Oh what do we do in the spring time.

I have been inexcusably absent for far too long. Sorry ya'll. Sometimes i just have no idea what to talk about.
How about this...in 2 days i'll be 30. Woof!

Honestly, i am tremendously excited about being 30. The first few years of my 20's were decidedly, well, horrid. Then i straightened my life up, met the love of my life, had two babies and boom...here i am. I have 30 things that i would like to accomplish in my 31st year, so in true form i will post them here and check them off as i go.

1. Get a stamp on my passport
2. Get a passport
3. Go on a cruise
4. Take the kids to a Disney affiliated park. (Disneyland, World, or a Disney Cruise
5. Buy a house
6. Conquer a fear
7. Eat at a 5 star restaurant
8. Bake a pie from scratch
9. Read more than 60 books
10. Visit my bestie in the District
11. Go to a temple that i've never been to before
(there are so many of these that can be done all together, is that cheating?)
12. Buy a new wardrobe.
13. Throw a dinner party
14. Roast a turkey
15. Learn to ride a motorcycle.
16. Run a half marathon
17. Take Peter on an adventure
18. Climb mt. timpanogas
19. Finish the math class that will earn me my degree
20. Graduate from collage
21. Recieve NIC certificate
22. Attend RID conference
23. Plant a garden
24. Grow my own herbs
25. Make and jar homemade spaghetti sauce and salsa
26. Visit he temple monthly
27. Pay off 3 unnecessary debts
28. Save $
29. Food storage
30. Go camping and learn to love it

There you have it folks. A few simple goals for this coming year. Let's see how i do  :-) wish me luck!!

~Hugs

words of the anonymous wise

"never chase love, attention or affection. if it isn;t given freely by the other person, it isn't worth it"

.

i have no idea who wrote this, but i would like to hug them super tight right now. nibble on that with a little side dish of self-respect.

~hugs

quote

i thought it would be lovely to start my week of with a lovely quote. perhaps this will become a weekly theme so that i can actually keep up on my blog. maybe?

to love at all is to be vulnerable. love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. if you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. but in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. it will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. to love is to be vulnerable.

-c.s.lewis

~hugs

testify

it has been a freakishly long time since i have blogged. whoops, sorry about that. i have really been so incredibly blessed these last few weeks and i can't really even begin to express my gratitude for everything that has happened recently.
blessing number one, i don't know if i have told you already, but Mister has been looking for a job for a while now. he applied for a job in the criminal justice field on the east coast of the US, but he didn't get it. that was a really hard time for us, so devastating because we really "needed" that adventure. well, our Heavenly Father had a different plan for us. Mister has recently been hired for a job, i can't tell you what it is, or i'd have to kill you (doesn't that sound so very james bond?), it's in the field of criminal justice and i am oh so very proud of him! he will be so incredible and i will be grateful for the work and the benefits that come with it.

blessing number two, taxes. we finished our taxes last week and happily await that sweet return from the feds. yay for a return. thank you to baby #2 for that ;)

blessing number 3, have i ever told you how incredible my friends are? i have some majorly fantastical friend. love them and they are a blessing to me

blessing number 4, i only have 16 lbs until i am at my pre baby weight! yes!!

blessing number 5, Mister is the bomb. he has been playing stay at home daddy for the last few weeks and i absolutely love that i found someone who is such a good father. my children ADORE him and i love it. i love having him as my rock and my support system. i could go on and on about my love for him, but i'll just say he's a blessing.

blessing number 6, my kids. holy cow you guys. being a mother is, without question, the most incredible thing i have ever done with my life. bar none. i adore these little precious ones and i am ever grateful that i have been entrusted with them. i love waking up to the sound of my sweet baby girl laughing and cooing. i love to walk through the door and have my rough and tumble son greet me with the biggest hug ever. i never thought i would say this, but i cannot wait to have more!

blessing number 6: hyperbole, i love it, i use it, i would die without it

blessing number 7: books and literacy. last year i read 56 books. i have read 6 so far this year and i cannot imagine my life without books. i love them so.

blessing number 8: tithing. it might seem strange to feel like giving 10% back is a huge blessing in my life. but it is. it is my belief that Heavenly Father is just waiting to bless us. He waits with a bucket of blessings to pour upon us and we just have to pull that string and let those blessings tumble down upon us. i not only believe this, but i KNOW this. i am intensely grateful for the multitude of blessings that i have been given. the tests and trials, the disappointments and failures, and the sweet rewards and treats that we have. i know that God is real. i know that He loves us and He is right there when we need him, we just have to ask for that help. we only have to ask.

blessing number 9:the tests and trials that i myself have had, and that we as a family have endured. i'll be honest and tell you that i am not the most confident person. if you know me, you might be scoffing at the computer right now, but honestly, i am in full "fake it til you make it" mode 75% of the time. i am super thankful for th trials that i have had recently that have helped with my self-worth and confidence (insert Mister here, he makes me feel like a million bucks all the time, even when i don't deserve it).

lastly, i am so grateful for the sunshine and the blue sky. my dad always says "once january is over, we are good to go". things start clearing up (nasty inversion), getting brighter, the days get longer and warmer, and in general life gets happier. i always forget how much i love the sunshine until i go 15 days without it. that vitamin d is something isn't it. the first day after the huge storm that cleared the inversion out i went outside and looked up at the sky and i almost cried. i was so overwhelmed by the beauty of this earth. i love it, i love the blue sky.

