Status update & a little message on faith.

Well what a fun weekend it has been! We've been busy spending time with Josh's MBA program being treated all weekend long!

Friday night we went to the Galivan center for a dinner event. They seriously had THE best hot chocolate complete with chocolate covered marshmallows so I was in heave. I definitely lost track of how many cups I had! After our delicious food and chatting we got to go skate! Josh of course was skating circles around everyone! It was a lot less crowded than Christmas time we actually had room to race around. Lots of fun (: 

After skating and a quick walk through city Creek we headed to the jazz game. This was a special one! The tribute to jerry Sloan! The arena was full of old players it was really neat to be a part of and see Jerry's banner raised. 

The MBA program at the U flew in some of their recruits this weekend and that is why we went to the event and Friday and why on Saturday morning bright and early we headed up to Park City to Canyons ski resort for a full day of fun! Id never been there before and was nervous but it's beautiful and we had a blast on the slopes all day! Josh skied and snowboarded. We made quite the team and enjoyed meeting prospective MBA students from around the country. 

We are both so sore now! Come the end of the days my legs felt like they were going to give out half way down the mountain! It was sunny and warm the first half of the day but after lunch the snow started coming down and it was seriously beautiful. 

What a great weekend! We feel so blessed having josh on the admissions team allowing us to be a part of all of these fun events (:

A little message on Faith:

As we're all aware, the United States is in turmoil regarding several moral issues.  The world is trying to substitute man's wisdom for God's. This is the reality of our world, but we can choose how we react to it.  From this, I have been thinking a lot about faith - what it is, what it feels like and what it requires.

As stated in Alma 32:21 : "And now as I said concerning faith— faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
So faith is having hope in things which are not seen, which are true.  What else is faith? Faith is a verb.  We hear counsel from the Savior in Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you"  We must ask, seek, and knock.  We must do.  We cannot expect faith to grow if we simply stay idle.  Going on in Alma 32 Alma compares faith to seed that must be cared for.  He uses more verbs such as : awake, arouse, experiment, exercise, desire, work, and plant.  We have the choice to choose faith by our actions.  I love this concept.  From the October 2010 conference Elder Edgley counsels us: "When our sacred doctrine and beliefs are challenged, this is our opportunity to become acquainted with God in a most private and intimate manner. This is our opportunity to choose.    I feel this couldn't be more true today.

We are all responsible for our own faith or our lack thereof.  Which will you choose?  I feel in this day and age it's even more important to have your own seed of faith you are nourishing.  It will never be enough to be living off of someone else's.  Our morals and values are being challenged and we must have enough faith to stand for them.  You must make your own choice to stand for what you know to be true.  What can this mean today?

In the book of Moses chapter 5 Adam gives the example of how I believe we must stand today.  In verse 6 it states: "And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me."   This is what faith means.  It means doing what the Lord commands even if we do not understand all of the reasons why.  We know the Lord has a perfect knowledge of all things (2 Nephi 2:24) and that is what we need to have faith in.  Where did Adam turn for further knowledge? He turned to the messengers sent to him from God.  As Latter Day Saints we believe in modern day revelation from our latter day prophet and apostles.  To have true faith we must attune our faith to what they say, what God would have us hear.  Even if we don't understand why it is the way it is.    

The first presidency sent a letter to our stake asking them to go over with us why we believe in the covenants we do and why they are important.  They then asked as I urge all of you to pray for God's truths to be preserved and to illuminate them.

We must be firm in what we stand for.  There is much I do not know but I too know the important things.  And that is what I will focus on.  Elder Edgley says to : choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism.  We must have faith as we live in this changing world and in order to have faith we must act.  I testify that as we act, God will turn faith into knowledge.

Birthday boy

My handsome husband is now 25 (my dad congratulated him on being 1/4 century old ha)! Despite the bummer of having school we had a blast celebrating Josh's birthday. I woke up at the crack of dawn to decorate the house and make him breakfast -cake batter pancakes! 

Josh had class until 12 but then we got to have a lunch date. Sadly then he wasn't home until 7! But we kept up the tradition of Texas Roadhouse birthday night! 

Great day! I'm so grateful for this man in my life and for all he does for me each and every day. I'm so proud of all of his hard work. He makes things happen. He's such a wonderful example to me and I love being at his side. I don't know what I'd do without him! 

My favorite gift I made for josh (: here's my inspiration: "If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart—painted, as Paul said, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” And returned missionaries, find your old missionary tag. Don’t wear it, but put it where you can see it. The Lord needs you now more than ever to be an instrument in His hands. All of us have a contribution to make to this miracle." -Niel L Anderson 

The Power of Daily Decisions.

