What will you have left?

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about not being “silly” women. This took root in my mind yesterday when we were learning about some passages from Isaiah. Specifically we were discussing Isaiah 3:16-24 which says: 

“16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:



17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts.


18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,


19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,


20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,


21 The rings, and nose jewels,


22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,


23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.


24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.”

There is going to come a day when we are stripped of all the worldliness and all the things that we think define us. My question to you, all my faithful readers (HA!), is this: What will you have left? What will you have made of your life? What will define you? How will people know you without your “costly apparel”, jewelry and your fancy or non-fancy car? Will you know yourself? Have you developed your character in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, in a way that he can look at you and be proud?


I can honestly say that I’m not sure what would be left of me. I don’t look in the mirror everyday with pride and recognition. Some mornings it’s more like, “what the crap?!” So what is my game plan? I don’t think that I have one, but you can bet that I’m going to find a plan. I’m pretty confident that the Lord knows the plan, and I just have to be willing to learn it. Are you?

Little Things that make me HAPPY!

This morning I woke up to a...well, we'll say wonderful, text message. What made that text message wonderful you may be asking since it did wake me up? It was from a hot hot hot boy! I'll never complain about the hour of his text messages since he is so adorable! From there the morning really just got better. You see he got me out of bed, but my new running shoes got me on the go! It's just like when I get a new can of tennis balls. I just can't wait to crack that seal and smell the delicious smell new tennis balls! YUMMY! If you don't play tennis you probably don't understand that, just like if you don't run you don't get why new running shoes can get you out of bed on a Monday morning, but having that new cushioning under your feet making your knees & back feel all good just makes you want to run longer. HEAVEN! So here are my new running shoes---beautiful!

I also bought some more hot shoes (apparently "hot" is my word of the day), but I couldn't find a picture of them, so I'll have to toss that up later :) BUT there are a couple of other things that make me happy right now. The fact that my lesson went really well yesterday made me happy (that and the fact that it's over....) and knowing that a dear friend has started a relationship with a girl that makes him really happy makes me happy! So fingers crossed that the "Wake Up!" texts from the hot boy continue and that the love of running in new shoes continues as well! YAY!



Firehouse Car Washes-Fundraiser!

Hey all you local Utahans--it's that time of the year that you finally WANT to have your car washed! Firehouse Car Wash has teamed up with me to help me reach my fundraising goals for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I'm selling 4-Alarm washes for $30 & 3-Alarm washes for $20. Firehouse Car Washes are seriously AMAZING!!! You won't regret this donation for a minute! If you'd like to buy a wash, or two or three, leave a comment or text me or call me or facebook me :) and I'll set your voucher aside.

4-Alarm: Voted "Utah's Best Wash" by Utah's best customers! The 4-Alarm gives your car added shine with water-whisking Weatherguard Protection. We'll shine and protect our dash with conditioner, too. We guarantee you'll leave delighted.

3-Alarm: Now you can cruise I-15 with pure confidence! Get the mud off the bottom and enjoy the shine of Weatherguard Protection. Be a superstar with tire shine and clean rims! We'll throw in an air freshener - you're welcome!

Race for the Date to Date for the Race Silent Auction--Spread the Word!

I'm Auctioning off Dates with my friends! Yep, you read that right! You can be the lucky "owner" of a night under the stars with one of 14 AMAZING people!


The date will take place on either July 22nd (Forever Strong) or July 29th (The Goonies). We will be doing one big group date (28 people in total) where we'll be going to the Utah State Capital for their "Movie Under the Stars" series and some other activities that night that will be announced later.



The Auction itself will be done on Facebook through messages. All dates start at $25 and increase in increments of $10. Two people will be auctioned per day, one guy and one girl. A "day" will be from 10:00 am - 8:00 pm.




To make a bid send me a message with either a current bid or with your maximum bid if you're not going to be around to make additional bids during the day. The Winner will be announced & messaged by 8:30 pm every night.




If you are the lucky winner you will have until the auction opens the next day (10:00 am) to issue payment online at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/rnrseatl10/mwootton or make arrangments with me to bring me a check or cash. If you do not meet the deadline the next bidder in line will receive the date.




The Auction will start on Saturday, June 5th and will conclude with the last people being auctioned on Friday, June 11th All proceeds will go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and are 100% Tax Deductible!




I'll be posting a list of the participants later today and tomorrow, so keep your eyes open!




*If you're married you can't win the date for yourself, but you can win it for your single friend or family member that lives in Utah and would be available on the day of the date.




** If you don't live in Utah but do know people who do, please invite them to the Auction, the more people that know about it the better the results will be!

