This is my sacred duty

This morning I was able to perform vicarious baptisms for the dead. Here's why:

Because this is my sacred duty.

 No we don't dunk dead bodies. I was baptized as a proxy for those that have passed on and cannot perform their own saving ordinances. The person whose work was done can then choose to accept the work, or to not accept it. (Yes we believe in life after death and agency and in eternal progression and eternal families and all that good stuff) 
" Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
(Malachi 4:5-6)
Ancient prophets foretold the return of Elijah before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This prophecy was also one of the first messages that Moroni gave to young Joseph and is being fulfilled around the world in LDS temples through saving and sealing ordinances.
President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency taught:
“It is important to know why the Lord promised to send Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet with great power given him by God. He held the greatest power God gives to His children: he held the sealing power, the power to bind on earth and have it bound in heaven. … And the Lord kept His promise to send Elijah. Elijah came to the Prophet Joseph Smith on April 3, 1836, just after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, the first temple built after the restoration of the gospel.
Your effort in behalf of your ancestors is patterned after the work of the Savior, although on a much smaller scale. The Savior enables all of us to return to Heavenly Father’s presence through the Atonement, and you help your ancestors receive the blessings of the Atonement by making ordinances available to them. You do a saving work for them that they cannot do for themselves.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that Latter-day Saints are to become saviors on Mount Zion. He explained: “How are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances … upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them."

Temple and family history work unites families. Husbands and wives, parents and children can be sealed through sacred temple ordinances. The goal of this process is that “the whole chain of God’s family shall be welded together into one chain, and they shall all become the family of God and His Christ” 
To learn more about Mormons and LDS temples go to Mormon.org or watch this video on YouTube. : Why Mormons Build Temples

I know what's best

We all feel that way right?

Our human tendency is to want things we desire to happen on our own time (which for me is yesterday) and in my own way. Many times people, including myself, condition their faith and allegiance to Christ and to the Church upon these desires and the fulfillment (or lack of fulfillment) of them.

I need to remember these words of wisdom from Elder Neal A. Maxwell:

"When we are unduly impatient with an omniscient God's timing, we really are suggesting that we know what is best. Strange, isn't it--we who wear wristwatches seek to counsel Him who oversees cosmic clocks and calendars."

To whom it may concern,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxGzWlNZfk4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sincerely,

Patiently (sorta) waiting

Love and Marriage

I am overwhelmed by so many thoughts and emotions right now, I hope I can pull some words from my heart and brain and arrange them in some sort of coherent sentence. Love and marriage are on my brain. Not for any specific reason (or boy--sadly I am incredibly disheartened and cynical when it comes the the male race of Provo Utah. And that is exactly the problem. I am so critical and judgmental and so ready to stereotype all the "lame Provo boys" or all the "lame boys" in general. It is so easy to go into dating nowadays expecting it to fail. Expecting it to not work out for whatever reason. We are all filled with excuses. "there's always someone better" there's too many fish in the sea" "he/she is divorced" "he's a player" "he/she has kids" "I'm scared" "he's scared" "bad timing" "I'm too busy" "it's too much work" "not enough fish in the sea" "everyone gets divorced, even in the church" "he/she has a sketchy past" "I'm hung up on an ex" "he/she is hung up on an ex" "I just want to have fun" "we don't have a connection" .....the list goes on and on right? We all have a hundred reasons why we don't date, why all we ever do is date, and why we never commit. We are all focused on the past. Or we are focused on the future. Which are both good. And necessary. And wonderful. But we don't look at it that way. We look at the past, we look at the present, and we look at the future, and we worry, and we doubt. And we see all the reasons why it couldn't and wouldn't work out.

Self fulfilling prophecy?

I'm a big believer in that the universe gives back whatever you put out. Our attitude, thoughts, and emotions heavily impact the world around us. One thing I've learned from sales, that applies to all aspects of life: is its all mental. And might I add spiritual. If you go into a sale with a bad attitude or not expecting to get it, guess what, you're not going to get it. But on the flip side it's amazing what a positive happy tenacious attitude will get you. Go into a sale thinking, "I can totally close this person!" and "I'm an awesome saleswoman" and you're going to get that sale! It's exhilarating. Well I've been thinking, shouldn't that same formula apply to all aspects of life. Of course it does! Duh! Go into a relationship with a hundred reasons why it should fail (and maybe they are all valid concerns) but guess what, that relationship is going to fail. Go into it head first, fearless (Taylor swift has it figured out) and you're going to have one heck of an amazing relationship. A self fulfilling prophecy.

