iPhone

...alright, I did it....







I caved in and bought an iPhone.







It's amazing how worldly pleasures can make me so happy! haha

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

"All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."- Abraham Lincoln

I just wanted to take a few minutes and express openly to my mom my gratitude to her for all she has done for me.

My mom is the one person in my life that I go to for all advice. She knows everything about me, and I am never afraid to tell her anything. I do not believe there is anyone else I have ever come in contact with that supports me more than she does.

I remember since I was a little kid, my mom would always stick up for me whenever I got in an argument with another sibling (ahem, sarah.) Sometimes it would be in my error, yet I still had my mom to back me up :) My mother also has always supported me with my decisions I make. She helped me try out for cheerleading my 8th grade year for my first year in high school. I remember her taking time to teach me to be sharp, and how I can get my jumps higher. She taught me especially how to project my voice. Sarah and I have spent many hours just laughing at her deep manly voice as she always told us that was the key to projection.

I also remember all of her countless hours she spent prepping me for Jr. Miss. She knew exactly how to calm me down, how to boost me up, and patiently watched my dance over and over and over. Following the performance she was more excited than I was that I was in the court, yet she knew what was ahead of her. She was my number one fan through it all! She came to every single parade, and gave me her cute little smile and wave as the float passed by. Coming to those parades took up every single saturday of that summer, yet those 2 mintues watching the float pass by seemed to be enough to justify the long drives often starting before 7 am. On one of these trips, we even experienced Alisyn's first Oreo. Neither one of us realized that she had never had one, but her excitment when eating that "black thing with frosting" as she put it, was something I'll never forget. She is such a sweetheart and is easily pleased :)

Though these experiences I've had with my mom have been great and unforgettable, I cannot and will not deny that the very best memory I have with her is one that will always and forever leave an impact in my life.

My mom has always been sensitive to the spirit and has taught us the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I cannot remember when we started this, but she would wake us all up at 5:30 every morning for scripture reading and prayers. We would talk and discuss the doctrines of the Gospel, and along with my father, she would answer many of our questions. Sometimes our questions would be very simple, yet other times they would be very in depth. They both somehow gave us a satisfying answer, and kept us intrigued in what we were learning. I'd be lying if I said I never fell asleep during scripture study, yet sometimes I got away with it as they only cared about Sarah sleeping since it was a daily occurance! ha

I will never be able to fully express my gratitude and love for the most amazing woman I know. She is a hero in my life and I am forever indebted to her for all she has done, or TRIED to do for me in my life! I can be pretty stubborn sometimes, but I definitely get that from her. She is amazing, and truly an angel on Earth! I love her so so so very much! I cannot fathom my life without her! I miss her more than anything, and I'm only 700 miles away.

What a wonderful, beautiful blessing it has been to be born into such a marvelous family!

Trials=Blessings

Some would say that the title of this blog is a complete oxymoron, yet it has been a definite testimony builder for me this past month. To start, the day before graduation, my dead tooth fell out. Yeah- don't know exactly how- but luckily Nichole was at my house and could kinda calm me down and make me laugh at the situation and then help me get to the dentist in one piece. Not only was I toothless, but I had to sing that night at a HUGE school appreciation dinner. Only the most important people who have contributed to the college, along with a few apostles were invited to this dinner. Thankfully, I got a temporary tooth in a little retainer I was able to wear!The next day, my graduation, my cousin, Cameron, passed away due to terrible cancer he'd been fighting for three years. Poor Cam was only 27 and married for two years. That same day I found out that a woman very very close to me that I worked with at the college has an extreme case of cancer that the dr's are very nervous about. A few days later, I totaled my little Mitsubishi while the other guy in the accident only crunched in his headlight and a little dent on the side. I was really angry but what can I do after it's already happened, right?!
At this point I was really upset with where my life was going and was not happy with where I was at. (Now I don't need to be confessing my depressions to you nor do I mean to make you feel bad for me.. this is all going somewhere, I swear.) I got the car stuff figured out and was informed that my insurance would pay for 7 days to rent a car. wow. I started to panic. Car shopping was fun at first, but only having worked at my job for about 2 weeks now, I couldn't get approved for anything.. I mean ANYTHING! I got extremely frustrated.

