Update 2/7/11

Hello friends and fam!

Here's the latest. ^_^

-I got Rosetta Stone German in the mail on Friday. I'll be starting my intensive "Learn German" regiment today. Hopefully Rosetta Stone is everything people say it is and soon I'll be able to chat with my grandparents, do family history that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise, go to Germany and sound not COMPLETELY clueless, etc.

-On Tuesday I got a new roommate. It was very much out of the blue and led to a "Deep Cleaning" of my room when I discovered I had lost the storage location for my snowboard and sewing machine. My new roommate is named Kristen and she's rather nice. She's from CA and is preparing to go on a mission in a few months. Should be fun getting to know her.

-Wednesday I watched a movie with a good friend. Turns out she's dating Joey Haddock from Rochester, MN. Same night I discovered that I knew a girl who is friends with another mutual friend from my ward, who is the ex-fiance of another friend, who went on dates with yet another friend, and who I see at jujitsu all the time. Small world. Got even smaller when I found out my new roommate knows my friends husband from his mission.

-Friday I went to my book group. We went to my friend Emmeline's home in Lindon and I realized that with a home, a dog, a child, and food storage, she was basically a REAL person now (unlike yours truly who doesn't have any of those, except the food storage). We had a good time discussing the books "Life of Pi" and "The Two Towers", chatting, and watching the kids play. By next month we'll have a third child attending since Amanda will have probably had her baby by then. EXCITING!!

-Friday night we had an apartment Valentine's party. We made Valentines, Jackie and I danced a bit, we made homemade ice cream, decorated the apartment, etc. I think it was a good opportunity to get to know Kristen, plus we just have fun together so I'd say it was a complete success.

-Saturday morning I covered a shift at work. Right now I'm also covering a shift at work. Its nice to be able to pick up a few extra hours and I love being in the lab. I'm pretty happy about it. After I got off of work I played a little frisbee, went to the basketball game, to a party at a friends house, to the swing dance, and back to the party again.

-Sunday I made oatmeal bars for a church break the fast. They were gone rather fast which makes me sad. They're one of my favorite desserts so I should have thought of setting some aside earlier... oh well, I guess its an excuse to make more.

Well, I'll wrap this up. Life is good. It only seems to get better. I hope things are just as happy and wonderful for you in your neck of the woods. Keep it real and peace out.

Jill

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

For my brother Jonathan's b-day I am sending him argyle socks and a Book of Mormon with my testimony in it. I figured as a missionary he would enjoy being able to give someone a copy of the Book of Mormon with a testimony in it from someone he loves. As I finished copying it into the book, I decided I'd post my testimony here as well.


I want to bear my testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God. It was written by prophets of the ancient Americas as another witness that Jesus is the Christ.

Our loving Heavenly Father cares about you. He knows your hearts deepest desires, your strengths, your weaknesses, and your potential. He wants you to be successful and happy. More than anything He wants each of us to be able to share eternal life with Him.

In John 3:16 it reads that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus Christ offered Himself as an eternal sacrifice to overcome death and sin. The atonement of Jesus Christ gives us access to power beyond our own to overcome our weaknesses, to repent, to change. We can be healed, become clean, become whole. Through the power of the atonement we can prepare ourselves to meet our God.

Reading The Book of Mormon is one of the many ways I feel I have come to know my Savior better. All of the prophets, despite their differences in age, personality, and situation, all testified of the tender mercies of the Lord and bare witness that Jesus is the Christ. I know their teachings are true. I feel the peace and comfort of the Spirit of the Lord when I study the Book of Mormon.

In Moroni 10:3-5, it says that “when ye shall read these things… I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, I these things are not true… And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” I know that if you prayerfully read the Book of Mormon and ask God to know if its true, that you will be able to receive your own witness of the Book of Mormon.

God be with you,
Jill Schuler

Blood and infatuation

So apparently my assumptions about being a "its been a while" date were a little premature. I have another date on Friday. He will see I'm just as mediocre at tennis as I was with pool.

I've had two bloody noses today. I usually don't have problems with the lack of humidity here in Utah. I hardly ever need lotion to keep my skin hydrated. I only go through brief phases when I need chap-stick. These, however, are only mere inconveniences. A day or two of bloody noses when the humidity shifts is more of a frustration. Its not like you can lotion your nose to stop it from being irritated. My allergies have picked up too so the congested bloody mess in my nasal cavity is kind of gross. I just hope it won't bother me tomorrow because I really want to go on a long run on Monday.

So do you know what is more lame than a bloody nose. Unrequited infatuation. Its interesting how I can remind myself that "he's not asking me out" or "he's not going out of his way to spend time with me", yet my thoughts and emotions still go everywhere when I hear his name mentioned, see him enter the room, etc. I know I don't want anything to happen unless he is genuinely interested. I know that although he does have a lot of qualities I value, that doesn't necessarily mean things would work if he was interested. Regardless, the thoughts and emotions are still there. Stupid spring fever...

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I just looked him in the face and said I was interested. That's something Mailee would tell me to do. I know part of me wants to hear him say flat out that he's not interested and won't ever think of me as anything more than a friend. Then a more logical side of me says his actions are communicating this just as well and I need to be a big girl and get over it. BAH!

This writing exercise is my first step of admitting "I have a problem." Now I'm going to stop mulling about this whole situation and read about "Crucial Conversation Tools". G'night.

