Elder Dallin Southwick

Today has been a difficult day for me emotionally. I am emotionally drained from this day. I think I have cried as much as I could cry today.

I never knew I would have such a difficult time with my next door neighbors son leaving for his mission to serve our heavenly father, but I feel so close to their family that I feel like their children are almost like family I have never had. I feel close to them, that I feel comfortable around them anytime I go over to their house.

I am sure going to miss dallin for two years, but I knw he is doing a great service for our church and for the future members of our church.

today I was having such a hard time that I did not want to go over to his house and play a song for him before he left on his mission, but I can say I am glad I did it before he left. the spirit there was so strong, that I got very emotional before the song.

below are two pictures of dallin (Elder Southwick) I have to get use to that for at least two years, oh man that is so weird to finally be saying that!! so I played a song for him and his entire family and they all said that I left them with a peaceful feeling.....the song I played was gracie's theme.

Gracie's Theme By Paul Cardall

It's been a long time

I know it's been a while since I have updates my blog, I promise to get better about updating at least once a month.

there have been a lot of things that we have done in the past few months, since my birthday.

Things we have done are:

in October, or like the end of september, we went to the pumpkin patch by our house, and picked out a few pumpkins for us to carve along with our friend, and her two little kids. it was a lot of fun.

we had halloween, and there really weren't that many trick-or-treaters this year, and they came a lot later than last year. so we ended a little early for the evening since I had to be up by 5:30 for work.

we have also had a few movie nights in there, with family, and that has been fun.

and today, we are currently tracking down mice in our house. we found out recently that some of our food had holes in it, and have since caught two of them, although I am sure there is more mice downstairs in the basement.

so with the mice problem we have been having, it reminds me of this video:

http://youtu.be/-L6UWk6-Hg8

this video is funny, just keep watching. there is one mouse that we can't seem to get, but he gets all the cranberries off the trap without being hit. maybe we already got him, who knows? we will never know how many mice we have, but we are prepared for as many as we might get.

Have a great day. oh and a little later photos and videos will be added to this post.

My Birthday Party

I just have to add today that yesterday was such a fun day, I sure did enjoy myself. I got some pretty fun stuff that I will be able to use now. I got some new address lables that are cupcake lables, my winnie the pooh lables are getting pretty old, and I am getting tired of them. so I am excited to use my new ones. I also got some cupcake checks :)

another thing I got was a cute cupcake piggy bank from my mom, which I love, it is so cute! and then I got some clothes, and a cute cupcake wallet.

and in the end of the night after we went golfing at mulligans, there was another surprise for me. my aunt created a scavenger hunt for me, which was so fun, and out of the clue she created I had to lead them to the different locations, and in a few of the clues were numbers that led to where the lext clue was, and I had to put those numbers in order, and I found that one clue was at my aunts house, and the other eventually ended up being at my house.

then I had to answer a question before I could see where the surprise was, and everyone took me down in the basement, and led me to the exercise room, and there sat a recumbant bike that I could sit and ride on and exercise on. I was so surprised, I had no idea what to expect.

so then I tried it out, and I loved it! it is perfect for me! it is just what I need! it is so quiet that no one would ever know I was down in the basement unless they actually walked down there themselves.

I have quite a few pictures to upload from yesterday, some my mom took, and some are on my phone. as soon as I gather all of those I will add them to this post. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend :)

coming a long ways.....

in a year, I really feel like I have come a long way in so many ways, one way is that we recently found out some fantastic news about my shunt, and what a blessing that is to my mom and I today. I am truely greatful for that. I am greatful for the wonderful doctors we have been able to meet that are now in our lives to explain things the way we understand them. I really could not have come this far without my mom's support and without the support of my aunt, and most of all the support of my counselor, who has always, like my family believed I could do anything and has never given up on me. today I reached one of my greatest goals of all time, one I have been working on for almost 1 year, and I finally passed today!!! I passed the written test for my learners permit, and I received an 80% on it which is what I needed to pass!! after today, I know now I really can do anything, and no one is going to hold me back, I just have to keep believeing in myself that I can do it and then I just have to make it happen. I am really excited for my new adventures that will come with driving and being independent, now I just need to complete the driving instruction, then I can get my license.....one more step to go and I am there!!!

