Family Fun

So this is kind of old news, but I wanted to post some pictures of President's Day/Valentine's Day Weekend with the family. (Jason I stole these from the email, hope you don't mind) The biggest part of the weekend was that we rented Rock Band and played it SO many times! We all had so much fun.

 

Stephanie got really into the first song...then got bored.

 

 

Even my Mom wanted to take her stab at singing.

Valentine's Day Dinner!

We seriously had so much fun as a family. Here was the actual series of events. Saturday night: dinner at Johnny Carino's, play rockband. Sunday (Valentine's): Decorated sugar cookies, festive dinner, play rockband. Monday: Snowmobiling, shopping, girl's movie night.

So usually I hate Valentine's Day because I have always been single and seen everyone else go on dates and all that fun stuff. This year, I decided to be less bitter haha. It was nice to have all my family around. I love my family so much. We are crazy and laugh and joke with eachother. I love when everyone is home. I kind of forgot it was Valentine's Day. Oh I almost forgot, my parents were so sweet, they gave me a bag of carrots instead of a bag of M&M's like everyone else. I didn't have to worry about being tempted!

Snowmobiling was sooooo fun!! We took my little nephews with us and we had a blast sledding down the hill and pulling them back up on the machines. Eddie, who is almost 3, was so cute and did not want to ride back up the hill, he wanted to walk. It was a pretty big hill too! Ethan, 5, was just in heaven. I love those two little boys.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. Nothing else new has really happened, I've just kept working and working out and relaxing when I'm not doing one of those two.

Oh. p.s. I am now down 12 pounds and have dropped a size. It feels so good!

Stayin Strong!

Okay so it's been TWO whole weeks since I set all of my goals. I am happy to say that I have actually stayed strong! I was a little nervous about keeping up with everything but somehow I was so motivated that I just couldn't NOT do it. I have faithfully written in two of my journals every day (okay okay so I missed a couple days with my food journal, but the gratitude and regular journal have entries from every day!) I have said my two prayers every day. I have exercised every day, that in itself is an accomplishment. Thanks Tony for your amazing workouts. The scripture study has also been a lot better than expected. There have been a couple days that I haven't had the energy to study as much as other days, but I have always at least read something.

So, here are some of the feelings I have had these last two weeks. I feel so much closer to my Heavenly Father. I don't feel ashamed to talk to him anymore and I really feel like I can go to him whenever I need guidance. I have been so much happier. I can't express how much these things have affected me. I feel happier with myself, and I want to continue being positive with everything. Also, I feel healthier. I'm amazed at how different my body feels. Even though I'm not a size 2 and I still have a ways to go, I feel better. It doesn't matter to me anymore what size I am, I just want to feel like I'm healthy, and I do! I just love it.

Now on to some other news in my life lately. Last Friday, my cousin was driving from Idaho Falls to Rexburg and hit a moose on the freeway. It took his life. Tragic. Heartbreaking. So many things have gone through my head and I have cried more than I have in a long time. I hurt most for his little wife and his mom, my mom's sister. He was only married for a year. I can't imagine how she feels. I also hurt so much for my big brother, Jason. He was so close to Derek. They were best friends. It hurts me so much to see others hurt. Of course this was unexpected and there was nothing that could have stopped it from happening. I miss him so much already but it makes things easier to know that this isn't the end. Our family and everyone that knew him will see him again.

Other news, I have made a big decision.........I'm changing my major! This has been quite a challenge for me to decide. I was SO convinced that I wouldn't ever change my major but I realized that I'm not happy. I have tried to tell myself that this major was perfect for me and I was so content, but I wasn't letting myself see the truth. I don't want to do it anymore. I have no goals anymore, because I definitely don't want to work in retail my whole life, which is what my initial plan with business was. So here's the new plan: I'm going to be a teacher. I am going to teach Family and Consumer Science, aka sewing, cooking, budgeting, etc. Now, I'm aware that many people think this means that I'm studying to be a mom and I admit there are girls that DO study this just to be a mother. However, I am not one of them. I really want to teach, and sewing is something I love to do. I really feel like I'm going to be a lot happier. I'm already so excited! It's going to be a major change but I'm ready for it.

Yoga

Mr. Tony Horton has gotten me to do things that I never thought I would do. One being yoga. It's a 90 minute workout and I was in positions that I never thought I would be in. Here are some pictures of the pros performing some of the insanity. Yes I did these.