In the meantime, I went into the dentist again for him to fix my tooth that fell out. He said he would have to give me a veneer for that tooth, yet because it would have to be bridged, I would never be able to get braces. That thought terrified me, but he promply added that he would veneer my crooked tooth on my upper teeth as well. I started to cry to even think about having straight teeth. As I got to the dentist at 12:30 on friday the 24th, I did not anticipate staying there until about 5:45, but I did... and it was all worth it because he ended up giving me a full set of 6 veneers on the top, and they look beautiful! I seriously don't even know how to explain how grateful I am to be able to have a new smile!


A little stress was lifted off my shoulders as I no longer had to worry about my temporary tooth getting all ruined inside it's little retainer, and I had more time to focus on the car. I still couldn't get approved for anything and by this time, I only had 3 days to find a car. I got to talking with a guy my roommate referred me to and somehow I overheard him converse about how he went to his sister in laws nephews funeral in orem and that his family is originally from washington. We got to talking and sure enough, His sister in law is Tammy- who is a Merrill. We talked for a long time about my family, and we formed a little bond I guess you could say. He lowered the price of the car I was looking at significantly and my credit union finally approved me. Yesterday, I got my new car... an 06 Nissan Altima. It is a pretty car- and I'm so glad to finally have something other than my rental!


(That is kind of a cruddy picture of it- but It's a pretty nice little car!)


It's nice to be able to finally look back oh the past events and be appreciative for everything that has gone wrong haha. I don't think I would have ever gotten my teeth fixed, and I know I would have just kept pouring money into my car to make it keep running. How grateful I am for a great paying job that can actually help me not stress about the money going into my new investments! :)

And like Jack Black would say, my life is good...really good!

MEXICO!

Many of you know that I went on a complete spur of the moment Cruise to Ensenada, Mexico a couple weeks ago. We went with a group of 15. It was planned for about 3 weeks before we would leave, but I didn't have a passport, and was NOT about to pay a large lump sum to get my passport expedited, so I thought I wasn't going to be able to go. I was bummed, but my bank account was definitely smiling at me for my great decision to save save save. ha.

It only took about 4 days to find out through a travel agent that passports are not required until June 2009 for trips via boat to canada or mexico. I was so excited, I don't know how I didn't wet myself! :) We signed up and were good to go, but we had one problem. I wasn't 21. To go on a cruise without a parent or guardian, you must be 21, or have someone over 25 in the cabin with me. I felt like a child- but I can guarantee my mom wasn't about to come supervise this cruise. ha. Josh did a lot of calling around with me, and we found out that Allison is over 25, which is perfect because Josh was wanting to invite her anyways.. Everything was good again! :)

So to the actual interesting details of this story, we met at Mickelsen's on Wednesday, the 18th at like 6-ish and drove straight through the night to San Diego to board the boat at noon. Why we were all stupid enough to stay up all night, no one knows, but when we got to san diego, we all crashed and slept outside for a few hours before we had to get on the boat. It was a cold day, but very nice to get a little rest. We got to the dock at about 12:30, but due to our little international girl, Jenni, we had to wait for about an hour or so for her to clear some things through Canada so she could leave the states and return. Last thing we need is for a cute white girl to get stuck in the slums of Mexico. After a lot of issues and a lot of figuring details out, we finally got on the ship and were ready to have the best days of our lives! :) Who wouldn't want to spend 4 days, 3 nights, with me all day long?! I mean, seriously!? Ha just kidding.

Well, the cruise was absolutely phenomenal, and the memories we had are priceless! I got to gain stronger relationships with people I didn't know as well, and our group of friends bonded together a lot more. It makes me grateful for the kind of friends I have in my life. On two different occasions, the boys had to give two different girls a Priesthood Blessing. The power of those blessings were amazing, and the girls were able to be relieved from their pain and enjoy the vacation with us. Though the weather was not super sunny, it was still pretty warm, and the best part of all... ready for this?.....all you can eat dinner! Our waiter, Ivan, was great, and was soo good to us always letting us order about 15 things a piece. It's still kind of hard to adjust to paying for my food now. ha ha. Here's some fun pictures from the cruise. This blog is getting pretty lengthy, and no need to keep rambling on and on and on!


