is always interested in my life and always knows what to say. I'm grateful for my older sister and her husband, who have been there for me since coming out to school and have been such great examples. I'm also grateful for my little niece who's coming in February!! :) I'm grateful for my little sister, who is so hardworking, smart, fun, strong, and kind. I'm grateful for my little cutie, my baby brother who is very talented, intelligent, and the funniest kid I know. I'm also grateful for my awesome extended family and their support.

I'm grateful for my many friends and all those who have touched my life. I'm grateful for all the roommates that I've had over the past year. I have been so fortunate to have each of them in my life. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to be a student at BYU and to receive a quality education. I'm grateful for so many little things in this life as well, things like my cell phone, dangly earrings, sparkly eye shadow, ice cream, my keyboard, Netflix, and so much more. All these things, and so much more, are constant reminders of Heavenly Father's love for me.

 As for what's new with me... here's a quick update of what's been going on.

Classes have been relatively slow for the past few weeks but it's been a really nice break! Work has been busy--it's midterm time so lots of tests and lots of stressed students. But we always have a good time working.  October and November were full of some good times. We had a ward activity and went to Cornbelly's, which was super fun.

October ended with lots of Halloween happenings, including a dance, volunteering at a Halloween carnival, and some parties! 

Alice in Wonderland and Katniss

My awesome roommate Jenny worked as a publicist for Beyond 5 and asked us to help out at their concert. It was actually a lot of fun selling merchandise and meeting the boys and their great team. 

I've also been able to see Sarah a ton, which I am so grateful for.

BYU basketball game!

And of course, Thanksgiving has been wonderful. I'm at my grandparents house and we've been having a great time! My aunt, uncle, and cute little cousins all came down and we got to help decorate my grandparents' house for Christmas, have been playing lots of games, and had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner!

Cutie!

Good times with the cousins

Decorating for Christmas

Pretty mountains from my grandparents' house! 

Enjoy the holiday season! Hakuna matata,

Mallory

marching on

Hello hello! 

I figured I'd take some time to post an update! The past few weeks have been incredibly busy but also incredibly rewarding and enjoyable. I had lots of mid-terms, and let me tell you right now that going to the Testing Center to take a test is not nearly as fun as going to hand out tests. But regardless, I got through them and survived relatively unscathed. 

I went with some friends to True Blue Foam. We had a really good time, even though it was freezing cold. 

Before

and after! We are definitely loyal, strong, and TRUE blue! 

Then, that Friday I went to celebrate Julia's birthday with her and some friends. We went to dinner and then went to see the Saratov Approach. So I was a little nervous going to see it because I'm a baby and terrified of everything, but I was so glad I did get a chance to watch it. It was incredibly inspiring and truly made me reflect on the relationship I have with my Savior and Redeemer and my fellow men. It made me ponder whether or not I truly exhibit Christlike love to all those around me. It for sure gave me some insight. For more information about Mormon missionaries and my religious views, check out the "What I Believe" tab to the right. :) 

Julia's makeshift cake and candle!

Love her! 

The following Saturday my friend Casey and I ran a 5K! It was really hard, I'm not going to lie. But, we made it! It was actually a lot of fun. 

Then a week of madness passed with work and school. Last Friday night my roommates and I went out to see a movie and grabbed some dinner. We had delicious Thai food! 

Saturday morning I ran a 10K! It was surprisingly easy and I actually really enjoyed it. It was a really nice course, and despite the fact that it was freezing cold it was great! I actually ended up placing 2nd in my age division with a time of 56:51! For 6.2 miles, I will take it! Thanks to my wonderful sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Scott, for taking me up to Highland and cheering me on! 

Before the race

After the race with Katie and Scott

With my medal! I was a little excited about it! 

Little spiritual plug for the week: 

I am amazed at the tender mercies that the Lord blesses with me with every day. Henry B. Eyring gave a wonderful talk in the October 2007 General Conference entitled "O Remember, Remember" (see the full version here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/10/o-remember-remember). One thing that really resonated with me was that he wrote in a journal nightly. He recalls: 

"Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened."

I decided to put that to the test. I have been recording in a little journal every evening how I have seen the Lord's hand in my life. I am absolutely amazed at the little things Heavenly Father blesses me with that comfort me, make me happy, or are true answers to my prayers. Though they are small and seemingly simple--a smile, a phone call to my family, running into an old friend, a letter-- they add up and show that Heavenly Father does care about me in my life and He is watching over me. He blesses me with the little things that honestly matter the most to me. I challenge you to try it out. Evaluate how the Lord blesses you. You will be amazed at how you see His hand and love in your life. We, like Nephi of old, can learn that the "tender mercies of the Lord" are evident because of our "faith" (see 1 Nephi 1:20). 

