Birthday Trip

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We are going somewhere for my birthday. I am pretty excited about it. It's someplace I've never been before. There are a few people coming with us and one of them has never been there either. But she has never been camping before. Can you guess where we are going by these pictures? I'll give you a few pictures to make your guess. Let me know if you guessed right before the giveaway clues.

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Alright guys, did you guess yet?!?

I figure that since we're leaving tomorrow night and won't be back until my birthday that I wouldn't have time to make another post other than today. So why not include you all in on my excitement?

If you haven't guessed yet here is a giveaway picture.

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Do you know where we're going yet? If not...I think this last picture should be a dead giveaway, unless you're dyslexic or can't read yet.

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Are you guys excited for me? Don't the pictures just want to make you come along? We watched a movie on Yellowstone on Sunday night. It was about Yellowstone during the winter, and man, it made me really excited to go! It's such an interesting place, especially from a geological standpoint.

We are planning on camping and going around to all of the big sites during the few days that we're there. We may even hit a hot springs on our way back, on my birthday. So, calling all people who have been to Yellowstone before. What's the must see sites? What's your favorite part about Yellowstone? What's your favorite secret places? We're leaving tomorrow night and staying in Idaho Falls for the night, so leave me your tips quick!

Vintage Shoot Sneak Peak

You guys, I'm SOO excited! Maddie posted a sneak peak of our vintage photoshoot. She really did such an amazing job, and she's so stinkin' adorable in real life. We had such a blast with Maddie and Lee and they did such an amazing job with the styling and the pictures, seriously, even though it was freezing, we had such a good time.

I didn't want to steal all of the pictures off of he blog, so here is just one of them, for an even more sneak peak, so head over to her blog, Maddie E Photography to see the rest!!

Let me know what you think! I'm excited about them. I packed everything up and met Hal down at his work and once we met up with Maddie and Lee and started driving way out in the middle of no where he asked if I brought his shoes...Umm, oops!! Holy cow I still can't believe that I forgot his shoes. Of course I did, since you know, I hate bare feet. Oh the irony. He was the bestest and such a trooper and would throw his shoes off right before we started shooting the scenes. Then Lee or Maddie or I would grab his shoes so he wouldn't step on any glass or anything.

Seriously though, i got more and more cold and windy as the shoot went on and we were all icycles by the time we left. Luckily, it just happened to be windy in that spot, as soon as we turned the corner and headed back towards civilization the wind died down.

Go check out the photos!!! and report back, haha.

Spring in Utah

Utah has some seriously awesome spring days. I don't know if spring is like this everywhere, but spring here is kind of bi-polar. Now that it's warmed up a bit it just constantly goes from rainy to sunny and blossoms. I love when it goes back and forth in one day. When you have sunny warm rain storms are the best. 

I think I mentioned a while ago about how one of my favorite smells is a tree that blossoms. That first picture is a picture of that kind of tree. The blossoms are so pretty, and they smell delicious. The next picture is of a wisteria tree. It's on the path back to our door. It's pretty, huh? The last one is an awesome storm we had a few weeks ago, and the view from my work building. I think it actually snowed that day.

Man, there is some craziness coming up. Today we had our Peace Corps interviews. Well, I just had mine and then we had our couple one, and Hal is actually doing his right now in an empty office at the other side of our floor here at work. I hope is going well. My interview went well. It was so long! It was over an hour long, but I guess if they're going to put that much time and money and energy into someone they want to make sure they pick the right person. We rocked our couples interview. At least, I think we did. We should know in like 3 weeks if he put us up for nomination. EEKK!

Tomorrow I am doing a photo shoot and I'm unbelievably excited. I'm SO excited. I'm doing a vintage audrey hepburn/paris inspired shoot with maddie Thank you so much to Maddie for doing it, and Chloe for putting me in touch with her. I've wanted to do a shoot like this for so long, and I'm so excited that it's happening. 