You have no idea how excited we were to finally be in San Diego and no longer in the car!
I had to pay him to take a picture with me, but in the long-run, he was happy he did. ha.. Jon and Jen

It was kinda weird that there were 2000 people on the Cruise and I managed to find a girl one night wearing my EXACT same outfit. Creepy, I don't know. ha... Funny thing is her and her friends ate breakfast with us that morning randomly. So weird.
This is our whole group on the formal night. The best group of friends I could ever ask for :)

I'm Finally a Grown Up

I sit and think about how time has flown. In high school, I always thought I was one of the "cool kids" so to speak as I was involved in just about everything a high school student could be involved in. I had no worries, and I was very much confident in myself and my abilities.
Reality soon slapped me in the face as I started moving on with my education and began my new life on my own. I realized that high school life was far from what life is really like. I had to make new friends, make my own food, support myself through the small amount of income I was making, and I was finally able to date freely and get into relationships as my parents banned me from having a boyfriend in high school, although I sort of had one for about a year. :)
It only took me about a month to fully accept the fact that I was on my way to being a full-pledged "Grown Up". The thought of that scared me to death, but I figured I wouldn't be starting out in the real world until I had my bachelors degree and I was working like all the other older kids did after college.
Well, the time has come. I am graduating this April with a double Associates in both accounting and a general business transfer degree. It has been rough doubling up in classes, but I am very glad I did. I was always planning on transferring to the University of Utah to finish out my bachelors, but about a month or so ago, I started to feel very uneasy about transferring there right now. I was confused and didn't know what I was going to do. I did not want to transfer to a 4-year right away. I then decided to apply for a well-paid recruiting internship at the college, but again, after applying for that, I did not feel like that is what I should be doing. I was enthralled with frustration and wanted to just give up until I heard about an outstanding job opening with a company called Liberty Mountain.
Liberty Mountain distributes gear and supplies to many well-known outdoor companies such as REI, Sports Authority and Big 5. They also distribute to smaller local "mom and pop" shops. They specialize in camping, hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. Having grown up in a very outdoorsy family, my interest was peaked when I heard they were hiring for an Accounts Receivable position. I applied right away.
I was called for my first interview and was told I was one of about 25 people who applied for this job. Having limited experience, I thought I was done for. I then was asked to come and meet with the owner of the company. I met with him, and our interview kind of turned into more of a casual conversation. Always being told to be very professional in an interview, I again thought I was done for. I then received an e-mail stating that they wanted me and two others to come back for yet another interview with the Controller. I was very surprised that I was asked to come back, but I definitely wasn't going to complain. I met with the Controller yesterday, and like the Owner, our interview turned into more of a conversation. I left wondering if I even said anything that would make him want to hire me. I thought back on some of the things I said, and wanted to punch myself for some of my stupid, ridiculous answers.
About two hours later, I got a phone call stating that they chose to hire me above the other two. At first, I thought about asking if they really meant to call me, or if they got the phone numbers mixed up, but I decided that even if the numbers were mixed up, I was still going to accept the offer! Ha. They talked to me about the pay, and it was significantly more than I was expecting. I also will be getting a raise in 3 months according to an evaluation that will be taken place. They also told me that I didn't have to start work until I was finished with Student Government at LDS Business College. My official start date is April 13, but can always be changed if I want or can start earlier. Wow, what more could I ever ask for?!
It makes me extremely grateful for the stumbling blocks I had in my life leading up to this amazing job offer. It is crazy that I am going to be starting my career as a twenty-year-old, but I know now that I really am ready to be a "Grown Up" :). I'm ready to step into the real workforce and make real money. I don't know what I'm going to do when I will no longer have to be living on $500 a month, and will actually have more than enough money to spend, save, and invest. Everything feels so very surreal right now, but I am so glad I was given this opportunity! I will be getting my bachelors degree by taking nigh classes, and slowly working my way to finishing. It may take a while, but that's alright. Especially with the recession in the economy, I do not believe it is the right time to give up such an amazing career start.
Wow, life is good. I am far more blessed than I deserve to be.

Reflection

I have been contemplating a lot about life and about my future lately, and looking back on past trials that I have had, I have come to realize, more surely, how blessed I am. I believe people have come in and out of my life for reasons, but the ones that have stayed in my life are the ones that have impacted me the most.

