I'm baaaaaaaaaack!

That's right; Aubby Girl has returned from her vacation overseas. There is too much to type about for this, so I'll leave it up to my mom who will most likely write various posts about that once she's back from her Rotary conference in England. Anyway, it was the most beautiful greenery I have ever seen, besides Alaska, and it was fannnnnnnnnnntastic!

Want an idea what it looks like? Watch Lord of the Rings. The Shire looks like parts of Scotland and Ireland. Forests look like where the Ents resided near Isenguard. The hills looked like Rohan. Edinburgh castle reminded me a lot of Helm's Deep, too. Sorry, no Mordor (guess I'll have to go to New Zealand to walk the path to Mordor--Uncle Brian, you in?)

I have to admit, besides the Middle Earth-y scenery and visiting family, my favorite part of the trip was the birds I got to see. One bird in particular, the Jackdaw, I saw every single day except for the first 2 days of the voyage. They reminded me of the bird in Sleeping Beauty that Maleficent has. We called the birds "Aubrey's Birds" because everytime I saw them I freaked out and screamed for joy. I love these little buggers.

I Take A Trip

I won't be posting for awhile. There won't be much Internet access where I'm going to be going, therefore eliminates my chances of blogging. Needless to say, I won't be too bummed out about not being able to blog :)

I will be gone from June 1st until June 13th (the evening of), and then I begin my recuperation process to adjust back to this time zone (jet lag, ag!) Anyway, I won't be posting for a couple weeks.

British Isles, HERE I COME!!! :)

The Final Stretch

In NASCAR, the last lap is probably the most pivotal. The preparations, the pit stops, and the prestige driving throughout the whole race pay off for that one lucky driver. The driver and his team must be persistent in order to succeed, along with dealing with the problematic situations that arise throughout the race. In some ways, I relate a NASCAR race to my school year, or even to life itself.

No matter how good you are, you are bound to fail at some things. Whether it be a test, or just feeling inadequate, you aren't going to always come in first. If someone you know wrecks out, be careful not to make their problems effect you.

Keep persisting, and don't give up. Even when times get hard, we must continue to endure. Our endurance will eventually pay off.

If we endure to the end and keep persisting through adversity, will shall become victorious.

With the school year coming to a close, I know I must do all these things in order to be sucessful. I can't give up in the final lap, I can't let my victory slip away because I'm "too tired" or "not in the mood" to study for my finals and prepare.

The same goes for you, for whatever you need to achieve. If you give up, then you will not achieve what you desire. We mustn't give up, even if the odds are not in our favor. You have fans called family, a pit crew called the gospel, and a crew chief called Heavenly Father to help you be sucessful.

Temporal and Eternal

This past weekend was one full of recognition for myself, which usually I'm not all about being the center focal point of an audience, but this weekend was inevitable and a great honor.

On Sunday, I was inducted into my high school's first National Honor Society (NHS) group, and later that evening I received the Stake President's Award for seminary during this past school year.

I received two signed "official" certificates, along with two tokens. They may seem similar, but they are very different in my eyes. One is temporal, one is eternal.

The NHS award was signed by school officials, and the token was a pin with the NHS logo. To be in the NHS is an honor and a great academic achievement (so people say.) It looks good on college resumes and job applications. This NHS award, to me, is nothing more then a temporal "look at what I did" achievement--I feel there isn't anything special behind this. All I did was fill out an application, saying what service I've done in my community, and got good grades. And, not to mention the candle we were required to hold during the ceremony melted all over my hands...ouch.

My seminary award is very important to me. Along with the certificate, I was given a necklace that said "Messiah" in Hebrew. This achievement seemed much more difficult to achieve then my NHS one. The requirements (which I stole from my seminary teacher's blog) to get this achievement are:

• Read 200 days throughout the entire school year
• Read the entire New Testament
• Memorized 25 scripture master and say them twice
• Memorize the Books of the New Testament
• Memorize the 1st Presidency and Quorum of the 12 Apostles
• Attend 100% or completed the homework/makeup work for 100% attendance
• Fewer than 30 tardies for the year (mind you seminary starts at 5:55 AM)

This award won't get you into a super duper fantastic college, or get you the highest paying job in the world. However, this award WILL make your testimony grow--I promise you. This dedication these kids put forth is amazing, and I look up to those who have done this award before AND those kids who graduated this year from seminary.

Not to be stingy or anything, I AM grateful that I got inducted into the NHS...I'm just more grateful that my testimony has grown immensly since I started working towards the Stake President Award. I don't know about your oppinon, but, my testimony is way more important that some silly pin that says "NHS" on it.

And thank you for EVERYONE who has supported me! I'd be nowhere without you guys!

