a little declaration

SO grateful for all that I have and have been blessed with the last little while. I felt prompted to share some of my feelings and testimony on here tonight. I gave a lesson on testimony today in my yw class and like always, the lesson speaks to my heart and motivates me to try and do better and be what I am preaching and teaching.

The last few months have been R O U G H. And thats all I am going to say. I have survived some storms in life I thought I would never have to handle. And while a lot of times I felt alone, starved of love and friends and family, I never felt completely alone. I have conquered and feel stronger and more capable than I have in the past. There is something about being able to know who you are and discovering the enormous amount of personal strength that each of us has but is usually undiscovered for a time.

Tonight I want to bear my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There has been one constant thing in my life and that is my testimony that the restored church is true. I have never been able to deny it. The feelings and spirit I have experienced are too strong and some miracles I have seen, even just simple ones every day tell me that these things are true. There is so much love and strength in the gospel. I have a testimony of the prophet and apostles and of the words they say. I am grateful for family, and believe that they are some of our best friends and supporters and are here to teach us great lessons. I am thankful for forgiveness, and that I have learned in my life that no matter what we can do or say, someone still loves us and thinks we are precious to Him. I am blessed to be able to know how strong prayer is and that God has answered my prayers directly and indirectly. There have been times I have not known the next step and I have been shown the way. Mostly, I am thankful for all I have been given and that I still have opportunities to learn and grow.

I am thankful for the people, friends and family, in my life who have stepped up to reach out their hand to me and walk with me through some hard stuff, even when I have a short temper or withdraw.  Sorry for not doing the same back. I will always be grateful for those open minded, non judgmental people who have opened their hearts to me. Thanks for loving and serving me.

The Church is true! Hopefully I will get around to more blogging and updates soon. Goodnight.

Happiness right now

Recently, there's been a lot of stretching and growing going on in my life. I've felt extremely grateful for the last couple months because despite the things that I can't fix on my own, I've begun a new quest back to who I really am and what contributes happiness and love to my life. I am grateful for those things in my life that bring peace and clarity, joy and gratitude. Its those things that are the most important and worth every ounce of energy I put in to make my life what I want it to be.



I am an RN and have been working as one since 2011. I have been extremely blessed to have the job that I have, cause its awesome. Part of what I do is work with kids with disabilities/special needs with Jordan School District. Its been the highlight of my life the last couple months to be surrounded by angels(most days)! Its been an up and down job with highlights but really hard days too. It requires sooooo much patience to work with these kids, and I've realized how much patience I actually have, and actually don't have at times. Overall, I help kids with severe seizure disorders, autism, downs syndrome kids, ADHD, diabetes and anything else that comes up in the scheme of it. Its not a typical RN job, and definitely not the job I was picturing myself doing. Which is why I am so lucky to have it...it came into my life at the perfect time, in the perfect way, and has been a perfect fit. I am surprised I haven't blogged about it, well blogged about anything since November, but it really has been a touch and go few months. Valentine's was probably one of the best Valentine's I have ever had. I got showered with the cutest little gifts and treats. The love from these guys is the greatest, and I feel like their parents really are lucky to have them... I love being a nurse and feel grateful and lucky everyday that I get to do something that I love. I hope everyone finds what they love and gets the chance to do it, cause its so worth it.

 

There are lots of things that have finally fallen into place recently as well. Its interesting how some things can fall apart yet fall into place at the same time. I've been glad with the changes however. Back in October, I decided I wanted to sell my dear Saturn...After driving it for 9 years, I felt it was time. I told myself when I get my full time nursing job this would be my reward, yet a little overdue. This is one of the things I've learned over the last few months. I have been such an impatient person, wanting and wanting the things I don't have instead of realizing the things I do have are making me truly happy in the long run. My Saturn was my 18th surprise b-day present from my dad, it got me through the rest of high school, up and down from BYU, and through my graduation from the U of U. Saved me TONS of money, my Dad always said it would, but I never really thought it. I almost bought two cars in this time but they never played out. The great story of this Saturn is that I said I wanted to drive it til it died, once I realized how useful it was. Well, it came down to the wire and I finally listed it on KSL, and was offered the price it was listed for so I decided to sell it. The night before it was going to be picked up, it died...in the drive through of Taco Time. hahaha... It wasn't funny at the moment, I totally cried, and the workers had to come push me out to a parking space. The alternator totally died. So $300 later, I sold my car.

