Castillo Crazies

Last weekend my family went to Twin Falls, Idaho for my cousin's wedding reception. Steven and Emily were married in Portland on December 20th and then had a reception in TF last weekend. It was a blast! There isn't much to do in Twin so we made our own fun. And believe me, when you get any Castillo's together it is a p-a-r-t-y!!
We went to the mall, lifted weights in our hotel, went to the wedding reception (where all these pictures were taken), went swimming and hot tubbing, and played games until way too late! Seriously, my family rocks. We have so much fun together. It is so fun now that the younger cousins are all teenagers and we can all hang out. They are so cool. It was also really good to get to know my cousin Tono's fiance better. We're so excited for the party that will be their wedding in May!! :)

Shoveling

Shoveling snow counts as a workout right?!? Well, tonight it does for me. I got home from work to my driveway with 5 inches of snow piled up. I decided to forget the gym tonight and shovel instead. It took me an hour to shovel it all and of course, by the time I was done, there was another 1/2 inch that had fallen. So much fun! NOT!! This is how I looked after my shoveling "workout"...

NOT PRETTY!

Rundown of 2008

Look!! 2 posts in 2 days! I'm already doing well with my goal. ;)

So I thought since I was such a horrible blogger the last half of 2008 that I would share a few things that happened and I never wrote about. Hope you enjoy the catchup.

JULY 15, 2008 - AMERICAN IDOL CONCERT

Jessie, Kristin and I had so much fun at the American Idol concert. It was incredible! I was pleasantly suprised by how much I really enjoyed all of the acts. The most amazing part was the screams that came from all the 14 year old girls when David Archuleta came onstage. I have never heard such shrieks! He was awesome though!! And David Cook wasn't too shabby either. :) I'm glad I got to enjoy this night with such great friends.

AUGUST 15, 2008 - TIM'S GRADUATION

Big Tim and Cara were able to receive Tim's diploma from Brigham Young University since he was so close to graduation when he passed away. What a blessing for them! I felt very lucky to be invited to join them for the commencement ceremonies. The School of International Studies had a very nice video of pictures of Tim that they showed before presenting Big Tim and Cara with his diploma. It was a great moment. Tim was so looking forward to graduating so we were excited to be able to celebrate this for him. After Uncle Clint treated us all to breakfast at Magleby's. Such a great day!

BYU FOOTBALL

As most of you know, my family are very big BYU football fans. BYU had a great season (if you don't count the last 2 games) and we loved going to all the home games. I love spending Saturday afternoons in Lavell Edwards Stadium with my family and the Cougars! This year we inagurated another Cougar fan...Easton! We took him to a few games and he absolutely loved them! He loves watching the Cougars and especially loves searching for Cosmo the Cougar with his binoculars. It was so fun to have him at the games and by the end of the season he was proficient in the Cougar fight song. Or at least the "ra-ra-ra" part. And he's really good at yelling "go Cougars"!! Now that the football season is over, we can enjoy basketball season!

OCTOBER 11, 2008 - TRACY'S WEDDINGIn October I went to Las Vegas to attend Tracy Murtishaw's wedding. Tracy is like my little sister and I am so happy that she and Frank have started their family. I haven't seen most of the Murtishaw family for a couple years and it was so good to spend this happy day with them. I also had never met Tracy's son Trey. He is almost 2 and is such a cutie. He kept himself entertained through the ceremony playing with Lightning McQueen. Adorable. It was also so great to spend time with Andrew and his roommates Jessica and Katy. They are such fun girls and I am excited that they are coming up to Sundance in a couple weeks and I'll get to hang out with them again!! Congratulations Tracy & Frank!

OCTOBER 12-14, 2008 - MESA

Since I was going to Las Vegas for the wedding I decided to make it a long weekend and spend a couple days in Mesa, Arizona. The Filichia's have wanted me to come down and visit for a while so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. The hard part was that the day I got there was the exact one year mark of the day that I arrived in Mesa for Tim's funeral. In fact, it was much harder than I ever expected it to be. The first thing I did when I got to Mesa was going to the cemetary. This is a picture of Tim's headstone, it is beautiful. The best part of my trip to Mesa though was spending time with the Filichia family. I got to just hang out with Cara and shoot hoops with Matt and sing with Big Tim. We also had dinner at Heather's house and went to the park and shopping with Liz. I got to play with the kids and just enjoy being with this incredible family. It was so much fun! (I was having so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. I know Heather and Liz have some, so I'll have to get them.) It was hard to be there without Timmy, but it was actually really good closure for me. I think of him everyday, but the pain isn't as sharp anymore. I loved every minute of my time in Mesa and am so grateful for the Filichia's.

