Happy New Year

Well i have had some grand plans for my blog posts, but I don't have the pictures and a blog just isn't the same without pictures. Darn it!!! Well I guess I will just say Christmas was FANTASTIC. I was sick almost the whole time I was home and for even a few days after I got home. But I wouldn't have traded the time with my family for ANYTHING. It was awesome. I miss them all terribly now and can't wait to see them again.
New years was great. I was sick, so I didn't party as much as I had planned but it was still good. Its nice to have a new year to do new things...or to think about doing new things.

I will post more again later. Just didn't want anyone to think I wasn't ever going to blog again. :)

Black Friday

Well I did it. I got up at 4 am with my sister to do the Black Friday shopping. I haven't done it in YEARS and my sister and I had a plan. It turned out well. There was only one time that we were outside for more then 15 min. (We were outside for 2.5 hrs) YIKES. THAT was an experience. We were waiting to go in for a bargain deal for an IPOD. We sure did get it, and I think it must have been worth it for the person receiving the gift will absolutely know how long we waited for it. :) All in all it was a great time. No one where we were got maimed...although it was getting close towards the end of it all.


The lines were long...amazingly long for a store that didn't open until 8, there were people there before 5 am (so that is what they said.) And were werent too far behind them. But the line kept growing..the Ipod was a FANTASTIC deal.

I got all of my families gifts so now I don't have to bring them with me when I come home for Christmas. Yay! However I don't know that I will do it again. I think I got like 3 hrs of sleep the night before, and when you are visiting family there isn't a lot of time for a nap.

Happy Thanksgiving....

I wanted to share some of the things I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving day. I was originally going to use all the letters in Thanksgiving to stand for the things I am thankful for, but instead I am just going to do a list of some of the things I am thankful for. (In no particular order)

1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to have the knowledge and testimony of the great love of our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. It blesses my life every day in every way. Thank you missionaries, leaders, and others for teaching me so I can have real meaning to my life.

2. My Family! I have an amazing family that I love beyond words, and I am going to tell some of the things that are so amazing about them....don't worry I have a small family. :)
A) My mom- what an amazing strong and selfless person. She gave everything to raise us. She taught us important principals and fought for us to have the things we needed. Gentle in so many ways but a lion if you crossed her or the ones she loves. Such a strength and I know she doesn't really see it.
B) Tammmy- my eldest sister. She is the eldest daughter in every sense. She took care of us when needed, she is the one who always seems in control and so strong. She is one of my best friends, as well as an amazing sister.
C) Pam- the "middle" child. :) Pam never gives up. She gets knocked down and she comes up swinging. She has been through so much, and when most people would stay down not her she will get right back up, and she is also humble enough to ask for some help when her strength is all gone. What an example.
D) Little Rae Rae- my favorite niece, except she isn't so little anymore. The girl is almost as tall as me. She has the kindest disposition. I am marveled at her. For a kid her age she is practically perfect in every way. What a gem. I am grateful she was placed into our family.
Welp that's us girls. What an amazing group of ladies. I am blessed to have them all.

3. Friends- My friends have SO many great qualities, and since you see how long it took to list the qualities of my family if I did it with my friends, my family would probably not be so grateful since it would probably take all day. :) I am so grateful to you my friends. And I want you to know that my standards are pretty high so you MUST be amazing for me to associate with you. Thank you for your examples and your lessons I have learned. Even if I don't talk to you very much or see you, I promise you have made a HUGE difference in my life and I am SO THANKFUL that I know you.

4. My home. My home is two fold. I am from Nevada, and just like the song goes...."home means Nevada home means the hills, home means the sage and the pine....Ok that's enough. I love were I am from the "roots" of my life, the people and placed that helped to make me who I am today. Now I also call Utah home. It has been a great experience for me to live in Utah. Some of my greatest lessons have been learned by living there. And frankly so many lives have touched me that I might have never known.

5. My Job- Not only because I have a job, but because it is a Fantastic job. It amazes me how we take a small step in one direction and it can change the course of our lives. I LOVE the people I work with. They amaze me every single day. I get to see miracles and blessings so much more by working at Rise. I am so glad that I talked to Karen about doing something that was so out of my norm that it became the most normal thing for me to do.

Thanks to all of you who managed to read all of this. I feel so blessed and am glad to share it with others. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and that you are happy, healthy and with those that you love.

Love ya!

Going Home....

