Perspective

The last couple days have been kinda tough. You know when all those little things just kinda get to you? Yeah, that's how it was for me. It seemed like every time I turned around, something even worse would happen.

For example, at one point during these last few days, I was deep in the "doldrums" so to speak, driving home, and I was seriously doubting things could get much more miserable... then I hit a cat.

So all in all, I was a mess.

Well, this morning I woke up to General Conference and I got a chance to listen to our prophet, Thomas S. Monson speak. And that was exactly what I needed. He spoke about how easy it is to, in our world today, see all of the negative things around us. Because there's a boat-load of them. (I'm paraphrasing.) However, we need to flip that around and take a look at all of our blessings. Because there's even more of those. President Monson said to be sure not to discount even the small, seemingly trivial blessings. And by doing this, we can find even greater happiness.

Well, after hearing that, obviously I couldn't continue being a downer and decided that today I would make a list of my blessings. And since I type better than I can write, I'm going to do that here. Now, this list might turn out to be quite extensive, or maybe not, I don't know, but there's no reason for you to feel obligated to read it if it does. This for me more than for you. Sorry.

Alright, I'll get started now.

Blessings:
 "I am thankful for..."

1. My whole physical body.
2. My health.
3. My family... each and every member of it.
4. My home.
5. My close, best friends.
6. My other friends, that sometimes I might not appreciate as much...
7. My education.
8. The 4-H program. (Don't know where I'd be without it.)
9. My teachers/leaders through the church, youth court, 4-H, and all the other programs I'm in.
10. The Young Women's program.
11. Technology.
12. Christ's atonement.
13. Our prophet and his apostles.
14. And all other church leaders and those who make it all possible.
15. Missionaries.
16. This country that I live in.
17. The freedoms and privileges that I have.
18. Music.
19. The ability to drive;vehicles to drive.
20. My teeth.
21. Safety and security.
22. My horse.
23. My reindeer.
24. The opportunity I have to hold a job.
25. My camera and photography.
26. Our military.
27. My older brother Donny who serves in the military.
28. My older sister Stacy who's my example and friend.
29. The ability to feel sadness sometimes so I can appreciate happiness.
30. The opportunity I'll have to go to college.
31. The opportunity I had to be born into this church.
32. The scriptures.
33. The hours of practice that helped me to learn piano.
34. Alaska.
35. The mountains.
36. Books.
37. Jessie.
38. Running water.
39. Electricity.
40. Warmth.
41. The fact that I never have to go hungry.
42. The fact that I always have clothes to wear.
43. Both my parents - even if I might sometimes think otherwise.
44. The ability to communicate to people I love who are far away.
45. Prayer.
46. My Heavenly Father.
47. This opportunity to be here on earth.
48. Good humor and laughter.
49. My cowboy boots.
50. The knowledge I have of right and wrong.
51. The Holy Ghost.
52. The time I have to spend with the people I love.
53. Memories.
54. My patriarchal blessing.
55. The priesthood.
56. Callings in the church that I've held.
57. Girls Camp and the lessons I've learned there.
58. My free agency.
59. The mistakes I've made, so now I know better.
60. The chance I have to work towards Eternal Salvation.
61. The temple.
62. The opportunities to do service.
63. The times I've been served by others.
64. My decision to be baptized.
65. Comfort.
66. The knowledge that I have a brother, Jesus, who loved me so much he allowed himself to suffer and then be crucified for my faults.
67. Children.
68. The chance I'll have to be a mother, whether here or after.
69. Sunshine.
70. Being able to reach many of my goals.
71. Doctors, firefighters, police officers, and others who keep us safe.
72. The fall season.
73. Peanut butter.
74. General Conference and what I can learn from it.

I'm going to stop there for now. Looking at the list, my thoughts definitely aren't in any order, so you'll have to forgive me for that. Or just deal with it. I was just trying to get all of those little things that I sometimes don't think of.

Well, I think I'm done here for today. I'm going to go listen to the next session of Conference...

___________________

Song of the Day: For the First Time- Boyce Avenue

Take Two

I know, I know. Two posts in one day? It's a bit of an overkill. However, I decided to make an exception today.

Seeing as I just finished my self-portrait assignment and I wanted to share the pictures here. Facebook just doesn't show the quality. And my camera deserves more credit than that.

So, here is what I have gotten self-portrait wise.

 (This one was kind of an editing experiment. Not completely and totally sure what I think.)

Okay, the top one isn't exactly a self-portrait, it's just a picture I took and kinda liked. So there you go. I'm done on this blog for today.

Once Upon a Time...

... The price of gas didn't matter, physics didn't exist, and college was a million years away.

Sometimes I wish I was 12 again; I wish I could go back to that ^ time. BUT, it's not gonna happen. So I'm building a bridge and getting over it.

After all, this week has been a relatively good week so far.

Highlights: Got a much needed new phone, spent some time with my best friend in this world, saw a couple more pictures from my senior photo shoot, and finally got caught up in my Spanish class.

Not so amazing parts: Still haven't gotten the 25-50 self portraits needed for photography class tomorrow, watched the presidential debate (which was just depressing), and have yet to get the sixth Harry Potter book.