Now I know this doesn't look so hard but it is. It was hard to keep my balance then put my hands on the ground, then twist up sideways. My legs were definitely on fire.

So the P90X people hold this position for a full minute. I'm not that hard core. I only lasted about 3 seconds...I was afraid I would fall on my face.

Okay so I was so close to getting my feet to touch the ground, but I just couldn't do it. But I tried my hardest!

A Fresh Start

Well, I don't know how many people actually read my blog, however, I feel the need to update and inform everyone on my new and improved lifestyle!

So to start, the JCPenney salon girls are having a Biggest Loser contest and I joined! It started about 3 or 4 weeks ago and goes until the end of February. This was exactly the motivation that I needed to get healthier. I didn't really think I had a shot at winning but I have wanted so badly to get in better shape. So I have dramatically changed my eating habits and I exercise every day...which is HUGE for me! I usually give up after about a week of working out, but I have kept at it faithfully for the last month or so. I already feel so much better about myself and I can feel my body getting smaller and stronger. I have been doing the P90X workouts and oh man they are amazing! The first couple workouts I did were killer but I am getting better at them. I love how they challenge me and mix things up every morning. It's been tough to get up every day before work, but once I do I feel sooooo much better! I love how I am feeling right now.

Next up, I have been inspired by the people in my dad's ward. I have been attending his student ward in Rexburg since I am off track and I didn't really want to go to the single's ward or our home ward by myself. I have been absolutely loving it. I can not believe how strong the people in the ward are. I absolutely love going to church and I actually pay attention and get something out of the lessons. Well, anyways, last night was FHE and there were two groups that came to the house. I can't even describe how amazing these people are. They are so welcoming and funny and outgoing, I love it. Anyway, I was told all growing up that the type of person I am will determine the type of person I will marry (or something to that effect). For some reason, last night and the lessons in church on Sunday really got me thinking about how I need to be better at a lot of things. I want to be better at studying, not just skimming, my scriptures. Also, I am not faithful at saying my prayers twice a day. Sometimes I don't even get one in. BUT, I'm changing. I want to be worthy of someone who does these things and is always growing as a person spiritually, mentally, and physically. I decided to do something about these thoughts and act on the inspiration I received last night while I studied my scriptures. I went to Wal-Mart/Target and bought 3 new journals and a dry-erase board. I am going to hang up the board and make a checklist of things I need to do daily. I got a dry-erase board so every single day I can re-check what I do. (It's quite the list I will say) I actually have purposes for each journal too! One is a fresh new regular journal. I hate writing in my old journal because I was so unfaithful that there are entries from 2000, it just depresses me that I didn't keep up so I'm starting fresh! The second journal is a gratitude journal, it's adorable, and I can't wait to use it! I'm going to write 3 things I am grateful for every day. I'm starting out small with just 3 so I don't get overwhelmed, even though there are PLENTY more things I am grateful for each day. Then last but not least, the third journal is my food journal. I am going to keep a daily record of everything I eat so I can always refer back and improve on my eating habits. Like I said, I have already made drastic changes but I still have major room for improvement.

Moving on. Like I said I totally love my dad's ward, but he had to give me a talk about the best way to act around the students since I am the Bishop's daughter. He told me to be very outgoing with them, in other words I have to majorly get out of my comfort zone. He also told me to not just blurt out that I am the Bishop's daughter, so as not to freak them out. He told me lots more, but I'll get to the point. I put all of this into practice on Sunday and I couldn't believe the difference. I had prayed for help in being confident and I was extremely blessed. I was able to talk to so many different people and make conversation and really learn their names, not just ask for it then forget it 5 seconds later. I really made friends because of my own efforts, not just because I'm the Bishop's daughter.

So here are my new resolutions in a nutshell:
1. Keep my room clean. It took me forever to get it cleaned after I moved home and I want it
to stay that way.
2. Study my scriptures every day.
3. Work-out every day...except Sunday of course :)
4. Put things in my body that will benefit me.
5. Limit my time on Facebook. I waste a lot of hours.
6. Say two prayers every day.
7. Write in my 3 journals every day.
8. Be more outgoing and confident. Confident, not cocky.
9. Be more honest.
10. Stop gossiping. This is a big one for me. I admit that I have always struggled with this.

