Milestones and Blessings

This month marks my 10th year anniversary of being baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was only 17 years old when I met the missionaries. I was working my boring high school part time job at Burger King one day when an elder I was serving kept asking me questions about the church. I told him I had actually seen the commercials and he asked me if he could get my info and talk to more about it. I was like sure why not, besides he was holding up my line. LOL! So a few days later Sister Buckley started blowing up my phone wanting to come over, so after the 4Th time she called me I decided to have the sisters over. The Elder at Burger King was actually driving the transfer van back to Louisville. So he wasn't even in my area.

So the day I met the sisters... I was in total awe of them. They taught me the 1st discussion and when they did I had a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes. They asked me if I would pray about getting baptized. - I had never even been to the church yet. But I knew this was for me. When I prayed I felt the spirit for the first time. I decided to get baptized. As I prayed I had a warm feeling come over me. It was more like a burst of warmth, that gave me the chills. It was very peaceful.

To give you a back ground on my life before, I was in high school, never went to church, did not have friends that went to church so my life was all about parties and being a wild teenager. With my decision, my parents were very supportive. My friends...well let's just say that since I no longer partied I didn't have friends any more. I didn't know anyone at Church but the missionaries. I was too young for singles ward. But I did it. I went to Church by myself. No family, no friends. Just Heavenly Father. It was EXTREMELY hard. But at that time I never gave it a second thought. I was in pure mission mode. I wanted to be a missionary so badly. My first calling after I got baptized was to be a Stake Missionary. I LOVED it. I felt like I got what I wanted and that was to be called to serve. I adored all the Missionaries who touched my life. I was really attached but they are the ones I needed the most. I had no one else! Joining the Church was the best life decision I have ever made. I am not sure if the missionaries knew just how much they meant to be. But Phil 1:3 says it best....I thank my God upon Every remembrance of you.

Sister Cannon and Sister Jones were my missionaries and they treated me so well and made me know that without a doubt I was a Daughter of God. And I deserved all of the blessings he had in store for me. Because of them I was able to take my mom to the Louisville Temple open house. I was able to be in the Temple when it was dedicated by President Monson. My mom was able to go with me to get my patriarchal blessing, and she was amazed at all the blessings that were to come to my life. I was able to move to Salt Lake City Utah with another convert the sisters taught, I met a lot of friends there, and I was able to get a lot of temple work done. I was able to have the want and desire to serve a mission, even went to mission prep , got my paper work. Then in my interview my Bishop told me to stay here and take Marriage Classes. I was like ummm but I am not dating anyone. After the meeting, I had a feeling I would meet my husband in the month of October. Or at least know who he was going to be. Sure enough, the month I would have left on my mission, my husband was just returning from his mission. We had met before I moved to Salt Lake City 2 years prior. I was able to make life long friends in the Singles Ward I mean life long friends as in Eternal friendship. Friends that I have an extreme spiritual connection with, like my friend Grant, we always spiritually uplifted one another. Still even do to this day. I was able to receive my endowments, and be Sealed to my Eternal companion. The blessings are endless. The blessings that I mentioned were very few compared to what I have been given.

I can't believe it has been 10 years! I still love The Gospel, times for me are still hard. It is still hard to go to church sometimes. I have gotten all my friends back from age 17. The best thing about it now, is that I can hang out with them and not be in party mode. They respect me for not drinking. Some people around me won't even drink at all because they think it offends me. That always makes me think that I am setting an example. In Harry Potter terms. They are muggles and I am teaching them all the magic, they just don't know it. I am posting a few of my milestones- these things would have never come to pass if I never made the decision to be baptized or have ever met the missionaries. To all the missionaries who were and are in my life I love you guys and think of you often. Thanks for the memories.

1st row: Sister Jones, me, Sister Cannon, Elder Shakespeare, and Sister Buckley- The missionaries who found me and taught me.


2nd Row: Sister Barnes and Sister Solongo. Elder Johnson- to this day still one of my dearest friends.


Row 3: My first trip to The Temple. This was My 1st roomate Marybeth.
The St Louis Temple.

My engagement and The day of my Sealing


Our 2 year wedding anniversary to Nauvoo. Aubrey and Jennilyn.. My two blessings
I thank God for them.


These are some things I would have missed out on in my life if I didn't have these wonderful people in my life. You never know what angels Heavenly Father will be sending your way in your time of need. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings see what God has done.

Dave Matthews Band Concert

Since I am a huge fan of going to concerts I get constant updates on tours, and I saw that Dave Matthews Band was coming to Cincinnati. Dave Matthews is Ryan's favorite band in the WORLD. And he has wanted to see them live since their 1st album came out. I bought Ryan a ticket to go, but told him I couldn't go because I normally have physical therapy on Tuesdays. No one wanted to go, and my therapy date got switched to the day before the concert. So I told Ryan I would go with him. I am glad I did. We had the time of our life. The place was packed thousands of people were there. When the band took the stage it started pouring rain, I mean pouring. We had umbrellas to keep us dry but it was awesome to see all the people just so care free enjoying the down pour and dancing in the rain. So we decided what the heck we will join in the fun too. We threw the umbrellas down and got soaked but we had a blast. We danced together in the rain, sang really loud, sloshed around in the mud like little kids. It was one of the best dates we have ever had! We really enjoyed the concert and I made sure Ryan got lots of Dave memorabilia, and I got my pictures :)

Chicago Trip

I have to say that our weekend getaway to Chicago could not have been any more perfect. Everything we planned or did, or scheduled worked out wonderfully. I think the trip was really meant to be for us. We had an absolute blast! We went to The Hershey Store, Jazz clubs, Art Galleries, nice restaurants, The Hancock Tower. Saw old friends, made new friends. It was so perfect we didn't want to come back home!! It was nice for the two of us just to get away from everything and enjoying each others company..Out of all the trips we have ever been on this one was by far our most favorite one YET!!

