HAPPY BIRTHDAY YO ME

my friend Christa got me this cookie cake

My first birthday lunch at Red Robin... i have gone here for every birthday that i have had in Texas (3)

apparently i really want something really bad...

My second birthday dinner at a local Austin restaurant called Galaxy Cafe

Its been a long time since my last post. a few exciting things have happened since. First off i finished reading The Book of Mormon a couple of weeks ago!!!! this was a huge accomplishment for me and i am grateful to my bishop for challenging my ward to read it. Second it was my birthday!!! birthdays are hard when you are not around your family but my friends in Texas made it really fun for me... in fact i got 2 birthday dinners!!!! and last and possibly the best news of all... i quit my job and i am moving back to Utah in 3 weeks. As many of you know i have been struggling the past few weeks on knowing what to do next in my life, i prayed about it and the answer was to move back home, i am extremely sad to be leaving my friends in Austin but really excited to move back home closer to family. My next step is to find a job.

Faith

These past couple of weeks have really made me exercise a lot of faith in my Heavenly Father and his plan for me... and to be honest I am not sure that I have done a good job at it. It has been extremely hard for me to get my hopes up about something and then when they don't happen to have faith in the Lord. I have really been trying to submit my will to the lord, which sounds a lot easier than it is but I am definitely trying. This week when I was reading my scriptures I found a really good verse that has been really helpful to me. In Alma chapter 36 verse 3 it says whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials and their troubles and their afflictions and shall be lifted up in the last days. This Scripture really hit me hard when I read it and I know that what is says is true. Hopefully I can continue to have Patience and trust in the lord, if I do this I know that everything will work out how it is supposed to.

love you all

saying hi and saying bye

Marci, Dawn, and me at breakfast

Dawn and me

Marci and me

This Weekend was full of Happiness and sadness. On Wednesday my old roommate Marci came to visit which was soooo fun! We got to go see a movie, walk around Town Lake, eat ice cream and have lots of girl talk! I always love it when Marci comes to visit, she always brightens my day!! The sad part of the weekend was that I had to say bye to my friend Dawn who went to bootcamp on Monday. She slept at my house on Sunday night then we went to breakfast on Monday morning and I dropped her off. We are all so proud of her for what she is doing but I will really miss her when she is gone.

Hope all is well with everyone, miss and love you all

Why I love My Family

I spent this last weekend with my family... it was a very short trip but it just made me realize how great my family is

1. I love the way both of my brothers and their wives always make me feel special and include me when both my parents are in the hospital.

2. I love when I can go to a chic flick with my sister and cry and not be embarrassed

3. I love that my 2 year old nephew says all on his own, "guess what cassi? I love you!!!"

4. I love that my nieces get excited and let me read stories with them.

5. I Love the example of my parents and the love that they have for each other... dad has not left my moms bedside for a 10 days while she has been in the hospital.

6. I love how the whole family can get together in one small hospital room and have Easter dinner

Most of all I love how we all can be together forever!!!

Happy 32nd Anniversary to the best Mom and Dad!!!!

On this date 32 years ago Scott Baird and Lisa King were married for time and all eternity in the SLC temple. I am so proud of Mom and Dad and all that they have accomplished in their life together. Thank you for teaching me the gospel and that families can be together forever. Thank you for showing me how to get through the hard times and how to enjoy the good times together as a couple. I love you both so much and I am so glad that Heavenly Father blessed me with the 2 best parents in the world. Happy Anniversary and may you have 32 more wonderful years together.

Crazy weekend with my new camera

Me and my friend Dawn who is joining the Air force

me and my friend Tamara

( she has been going to school to become

a Physical Therapist and has been practicing on me)

me and my roommate Audrey, who is getting married

Well I finally did it, I broke down and got a new camera, I think I haven't had a working camera for about a year. This weekend I had a lot going on and I figured I would put my new camera to use so you guys could see what I have been up to. On Saturday morning I helped throw a bridal shower for my roommate who is getting married this week. (by the way this is my third roommate in the yard and a half that I have lived in Austin to get married) maybe someday there luck will rub off on me :). Saturday night we had a party for my really good friend Dawn who is leaving to join the Air force. we went bowling and then we went and sang some karaoke... and yes I actually sang in front of people... of course I am not professional and was really nervous but it was so fun, I don't think I will do it again :) then on Sunday one of the members of the bishopric had some of us over for dinner and FHE it was really fun.

Hope all is well and I can't wait to see you in 17 Days

ps. I tried uploading the karaoke video but it wasnt working at work so I will try to do it when I get home.

Book of Mormon Challenge

Today at church my Bishop got up and explained that after meeting with a lot of people in the ward and interviewing them, he realized that a lot of the ward members were not reading the Book of Mormon everyday and that he was extremely concerned. He testified that a lot of our issues or concerns that we were having could be resolved if we were reading the Book of Mormon everyday. He decided that at as a ward we were going to do the Book of Mormon challenge like when President Hinckley did it. Starting tomorrow, as a ward we will each read 2 chapters a night ( which is about 8 pages)then in May we will be half way done and have a party, then in June for those who finish the challenge we will go boating.

Now of course those activities are fun but the purpose is to gain a love for the Book of Mormon and receive the blessings.