Miracles DO Happen........

so after today I really do believe I am a true miracle living. I have really refied all odds since birth with all that I have been through, and I feel so blessed to be here today. today my mom and I met with a new adult neurosergeon for me to check on the status of my Shunt, and he said that it has not been working for what looks like about 8 years. and so I have this tubing in my head just sitting there doing nothing. the fluid on my brain is like everyone elses, and the cyst at the stwm of my brain has not even grown in size at all. it is still very small. we saw pictures of my brain today, and my brain is formed a little differently than most peoples out there, but that is because of the cyst, and that too is a true miracle. when I was born my mom and dad were told I would be nothing but a vegetable in a wheel chair, and I feel so blessed to be where I am today. I have a job, and have been able to attend college, and learn like everyone else out there. I am so greatful for the amazing news we received today, and hope to have many more wonderful "normal" years in my life. if this is what normal realy feels like. I feel like I am begining a whole new chapter in my life. a lot was learned today, and I met a new wonderful doctor that I hope to have for the rest of my life until he retires. he truely cares about his patients. I am a true miracle....and I believe that after today.

Hydrocephalus Walk/ Donation

I just wanted to update everyone on what I just put on my blog. I recently registered to walk for the Hydrocephalus walk in September, and have to raise $1,500 by september 15th through various ways of donations. if you would be willing to help, any amount would be appreciated, even the smallest amount will help. just click on the link on my sidebar to donate and be directed to my personal hydrocephalus webpage. I will aos be holding a bake sale sometime down the road I am sure, before september gets here so I can raise money for this, if you would like to help out with this, or if you know of anyone who would like to sponsor this let me know. thank you for all of your support with this!

Conference Session One/ work stuff

so this past week on tuesday I was with my aunt and I told her that I know there is going to be somethng I need to hear in conference, and so far in the first session of conference all of the talks I have been able to take something out of each one of them for me. there have been some great talks this first session. today, I can't wait until the next session today.

so I have waited a few weeks to post this on my blog, and olny a few people know about this who are close to me, and if you are on facebook please do not write on my wall, just comment on here. I had my evaluation at work a few weeks ago, and I was told I would be getting the morning position on the phones monday through friday 7 to 4 and I will have the weekends off!! I am so excited!!!

I start this new schedule the week of my moms birthday, and I am beyond thrilled. I have wanted this position for a long time. I have waited for two years to get it and I finally have it!

enjoy the rest of your conference weekend :)

a picture worth sharing

I just had to share the story behind this picture, I wish you could have been there to see it for those of you who were not there to see it. the story was pretty darn funny. I have this book that I bought from seagull book and Tape and it came with 10 different little animals to use while reading the story. so today william's mother was showing him the dog, the snake, and the genea Pig, as well as a few other animals.

well when she would show him the pig and the dog he had this reaction and started almost crying, but then when e took them away and brought out the horse or the snake he would stop crying, it was pretty darn funny....next time I am over there I am going to get it on video, it was too cute not to see in person, he sure had my mom and I laughing.

so this was how I spent my day was with william and Ashley, and I had so much fun!

Gracie's Theme....once again :)

I know I have shared this video once or twice before on here, but I love this song. I have been listening to it lately...I love it so much. it has so much meaning to me. to me it represents all the wonderful people we have lost who have gone to the other side, who are having a wonderful reunion with one another...I love it!

I have especially been listning to it since the 8th a lot. my dear friend cassie passed away on the 8th 4 years ago this year, and that day is a day I will never forget, so i am dedicating this post to her this week especially. I love you cassie!



I just can't get enough of watching this video, I love it! and it brings chills to my spine every time. enjoy.

Things I have done in the last couple of days

so these last few days I feel like I have been able to get more done than I have in the last week. some of the things I have accomplished are

* reading my drivers ed book to chapter 5 - half way done only 5 more chapters to go!

* loaded the dish washer this morning!

