Winter Joy

It's that time again. The time when the living room floor is cleared and turned into my ice skating rink. Every four years this happens. This year is the first year I have attempted pair skating and well it has been determined that we will never attempt any of our lifts on a real ice skating rink. The rug will have to suffice. I have almost perfected my triple toe loop and have critiqued every costume and choreography of every routine.

The Olympics came at a perfect time because Mr. Bluth has been MIA with school and taking care of church responsibilities. He is currently in D.C. rocking it at an International Moot Court competition. So that leaves me here in Chicago to enjoy the Olympics and lots of cereal. Don't worry I do have other things to do, but there is plenty of time for some Olympics.

Thankfully I have a mom who is working 68 hour weeks (who does that?!?) and is not annoyed at multiple phone calls during the day. Our lives have consisted of school, church, the olympics, and talks with mama lee. And to conclude, life has been good.

Now we must all reminiscence on some of the amazing figure skating costumes throughout the years:

If you know anything about figure skating then you probably have heard the name Oksana Baiul. She accomplished a lot during her career including owning that pink fear on her dress.

We all know this dress and that face. The dress is very flattering and elegant.

Pair skating always gets the award for most creative in my opinion.

It has been an exciting couple of weeks and now hopefully with the Olympics coming to an end it will mean that Chicago will finally start to warm up.

Shredded Wheat

There is something special about breakfast. I don't know if it is because the mind has rested from the night's sleep or the power of food in the morning to wake you up, but my mind sometimes goes crazy as I eat my breakfast.

This morning was one of those mornings when I was lost in my thoughts and I was eating Shredded Wheat. Shredded Wheat takes probably twice as much time to eat than cereals such as Honey Nut Cheerios. Most cereal just shrivels up in the milk, but Shredded Wheat is hearty and makes my mouth work a little harder to chew it all up. This serves as a problem if I am running behind for work, but I still have a strong love for Shredded Wheat.

Before Mr. Bluth came into the kitchen and reminded me that the train would be coming soon, one of the many thoughts I had was regarding social media. Mr. Bluth and I have had many conversations and will continue to discuss social media and how we use it. One thing that happens so often (and Mr. Bluth can give you the article that talks about this phenomenon) is that most people only post about the good things in life and their accomplishments and too often we are left to compare our weaknesses with someone else strengths.

While I see the problems and the outcomes of such behaviors on social media, I too can't help but share the good things in my life. My Shredded Wheat allowed me some additional time to think about not how others use social media, but how I use social media. I point the finger at myself.

I thought about the last blog post and how we both talked about our favorite things from the last year and how I have not shared my struggles and the hardships on here. Is that a good thing? Have I been completely honest?

I finished my thoughts on the train into work today and I think that I have been open and honest. The past year had some challenging moments where tears were shed and there were many times that I had to turn to the Lord and plead for help and guidance, but overall the past year was nothing but happiness. The Gospel of Jesus Christ allows us to apply the Atonement into our lives and everyday we can be made whole again. It was Christ and His atoning grace that has filled us and He gave us the ability to move forward with hope and faith. Hard things happened, but I don't feel the pain from them anymore. I just remember the experience and the lesson that I learned and that is because of the Atonement.

And so I am going to continue to share the good things in our lives. I am going to use the quote that I repeated every day on my mission as I served in the Mormon Battalion Historic Site and say that "despite our circumstances, we chose to be happy."

On that note, here is a shot on my way home from the work. The river is finally melting and it was NOT in the negative numbers this morning (it was only 3 degrees).