For Good Family . . .

So today has been one of those days that Phil Vassar would call "Just Another Day in Paradise." (Yup, milk sour on cheerios does NOT taste good, falling down on ice is no fun, and cold rain is also no fun but it has been a GOOD day! :) ) So also amid this great stuff is a little stress over a Monday anatomy test, a statistics assignment due Monday and a Nutrition paper due Monday . . .with just the weekend to make sure everything is all done and together. . . so amidst this stress I figured I would start my appreciation to my "For Good" people officially to relax for a few minutes and be grateful! :)
My family! (DUH! And they are not going anywhere ever!) And I think I can include them as "For Good" people even though they have been in my life all of theirs or all of mine . . .

My mom:
It is really hard for me to express how grateful I am for my mom and I am sure ALL of you feel this way, I mean she is my MOM! She has always taught me who I am and to love who I am and to strive for my best and be what I love! She has always been there for me - even when I may not have wanted her to be. She shares the knowledge she has with me freely and NEVER hesitates to say she loves me. She is happy and kind and has always done good. Ugh! I wish I could put it all in writing but know I can't! I love her! :) (p.s. she just called me when I was about to breakdown.)

My Dad:
My dad has always tried to his best to make me my best. I often get upset with critiques from him and I think it's because he's right. I remember as a kid getting to go on Daddy Daughter dates and loving every minute. He is tough but so fun! He is always willing to do anything for me and loves building things like his many projects. I am trying to learn from his make a goal - accomplish it! way of life. He is so good with his hands and like my mom is definitely a spiritual giant! They know so much and I love that they will teach me anything! :) I love him! :)

Cody:
Oh my big brother! Cody has always been there for me - from the time he cut my pony tail off to when we danced around with underwear on our heads to now. He shares his struggles with me and I share mine with him and together we work it out and feel better. He never hesitates to ask for help and I have learned that it's ok to do so now. He is an amazing individual and I love him lots! :)
Shayna:
:) That's all I feel is adequate . . . well maybe a bigger smile would be but still. She is so wonderful! She has so many talents and is willing to share them. She is always there to talk to and I LOVE our late night talks when I go home or even the few we have on the phone. She is strong, she is beautiful, she is smart, and she is not willing to let herself think anything else and I love it and I love her! :)
Adam:
Oh boy, Adam . . . he is hilarious! I love this kid! Who else tells his sister on the phone that he wanted to raise his hand in class and ask, "Who in here thinks I am hotter than hot chocolate?" He just teaches me to love and be patient and that arguing can be fun. Haha, life without him would be VERY incomplete! Adam I love you!

Amberly:
The beautiful baby of the family! She is so sweet. She is the one that I laugh with a lot . . . I have some very random videos of us playing with our food . . . it's a great pastime especially when the other person has a laugh like hers! She is beautiful and loves life. I love her!

(I feel bad I don't have individual pictures of everyone with me)

Man . . . aren't I blessed? And guess what . . . the best part is that we are FOREVER!

Those "For Good" People

I want to see the Broadway play Wicked so bad! Probably because I have heard and LOVE the music. One song in particular really stands out to me. It is called For Good and some of the lyrics and the song from youtube are posted below. As I look over my life, I see many, many, many of those people (a lot of them are still right by my side :) ) So I am going to pay tribute to them in my next few blog posts if possible! :) Thanks for being so great to you all! :)

For Good -Wicked
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter anymore

Who can say if I've been
Changed for the better?
I do believe I have been
Changed for the better

And because I knew you...
Because I knew you...
Because I knew you...
I have been changed for good...

Quick Update and THANKS

So sorry an update has been absent for so long, I just didn't know what to write. First off though I want to "thank you, thank you, thank you!" to my dear co-workers Bethany and Katie! For just being so amazing and then you know there is that other little thing like taking all my shifts the week after Christmas for me . . . and you see this was needed because the day after Christmas (yes the holiday and my 20th birthday) I met with a surgeon and lost some of my parts. Losing these parts was not much of a disappointment to me as my gallbladder (which really I would have liked to die with everything God gave me still in my body but) was causing me all sorts of awful pain for the past few years and so gladly . . . Asta La vista! (spelled right? Who knows?) And then I guess when they send you in for a laparocystectomy they explore a little and thankfully they found something else that needed to come out. Yup! Suprise! There was a ovarian cyst on my fallopian tube - there was nothing wrong other than that- and they removed it. Yup. Woke up in pain and just got better later! :D I was really grateful for everyone involved in the surgery because they were way cool, caring, and great.

Oh! Christmas was amazing as was New Years although I didn't see much of my extended family sadly, getting snowed in is such a wonderful thing . . . . just a little sarcasm there. But I love Christmas and I got to spend time with my family and it was just so much fun and so worth it all! I hope you all had a great Holiday Season and wish you all the best in 2009!

(At the moment I have no pictures to share of me and my family. . . . but this is disney and I love disney so here is one . . . ok a few)

My Family

This is my family! The people that taught me most everything I know. They're so great! I love them!

This picture was taken by my cousin Heather Hay and edited by Shayna and loved by me!

Thanksgiving Where Dreams Come True: More of the Story

No! I wasn't going to stop there! There were still a whole bunch more days and parks to visit! :D As I said we ate Thanksgiving dinner in EPCOT and afterward watched the show "Illuminations." It is music, pyrotechnics, fireworks, and lasers! GORGEOUS and AWESOME! :D It blows my mind away the things that were happening in this place! :D I often found myself thinking, "I can't believe I am really here!" So cool. So fun!

This was at dinner! The flowers were in our roll bowl.

