My Simple, Happy, Beautiful Life

I realized this blog is mainly text, which can get boring, so I am going to post pictures of important people and things of my life. My Best Friend Some of my roomates this semester. They are amazing! My 14 year old Dog Butch. He is a little younger here, but he is definitely aging now. Me and Michael Buble! ;) I accomplished one of my to do before I die list things during the summer. Skydiving was so worth it. Reccomend it.  John Mayer Concert with some of my best friends! I know it is backwards, but it me and my friend Amanda at Free Zoo Day on Christmas Eve. Precious I know :) My Utah Friends, I love them to death!

I find it interesting when you talk to people, and you can tell there is something bothering them. They won't tell you openly what is bothering them. They give you a plausible explanation, but you know the problem is something much different. They just try to find a cover up. I find this interesting with my friends. I will talk to them and they tell me that they are frustrated with some external event, but when I really get down to the root then it is something much more internal and personal. There are a lot of people who will just accept the false explanation and then move on. But I think we need to really try to understand people by understanding the root of the problem. It reminds me of what we learned in AP English, and we have a tone and a undertone. The tone is the obvious one but we have to analyze and take time to find out the undertone. It can be hard to find the undertone in a passage, but when we find it we have a clearer picture. Take time to find the undertone or the ...

My brother once told me that there was a formula for happiness. I am not sure, but I think it was your expectations divided by reality. I have seen people live with high expectations, which in my opinion is a good thing.  It is a good thing in certain situations, when we are able to drop our high expectations if they are not realistic. Many people have these high goals and expectations, and when things don't work out as planned, then they become depressed. We need to have high expectations but then we need to learn to let things go and not have disappointment take over. It is a hard mix to not have too high expectations but then not lower them too much, so we don't get anywhere in life. There is a happy medium that we should strive to reach, where we still have a expectation but not too high, that could possibly lead to unhappiness, and too low expectations that could lead to boredom. I have been thinking about this lately. It applies to dating, amazin...

Today I  ran the 5k in the Run to Feed the Hungry. I ran with my brother's fiance, and we helped motivate each other to keep going throughout the race. We finished the time around 30 minutes, which we were happy about. I could of kept running because I was still energized after the end of the race. My goal next time is to run a 10k, I think it is possible to reach if I trained up to running that much Anyways, my Thanksgiving Day was good. Of course, it was a thanksgiving feast. We had a lot of people come; extended family, friends, and close family. We watched football, played games, ate, pet my 14 year old dog who is getting really old. He received the most attention he has received in a long time. Everyone gave him lots of love. The dinner was good and filling. I haven't felt stuffed in a really long time. The dinner conversations went from trees, tools, music. family, and religion. It was fun to just laugh about the past and talk about the future. Anyways, I am glad that I...

Today, I went out to lunch with one of my best friends, I haven't seen her for a long time. We laughed and talked for a long time. Time passing didn't matter, we ate very slowly, and just talked about our hopes and where we want to travel. We both talked about our recent endeavors in school and just our recent hobbies and passions. It was cool to see that even if we didn't talk that much that we could have a good friendship. I love those friendships, although we may not see each other a lot, I can always rely on them and just know that we can have a good time. We are so different but we manage to be best friends, it is weird. But I am so grateful for my friends who I can just talk to whenever and trust them completely. Life wouldn't be complete without those kind of friends. Most of my friendships are like this, which is pretty cool. One of my best friends, we see each other once a year maybe, but when we get together, it seems like no time has passed. Without the socia...

Here is a video I found on youtube about people talking about gratitude. It made me smile, and I think it might uplift you during this thanksgiving season. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuwid8_O8dk . To continue, It made me think what I am thankful for, and I could write a long list, but here is mine: I am thankful for -My family, they support me in all that I do, and show love everyday. -My friends, they are such good listeners, and I can always count on them to make me laugh. -God, As I am coming to know him more, my gratitude increases. -Music, it is my life. I love to listen and dance along to it. It brings so much joy into my life. -My body, I love the fact I can run and dance and be healthy. -Education, I love learning and being able to challenge myself. -The Atonement-Without it, I would have no way to return back to my Heavenly Father! -Food, I love to eat good and bad food, of course bad food in moderation! haha -Sleep and having a Bed ...

