High School Musical Marathon..and other updates!!

My roommates and I and some friends from the ward had a "high school Musical marathon" last week... full of home made shirts, dancing, and pictures at East high. You your jealous..don't make fun!! Some guys in our ward mentioned that they had never seen the movies, so they were good sports adn agreed to watch them all with us!! We watched all 3, in a 3 day period. My roommates and I thought we were hilarious and made shirts and surprised everyone. We had way too much fun. But the guys loved them..they think we are funny! We had about 8 people over, and it was so much fun to watch it with a bunch 0f 23-24 yr olds, we made fun of it alot but we also danced and sang along! oh we walked down the street to east high and took some picturesjust because we could!! Anyways Salt Lake has been great, i love my new ward the people are so nice and the area is great, we have alot of new friends that live nearby so we do lots of fun stuff..we are currently planning a ninja turtle movie marathon!! Yay! Lets see what else can i update on...... i've kept myself busy, i have been volenteering at the homeless shelter and we play adn read with the kids there, its really a neat experience and i have alot of fun. Also i have been shadowing an Occupational therapist, and i love it, im getting in my hours so i can apply to the program. Anyways thats my update for now!! Love ya all!!

Happy Birthday wonton!!

Out newest family picture!! Bolwing at fat cats!!

Mikay and mommy!!
Me and my wonton, and one of her many silly faces!
Mikay at her b-day party!! Happy 14th!!

Ill try to make this short...... cause pictures seem to speak louder than words!! But as i've been thinking about Mikayla on her b-day today, i have just felt so blessed to have such an awesome little sister, and i am grateful to have her in my life. YEARS ago, when we had 7 kids everyone always thought we were done, because 7 seems like a handful, but i always felt like we were missing someone, and it turns out that many of our family members felt that way, someone was missing. I'll never forget the day i met my little "wonton" she was five years old, and came to us from florida. As soon as she got off the plane, i started crying, i felt like i had seen her before. My whole family was crying, we found her!! And the rest is history, we were sealed to mikay a few years later, and time has flown by, i can't even remember life without her!! She is one of my best friends, we are differant but we balance each other out. i could chill with her all day!! I have alot of fun memories about her, when she was like 5 years old she was obsessed with the movie "stuart little" she watched it like a million times a day, and she would talk in her "stuart little voice" it was a high annoying voice, but cute nevertheless. i will never forget watching her play soccer fot he first time, she fell alot at first but pretty soon everyone was gathering to watch her, she was amazing for a 5 year old!! And of course i will never forget when she was about 6 or 7 and i found her with a pile of things that did not belong ot her, she informed me that they belonged to her because they "were made in china" and she was too!! So i made her a shirt that said "made in China" and she wore it for years!! One day i started calling her my little wonton and it has stuck, she was even amazed later to find out that wontons were things in soup, she thought i had made up the word!!
I just love this girl!! Happy Birthdya mikayla!!! Love ya forever and ever!!!

Moving on up...

Yay!! Today I am offically moving back to SLC, i am very excited but at teh same time sad to be leavign home. I have loved being home these last 9 ish months. I have such an amazing family, and i had missed them. BUT i feel good about moving back to SLC, and it'll be nice to stop commuting everyday to work.
I have been sick since last saturday..i have felt miserable!! i went to my work clinic on Monday and they said i had "laringitis" and sent me home with musinex, and sudafed. But by Thursday i was even more miserable and so sick, i couldn't breath, or talk very well, my voice was shot!! I had an awful cough,a nd my back started aching from all the hard coughing. I went to work everyday and was miserable. Finally on thursday they sent me home from work early and i went to a now care, wher ei was diagnosed with Bronchitis, and given some antibiotics, and now i feel much better. I still have an awful cough, but its getting better.
So since i was sick all week, i hadn't really packed, But some how i managed to do a little at a time. And now in abotu hour we will pack it all up and go!! Thanks to my family, and Kate and other friends who are helping!!
Yay! I'll let ya know how it goes.

Adding to brother farley....

