1 Nephi 17:13

13 And I will also be your ^alight in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the ^bpromised land; and ye shall ^cknow that it is by me that ye are led.

Elder Uchtdorf's Talk: "We Are Doing a Great Work and Can't Come Down"

This scripture felt like very good advice I need in my life right now. And I love the story Elder Uchtdorf bases this talk on. Karl found it for me yesterday when we were both having a really hard time getting excited about all the seemingly important time consumers taking up our lives right now. Poor guy has had to put up with a break down a week from this girl since school started again.

Do you ever find that you become so busy that you loose your mind? Like every little thing you write on your to do list is a life or death matter?

That's me this semester to a 'T'. This talk is given to the men of our church, but it's completely applicable to all of us.

It was a good wake up call for me to start recognizing what items on my to do list fall under the "burned out light bulb" category and to re-focus on not crashing and burning with the really important stuff like my sanity and health (spiritual and temporal).

I love being a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:)

Truth from a textbook

"Clinicians have control only over their own thoughts, feelings, and actions, and realize that various aspects of culture such as common history, beliefs/values, customs, material culture, learning style, language, social interaction style, social organization, and so on may influence the cycle of activities in a therapeutic relationship."

Dear Introduction to Auditory Rehabilitation: A contemporary Issues Approach textbook,

I just stole that quote right off chapter 3. Today I upset some people by doing what I felt like I wanted and possibly needed to do for myself. If you replace clinicians with the word people and take out the word therapeutic, it's pretty applicable to all relationships in life.

The only thing I have complete control over is myself. I can do my best to have a positive attitude, follow through on responsibilities, and fix my mistakes when I come up short. I can't control how others choose to react to that. Like the quote said, there's pretty much an endless number of factors that determine how people will react to any situation and the people I upset have the right to be upset. I'm not proud of myself for falling short. I hate admitting that I can't do everything I want to and it's even harder to admit when I need help. It's hard. But in the end, I've got to do my best and keep learning from my mistakes.

Thank you textbook.

Cha cha cha cha Changin'

I get bored with my look. Do I really even have a look? Maybe matronly is in style? Anyways, I want to change my hair again and don't know what to do! I went with shorter, darker, and added the ever so popular blunt bangs. They were ok. I don't think bangs are for me. Anywho, I'm feeling blah, and ich, and I want to spruce it up. Any hair advice out there? I'd appreciate it. I'm thinking something like this...


(my beautiful cousin Alyssa. I have hair envy. And I would be copying Nicolie because she looked so darn beautiful after she cut her hair like this that I have definitely been wanting to copy for a looooong time.)

Me also thinks I would like to be blonde again. I like blonde. If only money grew on the tree right next to my living room window!

Tuesday

CRAZY! That pretty much sums up this semester for me. I feel like almost every minute has to be scheduled out to keep my head floating above water. Sink or swim. That's what I'm dealing with, but pretty much everyone is.

Even though this semester has me so stressed, I'm so grateful that I've been able to follow through on promptings I've had for this last year of my undergraduate (can I just say I love love love saying this is my last semester before I'm a college grad!).

I felt prompted to interview to be the director of a program called Storytellers and I got it. I haven't loved every aspect of the job, but I have learned so much about myself. I don't have a lot of confidence in myself as a leader or even as a people person, but I've gained so much experience in both those areas. I've made a ton of mistakes, but I've learned from them and hopefully I'll have more confidence in myself after this.

I know I am in the right major. I love speech therapy. I love that I get to practice speech therapy with a client this semester. Our first session was today and I almost wet my pants I was so nervous! I made a lot of mistakes to, but I enjoyed the session and again get to improve by learning from those mistakes.

This post should be entitled "Hello, my name is Tara and I screw up all of the time." But I know a very loving Heavenly Father has allowed me to have experiences that help me grow. I know that because of his son, Jesus Christ, I can be forgiven of my mistakes and continually improve.

So bring it on semester!

L is for.....

LOVE!

I love love. It's inspiring me today! I read this blog by a girl who writes in such a simple but really perfect way. I wish I could say things so simply but perfectly. But I am grateful for the much needed perspective reading through some of her thoughts gave me. It may not have been exactly what she said, just how much she writes about her love for life. I forget how wonderful life is sometimes. We have a precious amount of time to make the most of what we've been given. I tend to run scared. Life gives me amazing opportunities to learn and grow, and lately all I do is panick, panick, panick, end up not reaching the potential I hoped to, then get upset at myself and all my issues. I think choosing happiness for me is directly connected to love. The more love I share with others, the more I love what I'm doing.

I love the ability we have to choose. I'm a day dreamer if you will. I love to imagine where Karl and I will end up in the next five years or even what life will be like in a couple months. I dream about what I imagine us doing, but I haven't totally believed I have the ability to make those dreams happen. I'm learning that God does take our wants and desires into account. He loves us, and simply because of that pure love He cares about the things we want. I love that fact.

I particularly love this guy:


He is the cheese to my Macaroni. He is the reason I love most days. He is hilarious!

Karl: "I love the way you cook vegetables"

Tara: "Does it make you go weak at the knees?"

Karl: "Not only the knees. The elbows go to."

