My Turn!

Here's the thing. After four years of living and loving the college/single life, I'm an engaged woman! As in... I'm tying the knot, settling down (whatever that means) and gettin' hitched!

Eric and I the night we got engaged. (May 13th, 2013)

Bachelorette Party for Shae!

I know right? Believe me, it's harder for me to believe than it is for any of you I'm sure. I've had at least over 80% of my roommates get married on me. I've been to countless bridal showers and receptions. I've stayed up to all hours of the night on dozens of occasions listening to my roommates fawn (or complain) over their fiances/in-laws/colors/drama etc.

I've had more engaged roommates than not! Because of that, I've seen the good the bad and the ugly. With each of these experiences, I've promised myself over and over again that I would not be the typical "engaged roommate". The one who is stressed, tired, grumpy, snappy and just a time bomb waiting to go off on the closest breathing thing.

Shae and I on date night!

I remember one roommate in particular, Ms. Shae Cox (Hildreth). She was my room roommate when she was engaged and let me tell you, she was a saint. Times were hard for her and there was a ton going on in her life, but she never took it home with her or let it affect her relationship with her roommates. She was never short with us or rude in the slightest. In fact it was  quite the contrary, she was so kind and generous! I'd never seen anything like it and I'm so grateful for the example she set for me.



So folks, I've got a month and a half left of this engaged thing and you know what? So far I am LOVING it. It's so fun, so exciting and I am SO in love. More on the man in my life later. Until then...

Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement from us!


Love, Noelle

Run, Run, Run as Fast as you can!

Year two of the Temple to Temple Relay:

Check!

This great tradition was started when our fearless team captain (Shae Hildreth) put together a stellar team of women who just so happen to be some of my best friends! We had SO much fun and although we hadn't trained, nor were conditioned, we took second place in the women's division! Not bad for not even trying :)

Team Be Somebody: Taylor, Claire, LeeAnn, Shae, Noelle, Brittany, Marquee, Kim

This year, we had to switch things up a bit as half our team got married (not that that makes a difference:) but they were MIA.

So I took up the title of team captain and recruited a few newcomers.

Before: Rexburg Temple

Again, it was SUCH a blast. We had so much fun rocking out to tunes, cheering on the sidelines, pigging out on trail mix and granola bars and running our little hearts out.

 I was so impressed with our team who ran the entire 37+ miles in under 5 hours!

That's an average of a 7:45 minute mile.

CRAZY FAST!

Still looking good in IF

Out of 91 teams, we came in 5th in our division. Not bad!

Team Be Somebody: Greg, Kimithy, Ric, Me, Dallin, Jordan, Abigail and April

It was seriously, SO fun and it felt good to be out there running again. If you ever get a chance to do the Temple-to-Temple. You simply must! You won't regret it :)

Love, Noelle

Sweet, Sweet Summer Time

Feast your eyes on this:

Tell me that that doesn't look like the funnest thing in the world... I dare you.

Ok, so last month my ward had quite possibly THEE funnest ward activity ever. I simply had to share.

We had a foam slip n slide. If you look very closely at the topleft corner of this next picture, you can kind of see how this concoction was created. 

 Two Shop vacs, two tubs of water and soap, tightly covered with sheets (to form the bubbles) and some rather long plastic.

 It was seriously SO stinking fun!

These next few pictures display my greatest idea to date.

Slip n Slide Bowling!

I was the bowling ball, and some kind, innocent by-standards eagerly agreed to be my pins.

Not too shabby, eh?

Now don't you all try and recruit me to your bowling teams all at once.

We took a quick break from foam slip n slide (when a tear was discovered) and played some ice cream football. It's your basic touch football rules with only one slight change... the football is a box carton of ice cream!

We got so messy and the boys had quite a good time rubbing fist-fulls of half melted ice cream into our hair :(

Good thing the slip n slide was repaired before long and we had all that nice, foamy soap and water to slip, slide and clean up with.


I loved every minute of it and vowed that my kids will not be foreign to foam slip n slides. It will be a regular occurrence at our house I assure you.

Love, Noelle

Dear Diary,

When I was 14, I had a little pink journal that I got from Young Women's with a jar full of strips of paper that had questions on it. Everyday, I would pick out a question, tape it to a page in my pink journal and answer the question. Here are a few of the entries I read today.