I found this post from a Blog of a friend of brother Farley. This man was not a member and was pretty anti-mormon, but from this post you can see what a great effect brother farley had on him. ( This man also was the last man to see brother Farley alive, Bro FArley died while leaving this man's house after working on their motocycles together)

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A final wrap-up....

Mike's funeral was yesterday at 5:00 p.m. Mrs. Sahagan and I attended (the crowd was over 100). It was our first time in a Mormon church function, and I must say the service was dignified, in a beautiful sanctuary, and yet, at the same time, very mournful, for Mike was an integral and very appreciated member of the congregation.

I spoke to the assembled group and conveyed the sincerest condolences, prayers and well-wishes from this forum and everyone who replied to this thread.

Mike is now on his way to Wisconsin, his home, to be laid to rest. Were he aware of it, I'm sure he'd hate the ride in the hearse, preferring to make such a trip on two wheels.

As to the disposition of his wrecked '09 Vulcan (it is expected the insurance company will return the bike to the family, and I've been asked to retrieve it and store it), and the Connie sitting in my shop, the family has asked me to hold on for a couple of weeks, when they will call and talk to me about them.

A couple of things really hit home for me. At 72, Mike had lived a long and amazingly productive life. His accomplishments read like those of many more famous men, and yet, he never once reeled them off to me, preferring to be just himself, a motorcycle nut, plain and simple.

But that was just the tiniest part of his life. His family was large and extended, and the impact he had upon many people was great and lasting. As it was for me.

Mike and I had theological incompabilities, and yet, when we mutually realized neither of us was about to make a new convert, we decided instead, to make a new friend. And a true friend he was. I never saw Mike exhibit anything but a laid-back attitude, never losing his temper, even when his Leatherman tool closed up on his finger....we agreed wholeheartedly on the conservative political stance, and between us, we had corporately seen not one single episode of Saturday Night Live. And while that probably means nothing to anyone reading this, it meant something to us.We shared a total disinterest in modern humor, the lack of morality and the loss of consideration for others that is so rampant today.

So Mike will be missed. Here are two direct quotes from my short address to the group, that sum up for me, the way I feel...."If Mike Farley excelled in being a family man, a father, husband, son, grandfather and great grandfather, if Mike Farley excelled in being a member of the church, and a servant of God. Then know this....Mike Farley excelled in being a friend as well."

And, to close out I said, "If Mike Farley is the greatest man the Mormans have ever produced, they have no reason whatsoever to feel anything but a justified sense of satisfaction and well-being".

The family and the church congregation asked me to convey their appreciation for your kind words and condolences. You already know how I feel about your outpouring of support and concern.

Thank you. After all, can it really be Heaven without motorcycles? And maybe we'll join Mike riding along the dappled roads of Southern Heaven one of these days. After all, he loved the South.

Sahagan

Happy and Sad news!