Jane Eyre

So today I was talking with my coworker Laureen about our dating lives (a usual topic for us). At one point she declared we'd find our "Mr. Rochesters". I thought it was an interesting thing to say.

For those of you who have read Jane Eyre know that Mr. Rochester's relationship with Jane isn't really healthy. He is passionately in love with Jane but so determined to be with her that he deceives her and manipulates her emotions. Not really things I'd ever want for anyone in a relationship. Jane, being the virtuous and fantastic character that she is, leaves him but towards the end of the book she hears his voice cry for hers in a vision and returns to find out things have changed and they get married.

I guess Mr. Rochester learns his lesson of the mercy of God and is put in a position where he can be the sort of man you want him to be the entire book. However, one can't help but wonder what would have happened if Jane had met more men and dated around. Sure, she may not have met someone as violently in love with her as Mr. Rochester, but whose to say she couldn't? Just because her cousin wasn't in love with her doesn't mean she couldn't find someone else who could.

Well, I've got a positive blood culture. Back to work with me!

Burgers, twirling, cakes, and dog training

Today was a good day. My life seems to have a lot of those as of late.

I managed to wake up and volunteer at Ms. Flakes class. To break away from the norm I helped the kids play a Bingo-esque letter game rather than help them with their worksheets. I was surprised I made it through most of the period without the kids using the bingo chips as tiddly winks, flipping them at each other, throwing them across the room, etc. Heck, it was taking all of my self control not to start shooting them across the room and I'm supposed to be the roll model.

I also successfully got to go to my lunch date with Sunny. We went to In-and-Out which was tasty but I'm pretty sure next time I go out for a burger I'm going to insist we go to Five Guys because their food is better. After that we went to Costco and bought large quantities of plums. She had just wanted some Kleenexes but apparently she succumbed to my impulse buy and decided to forgo the 12 boxes of tissues for the 4 lbs of seductively dark, luscious looking plums. The experience made me think of a poem I read in high school about someone stealing someones refrigerated plum. Plums are mighty tasty....

Definitely a good night for me as far as dancing is concerned. I realized tonight how very spoiled I've become in my dancing habits. At Saturday's dance I swayed and chatted to a few guys while listening to music (1 or 2 exceptions). However at Swing Kid's Club I feel in my element as I get twirled, spun, dipped, lead with confidence.... can you blame me for feeding my addiction?

At the end of social dance club I ran to the aid of my friend Laura who was delivering wedding cakes. I could explain the situation more but I'll let you wonder all night why Laura showed up at a dance in order to deliver wedding cakes in the first place.

After this I'll resume reading a book I started reading today. Sam, Jessi's boyfriend, says its a dog training book. I think its more of a fishing book but I guess I like puppies... and eating fish. If this were a conversation in my living room I would probably draw a picture of a puppy eating a fish... or a fish eating a puppy... right about now.

Some person in Jessi's textbook named their daughter Ernestine... Who does that? Ernestine is the name for a horrific apartment haunting doll, not a real person... Sheesh.

Because Matt Yancy told me to

Many people start blogs to stay connected to people. Others start them after marriage or another significant life changing event occurs. I on the other hand am creating this blog because Mr. Yancy Pants told me to. He informed me that someone whose life is as full and exciting as mine ought to record their activities in a blog. Sure, he might be slightly biased since he will soon be creating a "Matt and Lori Yancy" blog but I s'pose one ought not jump to conclusions.

Today was an unusual day since most people had the day off of school for President's Day/Post Chinese New Years/Valentine's Day Weekend. I think it would have been very appropriate to eat heart shaped rice balls while discussing politics. I didn't get around to doing that today. I actually defied the norm by offering to cover a shift of work rather than resume my usual week off. Who do I think I am blowing off heart shaped rice ball politics to do something productive?

I finished reading "The Giver" this morning. I had read it once in elementary school and on a whim decided to read it again. I think it was spurred by my listening to "A Brave New World" in my car. I guess I could read "1984" again and complete my satire about the future phase.

I also got to play Frisbee today. I wish I could can the feeling of playing Frisbee and put it into "emotional food storage" for those days when nothing seems to go right. There is something exhilarating about the smell of the grass, racing and weaving across an open field, snatching the disc right out of the air, bowling over Jackie Warner (well, we didn't do that today... we're not allowed to guard each other any more...). There are very few activities that give me that sort of rush. Dancing with solid lead, performing in an orchestra Beethoven or Tchaikovsky, running on a clear summer's evening are a few.

During work I got an e-mail from my boss that made me feel frustrated. Backing up the boat temporarily... Last week I got an e-mail asking if anyone wanted to go to NY to train an entire week at a Vitros workshop. The training would allow you to calibrate the analyzer (only 2 people in the lab can do this right now) and probably cover all sorts of interesting, valuable information. I mentioned an interest in going and my boss asked if I'd be able to for sure be around the next few years. I wanted to say "Why yes, or course" but clearly since I'm still single I said things were uncertain... which means I probably won't get to go... Stupid long-term ambiguity. : P

Forecast for tomorrow:

-Volunteering at Ms. Flakes class which I failed to do last week...
-Lunch with Sunny who I haven't seen since we made Thanksgiving pies together.
-Dancing the night away. After last Saturday's Stake Dance I've been craving Lindihop Swing.