Keep in mind, this is 14-year-old Noelle.... Brace yourself

Friday, January 21, 2005

Question: Who am I closest to in my family? How did our relationship grow?

Answer: It changes from time to time. Right now I think it's, believe it or not, Daniel. Even though I hated his guts last year. It's not close, close, but we seem to get a long. I think it's because we're alike in some odd crazy ways. And Travis, I know you're reading this, so close it now. You too Natalie.

Thursday 8/4/05

Question: Who are some of my favorite people and why?

Not in any specific order-
1. Heather Humes - YW President and her kids
2. My Mom
3. Bolton Family
4. Taryn Leavitt and Chelsi McConnell and Grace Turner (My best buds)
5. Oprah Winfrey   **What the??

Friday February 3, 2005

Question: What are my goals and dreams?

 1. Be valedictorian                                                **Check
2. Recieve a full ride scholarship to BYU-I             **Check
3 Get a job and a licence at age 16                         **Check 
4. Get married and live in Utah                             **Half Check
5. Never go into debt                                                **Check
6. Have $1000 in the bank by the time I graduate     **Check
7. Get straight A's 'til college                                    ** Check
8. Marry in the temple            
9. Get a green bug                                              
10. Be laurels president                                         ** Check
11. Work with animals
12. Marry an animal accepter
13. Live until I'm 90+
14. Be on the tennis team for 4 years                       **Check
15. Be the best I can be!


There you have it. A glimpse into the life of 14-year-old Noelle. Oh my.... For the record, I'm totally ok with never owning a green bug and I'll live if my husband is not an "animal accepter".

First the Worst, Second the Best

I had a lot going for me last Fall semester. Because of that ... I was confident. I think that that confidence is one of the main factors that played into my dating life that semester. It was ridiculous. There was one month where I averaged 3 dates a week for the entire month. It was a really busy semester, but the dates were not in short supply.

 I was loving it and annoyed with it at the same time. I was getting ready to leave for Peru, and due to my internship which started right when I returned back to the states, I knew I wouldn't be back at school for a long, long time. So serious dating wasn't really in my game plan. With that stress off my back, I was able to have fun dating.  Now that I'm totally telling all in my blog (ok not ALLLL), I decided I can put in some of those first date stories. So we'll start with one Saturday in November.

This is a Saturday I will never forget because it started with THE WORST date of my life, and ended with one of the funnest first dates of my entire dating career (yup, two dates in one day... I told you it was getting out of control).

So I won't go into detail with that first date, I couldn't talk about it for a long time without cringing .... eeeeek. But I'll leave you with a little picture so that those of you who do remember can have a good laugh.

Anyways... later that night, I went on a date with a boy named Dan. Here's how I met said Dan.

I am a devotional usher. This means that I get to stand in the aisle ways an hour before devotional begins and reverently welcome  students and staff alike to devotional. That's literally all I do and I absolutely love it. Well one Tuesday afternoon, I was in my post, welcoming people into devotional when a group of three young men came my way. The first was a boy named Matt whom I had recently met at one of my brother's Classy  parties. I said hi to Matt and he introduced me to his two friends, Dan and Daniel.  About eight minutes after my encounter with Matt and his two Dan's, I hear a "Noelle?" and I turn to find that one of those Dan's had come back to find me.

"Hey Dan, what can I do for ya?"

He then proceeded to ask me on a date for that following Saturday.  (See I told you devotional ushering pays off!)

Anyways so off on a date we went and it was so fun!

  

First off, beforehand, Dan told me that I needed to wear an ugly sweater and long socks (it was winter time, so this was not an unusual request… ok it's kind of unusual). Since I didn't really know this boy, and I didn't know what to expect  in a date with him, this request was comforting. It showed me that he wasn't "too cool" to be silly and that he was fun and outgoing, so I played right along.

So he picks me up and we mash into a car with two other couples. (I loooove group dates!) and we meet up with another couple at the Benson building on campus.  For the date, they had PVC pipes that were maybe 3 feet long. They also had nerf gun bullets (some of which had velcro on the ends). They told us that we were going to use them like blow dart guns and shoot at each other.

