Breakin the Rules

Today my day started out kind of shakey. I woke up at 10:30 a.m. freaking out because I had work at 11. That gave me aprox. 15 minutes to get ready. My hopes of taking a shower flew out the window instantly. I managed to get ready in time though! Score.

The roads were icy, and I almost died walking into work, but i'm still here to tell the tale, so crisis averted. No worries there. Then after work I almost died as I was about 6.3 inches from my car. But again, still alive.

The instant I walked into my apartment I ran to the shower so that I could cleanse myself. I forget how much I love taking showers in the afternoon. Is that weird? I just like it...

Me and Rosie decided that today we were going to break the rules of our south beach diet (because it is the end of phase 1 and beginning of phase 2, which caused for a pretty dang awesome reward.) So we went to Costa Vida for dinner. That was very scrumptious.

Then we had fhe at my apartment. We had a lesson about keeping an eternal perspective. That was a great little reminder. My mind is going crazy thinking about all the different things. Maybe I need to go to sleep and wrap my head around everything so that I can make a plan to apply that to my life. For our activity we did puzzles. I got these puzzles at the dollar store, hoping that our family would enjoy them.

The Boba Fett one glows in the dark. After it was all built, we turned off the lights to see if it would glow. We discovered that it needed more time to charge in the light. So instead of picking up the puzzle and putting it up to the light (which doesn't work btw. It breaks.) they decided to lift up the whole coffee table and put the puzzle directly under the light. After about a minute, they put the table down and turned off the lights. It really glowed! It wasn't super great quality, but it was a buck. I was satisfied.

After puzzles/fhe, me and Rosie went to Menchies to finish off our breaking the rules/celebration. I got a free icecream from them because it is my birthday week. I got my usual chocolate with reeses an peanut butter/fudge sauce. Super good.

I really had a good time today. Despite the rocky start. Have a nice night.

In Love

Ok guys. I've been holding this in for fear of being made fun of. I'm coming out. I am in love.


With David Archuleta.


I'm pretty sure that it is creepy that I just announced it like that, but you know. Whatever.

It all started when I bought his new c.d. that was released just after he left for his mission. It's really good, you really should listen to it. Archuleta lover or not, it's good. It's called Believe.

Anyways, then I found one of his songs that he sang with Motab for the Christmas concert and was like, this is really good. Then I started looking up his music videos on youtube. Then I started watching his video diaries on his youtube channel. I'm pretty sure that I am a 12 year old girl.

Just thought I would share.

Puzzles with the Fam

Yesterday I went home for Martin Luther King day because my dad was making steaks for lunch. Who would ever say no to steaks?? I have to say it was very delicious. Some of the best steak my dad has ever made.

While we were eating me and my sister were talking about Phantom of the Opera because we went to see it with our cousins on Saturday. So Erika decided to put in a c.d. of my dad's that has some of Andrew Lloyd Webber's best songs.

We have a weird tradition in our family that we always do puzzles with this c.d. playing. This c.d. and some other country ones that my dad has. While the c.d. was playing my dad said, "hey we're not doing a puzzle!" So I told Erika to go get a puzzle and then we started working on a Disney puzzle.

I don't know why, but it is not a fun puzzle unless we have our awesome music playing in the background. And if there is awesome music playing, we have to be doing a puzzle or playing a board/card game with each other. I love it.

This particular puzzle we did is one of our favorites. It is a Disney one that we got from Disneyland. One of the best souveniers I have enjoyed from there.

The first thing we do is turn all of the pieces over and take out all the edges. I'm pretty sure everyone does puzzles like that, but in case you don't, that is what we do.

 

Our process of building the puzzle is pretty cool too. We kind all pick what part of the puzzle we want to focus on. I wanted to do the princesses and my dad wanted to do the monorail. Erika did the edges, and my mom did the Disneyland letters. Once we get going we realize that all of our pieces fit together and the puzzle is almost done! It is so awesome seeing how everyone did their part to make the puzzle happen.

 

 

This is the finished puzzle. I had to leave before it was completely finished because I had work :( I left at the above picture ^.

 

 



I had an awesome holiday yesterday! I hope you all did as well. I love having days that I can just spend with my family :)

It's Up to You.

In preparation for my mission I have noticed a change in so many things. I don't even have my call, but I have felt more temptation in the past couple of months preparing for a mission than I have felt in my whole life. It's not really big things that I am feeling tempted with, but silly little things through out my day.

It is getting harder and harder to get myself to wake up in the mornings because I feel like I have nothing to do. Or I wake up and start feeling really down on myself and sometimes feeling really worthless. When my day starts out like this it is hard to make myself happy throughout the rest of my day. It is getting easier and easier to blow off my scripture study. I tell myself that I can "do it later." Everybody has done that at some point and everyone knows that you will not do it later.

I had started out this year with so many goals and changes that I wanted to make, and so far it has not worked. But now that I have taken the time to sit down and think about the little choices I have been making I remember why I made these goals. When I read my scriptures at the start of the day, my day is so nice! I don't have fears or second guesses about my readiness for a mission. When I don't start out my day right, I frequently feel unprepared and very scared to serve. But I got an answer that I needed to go, and I will do whatever it takes to prepare myself the best I can.

My dad took me out to lunch a little while ago and he mentioned that I should be studying Preach my Gospel. And I have. It is awesome. Why wasn't I studying it before? I am learning so much more that I ever thought I would.

