Gone too soon...

This is my friend Echo... She left this life on November 2, 2011. We have been friends since Jr. High school and went through many bad times together and a lot of good times together. Our lives were separated after high school for a while and then we reconnected on Facebook a few years back. We talked often and got together a couple times and when her younger sister Amber sent me the news telling me my "sister" had died I was in complete shock. She was just 33 like me... Such a short life. A few days before she passed she started posting spiritual thoughts on her Facebook page, which looking back makes me think that her subconscious knew what was coming.
Her sister asked me to read something at her funeral which is tomorrow, Nov. 12th, and I was very honored to be asked. The family wants me to read one of the posts she put up which I love.

One night I had a dream--
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord
and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints,
one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you would walk with me all the way,
but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
"I don't understand why in times when I needed you most,
you should leave me."
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never, never leave you
during your times of trial and suffering.
"When you saw only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."
Mary Stevenson

I love you Echo and will never forget all we went through.

You know you want to!

This is a fun idea that I got suckered into. Maybe it's just plain old greed. I wanted to see what my friend would make for me and so I now have the priviledge of making something for some other lucky individuals. The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. That gives me a good five months to get it done!
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange (but don't expect my gift to be too strange because I am not good at coming up with strange things:).

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! *Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!*

I Can Only Imagine!!!

To my knees will I fall when I see my Savior.

This is one of the amazing songs I heard at my Captivating retreat which changed my life forever! I am amazing, beautiful and I love my Savior and Heavenly Father with all my heart.

Hmmmm....Bear with me...

I'm just venting here so bear with me. For the past year I've had some stomach pains and lately they've gotten really painful. So I went to the Dr. today and after a urine test I was informed my white blood cells in there were through the roof! Well, I don't have any symptoms of an infection dealing with that area but they're going to test it more to see what they can find. Also, I had a blood test today and if it's anything like last year the white blood cells are going to be really high too. After last year with antibiotics my WBC's never went down much and I just let it go for the time being. I'm growing really anxious to know what's really wrong with me and why they won't go down. I'm currently on two antibiotics to see what will happen and see if my WBC's go down at all on Thursday when I go back to the Dr. Have any of you out there been through this at all and can offer me any advice? I don't have any symptoms of the obvious like the usual sickness would show. I have lost my appetite and have lost some weight but not too dramatically. My clothes don't fit anymore from just a month or two ago...

I guess all I can ask you for as friends, casual readers and people I don't know is for any good thoughts, advice, prayers, good karma that you can send my way.
I may be jumping to the worst of the situation but who knows if this has been the same for over a year.

So thank you in advance for reading this post and still loving me! Really, any advice would be very much appreciated.

Picnic Club!

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought I'd share too. I don't live in Provo but I know some of my readers do so check it out. Who wouldn't love a picnic in the park making new friends? We as a family love doing picnics whenever we can. Click on the button on the side of my blog or click on the picture to take you to the blog site with all the info! Happy picnicking!!

St. George Fun

For our anniversary this year we celebrated a little early and went to St. George for some fun. Our good friends Randy and Jessica Grimes went down too and spent some time without their kids for a birthday, anniversary, valentines day and pre-new baby fun.  She's 7 months pregnant with her first boy after 3 beautiful girls!  Here's some pics of our fun!

Cookie Making!

Our friends came over last night and brought cookies, frosting and sprinkles for us and the kids and it was so much fun for all of us.  The kids especially had a great time making their own cookies.  At the end the kids were given squirts of frosting in their mouths which was of course a big hit!  Here's some pics of our adventures in cookie making.