My new creed

It's been awhile since I have blogged here. A long, long while. Life has gone on. I have continued to study at BYU while still managing to find time to sleep, work, and on occasion dare a say it... a social life. I have been so very blessed in this life. For my the family, for the opportunities that I have been able to be a part of, and meeting so many life changing people. As I look back on the last 12 days of my oh so long "hospital vacation" so many different things have gone through my mind. Why me? Why now? What and where did this all come from? It just hit so fast. One minutes I'm balancing work, school, and friends and the next I'm sitting in the ER wondering what was wrong...

But none of these questions I was asking myself were the right ones. I was searching for all the wrong answers. So I had to do some soul searching to find the right ones. And realized I was asking all the wrong questions. What can I learn? Who can I help? What is this experience going to teach me today?

The Lord has his own timing. His own way of preparing each of us to get where we are going. Who am I to question what he has in store. What he is planning for my future. At this point in my life I'm exactly where I'm suppose to be. I know without a doubt that because of the spirit I found the right doctors and through the spirit they were able to determine what was wrong. It's so rare of a disease that people can go years without a single answer. They just continue to get sick to the point where they are no longer able to recover. I know without the tinniest doubt that by each small miracle the Lord is showing me each and everyday that he is here. And how much he loves me.

This brings me to my new creed. Throughout all this experience it has showed that we can't control everything. You can go your whole life thinking you are in complete control of your body but when something like this hits it shows you that you are really only in control of one thing. The very thing that I hold most dear. My attitude. This is where my new creed for life has officially come in. The morning of one of my surgeries my amazing older sister sent me this in a text wishing me luck before heading down to the OR. I was scared out of my mind but for some reason this text meant the world to me and has officially become a part of my very existence.

 
For some reason this simple picture hit me with such force. Who can tell me that today can't be amazing? No one. Only I can decide that today is going to be the best day of my life. Even better than the day before no matter how hard. No matter what today holds it has the potential to be the most amazing day of my life. It has every opportunity to become the most memorable of all. Just let it.

Now as I sit here on a long road to recovery and a life long battle I know without a doubt that I can take this "opportunity" and make it change my life for the better. If I let it, it will strengthen me beyond anything I have ever endured. This illness won't define me. It won't destroy me. It will make me stronger than I ever have ever been before. It will become a part of me and though hard at times I will pick myself up along with my new creed and make everyday better than the one before. Each day I will just simply be grateful to be here. To be alive. To be blessed beyond measure. So... Go have a good day today. Because no one can ever tell you, you can't. No one.

crafts

Lovin these! I so totally want every single one!!!!

vintage lemon give away

Dear blogging world,
In case you haven't yet realized I fail miserably at updating my blog. When I finally do I have so many pictures and so many things to say my posts come out as massive quick updates with a bagillion pictures. My apologize but here I go once again. I officially only have 2 more weeks out here in the lovely NYC before I head back to the papers, the tests, and the overall amazingness that is BYU.

So as promised here goes my massive picture update.

1. I FINALLY got to spend a birthday with my BFF Cortney (and who would have thought that it would be all the way out in NYC) For some reason July 2 is always when her family decides to take there vacations so I have never actually gotten to celebrate one with her. Crazy huh? Well we went to the beach and got all dressed up and went out to dinner! SO FUN!

2. Saw the 4th of July fire works on the Hudson. OK can I just say that they were AMAZING!!!

3. Caroline FINALLY came to visit me for 2 whole weeks of adventure! It was amazing and of course we did TONS of touristy things like

grand central

the wax museum

SHOPPING

Cake boss :)

Canal street and littly Italy

And the Wicked Lottery which we won FRONT ROW TICKETS to!!! So so so amazing!
and yes this is of our seats and yes this is the orchestra pit!

4. and many many memorable days with my kids at the beach :) and other fun stuff but mostly the beach

And lastly a quick shout out to Sis Saunders (one of the two people who read my blog, the other my mother). I promised an update and here it is :)
and here is a little treat for you from the good ole days :)

pretty sure Cort and I are 16 here! LOVE IT!

massive update

i haven't blogged in like a month and I am just going to get it all done in one big post so here goes...

A few weeks ago I FINALLY went home! After an extremely long flight I finally got into AZ super late Saturday night. I spent the week in AZ hanging with my family I HAD to have a cafe rio salad when I was home.  While we were there Caroline put Brigdon on her shoulders :) Next thing we knew he started eating her hair :)

After Mesa I drove to Provo with Dana and Trent for Katies wedding! I didn't realize how much I missed that place until I went back :) Gotta love BYU! One day while Dana was at work Trent and I went thrift shopping and found some real treasures

p.s. While I was in AZ I bought skiis, poles, ski boots, a skirt, and a microscope. all for get this... $30! AMAZING HUH!!!!!!

Later I went to Katies wedding which was beautfiul! Seeing her family was amazing and EVERYONE thought Trent was older than me AND my boyfriend. GROSS!

After we visited Aspen Grove (pretty sure that Aspen Grove is the happiest place on earth) Trent And I penny surfed down Provo Canyon while Dana drove :)

Back in New York
I visited the Trade Towers

Discovered that Little Italy was the greatest place in all of New York City

Went to some parties with my favorite girls

And summer FINALLY started!!!!! Now we are spending every single day at the beach club :)

PS pretty sure I have the CUTEST nephew in the ENTIRE WORLD!!!!!

cake boss! :)

This weekend I finally got to see Cake Boss! Most. Amazing. Trip. Ever. We had to wait an hour an a half before we finally got to go inside but it was totally worth it. It is much smaller than I thought it would be but the food was way more amazing then I thought to! It was extremely crowded but they were pretty fast at getting you your food. I had the most AMAZING canoli and red velvet cupcake.

best. sunday. ever.

This last Sunday was pretty much the best Sunday I have experienced in my mere 21 years of living. After going to church at the manhattan singles ward we had ourselves a little picnic in central park :) it was BEAUTIFUL! the weather was gorgeous! (around 65 and yes that is amazing for around here) After lunch us 7 girls laid around on a blanket and people watched for awhile. There are some rather interesting characters in New York including (but not limited to...) the drunk women dancing around a little to sexy, the man who couldn't seem to stop staring at us for about 30 minutes, the young girl who's dress was so short it shouldn't have been legal, and the man walking the dog wearing what looked like something straight out of vogue magazine. Gotta love NYC :)
Markel and I walking to the park

 Markel and I at the park (yes there were 5 other girls there but I don't have pictures with all of us in them haha)

 The BEAUTIFUL park :)

After church got out while we were waiting for the other girls to change Krista and I ventured outside. Yes she is in the pic. But she is hard to find haha

 Now for a little randomness...
The weather is finally getting to the point where it's bearable to go outside and play at the park! I have taken my kids to this amazing park called Harbor Island 6 out of the last 6 days I have had them. Yes. The park is that cool. Its RIGHT on the beach so after we play on the play ground we can feed the ducks and look at jellyfish. Yup that's right. Jellyfish. They are creepy and orange and SOO much fun to go out on the docks to look at.
Us nannies like to stick together at the parks. This is a pic of Krista and Markel having a little to much fun. Notice how their kids are no where in sight. Yeah they climbed it for no reason. LOVE IT!