A Good Day...

I was sitting in a Stake Relief Society meeting several years ago in which we were blessed and lucky enough to have the General Relief Society President, sister Beck, present and speaking directly to us.  She opened the meeting up to questions from the audience and the microphone was given to an amazing girl whom I will never forget.  I didn't know who she was, nor had I ever seen her.  But as I glanced across the pew to see who was speaking, I noticed she was sitting in a wheelchair.  She mentioned that we all try to stay positive and have inspirational messages given about counting our blessings and being happy.  She began her question by acknowledging her efforts to maintain a positive attitude and appreciate her circumstances...

"But what do you do when you're having a bad day?"

I was expecting the regular response of turning it around and thinking about someone else, doing service, praying, reading your scriptures, etc.  The normal answers we generally get with this question.  Sister Beck instead paused, smiled, and said: 

"What do you do with a bad day?  Hmmm... What do you do with a bad day?  Sometimes, you just have bad days, haha, sometimes you just have to write that day off and start again tomorrow." 

Then she opened her scriptures and shared some insight using the story of the Brother of Jared and his experience with leading his family into the wilderness, building the boats, and going through the process of prayer to provide lighting.  She focused her thoughts on what happened after everything was done, after they loaded the boats and set out to sea. 

 "Who knows how long they bobbed there, along the beach, wondering what would happen or if anything even would.  How was their faith tested at that point when they had done everything in their power to be obedient and it was now in the Lord's hands to get them where they needed to go?"

I loved this experience because, I felt impressed by this sister's openness and honesty in her ability to admit to an entire group of women she didn't know, that she had down days.  That she did her best to be grateful and obedient but sometimes things were hard or she felt overwhelmed.  I appreciated Sister Beck's response in admitting that some days (and I'm sure she had many difficult days due to her calling) just were bad and it was okay.  Sometimes you have to just write the bad day off, allow yourself to feel, and move on.  The scripture she shared also touched me and has changed my perspective on the story of the Brother of Jared and his family.

Enjoying a relaxing day watching conference with the kitty :)

Today, for me, has been a good day.  As I said, I want to celebrate the successes in life, and today has been one of those.  I was able to visit my patient for the volunteer work I'm trying to do, and it proved to be a very rewarding experience.  We chatted for a bit and began reading The Count of Monte Cristo.  It was fun to read aloud and have someone listen so intently.  I left feeling needed, warm, and light.  As if the small problems and concerns I'd been dealing with were now transformed from giant roadblocks, to small little nicks in the pavement.  They're still there and things I need to figure out, however they didn't feel insurmountable anymore.

I was able to spend time with my family and catching up with an old friend as well which always makes for a great day.  Conference was Spiritually uplifting and I learned a few things about myself today and how to get myself there.  I'm very grateful for my life and the experiences I have to learn and grow and Heavenly Father's forgiveness in allowing me to have "bad days" which make the good days even better and appreciated.  

Short-Term Win

I was sitting through a very loooong training session last week for work on “Leading Change” and a point was brought up to make sure you are celebrating the little successes or Short-term wins.  I liked this idea and want to incorporate it more into my personal life as well.  It seems like we spend a lot of time tearing ourselves down and reminding ourselves that we’re not good enough rather than appreciating the simple joys that make life so beautiful.  I love to look back and see the improvements I’ve made in my life and the ways I have grown and stretched. 

Things to celebrate this week:

My car has finally hit 100,000 miles!  While this event isn’t generally considered a success for most, I was so excited that I have managed to drive my car 100,000 miles, accident free and without any major need for repairs.  It has been an amazingly reliable vehicle and I’m happy to have made it this far J. 

I’ve enjoyed contemplating back on the trips and adventures I’ve taken which have added to the mileage. 

Family time- I was able to see my family this week and spend time catching up with them.  All of my nieces and nephew were there and I had the chance to spend quality time with each of them.  I’ve learned Alana (10) can destroy me in the game of Battleship.  I don’t know how she did it, but she managed to guess the locations of every single ship.  I even looked around to make sure she wasn’t getting help!  Ellie and Avery are now getting along… depending on their moods of course, but it was fun to watch them interact and remember what it was like to play with my sisters and cousins at that age.  And little Zeke is getting so big!  He doesn’t like to sit down but wants someone to constantly hold him so he can walk.  Haha, I enjoyed running him around the house while he giggled and smiled.

