This is going to be my Christmas tree (well something like it) until Brett gets home for the Christmas holiday.

I found this tree on Friis and Company. They are a bunch of girls that are "fashionistas". I found this image through google. I had never been to their sight before but the little bit I saw looked like they had fun.

When Brett gets home we are going on a date to get a "REAL Christmas tree". He said that growing up he loved getting to pick out a Christmas tree with his family so we are going to do it too. He just doesn't know it yet. This (and hot chocolate with LOTS of marshmallows) is his surprise date (.......I don't even know if he likes hot chocolate.......maybe he will drink eggnog instead.)

Moving Out

Part of getting married is officially moving out. True When we got married Brett had to temperaraly deposit most of his things at his parents house (we will be getting all of his stuff when we move to CA). I on the other hand have been trying to get rid of the momentums of my childhood that I have clung to. Can you beleave that when my parents moved to TX all those years ago that I never bothered to unpack. I get to now though and it is proving such a task. Lucky me The Nester is having a 31 days to a less messy nest blog run. This post is going to be a great thing for me. And I get to put it to action as soon as I find my apartment. YEA!!!!

Dealing With White

I love color!!! Color creates a happy, energized mood. I want it in my home. ALL OVER!!!!

Problem. I will not be living in one place for a LONG time. This means that I am destined to live with white walls. So whats a girl to do? Well I have noticed a trend in the Australian Blogs I read. Those Aussies are Brilliant when it comes to decorating with white walls. The walls may be white but everything else is full of color.

This is a picture (and the two bellow) I found over at Absolutely Beautiful things. she has a decorating store called Black and Spiro. It is located in Brisbane. The next time I go to Australia I want to stop over and have a look. One of the things that I love about this picture is that I can paint wall art like that and I have all the things to do it.

The blue shutters are a little much for me. I would paint them a different color, but you get the idea. Speaking of shutters my mom, sister and I have a plan for some shudders that are going to go in out homes. I think I have picked a color for mine.....I guess I should pick a home for it to be in too. Hmmmmmm. We will see.

Halloween Card

This is the card I made for Halloween. I think that it is cute. I cut the tree out myself with Bee Scissors. They are great for tight places.

Mommy Practice.

My Mom has headed to Oregon to see family. She left me with Miss Lou (10) and S(6). This morning they got dressed with almost no hassle except that S was saddened by the salt in his eggs. Oh well. On the way to school I asked them if they had remembered to bring this or that. Sometimes they get annoyed with all of my questions so I decided to ask them if they had remembered to bring their brains. It worked and they joked about it the rest of the way to school. I am so glad my mom taught them to be silly.
One other thing that was cute in the car ride to school. S and Miss Lou play this game where if you see a yellow car you say bingo and you get a point. Brett and I play this game too only we trade our points in for kisses. So today I saw a car that S normally gets parked on the side of the road and called it for bingo (how was I supposed to know he normally gets that one). He handled it great though. Instead of pouting and saying "that's mine" he asked "do you want to trade it in for a kiss?" Of course I said yes and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then he says "Bingo!! When you trade it in I can have it." Its nice of him to let me know these new rules.

An Unplanned Visit

On my way to AZ my tire went flat. This caused a three hour delay in my journey. As a result I was to tired to drive all the way so I stopped off at my cousin Kourtney's for the night. It was great to see her. This was great. I got there about midnight and we stayed up even latter unpacking her new apartment an talking. In the morning we did our hair and talked some more. Out of all the girl cousins that I have on my Mom's side Kourtney is closet to my age. I also got to spend allot of time with her growing up because we lived in the same city. In fact I saw her almost every day at one point. Kourtney has always been a great cousin to me. Sometimes when all of us girls were playing I would get locked out of the room. Kourtney always came and unlocked the door for me so I could play too. Now she is a great cousin to me for other reason. She has a great testimony and knows how to tackle life. She has a good attitude of just do it when it comes to the sometimes unpleasant things of life. It has always motivated me to get over my emotions and get things done.

Cousins make great friends because you get to keep them forever.

I love you Kort.

Going to the Temple and We're Going to Get Married

We did it!

On the 20th of July Brett and I were sealed for time and ETERNITY in the beautiful Manti temple. It was a bit of a drive but well worth it. We were also blessed that so many loved ones were able to make it.

Here are some pictures celebrating the day. They were taken by the talented Mindy Kidd.

Busy Two Weeks

In case you haven't heard I started EFY as a counselor again. This year they even decided to pay me. That is a pleasant bonus. My first week started the last Monday of May. It was held in Montpelier Idaho. It was great. The spirit was strong and I enjoyed it. During this week I also go to stay with a host family. Im this family there were five young kids aging form 12 to 3 or 4. They were so so wonderful. I think they are one of the greatest families in the world. This is greatly due to the parents. Some things that stood out about them.

1. They are easy going and open.
2. They are kind and patient (this was greatly displayed when dealing with their kids at the breakfast table)
3. They are giving and they truly care.
They delight in the joys and successes of others and feel sorrow and concern for them as well.

I could go on but the goal is to keep this short so I will get some sleep tonight.
Anyways, I was so exhausted from EFY that I got sick and spent all Sunday morning throwing up. As a result EFY decided that it would be better to stay home this last week.

