count your many Zorros

*Disclaimer: This is a long blog. This is a good blog. I recommend it. I also recommend the song playing. Highly. So tune in.*

First of all, happy February one and all! it's my favorite month. If it was warm it would be perfect. But then i might lose the will to enjoy the other 11 months, so maybe it's good that the month has a drawback :) Groundhog's day...my bday....Valentine's Day (favorite.)....3-day president's day weekend...Black history month....the occasional random extra leap day....love love love it all!

But back to January....
At the beginning of the month i found myself getting discouraged by a little thing called PROVO. So, I decided to be pro-active about my gratitude level. Hence, I started keeping a list of things I love about Provo. That list is ongoing, and will be shared a date TBA. I also kept a second list of my favorite parts of January....it was fun. I want to do it every month. Especially during February...because there's so much to love!

So here it is in a nutshell....i entitled the page "Amazing January." I could have gone for alliteration....jovial....jolly....jackelope....but Amazing it is. Enjoy :)

- Temple Thursdays: Every Thursday at 10am me and my roommate Lauralee (Lars) go to the Temple and do Baptisms. What a blessing this is! It requires some juggling, but it's well worth it.

- Dollar Movie Wednesdays: The first week of the semester my roommates and I wanted to escape homework at 10pm so we went to the dollar theatre. And it's become a lovely weekly tradition. This month's picks: Golden Eye, City of Ember, Forever Strong, and Mall Cop (the last one was a splurge...we went to the regular theatre. It was only a mediocre movie. We learned our lesson...)

- Wally ball: We play this once a week. It's basically volleyball inside a racquetball court. And i love it. Muchly much.

- Trip to Cedar....times two: I already wrote about the first one. But yes, I went again this weekend...spontaneously. My dear friend Katie Lewis was going to make a video...due to technical glitches, the video thing never actually happened. We mostly just laughed and played cards and sang songs and ate amazing food her mom made us. My heart smiled. I should never spend a weekend in Provo again.

- Cram-reading the Book of Mormon: Had to read Alma 30 to the end of Moroni in TWO WEEKS for a class. It was a challenge. It was well worth the effort. Recommended.

- Observing Preschool: I had to spend an hour observing children at the BYU Preschool once two weeks ago and again this last week. It was so excellent. Children are so funny. I want to go to preschool myself, I think. Snacks, arts and crafts, recess, boys in spiderman jackets...Amen.

- Bethany's snowman poem: Mandy (my sister) emailed me to tell me my 3-yr-old niece wrote a poem about a snowman she named after me. Come to find out, she has also named a toy pony and cat after me. I feel like this is better than winning a Grammy, eh?

- Zorro in the Wilk: The Wilk is the BYU student center. I was sitting alone at a table one day, looking at other people eat their lunches, when I spotted him....a boy on the upper floor balcony, in a cape and a Zorro hat, with an Antonio Banderas-esque goatee/soul patch. I'm glad to know I'm being watched over. Keep being vigilant, BYU hero man.

- Miss America & waffle fries: This explains itself. It was a good night.

- Mexi-fiesta dinner: I invented Mexican soup and cornbread. We ate it. It was delish.

- Slinky in the mail: My mom sent me a book I left at home over break. She included candy and a slinky. And pink packing peanuts. The UPS man witnessed my joy. I could have hugged him.

- Seeing the Prophet speak: YES! Pres. Monson gave a fireside for the CES broadcast and me and two of my roommates decided to go see him live. We sat in the cold for 3 hours and colored and played 20 Questions way too many times. Got seats in the 9th row. Amazing day :)

- RM calendar: Yes, some idiot produced and sold a Returned Missionary SHIRTLESS calendar. My reaction falls in the "disgust" zone with a slight tinge of bemusement and eye rolling. Anyways, my roommate's mom thought it was funny and sent her one. Hung in our hallway. So, I tore the cover off my Strength of Youth pamphlet, cut it into a T-shirt shape, and sticky-tacked it to him. It can easily be transferred every month to cover up the next scandal. Go team awesome.

- No make-up: Except for New Year's Eve, I haven't worn makeup once in 2009. Who cares. I sure don't. I'll save it for spiffy occasions. Hello world, my face is back.

- Green fingernails: I painted my fingernails dark green. With flowers. Joy.

- Warmer winter: In past years, I recall being happy when the high was in the 20s. We often had whole weeks where it didn't get above 10. (Yes, makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth too.) But this year, the highs have remained in the 30s. With the occasional 40. Unheard of. Glorious. Like a hug from heaven with my name on it.

- Bosephus: I love my houseplant. We are the best of friends. I will post pictures and such things in the future. Because he deserves a whole blog.

- Celine Dion night: The other night me and Kels ran an errand late at night....and then we snapped. Rolled down the windows and blasted Celine Dion and sang out hearts out to people on street corners. Mind you, it was like 15 degrees outside. I can't remember the last time I felt so invigorated. How I've missed you, Celine....

- Wish Kids: I finally met my first wish kid last Thursday! Tommy. Age 4. Leukemia. He wants to go to Disney World :) Love him. Love his family. Love that we got to drink root beer floats. We are having Brynlee's send-off party in 2 weeks (also going to Disney World). I'm also going to start writing wish stories for their Web site....stay tuned for pictures and such things of these kids. I don't think anything has every made me so happy in my entire life. Seriously.


Swoosh! (Not sure what that noise implies....but i typed it. And I'm leaving it.)

I'm going to finish with a grade-A story. Enjoy.
SO like a week ago I heard something in a class about the enabling power of the Atonement, and I wanted to read more about it. So, one morning I tried to look up Enabling Power in the Topical Guide....no dice. BUT, a couple hours later I got an email from a friend from Cedar. We used to recommend talks to each other to read. Anyways, so he randomly emails me and says something like "Hey Katie, you should read 'In the Strength of the Lord' by Elder Bednar. It's about the enabling power of the Atonement. I think you'd like it." Yeah, not even kidding.
The story gets better. So I sit down the next day to read the talk, and halfway through Elder Bednar starts telling a story about a pioneer-dude named Daniel W. Jones....Yes, family, our 3rd-ish great grandfather! The story came straight from "40 years among the Indians." Pretty certain I'm related to this guy. I almost fell outta my chair.

The point is, I know Heavenly Father is aware of me. There are too many "coincidences" in my life to attribute to happenstance. I don't always get the things I'm praying and praying for, but when I open my eyes I realize I AM getting enough blessings to remind me that my prayers ARE heard. I just have to learn to be satisfied with what I have instead of what I want, ya know? I think most people can relate.

I love you all. Thanks for enduring to the end on this long-ish blog.

Viva la vida, children.