Tomorrow I get to go home for the Thanksgiving holiday. I am so excited. I feel like I don't get to see my family enough. But I know I am blessed to see them the few times a year I visit. I wish it was a 1 hour drive instead of a 1 hour flight. I would see them every week, or maybe even more.

Usually for Thanksgiving we have a ton of people who come over for dinner. But this year its just going to be us girls. I am excited about it because it takes a lot of the stress off, but I am sad because even though I tend to like smaller groups I LOVE all the people who normally come over. I think it partly has to do with the feeding them and them loving the food. I love to please people. :)

WE are actually going to even get up and do the whole "Black Friday" thing. That will be so....well tiring lets be honest. But we haven't done it since I moved away so it will be fun too.

So I hope everyone gets to spend time with the people they love for Thanksgiving. Because that is something to be thankful for.

Memories

I copied this from Mindy's blog. And you all should respond. :)

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember as long as it's nice;)!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.Come and play!

One Hundred Things about ME

OK so a few of my friends have done this so I followed the crowd and did it. I am trying to post more often, but after this you all may not want to read anything new for a while. YES!!! :) It was hard to not repeat myself...maybe I did, you can check.

1. I grew up in Sparks Nevada
2. I was born in the front seat of the car in the parking lot of the hospital...I'm not very patient. :)
3. When I was 5 I had a puppy named cookie...so stinking cute!
4. My parents were separated by the time I was 6 months old, divorced at 10 months old
5. I am the youngest of three
6. My mom had all girls
7. I have been to Spain and France.
8. I work with people who amaze me every day.
9. My youngest kid at my work is 10, the oldest is 80. (these are the ones I make sure are taken care of)
10. I have lived in 3 different states.
11. I have visited 12 states (not including ones I have stopped in at airports)
12. I hardly ever wear make-up.
13. I have had over 20 roommates in my life (including the mission)
14. I have lived in Sandy for 6 years.
15. I once swore I would never move to Utah.
16. I was taught by missionaries.
17. I love musicals
18. I love old movies
19. I have one beautiful Niece.
20. Since I have lived in Utah I have had 8 different jobs...or more....
21. I hate conflict
22. I don't watch scary movies
23. I sometimes have very scary dreams.
24. I have stopped breathing in my sleep a few times.
25. I have an amazing family.
26. I love to read.
27. I love listening to music.
28. I am the type of person that needs to feel needed. I tend to feel sad if no one needs me.
29. I try to be optimistic.
30. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
31. I served a mission in New Jersey
32. I am thinking about getting another second job.
33. I cry at anything sentimental, or if someone I care about is hurting...even if it isn't for or about me.
34. I love to cook and bake.
35. I love when my house is clean.
36. My biggest fear is dying with no one knowing or caring.
37. I have lived in my condo for almost 3 years.
38. I have had AMAZING roommates.
39. I have always wanted to get married in the fall.
40. I often allow others actions, or words affect me more then they should.
41. I have had my heart really broken 2 times.
42. I sometimes wonder if someone will really love me for me, and if I will love him back.
43. I have some of the most amazing friends ever.
44. My father died of a heart attack about 4 years ago.
45. I am not the best at the blog thing.
46. I used to be afraid of all men...now I am only afraid of a few. :)
47. I am a loyal person
48. I know God loves me
49. I know some day everything will be better
50. I love going to visit my family.
51. I wonder if I will ever live in Nevada again.
52. Sometimes I want to move FAR away where I don't know anyone, just to see if I can do it.
53. I want to go to Ireland some day.
54. I want to visit every state in the nation.
55. I now as an adult realize all my mom did for us girls. She is like a super hero.
56. I look up to my oldest sister more then I think she realizes.
57. I love Ace of Cakes
58. I love John and Kate plus 8.
59. Other then those shows I don't really watch T.V.
60. I love church. I love the feeling and strength it gives me.
61. At one time my family lived in a two bedroom trailer and my mom rented one of the rooms to someone.
62. My family has come a long way since I was a kid.
63. I live with a roommate and a bird.
64. I watched my niece every day when she was a baby
65. I didn't go to college.
66. I grew up in apartments.
67. I didn't get my licence until I was 18.
68. I got my first car when I was 19.
69. I moved out of my moms place when I was 20.
70.I love chocolate chip cookies.
71. I once got caught shop lifting when I was 8 (by a cop) SCARY. I didn't ever do it again.
72. I got baptized when I was almost 10. (so I guess I was 9)
73. I only have one living grandparent. And I don't ever really talk to him.
74. I have never been to Disney Land
75. My dad lived in California for most of my life.
76. My dad moved back to Nevada when I was 18 or 19.
77. Most of my family lives in Nevada. (including extended family)
78. I moved to Utah to live with my sister...she moved back to Sparks after I got here.
79. I have pretty bad allergies.
80. I love dogs...especially little ones.
81. I have been to Disney World
82. When I was little i was in the hospital or seen by a doctor frequently
83. I haven't ever broken a bone
84. I go home for Christmas every year.
85. I am so excited that I am almost done with this list.
86. I took cake decorating classes.
87. I love new recipes.
88. Most people do things that amaze me.
89. I live a pretty simple life...and I like it that way.
90. I don't like drama in my life...but I know sometimes I am the cause of the drama.
91. Some days I think I look REALLY good.
92. I get frustrated with injustice.
93. Sometimes my self esteem is really low.
94. I am so grateful for the people who are in and have been in my life. Love them.
95. I love small gestures. It doesn't take a lot to impress me.
96. I think for the most part most people are trying to be good, or do the right thing.
97. I feel blessed for all I have seen and done in my life.
98. I have been to Mexico...but it was a border city, and not so fun.
99. I really do love my life.
100. I actually finished this list. THAT IS AMAZING.