The Story of a Journal

Last night at my ward’s Relief Society Meeting we learned how to bind books. It was great fun! Well, to be honest, at first the books and I didn’t really get along that well, but we worked it out ;) I got there late (shocker!), but the Sister that was giving the message told us about how her Mom died when she was really little and her Dad died a little over a year ago. Her Sister (or Sister-in-law, I can’t remember which) put together a book for the family comprised of her Mom’s & Dad’s journals from when they were dating and newly married. There were entries that weren’t big or over the top, just about what happened that day, how work was, the weather, how much something cost. There were also the entries about their dates and how he proposed, what she wore at the wedding dinner. Did they know how much those things would one day mean to their kids? Most likely not, but what a wonderful blessing it will be for them and for future generations. After our discussion last night I’ve decided to recommit myself to being a journaler (I know, not a real word, but you get it!). Hopefully one day my journals will mean a lot to my kids. You never know, right?

"People often use the excuse that their lives are uneventful and nobody would be interested in what they have done. But I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of is important to those who are near and dear to us - and as our posteriety read of our life's experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted." - Spencer W. Kimball, "Presidnet Kimball Speaks Out on Personal Journals," New Era, Dec 1980, 26.

My Book :)

A Beautiful Weekend with Beautiful People!

I had the honor to attend my cousin Jon's wedding this weekend. He married Holly Stansbury, a beautiful loving person. I only met her for real on Friday at dinner, but I was immediately impressed with how happy and caring she is. Granted, I'm sure that some of that happiness may have been caused by the fact that she was getting married the next day, but from what I heard from our family and hers, she's always happy! 

On Saturday Jon & Holly were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple for time and all Eternity. It was a beautiful ceremony and I loved being within the walls of that beautiful and sacred building with my family. Holly & Jon looked so good!!! We kept comparing them to other couples in the area and Jon & Holly definitely won the prize for being the most classy couple there! On another note, can I just say my family is awesome! I had so much fun hanging out with my cousins and my Aunt and Uncle after the ceremony. They are hilarious!!! Plus I saw some traits in them that I see in my immediate family all the time! Too much fun.  

Congratulations Jon & Holly!

Have you ordered your Mother's Day Gift yet???

I found this cute store on a blog site and loved all the products! So I ordered my Mom's gift today, sorry, I'm not telling what I ordered just yet, in case my Mother decides to read my blog this week...:S Anyways, if you're looking for a great gift idea for your Mom, or maybe for yourself, check out this site! Enjoy :D

http://www.thevintagepearl.com/

Another Favorite Thing

What a wonderful way to start my day. I got to work this morning and as I was picking up my purse from the floor of my car I heard a little tap tap on my passenger window. There stood Stephanie, one of the other Exec Assistants here at Overstock.com and in her hand was a beautiful bottle....this bottle....

It's one of my favorite perfumes, DKNY Be Delicious, and it was just for me! My old roommate Jeanna brought me a bottle back from one of her cruises a few years ago and I LOVED IT! It's a perfect perfume for Summer time and it goes perfectly with Bath & Body Works' Tahiti Sweetie lotion, one of my favorite lotions :D It's just a favorites kind of week!

A New Favorite Thing

So I purchased this on a whim this weekend and I absolutely L-O-V-E it! I'm not big on having my finger nails polished, but I am digging this color. It's very sassy and fun and makes me feel like SPRING! YAY for Spring! It's called "Stolen Kisses" in the Nicole line of colors by OPI and I picked it up from Walmart. Enjoy!

Sunday Ponderings

Have you ever noticed how you can wear the same size jeans as someone else, you can be the same weight or the same height as them but the jeans won’t look the same on you as they do on them? The same principle applies spiritually. You can hear the same lesson, sit through the same sacrament meeting, even study the same scriptures, but the lessons you learn, the teachings that prick your heart and who you become spiritually will not be the same as the person wearing your identical jeans. We are all unique, we all learn differently; we all reflect what we learn differently. So there really is no point in comparing ourselves to those around us.



At the end of last year President Belnap came to our ward and had us all “pledge” to not partake in any self destructive behaviors. I would venture to say that that includes spiritually as well as physically and temporally. The only one you should compare yourself with is you. Continue to better yourself every day, but don’t allow yourself to be too self critical. Build yourself up through personal worship; through scripture study, temple attendance, personal prayers & service. Get to know you, not the worldly you, but the Child of God that is your true self. Only then can you truly understand your whole potential.

A Working Girl's Dilemma-UPDATE!

So I responded and agreed to lunch, but I pushed it off until next week due to a busy/unknown work schedule. I also had some stuff happen with a friend last Friday and I think that it started to really hit me last night and today I've been feeling pretty down about it. So I'm sitting here at work, just doing my thing and I get a call from the front desk, "Come get your flowers!" "Flowers?" "Yeah, you got flowers." "Ok, I'll be right up." As I'm walking up the stairs to collect my flowers names flash through my mind of who would possibly send me flowers. I get up there and see these:

Beautiful!