Really though, hakuna matata! 

Mallory

life in color

I cannot believe it is October! Seriously, that is just so insane.

Things are going so so well! My classes are tough but I just finished my first wave of midterms. Thankfully things will be far calmer for the remainder of this week. How lucky I am to be a part of the ComD program! I love it more than anything. Work at the Testing Center is so good! I am there so often, it is weird when I go there to take a test rather than work. However, I'd much rather give out tests than take tests of my own. 

Well a lot has happened in the past few weeks!

One of my old roommates, Hailey, opened her mission call. She is going to be serving in Copenhagen, Denmark! It was so fun to get back together with all our spring friends and celebrate this happy moment with Hailey!

Some of the girls of 2204 :)

Spring friends! 

Congrats Hailey! I am so proud of you and couldn't be happier for you!

Well this past week was one of my roommates, Erika's, birthday! What a wonderful day we had celebrating such a wonderful girl! We went out to dinner and got sushi! I will admit, it was my first time trying it and I was a little leery, but I actually really liked it! I was pleasantly surprised! I guess there's a first time for everything! Afterwards, we had a lovely little party for her at our apartment. 

Roomies! <3 

This past weekend was General Conference (for more information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, check out the "What I Believe" link to the right). It was an incredible weekend of inspiration and learning from our beloved modern-day prophet, Thomas S. Monson, as well as the apostles and general authorities. My lovely friend Kirsten was fortunate enough to get tickets to the Saturday afternoon session. We had a total blast up in Salt Lake. While the boys we went to Conference with were at the Priesthood session, Kirsten and I got to explore Temple Square and get in some much needed catch up! We went out to dinner afterwards. It was a great day with new and old friends.

Love her. 

Ran into Lindsey on Temple Square! Shout out to her for also receiving her mission call this past week. :)

Perfect day. 

How blessed I am! I attend an outstanding university, live in a wonderful ward with fantastic roommates, have some pretty incredible friends, and I have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I cannot express my gratitude enough to my loving Heavenly Father. Remember that life is beautiful and you're never fully dressed without a smile! 

Hakuna matata,

Mallory  

busy as a bee

Greetings from the great state of Utah! We are now in week 4 of the fall semester, which is so crazy! Time is absolutely flying by. So where to begin? Well I moved into my new apartment. It is SO cute and I love it so much! I also love my roommates! Let me tell you right now, they are amazing. Seriously. All three of them are like the epitome of all things good, service-oriented, and fun. After being with them for these few short weeks, I'm already inspired by their great examples and guidance to me. Let's just say Heavenly Father knew that I would need to live with these girls because there is so much to learn from them about selflessness, kindness, and optimism. 

Classes are absolutely wonderful. I'm taking Speech Anatomy, Language Development, Clinical Phonetics, Language Science, and Doctrine and Covenants (which if you're unfamiliar with this amazing book of revelation, check out the "What I Believe" link to your right). They are certainly going to keep me busy, but I'm all for that. I love my professors and it is so nice to finally be in all program classes! They have all just confirmed that Communication Disorders is the perfect major for me. I love it. So. Much. It's going to be a really great semester.

I'm also working at the Testing Center! I absolutely love it. It seriously is so much fun! It was really cool to be on the other side of the counter and handing out tests. Plus, who doesn't feel legit wearing a name badge?

So here's the past few weeks in snapshots:

BYU vs. UT game (which in case you were wondering, BYU dominated) with my roommate Rachel and our friend Ariel

After the torrential rainstorm at the stadium. It was insane!

This is us standing at a corner. We were knee deep in water from all the rain! 

Some old and new friends at bowling!

The BYU vs. Utah game. Despite the score, I'm definitely proud to be a cougar!

Other highlights not picutred: game night, baking with my wonderful old roommate and twin Sarah, party at Julia's apartment complex followed by a chick-flick, lots of much-needed running, playing tennis, spending time with my sister and cheering on my brother-in-law in a half-marathon, and much more! 

Things are crazy busy and that's expected with school. But things are also awesome! I'm definitely feeling blessed! 

Hakuna matata,

Mallory

Time flies

Well today is my last day home! It's definitely bittersweet. I am really excited to go back to school and get back into a regular routine. But it's going to be really hard to leave my family! It's been a really nice summer and the break was much needed! 

This last week has been full of running errands and doing last minute shopping. It's been really fun to spend some time with my mom as we ran errands. I also got to drive my dad's 1965 Mustang this week! Well I use the word drive lightly, seeing as I was really more of learning how to drive a stick shift in the parking lot. It's really hard to drive because it's super old and the clutch is really tough. But it went surprisingly well! 