Family and the 4th

So I don't know if any of you know this, but I pretty much was born into the perfect family. What?? WHY??? HOW??? you ask....well because we are all so NOT perfect.

I LOVE my family, I love our differences, I love our similarities, I love that we all love each other. Its a pretty amazing thing when you think about it. We didn't always do this well together, but as we have gotten older we have gotten better. :)

My family is funny in that we are very much the type that if something bad happened the year before on a holiday or around a holiday its like we have to make it amazing the following year, and we did just that this year.

I went home on Wednesday night late and stayed up to watch a movie with my sister. Then Thursday my niece Narae got to have me all to herself. We watched some Ace of Cakes episodes (a favorite show of mine) And some Jon and Kate plus 8 (my other favorite show). Then the real treat was going to play at Wild Waters, just me and my Rae Rae girl. (Except for the whole swimsuit thing it was great.) And I didn't even get a bad sunburn. (first time for everything) :) We did whatever Narae wanted, it was truly a day for her. I hope she had as much fun as I did. After Wild Waters we went to dinner with the whole family. It was great. We went to Marie Callender's, and had yummy food and even yummier (is that a word??) pie. I love fresh strawberry pie. yum Then we all went to my sisters and hung out, played games etc.

Then it was the 4th. We got up kind of early and went and saw WALL E...I thought it was cute, my mom didn't so much. :) Then we had lunch, hung out, and then a YUMMY BBQ with my favorite macaroni salad...my moms is the BEST! We ate it the whole weekend, lets be honest we just ATE the whole weekend, I think I gained 5 more pounds. Then it was firework time. my mom lives really close to down town sparks so we just went to her place to watch them. They were pretty amazing.

Saturday was more fun....well I mean we still had more fun things to do.....We went miniature golfing early (it got pretty hot) Then we went and had lunch at a YUMMY Mexican restaurant. Then we went to ANOTHER movie, 2 in one weekend...I can't remember the last time I did that. Whew. GOOD Times.

Then Sunday was a nice relaxing day...church etc. All too soon it was Monday morning and I had to leave to come back to Utah and live my normal life.

I just want to thank my family for such an amazing and fun time. They ROCK. I sure do love them...wish Sparks wasn't so far away....

Growing up....

So whenever I make a big purchase or do some home improvement I say I am growing up. So this weekend I did some more growing up.....
I have been needing to upgrade a lot of things in my place. I of course as you all know did my hardwood floors a while ago. My next plan was to update the kitchen. But no I didn't get to do that yet. I instead got to get stuff to upgrade my "guest" bathroom. (Mindy's) So I went to Lowe's and bought a faucet, and a toilet. WHEW HEW. :)
The only problem is that i am a girl and I DO live on the 3rd floor. So we had to bring the toilet up...who you ask brought the toilet up...me and my roommate. It wasn't tooo terribly heavy, but THREE flights of stairs, that wasn't the smartest thing I could have done. Also it was really awkward trying to get it up. I have been scolded by a few of my guy friends already so don't scold me.
Don't worry I am NOT the person who is going to install it, I have paid for professional help. Sometimes it is worth it to spend a little money to make sure you don't have to spend a TON of money to fix the mistakes you make.
So I am growing up....wow sometimes I want to not grow up....but I guess it is for the best.