Flipped Upside, Inside Out

Wow. It feels like I ask myself,

"Where has the time gone?"

every single time I blog.

I often feel bad that im not the best at keeping a regular journal or blog.. but I am so excited to say

that at the beginning of the summer I bought a journal,

and made myself a goal to write at least 5 bullets in it about my day,

every single day and to complete it before school would start.

And I am very very very excited to tell you that I finished it about 2 weeks before school started!!

Of course, I missed a few days here and there,

but it was really cool to look at how much of a habit it became, 

and how my bullets have become so much more lengthy and thoughtful. 

It was a really great feeling to finish a journal cover to cover

for the first time in my life.

This Summer I also found out that I have Celiac disease.

And let me tell ya.

It is hard stuff, trying to figure out what is going on in my body,

and what I can and cant eat.

It's all a little over whelming at times.

But I have been extremely blessed to have a really great support system.
Both of my parents, both of my sisters for always finding and sending me recipes,
and same for my old voice teacher Angela Kintner, my extended family, my leaders and especially
my friends. Everyone has been so awesome.

Shoot. My best friend Sarah Nelson

decided to go gluten free for a week,

as a way of supporting me.

And I would just like to say how grateful I am for that,

at first I was pretty upset about her going gluten free,

just because anyone who knows me knows that I dont like help or pity

or anything along those lines for that matter.

But she did it anyway... And I think that it has helped me so much!

To have someone understand even a fraction of what your dealing with,

makes it that much easier.

 She is just incredible like that.

She has a way of always knowing what to do and say.

I hope she knows that she is truly one of the greatest,

most kind, caring, and loving people ever.

Sarah, means so much to me and

I cant even imagine my life without her!
So thank you Sarah for being the best friend anyone could ever ask for!! <3 <3

SO THANK YOU to anyone who has helped me along this new journey of life.
You guys are pretty incredible.

Well school is in full swing now, and I am a SENIOR!!!

WOO WOO!!

This is my last "first day of high school school" picture!

It is just so crazy to think that in less than 9 months,

I will be graduated and starting a new adventure in life..

Whatever that adventure may be.

Not gonna lie, 

it's a pretty scary thought.

I guess I should get crackin' on those applications.. :/

I have packed on a few AP classes so my schedule is a little bit fuller than

I would like, but I have a feeling that im really gonna love

them. I am taking APES (AP Environmental Science) 

and AP Psychology.

I am also taking Theatre 3,4, DP

which basically equals to an AP class.

I just wont take the test because im not in IB.

Rehearsals for the school's fall play, "Almost Maine" have also begun.

I have to kiss Jared in our scene "This Hurts"

We actually kissed a few days ago just to get that first kiss over with

because it got to a point that in all honesty it was kind of stressing me out a little bit. Haha

So at Zach's surprise party last Saturday night,

we just kissed.

Im glad that first kiss is over, so now

the rest will be easy and I wont have to think too much about it..

I hope.
Last Firday was Senior Sunrise, and it was tons of fun!

Carissa had her baby!!

Meet Kyler James Johnson

Born on August 17, 2012

at 6:14 pm

7 pounds, 5 ounces

19 inches long

One very happy Mama!

I am so proud of Carissa, she is such an example to me,

and I am so happy for her. She is so strong and beautiful. <3

So, congratulations to Kyle and Carissa, 

I am so happy for you guys!

Yall are going to be such great parents,

and I cant wait to meet the little dude! :)

I just love this outfit! It's just so stinkin cute!! 

I also love his cute little chicken legs! 

Last week, I started babysitting for the Lameroux's which I will do weekly.

And the Tuft's want to go back to weekly date nights again too, 

so hopefully I will make pretty good money to 

be able to save up for school.

Seriously the thought of college is so scary.
What if I dont get into the school I want?
Or dont have enough money to pay for it?
There are so many "what if's"...
I just want to be into my school already and start now!
haha I am definitely getting ahead of myself, cause I still have my entire senior year left.. Haha.

Last Sunday, I got a calling.
I am the Young Women's Music Director.
So I will arrange if I want the Young Women to sing in sacrament meeting,
or at New Beginnings, or things like that.
As well as every Sunday.
McKenzie is our new pianist.

