Happy Late Thanksgiving!

Okay, I know that Thanksgiving was two days ago, but I just really wanted to write a post about people and things I love and am grateful for.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ: For all the tender mercies they grant me, loving me unconditionally, blessing me with all the wonderful things I have in my life, sending me the spirit, answering prayers, giving me opportunities to grow and learn, sending me trials, sending me wonderful people, always being there so I don't feel alone.

My Parents: For supporting me, letting me live my dreams, laughing at me when I do dumb things, letting me live with them, listening to my worries and concerns even if they are trivial or dumb, loving me, working hard, teaching me good things and helping me live the gospel.

My siblings: For teasing me non-stop, helping me to laugh at myself, playing games and talking, being great examples, acting like crazies.

My best friend: For listening to everything I say, understanding me, making me laugh like no one else can, reminding me to be silly sometimes, going to China with me so I don't have to go alone, being a great example, teaching me, going to Barnes and Noble with me, being my best friend.

My friends: For skipping classes with me, texting me in class, doing crazy things with me, watching movies and quoting kid history, listening to my music and pretending to like it, listening to me and understanding me, sticking with me through the years, always being there, being great examples of faith and love, laughing at me.

Work: Ideally, I would just be rich and not need to work, but I am so grateful to be able to work for the things I want like school and China. I'm grateful that I have a job where I have friends and good managers who keep things uplifting and positive and make me feel like a winner. :)

School: I'm not thankful for homework, but I'm so glad I can go to school and learn. I love being able to learn new things and become a better person. I am grateful that I can pay for my education and that my teachers are so nice and understanding.

America: Freedom to practice whatever religion I want, to say what I want, and to be what I want. I love America and the freedoms I enjoy. I am proud to be an American!

Money: I know, this is so shallow, but I am so grateful for money because it teaches me a lot. Paying for school and China has been hard, but I'm so glad that I had to work for those things. You work hard for things that are important to you.

China: I am so glad China exists so I can go spend five months teaching English with my best friend. :)

I am so blessed and overwhelmed with everything in my life. Life isn't perfect, but it sure is wonderful!

Happy Holidays!

Life Sure Is Crazy!

Hello! Long time no see/type? So here's just an update on the things going on in my life.

I'm going to Weber State full time where I'm working towards my Elementary Education degree (and not even half way yet). I work 20 to 30 hours a week at a restaurant where I try to make enough money to pay for expensive tuition and payments for China.

I leave for China to teach English for 5 months on January 30th with my best friend. I will spend a few days touring Hong Kong before going to my assigned school, which I will be informed of in December. I'm beyond excited since I've been wanting to go for over a year and it's finally happening! :)

I have the best friends anyone could ask for. They are good people, they help me be a better person and help me out when I need them. I can't say how glad I am to have them. They text me while I'm bored in class, watch movies with me, and follow me when I decide to go somewhere on a whim.

I love my family so much, they are so supportive of everything going on. I love sitting down with my mom and updating her on all things school, boys, work, and friends. I know my family members all love me and care about what goes on in my life. I love them all very very much.

I'm a member of the Welcoming Committee in my ward and I haven't really gotten a chance to do much yet, but I'm really excited to meet all the new people that come into the ward and make some new friends to add to the other wonderful friends.

After coming back from working at the resort, I felt a little like a different person. I'm more adventurous and spontaneous. I'm more me, and I have gotten to where I like myself for who I am.

Life is definitely going uphill right now and I'm grateful to be out of the slumps I was in at the beginning of the year. I'm very blessed in all aspects of my life. It helps to be postive when things get hard, because they still do sometimes. Either way, I love Heavenly Father and Jesus very much and I'm trying very hard to please them. I have so much, how could I forsake them?

On A Scale of 1 to 10...

Conference gets a 100! The best way to be uplifted and rejuvenated is to attend conference either at home on the TV or in person at the Conference Center like I did. Erin, Alex, Jordan, and I decided we wanted to go see if we could get tickets to the afternoon session today. Somehow, Jordan magically had 4 tickets 5 minutes after we arrived. It's a miracle to see so many saints in the same place. There is a fellowship felt that I can't fully explain. We are all brothers and sisters and we feel that bond when we come together.

