November blessings.

I am very excited that the month is November. I love the October-December stretch, and November is when things really start getting good. I have long loved the Christmas holiday, but a few years ago I made the big decision: 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. 

Yeah guys, it's true. 

Part of the reason for this is because it kicks off the Christmas season. The other part is that I feel like I personally spend too much time thinking about what I want, instead of being grateful for what I have. I love the message of Thanksgiving, I love the atmosphere, I love the food, I love that the sun is often shining and people play football in the morning and there aren't any presents to distract people.. it's all about family time. I can't WAIT for Thanksgiving! 

So here is my first November event: Running the Just Cause Half Marathon. 

This is some of us at the top before we started..

This guy won some serious brownie points. Made me signs and cheered me on and even the rest of the Farnsworth clan came out to help me run up the last hill. And seriously, I needed the help. I was exhausted. But it was totally worth it, and since then I can't help but feel so blessed! 

-I have a body that is capable of a lot more than some people's bodies.. as in I have two legs that work, a heart that functions correctly, etc.

-I have an awesome family that came out to support me

-I have the cutest boyfriend, and his family is also awesome

-The weather was perfect and continues to be (seriously it feels like September, not mid November) 

-So fun to have friends who ran it too so we could cheer each other on, make fun of each other and ourselves...friends are good.

November 6: Today I voted. Grateful I have this privilege. Ready for the election to be OVER... wow, so sick of it. I wish I could get into it and be passionate like some of you are, please don't be offended by my apathy. But I did vote, and I did research some of the important things, so don't freak out. Did I still have to check a few boxes randomly because I had no clue who the people were? ehhhh....

This weekend my family is coming to town. My oldest brother and his family will be here.. they recently moved from Logan to Washington, so we don't see them nearly as often. In fact, this is the first time. It will be so great. And Taylor's family is having an early Thanksgiving this weekend, so that's right folks. I get to have not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners. Can't wait for the weekend to be here. And good luck to whoever your presidential candidate was :)

in the spirit of halloween..

All I can say, is somebody at church has a lot of Halloween spirit. 2 Sundays ago in Provo, we were walking out of church and this is the sight that my sister Jan stumbled across first, making her yelp and jump back. 

bahahaha. I love it. 

Happy Halloween!!

October vacations.

Gosh I love October. My birthday, general conference, perfect fall days... it's so great.
And I love October because sometimes in October, we go to southern Utah.
Last time I went to southern Utah in October, here's what happened...

We went canyoneering (for those who don't know... it's hiking in slot canyons and repelling down parts of it). I just happened to trip over a rock while walking and landed on my face. It hurt! But I healed and all is well, much to the relief of my mother, who worried I would never date again :)

Here's what happened this past weekend in Southern Utah.... 

  

 

Left to right top to bottom: 

-Zion National Park... so gorgeous. Such a good view.
-Repelling down into the slot canyon!  So cool!
-HUGE Tarantula that scared the heeeeck out of me. I was the

first to spot it, and yes I screamed. 

-Just takin a little photo break in the slot! 

Might I mention, the weather in southern Utah was right around 75-80 degrees every day? It was wonderful. I wasn't exactly prepared for it though, I was expecting chillier and failed to bring a single pair of shorts, besides my running shorts. It was nice to run down there- didn't have to bundle up like I do here now! The snow is killing my desire to run.

This is the view from the cabin in New Harmony that we stayed at. The five fingers! Awesome view. New Harmony is about 20 minutes south of Cedar City. It is such a quaint, cute little town. And Cedar City isn't large, but it's home to the famous Shakespeare Festival. And this year, Cedar won the bid to host Les Miserables at their Shakespeare Festival. It was the full length, full cast, exact same version that they show on Broadway, production. And what a production it was. There was hardly a dry eye in the theatre by the end of the play. It was SO good. Every actor, every voice.. phenomenal.  

