My Simple, Happy, Beautiful Life

I love weddings, they just make me happy. I love watching the first dance. I love watching couples stuff cake into each other's face. I love wedding dresses and colors. I think at one point in my life I considered being a wedding planner. I would love it, but in my brother's wedding I learned a lot. Wedding Planning is hard. It takes lots of time, money, decisions. You have to decide your wedding colors, place for the reception, luncheon, wedding date, flowers, first dance song, catering, and 5 thousand other things. Even thought it is hectic, it is a very exciting time! Picking out fabric took lots of time, but it was fun to match colors and figure out what color combinations work. I love the wedding reception, mormon wedding receptions are much different than regular receptions. They are much cheaper, we do things to save money. I came up with ideas for my wedding in 5 years....haha. Well, maybe not 5 years but not anytime soon! 1. Me and my bridesmaids are going to make a

I have had mixed emotions today. Everything is changing around me. I am changing. I am going new places in my life, I am traveling to new places.It is a very exciting time in my life. Nothing is permanent. The people I meet will be temporary in my life. My life is packed in boxes in Rexburg. My life is old clothes in Elk Grove. My life is thinking ahead of what my plans are for the next semester. My life is constantly changing. The one thing constant is the fact that the people in it are constantly coming and going. I have just realized that everything will change from this point in my life. I won't be home until August this year. I will be in Florida and then Idaho for the spring semester. Elk Grove doesn't have much to offer me anymore. I went to my singles ward today and It just felt weird. All the younger single adults were leaving, so the ward is going to be tiny. I don't hang out with my friends from High School anymore. My friends don't live in Elk Grove anymor

I have a collection of letters and notes from loved ones in a box in my room. I never look at them. Today, I had this urge to read my letters in that box. I felt so loved to read letters and have reminders of some of my favorite memories. I looked at old letters and they just made me happy to read. And reading old notes from my friends in High School made me laugh, we have all changed in so many ways. It is a good change from being immature and silly to more mature and having a clearer picture of our future. I have had lots of love in my life. I am very loved by everyone around me. It is nice to know that I will always have that strong support system with me wherever I go. Even if I don't talk to my friends from High School anymore, I will always remember our friendships. I know this blog is very sentimental. I guess I am in a grateful, reflective mood lately. It is the season to reflect and show love to those around us. I love this time where I can spend time with my family. Esp

I had a stressful time packing. I had to rush to finish my finals to pack to get to the shuttle. I went to my best friends wedding in Ogden Utah. I had a blast. Here are some pictures from the wedding :) I caught the bouqet..so that means my wedding will be next. If next means in a couple of years, but Mary looked beautiful in her wedding dress, and she looked very happy. It was exciting to see one of my best friends on one of her happiest days of her life. This is when Mary was leaving the reception, all the girls took one last picture! Don't we all look cute? Anyways, I left finals early to go to the wedding, and surprised Mary. Her reaction was the best, "Wait, what are you doing here, you're not supposed to be here!" haha. She hugged me and then wouldn't let go! It was worth it to surprise Mary. I couldn't miss her wedding for the world. I remember planning our weddings when we were 12 year old. I think we are growing up at the this point! haha. I ju

In my child development class, I received a big compliment in the last class period. I have never been thanked for being in the class. I am not bragging in this blog, I am purely just saying my thoughts. If It sounds like I am bragging, it is not my intention I gained new perspectives on modern issues dealing with child development. I commented a lot in that class, I thought I commented too much. Sometimes I would think I have a interesting thought, but think I would I say too much. I ended up saying sharing my thought with the class. During the final, the teacher stood up and thanked a few students. I was one of them! I felt honored. She said I had consistent comments that added to the learning in the classroom. I hugged my teacher after words and said "Thank you for teaching, I enjoyed the course". She said, "Thank you for being in the class, I enjoyed having you in the classroom". It just felt good to have a teacher thank me for my participation, to be noticed. I

I have striaght hair, but I want curly hair. We can never find happiness in our own situation. We look at others and what they have, develop a jealousy, and then want what they have. What brought this blog about is when I was walking in the cafeteria. I heard two girls eating lunch together. One said, "At least boys ask you out". The other girl said, " I don't want them to ask me out, I want to be single and be left alone". And then they kept going back on each other talking about how they were jealous about the other person's situation. Why can't we find the joy and benefits of our own situation? Why do we want what we can't have? Why do we want the forbidden? Why we do look for whats wrong in our situation and whats perfect in somebody's situation?

