Something quotidian

In my advanced writing class, we've been talking a lot about observing the quotidian, or everyday, things in our lives.  So, as I've been walking around these last couple of days (to school, the temple, etc.) I've been trying to observe what I see around me.  I realized there's so many beautiful and interesting things that I often overlook!  Here's some photos of the things I've been discovering and rediscovering:

The spiderwebs have suspended these leaves/plant matter in the air.  From a distance, it just looks like they are floating in the air.

As I was looking between the fence posts that separate my apartment complex parking lot from a little gravel path, I noticed that there were sunflowers growing!  It was beautiful!

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This funky little plant grows on that same gravel path.  I had never noticed it before.

As I walked up the street, I saw this striking flower.  I loved noticing all the shades of orange and yellow in it.  Does it just look like summer?

These beautiful flowers are just growing, basically like weeds, in someone's yard.

These random cement blocks, that I had never noticed before, form a path up a hill. Some of them lie flat and some of them are crooked.

Sod looks like a grass Swiss Cake Roll.

The gutters look so cool!  It was a really cool perspective.

You have to make time to "STOP" for the temple.

All things lead to the temple, even the plants!

I had never looked at the tiling pattern around the fountains.  It's pretty cool.

The fountains reflected the growing clouds.

Some of the daisies were starting to die, but some new ones peeked out underneath.

There was this beautiful bright flower, just peeking out underneath the fence.

The rose had both yellow and pink in it!  It was gorgeous!

This mailbox was super quirky and fun!

I had so much finding all these beauties in the quotidian parts of my life (aka, walking around my neighborhood).  It's amazing what you can discover there!

Keep calm and carry on

This past week has been pretty crazy!  First weeks of school often are.  But this one seemed even crazier than usual.  Between balancing new classes, homework/projects, looking for a job, doing some wedding and marriage planning/prep stuff, and a couple other things, my plate has been full to brimming over this week.

Earlier this week, I honestly was feeling quite overwhelmed.  But then, I realized something.  I was working so hard, I was forgetting to take breaks.  When I finally calmed down and started taking breaks (like reading a fun, new book and making a delicious ice cream treat), everything was just so much better!  My load hadn't changed, but my attitude definitely had.  I finally remembered this catchphrase that I had seen everywhere in Britain:

Besides figuring out how to be calmer this week, a couple of other, really awesome things happened.

Family time!


Sunday, Joel and I got to spend time with his Uncle Chris, Aunt Char, and their four kids.  They are so nice! It was just so much fun!  We just played a bunch of board games, talked a lot, and other such good stuff.  It was fantastic.

Tuesday, I got to babysit my niece and nephew.  I always love spending time with them!  It was quite a bit of an adventure this time, between Miles still figuring out the whole potty training thing and Molly crying once for 40 minutes straight.  But, I had such a great time with them!  I can't even explain the joy I feel when I hold my little sleeping Molly as I attempt to guess what Miles is acting out with his blankie.  It's one of those things you can't explain until you've experienced it.

Reunion time!


Thursday, Kensey and Brittany came and visited!!!!  I miss these girls so much!  It was so good to see them again.  It's crazy to think how long it'll be before we're all together again.  You see, Brittany is just about to leave for 18 months to go on a mission.  I'm so proud of her!  The Spanish speaking people of Arcadia, California are a lucky bunch!

So, this week took a bit of getting used to, but it ended up being a great one!

At yeast it worked! (adventures in bread making)

Joel had really wanted to make bread for quite a while now and so, yesterday, we had adventures in bread making.  It was so much fun!  Here's photographic evidence of the adventure:

The yeast was blooming like flowers! (or flour? sorry, couldn't resist the culinary pun)

Breaking up the butter

Pouring in the yeast

Mixing the flour in

Joel maybe had a bit too much fun punching the bread down : D

It was looking pretty good before it went into the oven, so we were hopeful.

Then it turned out beautifully.

As you can tell, we were pretty excited!

The delicious product!

Between the actual baking part and playing frisbee, foosball, and talking when the dough was rising, it was a fantastic-and delicious- adventure.

All's Well that Ends Well

Well, I have finished my whirlwind 7 week adventure in Europe.  In some ways it feels like I just left, and in others, it feels like it's been an eternity.  Funny how time does that.

My last couple of days in London were full of studying!  I had some pretty intense finals and a paper to worry about.  So, a lot of nights looked something like this:

But, my finals ended up going really well and I was quite happy with them.

After our last final on Tuesday (and finishing packing), Jessica, Katie, and I celebrated being done with our finals and our last day in London by going out for Sticky Toffee Pudding.  It was super delicious and we made quick work of it (like, we finished it in probably a minute or so).

The delicious sticky toffee pudding

As you can tell, it was quite delicious

After that, we went and did a final walk around Hyde Park.  We lived really close to this park and between walking and running around it throughout these 7 weeks, I've really grown to love it.  It was nice to have a last walk around.

Then, that night our group went to a performance of Henry V in the Globe Theater.  It was a spectacular ending to a wonderful trip!  I got to have the experience of being a groundling (yay for standing for 3 hours!).  Since I was right next to the steps leading up to the stage, the actors passed right by me.  It was a really cool experience to be that close to the stage.  The acting was also wonderful (especially the guy who played Henry).  It was a perfect closing scene for the trip.

On Wednesday, it was a lot of traveling (about 16 hours or so), but I finally made it home, back to Utah.  I've missed Joel and my family so much.  I have loved getting to see them and be with them again since I've been back in the states.

I loved being in London and the wonderful experiences I had there, and I'm now so excited to be here back in the United States.  Truly "All's well that ends well"

Home away from Home

Now that I'm quickly approaching the end of my stay here in London, I thought I'd give you guys a tour of where I've been living for the last 6-7 weeks.  The London Centre!  We live about a block away from Hyde Park in a beautiful part of West London.

Here it is from the outside!  You can't really tell, but it's about 5 stories with a basement.

 The library where I've done quite a bit of studying, blogging, etc.

The living room where we meet before dinner

The formal dining room where part of the group eats and we take our tests.

The servery where we eat and watch movies.

The classroom.  We have firesides, class, watch movies, and play lots of music in this room.

The 66 stairs I go up to get to my room

My room!  Well, part of it.  You can't tell from this picture, but my room actually has 12 girls that sleep in it and there's a room of closets that divide the room in half.

There's the grand tour!  It's been a pretty great place to live, although I am looking forward to having some privacy and not climbing 66 stairs to get to my room when I come back to the states.