To bring the spiritual aspect in that ties this all together in a neat little bow (I hope, I feel like I'm just rambling and stringing random thoughts together) our capacity to love others is intertwined with our capacity to live the Lord. Below is a quote from an amazing article I just read in LDS living about an LDS couple in which the husband experiences same sex attraction. His wife beautifully wrote, before they were married: "...I felt that you love me now more than many people ever love their partners or spouses. Your love for me existed long before we ever went on our first date, because it was a love you were trying to cultivate with Christ as your example, before you even felt that marriage to a woman would be possible in this life. It was who you were trying to be"

How beautiful is that?

Here is a woman with the faith, the understanding, and the courage to trust in a mans love for her. In the love of a man who experiences same sex attraction. And this was possible for her because she had faith. Faith and doubt cannot coexist. And the man, Ty Manfield, what an awesome example of coming unto the Lord and being perfected through his trials. I am sure he has had many moments of doubt and fear in his life. But he decided I time and time again to focus on his faith. And through that he developed a love for a woman much deeper and more pure than hormones and emotions. It was who he was trying to be.

His wife continues " I think so many people rely on their hormones and or their emotions to drive them that they get stuck feeling for their spouse whatever those things tell them to feel. And then if they try to feel otherwise, to love their spouse more than what hormones or emotions tell them to, they feel like they're doing their spouse a favor rather than recognizing that they hadn't understood how to truly love in the first place."

And the most poignant part of what she wrote: " I think that us coming onto each others lives, feeling drawn to each other and attracted to who the other person was and is, and then DECIDING (important key words bolded) that we want to unite our loves and CONTINUE to care for and love each other and to build our love together all WHILE STRIVING to become more like Christ, as a TEAM with Christ...I feel sad for people who don't get it and who have reduced marriage to a mere shadow of what it was intended to be and how beautiful it can be."

I do not wish to get into a debate about same sex attraction. I simply share this story about a beautiful couple who love each other deeply and have a wonderful loving relationship that is filled with struggles and hardships just as is any other relationship. But some might say they have a trial bigger than most. An elephant in the room. Think of all the reasons this couple had to fear, to doubt, to make excuses for all the reasons this relationship marriage could not and would not work. His wife Danielle wrote "I have no doubts or regrets about choosing to marry Ty. Early on, long before we were engaged, I felt a momentary flash of fear, but almost as quickly as it came, I felt a powerful, calm reassurance -: the thought, 'you can trust Ty. He is who he says he is. You know what you have felt.' the fear never returned."

I'm willing to bet that fear could have easily returned, if she had fed it. If she had decided to focus on her fears. But she didn't. She obviously made a choice to have faith and trust in her feelings and in her love. And that I guess is the point I am trying to express. That we get what we focus on. Whether it be bad or good. Her and Ty made the CHOICE to love each other and ACT on their feelings for each other by COMMITTING to each other despite their challenges. I am so humbled. I am the first to admit I have so much to learn from Danielle's amazing example. We all have pasts, but they do not define us. We learn from them, and grow from them, but we are not our pasts.

It's all about love baby. And self fulfilling prophecies. So let's all quit the games and let go of the fears, the judgments, the blame, and the reasons why not. Instead, let's focus on all the whys. All we need is love. Pure, Christlike love<3

1 Peter 5:10

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Happy Sunday!

Can I just say that I have moved into the best ward and made the BEST friends ever. Yes, my friends are better than yours. And my ward is better than yours. So get over it. But seriously, I don't think I have ever been in such an amazing ward before. I've hardly been in the ward a month and I've already made so many wonderful friends and feel apart of the ward, and like I belong. It's because there are so many amazing caring and friendly people in my ward, and you can just feel the love and concern everyone has for one another. We truly have a ward family.
Today was fast and testimony meeting and I woke up with that "dang it, today I need to bear my testimony" feeling. You know the one that nags you all day long and you try to reason out of or ignore because getting up on the pulpit is so nerve wrecking. But then sacrament meeting starts and that feeling turns into a pounding of the heart that beats so fast and hard you cannot ignore it, and so you finally make that move to get up from your seat and walk to the front in between testimonies. (Making that first move to get up truly is the hardest step) Anyways somehow I made it up there and blubbered through my testimony. I was so anxious I don't remember half of what I said. But I'll share a little of my testimony here. I know we have a father in heaven who loves us and knows us by name. I know that his son, and our brother, Jesus Christ, loves our Heavenly Father and loves us, and because of that love his will was swallowed up in the will of our father, and he atoned for and sacrificed himself for our sins, so that we might be perfected and saved through him. I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and that he is a Prophet of God, and that he restored Christ's church in these latter days. I know this gospel is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that it is the word of God, and another testament of Jesus Christ. I know that as we prayerfully study it we can come to know Christ, and that as we abide by the counsel and principles taught in it we will find joy. I know that although in this life we will feel loneliness and sadness and at times even forsaken and despair, that Christ can succor us. Christ too felt forsaken and bore the full weight of the atonement on his own for a moment in the garden of gethsemane and on the cross. Heavenly Father completely withdrew his presence. Not because he didn't love Christ, but because he had to let him accomplish so humbling and painful a task on his own so that he could have all glory. Such is the case at times in our lives. Sometimes we feel as if our Heavenly Father is not there, that we are on our own. But it is during these times, if we remain faithful and keep God's commandments, and continue to pray and seek guidance and endure, that we learn and grow and receive more strength than we ever thought we were capable of. And Christ understands. :-) I know that this truly is the gospel of happiness and that we can inherit all that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have. We can be with our families and Heavenly Father and Christ for the eternities. What could bring more hope and joy than knowing that? This life is not it. :-)
On another note, the rest of my Sunday was just as beautiful and wonderful as church was. My roommates and I had a delicious picnic with our good friends Tyler, Stu, Trevor, and Logan. We cooked this time and in two weeks they are cooking for us, aren't they the best? We enjoyed each others company out in the crisp Utah air, eating casserole, chips, apples and watermelon, and drinking dr. Pepper, trying to pretend it was still summer as we enjoyed the sunshine. After our fun little picnic I went and celebrated my cousin in laws birthday and spent a fun time with family, and then went to ward prayer where I received and gave hugs and smiles, and felt so loved. Oh and ate delicious cookies and drank hot chocolate around a warm fire. I love my ward. I love my life. I love my friends. <3