First of all, my family. I am very lucky to be a part of such a beautiful, fun, and outstanding family. I, like Nephi, have been born of goodly parents! They are both some of the funnest people I have ever been around. My dad is a 12 year old trapped inside a 47 year old man's body. My mom is the one that definitely balances him out as she is the one who will laugh at him, and not with him. ha ha. She makes sure to keep him in line, yet stands by his side to always support his decisions. They both have raised my siblings and me in righteousness and has instilled in our minds the importance of hard work, ambition, education, family, and most of all, the importance of the Church in our lives, and how to always give thanks to our Father for all we have. I love my parents, and I love my family! Ryan, my brother in law, is a pretty "average" guy as well :) no, really.. all joking set aside- He is absolutely wonderful and coulndn't ask for a better person to now be apart of our family. I don't know if he could say the same about us, but I don't really care about that! ha! 

As for my siblings, I truly don't know how I was so extremely lucky to get stuck with the five most amazing people for eternity! They all have such different personalities yet all come together to form such a strong bond and love for one another. Granted, we do fight here and there, but we our friendship and bond between eachother is not something you can find in any ol' family. My family is very unique, and definitely one of a kind. Wonderful, amazing, tremendous! haha. 

Secondly, my very best friends that never let me get down on myself and are always pushing me to be a better person. I have great friends back in Washington, and have made life-long friends here in Salt Lake. It seems though the minute I start getting a little bit down, or the minute I start having a bad day, they know exactly what to do without giving me a superfluous amount of attention to make my day better. I don't know how I found such great friends, but I do know that the Lord knows me and knows I couldn't last these last days without very profound/phenomenal friends. 

Lastly, the "grown ups" in my life. By this, I mean the people who I look up to on a daily basis as I do not have any family here in Utah with me. The Serrell's definitely have helped me a lot through different rough times in my life. I still go to watch their kids on Thursday's until the summer when I will be full-time again. Hope always knows when I've had a bad day, when I had a great night the night before, or when I am really homesick. She gives me great advice about life, and though her religious beliefs are not the same as mine, she gives me outstanding insight on life and gives me a completely different perspective on how to see our trials that come into our lives. 

Also, Aunt Missy. She is Ryan's aunt, but my adopted aunt :). She is someone I can go to with deep Gospel questions or to talk about things that are really bothering me about any aspect-boys, school, roommates.. the list goes on. She is a hero in my life, and I look up to her a lot in my life! She definitely does not treat me as "Sarah's little sister" as do most adults back home who know us both. I love her and am so grateful for her being apart of my life daily.

I guess this post was mostly for my benefit instead of the benefit of others. It's good to sometimes sit back and contemplate about life, and where I want my life to be in ten years. About a month ago, I thought I had my life all planned out, and I seemed to be pretty satisfied with that plan, but as I think now, that direction I was going to embark on is not the direction my life will be heading towards anytime soon, nor is it the direction I want my life to be heading anytime soon. I am very happy with how my life is and with taking one day at a time.

Catch up...

So, I guess it's about time to update things on here.

Life has been great, and I have been busier than ever with school starting up again.

Christmas break was phenomenal with Sarah and Ryan getting married! Ah, I'm so happy for them! It's amazing to me to see how Sarah's life has just brought her straight to Ry and how extremely happy she is... I can't wait to experience true happiness that these two have! Ya know, at times, I may have thought I was in love and that I knew what love meant.. but thinking about it now, I think I get so caught up in the moment that I forget to take a step back and analyze things and realize that I have no idea what true loves means. I am excited to find that true love, but until then... single life is terrific :)

So, many of you may have seen that I edited this post. Paul and I broke up last week, but in reality, I am very grateful for the way things turned out. Granted we didn't date long, but things went very fast and everytime I tried to slow down, they went faster.. that's kind of what we get... It was good while it lasted- and I'm glad to finally know more-so what I'm exactly looking for in a future spouse... It's kind of funny though.. the second the word got out, I've been asked on a bunch of dates, which is really fun haha.. I am going on 5 next week. These boys are doing GREAT on my self-esteem! haha! love it! :)

So other than that, school is going great, and I'm excited to be getting my associates finally! From there who knows what exactly I'll be doing! I haven't yet applied to a 4-year school, but I'm hoping to get an internship at LDSBC come fall to be a recruiter! ah, that would be such a great experience!

Oh, I got to make s'mores with the Serrell kids for their first time ever. It was awesome, and though we had to cook the marshmellows, or "fluffies" as Quinn calls them, in the microwave, it was still quite an experience and they LOVED them!

Here's a way cute picture of Quinner...

Those little boys are growing up so fast. I want them to just stop and stay the size they are right now!


Life is good.. great... amazing!