Birthday Triplets At It Again!

 6 January - 23 February 2025

So much has happened since I last wrote, which is probably why I skipped doing the end of January/beginning of February (aka my birthday weekend), but here I am to give you a quick catch-up on life these past two months. Which, spoiler alert, has been marvelous!

To start with, I began working as a temple ordinance worker on January 11th, and I have been loving serving in the Gilbert temple each Saturday morning. It has brought joy and an increase of the Spirit into my life, plus I love feeling the belonging that comes from joining a shift. I spent a lot of January trying to figure out why my stomach was hurting so much even when I ate "safe" foods, and I consulted with my doctor, who recommended I take this liquid compound that helps soothe people's stomachs when they present with IBS symptoms. I took that for about 3 weeks, and I didn't have any stomach pain during that time or right after (and the only stomach pain I've experienced since was when I ate too much sugar... thanks birthday and then Valentines. The holidays really get you!). 

I'm fortunate to say that work is going well. I am still building up a caseload, but it is increasing week by week! I'm so grateful to say there is no drama or stress on that end for me. And of course, at the end of January, I had my birthday. I went out to lunch with mom to Cup Bop, a Korean fast food chain. Then for dinner, we met up with Valerie, Symantha, and Grandpa Jim for dinner at Chiles (Symantha picked) and then went home and had cake and opened presents. Mom made me a lemon raspberry cake with cream cheese frosting. Delish! In fact, I ate too much and then had a stomachache for the rest of the night. But what was incredible was that it did not ruin my birthday (as my dad jokingly said, "Way to ruin your birthday). I just accepted that I overate, that this pain was a natural consequence of that and a message from my body, and I laid down and listened to an audiobook until I felt better and could get ready for bed. 

I also purchased tickets to visit South Korea! I'll be going for two weeks at the end of March, and I signed up for a tour through Noona's Noonchi, which combines mental health with K-dramas. I'm so excited to be going! I felt so good about it when pondering if I should go. It'll be my first time traveling abroad by myself, but I'm not feeling scared (though perhaps some nerves may come when I'm dropped off at the airport... but we shall see). I met up with three different friends who have all lived in or visited Korea to talk, and they gave me some helpful tips. Plus, they're always the best of company! I also had a K-Drama evening with a girl from church, and we were able to chat and connect, which I really enjoyed.

I've been attending YSA events, doing my calling, obtaining further training in mental health, loving on my family (spending time with my niece is one of my favorite things. She is SO cute and we all love obsessing about her), and living my best life. No complaints. I am just filled with so much gratitude as I write this today, because I feel at peace. It's been a long journey to arrive here, but every step was necessary. I am in the best place I've ever been mentally, and I've been focusing on my health and improving my diet and just overall, trying to take the best care of myself so I can better love and serve others. I also had a cool experience serving in the temple last Saturday. I was blessed to help in initiatories with a lady in a wheelchair who hadn't been in a while, and there was such a special spirit there. I have the best sisters in the world, the best family, and am blessed to be in such incredible work environments and meeting incredible clients, seeing their growth and progress.

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Photo dump:

Office selfie, cuz why not?! ;P

This little cutie is getting so big! Look how long her hair is getting!

A pretty sunset that I snapped a photo of to send to Lucy to make her jealous ;)

FHE lego car derby race. We did not come close to winning.

My mom sure spoils me. I love her SO much!

What makes this picture so funny is that it looks like I'm for "pick up" lol. Mom did not intentionally take it that way XD.

My gift from Valerie! It made me smile so big! I'd been really wanting a necklace with my name in Korean and my sister really came through! She knows me too good!!

I've never known differently, but it sure is fun sharing a birthday with these two! Can't believe how old we are all getting!

And, we can't forget our unofficial birthday quadruplet who missed out only by a day!

I've been wearing my necklace a lot, hehe! It's so cool when people can recognize it's Korean or when it is a conversation starter!

While shopping, I saw this aile and it made me think of Lucy (whose current obsession is Cheez-Its... literally people buy them for her up at BYU) so I took this selfie and sent it to Lucy.

At a FHE event, my two friends invited me in for a quick selfie!

Christmas & New Years!

