So a few years back I made this cake for a young womens fundraiser for girls camp, and we were having a bake sell/auctionish thing. So I made the cake that I found in my moms recipe catalogue from kraft foods, but I never got to taste it, but from reports of the cake eaters, it was yummy. So my moms birthday was today and I told her a few days ago that I would make her her birthday cake, and I asked if she would like this one. So I made it for her. I changed it a little, because she wanted raspberries instead of cherries. It turned out so cool, that I just had to share it. I love the pop of color and its taste of course. mmm. so awesome. It's my new favorite cake to make, even if it took a little while to make. Totally worth it. So voila, here is my cake, that I made for my awesome mommy.

As I was doing my genealogy homework, I was looking at this one website and it's fold3.com and it's this awesome genealogy database that has information about those who served in the armed forces and what not. So I put in my grandpas name and voila! he showed up. So, I decided I wanted to contribute what I know about him and add to the site for others to learn about him. :) I'm super excited and I can't wait to start finding more out about my grandpa. He passed away before I had the chance to really get to know him. But, now I can learn more about him, and share it with others. :)

www.fold3.com

Family

So over the past few months I've lost a lot of contact with some of my friends. I don't really have any close friends anymore. Which isn't a total bad thing. Friends do come and go but family stays forever. :) Over the years I have grown closer to my siblings and I'm grateful for that. I noticed though that so far this year I have not only gotten closer with them, but they have become some of my closest friends. It is hard to lose friends especially those that you have known for a really long time, but life happens and we move on. I look back on some of the idealizations I had when I was younger and I see now how unrealistic they were. Things change, and others change at a very fast pace and very unexpectedly. I am very grateful to have such a large family. Especially now that we are all getting older and having more things in common it is great to be able to have a number of people to talk to that have been through the things that I am going through.
Sometimes I do miss having friends to hang out with on a regular basis. There are a few friends that I do stay in contact with and we have a good time. I just sometimes feel like they are friends and not really good friends. That is one good thing about being able to email missionaries though. I love being able to email Matt and even though he is thousands of miles away we are still best friends and we can still talk. That always brings me comfort. He's really never that far away. I'm glad I have the relationship with him that I do. Ever since our senior year in high school we've been really close. And it's great to have him around.
I've always wanted a temple marriage, but since my friend got married, I've had an even greater desire to accomplish that goal. I don't want to be married for just time. I want it to last for eternity. When I get married I want to be the happiest person ever, and with the knowledge that I have, a civil wedding won't bring me that happiness. I will not settle, I will do everything in my power to get to the temple and to have that blessing. I know the first year of marriage will be hard, and I want to start it out with the blessing and comfort of having it sealed.
All in all, family is what matters the most. And sometimes its all you need.












mommy and daddy

Katrina, Brian, Matthew and Rachel

Jed, Breann, Danny, Jared and Adriann

Brent and Felicia

Tiffany and Chris

Me, Becky, Mindy

Alright, so it didn't work out quite as well as I wanted to with the whole find something to study and then post what I learned. I did however read up on pioneers and studied somewhat about them. I did notice that a lot of the illnesses that they had back then do not even exist anymore. And that I am grateful for. I also read in the Doctrine and Covenants, and I don't know why I didn't really see it before, but the crossing of the plains was very organized. They had specific numbers and a certain amount of people in charge of the crossing. There was a chain of command that people had to follow. To me that is also something else that shows the Lord gave the inspiration needed to fulfill the migration of the Mormons to the west.
I did want to learn a little bit more about my ancestors and their stories, but I hope that with this semester I will be able to do it. I am taking a Genealogy class, and I'm excited to learn about all the tools and being able to learn about those who went before me.

New idea

In an attempt to focus my learning and strengthen my testimony and just to learn new things I am starting something new. I have decided to take a topic, idea, individual, event or whatever I choose and I will try to learn all that I can. I'm going to try and make it a monthly goal and see where that gets me. I anticipate though, that some of the things I come up with to study will not encompass a month of learning so if needs be I will make two goals and finish one and then have another one ready to go so I can learn about that. This month I decided to focus my learning on Pioneers. I'm a little late in the game, seeing as how it is almost 2 weeks after the first of July. But, the idea just came to me, so you have to start somewhere. And in my case if I don't start when I have the idea or feeling, I will lose the motivation and move on. But this is something I am going to try really hard on completing. Plus it's exciting and I get to learn what I want, how I want and when I want. Sounds perfect. Stay tuned!