Hello all. anyone and everyone who reads this. Thank you for reading my blog. The purpose of this is mainly a journal for my own records since my memory is not one of my super fortes. I am reminded of this every time I go to compose a new post for the week and I can't even remember what happened that week. So it's good to take a moment and recount for the last week or two of my life, to see, evaluate, and account for the personal growth and learning.

Last Monday morning I cut my finger open. I was cutting an apple for my breakfast ready to walk out the door and my finger was under the apple when I was cutting it. When it stopped bleeding, the flesh was curdling out of the opening, it was a deep cut and kind of gross and cool at the same time. Bonnie looked at it and suggested stitches. What!? I grew up with the hospital and stitches being reserved for when your brain was sticking out of your head, we just didn't get stitches-ever! I called my mom and as typical "just put some gauze and a band-aid on it and let it heal". So that's what I did. It was a little embarrassing to text my boss that morning to let him know I will be in late to work due to the fact that I just cut my finger open. When I got to work my coworker Joe showed me his scar on his left pinky finger in the same spot where I cut mine. "Ah (gasp), we are going to have matching scars!" he exclaimed. Yes, Joe and I became blood siblings in that moment. Our conversation eased the pain from a slightly humiliating morning and a big ouchie. Who knew it would hurt so bad to cut your finger open? I didn't. So I had a big white gauze bandage on my finger for the week and now it is healing great.

Last weekend (Easter weekend) on Friday night we had a multi-ward talent show. I did my dance solo that I did for our Body Logic concert and it was really fun. The most stress-free performance I think I have ever had. The whole evening was fun. I ended up sitting by this super funny guy, so we were going back and forth commenting on the talents. I practiced my flirting skills, so it made the night fun. One of the Emcees was wearing a red flannel shirt with rainbow suspenders and boots, so at one point he commented that he only had 1 talent and the guy next to me leans over and whispers, "that flannel shirt".

"Yeah, that flannel shirt gets me every time" I whispered back through my laugh. It was hysterical and a lot of fun.

One act though, I even took pics of this one and will steal it for our next family reunion-so sisters take note..

3 girls and 1 guy (the guy I was sitting by) did a 'Grecian Urns' act that was out of this world hilarious. The guy posed in a 'Grecian Urn' pose and each of the 3 ladies had a pitcher of water. Periodically through out their skit, they drank water and spewed it-in different patterns according to the choreography. Too funny!

Afterwards, a group of us went and got frozen yogurt and watched the Star Trek movie, much to my resistance. I liked it more than I thought, but on a scale of 1-10, it was a 3.6. Not a fan of Star Trek.

Saturday morning I went and ran a 5K with my ward-first time running 3 miles outside in a long time. It was kind of the kick start to running outside, so I was determined to run the whole way and I made it! I got my iPod all synced up before and ran to Journey's Greatest Hits blasting in my ears "...Don't Stop. Believin"...

Saturday afternoon I went up to Ogden to hang out with Mags for her birthday. I took her some red tulips and cupcakes. She wanted to go the tulip festival for her birthday, so I brought the tulip festival to her. And these cupcakes. So Bonnie told me about this Vintage Cupcake Company in Ogden who make gourmet fantastic cupcakes, so I picked some up and we enjoyed them the whole weekend. So Yummy! Cookies and Cream, Coconut cake with coconut icing, Red Velvet, Double Chocolate, Carrot, etc. SO Yummy!

Sunday I went to church with Mags and to Bird and Nee's for Easter Dinner with Bonnie's family. Her whole family was there and it was a lot of fun! We visited, had yummy yummy food, and played Dance Dance on the Wii. Super fun. Then I took the Myers-Briggs Personality test. Bonnie's Dad, Russ, is certified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, so he can administer the personality test and give results and the whole deal. So I took the test before I left and he was going to score it and give it back to me on Thursday when he was coming to do a presentation for One on One about personality type.

This last week, I was motivated and ran 3 miles on Monday and Wednesday. Outside. I found a loop route right by my condo that I like-well, first one. I am still getting used to running outside, but running under the sun is the best. Being outside is invigorating and after a stressful work day on Wednesday, it was a great release and unraveling time to just run under the sun. Thank you for the sun and my body that can run.

Wednesday we had some VIP visitors were here for the quarterly board meeting that day. I thought I was prepared, but it ended up being a stressful, borderline frazzled day. There was just last minute copies to be made and stapled, wi-fi passwords to figure out, spoon for the fruit to run and get, gift bags to pack, etc. Then just being on the edge of my seat to take care of anything anyone might need-like printing and faxing a t-shirt request form for one of the visitors or calling a cab at the last minute, you know, things like that.

I was exhausted, but everything went well.