And here are a couple more pictures to top off this post:

Basically we canyoneered, toured Zion, went to Les Miserables, got attacked by Box Elder bugs, played games, ate fabulous food, and had an awesome weekend. Can't wait until we go back!

If I weighed 300 lbs..

Then "Big girl, you are beautiful" would be my theme song. 

I LOVE THIS SONG. Was introduced to it last year and I kind of forgot about it, until this morning I woke up with it stuck in my head. What the heck? Don't know where it came from, but then I realized, I must buy this song. A stroke of luck I like to think. So I've probably listened to it 7 times today and it just gets better each time. So fun. Will be a great addition to my running play list! It's kind of a really dumb song, but that's not important. It's got some sentimental value to me along with a killer tune so it's a winner to me. I've got to delete itunes before I spend all my money buying songs. Seriously, it is a weakness :) 

Guess who had a birthday 2 weeks ago? Yep, my sweet mom. I love this picture of her.

 Guess who had a birthday a week and a half ago? Yep, my sweet friend Lisa Wall!

And guess who had a birthday 4 days ago?

 What a great stretch of birthday celebrations. I probably had one of my favorite birthdays ever! Everyone came to town to celebrate and I felt so special :) Jan and Judson and the kiddos came which is always a party, and Taylor also came, even though he was sick all weekend. He made such a big deal about it being my birthday, which of course I loved. Juline was even in town and we went to our friend Holly Fillmore's baby shower, who is the cutest pregnant girl ever, fyi. My birthday was Sunday, so we just watched conference, relaxed, and of course ate delicious food. Crunchy french toast, roast, rolls, and what's a birthday without a birthday cake? 

Judson was the genius behind this beaut. The difference between most of his cakes and this cake was that this one was not only edible, but also delish. Even more delish the 2nd day in fact.

Other scenes from the weekend: 

My mother thought it would be hilarious to buy wax lips and make me wear them. She just sprung it on me while I was opening presents. You can't tell, but I am smiling huge behind those wax lips. They tasted disgusting. And in this next picture you will see that even those gigantic lips can't cover my own gigantic bottom lip. 

Impressive right? They didn't call me voluptuous in high school for nothing. And I don't resemble Brandy just because of the color of our skin.. 

Brill, OR Jandy. Take your pick. I actually don't see it THAT much, but one time Judson changed my profile picture to Brandy as my celebrity look-a-like, and I got so many comments. True comments that can be found on facebook: "Jill, I really thought you painted yourself black when I first saw this," or "Jill, this really does look just like you!" "You're black?" "You are the white Brandy. Or she could possibly be the black Jill" Hahaha. I am also often called Scarlett because people tell me I look like Scarlett Johansson. Honestly, I see more resemblance between Brandy and I, but I won't complain about being compared to Scarlett.

BUT, I digress. Basically it was a rad birthday. Next week we head to Cedar City for Les Miserables, canyoneering, and good company. Can't wait for more fun to come!

feelin alive.

So last week was quite excellent in my neck of the woods. I was really busy almost every day which was kind of nice actually. It's good to be busy. Here's a taste of what went down...

1) I started my cello lessons on Thursday :) It was so great. I like my teacher, I like learning music, it is really exciting. And it's made me start playing the piano a lot more again. I love the piano but sometimes go months without playing it! But now I've been tickling the old ivory's on a much more regular basis and I do love it. 

2) I've been running still. I ran 7 miles a couple Fridays ago and thought I was gonna die. It was HARD. I was dreading Saturday because I knew I had to go more than that if I want to do this half marathon. But I woke up early Saturday and busted out 8 miles and you know what? It was not hard. In fact I felt so good! I run slow and take my music and just enjoy it. My body feels strong, my back and neck (which often hurt from work) are feeling really good. And I feel happy because I'm setting goals and accomplishing them. I did not honestly think I was capable of ever running even 5 miles, but now I feel pretty confident I can get to 13.

3) Went to the temple on Saturday and then to Olive Garden. I definitely like both of those things. Grateful to have a temple only 45 minutes away.