I am excited because i did not complete the challenge that President Hinckley gave us and I have regretted it ever since. I am in Alma now and don't really want to start over but I know that if I start from the beginning and do this challenge my testimony of the Book of Mormon will grow and I will receive lots of blessings.

If any of you want to join with me it could be a really neat experience, just let me know.

Elder Bedmar

so on Saturday Elder Bednar was in town doing some training with all the church leaders in the area and decided to do a fireside for the young single adults. Since I have lived in Austin this has been my second fireside with Elder Bednar and third apostle that i have heard live in a chapel ( they must like Texas or something) anyway so on Saturday morning a group of us decided to go down early and go do a session at the temple... I was so happy to do this because I have not done a session since October, it was long over due. After the temple a group of us when to get some sandwiches. When we got to the chapel we expected it to be really crowded but there was only about 20 people there so we got really great seats. The fireside was actually really cool because he didn't give an actual talk he had two microphones which were passed around and we got to ask any question we wanted and he based his talk on the answers to the questions. Here is some of what was talked about.

someone asked about a patriarchal blessing and how to understand them better this is what he said.

there are successive layers to your blessing and you need to read layer by layer, look through the layers and be patient. not all blessings or parts of blessings pertain to mortality. when you are reading your blessing read it with a lens of eternity and layers of mortality.

the next question was a long the lines of looking for a spouse and to know what to look for... he gave this council

increase in the characters of Christ. we need to have faith when we are looking for someone and then dating them. faith is a Principal of action and power, line upon line precept upon precept, meaning you cant pray for the power of faith before you do an action... you cant pray that a relationship will work out unless you do something.you don't find the right one, you find the one of whom you can become better with. don't let fear of fear determine your destiny.

There was a lot more said in the fireside but i did not right it all down.

I am so grateful that i am able to have all these great experiences that can help build my testimony and this just reassures me that this is where i am supposed to be right now.

7 road blocks that keep your from the spirit

So this last weekend was full of spiritual learning. I have not been to the temple in a long time so I made plans to go to the temple last Saturday. We made an appointment for the 11 o'clock session. The temple is about 90 min away so we left at 9:00 to be there with plenty of time to spare. its interesting that every time i try to go to the temple Satan always tries to get in the way and prevent me from going... this time was no exception. We were 2 exits away and still had plenty of time, when all the sudden there was an accident and lots of traffic. To make a long story short we missed our session by 2 minutes!!!! I was really bugged and just wanted to go home, luckily my friend Tamara said no we can still go and do sealings and inititorys. I am so glad we did. it was a neat experience and Satan didn't stop us. :)

The next day at church the theme in sacrament was about hope... and of course we are in a singles ward so no surprise one of the talks had to do with marriage and to have hope that we will be married all i could do was laugh even though the speaker gave some good advice. we had a combined priesthood and relief society where the Bishop gave a great lesson where he shared

The 7 roadblocks that keep you from the spirit. I want to share them with all of you. They are

• prayer without intent
• fasting without a purpose
• taking the sacrament without true repentance
• scripture study without scripture searching
• counting assets without counting blessings
• temple attendance without preparation
• temple sealing without a celestial marriage

I thought that all of thees points were really good and there are definitely a few of these that I need to work on.

hope all is going well for you guys

Happy 2010!!!!

Well, seeing as my sleeping schedule is all screwed up and i can sleep i guess this is the next best thing to do at 2:30 in the morning. Not much has happened in the past week... i feel like all i do is eat, sleep, and go to work... but i guess that is what happens when you become a grown up :) i must say, i don't think i like it. I was a little nervous this year to teach gospel doctrine because i find the old testament to be very intimidating but i have taught 2 lessons so far and it has gone pretty well. You would all be happy to know that i have started reading books!!!! i know sounds crazy but it is true. Because of the time of my shift sometimes we will go hours without a call, i can only check facebook so many times before it gets old :) so the thing that got me to start reading books is a movie coming out called dear John, which is originally a book by Nicholas Sparks. i decided to read the book before i saw the movie... I'm not sure i want to see the movie now :). i have started another book of his called the believer so we will see how that one turns out. I am also very excited because American Idol has started back up and lost starts in 2 weeks!!!! I am so glad that DVR was invented, i just wish and could watch it with Nick, Carrie and Embo, i guess we will just need to talk about it on the phone. Thanks to mom and Dads gift certificate they gave me to the cheesecake factory i got to have a girls night out with some friends and i must say the food was better then i thought, its always fun to go out with a bunch of girls :) its getting late and i am finally getting tired. I hope everyone is having a good year so far.
love,

Cassi

Happy Hollidays!!!!

It has been a few weeks since I have written, I have been really busy doing family stuff. First and for most... I got a job!!!! It is at the same place that I have been working at, except that it is a full time position. The only down side is that the hours are from 545pm to 215 am. At this point I am grateful for anything! My vacation back home was actually really fun!!! there were a lot of Christmas parties and watching football games... and of course the big event of Emily and Ron's wedding!!!! I had a lot of fun helping Emily plan her wedding and I felt like it brought us a lot closer as sisters. The wedding and reception were beautiful and yes, I did catch the bouquet!!!! Christmas was really fun and I just enjoyed hanging out with everyone. I am glad to be back in Austin and get back to my routine and hanging out with all of my friends.

I love and miss you all