Part II: How to have the most amazingest birthday EVER!

On the day of your birthday, go for a run in obnoxious neon-yellow shirts with one of your favorite running partners. Wear your new orthotics too so that you feel uber-powerful and mega charged!

When you get home from institute, find your cousins sitting in the living room with the most AMAZING biflavored cake ever! Both of your most loved flavors would be involved- in this case, funfetti and chocolate! Thank you Jeff and Haley and Megan!
Then, when your crazy roommate Michelle sees the motorized couch going by, she'll chase it down and ask them if the birthday girl can have a ride. Of course, they'll agree and take you for a spin to the tunes of Michael Jackson playing through the couch cushions!
Then, obviously it is time for some roommate ice cream at Cold Stone. Thanks to Mom and Dad for the gift card- we were pretty much in heaven. Mine was cake batter ice cream with brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough... YIKES deliciousness!

What birthday trip to Cold Stone is complete without a dance party to Smashmouth?!?! No glass was smashed in the process, nor too many customers scared away ;)
Then, to finish the night, open the packages Mom and Dad sent from home (hopefully they will include your favorite games and a classic Disney movie like Mulan), and call them to tell them all about your day's adventures.
Spend some quality time with the people you love, and your day is complete!

Part I: How to have the most amazingist birthday EVER!

First of all, you must spend an entire week at home with your family. Have a good brother-in-law that calls to convince you that you need some family time and then get on a plane the very next day, never suspecting just how much you have needed to be at home. Have loving parents who pick you up with dogs and take you to see your new niece first thing upon your arrival.
Then, you spend every day with your family. I got to hold Mikayla for hours at a time and watch her ever-changing faces. We nicknamed her "D.Q" for Drama Queen, but Dad (aka. Big Grandad) says we will NOT be calling her that!
I got to discover some pretty incredible things about my family as I watched them around Mikayla and as they helped me escape from the cares of the world. They have so much faith and more love than I ever knew before. Mom and I had grand adventures running errands and decided we are fans of Eegee's flavor of the month for February- Mango Tango. According to Meagan, it's the tango part that's a bit iffy, but it was pretty delicious! Meagan and Dustin and I had lots of good talks, we all loved hearing from Seth, and Dad took me up to the land with "the Boys" for some stargazing and to ponder on life.
Pretty much every day, you dress up Mikayla and have a photo shoot. Mom and Dud are pros at making her look absolutely adorable.
Pretty much every waking minute is with your family. It is the best! (This is one of my most favorite pictures of Dad ever- he bought Mikayla this outfit on clearance and it is DARLING!)... and the hat just makes the whole thing complete ;>
The night before leaving, the family goes to the Cheesecake Factory and enjoys a $130 meal- complete with strawberry and raspberry lemonades- on the house! We had SOOOO much delicious food! My Louisiana-style pasta was a favorite with everyone- mmmmm! Good choice!

The next night, go over to Dustin and Meagan's again for the last time and sit and talk with your family. Have some of Meagan's most excellent Darn Good Chocolate Cake. By this time, you will have realized that you have been blessed in the last week and in your life with tender mercy after tender mercy.

...and it was good.

I think that that phrase may be one of my favorites in the scriptures as well as my favorite to describe my life. Everything that Heavenly Father has created in me and in my life is so good.

Luke helped me to write a posting earlier this evening, but I lost it, so sorry Luke! We took a detour from writing to look at pictures of his family and mission. Two hours later, we found ourselves still flipping through the pictures on my computer. Over Christmas Break, I stole Dad's computer for a day and downloaded a bunch of old pictures from when we were growing up. Most of them involved our family, "The Kartchners" (aka. Zane and Suzy's family), other family members, Payson, the cabin, and/or Jeeps. It made me so happy to look through those pictures again. They helped me to remember how blessed our family is- I love that in our family, we are all so different, but we really are each others' best friends. I love that in our family, we know how to have a VERY good time :) I love that in our family, there is deep faith.

I loved spending two weeks at home at Christmastime and seeing the growth we are experiencing. Some of my favorite times at home were late night talks and drives with Dad, working with Mom for Meagan's baby shower and watching her serve for literally two weeks straight (not to count the weeks of preparation before), seeing Meagan's belly and Dustin's smile get bigger and bigger every day, and definitely reading the letter that Seth sent on Christmas Eve.

Today I had the opportunity to talk in church about repentance and forgiveness. I shared with them the joy I have felt in my life as I've watched Seth grow from the changes he is making in his life- praying for physical healing, learning from the humility of others, trusting God to help him with Spanish, wanting to learn and become more. It is a MIRACLE to see how much he is blessed!

Now... for more of an update on day to day living. Highlights of the past few weeks have included having Jeffrey come home from his mission and come up to Provo to go to BYU. He and I are on the same intramural innertube water polo team... if you couldn't guess from the name, it is an absolute RIOT! I have also enjoyed being back in school and discovering that I really love what I am learning- this semester I am in classes about speech science, audiology in children, language disorders, and articulation and phonological disorders. For fun, I am taking a class on temples and also singing in the non-auditioned university chorale.

At nighttime, I like to come home and go for a run (only some of the time do I really like it, honestly) and then to spend time with Luke. We've been "courting" as he calls it, for about a month and a half now, and we have developed a pretty miraculous friendship. We have a lot of fun doing "nerdy" things together- like looking at pictures and making homemade pizza and playing the piano and going to the Distribution Center and watching Legacy. What can you do? It brings me a lot of joy and a lot of opportunities to learn.

And so... it is good.