Winnemucca and so much more

The Fall Colors are out and I'm loving everything. 

Thursday Night i didn't get home from school until 6:30 or so. Long day.

Jess called and came straight to my room.

She stood at my doorway with

Butterscotch

Lemonade

And a rose.

And stated simply,
"I hear it's a two cupcake kind of week"

Indeed it was.
We went to Thai Ruby.
My treat.
What would I do without her?

Friday was... wonderful....
for many reasons.
But mostly because we headed off to Winnemucca.
What in the World is in Winnemucca you may ask??
The NSPRA end of the year rodeo finals!
Some of you may still be wondering...
So... I have this dad that's just, well, way too cool.
He competes in rodeo.
I like to support him :)

And plus I got to hang out with the kind of boys I like...

the dedicated kind...

...the innocent kind



the kind who have smiley eyes

and love our country

...the kind that know how to put on work gloves.


and use them...


And did I mention I got to hang out with my favorite kind of Girls too?


the kind who are willing to drive the whole way so the lovebirds can nap in the back seat

and the kind who aren't afraid to be themselves.
(and did I mention beautiful?)

Mostly I love my family.
It was so good to be reunited, even if it was only two days.



And a shout out to my daddy.
who couldn't possibly be more awesome.
Way to win 5 buckles and a saddle in one weekend.

Love, A Cowboy's Daughter

One of those...

10.25.2010
Dear phonealarmclock,
You are the bane of my existence.
I never wake up on time when I rely on you.
Literally. Am I the only one without enough self discipline to get up when I want to?

So what has been happening lately?
Well, currently I'm sitting in the library. My mind is too bogged down to write my paper.

Last night my car got towed. I have to pay $175 dollars to get it back. That's a lot of Christmas gifts.
This morning I didn't wake up on time. like every other day of my life.
On my way to class (20 minutes late) I fell up the stairs. hard.
And forgot to read for my New Testament class.
And forgot my paper I needed to turn in.
...and my lunch. 

My mom said, "when it rains it pours"
And assured me I could break down when I get to Winnemucca this weekend.
I'm planning on it.

Jenna somehow could tell, and reminded me that cute sweater weather is here.
I appreciate her.

10.27.2010
Then the devotional was on being pruned.
And how it's good for you and in the end will make you better.
And a beautiful young lady passed on.
And I reset. And realized that I'm ok.

And tender mercy... snow is here.

Appreciate what you have. No matter how hard it seems.
Sometimes it is easy. Other times it's not.

Lesson.

Beauty of life.

Everything relates. Every story worth telling has a hero. In the Bible it's Christ. In my life it is still Christ.

Christ.
He walked and talked, but have you ever noticed he didn't just say to people "I am the Savior. worship me." At least not outright.  He preached and taught (why some still think he was only a prophet) and for some people, it was plain for them to see and recognize that he was the Savior. But for most... they knew of Him. They had heard of His glory, but they had to find for themselves that he was their Savior.

Example, the woman at the well. He let her ask questions until she figured it out.

We too must ask questions, he will answer them. And as he did then, he still does now....he might answer in riddles. He may ask us questions in return. Because how often do we ask Him questions we already know the answer too?

He is eternal. and the same today as forever. We have to come to know Him ourselves.

Just a thought.

fall into happiness

one day... jess and I decided to get together and it may have turned into a little bit of a photo shoot. 

because who doesn't love taking pictures in the park?

she had to be inspired for her outfit. 

i had to make her be inspired for mine too.

(who knew the style genes could be so unevenly distributed?)

so we went. 

we played with fall leaves. 

and took photos in black and white. 

 we wore hats

and played like homework would never come.

 we might have even whipped out my tripod for some sister pictures. 

Then where did we go? 

Our favorite place!

it just seemed to fit the occasion. 

and, as always, she made me finish hers along with mine. 

i ask if she wants me to gain weight.

she looks at me with puppy dog eyes and says she is just too full.

i tell her "i hiked this morning"... and proceed to eat it. 

someday I'll learn to resist her. but not today. 

probably not tomorrow either if we're being honest here. 

that's just us though. 

i'm vanilla.

and she's chocolate. 

different. 

in fact, very different. 

but complimentary. 

and essentially, we're made from the same stuff. 

we go well together :)

"Stressed spelled backwards is desserts.  

Coincidence?  I think not!"

-author anonymous

This morning the plan was to get up early.

Go to the temple.

Hike the Y.

& do homework.

All before I went to school.

Did it happen? No. But I did hike the Y with lin.

Somehow we ended up arriving the same time as a family activity.

The Family President's council or something.

We met a girl named Anna, who I learned was 8.

Bright eyed, gap toothed, and happy as could be to hike the Y (which, may I interject that the Y is no walk in the park). She asked right off if we were BYU students and when we answered yes, her eyes sparkled and she said, "That's where I'm going to go!"

It seems like only yesterday that I was 8. Her birthday was in January, mine was February.

And I too only ever wanted to come here. To this magical place we call BYU. Lessons learned from Anna today...

1. Time flys. I can't believe that was 11 years ago.

2. I'm here. I attend Brigham Young University. For so many years I dreamed of these days. Every once in a while it's surreal to realize that I'm living the life I live.

I hope you're having a great day :)

-Tay

Vegas: chandeliers and dirt.

