Forever on my Lap

Just found this picture from 2008

Sally & Gwen

This one's from Thanksgiving 2011.

Sally & Gwen

This makes me extremely happy :)

Always my little dolls.

If only they could forever stay small enough to both fit on my lap.

If it is completely up to me, I'll still let them sit on my lap when they are 16 and I am 31, or when they are 31, and I am 46, you get the picture..

They'd be down with that, right? :)

Ma

I hope I'm whispering "I love you" in this picture because I sure do. This woman is the role model of all role models to me.

Today, I got home from work to an email from her. It was a whole bunch of entries she had typed out from when she was exactly my age in my position. What an incredible and hilarious experience it has been to read through!

Among a million other emotions resulting from reading these, I am currently acting on the "I should journal more" running through my head. Blogging is journaling :) And journaling is amazing!

Her 18-year old, adorable self mentions numerous times how she hopes her journaling will affect her future children and grandchildren for the better and inspire them to draw closer to the Gospel. Here it is, mama, effecting me :)

An Uplifting Website :)

I just found a website that straight up makes me feel good! And it makes me think about life.

http://makesmethink.com/

A taste of a few of my favorites!

-Today, a young teenage boy was in line in front of me at Target. He used a gift card to buy two video games. The cashier, an older woman probably in her late 60’s, rang him up and informed him that he had $12 remaining on his gift card. “Oh, wait then,” he said as he ran two isles over and grabbed a $10 bouquet of flowers. As the cashier added the flowers to his order the boy handed them to her and said, “These are for you.” The cashier could not wipe the smile off her face, even after he left. MMT

-Today, as we were slowing down at a red light, my father scolded me for not having my seat belt on. No more than a second after the clicking sound of me buckling my seat belt, our small car was clipped from behind by a pick-up truck, spinning us 180 degrees in the middle of the street. Because we both had our seat belts on, and the fact that the impact came from behind, my father and I walked away with minor injuries. MMT

-Today, my grandfather used 25 different coupons at the grocery store. Then he gave the money he saved to the bag boy as a tip. He does this almost every Sunday because he says he “likes to see people smile.” MMT

-Today, I have been a firefighter for 24 years. Back in 1992, the local newspapers and news channels called me a hero and interviewed me a few times after I carried 19 retirees, one at a time, out of a burning luxury retirement condo. I was off-duty at the time and just happened to be visiting my grandmother who lived across the street. This evening I was contacted by a trust attorney representing one of the retirees who I helped that day. She passed away yesterday, and in her will she left me 25% of her estate – roughly $800,000. MMT

My Future Love

NO I do not plan on getting married anytime soon.
But YES i like to dream about the future :)
I hope it's something like this..



And YES maybe I'll actually blog update my life sometime soon. This amazing video can suffice for now.

Crayola Doesn't Make A Color For Your Eyes

This song is my obsession today. I heard it for the first time, and have listened at least 25 times. I think it's the cutest. And I shall give the credit to the one and only..

Alex Crandall.

I really don't know what we're doing in this picture but yes, i do love her enough to be kneeling at her feet after an ice cream war.

Anyway, Alex is amazing. She has great taste in music. And here is the joyful song :)

Weekends Are Happy

I went to the spring musical Camelot and saw some of my very best friends play the lead roles!! The play was wonderful, and every single actor and actress exceeded my expectations!

Guinevere: Jessica

Jessica, Caroline, Joey, Me, Adam (King Arthur), Becca

Cali and Jessica in front.

Then we died eggs at Haylee's! I wish my camera had a picture of us all but these ones are just mine and Leah's. :)

I can really count on Leah to love Spring with me. She came over on Sunday so we could make cute spring cookies too! They had toasted coconut and peanut M&M's to look like bird's nests :)

Sally & Gwen

My little dolls are cute. I hope they are best cousins friends forever <3

Memory Lane

One time my gorgeous cousin, Emily got married!

I just really love this picture. Us four on the right used to be inseparable. Emily was the leader because she was oldest. So she got to choose which polly, or barbie, or beanie baby she wanted first. Also, she was the president of our club in their tree. Then she grew up and now she's married! I'm happy we are all related by blood because I really love us and want us all to be friends forever :)

Conference quote of the day:

"Apparently the gospel is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" -Jeffrey R. Holland

That reminds me of earlier this school year when I was talking to my stake president. I confessed that I felt like I was just going through good motions, but I felt stagnant in the gospel. And it made me feel uncomfortable. He told me it was because the Lord was calling me up. He knew I could do better, so he made it uncomfortable for me to be too "comfortable" going through the motions. That changed me.

