inspiring message

yesterday the byu campus devotional featured this man:


PAUL RUSESABAGINA

if you haven't seen the movie "hotel rwanda" rent it. it tells the story of how paul rusesabagina saved hundreds of african souls during the rwandan genocide. his story and comments at the devotional yesterday were touching. after recapping his past to the audience, he challenged us as the world's future leaders to stand and face the world and make things right. he explained that it was up to us to face problems and find solutions to them instead of turning our heads in hopes that such problems will eventually disappear. i can't stop thinking about the words he said and how because of him, many families and lives were spared. i hope that i can use what talents and skills i have been given to stand for something i believe in like paul did almost 15 years ago.

beloved prophet

GORDON B. HINCKLEY 1910-2008
an amazing man and servant of God who will be greatly missed.

{testimony of Gordon B. Hinckley}
"I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you heard me bear my witness that this is God's holy work. The vision given the Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real. It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave heed to Their instruction.
"It was the resurrected Lord who was introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of the fullness of times.
"The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be—a work recorded by prophets who lived anciently and whose words have come forth "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Book of Mormon title page).
"The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. All the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this Church.
"Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, the great Prophet of this dispensation. This Church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true.
"I leave you my testimony, my witness, and my love for each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
President Gordon B. HinckleyApril 1, 2006, Sunday morning session of the 176th Annual World General Conference

found: a new gem

after being around provo for 4 years {holy cow!} the places that we enjoy eating at get old. but last night some great friends of ours took us to a place that has been right under our noses. thai ruby is just a block south of campus and has some of the best thai food i've ever had. last summer, i took chris to a thai place by our house and the food was good but not great, and it left chris not convinced of thai food. i've always loved thai and was kind of disappointed that he didn't share the same feelings. with some gentle coersion from mike and maren {our friends}, we found ourselves at thai ruby. they apparently frequent the little place so much that maren has gone for cooking lessons to learn some of the cuisine. the food was very tasty and authentic and now has chris converted to the fantastic world of thai food.

making friends

i've been working out/exercising at the same gym for two years now. and since i am i guess what you could call a regular, i've come to see/recognize a lot of the other "regulars" at the gym. since we regulars are usually too into our workout regimine to be social and usually aren't there to attract those of the opposite sex, one doesn't get to be on a first name basis with another. every saturday, i go to the 9 a.m. spin class and follow it up with the 10 a.m. yoga class. there are about 4 or 5 of us that do this routine every week--we bring our yoga mats and our change of clothes along with water, gatorade and power bars. today, after several weeks of going through this with one particular girl, we became friends. "my name's brittney," she said. so i of course returned the gesture. "we might as well become friends if we're gonna get naked in front of each other," she said next. i laughed. funny but true. we obviously have some of the same interests and being friends will get us past that awkwardness of changing in front of someone you don't know.

wimpy

so i have been lonely all weekend because chris left me to go to pennsylvania for another med school interview on saturday. he gets back tomorrow and i have been trying to do lots of things to keep myself busy: shopping, baking, traveling to grandma's house, hanging out with old roommates....etc. of course, nothing beats hanging out with chris. sunday afternoon i drove the 60 miles up to grandma's house to spend the night and hang out. i was planning on just sleeping over and then getting up early to drive to work. when the 10 o'clock news guy said that a massive snow storm was supposed to hit around 1 am i started to get nervous. i have never really drove around in the snow {my first winter with a car i was married and have had chris drive me around whenever the weather is bad} and needless to say, it makes me quite nervous. i know that not only am i inexperienced, but there are thousands of other BYU students who are equally as inexperienced driving around as well. so when i woke up this morning to a blizzard and 4 fresh inches of snow on the road, i called into work to tell them i wouldn't be in today. now i've been thinking all day if that was a good decision or not. was i being a complete wimp for not braving the roads? i didn't end up leaving my grandma's house until around 2:30 and by then most of the roads were clear {except patches of standing water and slush} but i still saw 7--and no i'm not exaggerating--cars that had crashed or slid off the road. so even though i was out the wages for the 4.5 hours i would have worked today, i consider my safety worth it.

help!

chris and i are planning a trip to europe after graduation. we figure that this summer will be the last chance we have to go anywhere and do anything big together for the next 8+ years. chris has always wanted to go back to spain {he served his mission in barcelona} we would also like to visit france, italy, switzerland and germany. outside of chris' mission and my trip to madrid with the fam back when i was 5, neither of us have traveled in europe at all. i've been trying to do research on the internet to get an idea of prices and possible itinerary plans in each country, but i have had little luck. if anyone out there has been to europe and knows of some fabulous things to see/places to stay/eat etc. opinions and advice would be greatly appreciated. some of the sights we are interested in seeing include:
lourve
arc di triumph
notre dame
eiffel tower
the ramblas
colusseum
the forum
normandy
the vatican
we're thinking of flying into madrid and then buying a multi-country train pass to get around to the different countries, but like i said, i'm pretty clueless.

