One Last Thing

I feel like there's a chance I didn't quite express my excitement adequately in my last post. I feel so lucky, blessed, fortunate... whatever you want to call it... to be engaged to the man I am engaged to. Nathan Quinn. There is no one kinder, more selfless, or more patient than him. Never has anyone tried and succeeded at making me happier than he does- and he makes me feel like I can (and do) make him happy as well! In five months I am marrying my best friend and confidant, the man who makes me want to be a better person and with whom I look forward to spending the rest of my life and eternity. The man I love more than anything. To sum it up: I am VERY excited.

We're Engaged!

This past weekend Nate flew me out to San Francisco to visit him and for us to celebrate his birthday. I thought that was enough reason to celebrate, but no! He surprised me with a proposal! Nate asked me to marry him and I accepted! We are engaged to be married on April 16th!

Back up... I'll give a brief account of the events of the weekend, complete with pictures! I flew into Oakland Thursday night and planned to take the train into the city at which point Nate would pick me up. Turns out he just couldn't wait to see me any longer and actually met me in Oakland at the tain station and we rode it in together. He surprised me by coming up behind me as I was trying to figure out the ticket machines and said, "May I offer you my extra ticket?" I turned around and was just speechless! So cute!

That night I got to see where he lives in the city and meet his two roommates. He lives only five minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge and only one minute from the beach! Beautiful. We then made our way to the apartment of our friends Blaine and Jaymie Farr, who both graduated from accounting with Nate and are currently working in the city as well. They graciously hosted me on their couch this weekend.

Friday was Nathan's birthday, but he also still had to work, so I spent the morning visiting one of my best friends from elementary school, Meredith, and her little boy Will. Her husband also works for PwC in the Bay Area. We had a wonderful time catching up and speculating when Nate would pop the question! She said it'd be this weekend; I wasn't getting my hopes up for anything earlier than Thanksgiving.

I spent the rest of the day preparing Nate's birthday celebrations. He got off work and we opened his presents! Happy Birthday Nate! I gave him a wallet and sack lunches for two weeks! Everything's packed an ready to go- all he has to do is put the sandwich together each day. We had brownies and ice cream (with a match held by Blaine to serve as a candle) to celebrate- Nate's favorite dessert.

He and I spent the evening getting lost in San Francisco. We wandered all through China Town, spent not nearly enough time in Banana Republic (the world's largest, mind you), and ended the evening with dinner together.

Saturday was the big day. We spent the afternoon rock climbing at Mt. Tam (north of San Francisco) with our friends.

Then it was time for our date in Sausalito! Nate had asked me to dinner and took me a cute little Italian place. Sausalito is a little touristy town on the other side of the Bay from the city- we could see the city all lit up in the night lights and it was beautiful! After dinner we walked along the bay out on one of the piers near the yacht club. We were just talking when he casually pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and said, "Look, I forgot to show you- I found this." It was an ad from the Daily Universe (the school newspaper) from last winter semester. The ad featured a ring that I had clipped and hung up (last winter when we were dating), thinking it was absolutely beautiful. As time passed, however, I lost track of the picture. About two weeks ago (after we had gone ring shopping together) he set to work (unbeknownst to me) searching for the ad, and was successful! He called the jewelers and had them ship it to him right away.

Anyway, back to me looking at the ad on the pier over the Bay. It wasn't until that moment that I realized there was a possibility that he could propose that night, and sure enough, I looked up and he was on one knee in front of me, asking me to marry him. I started crying immediately, and just felt like the whole experience was so perfect and surreal. I could not have planned a better engagement myself. He did an absolutely fantastic job.

We spent the next couple of hours calling friends and family, sharing the good news. And, to top off the evening, we arrived back at the home of my hosts, only to find them waiting up for us a with a bottle of chilled sparkling cider to celebrate! We toasted to our engagement!

The next morning, my last day in SF, we visited Grace's Cathedral, which feel more like it should be in London or France, rather than in the middle of a bustling, modern, western city. An absolutely beautiful building and a must see for anyone visiting SF.

At church (the Golden Gate Ward) we ran into my sweet cousin Brad and his wife Danielle who have recently moved out there. Danielle was so cute to introduce me to the Relief Society and announce our engagement to everyone. I love it! Seeing them was the first chance we had to introduce ourselves as each other's fiances! Let the fun begin!

Cousin Halloween Date!

Every year (ok, it started last year) we do a college-cousin Halloween date. This year, thanks to Robyn's planning, we enjoyed an evening together eating Cafe Rio Salads and then making our way through the corn mazes at Thanksgiving Point. Luckily, Nate was in town for the weekend!

Robyn and her date Nick. Nate and Lauren, Jimmy and Annie (to be married in December!), Nicole, Shannon and her date Ryan, and Dan and his date Aubrey.

In the stocks.

In Cinderella's pumpkin carriage!

Fall is in the Air!

Fall is in the air! And more importantly it's in my mouth! Nothing says "Fall" like pumpkin chocolate chip bread- so delicious. I'm including the recipe below because it is just that good I want all of you to make it and see for yourselves (if you all lived in the same state as me I'd bring it to you, but seeing how most of you don't, it's unfortunately not very feasible). That will come later though (skip to the end if you want the recipe now). First, I want to reminisce on the other things that made it feel like the seasons were changing today: I wore a completely brown ensemble, complete with my new Burberry scarf; we carved pumpkins for family night; and we made cinnamon-sugar toasted pumpkin seeds for the treat! All of that, combined with looking forward to going to a corn maze this weekend with my family on our annual "College Cousin Group Date" makes for a wonderful changing of the seasons.