This week I had to do "time for time" for English after school,
cause I missed the last few minutes of class,
but it turned out to be a huge blessing in my life
because I had a really great missionary experience with my teacher.
She watched the movie, "Mormon in America" (At least thats what I think its called)
that was shown on PBS
and she said that after it ended, she turned to her husband and told him that she wanted to become mormon. Haha she said that she has been
 watching us members of the church since and with Mitt Romney
running for President,
she has realized that she wants exactly what we have.
She loves that we focus on the family, and how we are constantly serving each other.
She said those two things stuck out the most to her.
And I love that. She had so many questions and really opened up her life to me
and shared some things that were really cool to me.
She told me that at one point in her mom's life, she was all alone with her son,
and she had moved and the members of the church
immediately took her in when no one else did. She and her son moved in with members.
They took them to church,
helped with bills when she couldnt pay everything,
brought meals into her.
 None of them asked questions about what
had happened, they just served her constantly.
She had said that when she went to visit her mom and younger brother she went to church with her mom and
sitting in sunday school with her mom, she said  it felt like "God's arms were literally around me"
she said she felt protected and loved.
I guess her mom bore her testimony in that meeting and she felt something that
she wants again and has never known how to get it back.
Her mom never joined the church.
That is of course the run down version of the story,
 I dont know why,
but this story was a huge eye opener to me.
What a blessing it is to have grown up in the church.
Her story is so saddening to me, but I think it's important to remember
that holds so much hope.
And its my prayer that I can be the Lord's messenger to help her find the truth.
You can just tell that she wants and needs the gospel in her life and she is starting to realize that.
So please pray for her and her family that they will feel of God's love,
and turn to Him for all things and trust in Him constantly.

Even though it feels kind of like my life has been flipped upside down and inside out,
I know that there is one thing that will never change.
And that is the Gospel of the Jesus Christ and my testimony of it.
I know that it is the only true church on the Earth today.
I am grateful for my trials and the experiences that have been placed in my life right now.
 I am so grateful for my older brother Jesus Christ,
and his atoning sacrifice,
so that He could feel what I feel,
and know exactly what I go through in my everyday life.
I know He knows and loves me unconditionally.
And I can always turn to him for help.
And I cannot wait to run into his arms,
and to hear him say,

"You did it. Welcome home."
And that my friends is pretty is a comforting thing to know.

Anyways, I think that catches up the majority of things going on over here since I have last blogged.
Happy Labor Day Weekend!
I hope everybody has a fun and safe
three day weekend!! :)

Put On Your Big Girl Panties

Wow! Where has the time gone?

I cannot believe that my mom left almost 4 weeks ago to help 

Brielle and Carissa,

Gramma's and Granpa.

In all honesty, every day has gone by so slow,

but looking back on the last few weeks, 

it has gone by so fast as I have tried to keep myself as busy as possible.

Between homework (Yes, mom and dad I actually do it, just slower than you would like.. haha)

working, babysitting, Girls Camp, The Allred Family Reunion,

and getting ready for...

*DRUM ROLL PLEASE*

SENIOR YEAR!! WOOP WOOP!! 

The time really has flown by. 

But just because it has flown by, doesnt mean that it has been easy.

I have a new found respect for my Mama.

"I mean, she's has the mommy hair cut, she's super mom!"

(Name that movie! ^)

I have always known that my mom does a lot,

but man. She really does A LOT.

From cooking dinner, cleaning, and helping me with everything that I need.

(It's no secret that I am very spoiled and that she has very good patience)

But its hard work to cook dinner every night! 

A few nights ago, I was making chicken,

which should have only taken about a half hour.

But it took an hour and a half!
I felt like by the time it was done and I was cutting the chicken,
I might as well had one of the moments like
the sister in the movie, "Just Like Heaven"
when she's cutting into the lasagna, and she finds a plastic sponge bob in it.
It was just that kind of day.

As you can probably easily tell,
 I dont really have the best patience with cooking,

especially when I have no idea what im doing.
So bless my great husband that he may have a HUGE amount of patience with me
when it dinner time rolls around.

By the time my dad got home that night,

I was pretty frustrated.

And as great as he is, he helped me finish dinner

and it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

But thankfully, dad has cooked the last 3 nights.

It's been pretty nice.

After finding out that I cant have gluten,

Its been even harder trying to figure out what I can eat.

And even though she is far away,

my mom is still trying to help me as much as she can as far as finding things 

to cook. And let me tell you,

it has been a huge adjustment.

It feels as though my entire life has been flipped upside down.

But I am feeling better than ever.

So much in fact, that I wont ever go back to eating gluten.

Next up on the list for "playing mommy" is cleaning.

Alright. Here's what I have decided.

I hate cleaning, but I love clean.

Even though my room is a disaster more often than not,

I ask myself 

"Why do I let it get so dirty?"

Because I hate cleaning.

So if we just kept things clean we wouldn't have to clean them,

because they would just be clean.

Too bad that is simply impossible..

because a lived in house is obviously gonna be, well lived in.

Well, it was a pretty nice thought though, I think.

There are 3 things that I hate most as far as cleaning goes:

1. Doing Laundry

2. Doing the dishes

3. Sweeping/vacuuming

And I have to do all those things before school starts.

Really lame, but they all need to be done.

In fact I think my laundry stopped just a few minutes ago..

Bummer..

This whole experience has made me realize that eventually we all need to put on our big girl panties.