I watched Eclipse with my roommate and Hanna last night. I love watching it with Hanna. We analyzed the movie, of course! Anyways, Here are my thoughts. In my science class, we talk about the influence of movies. It made me think about what is Twilight going to influence young teenage girls to believe? And if you like the movie, nothing is wrong with you. I will be harsh in my critique. It doesn't mean I don't like you just because you like the Twilight Series. First, Lets Discuss Edward. 1.Edward is extremely controlling and manipulative. Who wants to be with someone who is manipulative? He doesn't trust Bella, Bella will make a decision, and he won't let her go through her own decision. Who would want to be with someone who made decisions for you? Maybe Bella doesn't make the best decisions. She will put herself in danger intentionally. I don't know why. But most people should be capable of making their own decisions. Most boyfriends should trust their girl

I know I post these videos up a lot. My reason, they inspire me. I love watching them, and I remember crying in this one. So Watch it, trust me you will like it. Anyways, I have been thinking about forgiveness today. As human beings we can hold grudges. It is easy to hold a grudge when someone has hurt us. But, we shouldn't. Although we may think holding a grudge doesn't affect us, it will only create more anger inside us. The anger inside will grow until we feel like we are dark inside. To move one completely from being hurt, rejected,offended, we must forgive the offender. And p.s. Here is a amazing thought. We can only control our own thoughts. We can't control how other people are going to treat us. We can't control our brother to do something for us. He will do something for us if he wants to do it. We can influence, but ultimately people have their agency and will make their own decisions. So we choose to be offended or be hurt. We can choose to be offended when o

Three of my roommates had birthdays this month. Here are some pictures from my roommate Kelsi's birthday pre-celebration! Anyways, I have mixed feelings about the semester ending. I love my schedule, my roomates, and I love Rexburg! I will miss it. I had so much fun this semester. I learned so much about myself, about psychology, about dance, about boys, about everything. It was so far my favorite semester that I have had. I am excited to go to Orlando. It will be such a good opportunity. I will meet people internationally. I have never done anything like this before, everything will be new. And I can play at DisneyWorld when I am not working? Can you tell something that is more exciting than that? Rexburg, I will miss you, until then I will be working and partying in Orlando. Yes!

I had a fabulous time with my cousin, ex-roomate (should be roomate again), and best friend Hanna Dunn. We tried to go to a show on the campus, it was sold out, so why not go to Subway? haha. My favorite part was making our outfits. She inspires me to mix my clothing: Here are some of the outfits we put together! I think her fashion blog is inspiring me to come up with creative things for my clothing. I never realized how much I have, and things I can mix together to make a new outfit. I tend to wear the same clothes over and over again and then I get bored of them. But last night was a good to see what I can do to dress differently. And then of course, I love our conversations! I think we were meant to be friends. We have helped each other see different perspectives, vent out on each other, and we just seem to know each other well. I am so grateful for the day in San Fransisco where we listened to "Strawberry Field Forever" and went shopping and bought matching shirts,

I always dreamed of being grown up. Now that I am growing up, I don't want to grow up. I long for the days of not having to be responsible. I long for the days of climbing trees and not having any things demanding my time. I am not Peter Pan, but I am just realizing that when I was little I didn't have to work, do homework, figure out the answers to all these hard questions. I like growing up on the other hand too. It feels good to be responsible sometimes. Just not during finals week. I just wish I could not be responsible, not care about getting a scholarship, and just play all weekend. I like being independent. I like being on my own. I like making my own decisions and being in charge of my future. It just scares me sometimes. I think I am normal. Most people I talk to my age feel the same way. It is hard because we are in this in between stage. We are not fully independent but we are not living at home and are somewhat independent. Nobody is telling us what to do. I choose