We split up into teams, and loaded up with bullets and ran throughout the halls looking for a place to hide. This was war! Dan and I hid in a little foyer that had a section of large plants. We waited for our unsuspecting prey to come into sight. As soon as they did, we were ready with our PVC pipe and bullets. Crouched in the bushes, we'd load up our pvc pipes with the nerf bullets and use them like blow darts as our prey would approach. It was like we were in the jungle.

Once our location was compromised, we'd up and run through the hallways, risking our lives and our liberty as open fire broke out all around us. 

Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. I didn't know any of the people that I was there with, but we had SO much fun. We got caught by a security guard (of course) but he was super chill and didn't kick us out! He just laughed at us and let us keep playing.

We then went to the MC and played around some more. Seriously it was so much fun. Because of that first date, Dan was one of the few men that semester that I actually agreed to go on a second date with.

Guess what guys, it was a totally free date too! No dinner was needed, we didn't need to go get ice cream after wards. It was just straight up, reusable, clever fun. 

Now that I think about it, I'm going to have to make my own pvc blow dart guns... those paired up with all those sets of rollerblades I have... oh yes.

Love, Noelle

Peru-nions

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore this girl?

Oh annnd don't even get me started on this gorgeous girl.

Blog, meet two of the ladies who have changed my life. Brittany Nicole Meyer and Abigail Anna Tucker.

I finally got to see them again after one whole month without them. We talked, laughed, reminisced, and got close to tears in Relief Society as Brit bore her testimony of the power of prayer and how we relied on it just about every second of every day in Peru. Or as I hugged Abi goodbye  with no promise of seeing her anytime soon.

But we did enjoy ourselves, we did. I made plans to rollerblade to the park with Abi, so as I was walking over to Clark apartments to meet her there to pick up our blades , I passed by a group of students who had just gotten back from backpacking… and then I spotted it. The green beanie and greyish jacket that had wandered the streets of Peru many of times. There was Brittany, right in the Stadium parking lot. She didn't see me so I snuck up on her and oh was she surprised to see me! Gosh I loved it. She had some studying to do and some showering to attend to, so I carried on with my venture to Clark to reunite with Abigail. And there she was, waiting for me with open arms. So I got to see them both  that day and catch up just a bit.

After one month back in the states

Sunday, things got good. We made plans to all attend Brittany's ward together. (Which just so happened to be my old ward, imagine my delight!  I had no idea and loooved being able to see so many people that I knew and loved!) After attending our meetings together for 3 straight months in Peru, it was magical to attend our meetings together for the first time in English! So great.

Side note that I don't want to forget but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to put on a blog: The sacrament was passed to me and I reached for a cup, but switched to a different one because I noticed floaties in the first cup. I then passed the tray to Brittany who unknowingly went straight for the floatie cup. By the time she had it in her hand and out of the tray… she noticed the floaties, but there was no turning back. So she looked at it good and hard… and then  drank it, floaties and all.  I turned to her and whispered "Boy Scout" (Only 3 of you reading this will get that.) But we just about died. So funny. But don't worry, we laughed about it afterwards, we tried very hard to be reverent at the time of the hilarity  :)

We then enjoyed a lovely Sunday School lesson together and then made our way to Relief Society where I was reunited with some love button friends that I just adore.  Next came our true blue Peru-nion. We went up to a grassy spot at the temple (surrounded by 100's of swarming bee's… esta bien!" and ate ourselves a little picnic with a few of our Peruvian favorites. We had wraps, cancha (peruvian… kind of popcorn stuff), apple slices and Peruvian "Mint Casino" cookies. Twas a feast fit for Las Tres Gringas.

Unfortunately, after just one month our chaco lines are fading fast! But maybe that's a good thing :)

Quotes to remember:
"Did you see that guy milking his baby?"

" I know… I just want to find a guy who's not attracted to girls like me.." Oh goodness.

Words cannot express how grateful I am to have these two amazing women in my life.

 When Abigail and I reunited, Hank said, "Aren't you guys sick of each other?  You just spent 3 whole months completely together" Our answer was a resounding NO!  Thank goodness because I plan on having these two as best friends for many, many years to come.

A Girl and Her MuMu

My Name is Noelle and I  shamelessly collect MuMu's.

Holly and I sporting my first two MuMu's on Christmas Eve 2011, all we had to do was unbelt them and then we were ready for bed ;)

**Disclaimer: MuMu is actually spelled muumuu... but I'm going to stick with my MuMu.

I've never really collected anything before. Not seashells or sand, not mugs or spoons, not  puppies or ponies. Nothing.