Rosie and I went to the distribution center yesterday to get a few things, and I looked back in the section with all the temple clothes and garments and had an overwhelming feeling come over me. It was a good feeling. The feeling that motivates me to become a better person so that I can one day (really soon) go back there and prepare to make sacred covenants with my Heavenly Father in the temple.

So I guess the point of this post was to share that temptation is so real. It is everywhere. But it is up to you if you are going to withstand it and do everything you can to stay strong. I want to stay strong. I want to serve the Lord as His representative somewhere on this beautiful Earth. I want others to feel of the happiness that I have been blessed with forever.


If you made it to the end of this post, good on ya. This is kind of long. I hope you have a wonderful evening and Sunday tomorrow :)

My Keys...

Today I woke up to a beautiful sunshiney morning. I was feeling so good. I took a shower and got ready for the day. I read my scriptures and played with my dog. I enjoyed some time on the computer. After a little while I went outside to warm up my car.

My car had trouble starting..."oh no" I thought. But after a third try it indeed started. But I then realized I needed to scrape my windows. I actually enjoy scraping my windows so I didn't think anything of it. So I thought I opened my door and unlocked the other doors, so that I could get into the back seat to get my scraper. So with my car running, I shut the driver door and open the back door.

The back door is not opening. So I open the driver side to unlock it once more. But the driver door was locked as well. I feel like my soul has been sucked out. But then I remember that I have a spare set of keys in my purse!!! After what feels like a second of glory, I remember that my purse is in my car. Locked away. So many thoughts are running through my mind. My keys are locked in the ignition, with the car running in my driveway. Do I want to die? Do I run away? Do I call my parents? I don't know. But running away and dying sound really good right now.

I call my mom and ask her what I should do. She says to call dad. So I do, but it goes straight to voicemail. I try again, and no difference. I again call my mom and she reaches my dad. He is coming home from work to fix my stupid mistake. Meanwhile my mom has to come home from work so that she can drive me to work. That's not embarassing.

After work my mom picked me up (again, that's not embarassing...). She told me that my dad unlocked the car with one of our marshmallow roasting sticks. Because apparently a wire hanger is not strong enough. I am pretty much just amazed that he was able to unlock my car with out a locksmith.

This is really not a funny story. Because like 3 months ago while I was at my apartment for lunch and locked my keys in the trunk. Apparently i'm irresponsible with my keys. If you haven't noticed...

Moral of the story, I went and got one more set of spare keys today so that there will be a spare set at home and in my apartment. I hope I never lose these babies again...

Hard Work

I just wanted to talk about how important work is! I thought while driving home from work tonight that I feel so accomplished about everything I did today/tonight. When I come home from work my aching legs and feet let me know that I was really productive and that I am doing something worth while with my time.

You know those days when you are in your p.j.'s all day and you don't really do anything except laze around and watch movies and eat? And you know how you just feel like a piece of junk? That is because you are not doing anything worth while with your time. I am really making a goal to do something each day that will help me to feel accomplished and I can go to bed knowing that I did all I could to make it a good day. Even something as simple as taking out the trash and doing the dishes or something. Little things like that add up through the day to the point where you just feel so happy for what you have done!

I always feel happiest when I sit down at dinner after a day of working my hardest. Especially when I am sitting with my family or roommates who were also working their hardest that day. Those are the moments I remember most. Those are the moments that bring us closest together.

There is a Clint Black song called Spend My Time that I really love because of the lyrics. He says "i'm gonna spend my time like it's goin out of style." I am making a goal to live by that motto!

This is Going to be a Great Year!

I hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas and New Years. I definitely loved mine. This was the weirdest Christmas I ever had because my brother was gone and we didn't have all of our usual traditions. It is ok though, I still had an awesome one. I love when there is no school and the parents are off of work for so long! I definitely felt like I had plenty of time to spend with them. I can never get enough of those moments!

On New Years Eve we sat down as a familly to make our resolutions. A lot of times making resolutions bothers me because you never stick to them, and you tend to ask too much of yourself. So I rolled my eyes when we started. But really, it is such a good idea to reflect on your life. Think about everything you did in the past year. I was thinking about all of the good things. I noticed that my life was seriously lacking in some crucial things. So I decided that I am going to focus on those this year.

As many of you know I have decided that I will be serving a mission! However, I realized that if I was going to do that, I needed to be at my best spiritually and physically. Going on a mission requires a lot of you. I decided I am going to do these 3 things everyday to prepare me.

ONE [1] Be in bed at 10:30 p.m. every night (unless I have work or something else that requires me to stay up longer), and wake up at 6:30 a.m. every morning. *missionary rules-good to prepare, right?

TWO [2] Study the scriptures for 1 hour every morning. This would include everything. The Book of Mormon, D&C, Bible, Preach My Gospel, and anything that is enriching and teaches me more about this beautiful gospel that I will be teaching to people.

THREE [3] Live a healthier lifestyle. This means exercising daily to prepare my body for the demands of being on my feet for hours. I need to be able to do everything with out any problems. It also means healthier eating. I need to do this so that I have the energy to focus on what is really important. I need to be able to focus on my scripture study, and also I want to have the best attitude that I can about my life :)

I am hoping that doing these things will increase my happiness and enthusiasm about life!! I want to enjoy every moment this year. This is gonna be a good one.