Pumpkins!!!

Fall is my favorite time of year... the weather is perfect, you always have an excuse to drink hot chocolate, and the atmosphere of the holidays approaching fills everyone with excitement. 

One of my favorite things to do... carve pumpkins!

My little brother, Samuel, had grown pumpkins in my parent's garden this summer, and when Gentry and I went to visit, he was very excited to give us one. This is how our happy pumpkin turned out. 

Hadley and Taylor carved pumpkins with us. Taylor's, sadly, got a little massacred.

The boys thought it would be funny to make it look like the one pumpkin got shot, and the other pumpkin be an innocent bystander. 

Then, Hadley and Gentry decided they needed to make things look even more realistic:

Gotta love them!

And this picture's just hilarious. We went to a movie, and Hadley, Taylor and Gentry imitated the Twilight poster. Pretty accurate, no?

Huntsman Senior Games

For athletic training I had the opportunity to go with some of the other students down to the Huntsman World Senior Games. I honestly don't know how I didn't know about this event before, it's the Olympics for seniors!
I got to go be the medical staff and the women's volleyball, and it was super fun to get to watch these ladies play so well! They were so sweet with each other, before each game they all gave the team they were competing against something to remember them by, whether it was candy, a note, or a bottle of Buffalo Hot Sauce from Buffalo!

These athletes truly inspired me. Being able to be their age and still participating in sports and things they love to do is amazing to me. It makes me want to be like them and never stop being active and healthy!

Conference Weekend

The weekend of General Conference was kind of fun for Gentry and I. Gentry's friend from Portugal was here in Utah for Conference and wanted to meet up with us and one of Gentry's companions. So Saturday afternoon we headed up north, stopped and saw my family, and I got to meet Gentry's friends.

From left to right: Parker Allen (Gentry's companion), Simao Martins (from Portugal), and of course, my handsome hubby.

Wisdom Teeth

I got my wisdom teeth out on October 4th. Let me tell you... it was great! I chose the option to do sedation, so I was completely out for the whole thing. I remember talking to the doctors and they are prepping me, and then next thing I know, I'm getting into the car.
I'd consider myself lucky, overall. I really didn't hurt for the first two days, and I barely swelled up the whole time. Plus, I had lots of these lovely friends to take care of me after the pain finally came on Day 3.

Gentry was so incredible. He drove me home from surgery, pulled the car over on the way home to let me puke, put me to bed right when we got home, and made sure to give me the right pills when I needed them. He even got me a Frosty the first day so I could eat something, and boy, that was delicious! 

 I ate the equivalence of my body weight in ice cream and soft foods such as this Jell-o the first week, but thankfully I got through and I'm doing tons better.

Thoughts

I found this photo on Facebook the other day, and while most of the time I ignore them and don't even bother reading them, I read this one and it really stood out to me. 

The past little while I've had a hard time knowing that things would work out, I felt like I would never get a handle on the things in my life, and that no matter how hard I tried, I would not be happy. 

Then a realization finally hit me: it DOES NOT MATTER what the world throws at you and how much people might let you down. Your amount of happiness depends on yourself. YOU choose if you are happy or not. The world is never going to give you anything that will make you happy, happiness comes from within you and what you choose to do with your life. 

I absolutely love this quote from President Hinckley:

So for the past couple of days I have been working on finding reasons to be happy, why life is great. And you know what? Life is great. Sometimes it's hard to believe how great my life is. I am so blessed, and so many times I realize just how much I take all these things for granted. 

Life is good. And I am happy.

Pizza Night

One night we decided to make a pizza for dinner. Yes, make. Homemade. Be amazed. Surprisingly it turned out really good! We had fun making it together, and Gentry laughed when I told he didn't put enough cheese on the thing (he knows very well that I don't like cheese. Pizza's the exception.) 

The only thing I would've changed was that the crust wasn't very crispy in the middle. I'm allowed to say that because I made the crust. Oh well, better luck next time. 

And there's my loving husband in the background doing all the dishes for me (love him!) And right here:

Is the amazingly stacked tower of dishes that he created while washing them. I was so impressed I had to take a picture. His reply? "This is how a REAL man stacks clean dishes." 

Well, I love my "real" man, and all the help he gives me. I couldn't ask for better!