The Electronic Diet

Brandon and I are on an electronic diet this week. Obviously, it's going as well as just about any other sort of diet. You decide to limit your intake of something and somehow you end up spending more time then ever/consuming way more then ever before. Example, I am blogging. I never blog. It's the last thing on Earth I'm supposed to be doing, so here I am. So wrong, yet it feels so right.

Life is same old, same old, right now. I've been working my brains out and Brandon's been working and studying a lot. It's thrilling. All that thrill aside, I've decided to share with the world just a few of the ways I decompress after a long day of record requesting, client managing, and trying to use the word 'auspice' correctly in letters...

I enjoy Daydreaming about planning trips to places like these:

I also love to spend too much time on this:

 

& being an avid follower of this:

 

(&/or The Bachelor, Modern Family, Vampire Diaries, PPL's, etc. But really, if you're not watching The Following you should be. Kevin Bacon is awesome. He's come such a long way from  his Footloose days.)

 



Hence the need for the electronic diet.

 

As I tell myself when I'm on any kind of diet, tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow I will not post on my blog or 'like' all of the photos that my sister posted to facebook, I will not search every email account for the password reset email that Instagram is supposed to be sending me (why, why do I have so darn many accounts? How did that happen?) and I will not watch The Following.

 

Oh the good intentions of a doomed-from-the-start diet. If tomorrow is going to be better then today let me leave you with one last electronic moment:

Can't wait.

 



We were made to be awesome

 

Emerging from months of blogger silence to share this little gem with you.

 

Enjoy this, then give the world a reason to dance!

 

You've been pep talked!



Blessed

This month, much like this year, has seemed to pass much too quickly and has been busy as ever. Despite the flu bug and loads of stress I've been under, I have been quite aware of how very blessed my life is. I love this time of year and the reflection and gratitude it brings, when life moves so fast and so much is too easily taken for granted. 

Truth is, I am thankful every day for my family.

{especially my sister... and my mom... and my dad}

 

And for Brandon's family, that I quickly claim as my own.



I am constantly surrounded by amazing people that I admire in so many ways and that is an incredible blessing.

I am endlessly thankful for Brandon.

What a guy. I am in awe of him everyday and could not have found a more perfect match for my crazy self.

& I am thankful for a loving heavenly father and a gospel that helps me through anything and everything that life throws my way. Each day is an adventure and the gospel, and my testimony of that gospel, helps me press on, through sunshine or storm.  



The Happiest Place

California was as magical as ever...

Disneyland especially :)

I feel so lucky to be part of such a great family!

Lovely Thought...

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That being said, I'm still counting down to Disneyland...35 days. But I'll make the days count between now and then. Promise.

Lately ...

Here, for your viewing pleasure is a mobile phone photo montage of a few of life's latest highlights:



 Welcome home Elder DeYoung! The "kids table" is now officially back in action!

3 of my favorite RMs!

The DeYoungs- more or less (missed you Lena!)

Business cards?! Yikes, feeling slightly overly adult right now!

It's a work in progress but we redecorated our room! I am loving shades of gray lately (not 50 shades just shades of the color in general).

 The YW leaders and girls threw a shower for my darling friend and fellow young women leader, Shauntae, who is expecting her first little girl early next month! So excited for her! I saw the onesie decorating idea on Pinterest and decided we had to try it at her shower. It was a hit! She went home with so many cute onsies for her baby girl! The ones above are just a few I decorated for her in my spare time, it's such a fun craft!

The shower turned out amazing, more photos to come hopefully, my friend and Shauntae's sister-in-law, Lisa, had her camera handy which I was thankful for because the only camera I ever have handy is my camera phone and even then I'm terrible at remembering to take photographs.

That's right, my 5 year relationship with SLCC has finally amount to something! Hallelujah! Brandon's SLCC degree is on it's way as well, and next week he begins his first semester at the U of U! So proud of him and thankful he's such a hard worker!

St. George

I am lousy at vacation photos.

But here are a few moments of our recent St. George trip:

Brandon had to bribe me and physically force me to go, but in the end I was so glad we went. It made July finally feel like summer and it was nice to spend some much needed quality time with Brandon. I especially loved the day we spent boating with the Bradshaw's. My phone died early on that day so I don't have any photos but it was a great day. It was my first day out boating this year and I loved every minute. Because I love boating, but mostly because I love my little nieces and nephews so very much.

They make every day feel like summer.

Happy 4th!

Love the 4th of July. Nothing like a random day off in the middle of the week spent with these quality people...

I have the best family.

Such a good day.

& a busy one, spent moving my family into their lovely new home....

It's beautiful.

More on that soon.

Lennon & Maisy

                         Such talented little gals.

Just Kidding...

No trek for the Free's.

Brandon took me to the instacare on Sunday for what we thought was heat stroke and dehydration that we wanted to get under control before trek the next day. Left with an IV needle in my arm and possible pneumonia that I was ordered to follow up on the next day before even thinking about heading off to trek.

Seriously? pneumonia?! And here all I'd wanted was IV of water...
The night before trek I spent several hours with a dry cough and had a fever of 102. I knew there was no way I could have left for trek the next morning, even if I'd wanted to.

I dropped Brandon and some of my young women off early that morning- Brandon and I were hopeful (and possibly crazy to think) that the pneumonia diagnoses was a fluke and that I'd be heading up to meet them on the trail later that day. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

I've been pretty sad over the whole thing. I've spent many, many months preparing for trek, I've given two talks on trek, given guys and gals many trek pep talks, planned several trek centered activities, gathered gear for the event, said many prayers for my trek kids, praying that they all would be there, and they all were- it was just me who wasn't. Who knew I should have been praying that I would be there?

After 3 days of IV treatments and two and a half days of antibiotics I'm starting to feel a little better and hopefully won't have to deal with a fever of any kind tonight. I'm still sad and trying to make sense of it all but as my mom reminded me, many pioneers prepared for the journey, but not all were able to go, not all made it to their destination. That's true of life in general, there are things we prepare for and not all of our preperation take us to the place we think it will. I guess that's half the adventure of life, not quite knowing how things will pan out but living and thriving through whatever is thrown at us.





All I know is I hope those youth are having an amazing time and I hope they're taking tons of photos for me to see!

I also hope that I can take a break from being a medical disaster for the rest of the year! Fingers crossed! (Thank you to Brandon, Rebecca Gibb and Kathy Free for all your help these last few days. I am so lucky to have such amazing family)

Kind of crazy...

How fast this year is flying by!

This time next week I'll be outdoors, hopefully blister free, pulling a handcart and being the "ma" of 10 teenagers. Yikes. Trek always seemed so far away and suddenly it's here!

Many, many, many thanks to everyone who donated clothes, money and time to the Jordan 1st Ward. Thanks especially to the wonderful and amazing ,Kathy Free, who helped Brandon and I sew our family flag (we could not have done it without you!) and helped us round up pioneer clothes:

Truth be told, I am not a camping kind of girl (much to Brandon's dismay). Hiking? Yes. Mountain biking? Sure. But sleeping outside in a tent on the ground? No thank you! When the sun goes down I prefer to sleep indoors in my comfortable bed. So this next week will be full of all kinds of adventures. I'm excited though-excited, stressed and slightly nervous- but mostly excited.

Wish us luck!

Nobody likes you when you're...

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?

Sorry Blink 182, but I must disagree.

 

 

23's been pretty great for me so far. Thanks to my wonderful co-workers, friends, family and husband! I'm one lucky gal.