Food For Thought

Ran across this thought on my friend Tricia's blog:

“Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”

“The Joy of Womanhood,” Ensign, Nov. 2000, 15

Early One Saturday Morning...

This morning- at 8 AM- the ward had a service activity at the temple. I'm not gonna lie, the idea of getting up and being somewhere at 8 AM on a SATURDAY didn't really thrill me. HOWEVER, I found myself pleasantly awake and chipper at 7 this morning when I rose to get myself there. I love mornings. Did y'all know that? I am a morning person. Yep. Love 'em. ANYWAY- so off to the temple I went!

Good morning Orlando Temple!

He's not as happy as I am in the morning. Not at all.

Amy and the Juniper bush!

HA! I did it. Another little known fact about Amy: I LOVE YARD WORK.

Chuck and Tawnya- Look at that teamwork!

Mormons and Shovels. Look out.

Now here's a good story:

Thursday night we had Enrichment at my house. This girl in my ward had some super cute white shoes that I REALLY wanted. She told me that she got them "somewhere in the Florida Mall." So don't you worry, my friends, I dragged Chuck to the Florida Mall (and may I add that this mall is NOT in the least bit SMALL) after the service activity this morning and made him go through every possible store where these...


... could be found. He sure is a good sport. Two hours, one fight on a bench, a dipped cone, and some time in the foot massaging rigs in Brookstone later, I was one happy girl, and he was just happy to have made it through the ordeal. It was a good day.

Chuck's self-portrait of his reaction to my obsession with the new shoes. Ha. Good stuff.

Not Working Till 5

Things I Could/Should Do, But Don't:

* Work on my audition song book. It has needed serious revamping for months.
* PRACTICE those songs in my audition song book.
* Read. Ensign, scriptures, a romantical Nicholas Sparks book... whatever.
* Float around my pool so as to get what I can a tan- which for me is still pale. BUT the dang sun won't come out this morning...
* Clean.
* Eat. I'll do this one. I like food.


And now that I have typed about all this, I guess there's nothing to do BUT do some of it. Yep. That was a productive morning in blogging. And this post makes me sound quite pathetic. Awesome.

Sunday Sunshine

Some things that make me happy...

Saturday Night With a Boy

... Who lets me make him do girly things.

FOOT BATHS

(With salt beads, exfoliating scrubs, the works!)

He's going to kill me for this post.

Brown-Eyed Belle

The most exciting part of my work week...

And...

I want this dress.

Reflections on My No-Longer- Eternal-Bachelors

Tomorrow is officially the end of an era.

Sam and Emily

Dave and Natalie

We all know I've had lots of men in my life. Ha. HOWEVER, there have always been two guys, the bestest of my friends, who I thought would live, at least for another several years, in the world of singlehood with me. Well, honestly, I knew, and hoped that era of their lives would come to an end soon- for their sake- but for my own... well, I wouldn't mind more time at restaurants discussing the dramatics of men/women, going to movies together just to have something to do, and having more opportunities to whine about the lack of love in our lives.

Dave was the first to bite the dust. In the latter part of last year I knew he was a goner. Cute and fabulous little Natalie comes along, and all of a sudden "Amy Wednesday" is a thing of the past. SURE I'd moved to Florida- but that's besides the point. So Dave became an old married dude, (still as fun as ever), but an old married dude. Luckily I still had Sam the Bachelor in my life.

And then April came...

Sam got engaged. He threw me for a loop back in November when he told me he'd started dating Emily again. They'd dated earlier in the year and I thought she was FANTASTIC, but the timing just wasn't right at that point I guess. (I was ecstatic when he told me they were dating again. He was reluctant to tell me because, in his words, I would tell him he "was stupid." But I thought he was stupid for dumping her in the first place!) ANYWAY- so next thing I know he's flying to Hawaii and proposing to her and sets June 20 as his wedding date.

