Day 25 - A picture of your day.

Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change.

Negativity

More funny stuff here.

If I could give everybody a good shot in the arm of positive thinking, I would! It's not that I hate negativity. I mean, I do, but I also understand it. Nobody can be happy every second of every day. We have to have really bad terrible no good days to appreciate the really good days. I just struggle when someone is having a really hard time and I can't fix it. I just want to make everything better! I want to make the sun shine when it's rainy, so to speak.

My own personal way of dealing with dissappointment is, quite honestly, to find the best in it. Of course I have to first come to grips with it first and really have a chance to feel, well, dissappointed. But I can't stay there very long. It's dangerous to stay there. I know I have to pick myself up by the boot straps and get moving.

I am Pollyanna.

You know I am. I am my life's ultimate spin doctor. I can play the Glad Game like nobody's business! I want to find that silver lining.

I still have really rainy days, though. Days where the sun is behind so many layers of dark gray clouds, the silver is completely hidden. But I know it's there. The sun is ALWAYS on the other side of the clouds... no matter how many layers there are. That's just how the universe works. Heavenly Father never ever leaves us completely alone. He is always in the same place, beckoning for us to come to him, to kneel and ask for help.

With HIM on our side, how can we fail? :)

It's way more fun to spend life focusing on the good than to always find the bad. 'Nuff said!

She's so cute, isn't she? :D

Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book.

Multiple authors, one Source. History. Principles that strengthen my testimony. Will continue to read them over and over and over.

Beverly Cleary

My favorite childhood author.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Another favorite.

Jane Austen

Love her.

J.K. Rowling

Fantasy rooted in the real world. Love it!

C.S. Lewis (above) and J.R.R. Tolkein (below)

Fantasy at it's greatest and most epic.

Cornelia Funke

Imagination.

Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at.

Not just scrapbooking, but digital scrapbooking.

Playing the piano.

Quilting.

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget.

Let's be honest, I spend so much time and energy trying to remember stuff, it would be contradictory to try to forget something. :D

But really, even the bad stuff has made me who I am. Would I want to forget the first boy who broke my heart? No, because I learned from that and someday I might be holding my crying daughter and I can be understanding. Do I want to forget 9-11 and all other catastrophic tradgedies? How could I? They changed the world that I live in to be what it is today. I can't listen to Have You Forgotten? and not remember exactly where I was that day.

Everything... every little tiny thing... makes up who I am.


Live without regret, now there's a mantra I can get behind! :)

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

IRELAND!

Day 19 - A picture and a letter.

This post is brought to you by the letter D and also the letters that spell Ladybug. :D

This would be at the beginning of my name if I was a fairy.

This would be at the beginning of my name if I had looked into the Eye of Sauron.

This would be at the beginning of my name in the book wherein is written a sonnet about me.

Don't we ALL need a little more Vitamin D these days?!

A little tailoring and you KNOW I would wear this! :D

A painted rock! How many times have I painted rocks in my life? Not a few!

If I lived alone, I would totally own this! Maybe for a guest room someday! ;D

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity.

And there's always this post.

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

If it were even possible (not to mention privacy issues) I would put a picture up of all of the awesome girls I have the privilege of associating with these days. First, I was just in Activity Days. Then I was in Young Women AND Activity Days. And now, I am in Young Women. I remember thinking how much I would love to be in Young Women... and then I would remind myself of all of the DRAMA involved! :D I am learning to love the drama. And I pray all the time that I will be able to say the right thing at the right time to minimize some of the drama.

Girls Camp Sunday has ALWAYS been my favorite! You know, the first Fast Sunday after Girls Camp when they all go up and tell about how their testimonies were strengthened and how the bonded and what scary, gross or annoying thing brought them closer together. Be it rain, or bears, or what have you.

You may be thinking that your Ward has the best and brightest Young Women in the world. And you're probably right where YOU are concerned. But as far as I am concerned, we have the most capital A AWESOME girls! Their integrity and strength of spirit amazes me. Their testimonies are so strong! They are valiant and talented. They are so kind to each other! In a world where their age group is not widely known for such a trait, in fact.

I am excited and humbled and oh so happy to be working with the youth in my neck of the woods. And I am thrilled at the direction the Personal Progress goals take me and I can't wait to earn my medallion... again! :)

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you.

There are so many people that fit this category for me. I surround myself with people that uplift and inspire me. I am constantly amazed at the wonderful people that I get to communicate with every day.

Most recently, I have been profoundly touched by my cousin Bryce and his incredible wife Heidi. They are parents to two amazing boys. Their second son is such a special child that he only needed a few days in his earthly body before he completed his test.

With profound respect, I chose to share the rest of what I wrote directly with them and the picture I snitched from the blog is an oldie but goodie. :)

I sure love you guys... A LOT!

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die.

Write a novel.

I've already got several ideas started. Something I could really pour my heart into.

Eat at a very fancy restaurant.

Where the food is pretty and there are lots of forks.

Travel with just Geoff.

On a plane. Somewhere really far away. Be an anonymous tourist. Take lots of pictures.

