Spiritual Message of the Week

I send out the ward email each week with all the announcements and so as part of my calling I also get to find a quote that goes along with the Gospel Doctrine Message. I've decided to start sharing my weekly quote on my blog. It brightens my day and I hope I can spread it's influence. xoxo

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlins said, "I have felt impressed to speak today about the need for integrity—old-fashioned, personal, practical integrity. To me, integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences. It means being righteous from the very depth of our soul, not only in our actions but, more importantly, in our thoughts and in our hearts. Personal integrity implies such trustworthiness and incorruptibility that we are incapable of being false to a trust or covenant.” (Ensign, May 1990, 30).

Dear Mr Protein Shake

Dear Mr. Chocolate Protein Shake,
I LOVE YOU! Thanks for making my mid-morning snack an enjoyable one. :)

Happy Birthday to ME!

That's right... Happy Birthday to ME! Yea that's right.. we all know that I'm the only one that writes these posts so I'll just post my fun weekend from MY perspective :) Since my birthday was on Sunday, we decided to celebrate on Saturday, Sunday, Monday & Thursday!! :) I'm still celebrating :) haha jk.. I love birthday's and for some reason I've not been loving my birthday's since I turned 25.. maybe I want to be stuck at 24 forever... sigh. We all know that's impossible but it's fun to hope right?! So.. onto the festivities... First things first... Danny gave me the card pictured above. It's the first card he's ever given me!! He's written me notes and things but this was a first card! And I love cards so it was just a perfect way to start my festivities :)

I got LOTS of cards!! Thanks everyone!! I even got my first HUGE singing card from Danny's sweet parents and I loved it :)

Saturday Morning we got up, went to the gym and Danny took me out for a fun filled day of bday celebrations! Ok peeps.. I've lived on the east coast for a year now.. and well I've converted to the dark side and Danny took me to the Coach outlet and got me a designer purse!! Yes I love it and yes it was difficult to choose just one. I carried a few of them around the store for a good 30 min trying to decide.. and I found a winner. What do you think!?



After a little shopping spree Danny took me on a beautiful drive out to National Harbor. We had never been out there so it was so cool to explore a new area.

What did we find?! The only PEEPS STORE IN THE WORLD!! YEAAAA I Love PEEPS!


So there is a famous guy that actually makes "Peep Art" The store of course had 7 of his art pieces there.

Our favorite part were the Peepsters. They are only sold at this store and are little delicious chocolates with peeps marshmallows in the middle.

What did Danny find?! Chocolate Covered Peeps!!


Peep Couture...


One part of the store also featured Hot Tamales with varying degrees of heat along with a bigggg Mike & Ike wall of Yum!



We each picked our favorite T-shirt... ok so I picked them both :) haha


Then we adopted a child.. until I tried to bite it's head off!! :) I wish I could have taken it home!

Outside of the Peeps Store was the Harbor pier and tiny sand pit. In the sand they had an awesome sculpture of a guy trying to escape. It was pretty fun to see something so artfully done in a beautiful setting. It reminded me a lot of the Spain city designs.


These kids were just too cute not to take a pic of them!

Then the segway cop hit a lady's stroller... kinda funny cuz everyone was staring and making judgmental noises toward the cop! hahaa

Danny found the surgeon hand! :)

I liked the arm the best!

Love Love Love

This is the view from the end of the pier towards the shore. You can see the Yellow Peeps store in the background.


Not sure what he is looking at... haha


Then as we were leaving guess who came to visit?! PEEP MAN!!! Can't you see how happy I am?! I think he grabbed my bum! haha jk

Danny was too scared of him so he took a pic far away. jk :)

What is Taylor Deli Market you ask?! Only the BEST sandwich shop in all of DC! Danny scoped out this rad place in the heart of DC. It's in a weird modern low-high income area.. reminds me of Sugar house in Utah. Kinda vintage part of town but everyone is fashionable and sheik. They made a KILLER dinner for us :)


Then we finished off the night with a final foodie stop at ACKC Coco Gallery. um... YUM! They had this awesome stained glass art everywhere and even had some pieces for sale. Then we began to order up a storm.

