How was your day today? Oct 10-16

Tuesday was the schools temple day. I didn't want to miss work, thats one reason we went to the temple on Saturday. There was a lot of service going on around campus. I helped weed outside the lofts. I then went out to lunch, stopped at Food Lion, and then went to work! :) 

I woke up at 2:30am to 22 text messages from one Emma Atwood. I adore her. She is one of the strongest, funniest, determined people I know. I wish everyone could meet her!

The fog has appeared!

This popped up on my facebook feed from a year ago. I love this post from Kadee!

I was having one of those 'eh' days on Thursday. I went to work and was absently playing in the sand box when one of my little boys said, "Miss Lauren, How was your day today?"

Tears sprung to my eyes. In the words of Kadee, "Christ works through little kids too". It is so true. I needed that simple question. I needed to know that even a little three year old could be aware of me. I love those kids.

SVU got a new friend!

hehe. My friend Anna who I work with, told me that it remind her of one of our kids at work and it totally does!! He just flings himself around, exactly like this green guy!

PIZZA. Some days you just need Pizza. 

My family came on Saturday!! I picked up my Dad on Saturday morning and we met Camille and Mom in Lexington. We ate at Pronto's and just laughed and laughed. I love families and inside jokes. We went to the SVU football game where the weather was beautiful! We took naps and went to dinner at JJ's! Yum! Afterwords we went to the Shenanigans show. Thank you family for spending a very SVU Saturday with me!

 

 

Sunday as a Relief Society Presidency we talked about friendship and how that is what Visiting Teaching is. President Thomas S. Monson said, "Every day of our lives we are given opportunities to show love and kindness to those around us." Show kindness! Do Visiting Teaching! Its super important!

Also, I realized I failed to talk about General Conference a few weeks ago. Wasn't it great? Conference is amazing. I thought Women's session was incredibly powerful. We were definitely told how important it is to have a bedrock foundation in this very perilous time. I loved the talk on Charity. Charity is so important in a world full of hate. Again, always be kind!

It happens in a Flash! Oct 2-Oct 9

Pause. Take a second to enjoy the clouds and the sunset.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I love you!

I found a little friend on the way to breakfast.

*******

On this episode of "The Adorableness of Children":

"The sun is tickling me today."

"I went fish picking!"

"My water well broke when I went to the beach. It hurt my feelings."

"Can you pretend your a dog?"

"You can take a nap! Its been a lucky day!"

"Would you like to come to my house on Christmas Day?"

I LOVE THEM

*******

Here is Kaylee's little hello. This is what you get for leaving your phone at the table while you go get food.

Tuesday was a very important day. Flash Season Three Started. The dilemma came when I realized I wouldn't be able to stream it till Wednesday. So I called Will and Camille and the skyped me in to watch the first episode. It was so worth it!

 

Virginia.

My life at Montessori consists of children and mulch. Mulch is everywhere!

This made my day.

This year is the first time we have an actual men's volleyball team. They had a scrimmage game against a team that was essentially a D1 school. They won every set! I was sitting in the seats right on the court and it was a party! A new tradition started at our sporting events. Two words. Animal Onesies. It is hilarious. We have 4 cows running around giving the teams volleyballs, giraffes and other animals cheering in the crowd. Its super entertaining.

 

Opera Roanoke puts on quite a bit of shows. Turns out that students get in free. Our main music professor was one of the leads in South Pacific. A ton of SVU students decided to go support him! It was a fun adventure in the car, consisting of a lot of dancing to Camp Rock. 

The show was.... good.... Its an interesting show in general. The orchestra sounded awesome and so did Professor Hansen. But overall, not my favorite.

Saturday was temple day!!!!! AHH! Sarah and I left bright and early and drove to DC. I love the temple. It amazes me how the world just stops, as it should when you are in the Lord's house. 

 

We walked around the visitors center and there is a statue of Christ when he is resurrected. I stared at the wounds in his hands and feet and I was so grateful. I was so grateful for my Savior and what he did for me. I loved that peace I felt and all I wanted to do was crawl in a ball at Christ's feet and live and relish in that peace. That's when I realized I can do that. Christ is calling to me, and to all of us, to come and feel his peace and to come to him and be strengthened and healed at his feet.

We went to Cafe Rio, Old Navy, and the Garfields house. Three of my favorite places! It was a much needed adventure.

If anyone discovers a way to mail me Cafe Rio, I would not complain.

Quote from Sarah, "You love Sundays."

That is a fact! I just love Sundays! I hope you do to!

Rain, Rain, Never Go Away Sept 25-Oct 2

I love the random little streets lined with trees, crossing bridges over rivers. That is Virginia. It is beautiful. Sunday I went on a fun adventure to a river where we played around, tried not to slip, and had a skipping rocks competition. We then had a philosophical discussion about how rocks just look a lot prettier when they are wet. So I promptly brought one home and stuck it in a jar with water.

I hung up a whole bunch of pictures on my wall from last year. Its a reminder of the happy times from the craziest and hardest year yet. If I could survive that, I can make it through this. It also just makes me super happy.

I know I say it all the time... but my kids at work are the cutest little things ever!