It has been a while since i'm "blogged" it's been crazy! I have been working in SLC now at the U of U hosp for 3 weeks. My "training" is done and i go into shift tomorrow! I only trained for 15 days which is a new record! It went by so fast, there are alot of new people at work and i am starting to feel more comfortable around them, BUT there are alot of my old friends there too, adn i lvoe seeing them again! It's been a blast. I've been commuting back and forth and its been a pain in my behind! I am gone from 7:50 am to 10:30 pm mon-fri. BUT i have finals this week then I am done with school...untill August!!
More good news I have an Apt in SLC.... We found it 2 weeks ago and we are moving in May 9th.. so 2 weeks!! It is on 6th south and 12th east, its two blocks form teh U of U, the aprtments are nice, and the area is safe! It'll be so nice to live in SLC, but I will miss my family I have loved living with them as crazy as its been these last 9 months! Micheel,Andrea and I are way excited, we haev almost all the things we need, couches, microwave, New flat screen T.V, dishes, silverware, beds!! It's a working progress! Michelle, Andrea adn I have hung out a bunch lately and i just lvoe those two! We have alot in common and we are gonna have so much fun in SLC, and it turns out that we will be inteh same ward as some of my good pals from work..yay!
Ok now for my sad news.. I'm syill emotional, i don't know what my deal is....I just cry alot!! Today i was in Sacrament meeting when ilooked down at my phone to check the time, i saw that i and two texts, so i read them and a former companion informed me that TWO people from my mission dies this past week.I just started bawling, and i cried so hard that i had to leave. Of course evryone started at me. but it was such a shock. Both members from the Paris Branch ( my frist area i served in for 6 1/2 months) i was really close to both of them. One of them was Sister Mcfarland, she was a lessa active that i worked with, When ileft she was active adn happy, and her haelth was better! she also helped us baptize a friend of her living with her. She was in her 80's and had bad health, luckily I got to see her when I left TN and my parents got to meet her. She was amazing and had such a strong testimony. I felt prompted to call her adn her daughter Donna about 2 weeks ago, and i left htem a message adn told them i loved them, She called back and left a message but I never called her back. I feel so bad that I never got to talk to her, but I can't dwell on that, I know she knows that i lvoe her!!
The second person was Brother Mike Farley. He was so Christlike and Service oriented! I could go on and on with examples of this! He helped us out so much, he drove us everywhere, we taught investigators in his home more than a dozen times, he came on dozens of exchanges and he was amzing with new converts, less actives and investigators. He and his wife fed us often and i just loved visiting with them, they were SOOO happy, such a cute couple! He held up our little branch, he was in charge of geneology and members of many differant faiths came to seek his help weeklly. He was alos a writer in the local newspaper adn was well kown by many people. He home-taught over 10 people and took such good care of them!! I got to say goodbye to him with my parents and I am so glad they got to meet him. He loved fixing cars and motorcycles and he died last week in motorcycle vs. Van accident while he was driving to the church on a wednesday night to help with geneology. I feel so bad for his family, and for the paris branch, he was such a light. He will be deeply missed. But i know that He and Sis Mcfarland are in a better place and God must need them to help with missionary work cause their both amazing member missionaries!
Four peple that I was really close to on my mission have died since i've been home
( 9 months) It's been super hard for me, but i am so lucky to have met such amazing people who taught me so much!

2 weeks notice!

Well it's offical, I got a job at ARUP again in the Stat Lab at the University Of Utah Hosp. I worked there before my mission for almost 3 years, when i left it was way hard I loved my job and the people i worked with. It alll happened so fast but basically on Friday God told me I could move back to SLC, I prayed and felt good about it, so i looked at the ARUP website and saw a shift that would work with school, so I called a friend who worked there, and on monday I got 2 calls from supervisors and they basically hired me back before i even put an application in. So i put in my 2 weeks notice in at my current job and my last day will be April 2nd. and I start my job in SLC April 6th. I'll have to commute for awhile school doesn't end unitll April 30th, and after that I'll move back to SLC sometime. I already have 2 amazing Roomates and we are all way excited to find an Apt. It's funny how things just work out. I've learned patience these past 8 months, and i'm glad i stayed homw ith the family, but i am also way excited to move to SLC and go to school and just have a fresh start! Yay!

In memory of Tiff

On July 17th 2007 I was transferred to Murfreesboro TN, I met someone my first day there whom I will never forget.
As we came in from our first night in town, I saw a beautiful blonde woman with a big smile sitting on her porch visiting with friends.(she lived below us) She stuck out because she had what looked like 2 green friut loops glued to her forehead. We started visiting and found out that about 4 days earlier she had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was still happy and cracking jokes about how she had had her first scan that day and how she looked like an alien with her "fruitloops" on her head. I will never forget how optimistic she was,and determined she was to survive.
I was in Murfreesboro for 5 1/2 months. Everynight when we came back to our apartment, Tiff was out on her porch we would stop and talk to her. After about 2 weeks we could see how her treatments were taking a toll on her spirits, but she remained hopeful and faithful even though the DR's told her there wasn't much they could do. We started having "story time" with her. Everynight we'd share a scripture with her ( from the Bible at first then gradually with the B of M too) After our "story" we'd sing her a hymn I was serving with Sister Arnell who has a killer voice so we sounded pretty good. then Sister Nelson came and she had a killer voice too) This went on for the 5 1/2 months I was there. We met many of her family memebers and friends that would travel to spend time with her. Her mom Sandy was a huge rock, and stregthn, She was by tiffany every moment, and had rock solid faith. Tiffany was baptistand was very was faithful and allowed some members of our ward to give her a blessing a few times during the 5 months I was there. There was always so much peace, and she said she could feel something. Tiffany started to get sicker and sicker untill eventually she couldn't even walk, so at night we would come inside her apt and sing to her, but i always missed seeing her on her porch. I remember the night I left murfreesboro, tiff was really sick that day but i was able to go in her room and sing one last time as she layed in her bed. We both sobbed the whole time, I knew would miss her so much, I had seen her everysday since i'd came to Murfreesboro.
After I left i didn't hear much, but 8 months later I went home and I started getting e-mails from her family updating me on how Tiff was. I even texted her a few times, and Sandy (her mom) called me once to update me. then After Christmas I stopped hearing from them.
Today I found out that Tiff passed away Jan 14, 2009.I was sad but filled with peace and happiness, I am so glad that she is no longer suffering, she's free of pain! I am so grateful to know that someday i will se her again and be able to hug her and thank her for her example.

