Returned with honor!

My little brother, Reed, comes home today!!!! He's spent the last two years in Australia serving the Lord and spreading the good TRUE word. The time has literally flown by and I can't believe he'll be back so soon....like an hour and 10 minutes soon! Even though he's the baby in the family he's probably the most mature out of all of us. He's so smart and not just school smart (he's been known to get those 4.0s) but he's like smart with the decisions he makes. And he's so humble and faithful..if you know him..then you know what I'm talking about. He's a good example to everyone...even his OLDER siblings. :)  Time to go get him! Hope your day is as good as mine! ...but it probably isnt. :)

he's actually a really big nerd.

Gratitude Journal :)

A couple weeks ago I was in California. Here's some proof..

Hollywood sign was pretty neat-O to hike to.

Me and the sissy at Venice beach...was a crappy day but we got some cool shells and I was happy to feel the ocean and sand in my toes again.

While I was in California my mom called me one night. She was at home alone, bored, and apparently going through some old things in her room. She came upon a "gratitude" journal she had started waaaaaay back in 1998. The intention of her gratitude journal was to just list 5 things that she's grateful for daily. Being the mom that I've always known I wasn't surprised what the very first thing on her very first list was, she told me as she was laughing, "5 healthy, though sometimes quarrelsome children." It made me laugh too, we were some crazy children...and I think we still are! 

I know I'm starting a few days late but this being the month of Thanksgiving I've decided to begin my own gratitude journal and list daily 5 things I'm personally grateful for. I'll start it on here, but most likely will end up writing most days of it down in my actual journal since I'm not an everyday blogger! So here goes....

1. AJ and his patient love for me....he's always so nice to me even when I'm not nice to him. :/

2. CLOTHES.

3. My niece...she brings me so many smiles.

4. The way the earth looks during fall.

5. Socks.....it's been a cold day.

So there's my very first "gratefuls"! What's yours? :)

A decision must be reached.

I graduated with my Associates in Liberal Arts from Windward Community College this past May. And since life is about progression I obviously have to keep it moving. So for winter semester (this coming Jan.) I applied for BYU-Provo and BYU-Hawaii thinking I would surely get rejected from one, thus making my choice easy because I would have no choice but to go to the one I got accepted to.

AND THEN..

I got accepted to both. I would be all like YIPPEE!...if I was good at making decisions, but I AM NOT. Still a decision must be reached...and SOON...like end of this week soon. I am currently weighing the pros and cons but still hate having to choose.

sorry no pictures....i'm boring today :)

The zombies are coming!

This is what I looked like last Saturday.

me. Bridgette. Mele. Sarah.

And this is where we went.

The second annual night of the running dead 5k

It was such a fun thing to do. It was a 5k race to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. It's called The Night Of The Running Dead and when you registered for the race you registered as either a "human" or a "zombie" then when the race started the humans were given a 2 min head start so that it appeared as if zombies were chasing after the humans. It was super fun to see all the people dressed up and all the different ages that got into it. I would totally do this again. It's a good way to have fun while exercising as well!

we went to ask this girl to take a picture with us...but quickly discovered this she was a he :) lol so fun!

This guy was really into his character. Sticking to his raspy creepy voice and everything...I would have been scared of him had I not also been one of his kind.

The finish line. On the top it says "The End Is Here" 

I had so much fun being dead I think I want to do it again just for fun....I mean while it is still October! 

After the race they had water, oranges, and bananas.

Scarah and me :)

By the way being "dead" while driving to and from the race (held at the Utah State fairgrounds) was so much fun too. We scared people along our way and it was funny to see them laughing at us. Except I think we for real scared some little kids in cars...opps! 

Driving and listening to Britney Spears lol

My sisters make up was most scary I think. She looks like a psycho freak. 

Well everyone hope you're all having a spooktacular October and if you see a zombie coming your way you better RUN!

Top Secret Tuesdays

Last weekend AJ told me not to plan anything on Tuesday because he had a surprise for me and that we were going on a super red hot date. So Tuesday came yesterday and I was kind of curious, but didn't really have any super high expectations...I really thought we were just doing the usual dinner and a movie routine just on a weekday instead of the weekend (not that there's anything wrong with that routine because I actually really enjoy eating and love movies, so that's an automatic good time, every time). About the time I decide to go upstairs and start getting ready I hear someone upstairs. I assumed it was my sister, but when I got to the bottom of the stairs I saw a sneaky guy walking out of my room. He then handed me an orange paper with the words "Hint #1" written on the front of it. Well "Hint #1" lead me to 4 other hints and this little scavenger hunt ended with a little love letter and some money to spend on whatever I felt like spoiling myself with just because he felt like giving it to me. I was smiling like a dork just after reading the letter. Then there was another couple papers folded up with it and I didn't know what it was and thought maybe he wrote two letters or something. So I opened it up and it's tickets to the ZIGGY MARLEY show at the Depot!!! I flew myself downstairs and jumped on him to give him the very deserved hug and kisses. He told me he had more hints to hide and stuff, but that I caught him too soon so he got his bag and pulled out two things: deodorant and nail polish remover. Weird right? haha not to me! Just that weekend before as we were driving home one night I said out loud that I needed those two things. I didn't even realize that he had mentally acknowledged it. What a thoughtful guy right?! He told me we were gonna go to Gateway mall and go shopping, have dinner, then go to the concert.