OCTOBER 31-NOVEMBER 2, 2008 - REXBURG

I got to spend a weekend in Rexburg with Michelle and it was so fun! We hung out with her friends and roommates, went to a Halloween party, walked around campus (this is a picture of us in front of the Taylor building) and the best part was doing a session in the new Rexburg temple. It was wonderful! It was really weird to be there since it was 7 years ago that I left Rexburg, but it was so much fun. Thanks Shell for letting me visit. I'm going to miss you when you have to go back to school next week!!

NOVEMBER 15, 2008 - NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK CONCERT

THE GREATEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE! (quote from Sarah Bohe)

I need to get all of the pictures from Sarah from that night, but here are a few. It was seriously AMAZING!! I was obsessed with NKOTB as a kid and I love them even more now! We had such a blast at the concert and actually had pretty incredible seats. They did so many of their old songs and even their old dance moves. Every woman (which was 99% of the crowd) in the whole audience was singing along and screaming. I about melted when Joey sang "Please Don't Go Girl". That was my favorite song growing up and it was so awesome to hear him perform it again. He is still my favorite. :) And seriously, who knew Donny Wahlberg was so good looking!!

DECEMBER 8, 2008 - MY 27TH BIRTHDAY

Wow, I'm getting old! I did have a wonderful birthday though and spent it with many wonderful friends and then the weekend after spent it with my family. Thank you everyone for making it a great birthday!

So now that I have bored you all to tears I will stop and wait to update about Christmas. Seriously, looking back on 2008 it was an amazing year and so much fun! Can't wait to see what 2009 holds!!!!!!

2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Can you believe it?!?!?! Seriously, it's 2009 already! Where does time go! Honestly though, I am really looking forward to this year. I think it's going to be a great one in many aspects and I am exteremely thrilled about it!

There are a lot of things that I want to work on this year, but one of the top things on my list is to blog more. Get excited people! (all 2 of you!!!)

The Abundant Life

In honor of ElderJoseph B. Wirthlin who passed away early this week, I thought I would post a link to my favorite conference talk of all time, which was given by him. For those of you who may not know, Elder Wirthlin was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.This talk was given in the April 2005 General Conference and can be found here.

My favorite phrase in this talk is "create of your life a masterpiece." I love that idea. It is up to us to do with our lives what the Lord would have us do. It is up to us to work hard an see the rewards and blessings that come. It is up to us to have a good attitude and look at life as the beautiful gift it is. I have that phrase posted on the mirror in my room and I read it a lot. I wish I put it more fully into practice.

When I heard that Elder Wirthlin passed away I was so sad, but then thought of the joyful reunion that I know he had with his wife. I'm sure he was thrilled to be with her again. I will miss his talks at General Conference (who didn't cry when he barely made it through his talk in October 2007 as Elder Nelson had to help him stand at the podium) and the humility and kindness that he shared through his sermons. I am grateful that I have been able to learn from Elder Wirthlin and know that he was an Apostle of the Lord.

I encourage all of you to read "The Abundant Life" and hopefully it will bless your life as it has blessed mine.

"The abundant life isn’t something we arrive at. Rather, it is a magnificent journey that began long, long ages ago and will never, never end."

I'm baaaaack...

I would blame my lack of blogging on my insanely hot boyfriend, but since that isn't even a possibility, I just blame it on being lazy and most importantly, being out of town a lot. (but if anyone wants to set me up with an insanely hot boy so I can actuallly use that excuse, feel free...)

I am currently in Rexburg, Idaho visiting my awesome little sister. It is so weird to be here. I left Rexburg 7 years ago. And it was still Ricks College when I was here. Crazy!!! It is cool though and we are getting ready to go to the Rexburg temple. So yes, this post is short, but it's something. Give me at least that much credit. I'll update my adventures when we get back tonight. :)

9/11

"Are these perilous times? They are. But there is no need to fear. We can have peace in our hearts and peace in our homes. We can be an influence for good in this world, every one of us." -President Gordon B. Hinckley, October 2001 General Conference
I'm sitting here seriously sobbing. I just watched a few videos on You Tube about 9/11/01 and I was doing ok until I watched one that a little girl is narrating. There are pictures of that day and the song Heaven playing and the little girl is talking about her dad who died that day. I can't get over it. It is heart breaking.

