Weekend Plans

I'm thrilled beyond words to have the opportunity of spending this weekend with my older sister & her husband, along with my little niece Skye who is getting blessed on Saturday. She is truly such a cute little girl who has brought JOY into our lives since I first met her and I am so grateful to have her in my life now!!! It was definitely a tough transition for me to get used to being around an infant since we haven't had any of them around for twenty five years... but she is so adorable and I love her more than words could ever say. It will be such a wonderful experience to be with family and getting the chance to celebrate such a sweet spirit that I am anxious to hold in my arms again, when that time comes around!!



We are definitely going to have so much fun seeing my niece Skye again & spending as much time with her as we can, because one year later--We will turn around, she will be a one year old girl!!! She is truly the closest thing to heaven and I cannot wait to love her unconditionally... It is so great to be an auntie as weird as I feel admitting that sometimes. I really do love being an auntie to the cutest little niece ever and honestly just knowing she is finally here, almost seems surreal when I think about how fast time went by before she came to this earth. I am grateful for the many chances that we will get to have loving my nieces/nephews unconditionally one day... but until then, I cannot wait to watch them all grow up into remarkable young people. They are going to be spoiled with lots of kisses and hugs from not only me, but everyone else around them as well, if that makes any sense to you at all???

Summer Events (Part One)

- Family Vacation to Mexico for an entire week and just being in paradise, I am most certain will be an amazing experience for all of us!!! I cannot wait to spend more time with my little niece Skye and seeing her enjoying what I hope will be a successful outcome for everyone. I have never been to this country before in my life and can only hope for the awesome memories, that I know we will make throughout that vacation together as a family. 

- Continuing to do more presentations about Supported Decision Making to professionals, advocates like myself and others who want to learn more about this concept aside from Guardianship being one of the options to give an individual that somebody doesn't necessarily think, they can make their own life choices. I am grateful to be a part of this amazing Advocates As Leaders Speakers Network with some of the best people ever and their examples to me of what it means to be a true advocate, is just simply incredible in more ways than one. There is truly nothing better in this world than getting the opportunity to educate people on things that are important to me and many others in this world. It is gonna be a legitimate summer and I cannot wait to share my message of hope with them across this state. 

- Self Advocates Becoming Empowered Conference

Two Weeks Away from being at this incredible disability conference in the city of Birmingham, Alabama and cannot wait to be a part of something much bigger than myself. I know that having opportunities as a leader/self advocate are only going to continue to open up, experiences for me where I can learn new things about improving on my self advocacy skills. I am grateful to have a chance of learning from remarkable individuals who wouldn't otherwise have their voices heard-- regardless in whatever their situation is. 

- Special Friend Together

More about this later on at some point down the road... but one of my closest friends is returning back from their mission and I cannot wait to reunite with them again!! There is only so much I would love to share with you all of right now, but it will most likely need to wait for a couple more weeks. I have so many stories and experiences that I know are gonna be remember for the rest of eternity, if it does make any sense to you at all?? We are going to be thrilled to have our best friend home for good and I promise you there will be a lot of laughs to share with four of the craziest girls I know in this world!!!

Memorable Moments

This last week of school was definitely an incredible and rewarding experience for me. I was able to help in assisting both of my third grade teachers in cleaning up their classrooms for the summer and believe me, it was such a pleasure to make this last week a little bit easier on them. I really liked just being a helping hand in some way and doing whatever they asked me to do, even if it meant taking down all of their decorations that were up all year long to be thrown away. I have helped a couple of teachers at the school clean out their rooms and it is always such a hectic time, to get so many things done in a very specific manner...but it was so incredibly worth every minute. I'm not necessarily like going to sit here all day long and write out everything that they needed me to do for them, but I will say that I felt so grateful to have been a part of their school year. It was amazing to have their kiddos help me out with taking stuff down that would no longer be there and really just excited to be doing something other than sitting around watching a movie in class. There were moments when I'd be in the classroom by myself and having some quiet time to focus on what the teacher asked me to do, I also had to remember to keep people from coming inside when they were not present. Luckily, I did not have anyone come up to me in the classroom while I was in there working on stuff that needed to be done.