The HINTS. 1 led me to the front porch. 2 led me to the toilet (lol nevermind) 3. led me to my pillow and 4. led me to my dresser drawer and the letter, tickets, and money. :)

We headed to the mall and the whole way there I was feeling so excited. I told him how surprised I was. Who knew he had that in him! haha not me! LOL At the mall he said whatever I wanted was mine...............WHAT?! K really I felt bad about letting him buy me things because I know I don't need them, but he practically made me. Even things I wanted, but wanted to put back he took from me and just bought them. I felt so spoiled and special and undeserving all at the same time. It was the first time anyones ever done anything like that for me. Sooo shopping! First stop was Urban Outfitters. Second stop was Forever21. Last stop was Express.

Urban Outfitters. I tried this dress on and I loved it! This is the only thing I got from there because I thought everything in there was too expensive and I hate spending that much on clothes.

At Forever21 I thought this dress was cute, I tried it on with tights and just really liked it. I also got a grandma looking sweater that's a little bit ugly, but that's my style lol.

In Express we got this cardigan in grey AND tan, another sweater, and a cute flowy tank top. 

I have to say I felt really bad about spending AJ's money like that. I mean duh I'm a girl and don't all girls love to go shopping? But I feel bad about it when it's not my money I'm blowing and when I feel like that money could be used for something better or more important. Most the time I was walking around with an unsure worried face like I was doing something I shouldn't. I kept asking him like "are you suuuure you want to spend your money on me?" and at one point he even said "I thought you'd be happier..." He just kept telling me to get whatever I wanted and not worry. I think he was kind of disappointed that I didn't want to just go wild and blow all his doe. I was happy though and I've never had anyone do anything like this for me before. I just felt so special. He put so much plan and thought into it from the cute little scavenger hunt and the heartfelt letter all the way to the concert. I loved every single minute of everything we did together.

After shopping it was off to dinner at the Olive Garden. YUM. OG never disappoints.

My super red hott date :)

As I was telling the waiter I wanted water AJ puts his hand up to stop me and says "Can I get two waters and a vanilla italian soda for the lady? Thank you." LOL after the waiter walked away he turns to me excitedly smiling and says "I always wanted to do that....and I just did it!" hahahahaha man what a dork.  He freaking cracks me up! 

Then off to see Ziggy! I love reggae/island music. It NEVER gets old, for real that is why I like it. Pop and rap and all that trendy crap is cool to listen to for a little while, but then it gets played out and I get sick of hearing it...it gets OLD. Reggae never does and that's why I love it. You can listen to the same reggae music you listened to 10 years ago and it's STILL good. But needless to say the concert was the shiz. That was my first time seeing Ziggy Marley live and he was so good! I didn't get any pictures cuz I hate trying to get good pictures at concerts and wasting time worrying about taking pictures instead of just enjoying the music. So me and Aj just danced the whole time and took a picture after :).  But WHOA to all the pot heads burning right there in the crowd the whole time. It smelled like straight weed the whole night lol. Security at the Depot needs to get that under control for all us non stoners out there.

After the concert.

The stage.

FORWARD TO LOVE. ZIGGY MARLEY. AJ even bought me a tshirt after the concert! Don't worry bout my hash looking face either k...its 2:30am and i'm an insomniac! lol

On the way home I was buzzing off the good vibes and reliving the whole night in my head and thinking about how so so SO lucky I am to have someone like AJ as my boyfriend. It made me think about how that whole thing with the fall of adam and how if you never knew evil you'd never know good. Same with not knowing true happiness without sadness. And I think in a lot of people's lives it takes having a really (excuse my language) shitty relationship to realize what a really good one is like. And I've had my fair share of dating losers....just look at the past two years of my life wasted on the biggest A-hole. I can honestly say AJ treats me the best I've ever been treated. He makes me happy al the time not just some of the time. I don't have to search to find the goodness in him, and I'm not the only one who sees it. On the way home I told AJ that I wouldn't even want to look at dating anyone else because he's so good to me so there would be no point. And it has nothing to do with how much he spends on me. Really this is the first time he's ever done anything big like this and it felt a little too extravagant for me...I'm sure his bank account will take a nice looooong while to recover from this date night before we can even think about doing this again. I would have been happy if our red hot date night ended up being a frozen pizza and a redbox, but I'm grateful and very appreciative of my thoughtful caring hot loving boyfriend who planned such an awesome spontaneous random date for no reason at all except that he loves me....and I LOVE HIM!