Gratitude Journal

When I was a teenager I saw an episode of Oprah where she talked about starting a gratitude journal. All you do is write down 5 things a day that you are grateful for. They can be simple things like the smell of fresh laundry or they can be life altering moments. I have written in this kind of a journal at different times in my life and I have to say it really has made a difference. Whenever I am down or discouraged I start my journal and within a few days things seem to pick up again. The reason I am writing this is because I have had one CrAZy semester! I worked full time at ths hospital, which meant crazy hours, went to school and tried to have a social life on top of that. Basically I had no time for myself. Sadly, now that the semester is over things have not slowed down for me at all. Anyway, I was getting ready for bed the other night and I was dreading having to get up in the morning to go to work. I am burnt out and I want a job that challenges me. I decided I need to have a better attitude because this job really is not so bad, I have had way worse jobs. So on the way to work I made a goal to write down one thing an hour of what I am grateful for or happy about with my job. When I got to work none of us wanted to be there. We were all in bad moods. I knew this would be the best day of any to apply this program. So I told my coworker my plan and she decided to do it with me. Every hour we wrote down or commented on things we were grateful for. And the results were amazing. The time went faster, our moods improved as the day progressed and we weren't drained from being negative all day. My co worker even commented on how pleasant the day was. So if any of you are having a hard time out there just start the gratitude journal and things will look up. Good luck :)

Family Pictures

Why do family pictures cause so much stress? We decided to give my parents family pictures for Christmas. It has been so long since we have had one taken. Since it was my idea to do this, I was in charge of plannning it. I'm sure for most other families when a big event is organized everyone commits and shows up on time and it runs smoothly right? Ha ha I know that's not typical but I always hope that if I plan enough things will work out. This was not the case. I called the photographer and set the date 2 weeks in advance. I talked with all my siblings and we got a color palette figured out and I thought things were running smooth. In talking to the family a few days before pictures I find out that no one had clothes in the colors we decided on. Some said they would buy shirts others said they would find something to work. Sadly I was included in this bunch. At 9:00 PM the night before I talked to everyone to see how things were going and still none of us has had anything to wear. So we decided we would just wear solid colors. We planned on having our pictures taken outside on the Lagoon trail. The morning of pictures it was raining and there were dark clouds everywhere. I was so worried about lighting.
I stopped at Kohls to buy a sweater on my way up to Farmington and hoped for the best.
And...
They turned out pretty good! The leaves were amazing, there was some light for most of the pictures. And our colors still matched each other and everyone had a great time.
Overall I guess it was all worth it, I just wish I didn't stress so much about things.
If anyone needs a good photographer check out jamiandersonphotography.blogspot.com. She did a good job; even with clouds and rain she was able to get some great pics.

I'll try to download some pics later.

KauAi 2009

In June my family had the opportunity to go to Kauai for a week. It was so much fun! We spent a couple of days on Oahu doing the normal tourist stuff such as Waikiki beach and the Polynesian Cultural Center. My friend Bridgette graduated from BYU Hawaii at the same time so I went to her graduation as well. Then we headed off to the beautiful island of Kauai. Kauai is different than Oahu. It is not as touristy and has a lot of open country. While on this island we saw Waimea Canyon, known as the grand canyon of hawaii, hiked the Na Pali Coast, filmed a commercial for the condo we were staying at, my sister, Alya, got engaged and we got to play at the beach a little. It was a fun vacation. I have not been on a family vacation with the whole family in over 7 years! I'm glad we got to go to one of my favorite places.