My cute roommates: Vale, Beckie, and me

with our pumpkin and roasted pumpkin seeds

Our pumpkin- drink, hamburger, and fries

(McDonald's fries, of course)

Change. It seems fitting to stop for a moment and realize the significance of change. Does it have any significance? I feel like I should have something profound to say here. I guess I'll just mention what's been on my mind. I feel like times of change are wonderful opportunities to look back and see how far we've come since the last time of change. How have I grown? What have I learned? If I haven't learned anything, how can I learn more this next time around?

Since the last time of change in my life (I'm thinking since school started and I returned back from my internship) I feel like I've had many opportunities to learn about relying on my Heavenly Father. I am not perfect, nor am I expected to be perfect (yet). Heavenly Father expects me to make mistakes. That's why He sent His Son to perform the atonement for us. Proclaiming perfection is, in essence, denying ourselves the blessings of the atonement. It's ok to make mistakes, and it's definitely ok to use the help afforded us by means of the atonement. As we work to know Christ better and rely on Him more, we'll find it easier to do so and it will become our first source of comfort- really the most sure source of comfort there is.

I hope you enjoy reflecting back on your own times of change... while eating pumpkin chocolate chip bread!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

(from the Ivory Favorites Cookbook)

5 eggs, well beaten

3 cups sugar

2 1.2 cups canned pumpkin (Libby brand is the only way to go)

2 cups corn oil (vegetable oil works too)

4 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

4 1/2 teaspoons soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream eggs and sugar. Ad pumplin and oil. Add dry ingredients slowly and combine thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into 4 greased and floured (9"x 5") bread pans. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Beautiful Conference Weekend

This weekend was beautiful for two reasons: (1) we got to spend the entire weekend listening to the Prophet, Apostles, and other Church General Authorities present the most modern revelation there is to us, and (2) Nate was in town!! I don't have time to write, but I've included some pictures below:

Mom, Dad, and the ipad watching Conference in the Mountain Room

Lauren and Nate out on the afternoon walk with the family

Off to Priesthood in Francis!

Dad (very excited), Nate, Isaac, Eric, Uncle Bob, Dan, David (first time as a deacon!), Uncle Glade

The girls

Carmen, Shannon, Nicole, Annie, Robyn, Lauren

Japanese Family Dinner

I have two things to say tonight.

First, it is amazing what good conversation with friends (family is preferable where possible) over a home cooked dinner can do for a person's spirits. Let me explain. I attended one of the most frustrating, poorly-run meetings of my life tonight and subsequently left in a horrible mood. I left that meeting wondering how in the world I was going to not let it ruin the rest of my night. Dinner was the answer. I've recently joined a dinner group with some other students and thanks to Ryan, Elise, Ben, and Kelsey, my bad mood was dispelled and I can enjoy the rest of my night! Tonight was just another building block in my testimony of family dinner. I am sold on having family dinner with my future family every night. I had it growing up and am so thankful- I can't imagine life without it.

(...at this point you're wondering if it's only Japanese food that has this effect, or if the people I ate with were Japanese... well, neither, actually. The food was Indian curry and the people were all white. Keep reading...)

Second: Konichiwa! Hello from Japan! Well, almost... But here's the big news: Nate's going to work in Japan in two weeks! I am so excited for him! This is such a huge opportunity for him to build his personal brand with the firm and an amazing tribute to him. Rarely, if ever, do consultants get to work internationally their first year with the firm, and here he is going out his first month. What does that mean for us? Well, not much will change since our current communication consists of gmail video-chat anyway- he's either talking to me from a computer screen in SF or in Osaka! In fact, it's even better than our current situation because it means he can come home from Japan by way of Salt Lake. So... I guess it's time to invest in a English-to-Japanese dictionary... Sianara!

Life Strategy

President Packer gave a talk in 1980 titled, "The Choice" which I was assigned to read for my advanced accounting class today (yes, yes I know, ...only at BYU... but that's why we love BYU). Throughout the talk he discusses what success is: is it fame? fortune? happiness? posterity? He concludes with this thought:

"We now move in to an uncertain future. But we are not uncertain. Children, bear testimony, build Zion. Then you will find true success, complete happiness."

Two thoughts: we are all moving in to an uncertain future. That is just life. We can plan and prepare all we want (and I hope we do!) but regardless, things are going to happen in God's timetable, not ours. But, armed with that knowledge, we can enter that uncertain future without any uncertainty, placing our complete trust in our Heavenly Father! No need to be uncertain about the future. Things will work out.

Second: I was reading my assigned reading for my strategy class this afternoon (not a General Conference talk this time, by the way) which focussed on a select few companies and their success. I found this interesting having just read President Packer's talk:

"One reason why they are successful is that they have recognized what they can do well and have based their strategies upon it...A common reason for lack of success is not an absence of distinctive competencies, but a failure to recognize what they are and to put them to effective use."

I think we can apply this to ourselves. Yes, we know God is watching out for us, but we can't just sit back and let Him do everything. We must take action! If we can recognize our strengths, the things we do well, and then base our "life strategy" upon it, keeping it in line with faith and trust in Heavenly Father, success is inevitable! What is success? Well, that is for you to decide. For me, I know it's directly linked with my proximity to the Spirit. So, knowing the future is going to be uncertain, arming myself with the Spirit, and taking action with my new "life strategy" I can move forward without uncertainty and conquer the world.

And there you go. That's what you get when you combine a world-class accounting education with a strategy perspective in the mind of a young BYU co-ed.