This past weekend (General Conference Weekend) we went to:

VEGAS.

(For a rodeo... but in all honesty, for a father daughter weekend....)

We stayed:

HERE.

and i got to hang out with cute people like:

THIS.

we got to see things like:

THIS.

and on the way here, we went to classy gas stations

that sold things like:

THIS.

And we celebrated a B on an Econ Test.... with treats like:

THESE.

Thank you Heavenly Father, for sending me to such a cool family

and giving me opportunities to spend great weekends like this with them.

Beauty and Love

9.24.2010

Today I loved people.

I love them everyday, but especially today.

Nearly every day on my walk home from school, I talk to my mom on the phone. Talking about my day makes me think. I think of things that have happened in my day, but have you ever noticed how conversations and thoughts linger through the rest of your day? At the end of the day I'm left with all of these wonderful ways the Lord has blessed me.

How has the Lord shown his hand in my life today?

Today it was people.

It's a fascinating concept to think that everyone has their own life, and really the world doesn't revolve around mine and my immediate surroundings. I had opportunity to interact with a lot of people today. Well, this week in general really. I went into the academic advisement office and after asking me about the things I know I like we promptly realized that Humanitarian work is what I would be happiest doing for the rest of my life. Business major? Nonprofit minor? That's the new direction I'm headed.

9.30.2010

Speaking of directions, I used to think you had to have a life plan. An exact vision. But you don't. You have to know the important things. Priorities. And if you work towards those, everything else will fall into place. And surprise! Those "things" don't have to be tangible! They can be that you want to help people, or that you want to get married in the temple to a worthy priesthood holder, or you want to do an internship, or that you want to be happy (although remember, happiness is a choice). So choose. work toward those things. Eventually I will have to make an exact plan, but for now? I'm just moving in the right direction.

Does your heart ever feel so full it could burst? Sometimes mine does. There are just so many wonderful things. If I know anything, it's that Heavenly Father WANTS to bless us. He really does. I have the opportunity to be at BYU right now. It's incredible. Tuesday night I was able to meet and listen to this man...

Merrill Bateman

He is wonderful! Talk about having a list of incredible accomplishments. I was one of the first to shake his hand afterward and he looked me in the eye and asked, "How are you?" there were people waiting in line to see him, but he didn't move on before he waited for my answer and honestly made me feel important among the crowd. To be completely honest, he reminded me of Santa Claus :) Really rosy cheeks and just so kind.

Then tonight, wow.....

NieNie.

I was there. Fourth row. The capacity for the room was said to be 1700. There were hundreds more than that. In the back, on the sides.

She was wonderful.

Favorite quote of the night?

"I came back because I wanted my body.... I didn't care what it looked like"

We really do need to understand beauty. Beauty isn't "pretty". It's not something you inherit from your Mom or Dad here. It's something you inherit from your Father in Heaven. It's that light. The light in your eyes. That spirit in you. Beauty is health and strength and confidence.

"Of all the creatures of the Almighty there is none more beautiful, none more inspiring than a lovely daughter of God."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Sisters, sisters, and more sisters :)

First, let me state how much I love Provo.

One of the main reasons being...

sister time

My sister needed some pictures taken,

for resumes I believe... (she is going to be an elementary school teacher... can you get more pure than that?) so with my favorite camera I proceeded to drive right on over and we had a spur of the moment photo shoot!! naturally, they came out darling because well... my sister happens to be SUPER darling. but really... she is... and look at her, she can rock that red lipstick!

I only had to take about six or seven

before I found that there was never a bad picture

so I stopped there :)

This is one of my favorite things about Provo...

quality sister time

in the midst of the craziness of school and everything else.

She gives me dating advice and hugs,

we watch chickflicks and paint our toenails,

and she never fails to make me feel better.

What's on the docket for this week?

Chilean independence day and empanadas.

One year ago Jess and Steve were engaged, but still invited me to celebrate the holiday with them. Things have changed... maybe more than a little... but I'm glad I'm still invited :)

And the thought for today? Friendship.

"The Lord has touched my spirit time and again, and more often than not,

His touch has reached me through the hand of a friend."

-Kathleen H. Hughes

Welcome Back... the beginning adventures of Devonshire #20...

BEFORE

AFTER

It was nasty. Don't worry, there's multiple cleaning hours

on my knees with a toothbrush and comet that went into making this "house" a "home"

The tools of a cleaning champ :)

I LOVE our apartment!! My roommates are wonderful. So wonderful.

And my classes?

Econ- Lots and lots of work, but I'm gonna try soo hard.

Stats- I'll work on getting the lingo

Beginning Piano- Most people in the class are NOT beginners, but I'll catch up.

New Testament- I love Christ, and studying the life of Christ. It brings Him to an even more real level :)

Church History- Sister Black is hilarious. Enough said.

Social Dance 280- Best. Class. Ever. I love dance.

Student Leadership- I will be serving in the BYUSA office again this year! Yay!

What else has been going on in Devonshire #20? Lindsay and I have been cooking up a storm. We have great friends over on the other side of what we so fondly call the "chastity wall", and we are having a house warming party this Friday! Today I invested in a sewing machine, I have TONS of Econ homework, I made us all matching blue and white bows for the football game on Saturday, and we are happy as can be.

Until Next time

-Taylor