And yes, they are from the co-worker. (I think that I need to come up with code names for all of these people....suggestions?)

A Working Girl's Dilemma

Dilemma….guy asked me out….guy I work with….don’t know what to do….



I hate it when I have to take the time and look at everything from both sides. Or rather when I don’t “take the time” but just have all sides of a situation hit me all of a sudden. I’ll be brushing my teeth and all of a sudden I’ll see where I could be in 3 weeks.


So, back to the dilemma. Somehow I turned a simple shopping trip at our company store into a lunch invitation from a co-worker that I recently met. I’ve been down this road once before with a coworker. I went out with him, we kept it all hush hush at work, and then it ended, and then it was awkward, ok, it still is! Here’s what went down: I picked up some items for a charity event from him last week, our first meeting. He told me that I was not what he was expecting; he was expecting a “older” woman. We laughed and then I headed out. Friday I went to our company’s associate night at our store. I got there about 45 minutes before my friend showed up so I looked around, tried on LOTS of shoes, found a new pea coat that’s adorable and will make me get rid of the blue one that I’ve had since 8th grade that comes nowhere close to fitting and then just hung out by the door waiting for Rebecca to show up. He saw me waiting, came over and talked for a little while. He asked who I was waiting for; when I said a friend he immediately asked if it was a guy or girl. I didn’t really think about it, except for the fact that Friday night is supposed to be only for associates and family members, but I responded that it was a girl. I was relieved that he didn’t seem to see a problem with this. So Rebecca got there and she had her niece with her, we started looking around for some bedding and he saw me wandering with Rebecca’s niece and was very accommodating when I asked for a place to put our stuff so we didn’t have to haul it all over the store with us. We got done shopping and went to check out and who should check us out but this particular guy…go figure huh?! We chatted about the charity items and he made some remark about me not responding to my e-mails and I said that I do, I just sometimes take longer than other people. So in all my wisdom as I was pulling into the next stop for the evening I responded to his last e-mail that he had sent two days prior and just said thanks for helping with the charity items. About 2 hours later I got a response from him asking me to go to lunch with him this week. Uh…possibility?


So these are the scenarios that flash through my mind. #1. Our lunch goes really well, we laugh a lot, we have a good time together. We become friends. Not awkward, it’s actually ok. #2. Lunch is great, he asks me out again, we start seeing each other…and then it doesn’t work and it becomes awkward cause he’s my contact for Charity items. #3. Lunch is HORRIBLE, I feel weird, I don’t know what to talk about and then it’s just odd from there on out. #4. I decline his lunch invitation, hurt his feelings and he acts weird from there on out. #5. I decline his lunch invitation and miss out on any opportunities with him. The problem with seeing all of these possibilities is that it inhibits me from making a decision either way. I basically freeze. I just don’t know what to do. I hate making decisions like this. Do I go, do I not go? Other co-workers would say “Run the other way, don’t personalize work!” Some would say, “What could it hurt? One lunch doesn’t determine anything.” So I ask the universe the question…what should I do?

Dating...Utah Style

This weekend a few friends and I had the opportunity to partake in an adventure! The adventure by name is….SPEED DATING! Yep, that’s right. For our Multi-Stake Activity we went speed dating. It was pretty entertaining. First sign that we live in Utah-WAY to many girls! They had long tables set up on the sides of the gym and they told the girls to sit on the insides of the tables and the boys to sit on the outsides of the tables. Well, the tables filled up with lots of girls, filling every seat. In the end Kristy and I sat at a round table at the end of the gym and the boys would rotate through. Now, on the boys’ side of the tables there at most 3 guys to a table of 4-5 girls. So it was one big poligadate! (P.S. My boss informed me today that he learned a new word from my status on Facebook. That word was nothing else but Poligadate, and he decided that it doesn’t sound very fun!) Kristy and I stuck together and for the most part it worked well for us. We were able to protect each other from MOST of the crazies. One snuck through at the end of the night though when as we were walking out of gym and into the foyer he chased after Kristy to ask her when they were going to carpool to Oregon together. Keep in mind that we had a. talked to a lot of boys that night and b. talked to this particular boy early in the night, so Kristy was having a hard time remembering who we talked to about what. She somewhat went along with this topic of conversation as the rest of our group stood back and just laughed! He went on to ask her who she liked better, him or his brother, who we had also apparently talked to. (If you say so!) She was very diplomatic I felt in her response of, “I liked you both the same.” His response… “Well, can I make out with you first, I don’t want sloppy seconds.” SAY WHAT?! Yep, that’s right, he doesn’t like sloppy seconds. Okay, first question in my mind is what girls are you dating that will a. date BOTH brothers and b. MAKE OUT with both? Second question, why do you think that Kristy is the kind of a girl?! Really??? You obviously didn’t pay attention when you were talking to her!


