dance it out

I just bought a bunch of new music thanks to Best Buy who gave me a $50 gift card because I bought my beautiful computer and quickly bought a $50 iTunes gift card. Which I then spent in about 30 minutes right after I bought it. Who knew $50 could go so fast on iTunes? BUT... I bought some awesome music. And as they say on Grey's Anatomy, when life gets tough or confusing, JUST DANCE IT OUT!

True Believers- Darius Rucker
Kiss You- One Direction (I never thought I would buy one of their songs, let alone two.)
Little Things- One Direction
Dead in the Water- Ellie Golding
Young and Beautiful- Lana Del Ray
Monster- Imagine Dragons
The Other Side- Jason Derulo
It Ain't Pretty- Lady Antebellum
See You Tonight- Scotty McCreery
Day That I Die- Zac Brown Band

sundays and thoughts

Short little post today. I don't have too much to blog about at this precise moment, even though there are quite a few thoughts running through my mind. But it seems like that's all my mind ever does is race and race and then confuse me some more. Anyways, here's a little update on my Book of Mormon challenge- I'm behind. Way behind. So I'm trying to kick myself into gear and get back on track ASAP! How are all of your daily readings going? I may behind, but I'm still enjoying this experience and at least getting some reading in every day because I seem to really struggle with getting my daily scripture reading in. So this is a great challenge! Keyword: challenge.

Today in my ward, we had a musical number where my ward clerk and his daughter performed How Great Thou Art and I couldn't help but get that message out of my mind and this particular version of the beautiful hymn out of my mind.

 

"Then sings my soul... My God, how great thou art!"

(And I apologize if I've already shared this video. But I honestly can't get enough of it. Ever.)

Today I'm grateful for all of the new friends I made and relationships that I strengthened yesterday at such a wonderful activity with so many great adventures.

dishes

Tonight, I find myself alone at home for a little while which doesn't happen too often. My home teachers came earlier and shared a message and then left me to my thoughts and a stack of dishes. I normally hate doing dishes, at least the ones that don't go in the dishwasher. But over the last few weeks, I've realized that I find doing dishes a little bit therapeutic.While I was nannying four kids last week, doing the dishes was kind of my break from the kids hanging out upstairs. So now I turn on my music and drown and scrub out my thoughts. After dumping about two bowlfuls down my front, I got in my sweats and am now hanging out, blogging, and listening to my good, old country music while I wait for the others to return home. Don't get me wrong. I would much rather be getting snow cones or something adventurous. But hear I sit. I've had a lot on my mind about boys and what-not (see sidebar) and dishes brought me a little bit of relief from my thoughts as I soaked and scrubbed. Mostly just my clothes, but there were some actual dishes that got clean in the process. Now I just have to keep this from of therapy secret or I'll be the only one doing dishes for the rest of my life. Too bad my mom reads my blog... ;)

I'm grateful for my friends that can tell me anything and that I can tell anything. And can watch the Bachelorette with me.

the book of mormon challenge

I just followed up on one of my favorite blogs online right now that I've mentioned once before and read that she is doing a yearly book of mormon challenge that I know she's done in years past and is starting it up for August this year. And I am accepting the challenge! Now, honestly, I really am not very good at sticking with challenges because I just can't seem to ever finish or complete them. Don't ask me why. But I've felt lately that I've needed to start reading the Book of Mormon again and this seems like the perfect opportunity, especially right before school starts up again. Plus, I've never read it in this little time. So I'm going to do it!!
The guidelines for this challenge is to read the Book of Mormon in one month or less. So starting August 1st, I will be reading the Book of Mormon. The outlined schedule is 8 chapters a day for 31 days until the month runs out. You can read, listen, whatever! Just do it! Join me, won't you? I want to hear all about your challenge experiences and lessons learned while reading the Book of Mormon in one month and I'll  share mine. Feel free to leave any compliments or experiences RIGHT HERE!!!
Join in!!!
 Explore here for more challenge experiences and explanation on the challenge and past experiences with the challenge. Let's do this!!