I have a lot of days where I miss Miss Kadee Avila more than anything. Well, Tuesday I got the greatest surprise ever! My friend Emma planned a trip and it just so happened to be where Kadee got called on her mission! (The trip was planned for a long time!) Emma ended up running into Kadee and I got a video message from Emma of Kadee telling me a few things. I was standing outside Jonzzeys and just started to cry. It was the best thing ever. Man... I miss that girl!

Also, Kaylee's phone screen was completely shattered. This was just a snap shot of a few messages that were the result. HAHA!

We had some adventures that night. I don't know what came over Kaylee and I, but I thought it was a good idea to tie scissors to a string and throw it out the window down to Sarah's window. I would move the string back and forth so the scissors would hit Sarah's window and she would come out and talk to us. 

Oh adventures of the RA's. 

Shhh just don't tell our residents.

A banana showed up to our volleyball game. 

Intro to Financial Accounting has been kicking my butt! This was me attempting to figure out this problem.. basically just be underlining anything that seemed important.

I love work!

Thursday it finally poured rain!!!! We were trying to study for a test.. but naturally we ran out and danced in the rain. Some cute guys walked out and thought we were crazy. It was definitely worth it. 

Friday it continued to rain and at work it was pouring. The kids loved it! We let them play under our covered porch and they were havin the time of their lives, (along with myself). I could stand outside and watch the rain for hours!!!!!

 

I have to be careful with pictures of my kids. But I can show the back of their heads. Here is one of them enjoying the rain. 

 

Sarah and I went and saw Sully which was wonderful! It was a much needed Girls Movie Night out!

It was a beautiful day on Saturday! Our campus has been decorated for fall since Elder Rasband came. I absolutely love it!

 

We had a lofts activity Saturday night where we roasted marshmallows on Brady's little stove. It was pretty comical, but it was the first night it was a little chilly and felt like fall. It turned out great!

Sarah and I ran up to the soccer game. We had been sitting there for quite a while when WAM out of nowhere the lights went out. BLACK! Pitch black! It was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing! Only at SVU. 

(Before the lights went out)

One of the coolest things I have gotten to do as First counsellor in Relief Society is figure out Visiting Teaching assignments. It was very cool to see how the spirit communicated with all of us. There was such a love for the girls in the 4th ward. God does know his children. 

The Art of becoming Art Sept 19-24

I really love that Washington DC is three hours from SVU. 

I got to spend all of Friday at the National Gallery of Art. Can you think of a better way to spend your day?

There are three things I love about museums.

1. The Actual Museum

Rooms and hallways lined with Art. I love standing in one room and looking through at different angles and seeing even more art.

 In some instances that can be overwhelming, but the National Gallery does it in a very tasteful way. I cant describe to you how much joy a scene like the one below fills my soul.

I have been to the National Gallery before, but no one told me that there was a whole other building connected to the gallery! It is connected by a fancy light tunnel and leads to the modern section of the museum.

2. The Actual Art

This may seem obvious, but Art is breath taking. I have a wonderful Drawing professor. The way he talks about art is absolutely beautiful. When talking about museums he likes to remind us all that going to a museum is a mental game. It takes so much strength and mental stamina to endure a museum. And that is because museums are like people. They are all different and offer different things. And that is a cool thing in and of itself!

I love Van Gogh. For drawing we had to sketch 3 paintings of our choosing. WOW! What an experience. It connects you to paintings in an entirely different way. 
We choose to draw Roses by Vincent Van Gogh. 

It was painted the year that he died which changed the way I looked at it. When drawing the roses and looking at them in detail, half of them are living and full of life, and the other half are not dead but starting to die. The colors are green, blue, and white. Simple but also powerful. Its an interesting thing to capture. What, and more importantly, how was Van Gogh feeling as he painted this work? 

3. The People That Go To Museums

I find the psychology behind art museums probably the most fascinating. Why do people come to museums? Why do certain people like certain art? What makes a painting famous? Why can people make it a goal to see and observe paintings and completely miss others? What makes me skip a room or glance at a painting? What catches my attention?

My friend Rachel and I sat down to draw one of my favorite paintings. Its a painting of a women (probably Mary Cassatt one of my other favorite artist) walking through a museum. I loved the idea that we were walking through a museum now sitting down to sketch a painting of a women walking through a museum. 

But it gets better.

As we started to sketch, a man comes and sits down next to us. He held out his ipad with a picture of us looking at this painting. He told us that he has been waiting all day for that moment and asked if he could PAINT THAT PICTURE! So now we were in a museum, looking at a painting of a women walking through a museum painted by a painter, now going to be painted looking at a picture in an art museum. It was art inception. We became art. How cool!? 

There are also people like this women. It was so cool to see her painting this Monet painting. She was incredible.

It was a great day! So relaxing.


We went to Lunch in the Museum, and I had a wonderful sandwich. It was ham, brie, and apricot. So good!
 

My advice? Go to a museum but don't just rush through a gallery. Don't worry about seeing every painting. In fact, that will just ruin your experience. Think about how a painting makes you feel. Think about why you are intrigued by that painting. Is it the color, the subject, the painter? Art is a commentary on the world. It's meant to make us observe and think. So don't forget that. Love that. Learn from that. 

"Stop thinking of art works as objects, and start thinking of them as triggers for experiences." -Roy Ascott