Ahhh Summer ~ Welcome...Finally!

I love SUMMER!!!!!  Especially when I have been so deprived for EIGHT miserable snowy months! I really do love it!  A lot has happened since May.  I moved to St George temporarily.  I needed to change up a few things and was a little compelled to do so with circumstances outside my control, so how temporary this will be, we shall see!!  So, summer came suddenly as I moved down to the desert oasis of lovely southern Utah.  We jumped from 85 degree days to a whopping 105!  It was great!  My ideal temperature is about 90 so that was warm but felt sooo good compared to the long cold winter.  I've been able to be mobile with my job which has allowed me to relax a little and enjoy life.  It was such a drastic transition, so I'm getting used to the lack of stress in my life.  It's taken me a little more time than I thought it would to come out of my "negative nelly" stage.  I was operating my life under so much stress that I kinda forgot how to enjoy things and be grateful for what I have.  So...I am trying to be more aware of recognizing the things that I love and am so grateful for.  My Heavenly Father #1 for blessing me with the means to be able bodied enough to support myself and to be independent for as long as I have been, and know I can rely on myself to get things done.  Meaning if I lose my job, I know I can find another one.  If I lose my living place, I know I can find a new one.  If I lose things I love, it means I know I can learn from it, adapt, and keep moving forward and loving life and the blessing of all the things I have and have been given in my life.  I have to remind myself every day of that!  I hope the positivity of life and love will come back to me.  It's something I pray for daily!  #2 I am so thankful for my parents.  I love them so much and I'm so thankful they are so willing to help me for anything I need.  They're willing to drop everything to make sure I'm taken care of.  Even though I know they don't always have much to give, they're always willing to give whatever they need.

On a side note, Teniesha and I were watching Ever After this beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Loved a quote from the movie!!!

Darling, nothing is final 'til you're dead, and even then, I'm sure God negotiates. 

Gives me hope that if I try as hard as I can and do my best, not all is lost.

Well anyways, we had a lovely dinner at Clairices house!  She made the most AMAZING homemade fresh tomato and basil pizza from scratch!  AMAZING!  I need her recipe.  We had a grand time catching up, telling stories, and sharing favorite blogs!  My girlfriends are such beautiful talented girls.  I have to say I felt very inadequate among them.  I wonder how annoying I can be sometimes and I hope they forgive my imperfections.  #3, I'm grateful for all my friends!  They do inspire me and give me great examples of who I want to be more like. 

Clairice is so artistic and creative.  She loves creating the best tastes and the best visionaries from the coolest things.  She makes the best BROWNIES that have no fat!  She is so deep and has so many thought provoking topics to talk about that stir us all to think a little deeper about things.  It's awesome!  She also made the cutest labels for my homemade lotion business if I can ever get it off the ground ;)

Lisa is so even tempered, mild-mannered, and ZERO stress, she knows exactly how to show a different perspective to anyone with a decision to make, or dissolve any stress someone might have.  She is so calm in the face of fear even if she really is scared, she acts as though she is still confident and calm.  I love that about her and wish I could have some of that in me. 

Teniesha is the epitome of spunk and sassyness!  I love being around her....she's also very creative and has such a fun taste for decorating.  She has been one of my best girlfriends for 10 years! She is so full of energy and inspires me to be more into fitness!  I love her nutrition advise!!!!

Janet is so fun to be around.  I met her through Lisa, she's Lisa's cousin, and I haven't known her long, but we hit it off instantly.  She is so funny, and pretty and I can tell she's just a good hearted person all around....love hanging around her!!! 

I'm just glad to have the friends I do and they have been such a support structure for me and they have blessed my life in more ways than I can count.  I'm just feeling extremely grateful!

I am thankful for Brandt!  He's been my best friend for so long.  I love being around him, I love the quirkiness we have.  I love that we laugh at very subtle things.  We have a lot of little special things that we do between the two of us.  He takes a while to warm up and open up to people, and I think that balances me out a little, because I've always been too quick to be open with people.  He teaches me how to have boundaries and when it's appropriate to be private.  I've learned sooo much by being around him.  He's is so dang chivalrous, it's incredible.  He always opens my door, walks me to my house, pays for things, he always wants to take care of me.  It's so nice, and I always worry that he will think I'm not thankful or take those little things for granted, but they are huge things to me and I could never not appreciate that about him!  Although I may not always show it the way he would feel appreciated, I do appreciate everything he does for me.  I think we still have a long way to go to learn about the way each other accepts and feels loved.  Hopefully we'll figure it out someday....but I think it's something that every couple goes through.  We do have our fun times!!!! 

We recently went out in his new LandCruiser to test it out in the wild...it was so much fun!  Captured some beautiful things! 