Yesterday was 2 weeks until my BIRTHDAY! Woo Woo! I freaking love birthdays and kind of make a big deal out of them, so I'm pretty excited about mine. We are thinking about going out of town for it, maybe with some friends. We'll see. Either way it should be pretty freaking fun. So, make sure you send your presents early, 'cause we might not be here on my birthday...and there's no mail service on Memorial Day. ;)

Mother's Day

Last night I had some inspiration. I really did. It was crazy, I was lying in bed finishing reading before I went to sleep and I had the thought to check on something. I looked on my dad's computer and couldn't find what I wanted to, apparently I never saved it to his computer, it was a bummer. So I was looking for some pictures and I have no idea if I even moved them from my dad's house, and then last night at like 1 a.m. I had the idea to go check on a bag of stuff that I thought the pictures might be in. They weren't in there...but what my journal that I was missing was in there. YAY! AND what makes it even better is what I had been looking for on my dad's comptuer was in my jounal just like I thought.

So, in honor of Mother's Day I will post a talk I gave in church a few years ago. I was asked to talk the first Mother's Day after my mom died. At first I was like...you want me to do what? Oh, that's nice that when you were thinking of people to speak for mother's day you thought of me, because that would be cool, but umm....kind of lame for me. The topic was values instilled in me by my mother that will influence me for the rest of my life. At the time I wasn't very excited about it, but I am so glad that I did it because then I was able to think about my mom and express myself...I don't know, it just turned out to be something really special to me.

This is a picture o f my parents on their wedding day. I love this picture. I know that it's almost been a week since Mother's Day, but I just really felt like I should post it for some reason, so hopefully it will help someone somehow...

     When I was asked to speak today I didn't quite undetstand why. When I told people I was asked to speak on Mother's Day many people expressed the feeling that it was insensitive to ask, or perhaps it was too soon as my family just past the 5 month mark since the passing of my mother. I didn't understand how I could possibly speak on values instilled by he when she wasn't around anymore to instill values. I just kept thinking about a few weeks ago when we learned that in preparing to teach or speak the speaker usually learnsmore. I can now testify that this is true. Before I prepared for this talk I didn't really like to think about my mom too often, because it made me sad. Preparing for this has made me realize that I don't need to be sad when I think of what happened, but instead I can be happy that she's in a much better place. Instead I can remembe the god times we had together and what she has taught me. My mom always taught me to be better, and that family comes first.

   My mom lived for her family. That is what made her happy. She lvoed being a mother and a grandmother more than anything. I think that is evident through her 8 children and 8 soon to be 9 (now 10) grandchildren. This is a value that I hope to carry on with me throughout my life.

   My mother taught me to live life with a good attitude and enjoy the time we have here. My whole family has a really good sense of humor and we just sit around and laugh when we are all together. Now I'll tell you a story of how my mom taught me to have fun and enjoy life.

   I'll preface it by saying that my family loves animals. Our main pets are our dog, Sydney and our cat Ebony. Last summer my mom and little brother took my dog to be groomed and happened to ntoice an all black cat up for adoption that looked just like our cat, except it was a boy. When my dad and I went to pick up ou dog we stopped to look at the cat. Of course right away I wanted him, but my Dad said no way. I guess I wasn't the only one who wanted him becauset late that day my mom, my brother and I were talking about how we wanted to get him.

    My mom told us to go ahead and get him, and that she would pitch in money, but we couldn't tell my dad of her involvement. We all knew that he would love the cat and not be mad anyway, so the next week my brothe and I bought him. A few days later I recieved a call from my dad saying something about a cat jumping up in his lap and him then realizing that it wasn't Ebony, our other cat. Of course I responded with, "what? I don't know what you're talking about." He just said "Yeah, yeah, I would just appreciate you consulting one of your parent's first." I just chuckled to myself and called my mom to tell he that he knew. That night he left a note for my mom saying "the kids bought the Ebony cat" What makes this story so funny is that somehow my dad never found out about my mom's involvement until a few weeks ago. I chose this story because I thought it exemplified the fun and close relationship my mom had with he whole family, which is something I hope to continue in my own life.

   I must say that even though I have experienced this loss I have been blessed. I have been blessed to now be able to value those close to me even more. I am so blessed that though my mother may not be able to be here today, I still have family that is here. I am so thankful for my sisters, I have 4 of them and they are all older than me, so I know that when it comes time for me to prepare to be a mother they can be there for me.