The following days were filled with continuing to take down more decorations inside of the class & putting away each of the students chrome book computers back in their respective places. It was so fun for me to do it several groups at a time, and not have so many kids coming up to me with their computer to have cleaned inside & outside, but keeping all of them in class order. I really like just being able to keep things clean and where they belong so that the next time, we would need them-- they are exactly where it needs to be. I absolutely loved watching my third graders have fun with activities they had going on throughout this week and played a lot of games, to keep them busy so there wasn't anyone that needed something. Almost everything else got finished by Wednesday and felt so great that I was able to accomplish so many things, in a short period of time!!! But I'd totally love to do it all over again if there was any possibility of that happening at some point, but we will have to be patient and see what next year has in store for us.

Thursday Morning:

Luckily, my third grade students had field day in the morning so that I could keep working on all of the many things I needed to get done for them. It was really quite nice to not have any kiddos back inside the classroom and just having almost two hours to focus on other things, was such a relief for me. I was able to get all of the words removed from the wall and put into individual piles, with not having any idea if they needed to get put somewhere else. I also removed some more things off the walls and set them gently down on things that I easily thought needed to be there. I did get a chance with getting to neatly organize many of the papers/worksheets that were left laying around all over the place, which I would have kept doing till the end of the week-- but obviously it must not have been necessary of me to continue working on. It was definitely a relaxing time for me to get all of those things done that needed to be taken care of, which I could have easily continued to do for this teacher but they mentioned they would try to get as much of that cleaned out later that day.

Highlights From This Week:

- Got a banana, chips ahoy cookies, and a Pepsi soda to take home with me for lunch on Wednesday afternoon after having worked so incredibly hard for a couple of hours!!!

- Got to spend my lunchtime hour with Miss B and visit with her... which was amazing!! It was so incredibly sweet of her to do that for me and I'm grateful to call her my friend. She ordered me an amazing sandwich from Jimmy Johns and loved every bite!!!

- Had some treats with my third graders outside for a little bit and enjoying as much time with them as I could possible before the days this week was over.


- Signed a lot of my third grade students yearbooks and getting some random kiddos, come up to me to sign theirs as well. It was so much fun getting involved with the excitement of what would be my final time of signing anymore yearbooks for kids the rest of the week.

Highlights

Getting to spend quality time with my older sister and little niece Skye all weekend, which I will admit was such a delight for me considering how nervous I felt about becoming an aunt for the 1st time ever. It was literally something that I can only hope will get better as the years go on and yet I have so many things to learn along the way. I am grateful for the memories that I was able to make this weekend more than anything else in the world, but having said that-- I can only hope for much more incredible times to come. 

We also went to sacrament meeting at my older sister's ward & got to listen to talks about Mothers-- as well as their influences in our lives, but leading back to the Savior who is the closest example of who they are to us everyday. It was also such a joy to listen to the primary kids sing songs to their moms and how much they love them-- which was absolutely incredible (even though back here in Provo we had the same program going on.) 

It was really fun and exciting to visit the well known popular must see attraction, The Mormon Battalion Museum right there in Old Town San Diego. We had a wonderful time getting to learn various things about those faithful pioneers who during a very tough time, were able to face their challenge of having to fight for what they believed in and yet if they stayed true to themselves-- it would be a very successful journey. 

Market Day

I absolutely loved getting to see my third grade students participate in their market day with selling various items that they had bought with their parents and seeing their excitement for it, was such an amazing sight to see. It was very thrilling for me to receive tickets from them in order to give out to people so they could purchase more stuff that they wanted to take home & yet it brought back many memories of my elementary school days. I remember doing market day while in school and wanting as many things as I could get to share with my family. It was probably none of those things where I don't necessarily recall the anticipation of going around to other classes and seeing what other kids had either bought or made to give away. I never really imagined it would ever come back to me as just only an experience that happens once a year, but getting to be a part of this one was such a cool opportunity for me. My third grade students really worked hard to make their mini shops really cute and super awesome all at the same time, which to me was quite impressive to see their creativity all come out into something like this really amazed me in more ways than one. I enjoyed holding those tickets in my hand & walking around to see what I wanted to purchase for myself, but also liking a chance to feel like a kid again. 

Thank you so much to all of the third grade students and teachers for letting me be a part of this special day with you guys. It was such an absolute delight getting to spend time with you all and making memories about my experiences when I was back in elementary school, which I will just admit was something that I'm going to cherish forever. 

