Little moments

I went home this weekend for Mother's Day. I wasn't planning on it since we have all kinds of weddings and family things coming up requiring lots of travel and assuring I'll see my family, but when my dad called and asked me to come, I couldn't say no. I got a couple passengers from the BYU ride board and headed home.
The weekend was nice, mom was surprised, but one of my favorite moments of the whole weekend was when I made my dad read me a story. I was just sitting in the office doing nothing. He came in and was bothering me, because that's what he does best, so I handed him a book and told him to read it to me. He told me there weren't enough pictures, so I grabbed "The magic pumpkin" and handed it to him.
He stood there and read it to me and it was just a lovely little moment.

Look Up

This gem of a video is going around facebook right now. I love that it came out at about the same time as Elder Ballard's CES devotional which you can watch here.

How much of life are we missing out on because we are hooked into our electronic devices? What people are crying out for our love, attention and help? What beautiful moments are we missing because we're watching the latest clip of ___________ (fill in the blank) on youtube?

I hope I can take a good inventory of my life and how I spend my time and make the necessary changes to actually be present in my own life. To see the beauty and blessings surrounding me and the wonderful people all around me just waiting for me to love them.

Last day of freedom

I'm super ticked this got deleted. Here goes round 2. If this one gets deleted, I'm taking it as a sign that I shouldn't do this.

My friend Kari has convinced me to give the whole30 challenge a try. Basically I cut out all food. But seriously here is what I can't eat.

• Do not consume added sugar, real or artificial.
• Do not eat grains. This includes pseudo grains like quinoa. 
• Do not eat legumes. What the heck!? I thought those were good for you.
• Do not eat dairy. With the exception of something I've never even heard of. Ghee anyone?
• Do not eat white potatoes. Really?! I'm from IDAHO!! smh
• Do not consume alcohol in any form. Finally an easy one.  
• Do not consume carrageenan. I don't know what that is, but spell check is telling me it's misspelled the replacement word for it is carnage. I think I'll avoid that one. No MSG or sulfites.
• No Paleo-fying baked goods, dessert and junk food. 

Basically the next 30 days will be filled with vegetables, fruits, meats, a lot of label reading and creativity. I've done no sweets for a month. No meat for a month. We'll see how I do with this ^^ awesome monstrosity. At least this time I'm not doing it by myself.

Tonight Kari and I are menu planning and grocery shopping and having our last non whole30 friendly meal. Hot dogs on the grill and Rita's for dessert.

I'll blog about it here and blow up instagram with obnoxious hashtags about my weird sauce food. At least facebook will be safe.

Just don't offer me a snickers. I don't think I have that much self control. 

The best calling

I don't know how I got so lucky  and maybe I shouldn't say anything so I don't jinx myself, but I've had the best callings since being in my current ward. First I was the compassionate service leader and then I was called to be the 4th Sunday Relief Society teacher. Relief Society teacher is great, but 4th Sunday is the best. It's an even better calling in my ward because our relief society is just SO fantastic.
I was a little worried yesterday because I felt like I didn't have enough material to fill the whole time since I chose to just focus on one of the assigned talks instead of both of them. I don't know why I even gave it a second thought. Our relief society took this 3 minute video

and shared and discussed back and forth for twenty minutes. It was so fantastic. My only complaint with my calling is that I'm standing in front and can't take notes sitting at a desk. A small price to pay for such a fulfilling calling and the opportunity to learn from so many wonderful, beautiful and inspiring women.

Making memories

This week is BYU graduation and I have two cousins graduating. Since I have the biggest house, the partying happened at my house. It was so fun! Everyone came over for dinner and then we kicked the guys out and had a bridal shower for Emma who is getting married next month! It was a blast having the girls together and being silly. Love my family!!

Because of Him

I love Easter. It's a new thing for me. I usually don't give it an overabundance of thought, but this year I really tried to prepare more for it and it has been very helpful and insightful. Basically it's my new favorite holiday. :)

Today at church the talks in Sacrament Meeting and the lessons in Sunday School and Relief Society were centered around Easter. I wouldn't expect anything less. It gave me more time to reflect on what I've studied this week on the life, atonement and resurrection of the Savior. What a beautiful message of renewal and hope.

I love this beautiful video about the Savior and everything we have and can have because of Him. In Sunday School we were given a few minutes to think about the things in our own lives that we have or will have, "because of Him".
Here are some of my thoughts:
-I will see my brother Brad again.

-My life can be made beautiful day after day, no matter the mistakes of yesterday.
-I can try again. And again. And again.
-I can change.
-I know I am never alone.
-I know my purpose.
-I can have hope in the future.
-I can forgive.
-I can be forgiven.
-I can see the value of every person
-I can do hard things
-My family is eternal
-My heart can be healed
-I have someone who understands me perfectly

In a talk by Elder Maxwell, I loved this line "How merciful when our yesterdays no longer hold our tomorrows hostage!"

What a beautiful gift He has given us. We are not held hostage by the mistakes and frailties of life. Because of Him we can be free from sin, doubt, loneliness and despair. We can have a perfect brightness of hope and know that He has saved us.

I love Jesus Christ. Happy Easter.
 

"Starting today" I will look harder for ways to share the hope I have in Christ.

I left on a jet plane

In January I decided I needed a vacation. I know I just went on one in October, but one of my  new years resolutions this year was to make it out to visit my lifelong friend Katie in Florida before they move. It needed to happen early in the year since there is no way I'm going there in the summer. Can you say "surface of the sun"? As it was I got fried.

So I booked my flight and got a rental car. I decided that the end of February, beginning of March was going to be the best time to go since it was in between shows at work, before my sister got home in March, and before it really started heating up in Florida.

My lovely roommate Chelsea was kind enough to drive me to the airport at the crack of dawn. Actually it was LONG before the crack of dawn. It was a full day of travel, with a stop in Vegas and a stop in Atlanta before finally making it to Orlando. If I had it to do over again I would definitely fly into Fort Myers, but since I was unsure of my plans when I bought the ticket, Orlando was where it was at. I got in my car and headed to Naples.

Experienced my first toll booth (not as intimidating as it was in my mind) and really made the drive without a hitch. Katie met me at the Fort Myers airport and we headed to her house in Naples. Sadly by the time I got there her kids were already in bed, but I did get to see Brielle for a minute when she got up once because she had a nasty little cough.

Friday morning I got up and went for a run. I was thinking it'd be a breeze since I'd be running at sea level instead of 4500 feet, but no. It was a hard run. Once I stopped to think about it, the fact that I was probably really dehydrated from traveling and had only eaten peanuts and pretzels the day before would hinder a good run. Whatever.

Once Taylynn got home from school we headed to the pool. It was SO beautiful. We played in the pool for a while and it was just so fun to be with my girls. Taylynn had been really shy to me in the morning, but in the pool all that was gone.

That night Katie and I headed to the pier and then over for a river boat ride. The boat ride was really fun.We went cruising around Port Royale and it was ridiculous to hear how much the homes cost. There were two for sale. One was $16 million and the one on the other side of the river had just been reduced for the low low price of $9 million. HOLY BUCKETS! We went out on the Gulf of Mexico to watch the sunset and then turned around and headed back in. On the way in we had dolphins jumping along side our boat! It was SO cool!! I had never seen a dolphin in real life before and it was so fun to have them swimming along with the boat. There was even a baby!

After the boat ride we walked around some cute little shops. Naples Soap Co. was a favorite. Their hand scrub was amazing and I'm really regretting not buying myself some. :/ Then we went down to 5th avenue (Maybe I'm making things up but I think that's what it was called). There were some great shops there as well. We got some Kilwins ice cream and then headed for home. We stopped on the way for some Pei Wei and ended the night with a movie. I don't remember what it was called but it had Liam Hemsworth in it and that's all you really need to know. :)

Saturday morning we were up and getting ready to head to the beach. It took us a while to figure out plans and actually make it there but we had a blast once we did. I had gotten a sunburn the day before from the pool so I made sure to put some sunscreen on. I tried out some paddle boarding which was fun, was made into a mermaid in the sand and got to spend some quality time on the boogie boards with Bri. She is hilarious. She was giving me all kinds of dating advice and what I got out of it is that I really just need to be more romantic.

On the way home from the beach we stopped at Rita's for some Italian Ice. Little did I know that this stop would change my life. Yes, I am being dramatic, but seriously I love it! Then we went home to change our clothes and head to dinner. We were going Floridian and went to Cracklin' Jacks. Marc got a platter of deep fried south. A.K.A. fried frog legs, fried gator and some other fish of some sort. I gave the frog and the gator a try. It wasn't my favorite but I didn't hate it. I went with something safe and got the clam chowder. It was delicious.

Although I had put sunscreen on at the beach it didn't seem to have done any good. I was fried to a toasty little crisp. Aloe was my best friend for the next . . . two weeks. Seriously. It was that bad.

The next morning we headed to the beach for a quick shell hunt and found some pretty good ones. We also got to see a baby sting ray!!

At church my sunburn was a treat. The girls would bump my leg and I would want to scream, but I made it through. After church we grilled some steak and asparagus and it was divine. So so yummy.  I wasted the night away watching some movie awards show and finally headed to bed.

Monday I tried the running thing again, but I think I headed out a little bit late because it was already pretty hot and I'm sure that my sunburn and swollen feet didn't really help anything. Even though I had that nasty sunburn, I wanted to go to the pool again, so we did. I was looking a little pale from the sunscreen that was smeared on really thick. No chances here. Monday night we  . . . ate some dinner and . . . I don't really remember. But after the kids went to bed, Katie and I headed to Rita's. My last hurrah in Florida.

Tuesday morning we packed my stuff and all the kids in the car, dropped the kids at school and headed to the airport. It was an uneventful drive back to Orlando and another long flight home, with stops in Jackson and Chicago. The home teachers picked me up from the airport and then it was time to crash.

It was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad I got to go and visit Katie and her family. I love them all so much!