Merry Christmas!

 18 December - 25 December 2023

Some highlights from the past week include... playing pickleball with Andrew, Valerie, and Porter after FHE! FHE was a white elephant gift exchange, and I got a giant pack of ramen noodles, which I regifted (along with the pooping dog calendar) to my brother Sean, who seemed to like the gifts! Saturday morning, I had a great time in the temple morning because I got to be sealed in behalf of two Korean girls to their parents, and then one of the ladys in the room was also an MFT, so we talked for a bit after, then I got to see Val and Porter in the celestial room! Saturday afternoon, I went to As You Wish Pottery with Valerie, Lucy, and Porter. Us girls made cute little tea cups, but I'll have to upload the pictures next week because they'll be ready for pick up sometime this week. Christmas eve dinner was delicious! We had tamales, chili, and nachos! Christmas day, Valerie officially got engaged to Porter! We had our Christmas lunch with three sets of missionaries and played the "sounds" game. The morning was really relaxing because we got to sleep in, then watch the Christ child and eat a yummy breakfast! I have been eating too much junk food and sugar lately, but I enjoyed it while it lasted, and now I'm on to a healthier diet. Some of my highlights of the past week were sitting in my room on my cozy chair, wrapped in a blanket, eating yummy treats, while watching a Kdrama! I am continuing to slowly and surely study the Korean language. Also, I joined a little exercise group at the gym consisting of Cindy and Hana. Hana is from Korea but moved here 25 years ago. Cindy is a temple worker, so it's fun to see her at both places. We work out our leg muscles, and I've been getting super sore from it, which is a good thing I guess. Lucy has also been super excited to see Gracelyn! She sure missed that little thing while she was away at college! 

On our way to As You Wish Pottery.

Christmas Eve selfies with the Dad

Plus the Lu

And Seany Sean Sean

We played a Jack Box game that was pretty funny!

I'm excited to dig into my new Christmas presents to further my studies in Korean!

Mom went on a shopping spree for clothes for the babe. She looks French in that hat!! Haha, she is sooo cute! We all adore her.

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Korean Skin Care

 11 December - 17 December 2023

On Monday, I attended a live zoom meeting for a course I bought to help me prepare for the MFT licensing exam. I have tons of hours I need to put into studying, and I'm not looking forward to it, but once the exam is over, I will never have to take it again! I am just thinking of this as like one more semester, of studying and then a giant exam, and THEN I'll officially be done and graduated (though I am technically already graduated. I just finished my last day of class this past Friday!). I'm going to get hired on as a BHT until I pass the licensing exam, so I won't be making too much money, but oh well. I have realized this past week that my anxiety and depression has crept back into my life because of these ridiculously high (and arbitrary) standards/expectations I have for myself. 

We watched Gracelyn for three days and two nights! It was a lot for my mom, who came down sick after, but my dad was super involved and helped, and I tried to pitch in as well. Val also came over and helped. So it was truly a team effort! Her parents drove across the country to pick something up and my dad didn't want her to be stuck in the car all day. We had lots of fun playing with and holding her. She is absolutely adorable and has started walking a lot more lately!

Wednesday evening, I met with a member of the stake presidency to talk about struggles I was having with my stake calling, so it's looking like I will be released soon. Then I had a meeting for the regional YSA AZ conference that we are planning for next year. If you think about it, I have three callings now, one on a ward level, one on a stake level, and then one on a regional level! It has been a lot. 

Thursday evening was our ward Relief Society party, which was really chill and relaxed. I had lots of meetings on Friday with my clinic, then I crashed my parent's date night and we went to Thai Peppers, which actually really hurt my tummy the next day :(. And poor dad was already not feeling very well.