I want to keep my blog going so right now I am going to add a little twist.  My goal is to each week pick a topic, study it, and prepare as if I were going to give a talk on it.  Each Sunday after my week of study I will write up this talk and put it on my blog.  Feel free to check back Sunday nights and see what I have posted that afternoon.  I don’t know what it will be, we’ll just see where the week takes me.  So here is week one. 

The world is an incredibly intricate place.  I feel like the more I learn in my college classes as well as the books I read [which Josh would claim is too often! (; ], the more my testimony grows confirming our Heavenly Father’s fingerprints in every aspect of our lives and the earth He created for us.  His intelligence and planning astounds me.  Let me explain where all of these recent thoughts have come from.

I don’t know about you, but recently in church I have noticed two overall themes: 1. A push in missionary work & 2. The importance of daily scripture study and prayer.  It doesn’t matter if the lesson is specifically focused on these topics, they still come up. 

The human brain fascinates me.  Before getting married I greatly considered going into neuroscience.  Currently in school my focus is early education.  I could preach to you for hours of why I know that the first 3-5 years of a child’s life are vital.  The biggest part of this is the shaping of the brain [everything connects!].  To paint the picture think of the internet.  I’ll compare the number of synapses [connection points between neurons] in a child’s brain to the number of hyperlinks [connection point between two web pages] the internet has.  The internet has over a hundred trillion links, an adults brain has over 300 trillion links, but a child’s brain has over a quadrillion connections.  These connections aren’t there yet when a child is born, but instead grow at a rapid speed during the first five years of life.  These connections are formed through the child’s everyday experiences and interactions.  Every conversation you share with them is shaping their brain.  This is the danger for the poor sweet children who experience neglect, abuse or constant fear.  Their brains go into toxic stress mode.  The connections for learning and self-regulation get trimmed while the connections for fear, stress and violence grow.

The adults brain is still somewhat similar.  We are still constantly shaping our brains.  After our lesson in church today I was just blown away by how everything connected for me.  I always knew that daily scripture study is important.  For me, I always felt it gave me greater peace throughout the day and I know that when I make the time the Lord helps me to fit everything else into my day that I need to.  But there is actually a science about this importance of reading and praying every day which I’m sure Heavenly Father included to help us. 

We had the privilege to hear from some very intelligent professors [my favorite part of still being in a somewhat student ward] today and this is the analogy they helped me to understand.  Imagine a mountain and paths deer travel down.  The more deer down the path the deeper the trail.. It is the same way with the nuerological pathways in our brains.  Our brain is going to go down the deepest/widest paths.  We form these paths by our everyday decision and habits.  Habits are key.  And guess what?  It’s never too late to change your habits.  It all starts with a single step- we decide we CAN do it.  It is a choice.  Daily scripture study and prayer not only provide us with peace and direction, they form nuerological paths in our brains leading us to spiritual guidance and strength.  When we act before we think, if we have formed these spiritual paths in our brains, that is where we will go [because they are the widest and deepest] instead of down a dangerous bad habit of anger, withdrawal, or laziness.

The human brain is shaped by our habits [I could also go on about habits/science!  If you’re interested in some good books about this topic let me know!]  We literally form pathways in our brains by what we continually do.  This seems so obvious to me now but if it weren’t for church today who knows when I would have made the connection.  I feel I have been doing well getting into the habit of scripture and prayer but now my goal is to improve the quality.  This lesson at church has given me even more motivation, hence my new blog goal.

Two last thoughts to end with:

1. I am a perfectionist and I hate when I set a goal and then miss a day.  I totally beat myself up for it.  Today they shared this analogy: Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day.  It’s like brushing your teeth, if you miss it one day, you’re still going to do it the next.

2. “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them”  -Confucius

Thanks for joining me on my new journey!

And as always - I'm grateful for this guy joining
me in all my crazy adventures (:

Weekend Getaway (:

So this weekend we had the opportunity to fly to Dallas.  It was amazing!  For starters, the weather was sunny and 73 degrees V 37 in Salt Lake!  It felt like spring!  Such a nice change.  We got in on friday and Josh had a few meetings and tours to attend while I toured around the city.  Friday night American took us out to a delicious dinner at La Duni.  Amazing food!  Funny story, we looked it up on google maps and it was only about a 20 minute walk to our hotel so we decided to walk since it was still so beautiful out.  When we got to the restaurant and told them our reservation they informed us they don't take them and we must be thinking of the other La Duni a few blocks away.  Seeing as how we didn't have our car we took another 20 minute walk to the right restaurant this time!  Sure got our exercise in for the day!  We met with a bunch of other interns and the food was most definitely worth the walk.  Lucky for us the hotel sent a car to pick us up after!