Final tally: Brownie Sunday, Rich Chocolate Cake, Root Beer Float & Specialty Chocolates ( Lavender, chili pepper, pomegranate, and ??? can't remember the last one) They were all gross. Sad but true. I didn't like the chocolates at all but I loved the fresh desserts. We had originally gone there because I wanted a Molten Lava Cake for my b-day but they were out! :( So I had to settle with ordering a crazy amount of chocolate to over compensate. haha .. but yea.. they should stick to the traditional desserts instead of chocolates.
Then we came home and watched Date Night the movie as I slipped into a sugar coma! :) It was a wonderful Saturday.

Then there was my actual Birthday on Sunday!! It started with going to church bright and early at 8am and we subbed for Nursery for 2 hrs. It was wild! There are so many kids that there is a junior and senior nursery with about 15 kids in each! I can't remember the last time I was around that many kids under the age of 3. Craziness but we survived. Danny made some buddies and I had fun reading books and playing with the kiddos. Then it was home sweet home for some Carrot cake that I had made that had a cinnamon and nutmeg cream cheese frosting. Delicious! Happy Birthday to ME!

Cake was followed by a much needed afternoon nap.. then the gifts came!! Danny put together this rad scavenger hunt using riddles as clues to find my next gift. Then after I found the gift I had to find the next clue and solve the riddle. I did pretty well until the last one. That took me a good 30 min and I barely came close to the right answer!! I finally made Danny help me and it was well worth it cuz it ended up being a huge gift from my parents: A KITCHEN AID!! Yep that's right.. me the baker, and I have no Kitchen Aid. It was all by hand people!! But now I have this wonderful apple of my eye and I can't wait to use it often! Thanks Mom & Dad & Danny... So Cool!!

Now that's a true Smile! :)

(Yes that is our dinner on the coffee table behind me. Don't judge you know you eat in front of the TV too!)

You would think that my b-day festivities ended there.. and they should have but that wouldn't be my style now would it?! The next week was restaurant week in DC. So high end restaurants (we're talking $50-150 a plate) were doing a promotion that if you could get a reservation then they would serve you a 3 course meal for $35 a person. Still pretty high but well worth it!! Danny got us reservations at Capitol Grill which was amazing! Probably better than Ruths Chris... hands down the best steak I've ever had in my entire life. I ordered the balsamic steak with truffle Parmesan fries. These fries were cooked in truffle oil and were a whole different culinary experience... amazing. And to top the night off.. since we were celebrating my birthday the hostess decorated our table with star & heart confetti and the waiter took a pic of us, printed it and gave it to us in a little card holder! So classy!! I tried to take a pic of our pic ... see below.



I think you can click on the pic to view it larger. In front of me is the worlds best creme brulee (sp?) It was just a wonderful night and yes we do sit on the same side of the booth cuz I just love that guy so much!! xoxox


Then my bff Aly got back from her european adventures a couple days later and so we HAD to go out and celebrate again!! haha... We went out with her and Andrew to eat at a wonderful Thai restaurant at Tyson's Corner and then went to a movie. It was so nice to hang out with them. I really have LOVED having them here. Aly and I lived together at BYU from 2000-2006ish with some missions & study abroad's mixed in there... so we have been friends for 10 years now and she is just so fun to be around. She got me some fun gifts and a sweet card that made me cry and I'm just so lucky to have her as my friend :)


All in all it was one of the best birthday's I've ever had!! Danny's going to have a hard time trying to top what he's done this year for my 29th next year. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and best friend. He really is the light to my world and I couldn't imagine it without him. Thanks Honey for really going to such great lengths to make my day. I love you! xoxo

Going Private

Hi Guys-- So here's the scoop although I have had around 500+ hits on my Testimony of Tithing blog post and feel that I really don't need to go private because we have no kiddos.. I'm feeling more and more annoyed.
Some religious affiliations have taken my blog post and used it for their congregational purposes without my permission, I am now finding links to my blog pics on other sites, again without my permission and really I'm tired of policing those that use my blog content for their own personal gain.
So... if you are my friend, blog stalker, or whatever excuse you have that brings you to read my blog.. don't be ashamed... :) if you want to keep reading my blog you'll need to add a comment with your email cuz I'm going private at the end of August. Maybe not forever but at least for a few months.