 25 November 2024 - 5 January 2025

Okay, I meant to write the last week of December... but I missed the mark. But hey, only five days later isn't too bad ;). But, to be fair, I've been very good at writing in my journal lately, so I have a lot of things about my personal challenges and triumphs recorded in there for future posterity! Well, and mostly just for my future self to look back and see the progress I've made and feel joy in accomplishment. I have a ton of pictures from the last month to share, and I'll talk a little about each one, but there are some things that happened that I didn't get photos of that I want to share. I attended an EFIT training that really helped me grasp the model better and feel more confident in the work I am doing. I also met a new friend, Madison, and we hung out since then and had a really enjoyable time. We met up by the Mesa temple and viewed the lights and got BYU ice cream from Sweet Retreat. We spoke for almost 3 hours and it was so cool to get to know her better and find that we have a lot in common and could be curious and hold space for each other's differences. I also finally got to meet up with Aselin Maloney, who I met at the AZ YSA Conference, and we talked over lunch about coaching vs therapy and even my own areas where my thinking was getting me stuck. It was super cool and helpful, and yes, I definitely cried a bit. But it felt so nice to recognize God leading the right people into my life. Let's see... oh, yeah, plus we also talked about K-Dramas for a bit, which is always fun!! Hahaha. Oh right! And I found a K-Drama tour that a lady puts on and I feel SO EXCITED and good about going, so... I'm going! I haven't bought the tickets or finalized it yet, but I will. It'll be in April, and I'm so SO excited to be able to visit and tour a bunch of K-Drama sites, network, connect, and learn from an LMFT (who hosts the tour) about mental health and how to improve it using K-Dramas. I will also be able to film some content for my YouTube channel and I'm planning on attending some other therapy/cultural diversity trainings. This will be a huge opportunity to expand my network, connections, and bring so many opportunities like speaking and growing my own audience and influence. This lady is doing a lot of the things I really want to do: speaking, YouTubing, authoring books, etc. So I am pumped to be able to observe and learn from her so I can apply some of these things into my own plans... and also just enjoy the experience and connect with new people! Also, I have felt my own confidence in being myself allowing my therapy work to go easier as I integrate my spirituality into my therapy. Long story there with lots of journal entries, so I won't go into more depth, but I will say that I am learning to be truer to myself, to God, and as I do so, it is freeing and energizing and uplifting! Okay, now time for the photo dump!

They had a deal on the food so mom and dad took us out to eat at Chiles. Gracelyn is cute! Dad and Sean are behind my head, not featured in the photo.

Thanksgiving day, pic with grandpa, plus one with Symantha and mom to follow.

Nightscrawlers Christmas Party! Lots of good food and great company! We did a book & basket exchange, and I ended up with a giant box that doubles as a filing cabinet, and I put in my therapy office. It looks super cool plus is helpful. I also gave a presentation on skin care. Man, you can tell how red my face is in this photo plus one of the previous ones... I ran out of my toner and I think that actually helped reduce redness. I read it in reviews that it helped others and during my week of not having it, I definitely think I was a lot redder... so, thank goodness I have my toner again, haha! But all the ladies loved my presentation, and I left a bit after midnight, so it was quite the fun night. I also got some crystals from Lisa in exchange for helping to review her book.

For our Arizona Connection Counseling Christmas party, we did escape rooms! We won our room with about five minutes to spare! Phew! We had to split our big group into teams of 4.

Relief Society Christmas Party. We ate dinner and painted ornaments. It's been so fun having Lucy down on break and getting to do things with her.

We went shopping at Deseret Book to get Lucy's clothing for the temple! We took a pic since we were matching white shirts. I got some shoes for being a temple worker. Lucy did great going through the temple, and we went out to lunch at Cafe Rio with everyone who came. Lucy also got mom a puzzle here for her Christmas present.

Hanna stopped by with her husband and dropped off a pack of these drinks as a Christmas gift! She is THE CUTEST ever! They really liked the citrus we dropped off earlier in the month for them.

Day before Christmas, after the gym, mom treated us to Acai Bowls!

Face masks! And we watched a Christmas movie together (Red One).

Lu wanted more acai so I bought her some and we had a mini girl-date-night. It was kinda cold tho!

Sunday before Christmas, Lucy and I rode our unicycles down to the church bldg just off Pecos at the end of our street!

All eight of us kiddos plus dad rode electric unicycles around Christmas afternoon, plus mom, Symantha, and Gracelyn took the electric ranger. It was a lot of fun, and the funniest thing happened! We were crossing Lindsay road to go to those office buildings across the way, and Sean and Dad were ahead and had pushed the button. The light turned green before we made it up, so I laid on the speed and tried to go faster to make the light, and everyone followed suite... except Porter was so worried he wouldn't make the light because he couldn't ride it very fast. So apparently he thinks to himself, "I can run faster than this." So he PICKS UP the 25lb+ unicycle and starts SPRINTING with it across the street! We were all laughing so hard. Everyone stopped at the light watched in amazement as all of us rode by and as Porter ran across. When he got to the other side, he bent down to get back on it, and a random dude in a truck yelled, "You can do it!" Symantha got lots of videos of us.