Man I love this guy:)

Nothing quite brightens up the middle of the day like a lunch date to Rumbi's and Twizzlebery accompanied by only the most important of topics:

Karl: "Do you ever create your own music video for a song in your head?"

Tara: "Sure do"

Karl: "What would it look like for this song? (Australia-the Shins)"

Tara: "People playing on the beach all day!"

Karl: "I'd say 60's rock band. Lead singer has hair like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. On the beach of course."

Tara: "Oh! And Dolphin's will sing the Lalala's!"

I think we thought up a winner:)

(Last summer playing golf for my Dad's b-day)

I love good friends I've been able to keep in touch with. I fell of the map after highschool and kind of felt weird dealing with all the changes. If anybody reads this blog, and you are one of the many that has gotten an awkward 'hi' from me followed by a hurried 'see you later', I'm very sorry. I think in a way when I came to college I became more secluded and lost a little of me. I'm more grounded now and content with where I'm at. So I'm loving this blogging thing and the chance to catch up with some of you! I had amazing friends in highschool that taught me a lot and I've met some awesome people here in Logan that have been incredible. I still care about ya'll:)

I love my ward. The concept of a ward family is so wonderful! Karl and I have been blessed to gain such awesome friends in our ward. I feel a connection to this ward that I haven't felt since my Centerville ward I lived in all growing up. I love how the gospel links us together and provides us with people who help watch out for us.

Basically, love makes everything better. I'm grateful for people who help me see that. You know who you are:) I want to try harder to tell the people I love how much I love them. I want to take each new day as a new start and love the new opportunities that may come my way. I guess one belated new year's resolution I have is to love more. I think that's a pretty good one.

It Happened

So It finally happened.

The most wonderful Christmas break I've ever had ended and now it's back to school for me and my love. I had a really hard time accepting that my break was over. I cried like a little baby Sunday night keeping poor Karl up way too late in an attempt to console me. I just loved this break so much and it's all to do with how much time we got to spend with our families.

I completely loved every moment we got to be in Bountiful hanging out with my parents and siblings and getting to enjoy spending time getting to know my little niece Addie a little better. I even loved her when she spit up all over me and cried while I held her because she was helping me learn how to be a better baby-sitter (and I seriously need the practice:).

(Just look at how beautiful she is! Sorry to keep stealing from your blog Nicole!)

I loved staying up late with all of them after both family parties laughing hysterically during a few rousing rounds of Bingo and Uno one night followed by some Seinfeld trivia, boxers and briefs, and other games while drinking five bottles of Martinelli's the next night. I loved seeing how all of our in-law additions to both families fit so perfectly and make our families feel a little more complete. I loved opening presents Christmas morning and again being able to hear my parent's bear testimony of the gospel and give council through each gift they gave. I loved going to my in-law's house and spending another three days laughing while we exchanged thought out gifts, played just dance 3, ate the most delicious food (canoli is amazing), and watched some really fun movies together. I completely loved getting to go back to Bountiful for an FHE my dad put on for us that gave me new eternal perspective into the different roles I have while I'm here on this Earth. I also loved when my amazing mom took the time to come up to Logan to spend time with me while Karl was working a late night. It was all so wonderful!

(See, now you all want canoli to. Look at how amazing those are!)

Now we are back in school and each day I become a little more ok with getting back into the swing of things and not getting to see my families as much(cause I'm lucky enough to have 2 now:). This semester has started off pretty good actually, mostly thanks to Karl for being so patient with me and taking the time to help me slowly get back into reality. I really liked the first day of classes and am so stoked for all the classes I get to take. My shifts for work are pretty awesome even though my desire to hit the hay at 10:30 every night is interrupted by one night of work until midnight followed by an early opening shift at seven the next morning ( I know, I'll stop whining). I'm even excited to start Senior Clinic this semester where I get to work one on one with a client and practice speech therapy (I'm extremely nervous and very excited for this one).

So being back has been surprisingly really hard for me, but writing all of this down made me really thankful for the time I got to spend with my families and for the new year that's ahead of me. I even have some awesome, sort of different, new year's resolutions I want to post about sometime to. It's back to the grind for me.

Hope you all are enjoying this lovely winter weather:)

I love twinkle lights

I'm sitting at home next to our beautiful Christmas tree and a space heater relishing the fact that I survived finals week meaning I'm done for three weeks (Hola!) and now get to enjoy the holiday season. This semester has been such a crazy whirlwind! It's mind blowing to think that I only have one more semester left until I graduate! We've had a fun semester, Karl and I, and now we're looking forward to spending lots of needed quality time with the Anderson and Beckert clans over our break! Here's some of what we did to try and not go crazy this semester:

• We decorated our house for Christmas even before Thanksgiving! We got a little carried away:)

• We got to see the lights at temple square with Karl's sister Tori and her fiance Garrick

• Karl taught me the tim-tam slam which goes a little something like this:
  

• Karl kicked butt on five finals and I kicked butt on four!

School kind of takes over all free time, but we did find fun things to do along the way. Now for three weeks of bliss with my family:) I love Christmas! I'm truly thankful to know we celebrate Christmas to remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. He gave everything for us and I hope this Christmas can be focused on that selfless love that Christ continually shows for each of us. Merry Christmas!