Proud Parent

I know I have not blogged in FOREVER but I have been a little busy and a little lazy. Sorry. I decided I need to start again and today I would like to talk about how proud I am of my converts. When you go on a mission everyone that you teach suddenly becomes your child. You get so protective of them and you have all these dreams for them and you want them to succeed and be happy. Sometimes you can not control their actions and sometimes they get hurt and it breaks your heart because there is nothing you can do about it. Anyway, I have one convert who has been solid since the day we met him. He told us right from the start that he wanted to be baptized and go on a mission. Well he has gone on his mission and has been home for about 8 months now. Since he left on his mission I have had 2 roommates that served their missions with him. Both of these girls have told me what an amazing missionary he was. They told me how strong and dedicated to the work he was and also how nice he was to everyone, even the sisters. Anyone who has been a sister missionary knows what a big deal it is when the elders are nice to you. Every time that I hear stories about him I feel like a beaming parent. I feel so blessed to have been the missionary to teach him. I don't know what I did to be so lucky.

Update

So I found out more info. on that police chase the other night. It was a drug bust that started in Sugarhouse and ended in Ogden. It crossed 3 counties! The police had been chasing that car forever and when I saw them they were setting up spikes to see if they could catch him. Unfortunatly they didn't get him with the spikes. However, he ran into a field in Ogden and crashed his car. He proceeded on foot and the cops got the driver and his passenger. Apparently somewhere along the drive they unloaded 2 hand guns and a bag of meth. What a crazy night!

High Speed Chase

I just survived a high speed chase! I was driving home from work around 11:15 tonight and I noticed that there were more cops than usual pulled over on the road. There has been some new construction in Davis County recently so I didn't pay much attention. I was half way home and I looked in my rear view mirror and there were 2 cop cars with their lights on behind me. I was in the left lane and was thinking I was getting pulled over. (That happens a lot) Well I go to switch lanes and all of the sudden a car goes whizzing by. That car was easily going over 100 MPH! I switched lanes just in time for the two cop cars to go whizzing by. Suddenly 2 more cops go by, then 3 cops then a few more stragglers behind. It took a minute for me to realize what was going. I was looking around and I there was a helicopter following the chase too. Then I look to the side and there are a couple more cops on Legacy Highway. Also there were cops on all the exits so we couldn't exit and cops at the turn arounds so that guy couldn't turn around. It was crazy! I have never seen a high speed chase let alone been in one. I am just happy to be alive.

Crazy Dreams

Ok I have been having the craziest dreams lately! My roommate Shanna can't wait for morning to come so she can hear the latest storyline. Sometimes my dreams are very vivid and seriously like a movie. This is one of my most recent ones.
I had just rented an apartment with 2 of my friends in Provo. We were moving everything in and quickly realized we did not have enough room for all of our food. Well there was an extra fridge at the apartment so I had the brilliant idea of using that as extra shelves. Well we plugged it in and left the apartment for the night. The next day we went back to unpack more and it stunk really bad. So we opened the fridge and a dead girl came tumbling out. Apparently a bunch of guys had lived in the apartment before us and one of them had killed his girlfriend and stuffed her in the fridge.
Crazy dream I know. The weird thing is I have not watched a scary movie in who knows how long! I have no idea where this came from! Shanna thinks it has something to do with Desperate Housewives because there are always murders and twisted plots. It's possible. All I know is my dreams have been very weird and vivid lately.

B&B

So I entered a drawing for Bumble & Bumble hair product. I love this brand! If you blog about the item you want to win you get entered twice. Hopefully I win! If you want to win great prizes too check out simpleexpressionsllc.blogspot.com

Bucket List

Hit forward and place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not then send it to your friends (including me). Things you have done during your lifetime.
(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
(X) Watched someone die
(X) Been to Canada
() Been to Mexico
() Been to Florida Keys
(X) Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane
(X) Been lost
(X) Gone to Washington, DC
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
( ) Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sang Karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only
( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(X) Made prank phone calls
(X) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose & elsewhere
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X ) Danced in the rain
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone to the movies
( ) Been deep sea fishing
( ) Driven across the United States alone
( ) Been in a hot air balloon
( ) Been sky diving
(X)Gone snow mobiling
( ) Lived in more than one country
(X) Laid outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
(X) Enjoyed the beauty of Ole Faithful Geyser
( ) Seen the Statue of Liberty
(X ) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
() Been on a cruise
(X) Traveled by train
(X) Traveled by motorcycle
(X) Been horse back riding
( )Ridden on a San Francisco Trolley
(X) Been to Disneyland or Disney World
(X) Truly believe in the power of prayer
( ) Been to the top of an active volcano and seen hot lava
(X) Been in a rain forest
(X) Seen whales in the ocean
() Been to Niagara Falls
() Ridden on an elephant
( ) Swam with dolphins
(X) Climbed the backside of Timpanogas

Rude Awakening...