no room to talk

a couple days ago, i wrote a post about chris and his cholesterol. well apparently i have no room to talk. i called the health center today to get my results from my cholesterol test and when the nurse read me my results i was shocked. if i would have been sitting in a chair instead of on the floor, i would have fallen out of it. not only were my TC {total cholesterol} and LDL {low density lipoproteins a.k.a. bad cholesterol} levels high, but they were higher than chris--by a lot. the nurse also told me that in order to take care of my high cholesterol {since it wasn't too high above the acceptable range} i needed to watch what i eat and exercise. duh. so since i already do that what's the problem? i already exercise 4-6 times a week and watch what i eat most of the time, not to mention that i weigh less now than i did in high school. i guess our kids are doomed.

flash!

i was alone in sacrament meeting today because chris was sceduled for work {he usually works one weekend each month where he is on call} and i swear, every sunday he's gone he misses something hilarious. instead of an intermediate hymn, two young women sang an arrangement of "i know that my redeemer lives". one of the girl's entire family {extended relatives included} took up the entire row behind where i was sitting. i know that this isn't usually a feat because most LDS families can take up an entire row with just their immediate family, but this one is fairly inactive. just as the girls are going up to the stand i hear this really shrill, loud ssshhhh! coming from behind me. so i casually turn my head to see what the fuss is all about. grandma has her cell phone out and is shushing the person on the other line {i'm guessing she called to hear the performance}. the musical number commences {with listening audiences from the cell phone now ready} and measures into the song a bright camera flash goes off in the chapel. i couldn't even believe it. the bishop quickly perked up and his eyes got about as big as grapefruits. i almost laughed out loud. surely the family behind me had been to a church service before and regardless of the religion, i doubt that it would be appropriate to flash a picture in the middle of it! but aside from the crazy audience the number was lovely.

moab

i didn't ever post about our trip to moab, ut last october because i never had any pictures. i finally got a bunch of pictures from my dad and as chris and i were looking through them we found this little guy... chris and i were laughing so hard we couldn't breath

you have to realize that we had been riding our bikes for almost 2 hours on some pretty intense terrain. chris did a lot of this:

and i did a lot of this:

at one point while we were resting some dirt bikers stopped {probably because we were taking up the whole trail} and chris said to one of the bikers "ok it's my turn now" apparently the bikers didn't think he was very funny because they just got back on their motor bikes and sped away. even though it was long, hard, arduous, difficult, hard, scary at times, and hard--oh and don't let me forget hard--we enjoyed it and will THINK about doing it again.

dinner with a doc

tonight chris and i are going to dinner with one of the anesthesiologists chris works with at the hospital. dr. martin and his wife just finished the residency process about six months ago and when they found out that chris and i were about to board the crazy train {med school}, they wanted to get together so that we could ask questions and especially so i could get dr. martin's wife's opinion and views on the whole thing so that i can feel a little more comfortable with the whole med school thing. i thought it was a very generous thing to offer and i'm very happy that i can get the chance to talk to someone who's just barely been through it all, because honestly i have no idea what to expect or what it will be like for the next 8+ years and sometimes when i start to think about it i get a little freaked out. it's been such a blessing for chris to have the job at the hospital because he's been exposed to some marvelous things and met some really great people in the medical profession that have just taken us under their wing and helped us accoplish so much. some of the things i'm hoping to learn from talking to the martins tonight include: kids with med school student dads, working moms, budgeting, student loans, support groups among med school wives, etc. hopefully we can get some good insight and get excited and not more scared!

excuses

ever since chris has worked in the OR at utah valley hospital, he has become a little more paranoid and concerned about health issues such as wearing seat belts, high cholesterol and obesity. every day he works he sees someone who's been in a terrible car accident or who is receiving open heart surgery because they are extremely overwieght and have high cholesterol. this has never been news to me. i always wear my seatbelt {all those red asphault movies from driver's ed scared me into it} and i try to keep my weight in check and eat foods that are good for me. since both of us have a history of high cholesterol in our families, chris wanted to get our blood checked so we can "see where we're at" {i know at 22 and 25, i didn't think we needed to be worried either}. well chris got his results thrusday and found out that he is on the high end of the cholesterol scale and almost out of range--at 25! i'm glad we got the test because now he sees how important it is to exercise and not eat everything in sight. but he also thinks now, that his "high cholesterol" is a valid excuse for everything. he told me about a shot that got swatted while he was playing in the rb and he blamed the fact that he got swatted on his high cholesterol. so much for change, now he just has excuses.

all-star dog

i wish i could have gotten a picture of the hotdogs chris and i ate tuesday night at the jazz game. around five tuesday night, one of the doctors chris works with called chris and asked him if he wanted to go to the jazz game {he apparently has season tickets and wasn't able to go to the game}. chris of course agreed {how could he not, right?} and we were headed up to the energy solutions arena not much long after. one of my favorite things about going to sporting events is the extremely overpriced yummy ballgame food. we got to the game minutes before tipoff and so we got in line at the chicago dog place. i was feeling super hungry so we both opted for the all-star "1/3 lb. footlong all beef hotdog" {of course with all the fixings: onions, tomatoes, peppers, pickles, and spicy mustard}. it was the best hotdog i've ever eaten and i'm a little embarrased to say that i finished the whole thing and then enjoyed some moosetracks ice cream at half time. but i figure, hey, other people are working out and burning calorie, so somebody needs to be making up for all those lost calories, right?

sore tummy

i love the first week of classes for the sheer pleasure in the fact that school hasn't really begun yet. of course you go to class and take notes, but the ball doesn't really get going until after you've become fully aquainted with your schedule and professors. it was under these conditions that chris and i were able to sit in the office {our second bedroom} last night laughing our heads off at old pictures. at one point when i could hardly breath i told chris that my stomach muscles were starting to hurt. so either i was laughing really hard or i need to spend more time doing crunches at the gym.

