Super Sunny Funny Grandparent Vacation

Oh, reality I thought I had hidden so well from your wretched grasp. The week I spent without you was much needed, but now I see that you missed me all too much and pulled me back into the whirlwind with you. But while we get back together (you're making it difficult by the way) I'll tell you all about the time I enjoyed apart from you.

First off, here's the do's, don'ts, and lessons

1) Go with you're grandparents and sister and cousin. So great.2) Play mad-gab in everyday conversation. Inside jokes and laughs are included.

3) Don't buy $10 sunglasses from Walmart as a last minute decision. If Wally world is your selection just go for the $5 bugeyed one (you'll end up buying bugeye ones anyway because those $10 ones broke on the first day and you'll have an extra 5 bucks to go towards those new ones)

4) Super glue is messy. (Grandma supervision is advised)

5) Snorkeling in Cozumel, Mexico is so gorgeous! I don't really know if I saw any fish that were super duper cool, but the water was so beautiful in the gulf.


6) Make sure you find those celebrities hanging out around you

johnny depp

dr.phil
Where's waldo?

6) Zip lining through the rain forest is G-R-E-A-T because sometimes you are in the trees and other times you are above the trees. Just make sure you wash your face off.

7) Sometimes buses get stuck on muddy mountain trails when they are forced to get out of the way of the slippery truck coming down on the one lane road.
8)Sometimes you do get what you wish for. Such as seeing the Panama City temple, even if it was just a glimpse
9)Having the best waiters/waitress makes the whole trip even better, such as when they shout your name when you are walking somewhere, or suggesting foods in the buffet line at lunch and breakfast, or trying to save a table for you, failing and then setting one just to save a new spot with two choices of drinks.
10) Humidity can be your friend and is sometimes not too bad.

Wearing the sunglasses mentioned in #2) and 3)

11) Sitting out in the sun and feeling a sunburn coming and not getting out of the sun is not a good idea. Although, getting a late night pizza snack and taking vinegar from one of the tables to use on said awful sunburn to draw the heat out, is still not the greatest idea but it sure makes for a little relief and good memories.

Legs got super super burned. Arm is burned as well. Guess what I got by wearing that shirt in the sunshine?



12) I had a super - cali- fragilistic- expial-idocious time.


here's heidi's blog to fill in or reiterate some events

"Know what you like, trust your instincts and live" - ghislaine vinas

Yesterday that famous interior designer was on USU Campus. Don't know who she is, don't worry, I didn't really know anything but her name. I'll save you now though so that the next time you hear her name you can know what she does. www.gvinteriors.com

Although I was thirty minutes late to the presentation, I learned a lot from this uniquely creative lady.

1) She loves bright colors

2) Her favorite color changes every dayThis kitchen was inspired by a sunny side up egg, yellow in the middle, and white cabinets surrounding it.

3) She married a graphic designer

(Inspired by a weird bird painting. This room always reminds me of Dr. Suess, but adult style)

4) She hates the color of natural wood and will us it as little as possible

In this house, all of the walls were painted colors but absolutely all of the furniture was white. I really like the idea a lot.


5) She works off of inspiration of her clients
She used a painter for the murals and gave him a bunch of photos of what she thought life of little boys who didn't live in the city was like. The couple who lived here was married in aspen so she put a embedded a bunch of model trees in the wall(bottom left. The striped room is a guest bedroom, the stripes make your eyes go bug-eyed, you can't stay in the room for long, that's why it's a guest bedroom.

6) She likes to find the ugliest things she can and use them in her spaces

Instead of leaving the wainscoting white she painted it all pink to take it over the top, then she found the ugliest chandelier she could find and painted it purple and found the ugliest gaudy mirror she could find and painted it white.
In another room she showed during her presentation, she collected about 150 white plates from a thrift store and embedded them on a wall, she said some of them were the most hideous things with cherubs and other such random things on them.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this designer, her bright colors make me happy; I love her spaces, although I don't think I could ever live in them for too long.

Happy Happens

especially with these songs.









now Smile on

Just a Thought

That's all lots of things start out as. Circumstances in life fly to us and descend upon us even when we don't really notice. All my life, thoughts have been powerful things.

When I was younger I watched "The Secret" and yes, I believed it and knew that it did work but I never really noticed how MUCH it does work. Sometimes simple thoughts turn into reality.