Last night my dad and I went on a daddy daughter date! We went out to dinner in Houston and then went to the Astros game! I'd never been to Minute Maid park before so the whole experience was cool! It was really fun and it was nice to do something different before I left. 

I can't believe that I'm leaving for Utah tomorrow! You know what they say--time flies when you're having fun!

Hakuna matata,

Mallory

An attempt to be crafty

So sometimes I like to pretend to be crafty.

And when I say pretend, I mean it. Because I'm really not. I wish I was. So I try to be. But, I'm sure you deduce that much from looking at my other "crafty" posts. So whatever.

But seriously, today I tried a craft. I wanted to make some magnets for the fridge in my new apartment (which I move into on Saturday!), and for some decorations in my room holding up pictures. This was actually really simple and rather self-explanatory, but I took pictures to document it anyway! 

What you'll need:

Paper or cloth flowers, jewels, and anything else that's cute, magnets, and a hot glue gun

I found these at some craft stores and I seriously fell in love with them! So fun! 

The rest is really simple! Place hot glue on one side of the magnet, and place the topper on (flowers, jewels, etc.). 

Allow to cool and set and voila! 

I think they're really fun! So there's my attempt at creativity for the day. 

Hakuna matata! 

Mallory

Lately

The past few weeks have honestly been pretty uneventful. I got my wisdom teeth out last Monday so I was pretty miserable. I didn't have a super speedy recovery and it was not enjoyable. My life consisted of eating ice cream, pudding, and all things frozen, and watching Netflix all day. So not much went on last week.

I said goodbye to one of my very best friends, Angie. She's leaving on an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (for more information, check out the "What I Believe" link on the right-hand side). It is most definitely hard to see her go. She is going to be an AMAZING missionary though! I can't wait to hear about her incredible experiences.

At Angie's farewell talk!

Allison and I also had the chance to see one of our really good friends from Oklahoma and Texas, Ashley. We had a great time at dinner and catching up.

I leave to head back up to school in a week and I am so stoked! I have missed Utah and BYU so much! Of course, new beginnings can be kind of scary. I won't lie to you, I am a little nervous. But at the same time, I know who holds my future. I have hope and faith that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me, and He will guide me through any challenges that I face. It's a great feeling knowing that. 

Hakuna matata,

Mallory

The "Maine" Event

I just got home from a lovely week-long trip to the Eastern coast--New England. My mom grew up in Maine, and she's been back a few times for family and friend obligations--one wedding she went back for she took Katie, who was 2 at the time, and me only a few months after I'd been born--but never had been able to take us as a family for a vacation. This summer we finally accomplished that goal. I'll tell you all about it, but fair warning, this is going to be a long post with a lot of pictures!

We flew into Boston, Massachusetts and spent about two days there. Boston really is a lot of fun! It has so much history and some really quaint parts. 

Chilling at the airport

Boston temple! What a beautiful place! :) 

Site of the capture of Paul Revere 

We went to Lexington and Concord. This is a statue at the North Bridge, the site of the "shot heard around the world". 

The North Bridge 

We went to Walden Pond. Allison and I read "Walden" by Thoreau in our AP Lang class. We were really excited to see the place where he wrote it! 

 We also spent time walking the Freedom Trail. We got to see some pretty cool things, like the North Church where Paul Revere lit the lanterns, memorials and grave sites for key figures in the Revolution, the USS Constitution, and so much more! 

Paul Revere's house

Memorial and tomb of Paul Revere 

We then went to spend a few days in Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. It was seriously so much fun and gorgeous! The weather was absolutely beautiful! We had a total blast together as a family. We spent the first day doing a ton of hiking! We hiked up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. It was a 4.2 mile hike up to the top of it. We started at 7 a.m. and it was very foggy on the way up. Once we approached the top, we were above the fog line. It was a really spectacular view from the summit, as well as seeing all the greenery up the mountainside. 

On the mountainside.

We made it to the top!! 

Victory! 

We also spent some time on the rocky shores and coastline. 

The second day in Acadia, we went sea kayaking on Frenchman's Bay. It was a ton of fun! It was gorgeous out there on the water. 

On our final day, we spent time biking through the park. It was absolutely gorgeous! We had a great time looking at the scenery. 

Then we went to my mom's hometown in Maine. We spent some time visiting her friends and extended family. We also went on a little cruise around the bay in Portland and saw some beautiful lighthouses. 

All and all, it was a fabulous vacation. We loved seeing the great state of Maine and some parts of New England. We loved spending time together as a family. I feel so blessed to have them in my lives.

Enjoy your summer, and hakuna matata,

Mallory