#14 Jason

Of course Jason had to be my Valentine's Day choice. We've been together for 12 Valentine's Days and he's still my choice. I won't go into all the reasons I love him (it might get a bit gushy) but I will say this, I can be me with him. I'm comfortable enough to sing in the car without worrying about being off key, sob uncontrollably, tell him what I'm thinking about (even when it could come across as not nice) or even just sit next to each other reading our books. The man in wonderful.

#13 The Gospel of Jesus Christ

I love the gospel. I love that Jesus died for me personally and gave me a chance to repent and live with Him again. I love that I can progress and learn and become better. It would be pretty depressing if I was just the way I am and there was nothing I could do about it.

I love how simple it all is. The Plan of Salvation can be drawn with a series of circles and arrows and understood in a short amount of time. Yet it has a depth that allows it to never get old.

I love that we have the scriptures. Words from prophets long ago that can help us today because, while some things are very different, the plan and the gospel have not changed. What was true and important to know then is true and important to know now. I love that we have prophets today, just like they did in the scriptures, to guide us and warn is of things to come and let us know how to prepare ourselves for what is coming so that we don't have to be scared.

I love personal revelation. I love that I can pray and receive my own witness that all of this is true. I love that if a church leader tells me to do something or warns me against something I can pray about it and know for myself that he is telling the will of God and I better follow it. I love that if I don't know which job to take (hypothetically) or where to live or even who to marry I can pray about it and God will let me know if my decision is the right one for me.

I love that God knows me personally; my feelings, my needs and my wants and that He wants me to be happy. Knowing that helps me to be happy.

#12 Blood

Let me explain, before Anna was born, I worked in the blood bank of a hospital laboratory for about two and a half years. My job was to do all of the testing that went along with a blood transfusion: typing the patient, checking the unit from the Red Cross and cross matching them to make sure they were compatible. I love the little clump you get with a positive reaction. I love having no idea what type a person is and then having the little clumps tell you. It was even kind of fun when it didn't work out right and we had to look into the patient's history to try to explain why. So the testing was fun.


I also like the actual units of blood. They are all different sizes and colors (within the red spectrum) and it's fun to just kind of poke the bag. I love donating blood because I know I have a relatively rare blood type (A negative) that hospitals often need. Sometimes the Red Cross even calls me and asks me to donate if they are running low of my type. I look at my perpetual donation scar as a bit of a badge of courage and feel like I should go in again.

While I don't work now (and have no desire to) I love that I know how to and can intelligently join a conversation or explain it to someone who hasn't had my training.

#11 New Recipes

Food is a big part of my life. It makes me happy (see other blog Yummy Food Dance). I especially like trying new foods: new styles, new recipes. There have been weeks where I realize everything I have planned is something new. If I make something and it doesn't turn out, I want to try again to make it better. I almost can't go to the Food Network website because I end up emailing a ton of new recipes to myself. I've even made a folder in my email for recipes. My Allrecipes.com account had 123 recipes in it and many of them I have not tried yet. Fortunately, Jason is very patient with me and likes trying new things too.

#10 Opera

When I was in high school I saw La Boheme with my family and I loved it. In college I bought an opera compilation cd for my parents for Christmas. To make sure it was good, I listened to it while studying for finals and fell in love. Now I own my own copy of it. I love how so much emotion can be conveyed without even knowing what they are saying. I love listening to it in the car (the only place where I have surround sound) and turning it up really loud and just feeling the music. Anna likes it too. She will sometimes choose to listen to it in the car. I think Puccini is my favorite composer and here are a couple of my favorite songs:

#9 Movies

I love movies. A friend asked me my favorite movie and I had no answer. I love so many for various reasons. Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson is my favorite big studio Jane Austen movie. Clue may be one of my favorite goofy comedies. The Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite Christmas movie. Moonstruck is wonderful (I can't think of what category it would go into). To name just a few.

I used to feel bad about how many movies I watch but then I realized, movies are my hobby so that makes it ok. I like to keep track of who's in what and what else people have been in. I love the awards shows in theory but not always to watch (the speeches can get a bit boring). I like tracking what people wear and who ends up winning.

# 8 Mascara

I have blond eyelashes so mascara is very important to me. I like to get it as close to the root of my lashes as I can. Because of this, I sometimes get mascara on my lids. To clean it off I like to dip a q-tip into my eye makeup remover and use it to get rid of the smudge. I found a brand of mascara that is amazing. I can wear it to the beach and then take a shower and it won't smudge or anything. It's CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume waterproof. The downside is that it takes a bit of effort to take it off at night but it's great the rest of the time.