Happy Birthday to the Baby

This little lady turned 12 yesterday. SO excited for her. She is so grown up - and yet still very much the baby. I teased my mom about having all of her kids graduated from Primary and asked how she feels about that, but she didn't answer me. ;) I know that I certainly feel old knowing that my baby sister is 12. It's weird. I think she had a good day full of presents, food, and playing with several of her friends. And today my dad took her fishing along with my brother & Husband - one of her special requests for her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Lady Luck!


P.S. We have started moving our things into our new place! We are hoping to sleep there tonight and finish emptying our storage unit of the remaining things on Monday. YAY!! We love it so much already and I will post some pictures as soon as I get a chance to hook-up my camera to my laptop. :) Have a great weekend!

Why I Dress Modestly

**This is just something that's been on my mind lately and I wanted to do a self-assessment to find out why I do some of the things that I do - dressing modestly being one of them. I have 5 reasons that are not organized necessarily by importance, but by when I came by them in my life.**

 1. Habit
Ever since I was little my parents encouraged me to dress modestly. I don't think I even owned a tank top until I needed one to go under a dance costume. Even my dance teachers encouraged us to dress modestly both at the studio and at competitions - our costumes were all modest. As I got older I realized that my parents not only were encouraging me to dress modestly, but they expected it. Because it was an expectation, I knew that I had to follow through even if now and then I didn't want to.

2. Respect
When I left home to go to college, I tested the boundaries. Not in any extreme ways, but I casually let my appearance begin to slide. I wore shorts that were a little shorter and sleeves that weren't always really sleeves. I know. Appalling, right? I dated a few guys that were no good for me and after getting my heart broken I met a new guy. This guy helped me see that I had worth and value. He was a really good person and refused to date me. I wanted to hate him for that, but I respected him and he was one of my closest friends. Because of the respect that I developed for him, I realized I needed to be the best person I could be which meant that I needed to dress modestly again.Yes, in part to impress him, but also because I realized dressing modestly was a real way to show respect for this young man trying so hard to be good and make a difference - which he did.

3. Self-Esteem
Eventually, spending time with this unnamed fellow gave me huge self-esteem boosts. He was constantly telling me how important I was and how beautiful I was (which he only ever said when I dressed very modestly, coincidentally enough, though I believe that doesn't mean he didn't think it other times). I realized that before I had been dressing the way I was to get attention - which is why the creeps that I dated turned out to be creeps. They weren't looking at me they were looking at my clothes. However, this guy saw past my facade and reached inside of me to help me develop the self-esteem that I needed to do the things I needed to do. Honestly, at first I dressed modestly because I respected him (and wanted to marry someone like him so I needed to show respect to that future someone) but eventually it became a matter of self-esteem. I dressed modestly because it made me feel good and like people would look at me first and my clothes second, not the other way around.

4. Confidence
It took me a while after the experiences above to truly develop confidence in myself. I felt good about myself and I now recognized the importance of respecting myself and others, but I was still a little doubtful. Eventually I realized that if I said I had good self-esteem, how could I not be confident in the things that made me who I am? That includes my religion and my desire to do what I've been taught to always do - including dressing modestly. Once I realized that, I confidently chose to wear outfits that were modest and felt so much better.

5. Covenants
When a person goes through the temple, he or she makes sacred covenants with God. Part of the covenant made includes wearing a garment. This garment is for protection from the evils of the world, but also to encourage modesty. Because of the sacredness of the garment, it is not to be altered or shown - therefore, I have to wear clothes that cover the garment completely. It is something I didn't think I would enjoy, to be honest. I had to get rid of a couple of shirts and pairs of shorts that didn't cover my garments. However, now I can't imagine not wearing them. I feel closer to God and I feel confident in & good about myself.

Something exciting!

We were thrilled on Saturday afternoon to discover a text on Husband's phone from some of our favorite people back in Provo telling us that they were coming to Vernal and wanted to say hello and would we be interested / available.

Uhm... HECK YES!!!