Happy Halloween!

Ok I know Halloween is still a few weeks away but I think all of October should be dedicated to celebrating Halloween! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays... I love everything about it....dressing up and going all out, carving pumpkins, HAUNTED HOUSES that scare me silly, eating pumpkin seeds, trick or treating, and Halloween parties!! Last night some new cool dudes that I met in my ward put on a super fun Halloween dance party at classic skate...shout out to Brandon, Marcel, Skyler, and CJ, I love you guys! They are so much fun and becoming such good friends! Ashley and I went dressed up as Taylor Swift and Silk Spectra...it was so fun getting dressed up in all the glitter and glam and going out with all my wonderful friends and partying up, letting loose and dancing and singing like crazy! Things even got a little crazy in the cage, oh snap! Ash and I danced the night away looking super cute and sexy with our friends Noelia, Karen, Mylee, Kiffin, CJ, Marcel, Brandon, and Skyler. It was such a good, good night. Here's to Halloween and great friends!

Look Up

This post is short and sweet:

"It is better to look up."
-President Thomas S. Monson

I'm BAACCCCCKKKK....oh and I'm here to tell you everything that's wrong with our society and marriage today: SELFISHNESS

Hello Blogworld.

Miss me?

I don't even know what happened to me, 

but I hit a blogging slump.

At first a couple weeks went by.

Then a couple months.

Next thing I know it's been 7 months since that sad day I wrote my last blog.

Never again my friends. 

I plan to grace you with my presence from here on out.

And here's why:

Good things happen.

Bad things happen.

Funny things happen.

Cute boys happen.

Life happens.

And I write out a whole blog entry in my head,

about whatever happens.

But I never actually put it to computer and share it with you all

But I want to share it.

And I know you're all dying to hear what I have to say.

But I have to give it up to Kim Iverson....

you know...Your Time with Kim...Kim Iverson.

While I find her incredibly annoying,

and although she shares incredibly destructive belief and ideas 

over the radio, 

she has sparked my return to blogger.

A few months back she outraged me.

A few nights ago she impressed me.

But it reminded me how a few months ago she outraged me.

She illustrated everything that was wrong with society today

With marriage today.

With families today.

With so called "marriage therapists" today.

With people today.

I was listening to her show one late night.

I was intrigued because she announced she had

"one of California's top dating and marriage counselors"

on her show.

I forget the therapists name at this point.

Sorry, I have an incredibly horrible memory.

But that is not the point of this story.

And the therapists name is not significant.

What is significant is that she is even a therapist at all.

Let alone referred to as a top therapist.

Let me give you some details:

The topic for the show was how to know when to call it quits in a dating/marriage relationship...or how to know if you should be with someone. A woman called in with her story. She had been married for 6 or so years to her husband, and has two children with him. They have a wonderful marriage, her husband works full time at a great job, and it allows her to stay at home with her children, something that she cherishes and is so grateful for. It gets even better though. She is also very into photography, and so some nights when her husband gets home he will stay at home and watch the kids so that she can go shoot various events, such as weddings. He is a great husband, a great father, he provides for his family, she gets to be at home with her children. Sounds like a fairytale right? What's the catch? Well....let's rewind a few years. A year after they were married, before the couple had children, her husband cheated on her while out of town for business for several months. He confessed, she forgave him and they decided to stay together. Let me just put in my two cents here. At this point she has every right to end their marriage. He has had an affair with another woman, which in my eyes is unacceptable. But she chose to stay. Back to the story. He has never cheated on her since, or so he says, but she says she has no reason to be suspicious, as he is always at home with his family when not at work. Now, 5 years and two kids later, she wants to divorce her husband.Not because she doesn't trust him, not because he's cheating on her, not because they have a horrible abusive marriage. But because she hasn't loved him since he cheated on her, and doesn't know if she can ever love him again. I'm sorry honey, but the time to decided that was 5 years ago when he cheated on you, not now when there are children involved and you have a great marriage. You missed you chance to bail. I don't care if you're not in love, you made a commitment, and there are now children involved who need the stability of loving MARRIED parents. ParentS. As in both parents. Not one parent for two weeks and another every other weekend. A marriage is about commitment anyway, not about romance and "love". People can fall in and out of love multiple times within a marriage, but you stay together anyways, work through the bad times, because that is what true love is. And the happy, lovey dovey good times will come. Sometimes you may have to endure 5 bad years. But 20 wonderful years may follow. The point is that you made a commitment, and once children are involved, your "happiness" is no longer the priority. Your children's is. Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox. Obviously this woman asked the therapist what she should do. I waited for the "top" marriage therapist to give her an earful of what I just said above, but to my horror and shock, she basically told the woman that even though she has this great marriage that allows her to be a stay at home mom and raise her children and she has a great relationship with her husband and her husband is a terrific father, and that ending the relationship would be terrible because she would have to work and couldn't be at home with her kids and they would have to go to daycare, she said that she should end the marriage because she is not in love and DESERVES to find a man that she loves. Excuse me????!!!!! Deserves!?! DESERVES?!?! Excuse me, what about what her children DESERVE!?! They DESERVE to grow up in a home with TWO parents who love them. They DESERVE to have a mom who isn't so selfish that she would give up staying at home with them so that she could go out and find "love". They DESERVE an unbroken home. They DESERVE a happy childhood. With both parents. Because going through a divorce is hell for children and they should never have to endure that pain, that loss, and that heartache except in situations of abuse, drugs, or cheating.Who the heck does this "marriage therapist" think she is giving such selfish, immature, selfish, wrong, selfish, destructive, and did I mention, selfish, advice!?!? Then, thank goodness (or so I thought) Kim butted in and said everything I just said. That children need both parents, that a divorce should be avoided at all costs. That she may not be even be happy with another man considering all that she gave up. That it's so much better to be in a great relationship with, if nothing else, a good friend, so that her kids can grow up with their father in their home, and so that their mother could raise them. For a minute I loved Kim, and had some hope for marriages and families, and society. But then Kim said something as shocking and upsetting as the marriage counselors advice. She said BUT of course every woman deserves to be in love, and if you can't love your husband anymore, then you should go to him and tell him "honey, look I'm not in love with you anymore romantically, but we have a great marriage, a great life, two wonderful kids and so I want to stay together for them and we will be best friends, BUT (here's the kicker) I'm going to go out and DATE and find a boyfriend that I love and we will have an open relationship so that I can be happy. Like that won't complicate/upset/hurt/harm the children and family when mommy is out every weekend with the boyfriend? What, are husband, wife, boyfriend, and kids all going to have Sunday dinner together? What about when the boyfriend wants more commitment, what if he wants to marry her, what  if she wants to marry him. What happens to her kids then. That is just sick sick sick!!!! !?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?! Are you freaking kidding me?!? These two woman should not be allowed to give advice to anyone EVER on marriage, let alone over the RADIO! I was appalled. But unfortunately too many people in today's world have one of the above attitudes towards marriage and relationships. And what both suggestions boil down to are PURE SELFISHNESS. Marriage is about commitment. And I'm sorry that that woman had every right to leave her husband right after he cheated, but she decided not to. She decided to stay with him. She decided to continue to commit. And then she brought children into the equation. Her husband has proved himself to be  a great man, husband, and father in every way, and she now has no grounds, or right, to leave her husband. Even if their were no children involved I would have the same opinion. The fact that kids are now involved  though makes it all the more obvious that she should honor her commitment not only to her husband, but to her children. Their happiness and well-being should be most important.She is being selfish, and rather than thinking about how she does not love him anymore, she should go out and serve him and count her blessings, and one day she WILL love him again. That is what love, real love, is all about. I was completely angered and saddened to think that both the therapists and Kim's suggestions are are all often the norm, and totally acceptable solutions in our society. Lady, whoever you are, I hope you ignored their awful, sickening, heartbreaking, home-wrecking advice and stayed with your husband, CHOOSING to love him, rather than going out to find that love elsewhere at your children's expense.

Ok wow, I wrote a novel there. 

Obviously I'm not passionate or worked up about this at all.

Anyways, that night I decided to boycott Kim's show and never listen to it again.

I was infuriated and did not want to support her in any way.

