Pretzels and Chocolate Chips.

A little fact about me - I think Hispanic children are the CUTEST things in the world.  They usually have a little chub chub and I just want to squeeze them!  One of the only reasons I liked the movie "Nacho Libre" was because of Chanco.  Whenever Nate and I are out and I spot little Hispanic babies Nate just smiles and shakes his head as I get all googly eyed over them.  I have asked Nate more than once if he could, "you know...turn Hispanic so we can pop out a cute baby..." to which he just shakes his head even more :)

Anyway, the other day as I was walking down the hall at work during lunch I passed by a little Hispanic boy who was sitting there all by himself.  I smiled and waved at him and he waved back but I could just tell that he was pretty sad.  As I kept walking to my classroom my eyes started to well up with tears.  My heart ached for the little dude.  I find that this has been happening a lot lately (and no, not just with the Hispanic children, although when it is a Hispanic child the ache in my heart is a little more 'achy').  I see lots of children who are loners or who get made fun of.  Kids who have a rough life at home.  Kids who try so hard, but still get bad grades.  All these things make my heart ache so much!  I wish there was a way I could take away all the pain and sorrow from these little dudes.  But instead, all I can do is offer them a smile and try to help them understand their work as much as possible.  It made me think of our Savior and how his heart aches for us.  And while all I can do is shed a tear or two for these kids and try my best to help them in school, our Savior has done so much more for us.  He suffered and died for each and everyone of us.  He felt and took every individual pain, sorrow, and sin that we have in order for us to one day not have any sufferings.  Words cannot describe the gratitude and I have for and love I feel from our Big Brother. 

Anyway, In other news I have a bum IT band/Hammy/Knee/Ihatewhenthingshurt.  My hammy has been an ongoing thing for a long time, but it recently has been making my knee all weird and even gave me bruises?  I have been running through it, but when the bruises showed up we decided that it was time to take it down a little.  This past week I have been forced to put training hardcore down to a lower setting and have been hitting up the pool with my dear sister.  We hate being ouchy, but we are turning into fish...kinda.  We try to swim super fast only to have the Gramps in the lane next to us whoop us. Fail.  We definitely are runners, not swimmers.  Props to you real fish out there. (PS I don't think anything is really serious.  Nate decided to take it easy for a bit and cross train and only do a few miles a day.  I should be good to go soon :) )

bruises where my knee has been bothering me...weird, right?

Nate and I went on a little camping trip last weekend.  We headed up the canyon on Friday after work and plopped down at Navajo Lake.  We made Mac n' Cheese, roasted marshmallows, froze as we slept in the back of our wagon (love that car), laughed at a Grandma as she dropped the 'F' bomb a few times while trying to get into a canoe, and roasted bagels for breakfast.  It was a quick trip, but it was so nice to get out and experience the fall leaves. (pictures are on Nate's computer...I'll upload them soon)

Lastly, I have eaten pretzels and chocolate chips with an apple for lunch almost everyday this past week.  It's good folks. Reeeeeal good.