June 20 is tomorrow. I can't be there. I missed Dave's wedding and now I'm missing Sam's. This stinks. Sam and I survived nearly all of our single years together. (From the time I was 20 until now...) He dealt with me being lovesick and dramatic over Seth, DJ, Paul, Brant, JD, Chad, Ben, OTHER Paul, Chuck, and whoever else was in the mix during all that time. I can't even fathom the amount of money spent on our trips to the movies, Macaroni Grill, Mannheim Steamroller, Jazz games, plays, yada yada yada. Bottom line: He was always there for me. And I was always there for him. We had a good thing going on.

Side note: As part of a deal we'd made years before while sitting at a table at the Cafe Pierpont, Sam payed up when I was in Utah last month by taking me out to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. He lost our bet. He DID get engaged first!

This post seems selfish for many reasons, but really, I wanted to post it to express how THRILLED I am for both of these guys. I am so thankful that they've played that part in my life. That we've all supported one another and had good times and been excited and sad for each other. It's amazing. And I am thankful for those years.

So, to Sam, who gets married tomorrow:

The 7 years of "The Eternal Bachelors" have come to an end. And I couldn't be happier.

CONGRATS TO SAM AND EMILY!!!

Ah- The Memories.

I know many of you will be sent back to flashbacks of times at BYU-Idaho and the Playmill... but here's where Jon is now. Trippy. Ha ha.

Disappointed.

So y'all know how I am making a conscious effort to save gas by leisurely driving along at 55 mph? Not only THAT, but I also put the perfect amount of air in all of Sophie's tires to ensure she's in tip top shape to get fantastic mileage. How, I ask, am I repaid? Sophie has gotten the WORST gas mileage EVER in the last week and a half. WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAT? NOT COOL.

So folks, what do I do to solve this problem? I think this weekend I will take her for a needed oil change, have them check her tires, and do WHAT ELSE? I need her to get her old, great gas mileage!

Sunday Sunshine

Well, technically it's Monday now, but I wanted to make sure I got a good Sunshine post in tonight.

First of all, it's Fathers Day. The post below fully explains the love I have for my Daddy and for all the things he's done for me in my almost 27 years of life. He is one of the most hard working and giving men I have met in my entire life, and I am so thankful for that example. Anyway- read the next post and you'll see my whole Fathers Day tribute.

Continuing:

I love days when church just fills ya up and makes ya happy! I had such a day.

I spent a lot of my day pondering how wonderful it is that I know that I am a daughter of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that I can wake up every day knowing the things that I know, and that I actually have a path and direction to follow in my daily life. I never have to question where I came from, why I am here, or where I am going, because I KNOW. I know that I have the divine qualities of my Father, and I know that there is limitless potential in the person that I am. I am so blessed to know that the choices I am making here are blessing me eternally, and that when I stumble, the Savior is right there to pick me back up and keep me going. I cannot comprehend not knowing these things. They are such an innate part of me at this point of my life, that to understand what it would be like to NOT know these things is incomprehensible.

In my current situation I am surrounded by people who deal with the very things I cannot comprehend. At times I ache to tell them (and it's my duty to) of their divine existence, I want to explain to them the blessings that come into a life of obedience and faith. I want to show them who they can become and make them aware of how genuinely happy a person can be.

I am blessed.

My Project

This was my project for the week. And while it didn't turn out EXACTLY as I planned, (I didn't have some key pictures and I wanted to type the journaling...), I was pretty happy with the outcome. So, here it is, my "Little Brown Paper Bag Book" for my daddy on Fathers Day:

THIS is my favorite page of all. Thanks to Chuck and his Photoshop skills, and my brilliance, I created this "Speed Chuckie, Speed!" page. When I was a kid my daddy would "drive crazy" down Ash Drive in Layton on the way to our house. So, if you'll notice, the map is of that area of Layton, the car is our old Honda, and inside are mine and my daddy's faces. HA! He laughed. I laughed. It is funny!











The End.