Best. Sunday. Ever.

Sunday morning started with general conference, and I absolutely ADORED President Monson's talk. It was like it was catered just for me, and I love it when I walk away from a session feeling that way. Really, they're all catered to me, but this one struck a chord so strongly that I could feel my heart actually smiling. My daily prayers have consisted of asking for help in seeing the good in all things, and it's genuinely improved my attitude. I feel so much less stressed, which is good.

After the session concluded (and I had two loads of laundry folded-- because I'm a rockstar), we went over to Mapleton to spend some time with Chris, Linda, and their kids. They live on a fabulous piece of property with goats, chickens, and a cat. Chickens, in case you were wondering, are probably the most entertaining birds on the planet. They also lay an egg every 25 hours, and when you have 25 hens, that's a lot of eggs. We left with two dozen, and since they're free range, the eggs are so delicious. Two of the goats also gave birth in the past week, so I got to play with a very precious baby goat, and pretend to play with a very shy 4 day old goat (she wasn't feeling very social). They have the perfect setup-- a giant garden for fruits and vegetables, a few fruit trees, chickens for eggs, and then very friendly goats to play with. Who needs cable when you have that in your back yard? I wasn't even tempted to spend any time inside-- we went in quickly to grab a bite to eat, and then I was outside again, playing with their adorable little girls (who are SO stinking smart!) and feeling very centered in their very localized petting zoo. Our goal is to have a similar set up once we're done with school, hopefully in Colorado (we've grown quite fond of mountains) with chickens (just for eggs) and a cow (just for milk) and goats and sheep. Then our food won't have all the hormones and our animals will be treated humanely. It'll be a lot of work, but it'll be so much fun! And how nice will it be to feel so self sufficient?

When we returned home, I was sunburned and exhausted, but we went for a run anyway. Peli had been cooped up in the house all day and needed some mountain time. As we were running along the Shoreline trail, we saw some deer. A LOT of deer. We stopped to watch them, and Peli was completely oblivious, until one of them kicked a rock down the mountain. That immediately got Peli's attention, and OFF she went! Up the mountain, chasing what I'm sure she thought were dogs waiting to play. She made it pretty high up the mountain, but they ran off before she could get too close. The sudden sprint almost completely vertical made her very tired for the rest of the run, but when we went on the same run last night, she kept darting up the mountain to find deer. When she finally did, she was already worn out enough to not go all the way up to where they were, but she was so excited. I love that she would make such a terrible hunting dog.

28 days until we move to Kansas. I'm still extremely excited about graduate school, but I'm not as excited about leaving Utah anymore. The culture is still crazy, but we've found some really good friends, and like I said before, we're very fond of the mountains. We were laughing with Chris and Linda about how it "only" took us 2 years to find people we clicked with, and they said it was the same for them. Maybe it just takes that long to find a group of people when you're getting old like us. Of course, we were trying for the first year and a half to make friends with people our age, and we ended up becoming such good friends with people well into their 30s. Ah, well. We'll know better next time.

To work! 19 days left of that. I really hope the girl they hired to replace me is so stinking awesome that my coworkers are glad I left. I've grown quite fond of them as well, so I'd like to leave them with at least that. Let's just hope my training skills are effective.

Now really... to work!