Then Thursday I somehow planned another stressful day where again I thought I was prepared, but it ended up not being as smooth as I planned. We had a new catering company for lunch that was doing a salad bar and bread. I imagined this great salad bar with lots of vegetables, boiled eggs, chicken, a variety of dressings, and some beautiful bread platters with a variety of breads, etc. Right? That's what I asked for. Well, they showed up late with loads of lettuce and spinach-good and healthy-but we ran out of all the toppings 2/3 way through everyone and the bread ended up being cheap-o rolls from Wal-mart that were carelessly dumped into platter toppers. So I am evaluating and digesting this while planning for Russ's presentation at noon as well. The food being late pushed back the presentation, so it created some confusion, waiting, and me running back and forth putting out the lunch fire while calmly setting up for the lunch presentation. It all turned out okay and I am cooling off this weekend before I call the caterer on Monday and tell him how it went. He called me during the presentation with a light-hearted "so how did it go?"

"um, we are in the middle of a presentation, can I call you back?" I was fuming.

Russ's presentation went really well and our team members liked it. Afterwards he gave me my test, according to Myers-Briggs I am an ENFJ(P) I think I am more P than J on most occasions.

Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging, (Perceiving)

ENFJs are interpersonally focused, understanding, tolerant, appreciative, and facilitators of good communication. They enjoy working with others on a variety of tasks focused on the development of people.

ENFPs are enthusiastic, insightful, innovative, versatile, and tireless in pursuit of new possibilities. They enjoy working on teams to bring about change related to making things better for people.

My family will laugh, listen to the "potential pitfalls" and "suggestions for development"

• May move on to new ideas or projects without completing those already started (hello AP english book list)
• May overextend and try to do too much (I am the queen of double booking engagements)
• May sweep problems under the rug when in conflict (yes. I am getting better at not doing this though)
• May need to set priorities and then follow through
• May need to learn to screen tasks and say "no" rather than do what is initially appealing
• May need to apply project and time management skills to meet goals (hello time management :))

Enter Bonnie Bennion, an ISTJ, the perfect complement to me, Ha! We have had many good laughs about this. But that is why living with her is a dream, she is great at everything I am not naturally good at. However, the good news is that we are rubbing off on each other and both balancing out.

So my dear family, I am doing my best to manage my time well and speak up in conflict, but you got to know that I just wan't wired that way. :)

Thursday afternoon after blowing some steam off at lunch with Nee and Bird and Bonnie at JCW's, Ernst and Young came to film my boss, he is up for Entrepreneur of the Year, kind of a big deal. The corporate communications gal handled all of this, so I was actually relieved to answer some emails and take care of some projects. I knew the lady from last year, so we chatted on a tour of the office and I got to sit in on my boss's interview, which he totally rocked. It was fun, and really good to get more insight on the company and my boss as a person. As we just read about, I am all about that-people.

I really want my boss to take the Myers-Briggs test, I have a feeling that we are really similar and it is advantageous and disadvantageous. I will work on it.

Thursday evening I met my mom at Costco and shopped for Pete's Prom dinner that she was making. I got some pizza for dinner and we got to chat for a little bit. My mom's undivided attention, always a treat. As we caught up, I realized that I am learning how to balance pursuing dating and marriage as an overarching goal of mine at the same time that I live my life fully and move forward. I am getting better, but I would feel stuck whenever I spent my energy trying to date and be successful-something just wasn't working. So then I would go back to getting really involved with my job and someone would remind me to always be looking for my man. It would go back and forth like a pendulum, so now I am creating balance with that. Hooray! It's about time.

That conversation was so timely and I had a follow-up breakthrough on Friday talking to my friend Ingrid at the Inner Woman training that we were staffing this weekend up at the Impact Training center. I have been having this feeling that I will find my husband when I am in full bloom in my life and I am not there yet. She listened and affirmed me, then she looked me in the eyes and said "you don't know what you want yet". Bingo. It's true, I am still clarifying exactly what I want and I don't know yet. All these guys that I go out with are awesome and kind of fit, but it's like a slightly misfit puzzle piece-it just doesn't work. I was so relieved. Because I know I am still blooming and now I feel full permission to bloom naturally and carry on with my beautiful life. Perfect.

This was my first staffing experience at Impact and it was great! The womens training was amazing, I went through it in 2007, so I had forgotten a lot of the details and it was fantastic to review. It was all about celebrating womanhood in every sense of the word, so naturally it brought up a lot of tender feelings for my mother, sisters, and gratitude to be a woman!

Friday night I worked on my Visiting Teaching report and tied myself up in knots because it was so last minute. I didn't visit my sisters this month, I did call and chat for a few minutes and dropped off some M&Ms and a note. Bare minimum, and it bugged me, enough that I evaluated my commitment and decided to be a 100% visiting teacher going forward.

Saturday morning I woke up and ran the Thanksgiving Point 5K-first official organized race! Katie, another girl ont he staff trained for the half-marathon, but there wasn't time to run it before the training, so she ran the 5K and I ran it with her. Except she took off at the beginning with a 9 minute mile and steadied a 10.5 minute mile, finishing in about 35 minutes. It was really cool and a beautiful route.

I quickly showered and changed then headed up for the second day of Inner Woman and it was Incredible! I staffed with my sister Margaret and it was so fun to be there with her celebrating being a woman and our sisterhood! I love my sisters so much.