   My mother was an amazing woman and I hope that I can live my life much like she did. She was so strong in the gospel, she worked so hard at everything, but most of all she was the best mother I could have asked for. I hope that my childen will be able to say that about me one day.

  I am truly greatful for this gospel and the knowledge that I have of eternal life. I don't know, no do I want to know whee I would be without it. I know that this chuch is t rue more than I know anything, and I know that families can be together forever.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

These are the two cats. I was sad this is the only picture I have of Benny (the cat we bought) He was like 9 months old when we bought him and he has just stayed so cute and little. Remember when I posted a little while ago about that picture of Ebony with her bow collar? I figured this was a good excuse to post it. I wish I had gotten a better picture of it, but this will have to do.

I had a lovely Mother's Day, not all of us were able to make it to the cemetary, but those of us who could go went, it was nice. Then Dane gave my mother in law Settlers of Catan, the extended version, so we played it. That game is so awesome. If you haven't played it, find someone who has it and make them play with you. I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day. :)

Grace

This post is not specifically about anyone or any specific event, but more of a culmination of life's course

I was going to do a funny post today, but that will have to wait because my feelings have gotten the better of me. Not like I'm crying or anything, but you know how events lead up, and it's not necessarily anything specific but it all just jumbles together and makes you feel a certain way?

Well, that is me today. Today has been a weird day. It's had big ups and low lows. It's been raining like crazy which I love. I love when the rain reflects my mood. It makes me feel comforted or something silly like that.

I got a raise today. I'm pretty excited about it. It's nice to feel like what you've been doing for so long is finally being recognized and appreciated.

It's also hard to feel completely happy when you know people close to you are suffering. Well, that's how it is for me anyway. It's hard to witness their pain, but I'm sure it's even more hard to feel the pain...well, I know it is. It's so hard to sit back and watch things fall apart and just know that all you can do is be there in case someday they might need you. All you can do is little bits when you can, at least that helps me feel a little better sometimes.

I have been through hard times in my life. I hate when you're going through something awful and someone asks "what can I do?" I know it's nice to say that, but I'm hurting, I don't want to think of something for you to do to help me, I want you to just think of something and do it. So, that is now what I try to do when someone is going through a hard time. I try to be observantly helpful. I hope it's helpful anyway.

I have noticed something lately. I met someone who reminded me so much of someone I know, but there was one major difference. They are both awesome people, and both very free spirits, but one of them is grounded in certain aspects of their life, instead of being a free spirit kind of to a fault. And honestly, I realized the difference. Faith. Faith in anything is important. But faith in some sort of a higher power is life changing. I think that that kind of faith grounds you to who you are, and never lets you loose sight of that. Faith like that makes you grateful instead of bitter. I read a blog post of someone today who I have never met in real life, and who is going through a really hard time. She ranted as most people in a hard time want to do, but then her tone took a change and she talked about how she is grateful. It just really struck me today. That's the key. To be grateful. It's hard to wallow in self pity when you think about all of the things you have been blessed with...at least it is hard for me to do that. And sometimes we need a reminder of what we have to be grateful for. I know I have to be reminded often...because I'm kind of a brat and like to complain.

Years ago when I had a myspace account I posted about 50 things that I am grateful for. It really made me think about things. Isn't interesting that you can be feeling so sad, and thinking of things that you're grateful for can automatically make you feel better? Maybe it's because you realize you're not alone and that somebody or something out there somewhere in the world has done something nice, just for you.

I haven't been to my dad's to search his computer for that mother's day post I wanted to do. Hopefully I'll make it over there tonight and hopefully I can find it. Either way I'll do a Mother's Day post soon.

Sorry for the randomness of this post, I kind of just rambled on to get things off of my mind.

Fill in the Blankety Blank Friday

Since I had to go into work today I figured that I might as well participate in:

Fill In The Blank Friday

If you want to see some more answers head over to Lauren's blog, The Little Things We Do

1. My favorite book growing up was That depends on what you view as growing up. When I was really little it was books like my Little Mermaid collection, but by the time I was in middle school it was definitely Lord of the Rings, I know, I know, I'm a dork .