 

For the most part, its run amazing and I sold it in excellent condition. I'm excited to take just as good care of the new...Mazda as well :) I'm loving it...

A few weeks ago, the girls in my fam took a MUCH deserved get away to St George. It was so amazing...I loved it so much. It wasn't just the company or the destination, but the sunlight and warmth of everything.

 I love this little guy sooo much! More posts to come...

I love Fall time...

My favorite time of the year has quickly, IS quickly passing. Fall will always be my favorite time of year, it just has a warm place in my heart and gives me an amazing feeling. I LOVE fall colors, the warmth and sunshine, the way the sun sets, the family gatherings and Birthdays, and fun fall traditions.

For our Anniversary, I got Rascal Flatts tickets. Joshua and I both love them, me a little more and had so much fun on our special date the week after our actual anniversary. We got Cafe Rio before then headed out to Usana. I loved it because I hadn't been to a concert in forever, and I felt like I was single again going out on a hot date...SO fun :)

My Bff Trisha won VIP backstage! She brought me this signed treasure! AWESOME!!!
Okay... it's not completely real, but it's still from them!

We were twins, ha ha....Such a fun night! And Sara Evans rocked it along with the Flatts...

A few weeks later, I was able to go to another one of my absolutely favorite Christian bands,
MERCY ME... love them.



Probably one of the best concerts I have EVER been to...Sound, lyrics, audience = amazing





Went with Cumorah, Andrew, Mom and Jolene



Continuing on...

Did I mention that I had an AWESOME Birthday this year!??
It was amazing thanks to some great friends and family...I have to say the best part was traveling to California with my bestie Niccole. She is amazing and we took a very spontaneous trip due to our free flight passes! All I can say is I LOVE DISNEYLAND! I will make a whole other post in the next couple days just about our trip...

Besides celebrating with Mickey, I also celebrated at the Pizza Factory...Guess how old I turned??



Yep...27! Wow...
Lately I have been getting "are you 19?" at least twice a week at work so this Birthday didn't make me feel too bad :) Although I don't know if that question is good or bad!



Nieces...LOVE LOVE LOVE. They make my day!





Nephew...LUUUUUV. We have so much fun together :)





Grandma Anna May...





Grandma Elaine...



Whew! Happy Birthday to me, I LOVE Birthdays!!!
Thanks for making it so great everyone!!!

Two Awesome Trips in Two Weekends

Josh and I went to Cedar to visit our friends Linds and Kris. Believe it or not, we flew...

In this...!



It was a 40 minute flight, and besides some bumps it was a pretty sweet ride, thank you Delta!



The first day we were there we went shooting with Linds while Kris was working....

Lindsey is hard core, and has her very own little collection, it was awesome...

I snapped this pic right when Josh hit the black bucket...Its just falling over.

If I remembered the names of the guns I would put them, but they were way fun.

I have the worst shooting form ugh...I work on it every time though :)

Our beautiful background

Sweet pic of these two shooting

We decided to go on a hike our second day...

Awesome bridge/waterfall we had to climb up

Beautiful! Little did we know it was literally a hike IN the river bed cause the water was so high, we were drenched. But it didn't matter cause at the top was this...

A waterslide!
(Kris)

Me...

Josh...

Our treasures we found on the way, two rocks and a stick.

We also celebrated our anniversary the next weekend. We went to dinner and then stayed at a hotel in Park City...It was sweet.

Dinner at The Roof. It was my first time and was great...

Our view from our table

We spent the next day in PC, went to breakfast, shopping at outlets and then walked around a little...

I secretly love kissing pictures, Josh doesn't :) So I made him do it...

We had a great time...!