The author of this book is Jeanie Chang, Korean American, and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has a popular YouTube channel where she discussed Mental Health and K-Dramas, and she started giving tours a couple years ago, which I really want to go on and learn from! I feel like THIS is the reason I didn't plan a trip earlier/felt bad about trying to buy tickets on cyber Monday and go on my own. It'll be so much more incredible to have the trip planned out so I can make the most of my time there, even if it is more expensive.

Sean's gift to me! I'm excited to continue studying and improving my language abilities!! I already started skimming through it and recognized a lot of it, which is a huge testament to my progress.

Christmas evening, after everyone left, us four just spent some time outside around the fire and talking, which mom says is her favorite thing to do, just sit and visit with family.

I cannot get non-blurry photos with this little one. She likes to move too much!

HA. HA. HA! Dad accidentally put on mom's skinny jeans and came out for dinner... so you best better believe we took pictures and laughed a lot. Mom was so put off that he "stole" her pants.

Monday night, Dec 31, we attended the YSA New Year's dance. It was basically the same as last year, just with a few less things to do. It was okay... but we did make a new friend! Sydney was visiting and didn't know many people and asked if she could hang with us, so she made things a lot more fun. We also ran into three of our cousins there!

Mom and dad went to a couple's house in the ward to celebrate New Year's Eve and got this fun headband that they brought back. Lucy and I went to Valerie and Porter's house and ate snacks and played games. Well, I accidentally rang the doorbell on the wrong house in the neighborhood over. I had my arms full of snacks and this dude answers the door. We make eyecontact, I immediately say "wrong house" and he says "no problem" and then I turn and rush away back to my car! Lucy just laughed at me. But it made for a good story. We played JackBox TV games and had a grand time. Then for new years day, Val and Porter came over and mom and dad smoked pizzas and we had a good evening together. So, what a way to usher in the new year, haha!

Much love,

Emily J. Burnham (에밀리 진 버넘)

Book Exchange & AZ YSA Conference

 28 October - 24 November 2024

Me, mom, and dad spent Halloween night at Val and Porter's place. They fed us dinner and then we sat in their driveway to deliver Halloween candy to the passersby. I did not dress up (but I'd dressed up at a FHE Halloween thing, so I counted that as good enough for the year). Val and Porter were dressed up as Costco workers and handed out "free samples" of candy. People had a hoot over their costumes.

Saturday November 9th was a super fun day because we had Hanna and her husband Andy over for lunch, and we made homemade smoked pizzas. Hanna brought over some Korean dishes for us to try, which was super fun, and they both enjoyed their pizzas. That evening, I attended the leadership meeting of stake conference, then had a dinner afterwards with some YSA, then left for a book exchange party that I'd been invited to. I did not have much expectation, because I didn't really know what it was or who would be there, but I wanted to continue to network and make more friends, so I went. And I was blown away. It definitely exceeded my expectations. I am not sure exactly how many were there, but probably 30! (Oh wait, I just counted in the picture below... about 25!) We exchanged book baskets and I met tons of cool people and got to network. It was awesome! Oh yeah, plus I won the raffle for the grand prize, which was a ticket to the Desert Affair in February!

I took home author Emily Maxwell's book basket, which had her book "First Class Romance" and chocolate treats.

Sunday, November 10th, the Wrights had us all over for dinner as a thank you for our service on the committee. It was the first time meeting a lot of them in person, and it was a fun night filled with laughter and friendship. There was a lot of food and allergy-friendly options for me!

