I Moved to Chicago.

I think everybody has tricked me into thinking I moved to Rexbug, Idaho when in reality I moved to Chicago, The Windy City. Yesterday was the first day of classes and I'm sure every other girl will agree with me when I say that I made sure my hair looked perfect, and when I went outside it turned out to just be a huge waste of time. In any other normal city the wind usually just blows in one general direction...this is not the case in Rexburg, Idaho. The wind blows every way possible. By the time I got to my first class, it was a rats nest. But other than the crazy wind, Rexburg is so great!

Being able to see my siblings and my niece is wonderful. I've gone out for ice cream with my sister and her roommates, had dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house, and had an epic failed attempt at a sewing project. I love watching my cute little niece learn new things and look around at everything and try to figure out what the crap is going on. It is so easy to make her laugh, and her smile is extremely contagious.

So far, my second semester is turning out to be great.

Use The Force, Tyler.

While I have been home between semesters, I have been unable to get a job. So I have been babysitting as much as I possibly can. A lot of the time I get tired and have the kids play with their toys and with each other because I run out of the energy to play with them. Yesterday was different. Yesterday was epic.

I babysat three kids yesterday. They. Were. Awesome. The oldest, her name is Alyssa...so that just makes her awesome right there cause she has a cool name.

The youngest, Austen, he's three years old. I played with him while the two older kids were playing upstairs. He and I stayed downstairs because he was chasing the fly that was buzzing around the room. He would point to it while running around in circles after the little bug that was just out of reach. After a little while of this, I called him over to me and told him I was going to take a picture of him. So I held up my phone and he gives me a huge cheesy smile. I didn't even take a picture at first because I was laughing too hard at how stinkin cute he was. Then I finally took the picture and showed it to him. He pointed to it and said, "Cute!"

The middle kid, Tyler, well he's just great. At first he was a little quiet, but then when he got used to me he just wanted to play all day. He played by himself for a little while and then he came up to me and said, "You wanna play lightsabers?" How can you resist a cute little five year old boy who wants to play lightsabers?? So of course I said yes. Before we started, I thought this would probably only last about five minutes before he would want to play with something else...that was not the case. Our battle probably lasted a good half hour. I had the red lightsaber so I was the bad guy, and he had the blue lightsaber so he was the good guy. Let's just say it was an epic battle. We battled around the entire downstairs floor. He'd pretend to cut off one of my legs and then I'd pretend to cut off one of his arms. Throughout the battle, Tyler would thrust his hand to the air in front of me like they do in the Star Wars movies and say, "Force!" The first time he did this I didn't really know what to do...but I quickly caught on. When he did this a second time I mirrored his image and we would stood in front of each other, lightsabers in one hand, and using The Force with the other hand. After a minute or two, both of us would fall down because The Force was just too great for both of us. We did this many more times, and I wished someone had filmed it and sent it to George Lucas. He would've been proud.

A Great Opportunity.

This weekend was a great one. I was able to listen to modern-day Prophet's and Apostles. I was able to hear their direction and guidance for us. I felt so overwhelmed with their love for people and their concern for us. I was taught so many things that pertained to me. Every General Conference, I am always amazed at how it pertains to me and others around the world in their own personal way. I love that our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, has a wonderful sense of humor and always manages to make the congregation laugh at every Conference. I know that so many lives were touched this weekend and I'm glad I had the great opportunity to listen to these amazing leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So many things stood out to me this Conference and I loved every minute of it. 

These are some quotes that stood out to me:

"It is never too late to strengthen the foundation of faith." -Henry B. Eyering

"Allow Christ's Atonement to change your heart." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Lives are better and much happier when we turn our hearts to Christ." -M. Russel Ballard

"Remove any of your fear with faith, and let God guide you." -M. Russel Ballard

"Never delay a prompting." -David F. Evans