 

I was able to successfully turn on and use Callie’s stereo system so I could have some music as I get ready in the morning!  I had her orient me when we first moved on how to work the whole system and 15 remotes but this was my first opportunity to try it out all alone.  Yikes!  Result: A fun music-filled morning.

Quilting-

I was looking at my info today on Facebook and discovered that I had a blog!  I had completely forgotten I had set this thing up several years ago to entertain myself during the long hours I spent working all night in the ER.  I had joked several times with JoyAnne about setting up a blog to document my search for a hobby so I figured this was the perfect opportunity.

A couple of years ago, I was introducing myself to a new group and one of the questions I was asked was what my hobbies were and I was stumped.  It took me by surprise but I didn't seem to have an answer.  I had a few things I enjoyed doing but as far as a consistent hobby or area of my life that I could be passionate about, I didn't have.  So for the past couple of years, one of my resolutions has been to find a hobby or something that I could love doing.  As I've worked toward that goal, I've had several failed attempts and the more I think about them the more humorous they are so I figured it would be fun to share and see where I grow and change.

One of my favorite hobby experiences so far has been my attempt at quilting.  I think the main issue I've had with hobbying is a lack of focus or attention.  I come up with a great idea, get myself all excited, buy the supplies, jump into it... and never finish.  Haha, I have a corner of my room dedicated to unfinished projects.  Perhaps this will help motivate me to do something with those.

So, several years ago... 3 to be exact, I had recieved a sewing machine for Christmas and wanted to prove that it was worth the purchase by using it.  I had visions in my head of dazzling everyone with my skill.  I wandered around the fabric store and found some 4 inch strips of fabric that I thought would make for a fun pattern and would be less work for me.  I dealt with the anxiety of selecting batting and a backing and came home excited to start. 

I spent the entire day laying everything out, cutting, sewing and even ironing which was something I thought was completley unnecessary.  I managed to get the front all sewn together before I ran out of time.  It was tons of fun and kept me entertained for a day.  So, of course, I folded the project up and stuffed it in the corner for another day when I was bored and had the time to work on it. 

Unfortunately, my cat found it to be a comfortable place to rest and eventually ended up using it as a litter box.  So, I cleaned it up as much as I could and threw my half-finished quilt in the wash.  Because my sewing skills were so stellar, the quilt came out in one piece however the fabric frayed because I didn't have a surger to finish the edges.  No problem, I figured that could all be hidden on the inside when the project was done.  Again, it got folded up and thrown in the corner.

This last December (2012) I found myself bored again, and knew it was one of my resolutions to finish it by the end of the year, I decided I'd pull it out and finsih it! I had been stumped on how to quilt it, what kind of a design would make it look amazing, but would be differen't than the normal straight lines I generally saw on quilts. I came up with a design and spent another day working to complete it. I didn't get far, but again it made for a fun day. A few days later, as fate would have it, the cat found it again and soiled it. I was beginning to think he had some personal issue with my desire to be crafty. I cleaned the poor thing off again and threw it in the wash. This time, my sewing skills didn't hold up and my precious quilt came out in several pieces, completly shredded and frayed. Far beyond saving. All I could do was laugh at my failed attempt that I had spent years working to prove I had some sort of crafty ability. So I held my quilt pieces, thought of all the good times we'd had together, and tossed it into the trash.

 

Here we have the guilty party trying to look innocent...

R.I.P.-
I've been defeated by this project, but haven't given up yet.  I still plan on making one successfully!

Christmas at the Cabin

I really wish I had some pictures to post with this, but for some stupid reason I didn't bring my camera!!!