* paid some medical bills this morning

* did a load of towels yesterday

* put away my laundry yesterday

* my room is a work in progress but it is getting there, and is almost back to where I want it.

and I will even have time for baking today which will be fun. I plan on either making cookies or some cupcakes. cupcakes sound better, since my throat is a little sore and cookies might scratch it more and be a little rough on it. this weekend has been great so far, I think I will go relax and watch a movie for a little while.

have a great weekend everyone!

people understanding health issues....

so today on a few separate ocasions I have told some people about my aunt and her current situation she is going through. and their reaction to my comments is not at all how I would expect someone to react with the kind of news I had given them.

I wish people understood health problems who have never had any, because they are serious, and some people just can act like some situations are nothing sometimes and to one person another persons reaction makes all the difference.

sometimes it is nice to talk to people who get what health issues are and understand what a person might be going through, and can relate in some sort of way wither it be in a similar way or a different way, but they still understand wat that person is going through.

there is one thing I know, it doesn't matter how other people react, it is how I take it and handle it and how I let it affect me. so I know the news of my aunt (wither it is good or not) I am not going to let other peoples reactions affect my attitude. I will just support my aunt the best I can, and be there for her when she may need me to be.

I hope that all the people who are healthy out there are thankful for what they have, because you don't realize what you have until it's gone.

well maybe I will write more later, for now I am just listening to my music and enjoying it. and when I get home and I going to study for my practice permit test which is 9 days away!!

have a great rest of your tuesday!!

Memories from the past....

yesterday my cousin came over tocelebrate my uncles birthday and after my aunt and unckle left he cleaned out one of my old computers, and we came across many old pictures, which brought back so many memories for me. I am going to share some of those pictures with you.

this could be a long post, but I hope you enjoy it. these three pictures below are of billy on different and separate ocasions. he is about 4 in these pictures.







the picture below is of me and my mom and my uncle mike with my great grandma Hamblin. she has since passed away, this was the first time I had ever met her. she was a sweet lady. and so cute.



The Picture below is of me and my friend nina at my fraduation party from High school in 2006. it is hard to believe I have been graduated from high school for 6 years already this year!!



well I could have more pictures to share tomorrow, I have some pretty cute pictures of my kitty I am going to share on here. she is pretty funny. I just can't believe all the cool pictures I have found. and there is still one more computer of mine to go through!

have a great president's day!!

I want some sleep.....

so at least a few nights during the week my cat will wake up and start meowing and be extremely obnoxious,and wake me up in the early morning hours of the day. and then I can't get back to sleep.

I have been seeing a counselor since september of last year,and this past week I told my counselor about my cat and what she has been doing lately. so she said well it sounds like she has separation anxiety, and I thought really??? a cat or any animal for that matter could have separation anxiety? so i looked up the symptoms and signs of separation anxiety in cats, and sure enough, my cat hsd pretty much every single one of them!!

so this past week I tried putting music in her room, well that worked for the first few days, now she is back to waking me up again in the middle of the night or very early in the morning, then I can never get back to sleep. the problem with all of this is that her room is on the same end of the house as mine is so I hear everything, and when she is loud it wakes me right up!

so what does this mean? well that is still to be determined...I let her sleep with me and she is still noisy, and so I am not sure of the solution. I guess I will have to talk with my counselor some more about a solution, perhaps she could give me some good advice!

and as for my sleep....well if my kitty will ever let me get a solid night sleep all the way through I will be happy!

Positive Thoughts

with all that has happened around us the last few days on the news I thought I would write something positive on here to uplift everyone, even myself. it is quite sad what has been happening in the world lately, and I wish that people were not so insensative to others.

somethings I have looked at to appreciate more in the last few days are the beautiful weather we have been having eventhough it is February, I am greatful for the nice weather we are having, as much as I would like some snow, it is nice to have beautiful weather during sad times like this that we see in our world.