Tiffany was only 28 but she had lived a long and hard life, when she was 25 her boyfriend of 5 years died in a motorcycle accident, her family said that since then she was never the same. she had been through so much already before her cancer,and sometimes i wondered why she had to go through that, she was still so young. But tiff was an example to so many people and she taught me a lot. She taught me the importance of family, she taught me about staying positive, and she taught me about enduring! I will never forget her, and I will always be thankful for having her in my life even for a brief time!!

I love you Tiff!!

Weird Dream....about a midget!!

So I had a very weird and detailed dream last night!! Maybe you can help me figure out what it means!

So in my dream I married a blind midget. ( Yes.. you read that right a blind midget) It was an "arranged" marriage, we didn't know each other but we would both get a lot of money if we stayed married for 10 years. In my dream, we did little kid stuff, like Ihelped him learn how to jump on the bed,at one point he got mad at me and tried to hit me with a hockey stick, but he missed (cause he was blind.) Anyways eventually i realized that if we were married we should kiss, so we did, and he hated it, but i loved it. But then I was sad cause I as falling in love with the "blind midget" and he didn't love me back......

and then I woke up! It felt so real!!

What the Heck??

Nashville trip

Nashville trip pictures

Oh how I love my Nashville!

Holy Cow!! I am bad at this whole blogging thing! Last night I was "harassed" becasue of my lack of blogging!! I was going to write a blog about how Brysen is mean to me... and he said I could, but instead i've decided to tell ya'll about my latest trip back to Nashville! I've been home from the Mish 6 months now, And holy cow it has gone by so fast! One of my former companions Angie (Sister Arnell) Met someone from TN, and was getting married February 14th. So Brooke (Sis nelson), and Jaclyne (Sis Mathis) and I thought that it would be fun to go back to TN and visit around the same time that Angie was getting married, we wanted to support her,and be her friends! And it was a very good excuse to go back and visit! So we found a good deal on plane tickets and off we went!!
We left EARLY Thursday morning ( feb 12th) and got to Nashville around 12:00. As soon as i stepped off the plane I was instantly happy!! It was nice and sunny, around 60-70 degrees,I even liked the humidity! After we got the rental car we went straight to lunch! We were startving and went to one of my favorite BBQ places in TN, "Whitts" I love southern BBQ!! And I have missed the food, and I was sooo happy to hear all the sounthern accents, and of course people in the south are so friendly so we made instant friends with the cashier at Whitts. The rest of thursday we went to Nashville and visited "opry Mills" ( a mall) we got to see the Gibson guitar store and see all the fancy expensive guitars, and you could even wacth how they made them. We also went to the Opryland Hotel it was gorgeous! It has an indoor river with boat rides, and you feel like your in a jungle, it has waterfalls, fountains fancy bridges, its HUGE! We had alot of fun walking around, and since we were there in february and mid-day it wasn't busy at all! We even walked on the "Gone with the Wind" staircase. After some sight seeing in Nashville we headed for Dickson. Dickson was my last area and I served there for 7 1/2 montns so it felt like going home! We didn't tell very many people that we were coming because we were short on time, so we stopped by at our old house, and saw the Carlsons (love them) and we ate dinner with Rose (a convert) and her 2 boys. They chose Burger King! Then we stooped by and visited "Grandpa and Grandma North" they were in the Dickson ward, and also served as missionaries in the office. After our visits we headed back to our hotel in Madison. Our hotel was pretty ghetto, but not too bad! We played a little before bed..mainly because Brooke and I wanted to sleep bu Jaclyne said we were "nerds" or somethign like that. So we ate popcorn and had ice-cream and watched some random chic-flick on cable.