Monday
Melanie, Cody, Alana, Mom and I all headed up to the cabin for our week of Christmas and would meet up with the rest of the family later in the week. Well, we wanted to get a head start so we wouldn't get caught in the storm that was supposed to hit around 11:00 am. Well, we got stuck right in the middle of it!! After trying to drive up trapper's loop in Morgan county, we ended up turning around and having to drive up to Ogden canyon. It was an incredibly long and intense ride with all the slippery snow coming down on us. Lana was tons of fun and talked the entire four hours we were in the car. My favorite comment was her telling us that Santa is the only animal that doesn't hibernate in the winter time. Good to know!! She also informed me that I am not part of her immediate family but their dog Ruby is. Ouch!

After we got to Huntsville, we had to drop off some stuff at Dawson and Rainey's house before heading up to Causey. Melanie was so excited we were finally on our way to the cabin, she decided to do some doughnuts out of the driveway which ended up with us in the neighbors yard stuck in a very large pile of snow. We had to have the Hedges family push us out as well as the assistance of a local snow plow driver who was nice enough to stop and help. I was so upset I didn't have my camera to take a picture. It was quite exciting.
Spending time at the cabin was nice and relaxing. It was so nice to get away and not worry about school or life's other stresses.

One positive of the trip was that I have officially joined the "favorite Aunt's club!!" Every time Alana spends a significant amount of time with our family, she picks someone she claims is her favorite aunt. Because there are so many of us, the competition is high and lets face it, I don't really spend much time with her. Well, because I was the only aunt on this trip, I got to be her favorite!! I felt so honored.... so we got to spend our time at the cabin together bonding and sledding which was tons of fun.

Christmas Day

Christmas was lots of fun, we were able to enjoy all the fresh powder at the cabin by going sledding!! It was tons of fun... we even managed to dump Brent out of the snow mobile, something everyone has to experience at least once with our family.
I had to work at midnight, which meant that I had to drive home in the middle of the big storm that was supposed to hit. Kris, being the amazing brother that he is, volunteered to drive home with me so he could go snowboarding the next day and to make sure that I got home alright. Wow, it was the most exciting drive I have ever had. Kris drove his car first and I followed in his tracks to make sure that I could make it because my car doesn't drive so great in the snow. We never went over 25 mph and drove on snow packed roads the entire way. I really wondered if we would ever make it. I did enjoy slipping and sliding around everywhere though, I feel I am now somewhat of an experienced driver in the snow!!
Driving from Kaysville to Salt Lake was even scarier!! The freeway was incredibly slippery and was covered in snow. It was so beautiful. Somehow I made it safely to work and I even made it up the hill which is quite a feat, not everyone can do that in a snow storm!!

Work gets exciting
Things had been going pretty slow for the night when a patient came in who had slipped and fallen. The nurse found me to have be go back and get the patient checked in. As we were walking back to the room she asked me if I get queasy because it was pretty gross. I was trying to imagine what could possibly be so bad from someone falling down and I assumed they were just cut and had blood all over them. Well, upon entering the room I was surprised by the minimal amount of blood I saw, then I looked down at their leg. The entire bone was sticking our at their ankle and was bleeding all over the place!!! I have never seen a bone sticking out of the skin before and it really took me by surprise. Wow, I almost fell over, fortunately I didn't pass out or anything, it actually looked pretty interesting... which just seems wrong.

our thanksgiving

I worked until 6a on thursday morning to i met up with my family after i had gone home and slept for awhile (i'm a nicer person when i get some sleep!). when i got up to the cabin for our thanksgiving celebration, i was greeted with hugs and kisses from my family and a mischievous smile from my brother. after eating and settling down, he informed me that he, amy, my dad and my mother had tipped the jeep over the night before!! fyi- the jeep is basically a beloved member of our family and has gotten us out of some pretty interesting situations so it was pretty shocking to hear that it had been treated so irresponsibly. anyway, apparently the breaks don't work and he couldn't get it into gear so it just kept getting faster and faster until everyone had to jump for it. i was so sad i missed it but at least i got to see pictures!! no worries, the jeep still runs and i got to go for a nice long ride later that day! everyone was okay and i don't think there were any serious injuries.

I am so excited to begin my very own blog! I don't know what to write about, but hopefully I will come up with something brilliant....