However, the other night as I was flipping through stations, 

I overheard her pose an interesting scenario/question regarding marriage.

Marriage and appropriate relationships with coworkers.

Another topic that I can easily deliver an earful on.

When I "wrote" this post in my head,

I included both stories in it.

But as I ranted and raved more than I planned,
I'm going to end here and leave you all hanging.

Don't worry, I won't take another 7 months to blog 

about how Kim surprised me. 

And although she can never redeem herself in my eyes,

apparently she gets some things right regarding marriage.

Shabby Apple Giveaway!

Another lovely chance to win a Shabby Apple dress!

It is the Ooh La La Dress and it is gorgeous!
Giveaway hosted here by Le Blog de la Mome!

It's the dress on the left.

So chic, huh?

And I love the red!

I'm crossing my fingers this time,

I really hope I win.

But I'm going to share this giveaway with you all.

Last time I entered a Shabby Apple Giveaway

I was selfish.

I didn't blog about it,

or tell my friends about it.

Because I didn't want to decrease my chances of winning.

Well I entered the giveaway secretively,

and then the next day my dear friend Amy

shared a link with me on facebook for another

Shabby Apple Giveaway.

I felt horrible.

So of course I shared the link with her to

the giveaway I had found.

She commented back and wrote

"Consider me entered."

"P.S sorry for decreasing your chances of winning."

I feel like such a jerk at this point-

that is exactly what I had been thinking.

Well I checked back every hour after the giveaway ended,

and who do you think won??

Sure enough, it was Amy!

That is karma people.

I texted her to give her the happy news,

(Ok, so I was jealous, I really wanted to win)

so it was bittersweet for me.

But I love her to death so I really was happy for her.

Deep down.

Way deep down.

But consider my lesson learned.

I will now share any Shabby Apple dress giveaway I find.

And wait patiently for the day that I finally win!

TRIA Beauty Giveaway

TRIA Beauty Giveaway here.

Win a TRIA Laser Hair Removal System.

It is just what I need.

I shave and two hours later my legs are sharp enough to cut someone.

Anyone else have that problem?

Well now that you all know about my hairy legs,

peace.

Oh and Happy Fourth of July!

Hope you all had a happy patriotic weekend.

And remembered to be grateful for all those who have fought and died for us.

So that we can have FREEDOM.

Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy.

I have many more to post later :-)

          

We love sparklers,

can't you tell?

I woke up so grateful today for so many things. So first I'd like to thank my Father in Heaver, and His Song Jesus Christ, for everything. Because I owe all that I have to Them. 

Other things I'm grateful for (order does not signify importance):

My family.

My cousins.

My friends.

Kelsey moved back to Oregon.

The gospel of Jesus Christ.

My beau. (Old fashion for boyfriend).

Prayer.

God  hears and answers my prayers.

I can change with the help of my Savior Jesus Christ.

The Atonement.

Lucky. (My kitty-an answered prayer-literally sent to me from God- found him at Church).

My vitamins. (without them I'd be in unbearable pain each day).

Sunshine.

Rain. (It makes Oregon so green and beautifu, its's fun to dance in...ok and to kiss in :-) )

Honey. (My horse...Ok and you too Casey haha wink wink--inside joke)

My life.

My passion.

Love.

My clothes and the great deals I find in getting them..

I recently purchased three lovely fun $7 dollar skirts and four $5 adorable shirts.

The beautiful world around us.

Repentance.

The Prophet of the Lord, President Thomas S. Monson.

Lemon Drops.

Chewy Gobstoppers.

Sunflower seeds (they are so addicting and have kept me awake on many a drive).

Lik a stix.

My comfy shoes (they are adorable and made a world of difference in my foot).

I have my own bedroom.

I'm going to the rodeo this Saturday with my best friend in the whole world-Kelsey.

I am giving 20 lessons a week.

My job-can't beat getting paid to be with kids and teach them my favorite thing, horesback riding.

Music.

Alex is serving a mission in Ecuador.

The Book of Mormon. 

Karlas smoked salmon and oysters. Yum.

Trials (strange I know, but after I quite banging my head against the wall, and humble myself,

they help me to become a better person). 

Any blog readers that I have out there. You rock!

The above list doesn't even begin to cover all that I am grateful for.

But I am grateful for all that I have.

And recognize that all my blessings come from God.

Lime Ricki Swimsuit Giveaway

I'm happy to share another giveaway with you!

Two giveaways in one day.

Lucky you!

That is two reasons why you should follow my blog.

Do it.

Follow it now!

Anywho, if you're in the market for a lovely, modest,  adorable, fun swimsuit

(And what girl isn't)

Then you must visit Lime Ricki

I love there swimsuits, they are so bright and hip! 

And, thanks to Thanks, Mail Carrier

you have a chance to win one of their super fun, flirty, and fabulous swimsuits.