Saturday we met with a realtor and then drove around getting a feel for the city.  We think we have found where we would like to live come August.  A beautiful city called Flower Mound.  After house hunting Josh spoiled me and took me to the Perot Museum to see the traveling Body Worlds Exhibit Animals Inside Out.  My heavens it was incredible!! If you ever say the Body Worlds humans exhibit when it came to the Leonardo in Salt Lake this was the same idea of plastification Dr. Gunther Von Hagens created to preserve bodies for medical students.

Inside out Camel

Texas Bull inside out!

A dog made completely of blood vessels!

After body worlds we visited Clyde Warren Park to play games and enjoy the sunshine.  We also took the old school trolley all over uptown dallas.  Beautiful!

American Airlines spoiled us taking us to a Mavs game in the personal suite.  Fun food, company and a great game!

Outside American Airlines Arena

the seats complete with dinner

the view.

We had a blast!  Dallas almost feels like home in a way (almost!).  It felt weird going back and having it not be the summer.  But we enjoyed it.  Josh is really excited to start working again and we are both excited for our new adventure come August (:

First christmas!

Well this christmas was our first as newlyweds and it was a blast. We are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends.  We spent our day waking up early to read the story of Christ before opening presents. Josh spoiled me rotten. He sure likes to tease! He hid a present he knew I really wanted until later in the day and wrapped an empty box to trick me! 

We then headed to brunch with my family and to see my grandma. Christmas breakfast is especially fun with little nieces and nephews! 

After we headed to Josh's family party at the Edwards full of food, basketball, games and presents it was a blast! And here is our picture for our cousin sister Meyer in Bermuda. 

I'm just so grateful for a wonderful christmas with our families. Will be moving to Texas [and graduating!!] in four short months! Scary but exciting. This may be our last christmas living in salt lake for awhile. Our families sure made it special. Thanks everyone!

Couldn't resist, merry kissmas!

Merry Christmas

I just love this time of year. So many thoughts recently about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. I love this quote from Neil A Maxwell: "Each of us is an inn keeper who decides if we let Jesus in." When Christ came there were many who could not see who stood rightin front  of them. Even many religious scholars who had been searching for Christ could not see Him. He was the savior they'd been looking for but because he did not come the way they had expected and He didn't agree with all of their teachings they turned their hearts away.

It seems crazy to me that people couldn't see Christ for who He was when he came.  I was reminded from Elder Uchtdorf's Christmas devotional talk 2009, what are things in our lives keeping us from seeing Christ? Worldly knowledge? Social media? Slothfulness? I know their are so many things I can work on and many weaknesses that can becomes strengths to me through the power of the atonement. Truly the greatest gift. 

Josh and I have been busy with family this Christmas season. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. 

We were able to go on a double date with Josh's brother Matt & his wife Amanda. 

We were able to attend Grandma Robert's annual Christmas party. Here we are with Santa (He told me he'd try to get me a puppy- fingers crossed!)!

We were able to visit my sweet grandma Pickett. She has been through much lately. Please keep her in your prayers. They are considering placing her in hospice. I'm so grateful she was able to meet my wonderful husband and for all my cherished memories with her. 

We brought her a Christmas card and cookies for her and to pass around to all her friends at the rest home. We met some of the sweetest folk. It felt wonderful to see the smile on their faces from our visit!

And temple square with part (a few were greatly missed!) of my amazing family! 

The salt lake temple is beautiful! Every time I come here I find a special peace and also am reminded of my favorite day, my wedding day! I will miss seeing this temple almost every day once we move to Dallas. We are so blessed to have many temples surrounding us here in Utah. 

Merry Christmas everyone I hope it's full of family, love & Christ.

Happy Holidays All (:

Well I'm sorry it has been so long!  The Hadley blog is back up and running!  Josh & I have had a busy semester - that thank heavens is over!  One more semester to go until graduation.  I can't believe it!  So exciting.  Here is the update for now:

Josh has been working on his own business, software as a service.  He has been dedicated to starting it up and all the hard work is paying off.  It has become our little project together I love it.

I have been busy teaching and going to school.  I start my students teaching this coming semester at the University of Utah lab school.  Should be exciting!

Great news - as of September we have 2 new nephews!!! Luke & Roren.  They are both just the cutest things in the world.  Luke has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and he is a fighter! Keep him in your prayers.  Couldn't ask for better nephews!

Roren & his big sister

Luke & his big brother.

Josh has accepted his offer from American Airlines so after graduation we are headed back to Dallas.  Mixed emotions, mostly excited... (:  I'm so proud of all of Josh's hard work.  American airlines sure is lucky to have him.  We are sure going to miss being around our families so often.  We have spent a lot of time with them this christmas season!

Ogden City Lights with the Edward's side!

Gingerbread building with the Pearson's!

Temple square with this handsome man.

Can't believe we stood here 9 months ago getting married!

We are excited for these next few months at home before jetting off to our next adventure!  Stay posted for more (: