Laughter!

The final post of my week of gratitude! I have to say this has been a very good experience for me. I have taken time each day to reflect on things that I am thankful for. I wish I could write everything that I am thankful for, but the truth is that there just wouldn't be enough space. I am so blessed and cannot express enough gratitude to my Father in Heaven for everything that he has blessed me with! I am one lucky girl!! I have everything I could have ever asked for, and so much more!

Laughter..such a simple thing, but today I am extremely grateful for it. Laughter is one of my most favorite things. I love to laugh, make others laugh, and hear the sound of laughter. Laughter is something that I think we all to often take for granted. We get to caught up in our busy lives to take the time to relax, have fun, and laugh. Laughter is healthy, and fun! I am so very thankful for all the times that I have spent rolling on the floor, in tears because I have been laughing so hard. Laughter has gotten me through some of the toughest times in my life. When I learn to laugh about what I am going through, and finding something to make me laugh, things seem to go so much smoother. The sound of laughter brings a smile to my face, and it is contagious. When I hear others laugh it makes me want to laugh. I will admit, if someone around me just starts laughing a lot of times I do to. I know this sounds weird, but I do. A couple of people I work with will try to get me to laugh by doing nothing at all, the will just randomly start laughing or something stupid, because they know they can get me to laugh. I am so thankful for laughter. For the chance every single day I have to laugh at myself, and to help find the positive happy things in life. :)

So in conclusion of this week of gratitude I have learned a lot but to sum it up i will use a quote!

LIVE!!! LAUGH!!! LOVE!!! (and of course appreciate everything you have been given!)

To My AMAZING Friends!

I was so tired yesterday that I didn't write my gratitude blog.. so here is yesterday's, and today's will come later. :)

I am extremely grateful for my friends. I truly have the most AMAZING friends, and yesterday was proof of it. I had kind of a rough day yesterday. I wasn't in the best mood at first, and I was struggling to stay positive. BUT my day got better and better as the day went on. I have to give credit for this to my friends. They are the best! They know just what to say and do to cheer me up, to reassure me, and to help me through things that are tough. They are always right there to pick me up when i am down, to make me smile when I frown, and to help me stay positive about any and every situation. My friends give good advice, just listen when I need to cry, and make me laugh when I don't feel like it. I don't know what I did to deserve such good friends, but whatever it is I am so thankful for them. One of my favorite quotes is "A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten how it goes." My friends have done just that for me in the last few months. There have been so many times when I have forgotten how my song goes, and my friends have been right there to remind me. They know me, yet love me anyways. They really are the best friends. I have been very blessed through out my whole life to have amazing friends. Friends I will never forget, even after our lives went separate ways. They have left a mark that will never go away!!

So to all my AMAZING friends. You know who you are! Thank you and I love you!

Sleep!

Because of my lack of sleep this week, and adjusting to my new schedule, I am very grateful for sleep! It is Wednesday night, and I have already started to drag. It's only been 3 days of this schedule, and I am dead tired! But it sure makes me appreciate the sleep I do get so much more! I take all the sleep I can get now. I love every minute of sleep I can get!! Not that I didn't before, but even more so now!!! I hope that my body adjusts to this new change, so that I am not as tired all the time. But nonetheless, I love my sleep, no matter how long I sleep I am grateful for every minute of it!

And since I love my sleep so much, I am gonna cut my blogging time short so that I can go to bed! :)

School. Yes, I am thankful for it!

So, like I said in yesterday's post, I started back to school this week, and so far I am loving it! Yes, I have only attended my classes on time, but I can already tell that I am going to enjoy them! I am excited because I know that there is a lot to learn! I love learning, and I am so thankful for the chance I have to go back to school, and to get a college education. After being out of high school for two years, and saving my money for school, it feels so good to finally be doing what I have been planning. I could have gone to school right out of high school, I would be knee deep in student loans, but I could have gone. But because I waited two years, and worked hard and saved the money, and it means so much more to me now. I appreciate the opportunity I have to go to school , and that I was able to save the money myself. I will work harder, and do better because I know how much effort it took for me to get to the place where I could pay for school. No it hasn't been easy to save the money, and no this semester probably won't be easy, but it will be so worth it. I am so grateful that I could go to school. My professors are great, and the classes fun! I will learn a lot this semester, not just about the subjects I am studying but about life in general, I can already tell. I forgot how much I love to learn, and study, and broaden my knowledge. I have missed being able to spend time each day learning new things! And now that I have gone back, I want to learn more! I am so grateful for the chance I have to attend college, and to have done it myself!