I think that's everything! I'll update how my resolutions are coming.

I am a blog slacker

Wow, I definitely need to catch up. Since my last blag post, a month ago, I have done quite a bit.

First things first, I'm done with school!! Yay! I had the most stressful finals week...ever. The week before finals, I had an accounting and econ test and then finals week I had another accounting and econ comprehensive final: gross. Amongst all of this, I was working on CompXM for my business class. It took me probably a good 20 hours to finish it. Small description of CompXM: it is a simulation where we basically are running a business through excel, we are in charge of forecasting, financing the company, creating products, taking care of employees and improving the plant. It's intense, but really fun. I actually had so much fun doing the decisions but there were also multiple choice questions which killed me. I ended up being one point away from breaking the school record for the highest score. There were however other people in the class who definitely broke the record. My wonderful teacher still gave me 100 on it though. He is the best :) Anyways, yeah I studied more than I have ever studied in one week. I was so burned out, it was a whole new experience for me. Final grades posted and I only got one A- in accounting so I got the full tuition scholarship! I feel so blessed and lucky because there is no way I could have done what I did by myself.

Now to the fun stuff. The American Idol concert was a couple weeks ago. It was absolutely incredible. Adam brings so much power into a room. And wow, he can dance. He did a Bowie Medley and oh my goodness, he was dancing all over the place. Surprisingly everyone in Salt Lake was screaming for Adam more than anyone else but maybe I'm just biased. I actually was super impressed with ALL of them. They all have improved so much since the show, especially Scott, I absolutely loved his part of the show, he was awesome! After the concert we went to the premiere of Harry Potter and I'm ashamed to say that I fell asleep. I was exhausted after not only the concert but we had also gone to the Gateway earlier :) I officially own Anthropologie pants, they are beautiful and I also got an adorable jacket from Banana Republic. It was such a good shopping trip. So anyways Harry Potter, what I saw I really liked! So I of course had to go see it again, I had to wait till after finals though because I couldn't take that much time away from studying. So I saw it again and oh my gosh, I absolutely loved it. It was sooooooo good!

A lot more things have happened but those are the biggest. Now video and pictures from American Idol. The pictures don't look like we had the greatest seats...but they were actually really good. :)

This is all the idols at the end. They rose Kris and Adam up from under the stage :)

Kris at the piano

Kris again

Adam :) :)

He took off the jacket for the Bowie Medley

Danny

Michael, Lil, Anoop, Matt, Megan, Scott

Scott!

p.s.

By the way, I got my tickets for the American Idol tour and I am UNBELIEVABLY excited!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see Adam live <3 and the rest of the idols of course.

Time for an update! :)

It's about time I did a little update on my life. As always, not a lot has changed, I'm still just trying to keep up with everything that's happening.

First of all, my classes are SOOO intense!! Yesterday I spent 6 and a half ish hours at the accounting lab doing my homework, one problem took me like 2 and a half hours, I was about ready to cry. Other than that, I really do enjoy accounting, I just really like the concepts and the things that we do.

My other classes are econ, business, communications and Book of Mormon. I don't really like my Book of Mormon teacher this semester but oh well. I just LOVED mine last semester and don't feel like he can be topped.

So let me just share my most frustrating experience of the semester. My computer decided to have seizures on me. The first time it happened I was totally freaked out but it got progressively less shocking when it happened. The easiest way I can describe what happened is that the screen would break up and flash and really really really loud static would come out. I finally decided to call AppleCare and see what they had to say about it but of course, they had no clue so I took it to the computer help desk on campus and left it with them to take care of. They ended up sending it into Apple and Apple basically gave me a brand new computer, it was a beautiful moment. I got it back yesterday. I never thought it would be so hard to be without my computer for just a week but I was going absolutely crazy.

Things are still going great with my roommates! We haven't had one fight all semester. There have been a few little angry moments but nothing major. I can't believe it, I was getting so used to everyone in an apartment being in a bad mood that I didn't think it was possible to actually fully get along with all my roommates. I'm having such a good time with them. Right now I'm thinking about moving to a different apartment complex in the fall but I haven't completely decided yet so we will see.

I know none of that was ridiculously exciting but it's better than nothing!

"Be kind, it's never the wrong thing to do." :)