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?

Don't Dance The Night Away

Erin and I went to a dance at the local institute on Friday. We were excited to go and we even wore matching shoes that we got from Target for $9! When we got there, we realized we didn't have any friends at the dance. Note to self: dances are not fun when there are only two of you. We tried to dance and have fun, but there was only so much we could do! We stayed the whole time though, and it was fun for the most part. Too bad no cute boys asked us to dance. Then we went to my house and watched my favorite Barbie Princess movie. (Don't make fun of us!) In the long run, it was fun! :)

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...