I Need...

A little of this...

And this...

In my life right now!

He's Home!!

Day 15 - Pictures of Your Dream House

I have to choose just one dream house?? Nope. I don't wanna. I have a few different ones in mind. It's like asking a girl to choose one pair of shoes. It just isn't going to happen! "I could no sooner choose a favorite star from the heavens!" - Everafter

One story Ranch style

With a nice big window (minus the ugly furniture)

Or a beautiful Victorian with a wrap around porch!

(This is obviously the first choice)

Who wouldn't want to curl up on this porch with a good book or a glass of lemonade, watching the neighbors?

This one's kind of a combo of the other 2, eh?

Or a loft with exposed brick?

Get out of here. I die. Loft, exposed brick, NYC...need I say more?

Of course I'll need a beach house

with an amazing view and simple interior

And a cabin in the woods in case I need to get away

again, with an incredible view and lots of light

Or I could just be a regular ol' person and settle for this..

Can you believe I made it to the end of this challenge? I did it! And you know what that means....Mitchel gets home tomorrow!! Woot woot! I'm so excited!

Day 14 - Some Pictures You Love

Oh man. I have to say I needed this post today. I had the worst.day.ever. Seriously. It started out with a massive nosebleed as soon as I woke up and just went on from there. So today's post actually made me laugh out loud when I wanted to cry. These pics are in no particular order, they all just make me laugh for one reason or another and I could have added a hundred more. I have to say that I truly have the greatest friends in the world. It is impossible not to have a good time with any of my friends, and I'm so glad I surround myself with funny people.

Because of genuine laughter

Because of the perfection of the "stance"

Because of the love of dirt biking

Because of the cabin and snowboarding and getting thrown off of snowmobiles

Because of the crazy eye and the suave mustaches (and Patrick's face)

Because of sheer joy

Because of this little guy's personality

Because of vanity

Because of cousin bonding

Because this is so typical - I can't keep a straight face and David is always so smooth!

Because Renee makes the best horsey face ever!

Because we're pretty much models

Because Laci thinks I have the creepiest relationship with my brothers - mostly Mark. hahaha!

Your Favorite Part of Christmas

What?? What do you mean this isn't part of the 15 day Challenge/Countdown?? Ok, I admit...I must have misunderstood my mom and got the countdown wrong, so I'm actually one day short. Therefore, I made this post up. It's my blog, I can do what I want! haha

So, I've been having a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I don't know what it is, or if it's a combination of a lot of things going on and a lot on my mind, but I'm just not into it. I turned my Christmas music off the other day at work because it was annoying me and listened to Rogue Wave instead.

Yesterday I spent the morning decorating my friend, Lois's house. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed making her house all festive with her beautiful decorations. I was beginning to feel the Christmas spirit there, but I still just wasn't all in.

Today was the day that it usually does it for me. I look forward to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional every year and this year it did not fail to disappoint. President Uchtdorf said exactly what I needed to hear, the music was beautiful, and of course President Eyring and President Monson's talks were equally inspired.

I am feeling a lot better about where my perspective needs to lie and am going to make a goal to not worry so much about the gifts and such, and focus more on serving and the birth of our Savior. So I guess we can call this Day 13.5 because I'm setting another goal!

Day 13 - Goals

First of all, I have to say that the comments I have gotten have made.my.day. I looooove getting comments on my blog. The Jacklyn/Lindsay convos actually made me guffaw out loud. Yes, guffaw. How I miss all of my Canadian friends. Although, do you really count as Canadian friends if you're living in the States now?? haha! jk. We still have maple leaf hearts. Ok, enough of that. Let's focus on the oh so exciting topic for today. Goals.

This is kind of a tough one. I mean, I have goals, but isn't that kind of a personal thing?? I'm realizing how retarded that sounds as I'm blogging my life away, but you get it...

1. Stop swearing! (I only use the good ones every so often, but still...it's not very lady like)

2. Be more humble and kind

3. Run 4 times a week again and do yoga/spin/body pump/etc. in between

4. Do more service

5. Build my business better this coming year

6. Finish the quilt I started

7. Lose 10 lbs

8. Be more patient

9. Stick to my budget and get completely out of debt (incl. student loan) by next Jan.

10. Finish all of the little projects I've started!

Day 12 - What You Believe

This is an easy one, for sure! Here's the quick breakdown, most important first and then I'll get into the random.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have 13 core beliefs that we tack on to the ones most everyone else believes in, i.e. the 10 Commandments. Here goes:

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
-Joseph Smith

Besides those (which are clearly the most important in my life), I believe in taking pride in your appearance. How you are on the inside is reflected in how you take care of yourself on the outside. I believe in being kind to the elderly. I believe that we're each in control of our own emotions and attitudes and that nobody else can "make" us feel or do anything. I believe that as you live an honest and true life you will be blessed for it. I believe that what goes around comes around. I'm sure there are more things, but I'll spare you for now. :)

Day 11 - Favorite TV Shows

Oh man, this one should be easy! I've mentioned that I am a connoisseur of trashy reality TV, but I also watch good TV too. Clearly I don't watch any of it live - who wastes their time on that?? jk...I either use hulu or my friend, Megan P, is nice to enough to TiVo some shows we like. Here's the list of shows I always make time to watch:

1. Arrested Development (It's not on anymore, but it's comical genius!)
2. Modern Family - I really wanted to post the scene where Phil has the kidney stone, but I couldn't find it. It brings me to tears every time. "Maybe it's because there's an ALIEN inside me!" hahahaha...
3. 30 Rock - It's always funny. Every time. I love Tina Fey!
4. The Bachelor
5. Any Real World/Road Rules challenge
6. So You Think You Can Dance (of course!)
7. And if I can catch it...Wipeout. Holy crap that's funny to watch. How is people falling off of big bouncy balls, or getting socked in the face with mechanical boxing gloves not funny? It is.
8. Oh yeah, and Glee. The novelty is wearing off on me, but I still like it.