I heard a quote that made me think: "I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious". Guess who said that? Albert Einstein. The quote inspired me to have the hope that I can become a amazing scientist, or whatever I want to be. Albert Einstein had struggled with learning when he was younger, his teachers said he wouldn't perform at a high level. Well, they were wrong! The fact that he said he didn't have special talents, but just that curiosity made him gain his infinite knowledge brings me hope. I know I may not be the most intelligent person alive, but I have a strong desire to learn, and curious nature about asking questions on human nature. I think that the ingredients to gaining more knowledge and wisdom are not purely intelligence. I believe that in order to gain wisdom one must have; the curious nature of asking questions, strong desire to learn, and to be hard working. When all of these combine, I think one can receive more intelligence than someone...

I was thinking about life's greatest joys. The things that bring me joy when I feel down. Buy me a two pound bag of twizzler's and a loaf of french bread and I am set for happiness. Don't get me wrong, I love my chocolate and red roses, but french bread just hits the spot! Roses die, and chocolate is temporary joy. I recently just bought a loaf of french bread, and it brought much needed delight into my life. Everyone has their simple pleasures in life. I remember traveling to San Fransisco and walking  into the bread factory and loving every minute smelling the fresh loafs of bread in the oven. Then I first tasted the inspired mixture of clam chowder in a hot sourdough bread bowl. I knew what love was when I tasted clam chowder in a bread bowl. I know it may sound silly and I do admit I am a silly person. Everyone has a silly side to them even serious people. Have you ever witnessed a serious person open up and reveal their silly side? I have. It is funny to see the contra...

I don't have anything exciting to say. Not a extraordinary day. I did homework, played piano, went to my grandpa's house, took a nap, ran, the usual. Played apples to apples for family home evening. I guess you have to be grateful for the good, bad, and just average days. They all have their purpose. Although, nothing exciting happened, I did make this big page of goals. I was thinking of things I want to change in my life. I made categories, made specific goals that I want to do in my life. It made me think about how we talked about how Marriage and Family Therapy is goal specified therapy, which makes it work. You make a specific goal, work to accomplish the goal and then you have improved! I like making goals. I make goals subconsciously, I may not follow up on them, but I like to make them, evaluate my progress, and then make changes. This may sound dorky, weird, whatever you want to call it. But goals make me driven. They give a direction in life, where I can make progress...

This weekend someone called me beautiful, and it made me feel amazing. I haven't been called beautiful for a while, and I just started getting used to it. But when he called me beautiful, it made me think about why it made me feel so good. I think as females, we have this need to feel beautiful. We may not need to be size 0 to be beautiful, but feeling pretty is important to our self esteem. Why? I don't know. Maybe it is a natural feeling that we are born with. I remember when I was young, i loved feeling "pretty" in my tutu and princess clothes. It made me feel, simply happy to feel like a princess. We lose the need to dress up as a princess when we get older, except during on random days when we are depressed or on halloween. But when a guy will call you beautiful, it just will brighten up my day. So here is a note to all the guys in the world, even though I don't think anyone reads this blog. When you tell a girl that she is beautiful, you will brighten up her...

I decorated my grandpa's house today. It made me so happy. Seeing everyone else happy listening to good old Bing Crosby and drinking hot chocolate was a highlight of my week. My favorite part was playing the piano and singing Christmas songs. I started playing songs, and everyone gathered around the piano. The house was decorated beautifully. I was looking at the decorations, there were so many, and the house was lite up in every room. There were colors of red, green, gold, pink, blues. The combinations were beautiful I could only think of my Grandma. She would play the piano and sing, that was her greatest joy. And there I was playing on her piano, singing with my family and friends, and it brought so much joy. I haven't felt this much joy in a long time. I just feel love for everyone, for music, for this time, for everything. Watching my grandpa feel joy and talking to the group, brought me so much pride and joy. I was related to this amazing grandpa. I was able to feel that...