2. The funniest book I've ever read was That is a really good question. Probably a David Sedaris book. I love his work. Maybe because I can identify with his OCD problems. I used to sit in Barnes & Noble and read his books. Shh, don't tell the people at Barnes and Noble.

3. The one book that has truly changed my life is This is a really recent one, and I actually haven't read it yet, because we lent our copy to someone. It's called Leadership and Self Deception. It's amazing. It seriously changed my marriage. Which means that Hal read it and it changed his life, which means it changed my life. If you're marriage could use improving, which I say they always could...read it, and the great thing about it is that it's not even a book about marriage, so if you're single and want to improve your view of other people, read it .

4. If you're looking for a real "tear jerker" you should probably read hmm,, I can't think of a book that has made me cry. There is a really good one called "The Message" that my sister gave to all of us after my mom died. It's really awesome. I later found out that my mother-in-law went to school with the guy who the book is about, isn't that cool? Well, if you know someone who has lost a love one, or if you have it's a really great book.

5. If I could meet any author living or dead I would want to meet I didn't even have to think about this one. Hands down, it would be J.R.R. Tolkien. He is so freaking cool. Yes, again a big fat dork, but anyone who can invent languages deserves to be met .

6. The next book on my "to read" list is I have quite a few. I just finished the girl with a dragon tattoo series (my boss is awesome and got the 3rd book from a UK store because it isn't out on the U.S.) Anyway, I will be reading Seeing Red next. it's the second book in the Looking Glass Wars series. .

7. If I was snowed into remote cabin in the woods and could only choose three books to bring with me I'd bring The Book of Mormon, Persuasion, The Hobbit .

It's mothers day on Sunday!! There is something I have been thinking about posting, but since I moved out I can't find one of my journals and I know I posted a copy in there, so perhaps I'll do some searching and see if I can find it in honor of mothers day. Hopefully we can get my siblings together to head to the cemetery. I guess I should start looking for an awesome bouquet of flowers now. My mom loved loved loved flowers, and so whenever I bring flowers to her gave I always try to find flowers that are very "her." I always take a picture with my phone and send it to my sister in Oregon so she can approve of them.

After that we get to celebrate with Hal's mom. I just adore his mom, she's so great. What makes it even more fantastic is that we get to celebrate Mother's Day and her birthday in less than a week. Good thing I already have a present for both!

Don't judge me for not being proper and using quotation marks around the book names. What really should matter is that I know I should have done it, right?

Wheeler Farm = Awesome

The play finally opened and I finally have time at home again. It's nice to just sit around for a bit each day. Ah, it feels good. It also means I finally have my computer back which is also really nice. Here are some pictures from when my friend Heather and I went to Wheeler Farm. Wheeler Farm is literally my favorite place in Utah. I was really hoping that they would have baby ducks, but alas it has been too cold and there weren't any baby ducks or chicken yet, but they did have baby cows, lambs, and goats. They had some baby goats that literally must have been only days old. They could barely walk. Man, they were adorable. I'm so excited I got a video of the cutie goat trying to walk.

Isn't this picture of the rooster so cool? I thought it was so aweome that he was just chillin on the post. Inside those doors is where the baby cows were. We didn't get any pictures of them, but we did leave with their saliva on our hands. Good thing I had hand sanitizer in my purse.
Look at the baby goat! Don't you just want to snuggle with him? So cute!

This is Heather's little girl Chanel. She is the cutest thing ever. Don't you love her face in this picture. Man, she makes the funniest faces all of the time. I wonder where she gets that from....definitely not from perhaps her mother and I always taking pictures while making funny faces. She is the silliest little girl ever, and I just love her to bits.

I sure hope that they have baby ducks soon. I love feeding the ducks there and seeing the babies swim around behind their mamas. So cute. If you haven't ever been to Wheeler Farm, go. Buy a loaf of bread and bring a picnic and you won't regret it. They have really cool stuff where you can take a hay ride around the whole farm and you can milk the cows and take a tour of the old wheeler house. It's definitely worth a trip.