Something I Love:

A few missionaries that I served with began a non-profit organization (NPO) called "Help Cape Verde" that they have graciously let me join. It has been a great experience so far - we meet and discuss our goals and plans every Tuesday night. We are starting on some fun projects to help Cape Verde progress. Our current focus is getting school supplies and making school kits for the students. Cape Verde has a school system that requires students to pay tuition after about 8th grade. They can hardly handle that expense, let alone the added expense of having to get the paper/pencils/etc etc to have an effective experience. Our plan is to continue what has been done in the past and approach school officials and ask for names of the poorest families and distribute the supplies to them... the idea is that we won't be robbing from their local economy while we help kids learn. Win/win right? We are also planning a parking garage soccer tournament for next semester and we are working some concessions during BYU basketball games because BYU gives you a percentage of what you earn. I plan on using the NPO as my means of starting some food safety and nutrition education in Cape Verde eventually! (Lori - you are SO coming with me to do this...)

We just got all of the paperwork done that is necessary to make everything tax exempt and so we are LEGIT!!! (Anyone looking to dump some money into a good cause before the new year can contact me later!) We are working on tricking out our website but it is getting pretty good - explore it a little: www.helpcapeverde.org Guess which article I submitted on the website? :)

Kilgore

Kilgore: one store and 3 cabins that make up a town in eastern Idaho

Things I am grateful for:
- Heated seats
- Listening to the same CD on repeat for 12 hours
- "Queen Emily" - a lady's best friend in the plumbing free wilderness
- Sheepherder tents with potbelly stoves
- Grandpa's 1986 suburban... so classy
- 0 degree down sleeping bags
- Hand drawn maps that are mediocre
- My 18 year old brother sharing one of his ear buds with me as we fell asleep every night... I love that he selected T Swift on his own :)
- 250 dollar pants that I borrowed from my uncle that keep you warm and dry (PS I love that men would be appalled if the women in their lives paid that much for jeans but dropping that kind of cash on hunting pants is not a problem!!!)
- The Kilgore Store and those that spend their time there

Last weekend I went with Mitch to meet up with the Vaterlaus men to hunt. I used to go when I was in high school but my schedule has never really permitted it since. Nothing has changed, we still eat like Kings and the token Princess that we are (and like we are going to need cardiac bypass surgery). We walk around quietly chasing down elk (which hopefully the success rate would improve in time of famine because thus far there is a poor record of kills!). We did however bag 4 Christmas trees successfully. It was snowy and wonderful. I loved every minute of it - it is therapeutic to be in the wilderness and with family. It was SO fun. Sorry no picts because my camera broke... the good news is that I just bought a new one yesterday so picts are coming for future life events.

PR/WR

1) Last weekend I ran the Halloween Half Marathon in Provo with my dietetics friends and it was fun... nice weather, good company, all downhill... I did remarkably well considering the fact that I hadn't ran more than 3 or 4 times since my marathon in September :) I even got a PR. And then... I couldn't walk right for about 3 days.

2) My family always does the Zeigeist Half Marathon because it is right by my house and my mom's friends run it. I wouldn't normally try to do two halves in consecutive weeks but peer pressure tends to win out every time in situations like these. Well... this course had a lot more hills thankfully... I could hold my own going up hills but the PAIN from last week's escapade shined through on the downhill portion where I was supposed to be making up time... long story short I got my WR (worst record)... but it was fun and I enjoyed it regardless. It was fun to see DaNel and the other highlight is that Mitch officially looks old enough now that people think he is my husband instead of the kid I am babysitting. Congrats Mitch.

Megalicious came to visit!

Oh and check out the Miss FNCE picts: http://byudieteticinternship2009-2010.blogspot.com/

Megan came up for a little visit and it was SO fun! She had never participated in fire blowing before and so we took advantage of the opportunity. In the past we used to just use cornstarch but we discovered that powdered sugar can also be used... this tastes SO much better. Megs' visit was way too fast and now we are all back to work... so sad. At least we got to watch Bride Wars together 1.5 more times!

Big Tripster

I went to Denver on a big bus with 40 of my closest friends. We went to attend the Food and Nutrition Expo and it was highly educational and highly hilarious. We maximized on all the fun possible. Some of the highlight events were: open mic on the bus, a Sandra Bullock marathon, dinner at Cheesecake with the Sisters, developing a working relationship with our elderly male bus driver (he had to have hated us), synchronized swimming, going to whip it, doing some adult trick or treating at the expo, and the Miss FNCE pageant (thanks to my phone a friend experts: Tam and Steph). Oh... and we went to a lot of classes... the details of that would bore you though.

General Conference

I know it has been a few weeks since General Conference but I am finally going to put some picts up. It was one of the most fun weekends of my life! We had our mission reunion and then I hit up the Saturday Double Header (2 conference sessions in a row) and then went to Grandma's and hung out with Clare and Rica. SO fun. At conference I ran into Lizzy and Lima, a Cape Verdean couple that came for conference and to get sealed in the SLC temple. It was funny to be on a little double date with them in America. I don't know why I found it SO amusing to watch Cape Verdeans eat food in a mall... I guess that is the American/ex-Sister/dietitian/weirdo in me.

Tailgate and Celebrate

We had our theme day today and it went FABULOUSLY! We survived AND thrived! We had a lot of our friends come and we had a great time. We also reserve all bragging rights to the fact that we served more desserts than EVER before in Pendulum Court. We ran out of our 85 Molten Lava cakes. Stress is gone... more to come but that is after our trip to Denver for the nutrition expo!