Word of the week...

B L U F F

Those of you who are familiar with my life right now, know why this word would be a great word for the week right now. Enough said...moving on...

L O V E

Another really great word right now. The things I love the most right now in life:

-Matt. He made his first loaves of home made bread last week and they were by far better than any I've ever made. He loves me for me and I know some days that can be really hard...it can be hard for me to love me some days ; )

-Tanner. If you had told me 7 years ago that a child could bring a person so much joy and sheer happiness, I'm not sure I'd believe it. It's something you have to experience to understand. Tanner is a very very very bright spot in my life...constantly...even when he's being a pickle, he is my pure joy in my heart. I know that the way I feel for him is only but a small particle of the way Heavenly Father feels for us. That is unimaginable to me...incomprehensible. How could anyone love me more than I love Tanner? I don't know how, but I know it's true.

-Friends. I love love love my friends. They are a strength to me every single day. They are a constant source of forgiveness, understanding, laughter, joy, happiness, and most of all love in my life. I don't have a huge circle of friends. I have but a small handful of friends that I trust with my life and heart and that's good enough for me. I'm not one of those people who needs to have lots and lots of friends to feel good about themselves or to feel a certain way. I know my friends love me for me, no matter what.

-My job. I adore my job. I love getting up and going to work and meeting people everyday. I have amazing employers and I am grateful every day for the opportunity they have given to me.

-My sisters. Word cannot express how much I love those girls. I love them. All my sisters are unique in themselves and there are certain things that I know I can talk to each sister about. For example, I can talk to Megan about marriage and kids because her and I are the only ones with children. It's something we understand with each other. Amy, she is a movie nerd (a good thing) and she can tell me what movies are worth seeing. She is also really good at talking about real life and political, deeper subject...especially the gospel. She is so stinkin' smart when it comes to the gospel. Melany, she has a quiet strength all her own. She listens when you don't think she is and she can make me laugh like no one else can. I love my sister a lot.

-My Mom. What can I really say but good things about my Mom. She is amazing and awesome and loving and kind and understanding and forgiving and patient and charitable and generous and strong and just a really really great person/mom/friend. Sometimes the way I feel about her is too much for me to put into words. The love I feel for her is forever.

-My Dad. Although my Dad died in '91 I still love him and am grateful for all the things he taught me. He was a great great man/leader and I still look to his example.

-My Savior. I love the Savior. Enough said for now.

-Music. I can not live without my music. I am very frequently plugged in. I don't listen to hard stuff. Quite often in the house I play the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or Tanner's Children Songbook C.D.'s. Music can change a mood or emotion so quickly and can calm and relax or liven up or make me run faster.

-Time. I love the time that I get to enjoy each day and each moment with the things and people that I love the most.

I just love life!

In a lull

My life is in a bit of a lull right now. Things are going fairly well and smoothly. Same old stuff. Matt and I went out to the Firestone Grill last week. It was really yummy. I had this pomegranate chicken on a bed of leeks and pomegranate sauce with goat cheese on the top...it was super yummy. Matt had the rib roast (insert eye roll...such a man). Matt's Mom sent us money for our anniversary and so we decided to go out for dinner with it. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to try something new. I'm a bit of an adventurous eater. I like to try new things and I am not afraid to try anything at least once. There are some things that I've eaten that I wouldn't choose to eat again, but I do like to try new things. Tanner is a little bit the same way. He'll try most things for at least one bite but if he doesn't like it, then that's it. Matt is a mediocre eater. He eats most things but he doesn't like to eat vegetables if there's something better like meat or potatoes. He's not super picky but he's the kind of person that has to be in the mood for certain foods on a particular day. I could eat rice or spaghetti any time, every day for all meals (same with Tanner) but Matt has to be in the mood to eat that. Otherwise he doesn't like to eat it.

Anyways, enough about food.

We are going to the Temple this week. We will be eating in the cafeteria afterwards...mmmmm...soooo yummy. The food in the Temple is like food from Heaven.

Tanner is getting ready for his skating carnival in a few weeks. He's done so well in skating. He was also officially published today. The local paper had a picture of him and a friend riding on GT's behind a quad on Saturday at the fun Elders party. It's a picture of him from the distance but we know it's him because of his coat. It's kind of exciting.

Matt is such a homemaker. He made his first loaf of homemade bread this week. It was much better than any bread I've ever made. Tanner had a bad habit of burrowing the bread when it's warm and it wrecks the bread so we have to be careful not to leave it out on the counter without maximum supervision. He burrowed in one of Matt's loaves and so we told him he couldn't have the "good" bread until he ate the hole-y bread that he made. He was totally fine with that. He continues to bring us much joy and laughter every day.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Life is just chugging along, which is fine by me ; )

CAN ANYONE HELP THEM?

There's a family in the states that needs some immediate help and I hope that by posting this someone, somewhere can help them. She babysat us when we were kids and his Mom is in our ward.

You can read their story/situation here

We had a really fun start to the weekend. Matt and I went to our Celebrity party on Friday night and it was SO much fun! I think I would have had more fun if I hadn't been feeling crummy. I had a bit of a head cold and so I was suffering, mildly. Then on Saturday morning Matt and I had plans to go to the Temple and when I woke up, I could barely open my eyes because the light hurt my head so badly. So I went back to bed and Matt went without me...which was fine. We're going again in 2 weeks. We are going on our first date this Friday. We're going to dinner. I don't know where, but I'm excited. We have made it a goal this year to go on a date every month. It's hard when life gets busy and you have other commitments to add that to your plate but I know that it's important and so we are making time for what's important...dating! Last year our goal was to go to the Temple every month and we did it and it was surprisingly easier that I thought it would be. We just marked down the day every month that we were going to go and that's when we went. This year we marked down in the calendar our date night every month, plus our temple day. Even though going to the temple is a wonderful thing, it's not the same as a date. We may go on 2 dates this month because I still haven't seen Avatar and I really want to.

I'm usually really against and I strongly resist going to movies that are so hyped up because they usually end up disappointing me...plus they're mostly boring for me (ie Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter) so I just don't go. But my sister said that I would really like it and so I am putting my trust in her and hoping it will be what I expect it to be.

January really flew by and I know that this month will too because it's a short month. That means we're closer to spring...my favorite time of year. Spring always brings newness and it reminds me so much of the Resurrection of the Savior. I always look forward to Spring.

Kristi wrote on her blog recently that she is "head over heels in love with her life" and I thought to myself, what a wonderful thing it is to be so happy and in love with your life. I only wish more people were like that. I believe that being happy is a choice and that happy people exemplify Christ like characteristics. I heard recently that being healthy affects how a person is happy and I think that is true. Some may disagree with that, but for me I think it's true. Even though we are all given challenges and tried and tested, we can choose for ourselves how we're going to let those things affect us. We can choose to let those trials make us stronger and happier or we can allow them to tear us down and make us miserable and unhappy. I hope that we will all try better to choose happiness because there really isn't anything like being truly happy.