God Bless the USA

Happy (belated) Independence Day!

I had a fantastic day that definitely reminded me why the Fourth of July is my absolute favorite holiday!

It started a week ago with the Huntsman Springs Celebrate America Celebration.

This is the third year in a row that I've been to it, and it's definitely the best fireworks show I have ever seen, and that includes some tough contenders like the Portland Waterfront BluesFest! 

It was definitely a great start to my holiday celebrations!

Yesterday morning I joined my sister and her family at the Rexburg parade down Main Street!

It was so fun to see Sophie waving away at all of the floats to try and get them to throw her candy :)

By the end her and Sam had acquired enough candy to last them quite a while!

Little Caroline had a hard time sleeping through all of the sirens and loud music, but she was still as happy as could be despite it all.

Just look at her pretty little face!

Isn't she the cutest?!

Later that afternoon my roommates and I headed down to Idaho Falls to stake out our spot for the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration.

We had six hours to wait for the fireworks to start, so we passed the time with games and really good food!

The Idaho Falls fireworks didn't disappoint, but they were definitely nowhere near as spectacular as Huntsman Springs. 

Huntsman Springs 2014

I am so thankful to live in a country where I have freedom.

It's easy to be negative about the direction our Nation is headed in, as well as the lack of freedom we sometimes feel we might have, but one thing is true - we really are blessed to live in the USA.

This Nation was founded on freedom!

Freedom of religion

Freedom of speech

Freedom of the press

Freedom of assembly

Freedom of petition

If there's one thing I've learned and one thing I really do believe, it's that as long as we stand for and protect those freedoms we were granted in the Bill of Rights, our Nation will be okay.

Happy Birthday, America!

Back at it!

It's been far too long and to be honest, I'm sad that I haven't been documenting my last three semesters of my undergrad!

It's been a really fun three semesters but also insanely busy, and to be honest I just couldn't fathom fitting blogging into my schedule of school, work, practicums, and internships.

BUT GUESS WHAT?!

I graduate exactly three weeks from today!

That's right, I graduate.

I can't believe I will be finished with my undergrad and thrown out into the real world.

Here's my plan... 

After graduation I will move back home with my parents for the summer while I (hopefully) work at my old job. 

Then, as of September 24th I will be EUROPE-BOUND!

I'll be studying abroad in Europe for just under a month :)

(More on this later...)

After Europe I will start the job search and save up for graduate school while completing pre-requisites so I can apply and get accepted.

My first choice for graduate school is the University of Utah, and I will be getting my Master's degree in Speech and Language Pathology. 

So long story short, I anticipate having a lot of time on my hands to blog!

I'm happy to be back :)

Construction Zone...

We needed a facelift.

Pardon the mess!

Things will be back in order, ASAP.

Perspective

A couple of weeks ago I read a blog post where the girl shared a suggestion that would (hopefully) help others to be less critical of their appearance.

(For the life of me I cannot remember which blog it was and I have searched endlessly and still can't find it. So if you know who it was, or if it was you, tell me so I can link it and give credit!)

She said that when you look in the mirror, look at yourself as if you're looking at a stranger. I read some of the comments and one girl mentioned that she knew she would be fooling herself so there's no way it would work. Some others mentioned that they had tried it and it completely changed their perspective of how they think they look. 

So I tried it for the next couple of days. I generally don't like to let myself get critical of my appearance because I look how I look, and who cares if people are critical of that? But being honest, I am hard on myself a lot more than I would like to be. The first time I tried this I felt like I was having a particularly bad hair day, and lo and behold, when I took on that perspective and looked in the mirror, I was surprised at what I saw. (I hope this doesn't come across as conceited...) I didn't notice all of those little things that I am so typically critical of, and my hair suddenly didn't look as bad as I perceived it to be.

Fast forward to a few weeks later...

I had forgotten about the advice I read in the blog and the experience I had with it. 

Today in church a member of the bishopric spoke about perspective. His advice was to look at ourselves and others as our Father in Heaven does. I realized that my little experiment about seeing myself as a stranger does was a step in the right direction, but it was purely physical. It was a way to boost my confidence regarding my physical appearance, which our society places so much emphasis on.

When I think about looking at myself as my Heavenly Father does, that's about my divine nature, my infinite worth, and who I am as a person, not who I appear to be on the outside. This can not only change how we feel about and view ourselves, but when applied to others, it can change everything. 

Perspective is a powerful thing, especially when we apply it personally. Taking on the perspective of another person or of our Heavenly Father can allow us to have compassion, love, understanding, or just the opportunity to be a little less critical of ourselves or others. 

So do yourself a favor, for me. Give yourself the opportunity to have a little more perspective. It's an amazing thing.

New Year

Yesterday I wrote this rather hilarious (if I may say so myself) but probably slightly offensive blog post all about resolutions.

I decided not to post it for the latter reason (and also due to insecurity about the fact that I'm seriously not as hilarious and I believe myself to be ;) ).

Anyway, I can't decide if I love the whole New Year's Resolution hype, or if I find it a little silly.

Either way, I made two resolutions for this year.

1. Wear more lipstick

2. Have better posture

Yes, I am 100% serious :)

All of those other eating better, exercising more, being a better person things I like to work on and evaluate year round, or at least try to.

So for me, the New Year is just a refreshing moment where the whole world seems to push the reset button.

And it seems to put everyone in an incredibly happy mood.

I can't complain about that.