Shopping in Cleveland

Good evening friends and family! General conference last weekend was AMAZING. I hope you all got to see at least some of it. I especially enjoyed the Saturday morning session. I felt that President Utchdorf's talk, "Of Things That Matter Most" (http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-7,00.html) was made for me. It's really easy for me to get caught up in the day-to-day activities. What homework do I have? When do I work? When am I going for a run? What time should I start dinner? I'm always thinking about what's next on my to-do list and I rarely take time to slow down. Elder Utchdorf quoted Elder Dallin H. Oaks by saying, "We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families." This is something that I need to improve in and something that never hurts to focus more on.

School and work went well last week. Unfortunately some of my hours have been cut. I went from working 30ish hours/week to 20 hours/week. Today I opened for the first time. I enjoyed it because I got home around 4pm and had dinner made by 5pm. AND Dan and I actually got to have family home evening on Monday night. Opening shifts usually are the worst because you don't make very much in tips. Today, however, was really busy!

Last Friday I ran 4 miles! I haven't been training as consistently as I should for my 5 mile race (which is only a few weeks away). I was pretty proud of myself for a 9:41 min/mile. Considering my neighborhood is full of hills I'd like to think my time was great. I'm aiming for a 9:30 min/mile for the race... it may or may not happen. Friday I also went to Cleveland with the other interns in my group. I had so much fun! We HAD to go to my favorite store of all time:

I was so tempted to buy this sweater in charcoal gray (it looks good on, trust me):

link to sweater

I used restraint however and bought some much more needed things. Dior mascara, bare escentuals eyebrow color, and handmade honey-vanilla body soap (the soap actually has honeycombs on it!). After shopping, my friends and I went to a delicious burger joint, The B Spot.

The B Spot

This restaurant is owned by Michael Symon (those of you familiar with food network will know who he is). I got the "Shroomage" burger. It was delicious. They don't serve fries with their burgers so I was adequately stuffed without being too full.

After burgers we walked down to Trader Joes. I guess I took for granted all the high-quality stores that were located so close to us in Oregon. I'm actually not a HUGE fan of Trader Joes. Even though it has some great products, this store does not fit into a student budget at all. I look forward to shopping there in the future.

Anna, Amy, Emily, and I in front of Trader Joes

Friday night, Dan and I spent time together playing football on the PS3. Let's just say I'm awesome at football :-) Yesterday I taught a lesson in Relief Society on repentance. At first, many sisters were hesitant to speak up but after I got the sister missionaries involved more women commented. It ended up being a really good discussion and I felt that those who were investigating that day were well-informed on the process of repentance and the purpose it serves in our lives. Repentance truly is a privilege. I'm grateful to have the ability to have a "clean" slate and continually work towards becoming perfect like Christ.

Well that's about it. Thank you Grandma for the birthday card. Love you all. Please keep Dan and I in your prayers. Have a good week!