104 days and counting...

"no more teachers, no more books..." that's the song we will be singing 104 days from now on our graduation day april 24. it's hard to believe that chris and i have already been at school long enough to get our degrees. i ran into an old roommate from my first semester at college and it seems like literally just yesterday i was an annoying freshman still trying to figure out who i was and where i was going in life. it's amazing all of the great things that have happened while here at byu. best of all would have to be meeting the best friend a gal could ask for in chris. so hopefully we will survive the last provo winter and conquer the last round of finals we'll take at byu.

our favorite niece

even though she's technically not related to us by blood, we love halle so much! dan & kelli's baby has won our hearts over a million times. and we definitely always leave halle hoping our little ones will be as adorable as she is. whenever we get to see dan and kelli, chris and i just pass her back and forth between the two of us. this is a cute one of halle and chris at new years. {can you see why kelli calls her cheeks?}

humanitarian freeze out

chris's dad was able to get a bunch of tickets to the humanitarian bowl in boise and so i, chris, andra, derek, leeann, damen and bruce braved the sub-freezing temperatures to sit and watch fresno state pound georgia tech. i wore two pairs of pants and four layers on top and two jackets. i was also wrapped up in a blanket and had on a beanie, scarf and gloves to keep me warm but by the end of the second quarter i was shivering pretty good. we made the boys run own the stairs several times to bring up hot chocolate. it was a fun game to watch for sure, but i've never been more grateful for a heated car!

rock band

for christmas, the thacker clan got a sweet game called rock band. it is similar to guitar hero, but in my opinion better {although i have never actually played guitar hero, i just assume it's better}. in addition to the guitar there's a drum set and a microphone, so three people can play at once. chris and i both enjoyed playing the drums best {you could really let your inner rock star come out on the drum solos!}

new year!

new year, new template. i have to say i think i'm in love. i'm feeling very motivated about blogging today, so expect more posts later when i have access to pictures and other great stuff {i'm at work and nothing great is here!}

the same

i've decided that the old addage "great minds think alike" is really the truth. chris was super excited when the new bourne movie {bourne ultimatum} came out in the theater and he absolutely loved it. i picked the dvd up for him for christmas and was so excited because of all his gifts that i got him, i knew this was one that he would actually really enjoy. christmas morning came and as we were opening our gifts chris handed me one from him that looked mysteriously like a dvd. i got a little worried cuz if he got me that same movie it would ruin it for him when he got to open it. sure enough, when i finished opening it, the bourne ultimatum stared me in the face. i guess that's what happens when you spend every minute together, you begin to do things that are the same!

happy christmas

christmas morning in albuquerque was just as magical as i have always remembered it. santa came and brought some great treats and treasures for us and it was super enjoyable to relax and play with our new things. this was our first christmas together as an official married couple {last year we spent christmas together but we were a few days short of being married} and it was fun. chris got a new 38 pistol from my parents that he was so excited about, along with some new snowboots. i got some new black knee-high boots i'd been wanting and some nice new clothes. mom and dad thacker got us some nice fishing equipment {new poles, hooks, flies, etc} and a printer that faxes, copies and scans too. we are so lucky and grateful to have two sets of such amazing parents who love us! thanks parents. despite my endless searching to find a nintendo wii for chris, i never had any luck and actually was scammed on ebay in my searching, so i ended up getting him some new snowboarding pants, a BYU sweatshirt {he's always showing his boise state pride when he goes to byu so i figured it was about time to get him some cougar pride}, some new clothes and a package of his favorite pens. chris was really worried about what to get me {i don't blame him, poor guy, he has three "holidays" to buy for me in one month--birthday, christmas and anniversary} he ended up getting me a great present that i had never even mentioned that i wanted but couldn't be more happy with--an electric keyboard. as a kid i took piano lessons for about 8 years and since i've moved away from home have never had the chance to practice or play the piano as much as i would like. i always talk about how much i want a nice piano, but i knew that it was out of the question right now so i was never really serious about it. chris figured that since we would be moving around so much in the next 6-8 years that a piano would get banged up and ruined but that a cheaper version {electric keyboard} would work great. i am so happy that he took a leap of faith and got that. it will definitely make for a great pasttime while chris spends many long and late hours in the library at medical school. but enough about presents. we hope that everyone has had an amazing holiday and that a happy and prosperous new year awaits you!