We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet

I will take this brief moment to honor a wonderful man, President Gordon B. Hinckley, who passed away Sunday night. There have been so many words used over the last few days to describe his impact on the lives of so many in this world, and may I just add my own. He was a great man, a true prophet of God, and I was saddened by the news of his death because he and his teachings have meant so much to me all of my life. However, this sadness was brief as I recollected the joy he must feel at reuniting with his beloved wife, Marjorie Pay. He lived an amazing 97 years, and while he will be missed, the Church is still true and led by Jesus Christ, and I am grateful for the part President Hinckley played in my life, even though I never met him.

In other news, I have been spending the last couple of days being extremely tired, mainly because I am totally spineless when it comes to being around my friends. I tell myself, "You get up at 5 in the morning!" and yet I stay with my friends until midnight. -sigh- That's all right. Tonight I'll be going to sleep earlier. I was excited to see my old friend Ben last night, who I haven't seen in nearly a year and a half. And there is rejoicing tonight since I didn't have to go back to work tonight for a meeting, which I did last night and the night before. Yay!

I can't believe February is a day and a half away! Wow. Isn't it amazing how time both crawls and flies? How is that possible? But it does happen, kind of like how a house can simultaneously burn up AND burn down. Ah, the joys of the English language. I revel in them. What a nerd. Allow me to leave you with this inspirational thought: "If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them." -Sue Grafton

With affection and alliteration, Me.

Get Your Filthy Hands Off My (or Esther's) Dessert

Just a quick update on me: nothing new to report. Really. My life still appears boring for the most part. Work and home. But I do find things to pass the time. One of my resolutions is to eat a little bit more like an adult and less like a college student, considering that I am no longer one. So last week, I went on a completely different kind of grocery shopping trip than I have before. Well, not entirely. Occasionally I have eaten more healthy stuff, but as I was in the check-out line, looking over my purchases, I really thought to myself, "Wow, this is stuff my mother would buy!" Amazing! So hopefully I'll keep up that goal.

Last weekend was quite full, so that's good. We had a stake "luau" . . . indoors . . . wearing jeans under our lavalavas. But hey, we had a good time trying out the hula hoops and dancing around like idiots. Then there were the "Hawaiian Hotness" awards, which were a form of costume contest that none of us were informed of. So it was quite a shock when this random guy got up with a microphone to announce these awards and the first name he read was mine! I got the "Pretty as a Picture" award, for which I was secretly proud (not much of a secret anymore), and a picture frame. After the luau, a few of us headed over to the UVSC Institute dance, and I've never gone to one before, but it was quite an experience. I actually had a lot of fun. There were plenty of people from my ward there, and we were none of us afraid to "cut loose" (you could literally feel the floor moving during "Footloose"). I think I lost about five pounds that night from all the dancing.

The rest of the weekend I pretty much spent with my Centennial crew: Esther, Becky, Whitney, Kelly, and Jeremie. I always like being with them, and I never want to leave, so therefore I always stay way too late if I have work the next morning. We almost went ice skating on Saturday night, and once I agreed to go, I was actually looking forward to it; however, it ended up being canceled that night. Kelly may not have believed me, but I was actually disappointed we didn't go. Maybe some day I actually WILL learn to ice skate. We shall see. Esther and I put together dinner and dessert on Sunday, and naturally, it was a success. We (and when I say "we", I mean "Esther"--considering I was making the dinner) made a cheesecake for the first time ever, and the reviews were all extremely positive. So yay for my family recipe book once more!

All right, not so quick of an update, but who's surprised? Not me. I'm not capable of writing anything short. Let me just leave you with this thought: "I don't think I'm alone in saying that Jupiter should be considered an enemy planet." -J. Handy

With affection and alliteration, Me.

Fuzzy and Blue (and Pink!)

People are back from Christmas break, so I finally have friends around again! Yay! Well, that's not to say that absolutely everybody was gone; just quite a few. Anyway, so while everybody else gets settled back into classes and trying to find dates, I remain the bagel queen (while also trying to find dates). The weather continues cold and snowy, but what else is new? I'm enjoying walking to work early in the morning, trying to keep my feet warm. Actually, today was a different goal--staying upright on the icy sidewalk. Unfortunately, I didn't actually succeed at that goal. I completely biffed it less than a block away from work and went down on my left side. Nothing twisted or sprained or broken, just a couple of bruises. I got up fairly quickly, actually going so far as to say out loud to myself, "Walk it off, Megan. Walk it off." Thank goodness it's dark when I walk to work.

Last weekend I got to spend a lot of time with my wonderful friend Esther! I was pretty excited to see her back, especially when she produced a Christmas present for me that I was not expecting, but was completely excited about as soon as she brought them out of her room. These AMAZING pink fuzzy slippers! ("fuzzy green flipper slippers! ah, divine. have them gift wrapped." who can name THAT quote?)

So yes. Esther is amazing and wonderful. I had a good time hanging out with her. I saw a lot of Kelly and Jeremie, too, and they're great guys to see. I'm really lucky I have such awesome friends. Yay! And yay for Kelly's baseball cap that is really too large for me but he puts it on my head, anyway. How cool am I?


Speaking of awesome friends, a group of us (which included Esther, Kelly, and Jeremie, plus Steve and Cody) went to a wonderful friend's wedding reception, Mike Jensen (no relation, as far as i know). He was clearly ecstatic with happiness. After every hug , he exclaimed, "I'm married!" Good to know he's excited for it. I think we were all pretty excited for them. Fun to dance a little bit, too (stress on the "little"--i was taking a lot of pictures with cody's camera while she danced).

For Auld Lang Syne

Happy New Year, everyone! So strange to think that we're in the year 2008, but hey, time flies. I am determined that this is going to be a good year. Hope you all have determined the same thing. The last couple of weeks have been pretty great with the holiday season and family stuff.

On the 22nd, my cousin Adam got married in Utah, so there was a bunch of family out for that, fun stuff. The loudness of the Kelly clan in small spaces is sure amplified. We got gradually louder and louder at the temple as we were waiting for Adam and Christina to emerge. It was great to have some good times and yummy food with the family for that. Right after those festivities, I drove up to my sister's place in Clinton to spend the next couple of days through Christmas. Sunday the 23rd was Dad's birthday, so we headed over to Uncle Floyd's in Salt Lake for a Jensen family party, which ended up being really cool since it was the first time ALL the Jensens have been in the same room in too many years to count. It was really great to see that side of the family, too, and to sing choruses from "Messiah" was especially a treat.

Christmas was a pretty good day. We got quite a bit of snow on Christmas Eve, but Christmas day dawned clear and beautiful! I haven't spent Christmas with little kids since I was one myself (well, kind of a lie, since we were all together last year, but that was in hawaii, so it wasn't quite the same all-out Christmas morning adventure), and it was really interesting and fun to watch the kids that morning. Although, I will admit, I wasn't paying attention very well during the present-opening because I was so distracted by a gift that my sister had given me . . . how selfish of me. But we had hot tomato, for which I was especially excited, having missed that at Thanksgiving, and some more really yummy food, and Kelly and I played piano duets. It was all in all a good Christmas.

The week between Christmas and New Year's really wasn't too exciting. Just work and the occasional discovery that someone else was back in Provo. Last night, we had a party up at Hayley and Jenna's place. There were ten or twelve people that showed up. We had ham and funeral potatoes (mmm . . . i think the third time i had that meal in the last two weeks), then played Apples to Apples before going outside and lighting a "bonfire" and freezing our toes before the countdown to midnight. My friends and I are kind of weird, but I wouldn't have us any other way. So here's to a new year, everyone!