Gratitude: Mornings!

For those of you that know me well, this post may surprise you a little bit, because you know how much I am NOT a fan of mornings! I am a total night owl, and would much rather stay up late than get up early. However since I am now in school I have to have an earlier schedule. As today got closer and closer, I was dreading waking up early, more and more. I did not like the idea of having to be out of bed by about 6 or 630 every morning. It still doesn't sound too fun to me, but today I realized that I have been missing out on soo much. Before today, most of the time I didn't have anywhere to be before 11 when I had to be to work. So most of the time I would get out of bed between 8:30 and 9:30, leaving me just enough time to get ready, and be to work on time. I never had time to get anything done before I went to work, and a lot of the time I wasn't in the best mood. And so it surprised me today, when I woke up (hours before I normally would) and realized how much I was missing out on. I saw the sunrise over the mountains for almost the first time since I graduated high school (two years ago), I ate breakfast (another rarity for me), and I was able to get my room clean, all before I went to work at noon. I know to some of you this may seem funny that I have such a hard time, and that this morning thing is new to me, and my mom is probably saying something like "I have been telling you this for years now!" haha but I can now say that I am thankful for mornings, for the happy, cheerful feeling there is in the air as everything begins to wake from sleep. I loved watching the sunrise this morning and seeing everything come to life, seeing kids leaving for their first day of school, and to be honest, just experiencing morning. I forgot how amazing it is to see the sunrise, to hear birds chirping, and to feel the crisp morning air. It is all very refreshing! I am very grateful that I was blessed with a positive experience on my first morning of my new schedule. It makes me more excited to see what else I have missed out on while I am sound asleep in my bed.

I know this may seem like something small, but to me it was one of the coolest things to experience. It opened my eyes to the beauty and glory of God's creations, and today I am grateful for mornings!

Gratitude: The Savior, The Atonement, and The Gospel

Today as everyday, I am grateful for the Savior, and his Atoning sacrifice. I am so very grateful that my Savior loved us all enough that He gave his life so that we could all return and live with our Father in Heaven again. I am very grateful that through the Atonement I can repent and become clean again. And that even though I make mistakes everyday of my life, I can repent and start again. The Atonement is amazing, and I have gained a greater appreciation and knowledge of it in the last few months! I have a deeper love for my Savior, and have become closer to Him, through the Atonement! I am so grateful for the knowledge that no matter what I do, if I repent, turn to the Savior, and give it my all than I can be forgiven. I am very grateful that I was born into a family that is a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To have grown up in a home where the gospel is the center. To be an active member now, and to be able to recieve the blessings which come with that! I am so very thankful for the Gospel, it has made me who I am today. Without it in my life I would be lost a hopeless. But I am not! And for that I could not be more grateful!

Gratitude! Today it's family!

I have decided that I need to be more grateful for everything I have. So everyday for the next week I am going to post something I am thankful for. Starting today!

Today I am grateful for my family. I have the BEST family on the planet earth! They have been there for me through everything! No matter what they have always been by my side! I have amazing parents who have sacrificed so much to get me to where I am today. They have given me everything I could ever ask for, the gospel, a loving family, and a place where I can come home to. My parents truly are my heroes. They mean so much to me. More than I ever can or do express to them! I owe them my life. I have 3 amazing brothers, Justin, Josh, and Wyatt, who I can always count on to be there for me, tease me, and to cheer me up when I am sad! These boys are studs, and I am so lucky to have them as brothers. I look up to these boys(figuratively and literally), they are such good examples to me of how life should be lived! Next is my little sister, Courtney! She is my favorite sister, and my only sister! I am so blessed to have a little sister like her! I don't know what I would do without her! She is such a strong young women already and she is 13. She is way stronger than I was at her age!! She is the cutest, spunkiest, full-of-life, girl I have ever met! I am so grateful that the Lord blessed me with a sister. My family means the world to me, and I dont know what I would do, or who I would be without them, and I never want to find out! I have 6 best friends that I can count on to be there for me now matter what happens with anyone else!! I love them so very much! I haven't always been the best daughter, or sister, but I am trying. These 6 people mean the world to me, and I am so lucky to have them in my life!

Plans change.. and that is okay!

So as I have reflected on my life, and the plans I have made, and am currently making, I realized that plans change... A LOT!! I used to think that once I made a plan for my life, that it had to stay that way, that it was set in stone. I quickly realized that is not the case. Our lives are susceptible to change, and that it's not a bad thing. That sometimes we may think we know what we should be doing, when in reality, we have no clue!

Let me start of with an example from my own life... I graduated high school two years ago. When I graduated, I had my life planned out. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and where I wanted my life to go, and I was ready to start living that life, but things changed, and as things changed, so did my plans. And here I am today nowhere near where I thought I would be. Two years ago I was planning on moving to Utah State, majoring in Dental Hygiene, I was going to get a part time job as a dental assistant to work my way through school, and I was going to make tons of new friends. Well if you know me today, I am still living at home, starting college(two years later), working part time for Zions Bank, and I have my small but close group of friends. If you look at my life from an outside point of view, you might say wow! She is nowhere near the person she wanted to be. But let me tell you from an insider's point of view I am so much closer to the person I want to be! Did I think my life would be where it is today? No I sure didn't, but I can tell you, that I am so glad, it is where it is!! Like I said, the life I had planned probably would have been a great one, but I wouldn't have gone through the things I have. I wouldn't have the amazing friends I have, I wouldn't have a job that I LOVE like I do now, I wouldn't have as close relationships with my family. And I wouldn't be the person I am today. So, even though at times I look at my life and think I am so far from where I should be, I wouldn't change a thing! I love the fact that things happened the way they did. I love the person I am, and the person I am becoming.

When I graduated high school, I thought that planning away every detail of my life was necessary. I thought that if I didn't plan my life, than I would be a failure, that I would never be able to succeed. But I was wrong. Yes, plans are good, and we need goals to work towards, but is it necessary to plan every detail of our lives? NO! It definately isn't. Is it bad, that as we start pursue our goals that our plans change? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Our plans will probably change millions of times through out this life. As we learn and grow, we see what is best for us. I look back at who I was two years ago, and who I would have become (if I would have stuck to my plans), and even though that life would have been a great one, I look at who I am today, and where my life is headed now, and I am so grateful that my life took the turn it did. That I chose to do the things I did. Because if I hadn't, I would not be the person I am today. The things that I have been through, and the lessons I have learned are priceless to me. They are things that I will cherish forever! They are things that I learned, as I discovered how to adapt to change, and how to make my plans fit with what I need to be doing in my life.

So, to sum it all up...Plan your life, make goals, have something to work towards, BUT don't be so set in your plans that when opprotunities tcome up that you can take them, or at least consider them. Because as we learn and grow in this life, we recieve information that can change our direction, and plans. As we gain that knowledge, other opprotunities may come about that will be better for us that we never had even thought of. So when plans change, embrace them! Take the change and let it better your life! Plans change, and that is okay!

Life's lessons

In the last week, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my life. Where it's been, where it is, and where it is headed. And I can honestly say, that even though I have had my ups and downs, and have struggled more so than I ever have, I LOVE MY LIFE!!! I have learned so much in the last little while. Things about myself, life, and love. It's amazing to me how much I still have to learn, it's like the older I get the more I have to learn. Life has so much to teach us, if we only open ourselves up to it! Learning opportunities are everywhere, watch for them, you never know what you might learn!!

So I decided that since I am learning a lot about life right now I would share some of the things I am learning, so here we go!

1. It may be stormy now, but the rain won't forever!
In other words, when things get tough, keep pushing through, it made be hard now, but trials don't last forever! There is always sun after the rain. Be patient, have faith, and keep pushing through. Things will work out. "Everything will be okay in the end, if its not okay, its not the end."

2. When life gives you 100 reasons to cry, show life 1.000 reasons to SMILE!
Smile, smile, smile!!!! It makes life a lot easier. Life will get rough, but if you can keep a smile through it all, your experience will be so much different. There is so much to smile about! Thousands of reasons everyday, find those reasons!

3. Sometimes good things fall a part, so better things can fall together.
Just because something is good, doesn't mean it's the best. You never know what is in store. Something may seem like it's a good thing now, but who knows what better things are ahead. Good things will fall apart, but better things will come to be.