I was going through my clothes today trying to find something to spice up my wardrobe. I had tried a few things on and noticed they didn't fit like they used to. I am aware of the "thin" layer of insulation I have grown. I figured most of my clothes should still fit though. I decided to try on one of my favorite skirts, you know the kind that looks good no matter what. I looked in the mirror and was sooo disappointed! I have HUGE love handles and a spare tire that goes all the way around! Does anyone have any exercises that target this area? I have been walking lately, it is helping the leg area but my middle is seriously suffering... help!!!

A shout out for Simple Expressions!

I don't know if you guys noticed the new button on my blog, it's for an invitation company called Simple Expressions. It has awesome invitations created by the owner! They are tailored to your personality and design instead of the generic invitation. She also sells invitations for companies such as style art, elegant reflections and more. The nice thing is this company will make invitations for anything, its speciality is wedding announcements but will do birth announcements, birthday parties, showers, any event you can think of! I highly recommend checking it out and passing it on to your friends. Also, they do monthly drawings! Who doesn't like free or discounted stuff?

25 Things

Here we go again....

1. I have gone to 5 different colleges/universities. Apparently I really like to learn

2. I have had 12 jobs in my life

3. I love to travel!

4. Desperate Housewives is one of my current indulgences

5. I am allergic to lettuce-I have no clue how

6. When I was young my friend Emily and I had a gang like the butter cream gang. We would ride our bikes around the neighborhood looking for people to help.

7. We also used to bury our money and make maps to find it again. I don't think we ever really found the money

8. I love the beach. I feel so calm and inspired when I am on a beach.

9. I clean when I am stressed out. I love to mop the floor on my hands and knees

10. FRIENDS is THE BEST TV show ever!

11. I have been going to school for 7 years. And still have another year and half to go

12. My favorite expression when I text is a smiley face

13. I rarely think before I speak-which gets me in a lot of trouble

14. I wish I had time to read good books

15. Mexican food is my favorite. I can eat it any time of day

16. I love long drives late at night

17. I would love to be a cosmetologist

18. Before my mission I wanted to be a Marine Biologist

19. When I find a movie I like I can watch it over and over again

20. I really value my friends-Some I have known most of my life, it's the only kind of relationship I can commit to

21. I want to travel to all 7 continents before I die

22. I love the snow. I think it's so pretty to watch but not fun to drive in

23. My dream is to live in Alabama

24. I want to start a non profit organization

25. I am afraid of heights

There you go I did it! That was a hard one. I tag every single person that reads this blog! Don't be shy.....

trials always come before the blessings right?

Well the past few weeks seem to have been trying weeks. First I had the stitches incident, which by the way is going a lot better now. And last week my grandpa passed away. It was unexpected but he was ready to go. He was always joking around with us. Loved the outdoors and loved to travel. He and my grandma were always going on adventures, by adventures I mean motorcycle road trips and hiking and camping. How many people can say that about their grand parents??? He knew how to fix almost anything mechanical and knew almost everything about anything. We will miss him but know he is in a better place. Love you grandpa!
Hope next week gets better than the past few weeks have been.

Recap

So I guess I should post my highlights of 2008 now. It has been an aDVveNtuRe filled year.


I went to Seattle not once

Not twice

But THREE times this year!





Tackled the jungles of the Philippines

Went to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans,


Took a few little weekend trips close by,

Got accepted into the Social Work program at the University of Utah

and got a new nephew!

I guess it has been a pretty eventful year! Hope all of you had a great year and remember

It's Gonna Be Fine in 2009!