I have been listening to John Mayer's music a lot. I love him. But, his music has one theme. He is lonely. Each song is about how depression or sadness. There are exceptions, I can't generalize all of his music as depressing.. I feel bad for him. He just needs a hug someone to tell him that he will find happiness in the end. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy his music. He is extremely talented. When I saw him live, he amazed me. He can play the guitar like no other. He can entertain. People can relate to his songs about feelings of rejection, hurt and sadness. That is what makes him a great musician. A great musician has musical abilities yet the most important thing is connecting with your audience. Taylor Swift is a great example. She writes great lyrics, but teenage girls and I can relate to her music. I can hear her songs and remember certain experiences when I felt the same feeling. This is what I have been thinking about. What makes good music timeless? These are my conc

I was writing my paper on people who are genetically vulnerable for a disease or addiction. It made me think of how interesting it is for some people to start a addiction after trying one cigarette, and some people can smoke several times without a addiction. We can't control our genetic vulnerability. We can control one type of vulnerability.  Our emotions. We can control if we let someone in our heart or if we keep a guard up. Which one is better? This is what I have been thinking about lately. I was talking to a friend and they told me that to be careful and to not be vulnerable is the best thing. I agree somewhat with the statement. If we were never vulnerable, never let anyone in, never loved, never took any chances, we would never grow. I am saying you should go tell everyone your deepest and darkest secrets. But is it worth it to get your heart broken in a situation when you were vulnerable to get hurt? That is what you are doing when you open up to someone. You are accept

This morning, I woke up to music everywhere. I heard Handel's Messiah, efy music, and some other type of music. It was great. I love waking up to uplifting sounds that will make me smile. Then I was uploading and editing some stuff on my blog, and I turned off my music. It was silent, and I was alone in my room. It was so nice. I don't know how to describe it. Do we have take time to slow down, turn music off, and just ponder and reflect? It reminds me of so many of the last couple general conference talks where they talk about slowing down and reflecting on what matter most. We have constant noise around us, we have constant movement, we have constant distractions that we face daily. When do we ever just stop? It is okay to be busy, it is okay to be active, but it isn't okay when it takes over things that matter the most. When doing extra activities take over time spent with the family, and time to reflect and ponder. Maybe this post is because I am somewhat of a intro

I had a week of discoveries. I discovered a talent and passion. I always knew I loved dancing, but today I had a dance competition. I got 5th in the Waltz competition, and 2nd in the Cha Cha. I had a blast at the competition. Me and my partner started getting into character in the cha cha competiton. We found our positions, and just performed the routine but started to enjoy the dancing instead of just going through the actions. It was exhilarating. Walking onto the dance floor, there was no cheering crowd, but feeling the butterflies as the music starts. Relaxing and just focusing on smiling and keeping the right timing. Waiting to be called back for the next round. Seeing your number on the call back list, getting back in line, performing again. Then the exciting part, waiting for the finals and to see what position you are. Waiting for cha cha final number to come up, seeing couples go up and knowing that we had potential to be 1st was so exciting. 2nd was amazing to get, I just w

This video inspired me. In my social psychology class, we learned about prosocial behavior and altruism. We watched a video about this father and son, of course there were teary eyes in the room. The father went through so much hard work to show love and care for his handicapped son. The son's joy was running marathons with his father. Of course, he wasn't running, his father's body was doing the work. However, the son's heart and love was what motivated the father to do the work. This father is a great example of true love and service. He dedicates himself to training to run a marathon or trialathon just to see the smile or laughter on his son's face. What if we had this same level of true love and service in our lifes for others? What if we knew what made our loved one's happy and sacrificed everything just so they could experience joy. I have realized how selfish we are. How many times do you think about yourself during the day? How many times do you compla

I had this thought pop into my head. How do you see people? Do you see their imperfections, their weaknesses, strengths, potential? If we only saw people as their weakness, of course we won't like them. Then in return, they won't like us back. It is a no-brainer situation. The self fulfilling prophecy. We see them as a liar, they will act as a liar, and then our idea is confirmed that they are a liar. What if we see their strengths instead? We see them as a courageous and intelligent person, they will act that way, and then our idea is confirmed that they are a courageous and intelligent person. How does this idea relate to my original thought? If we see people's strengths and potentials, we can help them become better. We see them as potential to become amazing. We encourage them by treating them like they are amazing. They will most likely be amazing. It won't happen like this every time, there will always be exceptions. I was thinking about the people in my life and