It's official, I'm allergic to Texas

If not Texas at large, for sure Denton. I've been itching like crazy ever since I moved here!

The result of my scratching is these lovely little spots, mostly on my back. They are burning as I type.

So, I've begun planning my escape route outta here. The details are still a little fuzzy, but may include EFY, a December graduation, and a foreign country or two. In the meantime, feel free to send a back scratch-er my way!

The cure for the ouch

So here's the thing: life involves pain, and lots of it, and everybody's always looking for the cure. Well here it is.

For the past little while I've been dealing with a lot of pain, and/or numbness, which is sometimes more painful than pain in its own little way.  ANYWAY (I have a point, I promise) tonight I went to an Old Testament class at the Institute. Towards the end of class the teacher showed a slideshow/movie about the life and mission of Jesus Christ, and as soon as it started I was flooded with a familiar warmness, and for the first time since I've been home, I felt...at home. I knew at that moment that no matter how big this "ouch" is, or any other will be, Jesus Christ can cure it because He's conquered all of the "ouch"es there ever were or ever will be.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and can heal any wound, and I am so grateful for that.

Honey, I'm hoooome!

Well hello again blogging world.

I have returned home from my mission, and I can't say enough about how wonderful it was. I'm not one to cry, but that is one subject that really tingles my tear ducts. Usually if I bounce my right leg enough I can keep from actually crying though. Seriously though, I loved it. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done until I came home. Being home the last 7 weeks has become the hardest thing. Not a day goes by that I don't think about it and miss it dearly.

Me with one of the families I taught on my mission <3

Since then I have been to Utah and back, New Hampshire and back, and now I've moved to Denton and started school at the University of North Texas.

Soooo why on earth did I title my blog The Daily Ouch? Well it just so happens that "ouch" is one of my most commonly used words. If you could digitize and enter my daily vocabulary into a database, and put it in descending order of the most commonly used (not counting articles and basic parts of speech), I'm pretty sure "ouch" would be in the Top 10. So one day the title "The Daily Ouch" came to me and I thought it'd be a great blog topic. Although, the other thought that came to me was that I'm horrible at staying on one topic in my blogs. So be forewarned that while I'll try to focus, I can't make any promises.

And just for clarification this blog isn't meant to be negative or whiny. The idea here is to find humor in the foibles of life. I think our "daily 'ouches'" make up a big part of who we are and they are worth embracing. Plus, I honestly find them funny.

So  today's "daily 'ouch'" is going to be combined with yesterday's "daily 'ouch'":

Yesterday I went wake boarding for the first time with my awesome new roommate and her awesome family. For those of you that have been wake boarding I could probably just leave it at that and you'd know what I mean. But for those of you who haven't been introduced to the sport, let me just tell you it was a blast. Interesting fact #207 about me, however, is that I have essentially no upper body strength. So my arms are killing me today. I mean I could barely twist open my nail polish cap this morning, THAT sore. And I also acquired a bruise on my left knee somewhere along the way. OUCH!

Despite being sore though it was worth it. I'm a firm believer that we should take every opportunity to do something that scares us.  Wake boarding scared me, but I did it anyway (I can't resist a new adventure). And even though I'll never be a pro-wake boarder, it still felt so good to just give it a go and keep trying after every miserable fail.

p.s. Not every entry will be this long.

Fighting the Good Fight: the New Drug

So waaaaaay back in the 1800s, Joseph Smith, prophet of God, revealed to the world the Word of Wisdom, which instructed us not to partake of tobacco, alcoholic drinks, and other harmful substances. It wasn't until much, much later in the 1960s, that scientists started catching on that tobacco really is harmful to the human body. Well my friends, ever since at least the 1970s, prophets of God have been warning against pornography, instructing us to avoid it like the plague.  And look what scientists are finding now.




Please help share this knowledge with others. This knowledge can help save souls and families.
www.fightthenewdrug.org