This past month was precious because prayers that I've had for over a year were answered, and it came at the YSA Conference, which I'd been helping plan for the last 15 or so months (and which had often been a source of my stress). The first weekend of this month, I spent around 6 hours issuing refunds on conference tickets because they decided to lower the cost of the ticket. And ordering the last few things for the conference that I was in charge of. Our numbers were half of what we were expecting, but we were just so glad that we had a decent turnout because the number who had registered was looking pretty sad, even a week away from the conference! I had to quit stressing and pray to turn it all over to the Lord. And the conference turned out well! We had some incredible speakers and presenters, and the food was delicious. I was run pretty ragged and and was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but I also had a sense of peace, happiness, and joy! My favorite speaker was Hank Smith. I really needed to hear his message about joy. I'd taken a positive psychology back at BYU, and while none of the information he gave was really new info, it was a fabulous reminder at a critical time in my life where I have not been feeling happy, secure, or as hopeful lately. It was just the reset I needed. I also needed to hear some of the things Elder Anderson spoke on, especially in regards to media, because one of the questions I've had for over a year was "what am I even doing with my YouTube channel and social media presence?!!" It's been frustrating to continue doing something that I feel no direction in, I've just felt prompted to keep going at it and trying, but never satisfied or confident with how I'm doing it. I also really enjoyed Bob Carroll, co-founder of the mutual dating app, and Alisa Goodwin Snell's presentations on dating. There were lots of good takeaways, and honestly Bob's was so validating and helpful. He spoke about the different zones leading up to romance: stranger, acquaintance, friend, then romance. And how when you JUST meet someone, you are acquaintances NOT friends, so you shouldn't spend a lot of time with them until they make it to the friend zone (aka first dates should not be super long and you shouldn't feel the need to spend a ton of time talking, because would you do that with the other acquaintances in your life? No.) And then in the friend zone, he said not to make it awkward by pushing the romance when you're friends. And to not make it awkward when you're a stranger (before you've introduced yourself, don't stare! Or stalk/follow around. It's creepy! And he was so spot on). As he said all of these things, I could easily picture these things happening in my past... and even the day of the conference! I was like, "Some of these guys really need to hear this!!!" because throughout the day there was a dude who would stare at me a lot and follow me around, and it was just very uncomfortable. Just make your move, introduce yourself, and become an acquaintance! Then see if it'll move towards friends. But I digress. So anyway, that was cool! 

I loved coming together with my whole team and working together throughout the weekend! What a great group! It was definitely a bitter sweet ending to the conference because I will miss rubbing shoulders with all of them, even though I am also relieved to have it all finished!

McKenna performed Friday night! She's incredible and I was glad I was able to grab a picture with her and talk for a second.

They had so many gluten-free options for the food trucks (but I will say that my stomach still really hurt... I woke up at 3am with pain. My guess was from the oil, as my mom said that food trucks tend to string along their oil and it gets old and rancid). But, look how happy I was before I ate it and was in pain! ;)

Ran into lots of cousins throughout the event! Jenae, Cassidy, Cordelia, and Kaleb! Here's Jenae:

Hank Smith, y'all! Hehehehehe.

My friends!!!!!! These two are incredibly hard workers, organized, and were huge blessings and contributors to the conference's success!

Also, Sunday night was so helpful because after the conference devotional, I went over the Val and Porter's house and got to talk with them. They'd invited the whole family over for dinner, but I just caught the tail end of people leaving, but then I got a bit of time to play with Gracelyn, and after they left, I was able to talk to them and ended up crying and sharing my concerns and struggles, and I received love, support, and some good counsel and advice. 

This pic was from earlier in the month (mom has been babysitting Gracelyn a lot while Aaron works) but I just thought it was fitting to place it here under the other pic of her. She is so smiley and happy! (When she wants to be... lol... which is the majority of the time). 

Tuesday, November 19th, I attended the monthly Night Scrawlers writing group, which is always fun. I really look forward to gathering with my fellow writing ladies. We talked about using Excel to keep track of character details and also quantum physics/the healing properties of crystals. So, you just never know what they're going to talk about. Keeps you on your toes!

On Friday the 22nd, I attended a "dinner with the dean," so the Dean of BYU's College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences was down for the BYU game this weekend and emailed a ton of Alumni if they wanted to gather for dinner, and I secured my spot because... free dinner! We went to Barrio Queen (Mexican food) and I got to network and meet lots of people. One of the BYU students, Annie, talked a lot to me and made me feel SO good! She was so curious and took an interest in my life and all the things I'm doing and kept building me up, so that was nice!

Then the next evening, I went with my parent's to Cassidy's endowment at the Phoenix Temple, then we went out to eat at Garcias (more Mexican food). It was great to socialize and my family members built me up so much. They were impressed by my business cards and asked about my work and made me feel loved.

In other news, I got all my certificates displayed in my office at work. I'm all set up there and am slowly building up a clientele. I've been working on my Korean book series and got my second one published, the Hangul writing practice book! Really proud of that! Plus, I've been using my own copy of one to study, and you know it's awesome when you actually really like it and find it useful!

Much love,

Emily Burnham