Thought for today

"Whatever you focus on expands whether it be positive or negative"

Let's try to focus on the positive today :)

Biggest Reason why i love Biggest Loser

So i don't think many people quite understand why I have this HUGE love for the Biggest Loser. It's actually kind of pathetic. I can't NOT watch it. It's kind of addicting and i'm pretty sure it's for a different reason than most TV shows. If you've ever seen the Biggest Loser and not cried...then you weren't really watching. Not only is this show helping people to change themselves for the better, but it is probably one of the most inspiring things i've EVER watched. That may sound a little stupid considering it's a TV show about overweight people learning how to exercise, but it's SO TRUE.

(IF you haven't watched biggest loser yet this week, and you really care about the results you probably shouldn't read the rest until you watch it)

For example:
This season on the Biggest Loser there's a woman named Abby. Abby is a woman in her 40s who came in weighing about 250 pounds. 2 years previous to being on the show, her husband, daughter, and 2 week old son were all killed in a car accident. Now i don't know about you, but if this happened to me I would be a complete mess, and when Abby first came on the show she was a little bit. But as weeks went on you began to see how amazing this woman is...Not once did she stop working out because she was too depressed to do that, and NOT once did she sit there trying to feel sorry for herself. She took this terrible thing that happened and turned it into a reason TO live...not a reason to be sad. Then, when her team had lost the weigh in she told everyone to vote her out because she had discovered her purpose and realized that she didn't have to use food to be happy. She could be happy because she has been given the chance to help others. If that's not inspirational then i don't know what is. I think we should all take a little of Abby's advice and turn the bad in our lives into something good, a reason to help other people. Because even if something terrible happens, there's a reason for it. And if she can keep going when everyone she loved died...then we sure as heck can keep on going when bad things happen to us.

and that is why i love Biggest Loser.
If nothing else...it gives me a little inspiration for the week.

FACT:

Fact: School is SO Much easier when you are actually studying something you ENJOY
Fact: Being home alone for days at a time is not fun
Fact: Being sick WHILE being home alone for days at a time is even more not fun
Fact: Nyquil tastes Disgusting
Fact: Learning about how families work is So interesting i could do it all day
Fact: There are A LOT of spiders around here
Fact: I HATE spiders
Fact: The walls in my apartment are really thin
Fact: I enjoy hanging out with boys more than i enjoy hanging out with girls. and not just because i'm a girl and i like boys...but because i don't enjoy the drama that girls bring with them.
Fact: I DO however love my noteworthy girls, and could spend countless hours with them without getting bored
Fact: I tried 5 Guys hamburgers - don't tell in-n-out - but i think they might be better
Fact: I love online tv shows. I'm addicted
Fact: I got my first A on a test in the testing center today...sad that that was my first A in there...but it was a happy day.
Fact: I am not excited for the cold that is coming in the near future.
Fact: My internet isn't the greatest and really annoys me most of the time
Fact: I can't think of any more facts...so that is all for now.

You learn the most about yourself when you're sitting at home doing absolutely nothing.

I'm sure you've all realized this...that when you sit at home by yourself for too long, you start to think a little TOO much. You start to think about everything that's going wrong, things that need to be getting done that you AREN'T doing, reasons why everyone else seems to be busy while you sit there bored out of your mind. And you start to wonder...why am i alone? And then, most of the time, those thoughts start to take over you...and you end up getting depressed about something or other, or maybe about nothing at all.

So you try to keep yourself busy - cleaning everything in sight, wasting away on faceook, farmtown, blogger, or whatever you can find. But eventually there is nothing more to clean, no status updates to read, or pictures to tag. So now what? What do you think about when you have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do? Well I'll admit. I'm usually one to do as most people do - sit there and think about how pathetic I am.

I only go to school Tuesdays and Thursdays so that i can work on Mondays and Wednesdays. My work was closed this week so I've had a few days where i haven't really had anything to do. Most days like this i just try to keep busy by sitting around on Facebook and turning on some Missy Higgins. But today was something different...I thought to myself, what good am i doing just sitting here like a bum when i could be doing something productive? The answer is obvious...I'm not doing ANY good.

So today I decided that while i had nothing i HAD to do...there were plenty of things that i COULD do. So i cleaned my entire apartment, looked up some conference talks just to get a little spiritual uplifting, went through my e-mail and sorted everything out, and then did a little studying. And even though none of things things are necessarily making the world a better place, they all helped to make it so that when i DO have tons to do...my life will be that much easier. And more importantly than that...i feel great. I feel like even though i haven't stepped out of the house today, i have accomplished something. I think I'm starting to realize that sometimes doing absolutely nothing is more tiring then getting up and doing little things around the house.

So next time you are going to have a "relaxing" day. Don't just sit around doing nothing. Because even though we think this is going to make us feel better. It will most likely lead to depressing thoughts and make you feel like you did nothing productive. Let's all try and do at least a little something everyday that will help to make us feel better about ourselves and that will help to make those busy days a little less stressful.

Those are my thoughts of today.
<3


"You need to know that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of Christ."
-Barbara Thompson

Well...Time to Update.

So i don't really have anything exciting to report, but i figured since i don't have too much going on today i should at least blog a little something. :)

Everything is still great here in Provo.
I keeping busy with Noteworthy rehearsals which we now have 12 hours a week. It's gotten to the point where we all can't handle being apart for more than a day. We are pretty much together every spare moment we all have. It's great. We have some exciting things coming up in the future. You should all be really excited! I know i am.

School is...well school.
I love my Family Processes class
i'm learning SO much...but i've started getting to the point where i analyze people A LOT.
it's probably rather annoying, but i think it's so interesting to dig into people's lives and to see why they are the way they are.
It really makes you think. You really have NO idea what people have been through and so we all have no place to judge. Even though someone could be a jerk to you it could just be that they can't help it. Things in their life have been hard and that's all they know. It puts things into perspective and makes it a lot easier for me to be able to see things as other people see them.

However, it has also made me think a lot about my future family. I've been trying really hard to start changing negative things about myself so that i don't do things that could potentially negatively affect my children. It's really weird thinking that i will in the next few years probably be raising another person. I'm not too worried though. I think as long as i focus my life around the gospel then it will be just fine :)

Also something great that my professor talked about the other day was revelation. He was talking about how we all need to be in tune with the spirit for personal revelation as well as for revelation about our children and such. And something that really struck me was a quote by President Hinckley i believe:

"We cannot afford to do anything that could put a curtain between us and the ministering of angels in our behalf"

He then proceeded to talk about some TV shows that we could all do without. Nothing i watched was on that list, but i can certainly think of a few that i watch that aren't the most wholesome shows. It really is true though that all of these little things that really "aren't that bad" can get in the way of personal revelation. I think I personally will start to be a little more careful about what I spend my time doing. Because really, God wants to help us, he wants to be able to help us know what to do, but when we are spending all of our time focused on other things, we can't hear what he has to say.

Oh and i just realized...i haven't ever blogged about Natalie's wedding. I drove down to sacramento the other weekend with some people from BYU-I to go to Natalie's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and even though i was only home for about 48 hours it was still great to see everyone. She was married in the Sacramento temple. It's so crazy to think that one of my best friends is married now. I remember talking about these kinds of things in high school and it seeming so far off, but it was really right around the corner.
I got to hang out with my family a little bit, got to see some old friends, and just had some good ol california sunshine. I really do love being home and i love that most of the time it's like i never left. :)

Anyway that turned into a way longer post than i thought it would haha. Sorry about that. Here are some pictures and such to make it a little more exciting :)