Choose from their colorful tankinis and one pieces!

For your chance to win go here. 

Good luck to all you lovely ladies!

(And to myself as well.)

TOMS: A Lovely Giveaway for a Lovely Vision.

TOMS Giveaway here.

ONE FOR ONE. 

Such a lovely, beautiful act of service.

With every pair you purchase

TOMS will give a pair of NEW shoes

to a child in NEED.

ONE FOR ONE.

How Lovely. 

Go check out TOMS.

You will fall in love.

With their mission.

And their shoes.

I promise.

OH DEAR! How do I begin to describe how badly I want a pair. I heart TOMS shoes to death. Not only are they absolutely love and stylish, but the whole idea behind TOMS is one of the most lovely, unselfish ideas. One for one. That seems like no way to run a business and make money...and yet it works. Because charity never faileth.

 "Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about. The TOMS One for One business model transforms our customers into benefactors, which allows us to grow a truly sustainable business rather than depending on fundraising for support."

  TOMS vision and humanitarian efforts is so beautiful.

I want these little beauties if I win.

Please let me win!

(Crossing my fingers)

Romancing the Woman You Love

Romancing the Woman You Love

This is all any girl wants, to be romanced and wooed. It doesn't even have to be a grand gesture as shared in the article, but it's the little, corny, sweet and thoughtful things that shows he cares and wants to make you happy that totally sweep us off our feet, and what girl doesn't want to be swept off her feet...ladies, am I right??

Amy Adams does the perfect job of summing it all up in Enchanted. I love this song/scene!

\

Vintage Pearl Giveaway

I am so thrilled by this giveaway. A Lovely Lifestyle is hosting a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to The Vintage Pearl, where you can customize your very own necklace or bracelet! I adore this jewelery, it is so simple and so beautiful. I entered a giveaway hosted by The Vintage Pearl, but did not win. Alas, I have a second chance. To win this beauty:

I think it will make the perfect remembrance necklace for my dear Carla. I will have her name inscribed on the necklace and wear it always/ Carla will always hold a huge chunk of my heart. I still miss her more than I can put into words. I cry daily because I miss her so much, and because I would give anything in the world to see her one more time, and to find out if she is happy. That is my prayer. That she is happy and loved in her family. I also pray that her family, if not already members, will be visited by the missionaries and will accept the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. This has been my prayer for three years. Now some may call this coincidence, but my brother was just called to serve a 2 year mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Ecuador happens to be where my precious little Carla lives. I don't believe in coincidences. Of course I am ecstatic! And I don't believe in coincidence. I have also prayed the last three years that one of my brothers would be called to serve there, so that they could be led to Carla's family, and baptize them. Coincidence? I think not. I know that this is possible. I have the faith. More miraculous things have happened in this life. So I continue to pray for this, and I have been thanking my Heavenly Father for sending my brother there. Who knows, maybe my brother will get there and find that her family is already strong members of the church. That would be wonderful! But I do hope and pray that somehow, at some point, he will cross paths with her. Anyways, I got a little off topic there, but just so you all know, that is what I will do with my necklace if I win! Oh and I also love this little beauty as well, I would just put a C on one heart for Carla. Now I  can't decide which one I want, I think I am actually leaning towards this one though, what better way to remember her than by having her carved on my heart?? Yes, this is definitely the necklace that I want. But the first one is so pretty too!

What will you do?? 

To enter to win: 

Visit A Lovely Lifestyle for details! 

Another Nicole Moment and Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Today will be a day I will always remember. 

Today is the day I learned the correct way to use a staple remover.

I never knew I was using it wrong, but up until today they never really seemed all that useful or handy to me.

Because I was not using the staple remover as it was intended to be used.

At 23 years of age, this is probably a skill I should have acquired by now.

In fact, I had a serious inner debate about the pros and cons of even admitting this to all of you.

My blog readers.

If there are any of you at all.

Ok I know I can at least count on Kelsey and Amy to read this.

And I know that you will get a laugh out of this "Nicole Moment"

So if it will bring a "roll your eyes, oh my gosh Nicole, and a chuckle"

then it would be selfish of me to keep this story to myself.

And if by chance I do have any other readers out there in the cyberspace world,

and you too have been using the staple remover incorrectly,

and wasting precious time,

then I owe it to YOU
to share the correct way to remove a staple using the staple remover.

To use it the way it was intended to be used.

You're probably a tad bit curious now as to how on earth
I have been removing staples with this handy, simple, little device.
I mean, it's not exactly some complex machine.

Any child should be able to figure it out?

Right?

Well, leave it to me to take a simple object and be competely dumbfounded by it,

and then invent a completely ridiculous way to use it
because I'm too embarassed to ask it should be used.

Ok, so here it is.

My little confession.

