PORTLANDIA

For my birthday my sister (two years older then me) and brother-in-law gave me an all expenses paid trip to come and spend a weekend with them and their boys in Portland. This trip came two days after my world got rocked by some unpleasant news. Lets just say this trip became more then just a present, it became a blessing.

There was an air show going on all weekend about 10 min from their house so we started out with that Friday night. 

This picture does not convey how much we enjoyed it.

The night ended with a firework show! Seriously its almost the end of September and we got to watch fireworks, not to mention the fantastic weather. It felt like it was still summer!

So happy!

And then we went back the next day. This time we biked there, it was so great! 

This is my brother-in-law with their youngest Vincent.

And the one and only studly man, Luke!

Then the trip ended with the beginning of fall desserts, Caramel Apples! The recipe will soon be posted here.

This weekend was distracting, fulfilling and full of happy good times. The weather was in the upper 80's and it was a great way to officially end summer.

My sister and her husband have lived out on the east coast since about a year after they got married, so for about five or six years. They moved to Portland last summer. I can't even say in words how grateful I am to have them so close. It truly is a blessing to have them back on the west coast and close.

They make me laugh, make me feel loved and I'm grateful to call them my family and my friends. Not to mention they have two of the cutest boys, but then again I might be a little biased.

Stop. Breath. Live.

Life is crazy right now....

Next Saturday is the South Sound BBQ Festival in Lacey, WA.

I'm the Event Coordinator in charge of it and this is my first year doing it and we are expecting 15,000 people. So as you can imagine work has been non-stop for the past few weeks. Man I'm excited, but I'm a little bit more excited for the day afterwords.

Last Saturday my parents and I took a day trip down to Portland to see my sister and her family. It was only a day but it was fantastic! Hung out in her backyard, soaked up some much needed sun and then went blueberry picking.

Don't mind my face. I'm obviously not very photogenic, but the whole purpose of this picture was to show you my amazing multi-tasking skills. I mean look at me, holding a baby and picking blueberries. I'm living the dream.

Monday I got to go to one of my favorite places in Seattle with one of my favorite families. This is Sydney's family minus his dad (he is taking the picture). They are so great to include me in family outings even though Sydney is gone. 

 Safeco Field to watch the Mariners vs. Red Sox. So much fun. And since I'm a fan of both teams I knew I'd leave happy either way. And guess what the Mariners won, 12-3 so I was extra happy.

David Ortiz doing his thing. So much fun to watch.

The rest of my out of work time has been filled with helping my mother at her fantastic DoTerra classes, hanging out with my new Brazilian friends, re-arranging my room, mission call openings, and church. I get to go out with the Sister missionaries tonight. I always love going out with them because it is an opportunity for me to really forget myself and help others feel the joy and happiness that I feel.

My goal right now is to start becoming more productive with my time outside of work. Usually I get off work and I'm so tired I don't want to do anything. But after writing about confidence last week I realized this is probably why I've been struggling lately. I'm not doing anything for me or even for others. I'm not living!

I want to work on making my room a clean, peaceful, inspiring place for me. Get back to my music side. I haven't practiced piano or violin in ages! Not to mention the only singing I do is in the car and shower. Oh and I really want to learn to play the guitar. I also want to up my exercise. Ideally I want to start exercising in the morning but I really have a hard time getting up earlier then I need to. Any tips? I'm all ears!

Here is to life and to living it, instead of letting it live you. Who wants to join me?!

I'm going to succeed gloriously....

So last night I had dream after dream after dream of different things in my life completely failing. And when I say failing I mean crash and burn. Can you tell I'm under a little bit of stress right now? Work is really crazy. We're getting ready for two big events and guess what I'm the Event Coordinator so that means double time for me. And then on top of it my pre-planned relaxing trip to Portland for a long Memorial Day weekend had to be rescheduled. So it is safe to say my weekend started off pretty rough. On Friday I was hit with this overwhelming desire to follow my dreams but with no idea on how to make any of them happen. The desire to travel the world, to have my own family, to work with youth and make my mark in this world. So between that and the stress from work I was feeling pretty down, like I was going to fail at everything and I felt stuck. The feeling continued through till Sunday.

I went to church like always still not knowing what to do. As I was sitting with some of the other young women leaders one of them mentioned what our class was going to be on, personal revelation, and suggested that maybe the reason I needed to stay home from Portland was for the lesson. I laughed and said maybe. Then as I was sitting in the class with the other young women we were talking about receiving personal revelation for ourselves as well as making decisions. A quote came to my mind that I thought would be good for the girls to hear.

Today I was emailing back and forth with Sydney (Monday's are their email days) and he was giving me a fantastic pep talk. Telling me how much he believed in me, that I could do anything I put my mind to and all that good cheesy stuff that I love hearing from him. But as we were emailing I remembered that quote from yesterday. I realized I needed to remember that in my life and not just expect my young women to remember it. Sydney believes in me, my family believes in me, my Heavenly Father believes in me but sometimes I don't believe in myself. 

Yes I may not know right now how in the world I'm going to live my dreams, do all that I want to do and become unstuck but I do know that eventually I will. As I keep pushing forward and remember that I was put on earth to "succeed gloriously" I will be able to conquer all. Sydney reminded me that it is all about baby steps, and boy is he right. I think each of us, well at least I know I do, try to take these giant steps because I want results right away and if I can't get them I feel like a failure. But as I learn each time I do this I am more likely to succeed and grow when I take baby steps towards my dreams. It might take longer but I learn a whole lot more. A friend reminded me last week that our Heavenly Father can't steer a parked car. So it is time I get up and move, even if I'm just barely inching along. Because I am going to succeed gloriously! (And so are you)