I am just grateful I get a little test run, before going to college and truly have to grow up.
And I've had a pretty great example of that to me my entire life.

Though it's hard,
She's strong, so I can be too.
She works hard, so I can too.

I have realized how incredibly blessed I am,

because over the past few weeks, 

I have been thinking about just how grateful I am that

I know that Families are Forever.

So even though we are apart now,

We will be together forever, 

and that makes me so unbelievably happy.

I LOVE AND MISS YOU LOTS MOMMY!! <3 <3

And just in case I dont tell you enough,
I think that you you are pretty incredible
and I am so grateful that I get to call you my mom. <3

[Sorry if this post was all over the place!, I tried to organize my thoughts to make sense. Hopefully it worked!]

"Go in Peace"

So for the last year or so, I have been praying for peace.

And though I have been very happy, I have not felt completely at peace for a really long time.

And so by the time Girls Camp rolled around, I knew exactly what question I was going into my solo experience with.

 Through out the week leaders and other girls had told stories about how they had experiences where they needed to have faith until the very end. Some its was a week some a month. Some only a few days. But I was so confused on where my end would be.

Trying to have faith until the end of something that you dont even know what it is,

is so difficult.

I was really struggling with what I was doing wrong because I just could not recieve

that peace that I had been praying for over a year.

I was doing everything I needed to be doing.

Praying, reading my scriptures, keeping my standards, going to church and mutral.

I was so confused.

So friday came around and it was time for our solo experience.

I got my letters from home, and headed off to find a place by myself.

I pleaded with my Heavenly Father,

asking why? Why haven't you given me peace.

I was angry because I didnt understand.

As I was flipping through my scriptures, I read a quote that I had written in,

that says:

"please understand that what you feel and experience now, is not what will forever be."

and at first I kept thinking like,

yeah right.

But as I thought about it, it did bring comfort to me.

But still not peace.

Bishop Hart came by and whispered, time to go.

And he turned around to get the rest of our ward.

But I just could not believe that Heavenly Father left me there.

After doing everything he has asked me to.

I was mad that he was just gonna watch me walk away from my solo experience,

with not even a hint as to when this trial would be over.

So I looked back down to my scripturesto close them and decided to read one more verse.

(I was in Judges 18 by the way)

And the last thing that I read was, verse 6 and it said,

"Go in peace"

I was immediately overcome with peace.

I got down on my knees and said a prayer of gratitude.

I know that I was promted to read that last verse so that I  could recieve that peace that I needed.

I know that my Heavenly Father hears our prayers and I am so grateful

for my Saviors atoning sacrifice, so that He can know exactly what im going through.

I know that if we hold stong until the end, he will help us through it.

Even if it seems like he doesnt.

I know that I am a daughter of God,

who loves me and I love Him. :)

Snickers

OKay this might seem kind of dumb,

but a few days ago,

Emily and I got into a fight

which is weird because we dont fight.

But both of us were on edge.

It was a totally dumb fight, but it got the the point when we

even started arguing about who got the last exaggerated "UGH"

And it seems so stupid and I kind of laugh about it now.

Not really about the fight, but just how stupid it was.

Anyways, the point of the this crazy story,

is that the next day I was shopping with Caylee and Allison,

and we were at Old Navy and Emily came and met up with us after she got off work.

And I was so excited to show her this cute top we found that matches a skirt that we have been looking for, for a long time.

I mean, I was so excited that I had almost forgotten about the whole fight.

And so I showed her the outfit and I decided to get the top.

But before we walked out of the dressing room,

she pulled out a snickers bar out of her bag,

and

(Oh, side note. I love love fun size snickers because its the perfect bite.)

But anyways, as she was pulling out the snickers she was like

"I know that its not bite size like you like it, but here. I got you this"

And she handed me the snickers and went on to tell me sorry about the fight.

And let me tell you,

I am so so so grateful for Emily, she is the best friends that I could ever

ask for. And she is always so thoughtful, and definitely a huge example to me in so many ways.

An even though she works alot, we have done so much together.

And have done so many fun things!!

Like ride a tandem bike, Bought toms together, shopped like crazy together,

went bowling, had lots of sleepovers,

every week we make a calender and coordinate our schedules. I write in blue, she writes in green and the things we do together we write in red. It might be nerdy but i like it.

watched almost 7 seasons of "Gilmore Girls"

gone to haircuts together,

played games, baked,

made lots of new Friends,

gone to church together,

gone to the temple,

gone to the outlet malls in Castle Rock,

Okay so you get the point.

Emily and I have become even closer than we were before she moved in.

I love love love her.

She is the absolute best and its these kind of friendships that you know will last a lifetime.

And I am so grateful for it.

I have no idea what im gonna do when she moves out and goes to school. Im going to miss her like CRAZY!!