Lucky me because I ended up getting engaged this last week.

The wedding is set for July 20th. We are going to be married in the temple for time and all eternity. I will try to post more soon.

Good night.

Temple

Lucky me. I got to be in Arizona for this the Gila Valley Temple dedication. Since they opened the local chapels to the dedication yesterday I got to listen in. It was such a privilege.

What really drove it home for me was that night when I was doing genealogy work. My dad pulled out some family history stories. The one I read was the story of a lady who settled Australia. She was a true pioneer. She closes her history saying this.

"The arrival of the fortnightly mail always brought the longing for the home folks left behind....I had always looked forward to the time when we should come away from the bush, and letters to and from ones family would not be so vital, but that time has never come in my life, for though I have come down to more civilised country (she moved to Brisbane towards the end of her life) the old folk, alas, have passed on, and the young ones have their homes as far away as I was, an so it goes on. I am still away from it all, but I am still living at the beginning of things."

Because of temples like the Gila Valley, my ancestors get to have eternal families even though that was not available to them in there life. I am glad that and thankful that this lady will get to be with her family forever.

A lesson from the Olympics

I have herd many things on confidence lately. Apparently it is very important and can make all the difference in the level of success you have. However, I have never seen it in such outright performance as I did while watching a snowboarding event in the Olympics. It was the one where they go down a half pipe and do all sorts of tricks. For those of you who don't know they get two runs and then their best run is there score. This guy was the last to go. No one had beaten his score so he already knew that he had the gold. He already knew that he was good enough. However he still had one run left so off he went. He decided to do one of the most difficult tricks on this run. It is important to have good speed going into this trick so you will go up high enough and therefore have enough time to pull off the trick. He didn't have allot of speed/momentum going into it because of the previous trick he had just done (so the announcer said) however he still pulled off the trick. I'm pretty sure that the snowboarder knew that he was not going into the trick well but he decided to do it anyway. Why because he had the confidence that it would be ok. He already knew that he had won gold and that he has great capabilities. You know what happened, he pulled of the trick and improved his score by like two points. Hows that for the importance of confidence.

A I wrote that I thought this. We are just like that in life. We have two runs. The first was the in the preexistence and we won gold. Now we are on our second run. Yes, there are times that it looks like the odds are against when we go into things or it may seem that we didn't quite do so well in preparation for our next attempt in life. But we already know the out come. We already know that if we do our best we will win gold again because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Therefore we can go forward with confidence.

Loved

The last few days have been sort of crummy. Actually January was sort of a bu....um, that's a bad word to my Australian family...... Well just say it wasn't full of sunshine. Just some frustrating things. This week was much better though. It is because of the little things. For example,

My sister posted a funny picture of my nephew on her blog. It made me laugh.

While cleaning I came across a list of talents I posses that I had started that my TX Dad finished. I had written it so I would work on developing those talents but because he added to it it made me feel appreciated as a person and like I have something to offer.

I got a fun package from my Mom.

My AZ Dad sent me beautiful flowers

My parents in TX bought chickens. I know I'm not there now but knowing that they will be there when I get home makes me happy because I use to be a farm girl and in all honesty I miss it.

I was accepted as an EFY counselor. My cousin Kort says she is going to live vicariously through me. She is getting married so she can't be a counselor this year. I give her regular updates.

Yesterday I watched a ladies kids for her so she could go out. Her day had been crummy (sick kids, 5 hours at the doctors office.) but she said it was better because I was here now. She also said that I was going to be a great mom. Any compliment with the word mom in it is my favorite.

I got to talk to my mom on the phone today. She told me a funny story about my nephew who sure loves his dad.

As I walked home from work today it was snowing so I decided to eat the snowflakes. A guy in his fifties crossed the street to come say hi to me. He that I was the coolest person ever for eating snowflakes. We were walking the same way so he talked to me for a bit. He is from TX too. Since he is from Texas it is not abnormal to talk to a complete stranger as Texans are very friendly people. Before he left to go his way he told me that I have a special light and that Utah doesn't know it yet but they are lucky to have me.

Now THAT made my day. It was 't just that the guy took the time to cross the street to come say hi or that he ave me some really good complements. It is that Heavenly Father prompted him to give me those compliments. I needed them and I needed them then and that guy was in tune enough to listen. It was a tender mercy. All of those things are tender mercies that Heavenly Father set up for me. It is so nice of him and lets me know that he really does love me.

Family Time

This week I have gotten to spend lots of time with my family.
Sunday was game day at Grandma and Grandpa's. We played the Great Dal-moody ( I don't think I spelled that right). Amber and I think that we ought to make hats for each position. Me and my cousin Katy decided to take down the boys. Actually Katy just wanted to beat her husband. I am pleased to say that the game did end with her and I on the thrones. Then we played Bullet. It just so happened that it ended up being boys against girls. Regrettably we lost. We had fun and laughed allot though. Laughter is one of the great things about being with my family.

Since I mentioned laughter I should tell you that I got my nephew, B to laugh. He has finally put it together that if you are being tickled you are supposed to laugh. His tickle spot is on his tummy. I love that when he laughs his mouth stretches as far as it can go so that his chubby cheeks are accented. Apart from this he likes to talk to me and enjoys being an airplane.

Life is great.