Heavenly Giggles

So last night when my dad asked me to say our family prayer, I had a bit of a struggle.  I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, it was unbelievably hot in our house, and I had previously been lost in my own thoughts for the half hour before then.  The following were said during prayer time last night.  I'm 20.

• "we are grateful that thou bless us-ed...blessed us with safety today..." 
•  "bless us to have open hearts that our answers might be question...questions might be answered..."  
• "we are grateful for the atonement of thy son, and ask thee to bless Him.  Beh, oh wait..."  At that point I knew there was no way of getting out of that so I bailed and just hurried and closed the prayer.  Yeah, my parents and I had a good laugh for about 5 minutes after that.  I'm thinking the Lord may have gotten a bit of a laugh out of it too.  At least He knows I'm prayin' for Him.  ;)

Life is NOT perfect (neither am I).  But I sure like it.  :)

Chills.

Today this song hit the spot.  If a song can hit a spot...well, it can.  I just decided.  Apply gospel principles to this song, and Voila!!  You have a very inspirational, chill-giving song.  It's pretty inspirational on its own, but that's just how it was for me today.  Enjoy, my friends!

What you've got to do is
Finish what you have begun,
I don't know just how,
But it's not over 'til you've won!

When you see the storm is coming,
See the lightning part the skies,
It's too late to run-
There's terror in your eyes!
What you do then is remember
This old thing you heard me say:
"It's the storm, not you,
That's bound to blow away."

Hold on,
Hold on to someone standing by.
Hold on.
Don't even ask how long or why!
Child, hold on to what you know is true,
Hold on 'til you get through.
Child, oh child!
Hold on!

When you feel your heart is poundin',
Fear a devil's at your door.
There's no place to hide-
You're frozen to the floor!
What you do then is you force yourself
To wake up, and you say:
"It's this dream, not me,
that's bound to go away."

Hold on,
Hold on, the night will soon be by.
Hold on,
Until there's nothing left to try.
Child, hold on, There's angels on their way!
Hold on and hear them say,
"Child, oh child!"

And it doesn't even matter
If the danger and the doom
Come from up above or down below,
Or just come flying
At you from across the room!

When you see a man who's raging,
And he's jealous and he fears
That you've walked through walls
He's hid behind for years.
What you do then is you tell yourself to wait it out
And say it's this day, not me,
That's bound to go away.

Child, oh hold on.
It's this day, not you,
That's bound to go away!

My...

My parents are my therapists.  Seriously.
My bird talks in his sleep - it's adorable and I love waking up to it.
My tummy is gettin' flatter.  Hazahhhh!!
My disappointment toward the ridiculous UofU/BYU bashing that takes place on facebook is quite fierce.  "Don't check your religion at the door."  Okay...don't check your religion at the facebook login.
My heart is confused.  VERY confused.
My nieces and nephews change the world.
My friends lift my face toward heaven.  Always laughing.
My favorite snack right now is the fruit kind.  Not real fruit, but fruit snacks.  Like from 2nd grade.
My mom and I aren't allowed to go into home stores (Pier One, Gordman's, Home Goods) anymore because if we see any on sale decoration of the butterfly variety, we buy it...for my wedding...I just like butterflies, okay?  If only there was a place I could buy a groom...
My eyes leaked lots and lots today.  Thus my nose did as well.
My soul is restless.
My world has been rocked by digital scrapbooking.  Hello, a whole new way to spend and spend and spend money.  Great.
My Savior of the World career has not yet ended.  Round 8.....9???  Miriam.  Red cast.  District Leader!!!  Get tickets. :)
My.......zzzzZZZzzzz.......my bed is calling.
Word.

Weekend, Including Thursday

Thursday:
Boating blind date with Matti, Sid, and their friends.
Denny's for breakfast dinner.

This is Colby.  My date.  Obviously.  Nice kid.

It got real cold so I huddled down into one of the little cubbies on the boat.

Pringles!!!

Like I said.  It got cold.

Friday:

Brigham City temple tour with Mom and Dad.

Maddox for lunch.

YSA ward retreat at Spring Haven.  

Aggies beat Utes.

Won a date.

Karaoke.

Tickle tradesies.

Avengers til 4 am.

So pretty!  I loved all of the blossoms everywhere throughout the temple.

I loved walking through the temple.  The whole time, "I want this more than I can tell" kept running through my mind. I loved the intro video when Elder Holland said that he can't describe heaven, in all its paradisiacal glory, without his wife and family.  That hit me so strongly.  I got teary thinking about being in the bride's room - unfortunately we were unable to go in there - and loved the peace in that place!

Some wardies!  Love these girls - they are so nice to kinda adopt me into their little friend crowd since most the members of my normal hangy outty group have all moved away. 

Wardies again.  This YSA retreat was unbelievably fun.  We stayed at this huge lodge that had like 5 different wings to it.  We played dating games and did karaoke and watched a movie and just had a grand ol' time!

Saturday:

Home from retreat.

Park City.

Outlets.

Spicy Buffalo Wings.

Hot-tubbing.

Dark Knight.

Dove Chocolate.

Aw.  Matti and Sterling (cousins).

Don't be too enthused, Mads.

Sup.

Sunday:

Lesson on "His Grace is Sufficient."

Hilarious single's ward.

Asked to speak next week...

Needed nap.

Lydee's Birthday dinner.

CES fireside.

She wanted "cheeseburgers" for her birthday dinner.

Well then don't ask me to smile when I have a mouth-full of food.

I can't believe she is FIVE years old!!

We gave her the little Repunzel costume that she asked for.  She is such a little girl.  My mini me. :)

She wished to be at Disneyland.  Good wish, I say.

Playin' some Polly Pockets.  A favorite past time of mine.

I'm not as good at it as I used to be.  

Well there ya go.

Muah!!

Perfect Way to End the Summer

For this year's Labor Day celebrations, my cute mom and dad decided that we would have smores then a giant family slumber party!  In the morning, my dad made his mom's famous ableskeevers for breakfast and we had our traditional "anything goes" day treasure hunt.  Besides the fact that it was an unbelievably fun couple of days, I could not help but marvel at how unbelievably blessed I am.  My family is my world and between choosing and naming stars with the little ones, and watching my mom read the newspaper comics as my dad picked peaches from the peach tree, I was truly content.  I felt so much peace - like if anything in my life went wrong, I would be okay as long I was leaning on the Lord and these people who I love so dearly.  I can't wait to have my own little family and for them to get to know these people!  They probably already do. :)  I just love them so much!  Did I mention that I love them?  We are a family built on the foundation of Christ.  We are Happy.  We are ETERNAL and I am so grateful!
Here are some pictures of our family fun!!

Around the fire (we only used brickette coals so my dad referred to it as a "sabbath fire")!

Our very own pyro.

Star-gazin'

Yup, good morning!!

He worked on that hair-do all night.

Yes, that is me trying to wake up.

I love that the babies are so cuddly in the morning.  

Mmmmm

Lookin' for clues on the treasure hunt!

Each of the kiddies with their Book of Mormon heroes clue, and there's the treasure box!!