"You are the one I could see having fun with... for the rest of my life"

I've been planning a wedding for almost 5 months now. And it really has been a lot of fun. Don't get me wrong, it has also been crazy stressful.
What I need to remember through it all  is that I want to spend the rest of my life with Preston having fun.

I was looking through songs for the reception and found this. I love it!

A Classically Conditioned Goldfish

Pavlov had a theory about how to train dogs. He would present them would food, which would cause them to salivate; whenever he did this, he would also ring a bell. Eventually, the dogs would start to drool whenever they heard the bell. This was called Classical Conditioning. Well, I didn't think it was possible, but I think I have managed to train my goldfish.

To preface this, my goldfish Spaz has been with me ever since Valentine's Day 2013 when I gave him to my boyfriend. For a goldfish, he's doing surprisingly well!

I noticed lately that whenever I walk near the bowl, Spaz will come towards me, swimming and moving his little body as fast as his fins will take him. Every now and then he will even jump (for what I assume is joy). Spaz has associated me coming to the bowl with getting fed. I always get a good little laugh at seeing a fish's reaction to the prospect of getting food.

It's just fun to notice some of the little things, even a classically conditioned goldfish.

(Little does Spaz know that my boyfriend wants desperately to taken Spaz on a walk one of these days...that will be fun)

Moments That Matter Most

Fun is good. Fun happens in the small moments in life. It can only happen when we take our eyes and minds off of our stresses and look outwards toward those around us. When we do that, we can see how those around us could truly benefit from our attention. As a result, we will become happier people.

I absolutely love this video and wanted to share it in the hope that we can all learn how to have a little more fun in the very small moments of life.

These are the quotes from the video that I want to emphasize again.

"Moments are the molecules that make up eternity"

 -Elder Neal A. Maxwell

"It is not so much the major events as the small day-to-day decisions that map the course of our living" - Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley

"We would do well to slow down a little. Focus on the significant. Lift up our eyes and truly see the things that matter most. Strength comes not from frantic activity, but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most. Diligently doing the things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the world."

 -Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf from Of Things That Matter Most.

Once a moment is gone, it cannot come back or be replaced. Look for those moments, remember to smile, and always have fun.

Remember to Laugh

Sometimes you get into situations where you just need to laugh. There is some crazy situation every day that can be laughed at and will help every day be more fun.

One time, I was studying for a final that was pretty stressful. My boyfriend came up behind me to give me a hug and when he did, a piece of cake he was holding rolled off the plate straight onto my laptop keyboard. It was perfect. The plopping sound it made, the splatter pattern. It really was the perfect cake drop. He seemed a little shocked; my friend and I just started laughing. Then we all sprang into action to clean it up with damp paper towels. When I told the story to someone else later, she couldn't believe that I wasn't more upset. But really? What was there to be upset about? Nothing was broken, the keyboard wasn't even sticky. It was just a funny situation. It took away the stress of studying for a hard final and reminded me to laugh. My only regret is that we didn't get a picture of it.

That's one thing that I've learned. There isn't a whole lot of point to getting upset over little things. Falling in a giant snow pile. Cake falling on a laptop. These really aren't huge life problems and aren't worth getting upset or stressed about. Life is still good and fun, especially with the little crazy things that happen. 

School is Fun

It's over! Spring classes were definitely a new experience and this picture about sums up how I feel about homework right now. Everything is twice as fast and there really isn't a lot of time to actually learn things so you really have to be on top of it.

Because I wanted it to be summer break so badly, I knew that I was going to have to work really hard to have fun during these classes. My teachers made that easy. One was so animated and outgoing that I forgot about the awkwardness of the subject matter. One was so old but told jokes about everything during lecture, including his chiseled abs (they exist. He made us feel them.) It really was just a fun semester as far as classes go. And one who helped me find a lot more meaning in my life in general through service.

I learned a lot about enjoying learning and having fun. At first I felt like I was stuck with the classes but then I realized that it is actually pretty easy to have fun in any situation, including class lectures on a beautiful spring day. And fun is good.

Know any German?

This made my night, so I had to share. I was working in the Wilkinson Center computer lab on a Friday night. This really isn't a very fun shift. However, tonight an elderly man asked me if I knew any German because he needed some help. I only remember a few basic words from my years of high school German classes.  I answered him "ein bisschen," which means "a little" in German. 

He laughed appreciatively and asked me the German word for lilac. We discussed the miracle of Google translate and I gave him the word. He seemed surprised that I was able to do it with a German accent. He told me a story of the beautiful-smelling lilacs around his chapel right now.

It was a lot of fun to communicate with someone in German, even if I only knew a very little bit. I feel like he enjoyed meeting someone who knew some of his language. It was a great connection and I really did have a lot of fun exchanging a few German words back and forth. 

Fun really is everywhere. Even in a near-empty computer lab on a Friday night. :)  

Don't Miss Out

Alright, money is stressful. It's hard to be a college student. All of a sudden we have to pay for housing, food, and I hate to even bring up tuition. The point is that there's a lot of stuff that NEEDS to be paid for which makes spending money on stuff we WANT even harder.

For me, I almost never spent money on things that weren't absolutely necessary. I always reasoned that I didn't have the money, even if I did have it. I was just too hung up on holding on to it that I never spent it.

One day I was talking to my mom, trying to decide what I could and couldn't do because I "didn't" have the money. She told me that if I was never willing to spend anything then I was going to miss out on a lot of good things in life. She was right, as mother's usually are.

This semester I really had to try to spend money. It was hard. I didn't go crazy with it, but I spent it on things that mattered: going out to eat for a friend's birthday, various date activities, ingredients to cook for date night, or Groupons that gave me deals for snow tubing and roller skating. And you know what? It works. I still have money to pay all my bills and my bank account still continues to go up. But by spending a few extra bucks every now and then, on things that matter, I was able to have some great experiences with some amazing friends. Money became less of a stress as I was able to use it to get more out of life and have FUN doing the things I would have missed out on otherwise.

It is important to save money but it's also important to enjoy life. In a few years, you'll remember the things you did more than the fact that you saved $20. Don't miss out on the good things in life- have fun.

 

Cafe Zupas for a birthday dinner and snow tubing at Soldier Hollow.