My last “date” of the evening was a young man who by commenting on how cold it’s been lately informed me that he’s a newspaper delivery boy and he never graduated high school, that he had his own house at 18, but lost it, and is now so far into debt and has so many bills that he can’t save up $65 to pay to take the GED test. Yep, that’s what the weather led to! Oh, but he would still like to take me out sometime…. Yeah, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I almost wrote him a check to go take his GED test! He did, however, loudly announce that Kristy and I were BEAUTIFUL women, so point for him!


Our friend Jason who was also participating in the activity reported that all the girls were either Bonnie or Jen or Jenny! He did say that Kristy and I were the most “normal” ones of the bunch.


All I can do is look back at that evening and laugh. The joys of the life of a YSA….

2010 Thus Far...

Ok! There is so much to write about these days that I’ll have to admit, I’ve been keeping away from writing. 2010 is such a fabulous year! I’m loving it! Since I wrote my goals for 2010 I’ve already hit the 10 pound mark! I’m down (as of Friday) 12.4 pounds, good enough to take 2nd place in Overstock’s Biggest Loser competition. WOHOO!!! Now just to maintain... I have been having some problems with my knee the last couple of weeks, so running hasn’t been happening as much lately, but I discovered Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred and I LOVE IT! I’m totally addicted to it. I try to run for a little bit before doing it, but even if I don’t run the work out kicks my butt! I’ve also been trying to get back to Yoga on a semi regular basis. I went last night, but can’t tonight or tomorrow  So I think that I need to get BL’s Yoga workout so that on the nights I can’t get to class I can still do it at home! For anyone looking for some new work outs I highly advise getting the 30 Day Shred and getting into Yoga! You’ll love it after the initial shock!



As for the Temple attendance goal….3 down, 10 to go! Look at that train get a move on! It’s been awesome! My friend Kristy is doing it with me. It’s been a wonderful experience to share with her and it’s helped to make our friendship that much stronger. We went to St. George on January 23rd (right after I ran my first ½ Marathon of the year, ouch!) and then we went to Mt. Timp on January 26th for our Stake Temple Week and on February 6th we went to Oquirrh Mountain, it was gorgeous! Still to come this month is Provo and Jordan River. I’m so excited! I’ve felt that I’ve grown in my spirituality so much already this year, but I’ve also noticed that Satan has upped the ante! He’s trying to tempt me so much more now, and I just have to remember to crush him! Tonight is our ward temple night for the month, so I’ll be attending Timp again :D


To be honest, I haven’t really started on my personal training certificate yet, BUT I am working with a girl to help get her started on weights and I have two more people in my life that have started running, so I feel like I’m influencing people for good. :D I’m absolutely loving running (don’t worry, that only took 3 years!) and pushing myself to shatter my self-imposed limits.


Overall I’m feeling really good about life right now. I feel like 2010 is a year of so much promise and a huge opportunity to grow and to make my relationships with my loved ones stronger. There are a few other things that I have on my goals list for this year, but I don’t want to share them just yet, gotta keep a few things in my pocket for some surprises later in the year!

2010 Goals

So I know that it's a bit early for New Year's Resolutions, but these are some things that I've been thinking a lot about lately. So I decided that I had to write them down and get them out there or I'm sure that I'll forget ones as the holidays swing into full gear, plus it just makes me excited for new beginnings! So my first goal for the year 2010 came to me during Sacrament meeting one Sunday and then that evening it was reaffirmed to me during a fireside that I attended with my friend Tiffany. I've decided to travel to and attend a session in every temple in Utah. That means 13 Temples in 12 months, that shouldn't be too difficult. I'm actually really excited to do it! I have a couple of friends who are going to attend with me, but I just realized that one is leaving in July, so we might have to do it in 7 months….oh dear.

Goal Two is really the same old goal that everyone has every year…loose those excess 10 pounds already! We're actually starting a Biggest Looser session at work tomorrow that runs until February 12^th, so just enough time to get serious about excising and eating healthy again. Under this goal would of course include things like running another ½ marathon and two 10k's. It's time to get my butt back in gear and make it smaller :D

Goal Three is one that I tried to start this year, but failed to really get it going. I'm going to get my Personal Training Certificate before the end of the year. I know, that gives me a long time to do something that shouldn't take that long, but I'm being generous with myself. Realistically I'd like to do it in the first three months of the year and then be able to start working with individuals, but we'll keep the time line as the end of the year.

I'm sure that there are more goals to come, but for now, these are them :D