But I've always wanted to!

Now, my mumu collection is nowhere near legit status … yet. I only have 3 for goodness sakes. But  you've got to start somewhere right? Right.

So here's a little background behind my little  collection.

One day, my roommate Claire (she's so lovely!) and I rode our bikes down to Deseret Industries. I'm not sure if we needed anything in particular…. most likely we were just craving shopping and were too broke to go anywhere but DI.

In the D.I. Dressing Room

Anyways, we were looking through the clothing racks and cracking up at the oddities that we were finding. Where do people get this stuff??

Claire was  perusing the pajama section and pulled  out an extra large, silky blue MuMu. Laughing, she calls to me, "Bahaha try this one on Noelle!"

I turned from the rack of corduroy, maroon vests  to see what hideous creature Claire had crept upon this time. To my surprise, I was captivated by her capture!

"I love it!"

I think Claire thought I was kidding, but I indeed was not! I took it from her and sprinted off to the dressing rooms.

I'm so glad I captured my first MuMu moment !

Now, I had never tried on a MuMu before, but I was  not expecting to enjoy it so much! It was long, flowy and oh so comfortable. The moment I found out it had pockets, I was sold! I purchased a cheap little belt to wear around it and walked out of that store $3.00 poorer and feeling "FULFILLED" (10 points to whoever can name that CES fireside speaker).

I remember coming home and showing my roommates my cool new find. Some  ooo'd, some ahhh'd (out  of pity I'm sure) and most just laughed and said I'd never wear it. I think that Keri Rich was the only supportive one  :)

I wore it to church the first Sunday after I bought it!

I wore that MuMu at least a dozen times that beautiful spring semester. I wore it to church, to the temple, to devotionals and much more! I got comments galore on it too!  It was my first MuMu love, and it was a good one!

It came in super handy for my grandma halloween costume!

I'm hoping this isn't a projection of what me and my husband will look like on the dance floor in 50 years...

MuMu numba  two came into my life the next Spring semester I believe. I was with some dear friends (namely: Keri Rich, Abby Poston and Diane Polinkowski) doing our usual end of the semester DI pile rummaging. I think we were in the Mountain Pines lounge when this little beauty crossed Keri's path. She pulled it out of the rubble and said something along the lines of, "This has Noelle written all over it" and she was right! I didn't think I could ever love a MuMu as much as I loved my first one…Oh dear, I'm starting to sound like a MuMu mommy. Either way, I fell for this MuMu and it is currently my favorite!

This is Keri Rich, the founder of MuMu2

MuMu 2 Gets worn on only the specialist of occasions.. such as our first roommate dinner!

MuMu two happens to be my good luck charm when playing cards. I win everytime!

MuMu 2 on my first Sunday in Peru!

The mumu was perfect for the hot humid Lima/Chiclayo days.

MuMu number three came in South America. While in Peru (on my first grand travel adventure) I decided that I needed to start a collection of some sort so that when I'm old and grey, my grandkids can have a gay old time looking at Grandma's awesome collection of _____________ from all over the world.

And that's when it hit me. I need a Peruvian MuMu!! Long story short, we met the most amazing grandma in the world, we called her Mamita and seriously, she is so sweet, charitable and gosh darn adorable. She made all three of us gringas dresses out of yarn! We chose the color and the style and she made them for us. While contemplating what style of yarn dress I wanted... I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to get my Peruvian MuMu. So I explained to her what a mumu was (a little MuMu fashion show was called for at this time) and she agreed to make me a MuMu! (Unfortunately, due to my own fault **cough cough this is for you Abigail cough cough**, I don't have a picture of my Peruvian MuMu. It will come shortly!)

         

***Side Note: Some of you know that I like to visit resthomes on a regular basis... well I've actually found myself coveting certain resident's pajama clothing! Marge(see above left picture) has a rockin' teal and purple mumu that I'd give my eye teeth for... maybe I can convince her to write me into the will ;)

***Also, how cool of a grandma will I be? MuMu's and rollerblades? Ohhh yeah.
I know, I know... it's super weird that I'm a connoisseur of old lady pajamas, but we can't all collect mugs and magnets can we??


Love, Noelle

Why Every Little Girl Needs A Big Brother

Me and My Big Brothers: How Cute Are We?