On the flip side of the quote, I have had so many times where I've been comforted while afflicted. Through the gospel :)

I've Got A Lot To Say

Ok, this conference. Amazing!! I'm sure all conferences are as amazing as this one, but I've never paid so much attention. So it's been wonderful. I'm thinking I'll save all my favorite quotes/stories for other posts but I'll start with this one.

http://brightcove.lds.com.edgesuite.net/assets/general-conference/2011-april/2011-04-1050-elder-kent-f-richards-64k-eng.mp3

That's Kent F. Richards talk from Saturday morning. I especially liked the story of the 13 year old hospitalized girl (starting at approx. 8:05 second in). She told her dad that every child in that hospital has angels :). It reminded me that EVERYONE has angels! We all have angels cheering us on in our lives! Specifically, I think of my grandma. She passed away when I was four. I remember after that in my childhood, whenever I was sad, I would hug the air, imagining my grandma hugging me back. I know she was there. :)

Now time for scattered, happy pictures!

The Happy Couple. I think this should have been on their wedding announcement. They really love cats.. Ok the reason I torture them by putting this up is because of this story: On the morning of April 1st, i woke up to a text from Jason saying he has been feeling like this for a while and are officially calling off the engagement, and asking for our prayers. I was sooo confused because all they ever do is say "I love you" and giggle and cuddle! But I trusted him, so I got down on my knees and prayed for him. Then texted him back and he replied APRIL FOOLS. Ha. That little demon. But I am very relieved, because I am much excited to have Candace in the family :)

SPRING BREAK 2011

Sally and I on the flying fish ride at Seaworld.

P.s. I have a newfound love for dolphins? I do.

I would like to formally request of my father to make one of these. It's just two stretchy tarps! Who knew it would be soo fun to bounce back and forth between them? Very soothing actually.

We love when grandma shares her beach hats with us :)

Shauna takes cute pictures.

Gwen and James playing dress up :)

Cole cannot stay away from Derek! Notice the empty couch on the right? Nope. Cole jumps right on top of Derek and declares them snuglets. Yes, snuglets. Ok i love my brothers. And General Conference with them!

Chorale! Yes we do look like we are at a summer camp.. but this design was voted for the t-shirts so this design it is! None other than my Sadies date, Joey, designed em!

I feel like I have more happy things to say and pictures to share, but this is lengthy anyway, so we'll save those for another post! But life is happy! And SPRING is happy! Spring smells!! I'll never get over these orange blossoms.

JazzSadiesFlowersOvercast

Last weekend was filled with so much JAZZ and DANCING and FUN!

The jazz part was Jazz Mad up in Flagstaff with our jazz choirs. I love jazz and I don't care who hates it. We performed, laughed, ate, and bonded! All very good things! I don't know how i will survive without Encore after I graduate.

Schreiber (most amazing devoted choir teacher ever) with four of his encore girls!

Sarah, Lindsey, Me, and Alex :)

Sadies=Incredible! I always secretly wanted to ask Joey to Sadies even when I barely knew him as a sophomore and I am SO HAPPY I did this year! This guy is the epitome of a perfect date. Courteous, respectful, easygoing, and FUN! We were Indians.

You better believe it we danced like Indians. We hid our shoes under the bleachers and ran around like crazy! (literally. around the crowd in the dance floor). This is in close running with being a Tiger. Hm.. what's more fun: crawling and pouncing or shooting invisible bows and dancing around imaginary fires? I can't decide myself. I'm not sure how everyone else at the dance felt about us but all i know is that I had genuine fun! We both got blisters and we're proud of them.

The only sad thing in my life right now is that we forgot to plant sweet peas in time for spring this year :( That means no walking back and forth between the orange blossoms and sweet peas in the yard. I'll have to steal my grandmother's. :)

Today was overcast. I can't stop my emotions from being happy on an overcast day. :)

LOVE is in the Air

Since this is the month of LOVE,

let's LOVE some things.

Some LOVEs in my life that are not pictured are these:

• I LOVE where I work, because i see someone I know everytime I work, without fail. To expound on that, I especially LOVE when people visit me.
• I LOVE fast Sundays, and devoted Sunday School teachers
• I LOVE interactive group games (like from last night's super amazing day activity)

Now, the pictures.

Beginning with these two LOVEbirds. Congratulations To my dear broseph, Jason, and future sissy, Candace, for their engagement! True LOVE.

