"You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end."

If the Lord gives us challenges so that we can be stronger,
at this point I should win an Iron Man competition.

Except I don't feel that way. 

In these moments of weakness, when the Lord asks you to muster up the strength to keep trying,  Satan works even harder to make you feel inadequate.

It is in these moments that you have to somehow step back and remind yourself what an incredible person you are.  You are talented, smart, beautiful, very much needed and very much loved.  If you can't see those things right now, at least remember YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD.  He loves you with all of His being, and only wants to see you succeed and be happy. 

He wants you to come home to Him, but you must first be challenged.  You must be made perfect through trials.  He gave you a way to be made perfect again, through the Atonement, the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. He will not give you a challenge you cannot overcome with his help. 

He knows YOU, better than you know yourself.  He knows your hidden strengths.  What you may think is a weakness can become a strength.

Do all that you can.  Ask for his help - HE WANTS TO.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

–Lawrence J. Wilcox (1940-2010), Ottawa ON

Red Faces

even though Stephen and I are in the same major. 

 same classes. 

same group of friends. 

I didn't think marriage would change the way people acted around us.

We did date for a long time 

and we do act the same as we always have. 

But apparently we are famous in the department. 

The only success story?

We walk into class, 

"Ah!  The Wood's are here!"   

We get papers back, 

"And for the Woods!"

We attend grad school meetings, 

"So you're the department couple?!"

We attend meetings for engineers and their spouses,

"Only one per couple... 

Unless of course you are both engineers!"

{grand gesture our direction}

I didn't think my face turned red. 

But apparently it does.  

And my friends, seeing as they are all engineering guys, 

like to point it out. 

Ah well.  

Great things are happening to me, right?

Happy Friday!

Good. Better. Best.

We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.

- Elder Dallin H. Oaks

My list of things to do in life is miles long.  Recently I have realized that it may not be possible to finish.  There is absolute truth in Elder Oak's statement.  Sometimes, we have to give up dreams in order to pursue others.  And while it is sad to see those dreams float away, we look towards the future at the bigger and better things that await us, and smile.

Well I am definitely smiling.  

Life has been so good to me. 

And while some dreams have been given up, 

others are coming true before my eyes.

I couldn't be happier

:)

Oh wouldn't it be nice :)

"Wouldn't it be nice?

You know it seems the more we talk about it

It only makes it worse to live without it..."

The Beach Boys

Author Unknown

Not really author unknown.  Its either Dr. Seuss or Robert Fulgham.  But I wasn't going to get into that debate. 

truth from Albert

wise words

and if you havent seen the movie you most definitely should. 

Audrey Hepburn

E.E. Cummings.

inside and out

truth.

they think they're wise ;)

even though they taste gross...

What's going on outside?

this comic came from a place called PhD comics.  

It's one of my personal fave's
AND
it reminded me of something that happened today.


SO
3:00 rolls around and it's time for my 3 hour signal processing lab.
I sit down at my computer,
log in,
and wait for the rest of the lab section to show up.

people trickle in
then WHAM
the lights go out.
(okay so maybe it didn't make a WHAM noise, but you get the idea)
We're all a bit taken aback.
After a couple minutes of talking,
we decide to go into the hall
with the security lights
and work on homework
until we figure out what's going on.

Then the TA remembers,
"Crap, this happened a couple years ago
when the construction crew hit our main power lines.
The fume hoods in the Chem E labs stopped working
and everyone had to evacuate the building
before the gasses leaked.
Let's go ahead and evacuate now just to be safe..."

We exit the Clyde,
and see it is a beautiful, GLORIOUS day.
We sit out front the building
where lots of other engineering classes,
as well as classes from other buildings (who apparently also lost their power)
congregated, continuing on with their lectures.

The other classes seemed so happy to be outside,
enjoying the beautiful sun.

We stood there squinting.

I don't think we quite knew what to do with warm sunshine,
and a bright sky...

most of us enter the Clyde around 8 am,
and don't exit until around 7 pm...
As cliche, stereotypical, picture perfect as this may sound.
It was so true.
I'm sure we looked crazy.
Just standing there squinting.
We honestly didn't know what to think of non-fluorescent lights.

And just to add to the humor,
today was a HUGE engineering career fair
with LOADS of recruiters interviewing students for jobs and internships.
The Wilk lost power too.
Which means all the recruiters were standing outside as well.

For an hour or so,
it was a giant nerd convention all over campus.
Guys dressed all fancy in their suits and ties
talking about C++, micro-processing, biotechnology...

It was a sight.

Long story kind of shorter,
the power came back on a little over an hour later
and everyone went back into the windowless Clyde
to continue on with their studies.
We weren't able to do lab 3,
so I'm not quite sure how we're going to make up for that.
But I did get a lot of other work done.
Stayed in the CADEM until 8:30!


Man,
I love being an engineer.

Can't believe I forgot to share. Hilarious.

(I hope you don't mind my fragmented story telling skills.  I'm a math/science person.  Elaborating is not my forte)

SO
Last Wednesday night.
Ward temple trip.
Kelsey, Kelly, Rinna, and I drive over.
Can't find parking right away,
so we decide to just head to Mt. Timpanogas temple instead.
We turned too early,
and took the long way around...

Get to the temple,
fairly crowded in the baptistry,
but still better than Provo.

After changing,
we sit in the chapel.
A long while later,
we're called to do confirmations.

As we're walking out of the chapel,
a temple worker comes up to us,
"Could you ladies write your names down again on this slip of paper?"
We do so.
"And could you put your numbers there too?
There's a young gentleman here who is interested in every one of you girls."
Say what?
There was a pretty cute guy working the baptistry that night.
But seriously?
You get another temple worker to ask us for our numbers?
While at the temple?!

So we agree, then head to the confirmation room.

Just under a dozen people later,
it's our turn.
The cute temple worker comes in,
"Do you girls ever giggle in sacrament meeting?"
Uh, what kind of question is that?
"When we were little?"
"Okay, because there's a family coming in with some pretty funny names.
The youth doing baptisms couldn't control themselves"
Okay, these will be some really cool Irish names or something 
Not at all.

A family comes into the confirmation room.
Not knowing what to expect,
I fold my arms and listen.
Then the names came.
Pretty Hips.
Lips.
Suzie Medicine Boy.
Flaming Tail.
Respects Nothing.
We did all in our power not to bust out laughing.
I'm pretty sure I snorted once.
Some confirmations had to be repeated because the reader couldn't get them out.

There were a few other random things that happened that night,
it was such an unusual visit.
But hey, it was a good time.
We helped with the Lord's work,
and had a good laugh at the same time.

heard and loved.

"You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. 
You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience."
-Teilhard De Chardin 

Funny

While heading to another store in our shopping trip yesterday, the following occurred:


S M & A:  normal talking.

5 seconds of silence

M:  Did you see that girl with purple and blue hair?

S:  No did you see the two white lesbian women with a black daughter?

A:  Oh I was too busy looking at the dead bird on the ground with bullet holes in it. 



We're in Alabama, mind you.
Those are rare sightings.
Except maybe the bird....

but in a shopping center?

Orange Beach

One last trip to end my visit to the bama land;
I can't believe its been over a year since I've touched the ocean.
:)

from the mouth of a smart man.

"Either do it or don't. Either be Mormon or not."

- Bro. Mike Denkers

a glass of water

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

 The answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g,

to which the lecturer replied, 

"The absolute weight doesn't matter. It all depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance for me. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.

"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax... then pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!"