So, there you have it!

Day 10 - Something You're Afraid Of

Hmmm...I don't really have any paralyzing fears. I don't like spiders, but because I've lived on my own for so long I've learned how to kill them with a broom, pick them up with a HUGE wad of TP so that you don't feel the body at all, and flush them IMMEDIATELY. I actually have a great story about having to kill black widows with my friend Megan V when I lived alone a few years ago. haha! Ask me sometime and I'll draw a mental picture for you.

I don't like snakes. I run like the dickens if I ever hear rustling in bushes near me. When I was on a 10 mile night run in October, a huge rat ran across the sidewalk in front of me into some bushes and I didn't even freak out. That's totally unusual for me, so I had to have been in the running zone. Usually if I see a mouse or a rat I head for the hills/chairs/tables/whatever!! Their tails creep me out. Ok, so I actually am afraid of rats then. And birds. I absolutely hate birds! I have a fear that they'll peck my skin or eyes out and I cringe every time I come near one...just waiting for the attack. I didn't take Behavioral Psych in college bc they have a mandatory lab where you have to work with rats and chickens. That's partially the reason why I won't go on in my degree bc I know I'm inevitably going to have to face that. How ironic....face my fears to get a Psychology MA.

I also hate man-made heights. I don't trust them. Really tall open buildings and bridges make my knees go weak and I can't look down - just out. Speaking of which, I'm afraid of the stupid elevators in the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They're so old and they're on these huge cranks and gears that you can totally see and I always envision the cables snapping or something and those jam-packed elevators plummeting at rocket speed to the ground.

It's really, really odd that I ever went bungee jumping bc that bungee tower is pretty much made of nothing and then you JUMP OFF of it. Idiot. Put me on a mountain though and I'm good. I'll get as close to the edge as I can!

Oh, and I'm afraid of the ocean. That's totally legit. I start to hyperventilate as soon as I can't touch. I'm afraid I'm going to get swept away in some crazy current and drown or never come back. Sidenote - I almost drown in the Raymond pool with Robyn W when we were like 6 and Matt saved our lives (it was very traumatic), so I think the whole water/ocean thing may have something to do with that. I'm getting wayyy better though and I'm trying so hard to overcome this one. I actually give myself pep talks when I'm in the ocean and will go out where I can't touch now, but I'm very aware of my breathing and have to control it. AND...I'm afraid of critters in the ocean. Blech! If something brushes my leg I lose it! I'm terrified of getting stung by a jellyfish.

Ok, so I forgot I was such a wuss about a few things. So sue me!

Day 9 - Put Your iPod on Shuffle, first 10 songs

I don't know why, but this is the one I've been looking forward to posting the most! I loooove music, and I always laugh when my iPod is on shuffle at work because I'll get a hymn and then next will be Rage Against the Machine or Lloyd Banks. Needless to say, I have quite the variety of music on there. To spare you all my nerdiness, I'll skip the Harry Potter bits and the boring stuff like hymns and write down the first 10 besides that. This should be interesting...

1. Secret - Maroon 5

2. Holiday - Madonna

3. The Music of Life - Mark Doubleday

4. Not Ur Girl - Katherine McPhee

5. Apathetic Man - Goldrich & Heisler

6. All My Loving - Jim Sturgess

7. Bust Off - Medina Green

8. The Two of Us - 'N Sync

9. Pheurto Skeurto - Sunny Day Real Estate

10. Saints and Sailors - Dashboard Confessional

Day 8 - A Place You've Traveled

Well....we all know I've traveled a bit in my day because I am my mother's daughter and will go ANYWHERE! I'm clearly not going to pick just one picture or place! What would be the point of that?? We travel so we can see it all and share it all, right?? So, how about I tell you all the magical places I've been and the places I'm planning on going next? Sounds fun, right? Ok, well it does to me. First of all, I have to say that on my "Bucket List" I plan on visiting every continent. I have a lot of work left to do, but I'm hoping to marry someone rich who will retire early and take me around the world! Too much to ask? We'll see about that...

I wish I had a little map that we could put pins into, but we'll just start at the beginning-ish and do a short run down. I have to admit that while I was looking through my old pictures I got totally carried away and wanted to add every picture, until I remembered I'd already blogged most of this stuff in the past. AND I didn't even get pics on here to cover everywhere I've been! For example: Vancouver BC, Seattle, Portland, DC, Denver, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, California, Utah, Montana, Idaho, etc. will just get a shout out!

Honolulu, Hawaii spring break...Sophomore year of college I think...

Mt McKinley, Alaska

All over Alaska - pretty much Anchorage to Fairbanks and a ton of towns in between before we drove down the ALCAN Hwy back to Idaho. We went through Alaska, Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, and then Idaho.

The original Haufbrauhaus in Munich, Germany

An entertaining and scenic road trip through little German towns to Hohenschwangau, Germany which is where the Neuschwanstein castle is. ps...this pic is taken from the oldest, highest, scariest bridge known to man!

Amazing Venice, Italy

Beautiful Florence, Italy

Historic Rome, Italy

Mon coeur, Paris, France

(as well as Giverny, Nice, Cannes, Fontainebleu and several other little French towns I visited when I lived there.)

Magical London, England

(where I went to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station, and where I saw Wicked for the first time. Magical.)

Incredible Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Next I think I'd like to go to New York City, NY then Australia, Japan, Egypt, New Zealand, Peru, Costa Rica, a Mediterranean cruise to Greece, and a quick trip to Antarctica. :)

Day 7 - Favorite Movies