But at least Krista is finally coming home and staying until she goes to school in January.

So ill have her back! EEE!! She comes home on Thorsday!

So anyways, I just wanted to let Emily know that I love her a lot and she means so much to me.

And I love her alot.

Oh and the snickers was really yummy, so thanks Emily.

You are the best.

Just like puzzle pieces

Well who cares if I just blogged a few days ago!
I like to keep my posts only about the topic they are about.

So thats probably why sometimes there is like 6 posts in only a few days.

Anyways,

I have been working on this quilt since the fall of my sophomore year of high school
and guess what! Its finally almost done!
I have completed the whole front, now I just need to get the middle and the back put on,
and stitch it all together.
So I guess the best way to show you would be in pictures, so here we go!

This was the very first sqaure I did, and it took me FOREVER.
At least it felt like that. I cross stitched Joshua 1:9 on the fabric which was the
2010 mutual theme.
KNOWLEDGE

INTEGRITY

PINK

(Haha I neded a 9th color so of course I just chose pink)

DIVINE NATURE

INDIVIDUAL WORTH

VIRTUE

FAITH

GOOD WORKS

CHOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

All of these sqaures were completed in the order that they are in.

So a week or so ago, mom and I headed over to the Bradys,

and let me tell ya.

I really do love Sister Brady.

She is just so fantastic.

She was a HUGE help and without her I would never be able to finish my quilt.

So I am so so so grateful to her and her help.

Plus she is so much fun to be around!

She is hilarious always so nice.

Anna was alot of help too, she would press everything for me.

So first we layed out all of my squares.

Then mom and I had to go get black fabric to put in
between the squares and the back.
And wanna know a little secret?
We just went to target and got a really soft king size sheet!
That way the back can be all one piece.
Pretty great idea huh??
We thought so too.
So we headed back to the Bradys and we used the serger which made
everything 100 times faster and easier!

 She sewed some and I sewed some.
And together we got it all done in one day!
(Well, except for we have to out the middle and the back on.)

So after we sewed all of the rows together, this is what it looks like!

So this is whole front, and I absolutely LOVE IT!!!

I have painted on each sqaure waht value it is.

Looking at all of the squares together,

they are literally puzzle pieces to my life.

Things that I have done, and its kind of really cool to see all of it together.

Kind of like, after everything, my senior year its going to be the best year, and my life is finally coming together and I know who I am and what I want to do and who I want to become.

Who knew that all of this could come from just a quilt?

I guess it all seems really cheesy, but thats okay with me.

I'll post again later once its all complete, ya know, the whole thing. :)

Beautiful Heartbreak

I absolutely love this song, it's so beautiful.

But the past few weeks I think that it ha really hit home, as we

have watched our beautiful mountains burn to the ground

because of the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Here are some pictures of what we could see from our house:
DAY ONE (Saturday)

Emily even got evacuated from work cause she works at the top of pikes peak.

So you can see it get worse but I guess the best way to show the whole thing is this video:

Pretty scary huh?
It gave me goose bumps and made me tear up more than once.
It is absolutely heart breaking to see our home, our beautiful mountains burn.
My heart goes out to all of those who were affected by the fire.
And I am praying for all of those peolple.
May God bless and watch over them as they try to get back on their feet.



Happy Birthday America!!

So its a few days late, but

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!

 I hope everybody had a fun and safe fourth of July.

Ours was alot different this year as we couldnt have fireworks,

and the parade that Emily and I were supposed to be in was cancelled because

of the Waldo Canyon Fire.

So that was a huge bummer, but we still found things to do and had a good time.

We slept in a little bit, and then Emily and I went to get her hair cut.

Then we came home and decided it was way too not not to be in water,

so we decided to play in the water while we washed

 all the cars in our swimming suits

(hoping to get a tan), and then layed outside.

It was SO HOT.

And we later found out that we got toasted!!

We were so red.

Shoot. We still are. Haha

But it was still a really fun afternoon. 

We are best Friends :)

 We went out to Rudy's for a nice yummy "linner"

MM MM MMM. I sure do love me some Rudy's.

(I can handle their barbeque sauce but I like the taste of their sissy sauce better)

After Rudy's, Emily and I were gonna go bowling with Allison

so after getting lost on the base and drving around looking for it for like 30 minutes we finally found it and it was closed!! :(

Shoulda known their "holiday hours" did not include the fourth of July because its the base and they would do that kind of thing. Haha

And of course the fireworks were cancelled because of the fires.

The funny thing is that we found these popper things that we thought didnt have a spark so we used those and there was a spark!

So we technically broke the law.. OOPS..

OH! And Emily and I got those $5 shirts from old navy that say fourth of July.

She is so great. I love her and Allison lots lots lots!!

So I hope everyone had a fun and safe fourth of July!

I definitely did. Even though it was different,

It was a great day :)