Imagine

One of the most powerful and beautiful movies that I'd ever seen in my life, but at the same time it was able to remind me of how in spite of what someone has done wrong-- we can find room inside each of our hearts to forgive. I will never forget several years ago, when my older sister who was only thirteen years old performed this lyrical dance to this very song for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary celebration. My dad perfectly described this song title as imagining what it would be like to be near the Savior when we come or when we meet him, but having said that-- it was a completely different experience last night than I ever anticipated.


This movie talks about how the powerful song titled "I Can Only Imagine" came to what it is today and for me, I definitely couldn't help but want to know more about it's background. I'll never know or even let alone fathom the pains Bart Millard, who wrote this song went thru in his life to become the person he is today. I would have liked to have to done something to keep him away from his situation at home with this dad, and yet all I could do is just watch from an audience's perspective about what it means to really change ourselves for the better, regardless of what our struggles are. It is never too late for us to want to recognize God who is in the details of our lives and wants us to continue to be strong for him, despite how hard things can get for us on this earthly journey.



I know that Bart must have cried himself every night with the intention of just wanting to see a better day and yet it continued to weigh him down for so many years, growing up in a home where he didn't feel loved or wanted. Each of the emotions that came over me during this film was incredibly powerful and emotional, all at the same time. It was hard for me to watch this young kid go through so much extreme & difficult circumstances, when he could have easily just ran away from home in order to never put up with his dad's abusive behavior.


I really cried pretty good throughout this film, cause it was more than just any movie out there in this world--It motivated me to understand the important gripping reminder of forgiveness and seeing God change people, from this angry monster into the most godly person that Bart had ever met in his life. 



My message to all of you about this film is "Try to imagine your life in a perspective of how God would see you being and figuring out the ways we'd respond to anything that we are dealing with, to just simply never lose hope." I know it is always there for us to take hold of whenever we need it at any given moment and I am grateful for that knowledge in my own life, more than anything else. Take a look at this powerful music video and the tune of this song, is incredibly catchy and I've not been able to quit listening to the message behind it ;) 

MercyMe - I Can Only Imagine

Favorite Song

I am so grateful for the powerful influence that music has in our lives and the messages we hear in those lyrics can definitely make us reflect on the important things. I've always been a fan of Carrie Underwood for some time and listening to her beautiful voice as she sings, has really touched my heart in multiple ways than I could even put into words. Over these last few days, I have been just sitting at my computer and listening to her new song titled: Cry Pretty and just from paying close attention to the words in what she is conveying has left me almost in tears. It is a very emotionally raw anthem about how we let our emotions take over and try not holding them back from anybody else. I've certainly had my fair share of experiences with letting a person know, exactly how I feel about something on my mind and then stepping back to realize-- "It may not have been a good idea with having done that and immediately wanting to erase it out of my head. At the time, I was really upset in not having known what I needed to fix in order to not have made a complete fool of myself in anyway, shape, or form. I wanted them to know exactly what kind of pain and heartache they did not realize was a mistake. I have listened to this song a number of times & restarting it from the very beginning just to replay the chorus because of how catchy the tune of it is. The message in this song has really struck a chord with me, even though I've never had a physical incident happen to me in the last couple of months... but at the same time, there are so many things I have taken away from it. 

Sometimes I've had my emotions take over me in a situation and never prepared for what would come afterwards. It's definitely given me something to think about over and over again, regardless of what I know is most correct when dealing with any situation. I feel so much more at peace with myself from where I was before in just wanting to confront the person with emotional frustration, but then seeing the bigger picture right in front of me. 

In this powerful song written by the lovely Carrie Underwood, I have been able to show my truest self in front of people and not hiding away from that. I know what I am perfectly capable of being able to handle and focusing on this past year... I have learned so much more about who I am inside and outside in spite of anything else that it made me feel like. At any given moment, I would have wished to walk away from somebody who betrayed my trust in order to make themselves feel a lot better about who they are. 

All of us have emotional and painful scars that we wish could be disappeared in a second, but at the same time we all need to face life with courage in spite of what we are faced with. I am not certain if there isn't anything more we can do about them, expect try to be strong in the face of adversity & w/ keeping a smile on my face even if it's not the happiest time ever. Always remember who you are & not letting the downs of life tear you apart, because it might just leave you to want to cry pretty.