When we think a thought, it isn't just a connection in our brainal fluids(sounds gross I know), it seems to be almost like a messenger bird. After we think it, it flies away and searches for something related to it and then brings that back.


This year, these "birds" I have really begun to notice, and they have brought back wonderful things that have made me truly grateful. As I began to notice, it seems like these birds got to be more and more powerful and come in greater abundance.


Running into someone that I haven't seen and just was randomly thinking about, having an object that I thought about for an entire millisecond suddenly show up a few days or even months later, or thinking of something that would be fun to do and then having that circumstance present itself in front of me a couple days later are just a couple examples of what an impact thoughts can have on our lives.


Really, most of these were just millisecond thoughts. They weren't dwelled upon, or even formed in complete words in my mind.

"The outer world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought, and both pleasant and unpleasant external conditions are factors which make for the ultimate good of the individual. As the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss." - james allen

Thought control is the most difficult part of being human, but I didn't think that I would have to block out every thought that even mentions anything about negativity.


My life had been so good that a millisecond thought creeped in that was to the effect of "my life is so good I haven't had a bad day in a really long time" BANG. The following day, was.... you guessed it, a bad day, which turned into two bad days in one week.

Then life turned good once again.

Lately I had seen people post things about failure

"Failures are fingerposts on the road to success" - C.S lewis

"We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of our failures as the antithesis of success, but it isn't. Success always lies on the other side of failure."
- leo f. buscaglia

"Failure is Nature's plan to prepare you for great responsibilities."- napolean hill

"Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success you know." -william saroyan

And I thought "I've never failed before" and wondered if such quotes are really true.

Well, you probably can end the story just as well as I can.

I just hope they are.

P.S "In the wise words of Justin Beiber, "never say never "" - Katherin Nelson

Photos from google images and here http://raspberrytart.tumblr.com

Something I've Been Wanting to Make

I think this little girl has the right idea.

Presidante Day

It took a lot of debation (word? It is now) to decide to go home. As much as I adore my family for some reason I felt like I would be missing out on something no matter what I decided. My weekend was .... interesting.

I found out that I'm so glad to be out of highschool. Yeah I know everyone says that, I honestly didn't have a bad experience, but it wasn't my favorite time of my life (middle school and elementary school were that part, which I know, middle school was the one everyone else hated).


The problem with high school brains is that sometimes they think some odd things like playing cat and mouse with the cops is entertaining? What is this? Because it's not really.

Wasting gas by riding down main street with your music blaring? Dumb, go do something fun.

Scraping the snow off the ice skating rink so that you can slide around? That's more like it. Even though there were complaints that people were ruining the rink (What! A couple girls in dress coats are going to be ruining something artful?) If they had only known what we were really doing with that toate lid, shovel, broom and ice scraper, they would have laughed out loud.

Don't get me wrong, I do love my little high schoolers, and I love spending time with them. It was so great to catch up after not talking at all for five months.

Going on a lovely, but cold, Sunday stroll

Trying to take a picture on the rink

Time to Listen

Definitely so true. Sure there are hardships and trials, decision and deceptions, but really altogether they make you stronger to the point where you can't help but to "luv lyf"

Although the picture is one that I put together, we really did see this license plate as we walked out of the Logan tabernacle and it was so fitting after the wonderful experince. There was a tribute to women thing going on where the actress of Emma in the Emma Smith movie (Katherine Nelson who is also my favorite LDS singer) spoke a little about her experiences with the movie and in life in general.

One thing that stuck out to me and something that wasn't really a main topic of her talk but rather a part of setting it up was how important it is to listen to the promptings of the Spirit. Quite frankly even though some were a little odd, such as a random thought that she was going to marry a husband who couldn't spell, each was important. I love that she heeded every one of them. Having the thought that one day she was going to have an album, or compose the music of a soundtrack, and that she was going to act in the next Legacy film.

And she was successful with each of them. It makes me wonder how many "hints" I get that maybe I don't heed.

After all this I'm thinking I need to make meditation a must. I have lots of time by myself(where I should be doing homework), but I feel like I am wasting it. What a better way to prepare ones self for homework, or anything really, than by opening up my heart and mind to recieve revelation. After all, being filled with the Spirit is the best feeling in the world.



In addition to all of the wonderful things Katherine shared, I recognized even more(if possible) how blessed I was to go to Nauvoo. It really COMPLETELY changed my life and my perspective on virtually everything. I dearly miss it.