Take a really pretty picture of me that could be laid next to Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken.

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

Ummm, that's like EVERYONE! I could never imagine my life without anyone who is already in it until it really is their time to go and I'm forced to.

My views on life and death are tied so closely to my religion and I believe that I will get to be with my loved ones forever and ever if we all do what's right while here on earth. I know where they're going when they leave and my dearest and only hope is that I will get to be with them there someday.

So, I guess I'm refusing to answer this question! I don't want to imagine my life without anyone and so I choose not to.

Instead, I choose to show you a picture of the place where families can be tied together forever. This is where we are Sealed together so tightly, not even death can break us apart.

The Bountiful Temple

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist.

Of all time: Collin Raye

You may remember when we got to go and see him at Desert Star. He is seriously the nicest guy. We exchanged a couple of emails before his granddaughter passed away. I haven't gotten up the guts since then to write to him again. He has this amazing Spirit about him. He has such strong core beliefs. His family means everything to him. He is just a really great person.

I like SO many different artists and songs! I struggled to narrow it down to even a handful of favorites. I couldn't do it! So, we'll just stick with the best and let the rest hold their own. :)

Day 12 - A picture of something you love.

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate.

I'm not even going to dignify it with an actual picture, plus I wouldn't be able to look at this post ever if I put a picture of a real one. I hate spiders. They make me feel all creepy crawly just to look at them. I once spent over an hour trying to build up the courage to smash a spider when I was 8 or 9 and I cried the entire time! And when my Mom, who had been encouraging me from out in the hallway, finally came in and saw how big it actually was, called my Dad to come and get it in the end! :D I'm slightly braver these days when it comes to protecting my kids from their obvious ill will and probably poisonous personalities. But I still detest them and will call anybody else, who is not me, to avenge my near death experience upon seeing one.

I made a special effort to find green spiders, which, not surprisingly brought up a lot of green goblin pics, considering I searched for "green cartoon spiders." :D

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the craziest things with.

If you'd asked me 11 years ago if I'd be doing half the stuff I do, I'd have called you crazy! My partner in these crimes? Becca, of course! I have done more out-of-the-ordinary things with this girl than I ever thought possible!!

I remember taking my teensy, sqeaky 3 month old baby girl to get her very first hearing aid. At one year old, she got glasses and a second hearing aid. This picture was taken at 2 years old. Not very long after this, we gave up on the second hearing aid as we could never find any hearing in that ear and she hated the aid in her bad ear, but left the better one alone. That's how we knew it was working well for her. :) And when they tried to move up to a stronger prescription on the glasses, she refused to wear them ever again!

Several times a week I would let complete strangers in my house to manhandle my daughter and do all kinds of therapies on her. Of course, they didn't stay strangers for long! This is Donata doing PT. She also got OT, Speech, Vision and Hearing visitors... from a few weeks old to 3 years old, every week. Becca learned to love therapy and also what to do to get them to stop. She was the BEST at playing possum with her first PT Curt. She would fake sleep until he stopped and then she would be all alert again. :) I love Early Intervention and I am so grateful for their persistence and patience and friendship.

I sent someone who couldn't do anything for herself away on a bus every day to preschool. I put a lot of trust in her bus drivers and teachers to take care of her the way I would and send her back to me tired, but happy. This was from her first day of preschool which happened on her 3rd birthday.

When Becca first started losing teeth, I freaked out! First of all, I didn't know where it had gone! And second of all, the first thing I assumed was that something was terribly wrong. My Mom reminded me that she was the right age to be losing teeth and it was the first milestone she hit right on time!! :D Loose teeth still freak me out.

We do all kinds of other "crazy" things on a daily basis. I feed her with a tube directly into her stomach 5 times a day at 8, 11, 2, 5 and 8. She actually had a tiny seizure today, but she hasn't had a really big one in nearly a year and a half. Seizures are horrible and I wouldn't wish them on my greatest enemy. I do tons and tons of comfort caring and really just everything the rest of us do for ourselves... I do for Becca.

So if I use the definition of crazy that includes the words bizarre and fantastic... I do bizarre things for a fantastic girl every day. And if that makes me crazy... I love being crazy!!

Day 9 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

I must say that the person I pour my heart out to while on my knees has gotten me through all kinds of tempests and trials. My Savior loves me. He never leaves me completely alone. He guides me and lifts me up when I can't walk another step on my own.



He also gave me an incredible husband to walk through life with. We drive each other completely crazy sometimes, but we know we can count on each other no matter what. We've been through a lot in our almost-13 years together! He takes care of me and usually says just the right thing at just the right moment. He still melts me. We laugh ALL THE TIME! I'm so glad he's mine!

Here he is being raised to be the funny, strong, helpful, supportive man I know him to be.

Baby Becca on oxygen.

Double birthday party for our January birthdays... Becca's 1st.

Becca and Emily

Emily

Emily building with Daddy.

Emily playing "pretendo."

Feeding baby Gracie.

Gracie playing pretendo.

Landon smiling at Daddy.

Geoff's mini-me.

Ethan

Da Boyz!