I just realized that I forgot to share something I was grateful for in my last post so I'll make up for it today. I think my brain was too full while writing the last post. Today, I am grateful for the many lessons in church today echoing the blessings of having trials in our lives. I'm also grateful for missionary emails.

rain and goodbyes

Hi friends. I'm back. I know I told you to gear up for an emotional post about a month ago that never came, but I'm sorry I'm finally half way writing it. I'm terrible at sticking to things on my blog. Moving on. Don't judge me or trust me solely on my dedication to my blog. I'm not sure why I haven't written this post. Maybe it's just a little too tough to actually write out the feelings and words that are floating around in my head. Or maybe the rain just wants to bring it out of me a little bit.
Remember my dear friend Jake that I mentioned in the last post who with the baseball tickets? Well, he officially left on his mission to serve the Lord for two years in Spain on June 11. So about a month ago. I won't go into all the details about it and saying goodbye, but he is doing really well. I got a letter back from him on Thursday and it's great to hear about all of his Christ-like service he is involved in a half a world away. Saying goodbye was definitely tough, but the hardest part was after I'd left and was actually that night. I looked up the stars and just started to cry. I'm pretty sure my sister thought I was mental. Jake and I used to look at the stars together and do our own kind of star gazing which ended up in him finding constellations on his phone and trying to show me where they were. Some times worked out better than others... Anyways, that 's the emotional post, just in a nutshell because I don't really want to flesh that all out completely. Saying goodbye for two whole years to one of your best friends is just harder than you would think.

Do you ever have a song that always seems to speak to you, no matter the mood you're in? Here's mine for the past few weeks.

baseballin' nerd

I don't know about you, but I LOVE baseball. Please tell me I'm not alone out here. I always feel like a few of my close friends don't really like baseball, know about baseball, or care about baseball besides my family and my BFF.About a week and a half ago I went to see my first baseball game f the season and it was amazing! My dear friend Jake offered his family's season tickets to the Bees game so Jake, Andrea, her BF Josh, and I went. Let me just tell you I was expecting okay seats and maybe we'd end up sitting on the grass just for fun. Oh no! These tickets were THIRD ROW seats righ next to the visitors team dugout right by home base. The best seats you can possibly have! In my opinion at least. Jake and I bought our mandatory hot dogs and enjoyed an amazing game. Jake was talking about how the Bees are not that great and he's probably never seen a homerun either, when low and behold the Bees hit a grand slam in the third inning leading the Bees right into the win. Thanks to a little help from Andrea crossing her fingers. I'm pretty sure I was the most excited one about going to the game. Just walking into the park made my adrenaline run up a hundred notches. The smell of hot dogs and popcorn and the security people in their tacky orange jackets, which I'm sure cook them alive. I just can't get enough! I love the feel and excitement that you feel at a baseball game!
P.s. I may or may not have flirted with a visiting baseball player. Okay, not really. I only smiled at him and he smiled back. But I'm counting it!

GRAND SLAM!

Funny face #1

Funny face #2

No comment on this one...

 

Today, I'm grateful for the cute little quail baby birds that I watched running around my yard.

 

P.s. Prepare for a little bit of an emotional blog post tomorrow... Saying goodbye for two years is kind of hard. That's all.

an attitude of gratitude

I've decided that everyday I want to challenge myself to find something to be grateful for. It can be the slightest thing like catching the TRAX train on my way to school, therefore not making me late to class which I hate. President Thomas S. Monson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said in General Conference "Our lives are blessed in countless ways. We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE... President Joseph F. Smith,... provided an answer. Said he: "The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life.'" During the school semesters, some days would become the best days because of the slightest things like running into friends and talking for a few minutes or being able to turn in an assignment that has been causing me great amounts of stress. Since I'm a little quirky, I would then write down all of the things that made my day so wonderful on little sticky notes and keep them in my backpack to read on a really bad day. I now want to extend that idea on to my blog. So now after every post or message I am going to write a little thing I'm grateful for. And I challenge you to do something similar by recognizing things you are grateful for in your day, be it great or small, and writing it down somewhere!

 

Today I'm grateful for being able to move into my own room and having to clean it. Let me tell you, it's disgusting work!Dust-filled lungs and dust bunnies galore, but I still enjoy it for some reason... I guess it gives me something to do!