I have always used the staple remover in this fashion:

1. Turn paper over so that back side of staple is exposed.

2. Use pointy prongs on staple remover to lift up each side of enclosed staple.

3. Set staple remover down.

4. Pull out staple with fingers.

As I type this out I'm having second thoughts about sharing this.

With anyone.

But it's too late now.

The imagery in my head of me prying up the staples edges with the staple remover,

and then setting down the staple remover to pry out the staple with my little fingers,

is TOO funny.

I'm laughing at myself.

So now at this point you're probably wondering how I came to finally learn the correct usage.

I'm filling in as a receptionist today for a person and a business.

I won't name any names.

I was asked by someone in the office to go through quite a few files and unstaple about a million papers that were stapled together at the top,

and then restaple them in the middle left.

I was flabbergasted.
"This is going to take all day" is what I thought.
Mostly because it takes me about a minute to take out a staple, give or take a few seconds.

So I took out some files and began my slow and painful process of staple removing.

Fortunately for me, I came across some papers that I was not quite sure what to do with.

(Little did I know this would set the course that would change my life.

For forever.)

So I took them to said person who assigned me this horrible task

and asked what I should do with the papers.

Then, to my amazement, as she explained what she wanted,

I watched in wonder as she took the staple remover,

placed both prongs around the front side of the staple,

closed down on it,

and grabbed it out in one quick, effortless, two second motion.

I was stunned.

It was so simple.

It is just like me to take something so quick and easy

and make it as complicated and time consuming as possible.

I recovered quickly and returned my eyes to normal size

(I'm pretty sure they looked like huge cartoon bug eyes for a moment)

I then nonchalantly nodded, took the papers, and headed back to my little work area.

With a new piece of information that would make my job so much less daunting.

And so much faster.

And staple finger pricks would be reduced from a gazillion to ZERO!

YES! WOOHOO!

This is up there with some of the most life changing, happiest moments of my life.

Seriously.

The End.

On another note,

remember how I said I'm a college graduate

living at home

and sharing a bedroom with 4 siblings?

Not anymore.

I moved out.

Of my old bedroom.

My sister Collette moved out, and I got to move in to her room.

I have upgraded from a twin bed to a full.

And I don't have to share a room with anyone.

However, while I now have my "own" room,

I am no where close to having my own bed.

I have had my new room for about two weeks now,

and have only spent a handful of those nights alone.

Sophia and Jacob, with their sweet little smiles and huge innocent eyes,

have perfected the art of coyly asking me to sleep with me in my bed.

It goes something like this:

One of them will run up to me, jump on my bed,

and give me a giant bear hug and a huge kiss.

They then turn those bright eyes to me and say in the sweetest voice they have:

"Can I sleep with you tonight pwweasse?"

And if it's Jacob he will add on, "I want to snuggle fuggle with you."

I hesitate.

I try to say no.

I want to say no.

But the sweet smile doesn't leave their face.

And they snuggle in closer.

 So I hear "Yessssss" come out of my mouth.

And then if it's Sophia she says: "Yes! And giggles and cackles.

And Jacob's smile gets triumphant and he says: "Thank You'm!"

The other night as I was squished in between the two of them,
with Jacob grasping onto my arm on one side,

and Sophia laying on my tummy,

I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

And then I tried to trick them into thinking they wanted to sleep in their own beds.

But they are much too smart for me.

I said:

"Don't you guys want to sleep in your own beds, they're so much better than mine.

You have Lightning McQueen and Princess Beds!

And you won't have to be so squished.

And you two can stay up all night talking but in Coco's bed you have to be quiet and go to sleep.

Wouldn't it be much more fun in your beds??!!"

Sophia then said:

"But I like to sleep with you and lay on your tummy"

Which she knows I'm a total sucker for.
Jacob says:

" I like to sleep with you. It's good to be with family in the bed."

These two.

They know exactly how to butter me up.

I cannot say no to them.

Yesterday I was playing outside with Sophia and Jacob,

enjoying the sun that finally decided to make an appearance,

and they were playing with worms and I was telling them how gross that was.

So of course then they brought them over to me and tried to get me to hold them,

and went on and on about how they loved worms.

Sophia then decided that they worms probably had a family,

and that she should return the worms to their family.

So she put the worms back in the dirt and said:

"Goodbye, I will miss you!" In her loud singsong voice.

And then Jacob said,

"I know, let's bite him to dinner."

I said "ewwww",

and he said "no let's BITE him to dinner."

It was then I realized he meant INVITE.

Nonetheless I'm sure the poor worm didn't realize bite was really invite,

and was happy to finally be put back down, with no bite taken out of him.

I shouldn't have made such a big deal about the worms though
because then they moved on to slugs.

I hate slugs.

I told them that.
I also told them I like to pour salt on slugs because it kills them.

Sophia then got mad at me and said "Nicole!" in a really scolding tone.

