Carey Family

Archives for December 2011

One Little Word 2012

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It’s time again to choose my word for the year.  It’s an attempt to choose a word that influences my state of mind throughout the year and creates a structure and framework for my life.  Here are my past choices: 2009-SERENE, 2010-CREATE, 2011-BALANCE.

This year my word is….VARIETY, the state of being varied or diversified.  I worked on balancing several things I wanted to accomplish last year and did pretty well, but I want to continue that idea and I want to do some varied activities and finish or start on several projects.

Bring it on!

2012 Reading Challenges

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I didn’t sign up for any challenges in 2011, so it’s time to go crazy again!  Here are my goals for the year-wish me luck!

 

Between January 1 and December 31, 2012, read one book in each of the following categories:

  1. A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title
  2. A book with something you’d see in the sky in the title
  3. A book with a creepy crawly in the title
  4. A book with a type of house in the title
  5. A book with something you’d carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title
  6. A book with a something you’d find on a calendar in the title

 

The challenge is to read your name in book title first letters, ultimately spelling out your name: SUSAN

 

 

Pike’s Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 25 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 40 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 50 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100+ books from your TBR pile/s

(I’m signing up for Pike’s Peak, but hoping to climb higher)

 

 

Read TWELVE (12) mystery & suspense novels in 2012

 

 

Brian returns

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Brian returned from the California Carlsbad Mission on Tuesday and we met him at the Salt Lake airport.  It was so great to see him, especially for Mark who hadn’t seen him since he left on his mission in May, 2008.  So happy to have him home for the holidays!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrating

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So I’ve been slightly stressed because I want to have Christmas all done before our missionary comes home THIS TUESDAY! 

But in between all the stress, we’ve enjoyed some holiday fun.  We went to Celebration of Christmas by the BYU combined choirs & Philharmonic Orchestra at the beginning of December.  It’s always wonderful and is a great start to the season.  They had some really beautiful arrangements that just made me sigh.

I sang in the Alpine community Christmas concert last Sunday night, conducted by Marvin Payne, and got to sing with a bunch of my friends.  We had some lovely music choices and it really made me feel in the spirit of the season.

Tonight I’m sitting in the LDS Conference Center waiting for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert to start because we were lucky enough to get tickets. We walked around looking at lights on Temple Square after eating at Crown Burger, so it’s already been a fun evening.

Tomorrow we are at the Alpine Christmas show to see Todd McCabe & April Moriarty & friends, so that will be fun, too.

Monday is the Christmas book club lunch when I get to see my pals.  Can’t wait!

So it’s been fun with more to come.  Mark came home from BYU on Wednesday, Brian comes home on Tuesday, and let the party begin!

November updates from Elder Brian

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11-1-11
So, I am really excited about what is going on here.  I have been resorting to prayer, and counsel from leaders to know what the best path to take is.  We have been seeing tons of miracles too, in spite of everything, so that has been awesome.  I feel that I have finally figured out what true faith is and how to REALLY use it.  It is sweet.

11-8-11
District meeting, and I gave a really sweet training on miracles and faith.  It was one of my favorite trainings that I have given on my mission I think.  It was really powerful.  I called it, “Faith: Go Where the Miracles Are”.  It was sweet.

11-15-11
Miercoles:  We woke up at 5:30 to get ready for zone conference.  My last one.  I played piano, and President came over and whispered in my ear, “Elder Carey, we are extending your call for 18 more months”.  Haha.  They are really stressing out that there is no one that plays piano in the mission.  The conference was powerful.  It was strange being the oldest there.  Later Pres. used me in a training (on the fly), to come up and improvise some songs.  I had to play the same song different ways, it was an analogy for teaching.  After the training, the Assistants wanted to take video of me playing piano for some project that they are doing.

11-22-11
This week was the BEST week of my mission!  Really, it was. It was the best experience of my entire life.  You can’t put a price on missionary work.  I am so happy, the happiest that I have ever been in my entire life.

11-29-11
Thursday:  Thanksgiving!  It was so weird, because last year’s Thanksgiving seems like it was yesterday, and there we were celebrating it again.  Weird.
Saturday:  Rode our bikes down to Vista Village and did some really good contacting.  While we were there a lady contacted US and asked for a Book of Mormon.  For some reason, the only Spanish copy that we had was mine, this copy that I have been using for months, and I had been marking a certain way.  At first, I wanted to say that we would just come by her house and give her a new one, but she was leaving and getting on the train and it was pulling away, and so I just felt prompted to give it to her.  It is a pretty worn copy, but hopefully she will appreciate it.
So yeah, that was my week.  It all went really good, and it is really exciting!  Time is FLYING BY SO FAST!   I can’t believe it.  Missions are way too short.