I was just sitting in the kitchen eating frosted animal crackers with my two baby sisters (Holly-16 and Beebs-13... where did the time go??) when Beebs (who missed the Stake Dance age cut off by just 23 days!) asked Holly to recount everyone that she had danced with at last night's stake New Years Eve dance.

Sidenote: Gosh I wish I had a picture to show you of how gorgeous Holly looked last night! Her make-up was classily done, her long, thick golden-blonde hair was down in perfect upside-down curl ringlets and she was rocking my teal zebra shirt. Ow Ow!! But I don't have a photo, so just picture a knock-out diva goddess.

As soon as she started talking about which boys asked her to dance, which ones she asked on girls-choice, and which ones she danced with multiple times... floods of memories from my own stake dances filled my mind. I adore the memory of my very first dance, and I had forgotten about it for a long time until now, and I want to remember it for my children, so it must go down in the blog.

Noelle's First Dance
It was a New Years Eve Dance (I only know this because I turned 14 midway through December, so it would make sense that my first dance would be the NYE.)

I can't remember how I wore my hair, probably curled... but maybe straight... but I do remember that I wore a black and white striped polo and that I looked preeeettty cute :) The dance was held in the Fine Arts Building at the Logandale Fair Grounds. I was the only one of my friends who was 14 and so I was pretty nervous about going and having no one to hang out with. Not to mention that  the idea of enjoying dancing with a boy was so foreign to me. I remember there were various stations set up around the room of activities to do. I was grateful for that and headed to one of those and began chatting with one of the leaders, hoping to avoid the dancing scene all together.

I forgot to mention that accompanying me to the dance were my two older brothers Daniel and Travis who at this point were Stake Dance Pros and were there with a slew of their friends (Many of which I had had crushes on for who knows how long...it's a little sister thing). Anyways, I don't remember at what point of the night it was, but I do remember that Daniel came and found me and brought me over to the middle of the dance floor where I found that he had gotten what seemed like every single boy in the valley to stand in circle. He then took me to the middle of the circle of men and told me  that I could choose any boy in the room to have my first dance with.

I was so embarrassed surprised terrified mortified. All of these older men standing in a circle, waiting for me to choose one of them! My mind was racing, "You can't choose one that you like, because then they'll know you like them and then it'd just be awkward... But you can't choose one that you don't like because then they'll think you like them and that could just be disastrous." Oh the woes of a 14-year-old.

Now, wouldn't it be cute if I could say that the boy I chose to have my first dance with ended up being my best friend all through high school, served a mission and came back and married me....yes it would. But that would be false.

I don't remember exactly how it went down, but I remember looking to my right and seeing Cory Diamond, one of my friend's big brothers who I had actually talked to before so I figured it wouldn't be too weird. And so we danced, my first dance.  I don't remember it at all to be honest.
The rest of the boys were all perfect gentleman and I believe that I danced every single dance from then til the end of the dance that night. And I loved it. It was so much fun!

Once I had built up my self-esteem and confidence a bit, I looked back and thought, "Hello-ooo Noelle, Daniel gave you perfect opportunity to dance with _______________(insert names of 3 or 4 older boys that I'd had crushes on since the beginning of forever)!" But I was much to shy and nervous and flustered. And besides, Cory was so nice and was a wonderful first dance.

Also something I've realized upon looking back in hindsight... what a cute, sweet thing for a big brother to do for his little sister! Yes, at the time I wanted to murder him, but seriously, how cute it is that he rounded up all the boys just for me!

Disneyland 1996: Noelle (5) and Daniel (8)

I know we don't have much control over it, but I think every girl should have a big brother, and I was lucky enough to get 4!

Crawdad hunting!

Love, Noelle

P.S. Do any of you remember this? I don't think I've told this story much and am curious to hear what other people who were at the dance remember. Where did the rest of the girls go when Daniel put together the circle of boys? The world may never know..