I was sitting in the library, when i pulled up a blank document. I was going to study for my social psychology exam, but I had a weird thought pop into my head. My future is a blank sheet of paper waiting to be filled with amazing things. It is going to fill up with many people who will come into my life. It will fill up with amazing work positions where I will be able to help others. It will up with all the experiences I have yet to have in my life. I just realized I have a bright future ahead of me, and I need to remember that as I craft my decisions. I shouldn't be afraid to shine and take advantage of those opportunities that will fill up my blank piece of paper right now. My assignment for one of my classes is to make a VITA for graduate school, and I realized I don't have many things to put on my VITA. I don't have a research internship, I have never been a Teacher's Assistant, but I have yet to do these things. I have yet to shadow in counseling, see what happens...

I have had a hard time with time management lately. I procrasinate unto the point where I am stressed. i get so stressed, I am unhappy, and I am just rushing to get things down. I finished my homework, and I ran. It felt so nice. I carried all the stress within me all day. I got on the treadmill, turned on Michael Buble, imagined myself performing my quickstep and cha cha final. I got in this mode, and I just started enjoying my running. I could feel stress coming off my chest, I could feel just relaxation, I could think clearly. I haven't had that kind of feeling in a long time. I love the feeling of exercise where I can let go of negative emotions, get them out in a healthy outlet, where at the end of exercise I have a happy and healthy feeling. I love getting on the treadmill, or wherever I am running, thinking about what is worrying me, and then watch my cares float away. I can get my anger, frustration, stress out by imagining it go away each step I take when I run. I let my i...

A friend of mine came over to vent.I realized she didn't need someone to give her advice. She needed someone to just sit there and listen. Try to understand her, and just be there for her. I thought of times in my life, when I needed someone to just listen to me. Often times when i was frustrated, I just needed to vent. I tried to give my friend advice, and I realized she just needed me to listen. During times when i was sad, lonely, needing something  more, having my friend there to talk to and give me their complete attention was all I needed. Someone to just smile and say "I am sorry, I understand". Someone to let you cry on their shoulder. Someone to cry with you. Someone to laugh with you. Someone to be your friend. Someone to make you feel like you aren't alone. There is a innate feeling that we must be loved, feel like someone else cares, that someone else on the planet understands us. It dosen't matter if it is a loving grandpa, a understanding mother, a...

Lately, I have been going and going and going continuously. I think it all caught up to me last night. I realized I was pushing myself too much, and then I could feel my temperature going up. I finally just took time to recooperate. I slept 13 hours, skipped class, and I am just relaxing today. I know I will be behind, but it is more important for me to have my body rested and healthy. Not saying that everyone should skip class and work, but don't work yourself too hard. When your body is sending you signals, that it needs rest. Don't ignore it, and give your body rest. I could feel my body just being completely exhausted, but I ignored and kept working at a full pace. Sleep. Eat Healthy. Exercise in Moderation. Take Breaks when you are tired, Don't overwhelm yourself. When you are stressed don't ignore it with work, find a outlet and use it to release it. If you don't release stress, then it will build up and it can cause sickness in your body. I could of avoided f...

As we had a presentation in Child development today, we learned about children's language development. It made me wonder the affect of parent's fighting in toddler's language development. Of course, there would be other effects like their emotional development.  But, specifically I am interested in finding out the effect of arguments and language development. Are children going to learn and recognize the negative tone in their parents voices? Are they going to pick up on negative words? Are they going to model their parents and argue with others more, making them more aggressive and argumentative? Children model their mom and dad's behavior, so it makes sense to me that watching their mom's negative language to the father, they would observe and model. I bet there is already research out there about this subject. It is just something interesting to think about. What are children learning from arguing parents?