Thursdays

If you're part of my family, or you attend seminary regularly, you know that Thursdays is probably the worst day of the week. You're busy focusing on the weekend plans and you can almost taste them, yet they are still too far away. You're exhausted from your day to day living, getting up everyday at 5:00 in the morning and being gone from the house every day for 11 hours and 45 minutes.

I'm losing my fuel, my energy, my motivation. Although my trip is exactly a month away from tomorrow, May 1st, I still feel as though there is a year in between there and now. School is coming to a close, which means working my tail off to be successful when taking my finals and oh the excessive amounts of stress that usually brings, along with getting the grades I want at the end of the semester.

Seminary is almost done, and I'll be getting my Stake President's Award this Sunday (which seminary students earn for reading the New Testament, reading 200 days, memorizing 25 scriptures and reciting them twice, less then 30 tardies, making up all the missed days, memorizing the order of the New Testament books, First Presidency and the 12 Apostles), and I'm grateful for that.

I'm also getting inducted into NHS, National Honor Society, and I'm going to a showing of my artwork that went to the state reflections a few months ago. I'm grateful for all these great experiences, but they aren't helping me stay energized...if anything, they're wearing me out even more!

I'm running out on empty....I feel as though I can almost see the light at the end of this dark, lengthy tunnel. I hope I can get to it before I run out completely...just a few more weeks.....

Happy Easter

Easter isn't about finding elaborately decorated eggs, or eating candy. It isn't about waiting in a line to meet a man in a bunny suit. It isn't about the plastic fake grass that my mom hates. It isn't about getting gifts from the "Easter Bunny" either.

For some reason, our society has linked all of these things to what the real meaning of Easter was, and sometimes, I feel that we let the materialistic things get in the way of the real meaning. It seems that whenever there is a religious holiday, society finds a way to "make it better" by adding earthly desires, which, I find it sad that the real meaning generally gets overshadowed.

The First Presidency posted this:
"At this Easter season of hope and renewal we testify of the glorious reality of the atonement and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The empty tomb brought comforting assurance and provided the answer to the question of Job, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14).

Because of the Savior’s resurrection we will overcome death and become the beneficiaries of His mercy and grace. In a world of trouble and uncertainty, His peace fills our hearts and eases our minds. Jesus is in very deed “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

We give our sure witness that Jesus is the Christ. Though He was crucified, He rose triumphant from the tomb to our everlasting blessing and benefit. To each member of the human family He stands as our Advocate, our Savior, and our Friend."

I couldn't agree more. The real meaning behind Easter is to celebrate the fact that Christ offered up himself for our faults for everyone who has come, is here and yet to come, AND by the power of God was able to become resurrected and return with a perfect body. Because of this, we too are able to be resurrected and receive a perfect body once Christ returns to the Earth again.

It isn't "wrong" to participate in Easter activities, but we mustn't forget the REAL reason of Easter. We can't be wrapped up in the meaningless things that don't get us any farther in God's plan.

Lying

There's one thing I can't stand at all; liars. Why would you intentionally avoid telling the truth and being honest to avoid getting out of trouble? Sure, you may not get caught all the time, but you get the reputation of not being honest and people can't trust you...plus, if you get caught then everyone loses faith in you. This week, I have been dealing with liars and lying in general. If it isn't one thing, then it's another...I apparently get confronted with moral issues every week :)

A girl, who I thought I could trust generally, started to feed me lies about two very important people that go to church with me. I was miffed. How dare she lie to ME about people I see EVERY SINGLE DAY? Does she honestly believe I'm going to believe her, the girl who badmouths everyone and is a consistent liar? I think not. I told the two people what she said about them, and they laughed and said that this is who she really is. I couldn't believe she was trying to even trick ME into believing that I what I get at Starbucks, the double choc. chip frapp which has NO caffeine in it minus the chocolate, contained coffee. Nice try. I'm just glad that one of my friends in that class was saying that I don't lie...glad someone has me covered.

Another time I was during lunch on Friday. A friend of mine apparently got on the computer when he wasn't suppose to, then his parents found out, then he blamed his best friend--saying that it was really him who got onto Facebook. Then he faked changing his password and made it looked like his best friend changed it, and so he wasn't able to "get online." Anyway, at lunch he and his best friend were planning to have his best friend call his house and leave a message saying that it was really him who got on Facebook and that he was sorry. I was in shock--lying to get out of trouble for both lying AND breaking a rule. The best friend called the parents, lying to them, and he did it because "he was just helping out his friend." They asked me for advice, so I said that I thought it was ridiculous that they were A. Lying in the first place, B. Lying to cover up their lies, C. Blaming someone else and making them take the fall. I told them that I don't lie, and then I was accused of lying for saying that. I finally got so upset that I got up, left the lunch table and proceed to go to my class without saying goodbye. I knew it was time to leave once they were saying "that once you lie a lot the guilt just goes away" and talking about how good of liars they are.

I'm grateful that I was born with a personality that doesn't need to lie. It's a blessing.