Overall though, I think the good outweighs the bad. Which is what matters.

Anyway, here's a couple more of the pics I'll have to choose from to find my senior photo. All photo credit goes to Tammy Smith with her incredible photography skills.

And there you go.

Lastly, here's my song for the day.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
I love Glee.

Self Portraits and Cemeteries

Today, I made an exciting new discovery...

I found the auto-timer button on my camera.

 This is a good thing because I have a "self portrait" photography assignment for my class in two weeks and as of today I had nothing. BUT, the button was found and life can now go on.

And while I'm talking about it, here's what I got using my handy dandy auto-timer button...

Anyway, so also, today I found a new motto/saying thing that I really like. And yeah, we've heard it all before, but for some reason today it stood out to me. I even wrote it on my calender. And you know if it made it to my calender, there's obviously something special about it. Anywho, what I saw said...

"Accept Nothing Less" 

And I just thought, if only everyone followed those three words, there would be a lot less unhappy people out there. So there's my inspirational thought for the day. I know, it's not much, but hey, it's 10:00 and I'm tired.

Also, tonight for mutual, us laurels went over to the cemetery outside of Palmer for a little lesson and it just so happened that I had my camera handy so I got some shots I thought I'd share here. Excuse the little bit of a grainy look they've got; my ISO was super high because it was getting dark. 

 Anyway, that's a wrap! Night y'all! 

___________________________

 Song of the Day: Wanted - Hunter Hayes

(My all time most favoritest song ever.)

More Rain and Harry Potter

Because I don't feel like writing much today, I'll make this short and sweet.

Synopsis of my life today:

- I'm officially half way through the Harry Potter series. I may be way behind the times, but hey, better late than never I always say.

- The Butte is like officially underwater these days. There's like a whole new river there. I'm dubbing it, "Butte River". Original, I know.

- I am currently baking the most amazing chocolate mint cake batter cookies on the planet.

-And lastly, I've gotten to see a couple more pictures from my senior photo shoot. Can't wait to see them all!

This one ^ is probably my favorite so far! I like my hair... and my boots. And of course Borie's big butt. I look kinda weird in my other pictures, but hey, I only need one good one anyway!

And there you go. Blog post- COMPLETE.

______________________________________________

Song of the Day: Valiant Faith - Jenny Phillips

Rainy Days and Spaghetti

Something you might not know about me: two of my favorite things are rainy days (when I'm inside) and homemade spaghetti.

And of course my baby brother Canyon.

Combine all three things, throw homework out of the mix, and you've got just about a perfect day. Like today!

 

 Eatin' raspberries and playin' in the rain. It is the life!

This little man can be a bit dramatic, but when I told him we were going to make spaghetti... well, you can see the picture. It was kinda rainy out, so we played in the wetness with my handy dandy camera (Mr. C) for a while and then came inside and got to work...

Are we not fabulous? Yeah, yeah, we know.

___________________________________

Song of the Day: Sweet Serendipity - Lee Dewyze

College and P!nk

It's been a while since I've graced y'all with a post, so I figured I'd do that today. So here goes.

Well, it's finally here.

The beginning of the end. Or in other words: Senior Year.

I can hardly believe these are my last high-school semesters. The last of my official "childhood" years. Craziness.

Being a senior, college has been on my mind a lot lately. I guess I've always just assumed that I would go to BYU-I, meet a handsome strange (who is also a return-missionary cowboy), get married and live happily-ever-after. However, the closer I actually get to college deadlines and such, I'm kinda debating said plan. Or at least, just the very first part.

Though originally there were several colleges I think would be great to go to, I've narrowed it down to two options.
-BYU-Idaho
-Texas A&M

Academically, it should be no big deal getting into either. Financially... well, BYU-I might be more realistic. I dunno. I'll get back to you on this at a later date.

Anyway, so moving on... I just thought I would let everyone know, I have a new "hero". Or basically just someone that in my book, is amazing. Generally, I don't include celebrities under this category, because yeah, they're famous and talented, but not a whole lot to look up to. However, I have made an exception this one time for... P!nk.

Now, hold onto your ponies, I know what you're thinking. P!nk? Mhm. Well, I'm about to tell you why.

The other day I was at the gym doing what I usually do at the gym along with watching T.V. And while I was clicking through the channels, I noticed that there was a talk show on featuring P!nk, so I watched it for a while. At this one point, the show host congratulated P!nk for becoming a "Covergirl", which, in their world, is something of an accomplishment. Well, then she talked a little bit about how in the past P!nk had been told that she wasn't "pretty enough" to be a Covergirl. I just about threw something at the screen. But I was still at the gym and there was nothing to throw.

Don't tell me, that P!nk is not "pretty". This world's standards have officially hit an all time low.

We are constantly comparing ourselves and others to the world's standard of beautiful, which, in reality, doesn't even exist.

I could go on forever about this, but I'm not going to. I'll sum it up.

P!nk is pretty.

You are pretty and I am pretty.

We all just need to get over what the media's trying to convince us of.

That is all. Goodnight!

____________________

Song of the Day: Hall of Fame - The Script
(If you don't already know it, listen to it. If you do already know it, listen to it anyway, 'cause it's amazing.)