I spotted this huge nest and saw and eagle or a hawk or something, it looked so cool....I told Brandt to back up and when we got a closer look, we saw little babies in the nest. I got out to take some pictures and the mamma must have felt threatened because she took off. The babies were soooo cute! I just felt like it was an amazing thing to see out in nature. Maybe I had cabin fever from being so secluded indoors for the last 8 months, but this was an awesome thing to see.

So I think I would love to start a new hobby that includes restoring an FJ40 Land Cruiser. I would absolutely love it! I love vintage classic things...and I also love 4X4 SUVs that can rock crawl and climb! It's an expensive hobby but hopefully I'll be able to take it up someday! :)

And of course, I can't forget Brandt's land cruiser.....it's so clean and tight!  He's going to take good care of this one!  :)

Hopefully this summer is going to continue with fun adventures!!!!  I can't wait!

No Fear

Cedar Mountain Get-A-Way

Last October, I went on a mini-vacay with Brandt to his brother and sis-in-laws family cabin up on Cedar Mountain.  It was so beautiful and fun!  We met his family there and had some good food and good times.  We got a chance to take one of his new land cruisers up, so it was exciting! 

This was pulling into the property where the little cabin was.

We did a little hiking. Little Eva wanted to stick with us almost the whole time. She's such a cutie and loves her uncle Brandt.

She kept wanting me to get a closer and closer picture, goofy girl!

The air felt so good, clean and crisp.  It was very refreshing to get out of the city and into the mountains.  Very little electricity, no cell service, no power inside the house.  Just roughing it!  The way you camp on Cedar Mountain!  :)

The girls hanging out by the paddle boats. Enjoying the sun.

Such beautiful fall colors! We met the people who were building the cabin behind Brandt. They took us on a tour of the house. The views were incredible! Lucky them...they've been building their own cabin by hand for the last few years. I'm sure it will be worth it when it's all complete.

We had so much fun on the paddle boats!

And we had to take the new LandCruiser out to see what it could do. We saw some more great views and were thoroughly impressed with it's power. Nothing like a classic cruiser! :)

Brandt lovin his Land Cruiser!

Angels Landing

This weekend was amazing!  Brandt wanted to do a spontaneous trip to St George and hike Angels Landing, so we did!  It was such a fun adventure!

This was us before the big hike!  I was so nervous, so afraid of heights, but ready to conquer!  We left early in the morning - and we got to see all the bikers from the Iron Man competition.  There were so many, climbing that big hurricane hill.

This was about 10:00am - the sun was still rising over the canyon, it was cool and a perfect start to a hike!

I loved this view.  Love Zion Canyon!

I just had to remember not to look down, or psych myself up over the heights.  Just focused on climbing.

This picture freaked me out. I hugged Brandt after this picture and told him not to go that close again! (he really wasn't as close as the picture made him look, but he was still close enough).

This was about 2:30ish in the afternoon after we had finished the hike.  A different picture from the one I took earlier in the morning because of the shadows and sun.  So beautiful!

And this was us after the hike, on our way back to St George. So tired and thirsty, but so exhilarated!

Saved By an Angel

 
So I was driving home on from Brandt's house on Saturday night.  I was driving along I-15 about 75 mph (yes a little fast - woopsies) but there were no cars remotely close to me.  I saw a few cars way ahead of me, and looked up into my rear view for about 2 seconds, and looked back up and saw two red break lights so close I had no time to react...Before I could even think about what was happening my foot hit the break, I jerked the wheel to the left and I passed a stopped car in the middle of the freeway.  It literally came out of no where and I have no idea how I didn't hit it.  All I can explain is that something took over my car faster than I could realize what happened.  I heard my breaks squeal for about 1 second and my car was suddenly in the left lane.  No swerving, no over correction, it was smoother than I can explain.  I looked back into my rear view mirror a few seconds later and saw other cars swerving around this stopped car in the middle of the freeway, in the middle of the night.  On the remainder of my drive home, I realized that it wasn't me who took control of the car.  I know I had a guardian angel that took over my car so smoothly, it was indescribable!  I said some prayers of thankfulness and gratitude later that night.  I'm so thankful that it wasn't in the stars for me to have an accident last night.  Only Heaven knows what would have happened if I would have hit that stopped car at 75 miles an hour?!?!  I'm thankful for all my many blessings and all those (living and also those who have passed on) who look out for me and my well being, my safety, and my happiness.  I am so blessed every day!  I take my blessings for granted and I apologize and hopefully I can be more aware of blessings as they come :)

Special Gifts

 

I know this is a few months late, but I was going through some pics I took recently and ran across Valentines Day. 

Brandt surprised me at work with red roses, Godiva chocolates, earrings, and a bracelet and then took me to dinner later that night!  He was awesome!  I took some corny pics after the fact to remember how good I felt :)