Then on Saturday, it was our ward Christmas party, which was a blast! We sponsored two families, so we split into two groups and went to drop off the gifts and visit with the families. Then we headed over to the Hansen's house for catered tacos that were DELISH and lots of desserts and fun. We did the white elephant gift exchange, and I surprisingly kept getting my gifts stolen... until I finally unwrapped a "Pooping Dog" calendar. Then I was stuck with that. But it was quite hilarious! Sunday dinner was small, just me and my parents and Grandpa Jim. I went to bed super early (literally 7:30pm) because I'd stayed up late the night before watching Kdramas... so then I was so tired all day Sunday. Also, dad has taken an interest in my skin care routine, and mom as well, so I outlined the order to use the products for them, and my mom just ordered a bunch of them. Haha, so I'm setting a trend in my family ;).

Much love,

Emily Burnham

Christmas in the Air

 27 November - 10 December 2023

Wow. I was just looking back through all my old posts and realized that I've been posting consistently for the last SEVEN years! Like, wow. Lately, writing and posting has felt like a burden. I've been very overwhelmed by life. But even though I've missed a few weeks here or there, I've still been consistent. There was a three month gap between getting home from my mission and then posting, but otherwise it's been pretty much weekly (with the exception of the last couple of months), with me posting the highlights of my week and keeping track of my life. Even if no one reads it but me, it's so worth it because it helps me to go back and reflect and remember my strengths and the progress I've made. I have learned so poignantly these last two weeks that I am my worst critic and truly need to reign in the negativity and give myself more grace and seek for the positives. Doing this really helps with that, even though it's sometimes hard to get the motivation to write when I'm struggling with already feeling super overwhelmed. 

Anyways... some quick highlights of the past two weeks include:

-I've had three or four people ask me about my skin care routine because they notice my skin is glowing and want to know what products I use! I took a picture of all my products today to send out, and this isn't even all the products I have (but is most of them). It feels good to know what I've been doing for the past month (or two?) has really made a difference in my skin. It has definitely become part of my self-care routine, a moment to focus on the sensations of cleaning and caring for my face, though it does sometimes feel like a chore. What really helps is good makeup products. I've found some good foundations I like, and applying it on moisturized skin really makes a huge difference in how well it covers and makes your skin look flawless!

-I attended a 14 hour training in Tempe for Core Skills. I have three more of them left to get EFCT (emotionally-focused couple's therapy) certified. I learned a lot and made some great connections. One girl in my group was also a student and we bonded, and I learned she Korean, which made me really excited. I'm still working on learning Korean! Slowly, but surely! I do have school to finish up because... I'm graduating THIS MONTH!!! And a huge licensing exam to prep for (um... yeah. I buckled down and bought a $300 study prep course... bleh. But I'm gonna do it!!) So I've been busy, but I'm trying!

-I gave a short talk at our stake Christmas devotional and got TONS of compliments! All the speakers were truly fantastic, and we had some great musical numbers. I got to sing in one of the choirs too. And I felt very pretty that night. I've been filming lots of YouTube videos, so here's one I did about children's books, and that's how I also looked that night at the devo. But along the lines of YouTube, I started going in a new direction, focused on specific activities/exercises to do with kids and teens that are therapeutic and help kids grow. So far, I think my view count has gone slightly up than before, and it seems to have a more positive outcome. And the videos are so much easier for ME to film and feel confident about. I really like this new direction a lot and it excites me, which is really good since I had begun to feel a bit burnt out from doing my channel. 

-I attended the CLEAR Counseling work Christmas party, and it was the first time in a long time that the time passed without me noticing it. I didn't think or feel like I'd been there very long, but almost 3 hours had passed. It was incredible to be able to just sit in and enjoy the moment.

-Valerie and her boyfriend are getting pretty serious, already discussing rings and honeymoon locations! So we will see if she gets a ring by the end of the year or not!! I'm just so happy for her. Her being happy makes me feel so happy and blessed. And I love how she can be more of herself with him. 

-Gracelyn is cute as ever and growing so fast! She is so good at imitating words, so we've been getting a kick out of her saying "I cute" and our names. She is walking more and more, but she still prefers crawling or being held (especially by grandma). 

-Work gave me a $1,000 Christmas bonus!! They really love having me there and are sad that I'll be leaving soon to start working full-time as a therapist. I've been helping them expand their business with social media, marketing, and vinyl. We put vinyl all around my cousin's truck!

Much love,

Emily Burnham