*If you don't want to post your email as a comment, send me a private email: morgan_christi@hotmail.com

Things that are FUN

Danny and I decided to take advantage of the Smithsonian Summer hours (open till 7:30pm instead of the normal 5:30pm) and have been trying to make it to some of the featured displays. The National Smithsonian of Air & Space have 2 new exhibits. The first was Visions of our Solar System where they have taken pictures of planets for the past 25 years. It's pretty crazy to think that they sent little satellites out into space and 10-20 years later they send pics to earth of different planets! The colors and detail was so vivid. It is a must see for anyone in the area.

The second exhibit we went to was the Moving Beyond Earth which teaches all about becoming an astronaut. We even got to try our hand at being in charge of a team at mission control. I completed my mission with 27 seconds to spare! Now that's skill. haha!! They also did a personality test to determine what job would fit best and emailed us badges... see pics below. I'm a Mission Control Commander and of course Danny will be an Astronaut. Maybe in our next lives right?! haha



Moving on to Craft Corner... Danny starts school in 2 weeks and so what am I going to do with no Hubby time?! CRAFT of course!! So I painted an accent wall in our livingroom, bought a desk from the thrift store and made my own little area. I re-painted the desk and put on new crystal knobs at the top. The bottom drawer handles made marks in the wood and so I just left them on. I also got a new kneeling chair.. Danny has always wanted one so we may switch chairs but for now that is the one that will be at my desk. What do you think? Too plain or just right? I can't decide if I need to add anything else or not. I also went a little crazy and hung all frames, pics, paintings that I hadn't done for the YEAR that we've lived here. So finally, a year later our home is feeling more and more complete :)
*Disregard the mess on the floor.. I didn't realize it was in the pic.. haha oops! Now you see how I really live!

Wants vs. Needs

Found this dress... I have no need for it.. no clue where I would wear it.. but none the less I WANT it so bad even if it would be just to decorate my closet with! If the pic is too fuzzy.. found it here: http://www.shabbyapple.com/p-508-casablanca.aspx

Social Media & Spiritual Progression

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhPgUcjGQAw&feature=player_embedded

I saw this fun little video and immediately thought - How does this affect our relationship with our Family & Heavenly Father? Are we also caught up in the Social Media? Did I spend a night on the couch obsessed with the Bachelorette & Snookie, too busy to enjoy quality time with my Husband!? (yes) Am I so obsessed with people and world events that I forget to read my scriptures and say an earnest prayer?
This video.. however clever actually hit me as a slap in the face... we are all connected! Every min. of everyday I can go on FB, Twitter or Blogger to see the updates from friends & family... I even stress myself out when I get behind on my blog posts. (is that healthy!?) Are all these things really important?
What happened 10 years ago when we were in High School and bored.. we went out and made friends, went to dinner, enjoyed PEOPLE! Real life ones! Not just people you see or read about all day long. Frankly I'm tired of hearing through Blogger & FB current "updates". How about a phone call people or better yet... I'm free... let's do lunch! Seriously... I want some real people time.
Beyond that, I realize that I need to focus on some serious relationship repair with my Heavenly Father. Why don't we get obsessed about the scriptures and current teachings from our own Prophet? (I'm asking these questions mainly to myself....) Let's look at a bit of Spiritual Reality here... I'm a daughter of God and no matter what anyone else in the world is wearing, doing or obessed with I'm still me.. No one but myself can help me progress to make it back to the presence of God someday. Will I let the Social Medial that's everywhere stop me or you from making it?! No. Not a chance.

Julie B. Beck Relief Society General President stated:

"Good women always have a desire to know if they are succeeding. In a world where the measures of success are often distorted, it is important to seek appreciation and affirmation from proper sources. To paraphrase a list found in Preach My Gospel, we are doing well when we develop attributes of Christ and strive to obey His gospel with exactness. We are doing well when we seek to improve ourselves and do our best. We are doing well when we increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek out and help others who are in need. We know we are successful if we live so that we qualify for, receive, and know how to follow the Spirit. When we have done our very best, we may still experience disappointments, but we will not be disappointed in ourselves. We can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when we feel the Spirit working through us. Peace, joy, and hope are available to those who measure success properly."

Talk Found here:
We know we are successful if we live so that we qualify for, receive, and know how to follow the Spirit.