Making Good Decisions and Setting Goals

This week in my Pathways Program, which is a pre-education program by BYU-Idaho that I am in, we learned about the correct way to set goals and make good decisions.

I love this lesson and felt it was specifically for me.  I have never been a goal setter.  So this will be a hard one for me to do.  However, once I can get in a habit of doing it, I think it will be a blessing to me.

First we were taught that we need to set SMART goals.  That is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals.  Wow, I know it is overwhelming to me to think about all it takes just to set one goal.  So with this you really have to think through what it is that you want and then take the time to think about how you are going to achieve it.  That is why I have never been one to set goals, it takes too much time and effort.

So for my first goal, I am setting the goal of: Finishing Out this Semester of the Pathways Program, by doing well on my assignments in a timely manner and making sure that I participate in every way until the end of the semester.

This has been a hard goal, as I keep wanting to stop.  However to get my education that I have always wanted I have to do this.  Once I finish my Pathways program then I can matriculate over to BYU-I and start my formal education, which is something that I have always wanted to do.

So first off, my goal is specific.  I need to finish this semester.
It is measurable because I need to do well on each assignment and I will look at the rubric (this is a grading tool on each assignment page) to make sure that I am doing this.
Is it attainable?  Yes, I know I can hang in there and do it.  I know that if I quit it would be a waste of money and time also.
Is it relevant?  It is in that I need it to move forward towards my formal education and it is also time-bound in that I will attain this goal by the end of the semester.
So there it is folks!  I have set probably one of the first goals in my life - Officially that is.

Yes, there have been things that I wanted and so in my mind I have set ways to achieve them, but never in a formal way like this.  Wow, I feel like I am growing up in my old age!  Haha.  I am pretty excited to accomplish this.  I will post more on how it is going as this semester continues.

I know that this is where I need to be right now in my life.  I have prayed long and hard about going back to school and I know it is where Heavenly Father wants me to be right now.  He knows my heart and he knows that this is something that is important to me.  He loves me and wants those good things for me.  I am grateful for this program that I am doing.  It is a blessing in my life.  I am growing!

Palmyra, NY

Sam and I drove up from Baltimore to Palmyra on Friday.  We had a beautiful drive.  We stopped at a small fruit stand on the way and bought Honey Crisp apples to snack on.  The fruit stand was put together beautifully.  They were also selling grapes and pumpkins as well as other Fall vegetables.  They had grape pie filling.  I had never heard of that and now I want to try to make one.  What a fun thing to do.  The Fall colors are so beautiful right now.  It's something I've always dreamed of seeing, but had never been able to.

 We came across a small and by small I mean "bunny-hill" type skiing resort.  I had to laugh because here this is a mountain here but to us that live in the mountains it is just a hill.

We drove on up to Palmyra where we visited each of the Church History sites.  Sam and I both loved the printing company tour the most.  We both learned so much about the printing of the Book of Mormon.  It was amazing how the Lord placed people where they needed to be so that it was able to be published.

On our way we saw several beautiful homes, so of course I had to take pictures.

This first home was in Palmyra, NY.  It sat back from the road and had a great front yard.

This second home was in Geneva, NY.  I had to laugh, there was a person standing on the front porch watching us take the picture.  I'm sure they thought I was nuts, but it was such a beautiful home.

This home was a Bed and Breakfast in the little town of Canadigua, NY.  We stayed our las tnight in NY close to this one.

This home was on the Martin Harris Farm.  It isn't the original home as that one burned down, but this was rebuilt and now the missionaries live in it.  It is made out of lake rock placed in rows.

I loved our trip to NY.  It was a dream come true and I am grateful that we were able to make it.  It is something that I will never forget!

Adventures in Baltimore

Sam and I have been in Baltimore, MD for the last couple of days.  It is an older city and it has been something new to see.  We have walked down to the harbor a couple of times and will probably go back down this evening for dinner.  Sam has had classes for his PE license and so while he has been in class, I have been doing homework for my Pathways program.  So I haven't been out shopping too much, but that is not why we are here either.

On Tuesday we went down to Washington DC and were able to see several of the monuments there.  We rode bikes around them and enjoyed them.  My favorite was the Lincoln Memorial.  I got chills while there.  He was such an incredible man and did so much good for our country.  He was truly a man that was inspired by God.  It was hard to get pictures without people in them.  This was a very popular monument.

This was a picture we got of the White House.  It was much smaller than I thought it would be.  I had only ever seen it in movies and pictures, so I wasn't ready for the size of it.  But it is still a pretty building.

We got bikes before we went to the Washington Memorial and it made the day so much better.  It was a few miles in between monuments, so the walk was long.  It was also much hotter than I had expected and I was sweating like a dog, so the bikes were wonderful.

This was the Capital Building.  It was undergoing renovation but is was really beautiful.  The architecture in the city was so cool to see.  Such talented men did this work and it was so fun to see.

At the capital we walked around it to the other side to head towards the other monuments when I saw a Capital Police Officer.  I wanted to ask him about the Palm trees that were on the outside in pots.  I didn't know if it stayed warm enough for them to keep them out.  He told us no that they would be moving them sometime this month.  As we were chatting, he asked if we were from Minnesota.  I told him, No that we were from Utah.  He then asked the million dollar question, "are you mormons?"  I told him "absolutely".  He smiled and said he liked hanging with mormons that they were great people.  He then told us how his family had pretty much disowned him because he was now hanging with mormons.  He had been raised Jehovah's Witness.  So he changed his name from Keith Atkinson to Big Dqqky (pronounced Dookie).  He was such a happy man.  He told us he hadn't joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints yet because he was having a hard time giving up his Dunkin' Donuts coffee.  I believe that at some point he will become a member.  He was a good man and we were happy that we had stopped and met him.  I took a picture of him and Sam together.

We have had a wonderful trip so far.  I can't wait to see what new things we see in the next few days as we go other places now that Sam is out of classes.