And what better way to welcome her into the family than to hide in the creepy crevice above the garage door before family dinner! Welcome Candace! Brotherly-sisterly LOVE.

Cousin LOVE is quite strong as well. This at the wedding of their sister, Katie, who (whaddya know) is in LOVE with her husband!

Primary colors hand holding LOVE. On a LOVEly fun date with Adam!

LOVE for my dear Burt who is officially up and running!!! No one will ever LOVE Burt the Champ like I do.

And soon, he'll have windows that roll down, working AC, and a radio! I LOVE him.

LOVE between Cole and our frozen trampoline. Which leads to my LOVE for cold weather and warm jackets.

I LOVE that i asked this boy, Joey, to Sadies, and that we had the greatest time ever on our day activity yesterday! We concur that dates are more fun.. when you act like animals. There you have it, I LOVE being crazy and immature. I must while I can!

I LOVE that his parents answered for him while we were on the day activity, and that this is how it was done.

Tanner is The Man.

Congratulations Tanner on your JAPAN MISSION CALL! I get giddy thinking about it for you, i am super excited. I am proud of you for being worthy to serve a mission and you are wonderful and amazing! Get ready to be converted, Japanese people.

p.s. you should model.

Phases Happen

Phases of being obsessed with different music of course! I've gone through many types.. but nothing hits the spot like good ol' Saturday's Warrior. Ok, so the movie is incredibly awkward to watch.. but if you close your eyes, the songs are amazing! All the uplifting messages and happiness of Eternal Life! Anyway, that's my music phase right now.

Feel free to sing the tunes in your heads. You know you love them.

*We've got a father and mother, sister and brother, pullin' together we can WORK IT OUT!

*The circle of our love is more than just a rising sun that sets. The circle of our love it goes forever... The circle of our love extends beyond the reach of time. Beyond the span of days and years, it goes forever.

*We are not the ordinary, fearless and extraordinary. Workin' righteous Hari Kari, In our humble way!

*I'm sailin' on i'm not a stranger, my faith will ride through wind and tide and stormy sea, I'm sailin on out of the harbor.

*A nose is a nose like a rose is a rose, as everybody knows! But may we propose that the rosiest nose is the one that clearly shows!

I guess I'll stop now. Anyway, I love that music. No denying it. We have it on old cassette and I need in on CD for Slick Rick (my ipod).

Shout Out To My Dawg

The one and only!

We met under a rainbow..We share cousins..We played Russian orphans, Polly's, Beanie Babies, Barbies, Kee-Kar, walked on walls and anything else you could ever name as children..We were best friends since childhood, but had to get over the awkwardness of attending the same school in Junior High.. She was cool, I wasn't..We met in the middle and did things like prank call, dress up, go to Disneyland and croquet in Junior High..We had a wonderful year of EFY..We are now seniors in high school..we have some similar friends, and some different..We don't plan on going our separate ways after graduation..We have the same plans so far, infact!

That is just a short tiny history of our life together. We are like sisters. We get over things quick and although we don't hug or say "i love you" all the time like a normal pair of girlfriends, we are BEST FRIENDS.

I am happy she has always been there for me.

Like the time she called one late night and I was bawling because there was a scorpion in my room. Or the time she called me because she was bawling about the betrayal of a friend.

But especially what keeps us together is our standards. We know who we are and we have testimonies that strengthen, and keep us on common ground, because we have different opinions in just about everything else.

P.s. she drives me to school so that's cool and nice of her.

SKYLER

This tender post was inspired by her creating a blog. Check it out.

www.iwishicouldthinkofsomethingcool.blogspot.com

HOLLA for the Holidays!

Christmas at home with Shauna, Brent and their families in town. Then New Years in Cali with them! Here goes!

Gwen was my little baby on New Years Eve. She got lots of good candy from the pinata!

Christmas morning! Line up youngest to oldest!

I am now eighteen!!

Point Loma Lighthouse

Polar Bear Club! What better way to end 2010 and start 2011 than to jump in the ocean at midnight! It definitely made my list of Top 5 Most Exhilarating things I've ever done.

I love Drew, Drew loves baby swings.

My New Years kiss: a racket!

Airplane!

Bikes on the Beach :)

So ya, I loved the holidays. I loved the break from school. I loved all the time spent with my family! Looking through my facebook album of my senior year, I realized that my nieces and nephews ARE my senior year! And I am ok with that! I love them a whole lot :)