She then proceeded to find two slugs and hold them as she cooed to them sweet nothings.

I was finally thoroughly grossed out enough to tell her to put them down
because they are slimy and sticky and they eat mommy's flowers.

That convinced her.

She said fine.

I then told her I was going to pour salt on then because they eat mommy's flowers.

She was mad but said fine.

I got the salt and poured it on, telling her she probably shouldn't watch, but she insisted!

Once they were shrunken and dead she ran inside to wash her hands,

huffing and puffing because I had killed them.

In an attempt to make her feel better I finally said,

"It's ok they're in Heaven now with Heavenly Father and Jesus."

She liked that idea and stopped yelling at me.

As she was inside washing her hands Jacob told me:

"Let's just look for regetty bugs you like."

Translation:

"Let's just look for regular bugs you like."

I told him find a ladybug, caterpillar, or a potato bug.

Those are the only bugs I like.

As I watched him poking around in the dirt he took the huge can of iodized salt

and started pouring it all over.

I quickly told him to stop pouring it all over.

His reply was:

"I got a tiny beetle so he can go to heaven."

Whoops.

Guess you need to be careful what you say around kids.

He then proceeded to pour salt on every bug he saw so they could die and go to heaven.

Not exactly the lesson I was trying to teach,

but as long as he doesn't move on to larger animals I don't see the harm.

In my opionion he's doing the world a favor.
The world is much better off without bugs.

So each insect "sent to heaven" makes Nicole a happy camper.

Last little story.

While Jacob was going around sending bugs to heaven,

I picked up the two dead slugs in a leaf and threw them in the bushes.

Apparently Jacob then put two little sticks in their place in their piles of salt.

At this point Sophia came back outside after scrubbing slug slime off her hands,

proceeded directly to the dead slugs(which she didn't know I'd removed) and their piles of salt,

and then screamed:

"Ooohhh they turned into sticks!"

I couldn't help but laugh and I then explained to her that

I had thrown them in the bushes and Jacob had put sticks in their places.

Anyways, I think the point of all this is that I love Sophia and Jacob, that they are pretty much, hands down, the two most adorable kids in the universe,

they know how to turn up the charm to get their way,

and that kids say the darndest things.

Well, I best be getting back to all those papers waiting to be unstapled.
They won't unstaple themselves.
But as I now know, the staple remover is more than qualified for the job,
and will do the trick!
(But maybe they could include an instruction manual, just a thought.)

Energy Addict? Yes Please!

I'm currenty reading Energy Addict by Jon Gordon and I am feeling so motivated to become that person that we all know, the one who seems to be the energizer bunny and can just go go go, 

all with a  smile on their face, and energy to spare, and share. 

That person that we all secretly hate because they are just so full of life and energy, and well, it's just not fair. 

Well, as of yesterday, I am getting addicted to positive energy.

This book is packed full of 101 physical, mental, and spiritual ways to energize your life.

My favorite suggestion so far?

Getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep. 

Yes, you heard right. 

8 to 10. 

Haven't I always said that?

Now I can justify that through scientific research.

In fact, according to a scientific study, 8 is good, but 10 is better!

" While there are a few people who can consistently get by with only four hours of sleep per night, most of us require at least eight hours of sleep--and nine to ten a night is optimal, according to Cornell Psychology Professor James B. Maas. One third of Americans get less than six hours of sleep a night. Research shows that if you get less than eight hours of sleep, you are operating  in an 'impaired' state; your alertness, productivity, creativity, and general health are all affected. We all know about the risks of driving while impaired...but living in a perpetually impaired state is another matter altogether.

Acorrding to Mass, 'Between the seventh and eighth hour of sleep is when we get almost an hour of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the time when the mind repairs itself, grows new connections and recharges us. If you only sleep six hours a night, you're missing that last, important opportunity to repair and to prepare for the coming day.' 

This means less energy for your body

and less energy for you."

People, like I've always said, sleep is important for your body.

That's why I love it so much!

I'll share a few other physical energy energy tips, but I highly suggest purchasing the book today,

because he has many mental and spiritual strategies as well!

Take back your life and beome an energy addict!

Physical Energy Addict Tips:

1. Eat breakfast.

2. Eat more earlier.

3. Eat organic, whole foods.

3. Exercise in the morning.

4. Take a short walk after lunch and dinner.

5. Take a nap. 

6. Energize with yoga. 

7. Drink lots of water.

Those are only 7 of 39 physical energy suggestions. 

I'm telling you, if you're constantly feeling sluggish, tired, and like you're running on empty

this book can help you!

I've only read the physical tips so far, but I'm already feeling energized and motivated by having the knowledge and the drive to make a few changes so I can be one of those people that I always complain about, but am secretly jealous of. 

I'm going to be energetic, and powerful

I'm going to be an energy addict.