Friday morning we went to the "Belle Meade Plantaion" it was super cool, we got private tour of the mansion, and heard allt eh cool history. Its neat to hear about the lifestyles in the South before and after the civil war. Also Friday we went to The "Country Music Hall of Fame" I don't even like country music, but it was pretty cool, we also got to go tour an old recoring studio where Elvis used to record, and I got to touch a famous piano. Good times!! Friday night we went met Angie (the bride to be) at "Hard Rock Cafe" and we ate dinner. Then we went out in downtown Nashville, and walked the "strip". We went to a bar and sang karaoke! ( We sang some Shania Twain song) Then we basically just walked along the bars, and heard the music, it was way fun!!
Ok so saturday... was the busiest day if all! Saturday morning we woke up at like 5:00 am and Drove and drove adn hour to Clarksville TN, and we met the "Sisters" for breakfast! (We got permission from the mission president) Sister Brooke and I got to visit our "greenie" Sister Smith who comes home soon in may. And Jaclyne got to visit her greenie Sister Day, and I also got to see my last Greenie Sister Nielson. We had so much fun, I miss those sisters soooo much, they were all doing so good! After Breakfast we went straight to the Nashville Temple for the sealing around 9:30. I got to see my Mission President (I had him for 3 weeks)Pres Hutchings and Sister Hutchings, and i asked if we could stop by at Zone Conference and see my other greenie sister Williams and he said yes...but somehow I agreed to sing at Zone Conferece with Jaclyne and Brooke. OOPs! So the sealing was wonderful, Angie was so happy and looked beautiful! After the sealing we went to the Smyphany hall in Nashville and had a tour....It was really cool, the tour guide scared me! She was a bit uptight, but the building was amazing! After that we went to the "Carton Plantation" which has some really cool "Civil War" history, the mansion was used as a make shift hospital when the area broke out in battle. I love learning about all that stuff..my sister JME is a CIVIL WAR FANATIC.... so she was jealous! Then we went to Zone Conference and sang and I got to see One of my greenies Sister Williams when we walked in and she saw me..she cried! it was a happy moment, I love her! And we got to see a few other missionaries that we love. I am a dork... but i LOVED going back to Zone Conference, it made me happy! But the mission has changed quite a bit with the hew mission pres. So after ZC we went ot Angies Reception, and her family asked us to "decorate" the car. I say decorate because we did, we didn't want to trash it, so we did it all cute,with cookies and frosting and shaveing cream. We were pretty proud of our "finsished product" The reception was nice because we got to see a few memebers and a few missionaries. And I even caught the Bouquet of flowers... the 2nd one i've caught in a 3 month period..nut that means nothingmi just like flowers, and i can't helpit if the bouquet alkways comes flying at me,what am i supposed to do let it hit me??
After the reception we had dinner at Macaroni Grill in Murfreesboro and met up with the morris family ( Brooke and I taught them) We waited forever for dinner since it was Valentines day, but it was good!! We were all so tired! Seriously like each noght we averaged like 4 hours a sleep..except Brooke who got less becasue she couldn't sleep very well in the hotel. Ok so after dinner we went adn Visited a member Rita and her new husband, and then we saw one of our converts, Marssa manning who is one of my FAVORITE people inthe world! So that ended a good day!
Then Sunday morning at 6 am we left Nashville and came back to COLD UT!
I Miss the South already!! But love being home too!! I got the Best of Both Worlds!