Saturday morning we spent time at Hollywood Studios. We did the Star Wars ride for my little brother and that made me a little off no illnesses or anything . . . and different than the Everest at Animal Kingdom made me feel which was very weird through the back of the head and neck. Yeah. After that we went through Hollywood video history ride and then found Prince Caspian! He happened to be the only Prince around (we later found Aladdin) and he was quite charming. They did very very well with him. He was friendly and the accent was done well and he was just fun to visit with! :D Then we went to an Extreme Stunt show where they ruined some of Hollywood's coolest secrets from action movies . . . but while ruining it, it was pretty darn cool. My mom and Amberly didn't go to that and when we got out we found that they had won fast past tickets to all the rides for anytime while standing in line for Mickey. We didn't really want to spend much more time in Hollywood Studios so we gave them away after they used the ones they wanted to (Little Mermaid). They won because it is the year of a Million Dreams down there in Florida, which is really cool. (I hope all that makes sense.)

We had spent Friday afternoon in Magic Kingdom and then spent the night in EPCOT where we went to Finding Nemo . . . Turtle Talk with Crush was amazingly fun! :D We went back to Magic Kingdom Saturday night for the parade and fireworks as well as Story time with Belle and the Disney Dreams Come True show. I love Walt Disney World, can I just say that? Walt Disney truly was an inspired man.
This is my sister Shayna and I gazing up at Cinderella's castle at nighttime! :D And below is the castle in the day time!
While looking at these pictures and writing the stories I am a little mixed up and confusing I am sure . . . and I still have MORE pictures and stories . . . when I can get a hold of them, you best be ready! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving and break however you spent it. I hope all of us got to see our family and friends because that is really what makes the best memories, I know for me that's what made mine! :D

Oh! And on the plane ride home the sky was so beautiful! We took off at sunset and then flew between two layers of clouds for a while. So gorgeous to see the clouds below soft and blanket like and then the ones above just like the sky up close! Right before we landed the moon was shining on the clouds below and it was breathtaking . . . I guess when I think about it, that made the 4 hour plane ride worth it (I don't know why the 4 hours was so hard . . . I have been on longer ones but that plane ride was killer!)

Anyway stay tuned for more . . . and everyone ENJOY THIS TIME OF YEAR and make the most of it!

Thanksgiving Where Dreams Come True

So this year the day before Thanksgiving was my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary and my grandpa decided that he wanted to spend it with his family in the most magical place on Earth . . . Walt Disney World, so he took us. The picture above is of them in our Norway banquet hall in EPCOT for Thanksgiving dinner. We took a lot of pictures, but I don't have access to them now as they are at home. So here is a few that I have and some of my experiences, no memories that go with them (perhaps more will be surfacing throughout the next few months. We'll see). :D

Our first full day was spent in Animal Kingdom . . . this was Thursday and Thanksgiving! We hit the Kilimanjaro Safari and Everest! :D So So So much fun! We also walked around the park and saw the animals they had there. We were accompanied by my aunt Heather, Uncle Roy, and their girls Chantel, Hailey, Raquel, and Cherakie! Loved spending the day with them. When we hopped in line for Everest we ended up running into my Aunt Lita and Uncle Kent and some of their posse, Victor, Olivia, and MariAmanda! On the Safari we got to see all sorts of animals and our guide was quite entertaining. We saw a giraffe, lions, monkeys, elephants, crocodiles, hippos, rhinos like the one in the picture below, and many many more. We also were involved in traffic due to the ostrich that decided to walk down the road in front of our jeep!

One of the many endangered White Rhinos we saw . . . my sister did not zoom in to get this picture as we drove by!
And this is me on the Safari just sittin' in the jeep! :D
After the Safari we hit Everest Expedition! This is a HUGE rollercoaster that goes up AND down the large mountain you can see behind us. I don't know who builds these things but they are sweet! It went backwards, forwards, up, DOWN and I mean really down. The pictures taken in the tunnel were hilarious! It had dark tunnels and a Yeti. So much fun!


This was actually taken the second time we went to Animal Kingdom (which was Friday because we had missing Bug's Life ride the day before) . . . with a last name like ours how could we not take the opportunity to get a picture with Ratcliffe?

This is the Bug's Life which we returned to Animal Kingdom to experience . . .well you can't see it because it is inside this big tree. The ride is like the one in Disneyland so some of you may have experienced it with acid spraying you, bugs exploding before your eyes, and getting stung by hornets. The sensations we sweet, at the end you could even feel the bugs crawling under your seat to leave the room. YUCK!

The second day we also hit The Festival of the Lion King which while on our way to we ran into Flik and when line is not long . . . you take a picture so we did! :D

Falling Behind and my weekend at Far Far Away

So I have fallen way super far behind on this here blog! Oops . . . it's kind of like my journal and one day I end up catching up on two weeks of things! Bad deal. So I am going to post a few today and probably pictures upon pictures for everyone to see.

Saturday November 15th my best friend Stephanie was baptized! It was such a good day and we were all so happy including her. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and know it's true and brings blessings and so there is a lot of happiness and joy for me to see her find the truth as well! :D That weekend I was able to visit with friends and family who all came to Far Far Away (which is what my family decided to name our home).

This is Stephanie and I on our way to the baptism! :D

Sunday my mom's side came out for dinner and I loved it! I truly have the best family and I am sure others would disagree but I don't think that there is a better one out there. All my cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, mom and dad are the BEST and I love them all! :D

So overall that weekend was amazing. Then I headed back to Logan to school for a week and two days and then THANKSGIVING WAS HERE! See blog above! :D

The gang of friends at Far Far Away!

My Stephanie, Stephanie, Noah, and I out at Far Far Away a.k.a. home!