Woodworking

While i was home at Christmas I passed my time by helping my Dad down in his woodshop. Here are a few of the things that I made while I was home.

The Perfect Lover

I feel as if this picture and quote define my life. All too often when i should probably be out on a date or attempting to be social, you'll find me in front of my TV. Why is this? The TV will never leave me and I always know what to expect from the TV and I can get tons done while still spending time with the TV. I don't have to dress up for the TV, it accepts me even when I'm in my sweats, if it gets too loud I can just turn it down or even turn it off, and it never gets jealous if i decide to read a book or go for a run instead. The TV is sometimes like a Lover...the perfect Lover.

A tradition lives on!

Not all of you will recognize the snowman featured in the picture above, in fact, i'm pretty sure only one person will...and that's my sister. Why will she, do you ask? Let me tell you a little story about this snowman.

A long time ago, when i was just a wee little child, i made this snowman, i think at a primary activity (I don't remember for sure). But the point to get out of that is that I, Brooke Tolman, worked really hard on this piece of art and it's pretty darn good for a little kid. And then i brought it home and so proudly showed my mom and year after year she'd bring it out at Christmas and use it to decorate. And then one year, years later when i was much older, my sister Heather starts making fun of it and talks about how ugly and creepy it is. And then one night, i think i found it hidden in my bed and so i went and hid it in her room somewhere, and now this poor snowman doesn't get to bring Christmas cheer anymore, he just gets passed around. It's become a tradition to secretly hide it in each others stuff whenever one of us is visiting.

I thought I was rid of him last year when my Heather was gettign ready to move to Japan and I hid it in her suitcase, but after coming back to Utah after being home for Christmas this year, i got a package from my Mom with some things that i left behind and lo and behold who do I find in the package...THE SNOWMAN!!! I about died laughing. I immediately called my Mom to ask about it and she said she found it around the house one day and since Heather wasn't around to give it to, she decided to send it to me. So, way to go Mom for keeping the tradition alive...and Heather, beware of any packages you might get from me!

Snowshoeing

I have some friends who have been wanting to go snowshoeing so i borrowed B's snowshoe's and took them on MLK day since we all had it off! We went up to a place near Heber, i was a little worried about the snow quality but it ended up being perfect! We didn't hike around for long but it was still fun. I forgot how much i really love snowshoeing.

3 quick stories

SOAPY OATMEAL
This morning, after i'd gone to class and come home, i decided i was hungry so i pulled out a bowl and made some instant oatmeal. (i'm a big fan of oatmeal). So after pulling my oatmeal from the microwave and adding some raspberry jam to it, i grabbed a spoon from our clean dishes pile and went to sit on the couch and eat it. First bite...initially it tasted really good, did i mention i love oatmeal? After that initial taste though, as my taste buds REALLY started to soak it up, i realized something was off...my oatmeal tasted like...dish soap. Well maybe it was just that one bite, so i took another one hoping the dish soap taste would be gone, or at least a little bit lessened. Nope, just a strong as the first time. So do you think i took my spoon over to the sink and washed it, so that i could fully enjoy the rest of my oatmeal? NOpe, i kept eating, thinking that it had to wear off sometime. It never really did, and to be honest, i still enjoyed my oatmeal. The lesson to be learned here is...you can't trust your roommates dish-washing skills.

"COMING ALIVE"
I was talking with someone earlier this week about what i was studying and my plans for after graduation and how i had no idea what i wanted to do in the immediate or distant future as far as a job goes, but that the smart decision would be to go to grad school or PA school or something like that. I thought, that like most people, he'd respond with "oh that sounds like a great idea, i hear there are tons of good jobs in those fields"...however in return he quoted from a book and he said "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." And it has made a huge difference in my thought process. While i have yet to figure out what it is exactly that makes me "come alive" I've started to realize that I can do whatever i want and i don't have to fit into that nice little mold that people have made for me and expect of me because it's the "smart" thing to do.

BAD DREAMS
Last night i dreamt that i woke up and went into the bathroom to put my contacts in and after putting them in, i looked in the mirror and i was missing one of my front teeth and in my dream i had deduced that my gums had become really soft and my tooth had just dropped right out. It was kinda gross. So i called my parents and they got mad at me for not having better dental hygiene and i told them that i'd just been to the dentist and they never said anything about it. So whatever, in my dream i planned to make an appointment with the dentist to get it fixed. So now, later in my dream i'm somewhere...i don't remember where, when all of the sudden i'm looking at my mouth again and all of my gums fall out. And i'm just left with my teeth attached to my jaw bones (which all of us who have taken anatomy know that's not how teeth are attached). And once again, for obvious reasons, i started freaking out again. Upon waking up, for real, i immediately went to the mirror to make sure that my teeth were firmly set in my mouth and my gums weren't going to fall out anytime soon. It was pretty traumatizing.

...I had a fourth story but i can't remember it right now.

New Year...New Word!

It's a new year which means it's time for a new word. This year i chose the word Obey! I've been really excited about it, i thought of it back in like September or October and i've been wanting to blog about it since.

One of the great things about Christs plan for us was that it made it so we have agency, the right to choose for ourselves and i think that one of the greatest ways that we can show our love for our Heavenly Father is by being obedient to his laws and commandments. In a nutshell we all know what we are suppose to do and the choices we are suppose to make and in theory it seems like it should be pretty easy to make those choices but in reality it isn't always. So this year, I'm going to make a more conscious effort to be obedient as best I can, even in the little things that i sometimes don't think make a difference.

Just in the few weeks that I've really been thinking about this I've come to realize the importance of obedience and the amazing effects it can have our lives. We aren't given commandments and told to do things by our leaders just because, there's a reason behind everything that they tell us to do and always it's for our benefit and safety. We'll only find blessings in obedience. While I've been home I've been reading a book that is a compiling of talks given by President Kimball's wife Camilla and one of them is about the reward of correct choices and in it she goes through like 10 or 12 scriptures that give a commandment and then in turn explain how we're blessed for following it. It's been amazing to see all the examples in the scriptures of the blessings of obedience and how that can be directly correlated to our own lives

Happy New Year!!!!