Update

• Starting my last full week of work. I quit my job and my last day is Tuesday, April 3rd. I'll be working part-time (maybe?) for a few months before transitioning to my career as a full-time housewife.
• (nope, not pregnant)
• Going to Portland next week for Bruce's sister's wedding (!!!)
• Going to girls' camp in June. I'll be a 2nd Year Certification Leader.
• Campaigning to get Bruce to come for two days -- it's not working so far.
• My sweet peas are just starting to pop up out of the soil. So exciting!

It's going to be a busy / long week!

Quote of the Day

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.

Carl Sandburg

Stress Buster #11

Allow 15 minutes of extra time to get to appointments.

Doctrine & Covenants 38:30: If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.

Quote of the Day

"Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart."
Ruth Graham

Dr. Stu and Match Day

Today is Match Day and we finally found out where my brother Stu will be doing his medical residency. Can you believe my baby brother is finishing medical school??? This is the boy who would sleep during our high school Spanish class. Yes, of course you should trust him with a scalpel.

Actually, Stuart came back from his mission with quite an internal drive for academics and specifically medicine. I'm so proud of his determination, hard work, and integrity. I know he'll be a wonderful doctor!

AND I am so excited that he and his wife Barb will be coming to the Bay Area! Stuart matched with Kaiser in San Francisco, which is awesome because now all of my four siblings will be in the Bay Area!!! San Francisco is perfect for them, too, because Barb's sister Suz lives in Berkeley.

In other great news: my former roommate Rejia got matched with a residency in San Jose, which means she can live with her husband permanently instead of doing the commuter marriage between Rochester, NY and Palo Alto, CA and my cousin matched with UCLA -- well within driving distance of his family in Arizona.

We couldn't be happier!

p.s.

I'm pretty sure one of my cyclamen is dead. Trying to decide if I should replace it with something else (geraniums?) or just get another. The other three cyclamen are fine, so I think it just was less hardy.

Also, I got raw goats milk per my cousin's recommendation and it tastes just like regular milk and is way easier on my tummy (not so much on the wallet...). Maybe someday I can have a goat and Bruce can milk it for me. (I kid*! I would have our future children milk it, of course. Builds character and children love goats, right?)

*no pun intended, but kind of hilarious, all the same, yes?

Spring

A month or so ago Bruce mounted two hanging containers on our porch and I put two red cyclamen plants in each one of them.

Cyclamen

On Saturday, I bought some primroses and ranunculus for some of our regular containers.

Ranunculus - ours are red, bright pink, and light pink

I bought too many primroses so I added some of those to the cyclamen containers. I'll have to get Bruce to take some pictures soon. I love having spring flowers and just wish we had direct sun so we could grow some vegetables. For now it will have to be flowers and herbs.

Primroses

Stress Buster #9

Plan ahead. Don't let the gas tank get below one-quarter full; keep a
well-stocked "emergency shelf" of home staples; don't wait until you're down to
your last bus token or postage stamp to buy more; etc.

Henry B. Eyring, Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady:
"As my father lay in his bed near death, I asked him if he didn’t think it was a time to repent and pray for forgiveness for any sins that were not yet resolved with God. He probably heard a little hint in my voice that he might fear death and the Judgment. He just chuckled quietly, smiled up at me, and said, 'Oh no, Hal, I’ve been repenting as I went along.'
"Decisions now to exercise faith and be steady in obedience will in time produce great faith and assurance. That is the spiritual preparedness we all will need. And it will qualify us in the moments of crisis to receive the Lord’s promise that 'if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.'
"That will be true when we face the storms of life and the prospect of death. A loving Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son have given us all the help They can to pass the test of life set before us. But we must decide to obey and then do it. We build the faith to pass the tests of obedience over time and through our daily choices. We can decide now to do quickly whatever God asks of us. And we can decide to be steady in the small tests of obedience which build the faith to carry us through the great tests, which will surely come. "

Milk... boo hoo!

So, I am getting confirmation once again that I simply cannot have cereal with milk (in this case 1%) on a daily basis; also I haven't been doing so great with carrageenan in my almond milk and I am not a fan of soy milk, so what do I do when I want to eat Lucky Charms, I ask???

(Also, shouldn't it be the Lucky Charms that makes me sick???? HA!)

Stress Buster #8

Procrastination is stressful. Whatever you want to do tomorrow, do today; whatever you want to do today, do it now.