4. You will never be old and wise, if you aren't Young and CrAzY!
We learn from our mistakes. We take what we learn now, and incorporate it into our lives. Yes we keep learning our entire lives, BUT now is a time of huge growth. We have a lot of decisions to make, and as we try different things, we take what works and what doesn't, and that is what makes us in to mature adults! This is our time to be young and crazy, and to learn along the way! Live it up!

5. Never fear an unknown future with a known God.
Have faith, be strong! Our Father in Heaven will lead and guide us! We have no reason to fear the future when we have a guide like Him. The future is bright, and although it maybe new, or unknown, we have NOTHING to fear!

6. You don't just stop loving someone, either you never did or always will.
Love is one of those things that will be engraved in you forever! When you have emotion like that it isn't easily erased. But, just because you love someone, doesn't mean it is meant to be. You can love lots of different people in lots of different ways! Nut true love lasts forever, it never fades, even with time!

7. In a world where you can be anything... BE YOURSELF!!!
In today's world people too often get lost in trying to become someone they aren't. People are too busy trying to gain the respect and love of others they often miss the key to it all. If you want people to like YOU, than be YOU, don't try and be someone else. People will love you for who you are, and if they don't then they are the ones missing out!

These are just a few of the things that I have learned. It's been rough, but as you can see I have learned a lot. As I continue on my journey I will continue to share the many lessons that come my way!!

Heart or Head!?

So tricky question. When trying to make a decision, do you listen to your heart or your head? I am at a point right now where I am beyond confusion. My heart is telling me one thing, and my head another. So which one do you follow? These two very contradicting concepts.

On many occasions, I have sought advice from family and friends. I have received both of these as answers at different times. People have said to me "Think things out, use your head, and everything will workout." Then at other times they say "follow your heart, it will tell you what you need to do." These pieces of advice came at different times, with different situations. So at the time it was easy for me to decide what to do. I would be logical and think things out, and they would seem to work out just fine, other times I would follow my heart, and once again things were good! Both of the concepts have proven effective in the past. But here is the kicker.... this time around I have no clue what to do! Some people have told me to "think it out," others to "follow my heart." SO what do you do when your heart and your head don't agree? When your heart is telling you one thing, and your head the complete opposite. Those concepts don't really apply. How do you know which one to follow? Which one outweighs the other. I wish it were as simple as rock, paper, scissors. Rock beats scissor, scissors beat paper, and paper beats rock. It's that simple, everyone knows the rules. So what are the rules of life, and love, and choices? Are there any? Does heart beat head, or does head beat heart? or do they work together? This situation would be so different if my heart and head agreed, if they were telling me the same thing. BUT that is the problem, I know exactly what my head is telling me, and exactly what my heart is telling me, and they are completely opposite!! I wish they could just agree, together they would make a great team, emotion and logic. But of course that would be the easy road.

So all you wise ones out there, help me out! What do I do? Do I follow my heart, or do I listen to my head? Do I let my feelings and emotions guide, or do I logically think things out, or how do I get them to agree, and find a balance between them both. Help me!!

Operation SMILE!!!

Today I came up with something that I am going to implement into my everyday life from this point on. I call it operation SMILE. My goal is to make people smile. I love seeing people smile and hearing them laugh. It makes me happy when I see others who are happy, it's contagious! So my goal is to get 5 people a day to smile! Whether it be myself, a family member, a co-worker, a client, or a complete stranger, I want to see them smile. I have a few ideas of how I am going to do this, but I can't wait to come up with more as I go along. I will keep you updated on how it is going, and hopefully will have some stories to tell too! :)

So, along with operation SMILE, I also decided that I am going to try and be more positive in every aspect of my life! I have really been struggling lately with staying positive, and seeing the good in my situations, life in general, and in others. So I am going to try and see the best in everything, and everyone. I want look for the best in every situation! I want to be happy, and positive, and lively! Life is just too short! We don't have enough time to sit and pout, and complain, and wish things were better. The time is now to make everything happen! We never know when our last day will be. If we are too busy wishing our lives were better, we miss out on so much!! We are only given so much time, so why not make the best of it! Good things come from even the worst situations. So my goal is to find them!! I am sick of feeling like I am not happy, and that I will be happy after certain things happen. I want to be happy NOW! and I can be, we all can! It's just a matter of choice. So let's choose to be happy, to see the best in everything, and everyone, and let's smile lots and lots!!! After all life is too short to be anything but happy!!!!