Words can't explain what I feel towards my church and my church leaders. What wonderful men and women. They are good, charitable, loving, and in all ways an example of Christ. I feel so blessed to be instructed by them  as their words ring true in my heart. At the end of conference, I feel so blessed. I live in a wonderful state where I am surrounded by so many who share my beliefs. I can go to the temple whenever I want with so many temples nearby in less than an hour. My family all lives close and I see them often. I have the best immediate family of all time (dispute all you want, I'll never back down. :) ). They make me laugh and we are all very close. All my favorite memories involve them. I could go on for hours about all the blessings I have but mostly, I want to say that I LOVE my life. I love who I am, who I can become, and Heavenly Father for giving me this life and allowing me to still be in it. I can never repay Him or the Savior for what they have done for me. I only hope that I can live my life in such a way that will show my gratitude and love. I'm excited to be able to someday serve a mission and share my testimony with the world. Until then, little blog, you will have to do.

A Few Changes

Where to start? Well, I passed all my classes but lost my scholarship. That means that I can't afford school right now so I am moving home to work full time. Either I will go to  a Universtiy near my house or I will go to China. It's all a toss up right now. I am a little sad at how things have turned out, but mostly, I feel so relieved to have a semester off. It seems to me that Heavenly Father has been preparing me for this for a while now. Even though this isn't really what I had in mind for myself, it's what He had in mind that counts. I've been placing a lot of trust in Him lately and sometimes, I get nervous because I might not like what He plans for me. In the long run, I know that He knows best and I will see those blessings eventually. To explain a little, I was working at McDonald's at school. They weren't going to give me the break off to go home so I was going to be spending most of my break away from home. It wasn't worth it to me so I thought a lot about quitting. I mulled over it a lot and finally decided to quit. I prayed about it and it felt like the right thing to do. I was a little confused because I needed to pay rent for my apartment for the first of January and I wouldn't be able to make the money if I quit. That's when I knew I was going to be relying very heavily on Heavenly Father and my faith. I quit my job and came home. I took over a cleaning job for my brother in hopes of making enough to pay for it. Today is January 3rd and my last check from McDonald's still hasn't arrived and I still haven't been paid for the cleaning job. I'm scared that the money won't come till after a $50 late fee gets tacked onto my already expensive rent. I just keep reminding myself to have faith and remember that I've done all I can, I just need to leave it up to him. I probably won't be able to sell my contract, but if anyone is interested, let me know! ;)

Life is so unpredictable. That must be why I love it so much. You get into the swing of things and it sends a curve ball. Some curve balls really stink but others are awesome. Either way, they bring blessings and growth. I've grown a lot in just four months, enough to say I'm done moving out, but I needed to do it for a while so I could grow more. I always said I would move out and I was so anxious to be on my own. After doing that for a while, I missed my family way too much and I didn't like only worrying about myself. Call me crazy! :) It took me almost the whole semester to adjust to life and I was completely not myself. I would come home for a weekend or break and all those feelings would just melt away. I never wanted to go back to my apartment very much, but I never dreaded it either. I had fun down at school, so so much fun! I just like living where people know me and love me no matter what. I'm always accepted at home and I always have friends. Maybe I'm taking the easy way out, but it feels right. I'm much better at making new friends when I'm home than when I'm away. I've already made some new friends this winter break than I did in a whole semester away. I'm so grateful to my room mates who dealt with me and my dysfunctional self and to Heavenly Father who gave me such a wonderful experience. I'm ready to grow in some other ways now, progress in life more. Life is nothing with out progression. I just barely found a video I would like to share with you that I really liked. :)
"Look Not Behind Thee"

So moving home is one change. The other is that I've finally decided on a blog name I like and the url is different now. The title comes from a talk by President Thomas S. Monson in General Conference 2008. My new URL is www.thewaytojoy.blogspot.com. That about sums up all the changes. For now...