50 First Dates

I have a first date shirt, a shirt that I have worn on just about every first date this year. It all started when Claire and I were both asked on the same group date. We were rushing to get ready and decided that we had absolutely nothing to wear. So we decided to swap closets and go through each other's clothes. She wore my zebra shirt and black cardigan, and I wore a black shirt of hers. A black shirt that has since been dubbed the first-date-shirt. (Wow, we definitely need to come up with a classier title)

The following picture displays the varying undershirt colors worn on three different first date occasions:

January 2011                                      September 2011                              October 2011

Why is it a good first date shirt?
-It's simple, nothing too jazzed up, but it still looks nice
-It's black, so if I spill, no biggie.
-It's very comfortable

Rules of the First Date Shirt:
-It can only be worn on first dates. not second, not thirds etc. So if I start dating someone, the shirt goes to the back of the closet.
-You can't wear the same colored undershirt twice in a row. Gotta mix it up a bit.
-Always ask Claire's permission to wear it, it is her shirt afterall!


One shirt. Three Rules. Tons of memories.

Love, Noelle
-

Remember September

September 2nd has recently been dubbed as one of my favorite days ever.

Facebook has this new thing where it tells you what your status was on this exact day in 2010, 2009 etc.

Here's what my status' were:

September 2, 2009

Noelle Rust:  :)

September 2, 2010

Noelle Rust: All 12 Rusts. Together. IN CALIFORNIA! 

And if I were to have had a status on September 2, 2011 it would probably be along the lines of 

Noelle Rust: 11 Rusts. Together. In the Las Vegas, Nevada temple!!

So now an explanation for each. 
Nine. Two. 2009 marked the day when I was finally released from the hospital after having spent over a week there hearing plenty but only listening to the parts when the Dr's told me that there was no way that I'd be attending my first semester at BYU-ID.  Guess what? I most definitely attended that first semester at school, and every semester since then.  I don't remember my hospital stay very well, but I do remember that day when I decided that I was getting out of there and going to school whether my doctors liked it or not. I remember my mom helping me out of bed and my dad wheeling me out in a wheel chair. I remember coming home and being so surprised at what I found. I found that even though I had been out for so long, life had indeed gone on with out me. School for the kids had started. Tennis matches had been played. Dinners were eaten. Messes were made. It was nice to kind of just fall right back into things like I had never left. 

So on days like today, I can't help but look back with so much gratitude. Gratitude for miracles, for faith, prayers and fasting. Gratitude for those who brought in meals and drove my siblings where they needed to go while my parents were taking care of me. Gratitude for my siblings for letting me hog my parents so much that week and so much gratitude for my parents who stayed by me the entire time because I was scared to death to be alone. Gratitude for the fragrant flowers, sweet gifts and heartfelt cards and notes. Gratitude for my doctors and nurses.... kind of.. Just kidding :) They were wonderful. Gratitude for my dear Emily who came to help me pack and get ready for school as soon as I was released. Yes indeed, my heart is so full of  gratitude for these and much more.  September 2, 2009 Such a good day.

Me and my new roommates on my very first day of college. Sept 2009

The next two years kind of go hand in hand.  

They both deal with being with my whole family at two of my favorite places. The beach :) and the temple. In 2010 I thought I was going to die of happiness as we were all gathered together as family enjoying the beautiful California beaches. Ohhhh it was so fun! We camped, we pranked, we swam, we ate, we got fried. We loved it.

However, last night topped it for sure as we all (except for dear, dear Brandon, who is stuck in Provo for the moment) dressed in white as we attended the Las Vegas Nevada temple. Mom stayed in the foyer with little Molly while Brittney, Myself, Natalie, Holly, Hannah, Derrick, Daniel, Travis and Pops went down to the baptistery to perform baptisms and confirmations for the dead.  And then Me, Natalie, Holly and Hannah took Molly outside and sang Hymns and Primary songs on the grass while the older adults went and did sealings.

I've done baptisms and confirmations literally hundreds of times. I've been in the Las Vegas temple dozens of times. I've been with my family all weekend. The combination of the three was something remarkable.

Story: We were all at home getting dressed and ready to drive into the Vegas and I could not find my recommend anywhere. I thought I had brought it home in case I'd have the opportunity to attend the temple, but despite my desperate and thorough searching, I could not find it anywhere. We then tried with no avail to get ahold of Bishop Leavitt or a member of my Overton ward bishopric. As I sat in the bedroom digging through my wallet for the tenth time, I felt such a wave of sadness come over me.

