I have been cheating on my blog with my journal

soooooo much to tell!!!!!

I guess first I should say Merry Christmas and Happy New year!!! I hope everyone had a delightful holiday:)

For Christmas this year my parents asked each of my siblings and I to perform an act of service and write about our service in a card telling them about it.  Chase and I recruited our friends Mike and Kelsie and made a Christmas basket with a gift card containing what to me is a lot of money, then we gave it to a family in need.  I LOVED doing this as a gift to my parents.  The entire experience made me feel all warm & fuzzy inside.

I really love my parents, but I also like them.

For my Dad's Birthday (which is also Christmas) I put together a memory book with letters from old friends, new friends, and in between friends (and when I say friends I mean family too).  I would like everyone who helped me with this project to imagine me giving them a huge hug and melodically singing thank you (my voice is in fact dove like...).



During Christmas break we spent our time climbing

Shooting (We got a gun for Christmas)

Dancing

and we ALMOST went snow shoeing around crater lake.  For those of you who live near Crater Lake this is a must.  During winter months on Saturdays at 1pm they offer a free 90 minute ecology walk around the lake, AND they provide the snow shoes.  It is SO much fun.


Chase and I spent New Years Eve in San Francisco.  It was a fantastic day.  We are however getting old,  at about 8pm an Elderly Chinese man took us on his bike buggy back to our car (We are 98.4% sure he kept letting them rip).  We then drove about an hour out of San Fran and found a hotel to sleep in for the night.  WE BOTH fell asleep before it was 10pm.

We are old...but I am totally okay with it.  We had a really fun day and I would much rather wake up early to start the new year than wake up feeling like I got hit by a mac truck.



ANYWAYS

That finally brings me to my summary of last years resolutions and this years.

I did okay...!

2012 GOALS

I ran in a race. I tried MORE than 12 new recipes(but at least one every month).  I read the ensigns.  I did not read my scriptures for 10 minutes everyday.  I didn't ever do the splits all the way.  BUT I will soon.  and I did not consciously work on a different attribute of Christ every month.

dangit.

But I do feel like I kept my goals in mind and worked towards them.

THIS YEAR!!! 2013!!! WOOO

I want to write in my journal most days
 Run a half marathon
 Read my scriptures everyday
ensigns every month
Try a new recipe a month
be a better listener
wake up by 6:30 EVERY day. (except if sick)

Okay that's it for the longest blog post ever.  If you made it through, I LOVE YOU.

I'm going RAOK

Today I was reading a blog about a lady who did 38 random acts of kindness for her 38th birthday.   What a stud right?? you can read about it here

http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?p=1358

Anyways, fast forward a couple hours and I found myself getting things ready for the tomorrow and realizing that we had no milk.  I personally don't care much for cow juice....BUT Chase doesn't know what to do with himself if he doesn't have cold cereal available for breakfast.  So I found enough kindness in my heart to make a quick run to the grocery store.

While in the checkout line at the grocery store the gift cards started staring me down.  After a quick evaluation of whether I should spend Christmas decor money on a gift card for a stranger or on things to make my house beautiful I decided it was a no brain er and purchased a gift card without taking a moment to look back. (Everyone knows how impulsive I can be)

I quickly left the store wondering what I should now do with the newly purchased gift card and decided to leave it on a car.  

I went RAOK!!!

I decided that I should start trying to do a RAOK everyday.  I have tried this before and the results are always excellent.  I truly am the one who has benefited the most.

I really recommend that you try too!!! pay it forward, perform a random act of kindness, make someones day!

That's all:)

My hair is redpurple

So yesterday was my birthday party day.  My birthday party was canceled but I am not one to let something like that keep me from acting like its my birthday.

SO I convinced Chase that this clearly meant that I should purchase a new shirt.

while shopping with my friend Kelsie I found myself super attracted to the color red.  (I guess I was feeling powerful)   I am usually a neutral tones kind of girl but yesterday....I LOVED me some red.

where did this day take me?

to target in the hair coloring isle.  As I was earlier I found myself very attracted to the color red.  Not bright red, but dark auburn.

I did not take into account that my hair was currently half honey blond.... and this is what happened

oops

This picture does not even begin to do my rock star hair justice. 

I will be going back to beautiful brown tomorrow.  redpurple hair does not suit me well

Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl and they loved each other very much

The boy was quite the catch.  He had a kind heart, serious ambition, and the kind of integrity that you don't often find.  

The girl loved this boy with all of her heart.  How in the world did she get so freaken lucky?  After a year of marriage she would still daydream about her French speaking med student, his big old heart, and his rock hard abs...  

One evening after the girl was almost asleep the boy came in the bedroom and said

"You're on my side of the bed"

the girl said

"I am barely on your side cool your jets"

The boy left the room and came back with a measuring tape the girl said

"for reals you are measuring the bed?"

the boy said

"yes...I love you"

The girl moved to the ground and fell asleep, when she woke up the boy was right next to her on the floor.  Good thing they had a new terribly comfortable bed to sleep on just a few feet away... The girl said to the boy

"You slept on the floor with me."

The boy said

"yeah, I missed you"

and they are still living happily ever after.

The End

Marriage is hard, but oh so good

After almost 15 months  of blissful marriage I feel like I still don't know much about it.  Maybe someday that will change?