   Shot clay pigeons this weekend. Taylor's first time! This boy hasn't lived! But he downed a few which was pretty good for a first timer. My dad stole the show, as always. He hits them and he hits them fast, and it's kind of real cool. I even hit 4 out of 9! I had to stop shooting then because my shoulder hurt too much though. Do I have a nice bruise from that gun? Sure do. It's kind of pathetic.

We also made Taylor repel out of a tree. A very Burnham-ish thing to do, if you're thinking it's odd. It's not odd at our house. We are going canyoneering in southern Utah next month so we had to show him the ropes. And of course he did great!

And these little guys are kind of my obsession this fall

 DRIED APPLES! We've been making these since I was just a youngin in elementary school, but I've never fully appreciated them until this year. I love them. They are so tasty, and good for you still, and I just can't get enough. 

Well, I can't think how to end this post, so goodbye will have to suffice. Hope everyone else is enjoying fall as much as I am. Definitelyy one of my favorite times of the year.

in a perfect world

In a perfect world, or my dream world I guess, here is what I would get for my birthday:

Yes, that is the same car I wanted last year for my birthday. I still don't have it. And let's face the truth, I probably will NEVER have it, but it's good to dream. 

Reversible down coat. A) I LOVE down coats, and a reversible one at that?? It's like getting 2 for the price of.. well, 2. Remember I said this is a birthday list in a perfect world.

A trip to visit this city would be amazing. I want to go see plays on Broadway, go to the US Open, shop, take a ferry on the water, see the WTC memorial site, and a million other things. But mostly I want to go to the US Open, so I would have to take my trip in early September. Someday, I will do this. I promise you that. 

My laptop is theee slowest thing ever. It's almost 6 years old which is prehistoric when it comes to technology. I would not mind an upgrade to this gem.

And lastly, these

beautiful shoes

But sadly, they are all out of my size. And there is pretty much nowhere else you can buy these beauties than modcloth. 

So there you have it, my dream birthday wish. I like making these because it's fun to see how it changes every year. And it's funNY to think how birthdays get less and less exciting every year. I mean don't get me wrong, birthdays are great, but not really THAT great as you get older. In fact, I am not terribly pumped about this next birthday because I am going to be the big 2-4. That just sounds so.... old. But I can't help it, I do have that little kid in me that is still just SO EXCITED! Come on October!

bored, therefore blogging.

So I will be the first to admit, I love Taylor Swift.
Doesn't she rock?
I've heard she sucks live.
But seeing as how I never go to concerts (except for concerts at the fair, and I highly doubt T-Swift will ever make an appearance the Eastern Idaho State Fair) I'm not too worried about being disappointed someday.

I like this line.
"Life makes love look hard"
Because it does. But I also feel like it shouldn't.
I just typed a big long paragraph about my feelings on this, and it made no sense. So I erased it.
Stay tuned, maybe someday I'll be able to put it into words.

Whew. I'm in a thoughtful mood tonight.
I listened to the CES Fireside that Jeffrey R. Holland gave on Sunday that I missed.
It was excellent, truly. My favorite quote he used..
"We are not bound to say all that we believe, but we are bound not even to look like what we do not believe" -George McDonald
I think I can do better sometimes. Standing up for my beliefs. Sharing my beliefs. Not letting my silence imply consent or agreement. Scratch that, I know I can do better.

Here's what I did last weekend..

With this fellow...

We had fun! Besides that it was SO, SO hot. Sweating to death. We got there late, and left early. And we were glad, haha.  That was my first football game since I went to school at BYU. I miss it!

Here's what I saw on my run tonight...

Yes that's a snake. Startled the heck right out of me. Taking this picture was hard because I had one eye glued on that thing the whole time. 

And last but not least, here's what I found yesterday...

My iPod!! Right where I left it... in my room. Totally visible. It's been "missing" for a week. I am starting to understand how my car went "missing" for a week once too. Remember that? :)