In that moment I had given up on finding my recommend and began to think about the consequences of not being able to enter the temple. My family, those that I love more than anything would be in there with out me performing the ordinances that were near and dear to my heart. I'd be sitting in the foyer trying to focus on reading the ensign or my scriptures, but I know my mind would be wandering to the things that were going on in the baptistery with out me. I'm sure my family would have been sad that I wasn't able to attend with them, but they'd be busy and focused on the ordinances that they were performing and I'd be pushed to the back of their minds, as it should be.

If only I had been more prepared. As I sat there in the bedroom, recommendless, I thought of a million different things I could have done to prevent this outcome. I could have been more careful, more thoughtful, prepared earlier. The list goes on and on. But now it was too late.

Oh it was heartbreaking to think about! Now, I know this may sound a bit dramatic, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I never ever wanted to be in a situation like that again. I would do whatever it takes to make sure that I was prepared to be where I needed to be, when I needed to be there. Both in smaller things as well as in the eternal perspective of it. I do NOT want to be left behind.

Lucky for me, there is a happy ending to this story. I called up Bishop Taylor, my bishop up at school and he was able to inform the temple that I was a current recommend holder and voila! I was able to go in with my family. What a blessing!

It was such a wonderful experience. To be confirmed by my dad and Travis and baptized by Daniel (when I walked into the font he said, "You'll be the first girl I've ever baptized". Let's just say that he didn't realize that lots of force was unnecessary when baptizing a girl.) I loved being able to sit on the bench with my little sisters and my wonderful sister-in-law. Oh I just loved it all. Such  a good, peaceful feeling.

Yes indeed, September 2nds have been very, very good to me. Can't wait to see what  9-2-12 has in store for me!

Love, Noelle

The Family That Cooks Together....

Ladies and Gentleman, in just a few short days, the 3rd annual Rusty Whisk competition will be held!

Brief Explanation: Come this Saturday and continuing on til the following Thursday, all 12 Rust's will be back together again! That's right: Dad, Mom, Derrick, Brittney, Molly, Brandon, Daniel, Travis, Me, Natalie, Holly and Hannah, together again under the same roof. The Rusty Whisk, a cooking competition we've held faithfully for the past three years inspired by our friends on Iron Chef America, but suited for a family setting, will be held.

Allow me to explain the process, using pictures from last years event:

1. Food Prep

Each family member picks a dish that they would like to prepare and submit for the competition. Some use their trademark recipes, others venture out to the unknown and make recipes they've never before tried. Needless to say the kitchen is chaotic, but it's a fun chaos. There are ingredients, dishes, bodies... everywhere!

2. Plating

As each family member finishes their dish, they must then carefully plate it onto three different plates (one for each judge) and put it onto the judging table. Presentation is accounted into the final score, so this is important. This year we had (in order of appearance): Sweet and sour pork, pina colada chicken, flurry of curry chicken salad, grilled salmon, lemon chicken, stuffed chili peppers, marshmallow puffs and the infamous Completos! (There are a few other dishes not shown here)

3. Judgement

Enter judges. Three lucky... or perhaps brave... people who were chosen to come and taste each dish prepared in the depths of the Rust kitchen.  As each dish is sampled, Natalie (second picture) served as the emcee and announced each dish along with a brief description of the dish written by the chef themselves. However, no mention is made of who prepared what dish. It must be completely anonymous. The judges then savor the fruits of our labors while the rest of us wait patiently outside.

4. The Waiting Game

So to keep the 12 of us occupied while our hard work was being critiqued, we were all kicked out of the house and onto the front patio. Here, Brittney had a taste test game prepared for us. We each had a spoon and we'd close our eyes as she'd come around and fill each of our spoons with an edible item. When everybody had their spoon filled, we'd put it into our mouths and try to decide what she fed us.

4. The Finale

Finally, the judging has concluded and we are summoned in. The judges then tell us all the things they liked about each dish. And then the winner is announced and awarded with the Rusty Whisk trophy. Last year's winner was our very own Brittney Steele Rust who blew the judges away with her divine Flurry of Curry Chicken Salad  (See plating section, picture 3). By then we are tired and hungry, and of course, dying to taste all the food. So we all grab forks, dig in, and listen as Derrick says, "completos" after every other sentence.

5. Food, Family, Friends

Needless to say, it is a night to be remembered, filled with food, family and friends.
This Saturday we will do it all over again and watch as a new victor is crowned! Wish us luck :)

Love, Noelle