Even after 7 years, the events of that day still impact me greatly. I remember exactly what happened that day, where I was and the sick feeling I think most of us felt as we watched our country come under attack right before our eyes. I think of all those families who lost loved ones and all those kids who miss their moms and dads. I also think about all those who have lost family members in the war that we have been fighting since then.

September 11th will always and forever be a somber day. A day that we will all remember. A day I hope that we never forget.

I have stood on that sacred ground and it is a horrible, but hopeful place. As I sit here crying and remembering and pondering I can't help but also remember and ponder about the plan of happiness that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us. These are hard times, but the Lord has his eye on us; on this country. I pray for those that are serving our country and the families of those who lost their lives that fateful day.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

This is my family at Ground Zero last summer and with a firefighter who was there that day.

I Heart Archie!

...and I'm not ashamed of it!! Seriously, he is the cutest kid (don't believe me? read this article) and has the most incredible voice!!!!! But I totally love Cook too, and actually loved more of the Idols than I thought I would.

The American Idol concert was July 15 and Jessie, Kristin and I made a night of it. We left work a little early and went to The Pie for dinner. J had never been there before and she loved it, of course.

K and I were smiling and giggling like little schoolgirls as we were waiting for the concert to start! well, excpet for when we thought the concert was going to start, but it was actually a man in a pop tart suit. not cool to get our hopes up like that.

We were all so excited to be going to the concert. It was kind of pathetic. We had heard such awesome things about the concert the night before and couldn't wait to see and hear it ourselves. The format of the concert was basically 10 mini-concerts. Each contestant (starting with Chikeze, since he was the first of the top 10 to be voted off) got to do about 3 songs. They did some that they had done on the show and a lot that they hadn't. It was cool to hear them do more of their own genre and not be forced to sing a style or specific artist. They definitely are all very different. And all very good! My favorites were Michael Johns, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, David Archuleta and David Cook. (Archie got to do 4 songs and Cook did 5) I was pleasantly surprised with Chikeze, Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro. The only ones I didn't really like were Ramiel and Syesha. Not that they don't have good voices, I just didn't like them on stage so much.

Anyway, we had so much fun and I ended up losing my voice because I was screaming so loud and K and I sang along with everyone. Such a blast! The crazy thing was when David Archuleta came out...I have never heard anything like it. The screaming was incredible. And he was so cute about it all. You could tell he really loved being in his home town.

I am not ashamed of my love of David Archuleta. In fact, I'm listening to all the songs of his that I downloaded on itunes this very minute.

(I borrowed a couple of your pics Jam...I wish I had that good of seats!)

but first...

Ok, so I know I said I would start catching up on everything, but I just got back from the saturday night adult session of State/Regional Conference (as I'm sure many of you also went to) and I want to first write a little about what I learned/felt tonight.

I moved into a new ward and stake in the last few weeks, so this is the first occasion I've had to listen to the Stake Presidency. All I have to say is WOW! I am so impressed and very grateful for what they taught this evening. The talks generally revolved around sustaining our leaders; local and general. But what I loved the most were the first two talks given by women in our Stake. They spoke on being examples. Here are some of my thoughts from their talks...

• we set examples for those around us whether we realize it or not, whether are examples are good, or not.
• we are blessed for doing the right things in the right place at the right time
• we cannot fall when we build our foundation on the Savior (Helaman 5:12)
• EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY! life will not be perfect, but as we follow the Brethren and the Lord, everything will be okay.
• we cannot pick and choose the commandments and counsel that we live
• don't delay following counsel!

It was a wonderful meeting and I am looking forward to tomorrow to hear from the general leaders of the church. I am also getting really excited for General Conference. Can you believe it is in just four weeks?!?

Anyway, I hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts with you all and you'll just have to wait until tomorrow for more posts. Sorry. So I will sign off tonight with one of my favorite quotes from last October's general conference.

"When we choose to follow Christ in faith rather than choosing another path out of fear, we are blessed with a consequence that is consistent with our choice."

so sue me...

i know, i've been an absolutely horrible blogger the last month. so sue me. just kidding, i know that i haven't been good and i promise that i have meant to do some blogging it just hasn't happened. and right now i really need to go get ready for stake conference, so here is a quick list of the gems that you will get to read about if you haven't completely written me off yet...

*American Idol concert
*family vacations
*the Olympics
*moving & my new apartment
*Grey's and Veronica Mars
*my new bed!
*shoe parties
*BYU FOOTBALL BABY!!!

so get excited and when i get back from stake conference tonight i promise to at least start working on that list.