~hugs

hugs

sometimes bits of me feel angry...

hey peeps. i hope you had a great weekend. mine was fantastic, in fact, i have been having a lovely last few days. this all ended about 10 minutes ago.

listen, there are few things i dislike more than being treated like a silly child. in fact, right off of the top of my head i cannot think of one thing i dislike more than being patronized. it just bugs me, as i am sure you can understand. so here's the story.

at work today i was informed, via la facebook, that my dear friend and mentor and sensei Flavia will be making an appearance on the Ricki Lake show. she will be talking about cochlear implants, which are a very, VERY sticky subject in the Deaf community, but one that i have studied at great length and i have established my opinion about them based on years of study. well this guy at work basically just told me, in the most patronizing manner possible how silly i was and said "we'll see how you feel in 30 years". really? i mean really?! so because he is 25 years my senior and we disagree on a very sensative subject that means that i am just a little silly child who will learn my lesson soon enough? grrrr i haven't been this mad in a while and frankly, i don't like it one bit!

i would like to think that at 30 years old the opinions that i have are not just baseless nonsense. i have very strong opinions about certain things, but those are things that i have looked into, read about, listened to both sides of, and been greatly open-minded about before forming that opinion. i respect others opinions and expect the same. ugh.

is that too much to ask?

in the words of Misters favorite "good grief".

~hugs

its raining blessings!

there has never really been a time in my life that i haven't felt incredibly blessed by my Heavenly Father. in short, if you might allow me to testify, i know that He loves all of us. i know that he wants what is best, and i KNOW that if we follow His advice and council that we will recieve that things that we need. this might not always be what we want, but it will for sure be what we need.

faith is one of the hardest things in the world. it is so hard to believe that everything will work out, especially when you feel like you've been kicked down so many times. But you guys, i am telling you, without any doubt in my mind, that if you wait it out and be patient through the storm and just believe that it will all work out, it will. it just will. do what's right, make good choices, serve others, be patient and the Lord will bless your life. i cannot even begin the list all of the ways that He has blessed me recently, but sometimes the greatest blessings come just after the most painful disappointments. He knows what is best for us, His timing is the best timing. i am so grateful to know that God is real and that he loves me and that he knows me and my sweet little family and all of our needs.


now that i have hit you all with that one. here are my resolutions for this year:

-read the scriptures everyday, I would like to read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants twice, each. If you want to know more about these books you can go here and learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and what we beleive.
-pray daily
-read 60 books (i read 59 in 2012, so let's add on one more)
-lose my last 16 lbs
-buy a house (what??!!)
-run a 1/2 marathon and possibly a full marathon
-save $$(i found a really fun idea on Pinterest. any time i have a five dollar bill i have to put it in a piggy bank. at the end of the year i will count up all the fives and use it to either pay something off, or buy myself something fabulous)
-be a better wife and mother. i am so hard on myself about this topic, but this mostly just includes being more attentive, being a better listener, and just generally a better person when it comes to home life.
-write more letters and send them in the post. i have so many dear people in my life who live far away. i am not really satisfied with emails and facebook because it feels so dreary. who doesn't love receiving post?! in fact, i am hoping to get a new penpal in england very shortly (rachel from england, if you are reading this, this is you!).

it's a tall order, but i can't wait to see what i accomplish this year. happy january everyone.

~hugs

fresh start

to start off the new year (welcome 2013!) i participated in the revolution run. it was fantastic! myself and a few incredible women that i work with woke up at 7:00 am to go and run/walk as far as we could. we were accompanied by about 400 other people with the same goal in mind. start the new year right! here's how the race worked.
you registered, decided how far you would like to go, and then you run. the track (indoor, thank heavens) was open from 8:00 am until 1:00 pm. you could run as little or as much as you wanted. medals were given to those who completed 1/2 marathons or more.
i had friend who completed their first 1/2 marathon. a friend who did their first 5k. i was inspired by so many. if you can believe it, the "winner" of the womens division ran for 5 hours and 30 seconds. she completed 34 miles! 34! i am so impressed by our bodies and what they can do. i myself completed 7.1 miles, which is one mile(ish) more than a 10k. that is the furthest i have ever gone. a new personal record! one of my many resolutions for this year is to complete at least one 1/2 marathon this year. i have my eye on the prize and i'm not letting it slip away!
i am so grateful for my friend at work who is my running sensei. she honestly is so encouraging and positive, i could have run one mile and she would have made me feel like a champion. i know, with her help, that i will be able to accomplish my goal.
so, happy new year to you all my friends. i hope your new years' day was as fantastic as mine was.

~hugs