Fun Pictures

This is entry is just a bunch of pictures. I'm doing a christmas present for my room mate that involves collecting photos of her friends in TX. And I decided to post some of them on my blog.

This is Thanksgiving Day. And my very first turkey!! Look how pretty it is. I was so happy with how well it turned out. And I finally got to use the platter that Jill gave me for my 30th birthday. My roommate even called her mom and told her that it was the best turkey she had ever tasted! Her mom then asked for the recipie.

This is my christmas tree. I inherited it from an old room mate that didn't want to move it. And over the last 2 years I have collected ornaments and ideas for it. I think it is lovely, and it makes me happy to come home at night and turn it on.

This is me and my roommates in front of the tree. I thought this was a cute picure of us. You can even see my new glasses. They don't look that bright normally, it must be the flash. From left to right, me, Christine, Alinda.

This is what happened last Sunday evening. We invited about 6 people over for dinner and it doubled to about 13 that actually showed up. Luckily, the chicken breasts were huge and we were able to cut them in half. Since there are three of us living together for the time being we happen to have a lot of doubles as far as furniture and appliances. When we realized how many were coming over we decided to make use of both of our tables. So we brought one in from off the patio and put them together and had dinner family style. It was lots of fun. This is after dinner when I recruited some of our guests to help me wrap caramels that I had made earlier. It was a really fun evening!!

Good Friends

I have some of the nicest friends. The first week of December I got a call from my friend, Rebecca, asking me if she could come over during a study break about 8pm that night so we could catch up since it had been 2 weeks since we had seen each other. I said of course, and was in the kitchen finishing my dinner when she got there. She brought her room mate, and I thought that's wierd, she was just comming from school and would have been on her own. But I didn't think much about it. So she and i where talking in the kitchen, and then about 5 minutes later there is another knock on the door. I come around the corner to see banners that my roommate hung up saying CONGRATULATIONS and YOU DID IT!! My friends had organized a low key surprise graduation party! It was so sweet. We went and got ice cream and then came back to my place and visited. It was a small gathering of good friends, and I loved it. They kept making a numbered list of reasons why they loved me. They were stupid things like reason # 28, I like Kristin because I love her black hair. Or reason #102 she is funny. It was kind of ridiculous and made me a little uncomfortable, but mostly it made me feel loved which is never a bad thing. I don't have any family in Texas, but i sure am blessed with good friends!!

Grandpa's Funeral

I haven't written in a while, just because life seems to speed up as soon as Thanksgiving hits. And then the week before Thanksgiving I was in WA for Grandpa Allsops funeral. Grandpa's funeral was amazing. All of Grandpa's grandchildren where there, except for 3 serving missions. It was wonderful to be there all together as a family celebrating the wonderful man that was our grandpa. I'm so glad to have his example of enduring to the end. His last act in this life was taking the sacrament. He was strong and faithful to the very end of his life. I will never forget that powerful example. It was wonderful to see what a remarkable woman my Grandma is. She is full of faith and hope, and while she misses Grandpa, she has faith in the plan and that brings her peace. I look up to her so much. Here are a bunch of us sitting and just listening to her talk about grandpa while at the viewing.

I was really touched by the hymn choices Grandma made for the funeral. All the spanish speakers sang the first verse of Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel in spanish, and then everyone else joined in for the other verses. As i was sitting there singing "pon tu hombro a la lid con fervor", I couldn't help but think of my mom. She always loved that song, and I have many memories of sitting next to her in a sacrament meeting where we sang that song and my mother in her tenor voice singing those words in the spanish she learned from her mission. I never realized that she loved it because grandpa loved it. As i sat there singing those very words in the same language she always sang it in, it made me feel like she was there with us. We also sang I Know that My Redeemer Lives. It was an amazing arrangement, I don't think I'll ever sing or hear I Know That My Redeemer Lives with out thinking of the sprit that was there at my Grandpa Allsop's funeral as we sang those inspired words. What a great final song to sing as a memorial to my Grandpa. I think that one of the ways I know the words to that song are true is due in large part to the family I came from. The way both of my grandparents raised my parents and the way my parents raised us.I'm extremely grateful to the legacy of faith that exists in my family!

Here is a picture of my family at the funeral.Marnie, Me, Ashley, Scott, Amanda, Jake, Rebecca, Jonathon, Juliann, Dad, Judy

Here is a cute one of Me, Amanda, Marnie, and Juliann

My Grandpa was burried in the same plot where we burried my mother. Only about 3 or 4 spots over. It was nice/hard to be able to see my mom's grave again. Here is a picture of my Mom's tombstone. I love that we used the scripture in 2 Nephi 5:25. She lived after the manner of happiness. That was so true of my Mom!!