 The other day after a manboy at school told me

 "Liz, you don't need to look good anymore you're off the market"
 and I told him
"I do need to look good if I want to stay off the market"

I got to thinking...what do I need to do to not just stay off the market but have a happy, fulfilling, uplifting, progressive marriage? And what have I learned about it all so far?

I turned to my teacher who is recently divorced (looking back this might have been rude and probably made him feel awkward) and asked what his advice was for someone who was looking to stay married.

He said what a lot of people will tell you.
"Always work on communication"

SO I started thinking.  There was a time in my life when I considered myself a HORRIBLE communicator.  After that there was a time in my life when I thought I was a rock star when it came to communication.   This short period of time came after the realization that God wants all his sons and daughters to communicate with each other if he wants us to communicate with him.
CURRENTLY I consider myself a work in progress.  Turns out when you're upset communication is hard.  Chase and I don't even yell or anything when we're upset.  It is just so hard to not come up with a reason (even if its just in my head) why Chases point even if it is a good point...may not be the best point (the best point of view being my own of course).

 Do you think it is easy to have good communication if you will not completely open up your heart to what your spouse is saying and feeling?  I am here to tell you that it is not easy, and maybe not even possible.

Communication even when you are not upset still takes effort.  I have learned though that the effort that it takes is completely worth it.

I have also learned that it is so  important to be easy to love.

Don't get confused here...Chase loves me even when I am being difficult.  The fact that he proposed to me is evidence of that.  BUT I have found that when Chase does the dishes after dinner, organizes closets, vacuums, shaves his face, etc is it much much easier to love him.

SO after reading proper feeding of husbands and some intense trial and error I figured out that when I choose to be happy and make sure Chase knows it, bust out the pots and pans and actually cook and meal, keep my crazy inside, and pack a lunch for him now and then Chase returns the favor and does double the amount of nice things for me that I did for him.

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL PROCESS.

Finally it is important to keep an eternal perspective.  (just in general for life really)

The other day I was distraught because I wanted to go bungee jumping this weekend and it didn't work out. At the same time Chase was distraught because he felt like school was punching him in the throat over and over and over again (don't worry Chase is managing to do well in all of his classes).  In the middle of our pity party Chase looked and me and said.

"Liz, why are we so upset? we have so many blessings...we are in a situation that very very few people are in.  We have so many things going for us right now and both of these things do not affect us at all even a little bit in the long run."

Holy guacamole I love this man.

     The End.

Today I was "that" lady

First of all last night was rough.  I have developed a sore throat over the last few days and last night...HOLY COW.  I felt all sorts of sick.  unfortunately however I had a test today at school and was not about to miss it so this morning I pretended I didn't feel sick, took a shower, reviewed...kind of, and dragged my butt to school.

AFTER I took the test (I felt SO nervous about it, but did get an 87%)  I got in the car to drive home and could not pretend that I felt fine one moment longer. I barely arrived home in safety,  walked in the door and immediately changed into my pajamas.  

After a short period of time spent lying on the coach praying Chase would show up with some ice in hand, (I am convinced that ice cream can in fact cure sickness) I realized that I was being very unrealistic and needed to step up, take the bull by the horns, and take care of myself.

SO after looking in my fridge and pantry a few times and realizing that we had nothing that I desired (ie ice cream, hot chocolate, Delicious sugar cereal, herbal tea, orange juice) I decided that I would go to the store.  I also decided that there was no way that I was changing out of my flannel winter PJs....and so, that is how I became "that" lady.

I did in fact get some looks at the store but I am not sure if it was because I live in AZ and it was somewhere near 100 degrees outside and I was in flannel PJs or if was because I had a basket with cinnamon toasters, OJ, tea, hot chocolate, and other sugary things.

And that is how I I became that lady

The End

What drives me crazy

First of all I have NEVER liked running late.  I feel like I am running late if I don't arrive ten minutes early.  I basically go into a wild frenzy and start running around like a chicken with my head cut off when behind schedule.  

and that is exactly what happened on Saturday.  

Every week we split a bountiful basket with our good friends the Warcups.  I pick it up every Saturday morning usually around 7am.  This is never a problem because I wake up around 6:15, 6:30.  BUT this Saturday I found myself rolling out of bed at 7:15.  Chase looked at me and asked "what time are you going to get the bountiful basket" 

And that's when I went into panic mode.  I proceeded to throw on any and every item of clothing I could find told Chase he had to drive me (I am blind without contacts and decided I didn't have time to put them in...) and called Mrs Kelsie Warcup.  

why did I call her? 

no idea

this is how our conversation went

Me- "Kelsie I just woke up and maybe you can go to the school to pick up the basket you live a lot closer but actually Chase and I are leaving right now to get it and we will get it because I will call and have someone wait if they are willing for a couple minutes sorry if I woke you up you can go back to sleep " (all in one breath)

Kelsie- in a very tired voice "what? okay, thanks Liz"

So I arrived at the elementary school to pick up our basket and finally looked down at what I was wearing.  I had on a backwards inside out shirt, Chase's corduroy shorts, mismatched shoes, and my hair was in a crazy messy ballerina bun that had been slept on. 

The ladies who were waiting for me took one look at me, burst into laughter, and instantly forgave me.  THANK GOODNESS!

the end