We're going to Chicago!!

Thank goodness I work at a place where I get the Holidays off! It was perfect timing to plan a weekend getaway. Ryan is so extremely busy with going to school full time, working full time, and always seems to manage homework, studying, a married life and a social life! Even cooks me dinner if he has any time and helps with the chores. -What a sweetie! I thought it would be nice if I could take him somewhere for a few days since he never gets to vacation with me. He has always wanted to go to Chicago and hit up all the jazz clubs.. So since he works so hard, he deserves a treat! I asked him what he wanted to do, and planned everything.

I hired a photographer to come take our family portraits in downtown Chicago. I thought it would be nice to have professional pics taken of us with the huge skyscrapers in the back ground.

I found one of the most top Jazz clubs in the city. Found out an International Jazz singer would be performing. So I listened to her music and I was blown away! It was exactly what we were looking for...Soft jazz with a bit of jive and swing. I emailed the singer to see if she could bring one of her Christmas Albums with her to her show. She was so nice, responded quickly and said she wanted to meet us and introduce us to her band. This week I got another email from her saying she was checking the weather for us. How sweet is that?

We are also meeting up with one of my friends from high school at The Hard Rock Cafe, I haven't seen her in at least 10 years or more. She now lives in Chicago as a Private Investigator. After dinner we are going to Navy Pier for fireworks and to ride the Ferris Wheel by the water with a city view.

We have a LOT Planned to squeeze into 3 nights.I will blog more when we get home from the trip.

Here is a pic of the hotel I booked. I got it extremely cheap! I was proud of myself..
Here is a restaurant I made reservations for, it is on the 95Th floor!! We decided to go at night to get this view!

To everything there is a season.....

This past weekend my friend Holly got married. The whole wedding weekend was wonderful. All the girls that I grew up with came into town for the occasion. During the whole time the girls were here I started reflecting on all the memories we have shared in our lives as we have grown up together. All the good times, the sad times, the happy times, the tough times. I have always known that all my friends were a gift from God, my truest treasures here on earth. I know even though we live apart from one another, our friendship will always remain the same. Our reunions are always bittersweet and overjoyed. The day of Holly's wedding I was very emotional. All I felt during the whole ceremony was Gods love for all of us. He was truly talking to me that day as I shared sacred moments with my friends. He showed me that my friends were in fact a gift from him.

He reminded me-

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

A time to be born...


A time to laugh..


A time to love..

A time to dance..
Even a time to die, a time to weep, a time to mourn, and a time to embrace all the love you have inside and all the love you give to one another..

I know no matter what happens in this life, I know I will be reunited with all my friends in the end. Our reunions will still be bittersweet, we will remember the memories, the celebrations and all the blessings that came along with being friends. I love you guys!

Food Storage- Not as hard as it looks

I thought I would write a little about food storage. Why? Because it is something that has been on my mind persistently now for the past month. Also the fact that my church is huge into being prepared.

I get at least 3-5 calls a day with people asking for an extension on their loan because they can't make payments. People are calling in saying they have lost their jobs and they need a loan to pay their bills and to by groceries. It is heartbreaking, but reality has started to set in. These people can't make their payments, they can't find jobs and they can't afford groceries. - I decided to start slowly trying to build up food storage, because I know one day Ryan or myself could come home one day without a job. Times are getting scary.

I still have a long way to go, but I have a few months worth stored. My problem is I have no where to stuff everything. When I first thought about food storage I was clueless on what to buy. I asked people and they just said they bought stuff they really don't eat. I thought that was pointless so I did it on my own and found out it is actually really easy to do. I went to the store this weekend and stocked up on a lot of things and only went $4 over my budget. I was impressed. I am listing a few tips I am learning so other people don't feel so overwhelmed like I did.

Mayonnaise..I always buy Helman's which I love, I looked at the cost and it was $6.39 for one jar!! I noticed that the Kroger brand Mayonnaise was on sale (same size) for $1.99 and the Kroger brand is actually really really good. So I bought 3 jars which equaled the price of 1 Helman's. There was extra for food storage.

Ketchup..Normally around $4 for a big bottle. With the sale it was $2 so I bought 2 for the price of one. Stuck the other one in food storage.

I cook with a lot of soups Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken. Normally around $1.59 this week it was on sale for 10 for 1o. Stuck the 10 back for food storage.

Same goes for salad dressing..Normally $2.39 was on sale for $1.25 bought 4 for the price of 2. Stuck the rest back for food storage.

You get the idea. I am now starting to get addicted on what to get next. If you are like me and have no clue where to start or what to buy, I hope this helps. Here are a few pics of the progress so far. I still haven't found ways to organize better..

Holly Bug

Next Sunday my friend Holly will be getting married!! She is so excited to be married and to be a wife. I can't wait for her dream to come true. She is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Everyone loves Holly and loves being around her and her fun personality. After she gets married she will be moving away to Bowling Green KY to be with her husband. It is starting to hit me that she will be gone. I have had Holly in my life pretty much my WHOLE life. We went to Elemementry school, middle school, and high school together, we even work together!!! I never thought the day would come that I would have to say goodbye to her! Granted Bowling Green is a few hours away, I will still miss coming to work everyday and seeing her bat her eyes at me and saying Hey bay-buh. Holly would call me everyday after school, we would talk until her mom yelled at her to get off the phone-which was a few hours after talking. We had the chance to go to Washington DC and Chicago together, boy did we make some good memories in middle school. I am going to miss you Holly Bug!! I hope one day our kids can grow up together like we did! Love ya girlie...