It's a Christmas Miracle!

I only have a short time to post before we go spend time with extended families so here goes!

Christmas is an absolutely wonderful holiday. I love the feeling of love and happiness that comes from spending time with family, serving others and enjoying buying gifts for other people. Christmas Eve, we always go to my grandma's house and have dinner and read a Christmas story together. Last night was a little different because we visited my Grandpa in Rehab after he just had hip replacement surgery, then we went to their house. After visiting at Grandma's, we came home and watched It's A Wonderful Life. This morning, I think we slept later than we ever have on Christmas. Someone woke me up at 8 to go open presents and my parents were already up. Usually, we run into their room and beg them to get up.

Christmas this year was a little different because money has been kind of tight. None of us minded since we all know that Christmas is more than presents. However, my mom was having a really hard time because she wanted to buy us things and she couldn't. When we were getting ready to go down and open our presents, my mom said, "There are presents here that I didn't put here." Then she asked my Dad if he knew where they came from. He didn't know either. Me, being a little cheesy said, "It's a Christmas Miracle!" About six times. Everytime I said it, my older sister would sing, "Fa who dor ace, ba who dor ay" (The who's song from The Grinch). We thought that was pretty hilarious. Anyway, we first passed around presents that we bought for each other.Then, we tried to figure out where the mystery gifts came from. After talking and asking questions, I asked my younger brother (He's 17) if it was him. He is a terrible liar. He said it wasn't, but we could all tell it was. I opened the present that he had secretly bought. Inside it was a wrapped box. I opened that to a gift bag. Inside it was a card. I opened the card to $80 cash and a note that said, "Here is $80 towards a new cell phone :) Merry Christmas!" Now, if you have seen my cellphone, you know I need a new one. It's a joke... He bought both my Dad and older brother a ticket to a really nice Ski Resort. (Those are NOT cheap) My older sister got a new camera from him, my mom got a nice food processor since she has wanted one. My little sister got an ottoman for her room. My mom just cried. She cried really hard and as I hugged my Santa Brother, he cried too. Soon, all the girls and him were crying. My brother has been working over time like crazy at McDonald's to earn the money to spoil all of us. He must have spent some where around $400 dollars for everyone. He is the sweetest little brother anyone could ever have. He DEFINITELY wins Brother of the Year. So in all reality, this was the best Christmas EVER because of my little brother. That act of love and kindness cannot be beat. I tear up even now thinking of all the time he spent to get the money for this, how he has been listening to everyone to see just what they need or want.

He kept everything at my aunts house until late last night. Then he snuck down at five in the morning to set them up next to our piles of presents. My Aunt knew what he was doing so her an my Uncle bought him something so he would have a nice present too. He got a nice stereo since his is run down and overused. Christmas isn't about the presents though. It's about the service that people do. The acts of kindness that people do and the love that is shown. My little brother showed true love and selflessness this Christmas. I love him so much!

Turkey Day

Things I love about my family... (and Thanksgiving)

• Talking wooden Amish people
• Memories
• My little cousin trying to create a marching line with everyone
• Playing Don't Break The Ice
• Pulling out the Christmas decor after cleaning up the Thanksgiving dinner
• Realizing how many things we have to be grateful for
• Driving to Wal-Mart for the last minute spray cheese
• "Blackmailing" with crazy pictures
• Cousins singing at the top of their lungs
• Seeing people that you haven't seen in a while
• The Manichean in the basement
• Feeling warm and fuzzy
• Hugging the Grandparents
• Talking about liver and sheep fetuses.... *coughashleycough*
• Staying at Grandma's for over 6 hours and not wanting to leave ever
• Catching up with my twin cousin
• Knowing you are loved no matter what
• Mecham Style Happy Birthday (You haven't lived until you've heard it)
• Realizing that you must prep outsiders before they hear the Mecham's sing so they don't get scared
• The food is never gross
• Never getting bored
• Knowing we are a forever family
• Fishing worms
• Praying together
• Hide and seek
• Dress ups
• Laughing together
• We are not just a family, we are friends