Turns out the Lindstroms (our former upstairs neighbors) came out to go to the temple last minute and thought that they should say hi while they were in the area. We are SOOOO glad that they did. It was the best thing ever to sit and chat with them after not seeing them for a few weeks and get caught up on life. Plus we got Frosties which are delicious. We didn't realize how much we miss our friends until after they left to head back to Provo. Then Husband and I turned to each other and sighed and said, "Man. Our friends are the greatest. We miss them."

And the moral of the story is: If you want to make our weekend and become quite possibly our favorite people ever - you should come see us! We will be in our new place in a week or two and will even have an extra bedroom, so.... ;) Take advantage of the cool temple & dinos & US!

We might even feed you awesomeness.
Or Cold Stone. If you come in August and it is open. *fingers crossed*

Father's Day

Today is the day for celebrating Fathers.

I am very blessed to have the men in my life that I do. My dad and Daniel's dad are both incredible men that I look up to. My dad is quite amazing for having raised me and Daniel's dad for raising him. Overall I think that we got the cream of the crop. :)

I am also blessed that Daniel will be such a marvelous father to our own children. I am very grateful for him and the example that he will set. He's very wonderful and I love him very much.

Happy Father's Day to all dads, grand-dads, and dads to be! We're grateful for you.

June is flying past

Apparently June is just not a blogging month. I feel kind of bad about that because I don't have anything else that I need to or should be doing and we've had some pretty cool things happening that I should document, but...

It's also been nice to be lazy.

Today it has been raining - just enough to make everything outside wet & keep the clouds thick and gray. I love days like today. I'm hoping it either stays just like this or ends up exploding into a big, huge thunderstorm. Those are the best, right? Oh Very Yes.

We are happy & well. Biding our time until we have our own place and enjoying the down-time that comes with visiting family...for an extended period of time. Ha. Husband is starting to get a little stir-crazy, but I'm sure that we will be able to find some things for him to do to stay busy and happy. I am loving the relaxing, though it's probably not good for my body. My mom keeps telling me I need to go to the local Rec Center with her to do her super intense workouts and while I probably should get off the couch and do something, I'm enjoying this time of staying still.

I hope that all is well in the rest of the world. :) We love you very much!

Settling In

It has been one jumble of a crazy week. And I have taken no pictures to document it. I feel very very very sad about that, but I really think it's because I don't want to be in any pictures right now and so I just don't get out my camera. I hope this phase passes soon.

Anyway! Last Friday we spent the day loading up the cars and then driving out to Vernal where we then unloaded the cars into the storage unit/spare bedroom where Daniel and I are staying. Since then, we have not done a lot of anything. I got my hair cut, we have both read a lot, Daniel has been doing awesome things with his computer, and we have gone on some walks. It's been a great time. I'm enjoying it while I can since I know that soon we will both be over-our-heads busy, so I'm trying to just enjoy the slow-ness of the day.

Also, I was very disappointed when I thought I wouldn't be able to be involved with a show this summer. However, I got an email and then phone call where the producer of the summer show asked me to be the stage manager. Granted, there are only about four weeks left, but he seems to think I can be helpful (ha) and so I said yes. I'm really excited. I just like being part of a show. I really really do. I'm hoping that being here will give me lots of opportunities to be involved over the next couple of years in a variety of ways.

So... yeah. Things are going well. We are taking it slow and relaxing and enjoying summer. :)

The end!

My Daddy's Birthday

Today is my daddy's birthday. He is currently out golfing with Husband. *sigh* Which I guess is good because poor Husband is already bored out of his mind without projects to do or work to go to. So... I guess a little golf won't hurt them. Hopefully they come home without being too badly sunburned.

Anyways. I am so grateful for my dad. He is the best. We've been talking a lot this week about how he raised me and what I remember or don't remember. I think he did a pretty good job to be honest. I remember some of the times that I "hated" him in my rebellious teenage years, but not many. My dad is super great at always being loving and considerate and caring. I always know that my dad will be there for me if I need help in any way. He is a great example and a wonderful friend and I love him very very much.

So here's to you daddy. Happy birthday. I love you.