I love this picture above, because it is happy, and is bright like the weather has been in Salt Lake lately. I love it! I sure hope that the weather stays that way. and that we don't have too many more snow days ahead of us. I am enjoying this nice sunny weather.

my cute kitty....if you have been on facebook, you have already seen my picture from today, she has been pretty cute and sleeping on my bed most of the day. I love spendig time with her on my days off when she is like that.

today has been a good day, I haven't been able to get everything done yet, but the day is not over and there is still time to complete what I need to. I am just happy to have completed what I have. tomorrow is going to be an easy day, and probably a day of baking cookies, Maybe I will even put the recipe up on here tomorrow after I am done, with a picture of the finished product.

have a great rest of the day, and remember no matter what happens around us we always have to look at the positive things in life.

Overwhelmed.....

so today I started cleaning my bathroom, and that is like the easiest room in the house right? sure it is, it is the most simplest and fastest room in the house to clean. I was done with that room in about 15 minutes.....well then I decided I would take on the project of my bedroom, which if you have been in my room you would know what it looks like on the inside sometimes. I get a little overwhelmed, as I am sure we all do, and my room can look somewhat like this....



this is from a while ago, and my room was clean at one point, but now today I have done like a deep cleaning which we all do, and now it has become a bigger and more overwhelming project for me because each area takes time. and now I am tired and unmotivated to finish any of it. I know that once I finish it, my room will look and feel so much better, and everything will be so much better organized.

why does everything just have to take so much time and be so overwhelming? does anyone else have this problem? I am not saying I am a messy person, but just saying that things like this can be overwhelming and that I am hopefully not the only one that gets easily overwhelmed by stuff like this.

my organization is soon going to be better....it is almost all under control again!

Snowy Day and Dolphin Tale

so today this weather has been pretty interesting at my house, first it rained, then it turned to snow, then back to rain then back to snown and it has been snowing ever since, and we now have a ton of snow outside. I am about tired of it snowing now, I wish it would let up just because of the cold eliment that it brings in to the valley....here is how much snow we have gotten in Herriman.....








second of all I just had to tell you a little bit more about the movie dolphin tale if you have not seen it, you can go to a website called http://www,seewinter.com, and there is all kinds of things on there, there is also a live webcam where you can actually see her swimming around in her area, it is pretty neat.

I searched her out on the web, and she was born October 10, 2005. the accident happened two months after she was born. the accident happened sometime in december of 2005. the website also tells about the actors and actresses, and has a ton of pictures from the movie.

here is a picture of winter below, just because I think she is so adorable....



I hope you all have had an amazing saturday, even with this wonderful snow we have had. have a great rest of the weekend :)

Dolphin Tale Movie

so this weekend my mom and I watched the best movie in the world!!! so much that I am watching it again today. the movie is called Dolphin Tale, all I am going to say is that if you have not seen it it is a must see, and that the song that is the first song on the end credits will make you cry. I cried...

take a look into what I am talking about:




the words are amazing and the clips they used from the video are amazing as well!! it will bring you to tears.

I hope you all are having a wonderful wintery saturday :)

some thoughts

I know I don't write on here very often, but I thought I would write on here tonight since it has been over a month since I have last updated my blog.

Christmas was great this year, and I got some things I needed, and I got some other things that are pretty cool too. I wish I had some pictures from this christmas to share, but I took not one picture with my camera this past christmas, we must have been having too much fun!

this year in April I will have my student loan paid off, which I am so exccited for, then I can look into going back to school. I have been wanting to do that since I quit school in 2009.

I am also close to being able to drive, I just have to get my test taken to be able to get my practice permit, so I can start driving with a driving instructor, then I can get my license shortly after that. so maybe by february I will have my license!! that's my goal!!

also this week is my little brother's 10th birthday, on tuesday the 17th! I can't believe he is going to be 10 years old!!! that is a huge milestone. maybe I can find him and contact him on his birthday! that would be so neat!!

I am still working at wal-mart, but this year I hope to find a new job, something that I will like doing. I have almost been with wal-mart for 4 years, it will be 4 years this coming April!!

well I know this post is kind of all over the place, but that is why I gave it the title I did, these are just my thoughts for the week, and for this month so far! I hope you all are having a wonderful year so far!

Happy New Year!