New Years Goals

I hope everyone had a happy New Years! We sure did! As usual, we made some goals. One of them was to lose weight. Our goal is to lose 30 pounds by May 31. We will keep you updated on how we are doing. Starting out, I am at 183 pounds and a size 15. Joshua is at 330 pounds and a size 48. I will update about inches as well as pounds lost. We want to be healthy and take better care of the temples that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with. Wish us luck!

Pictures

In honor of our anniversary (which I know was a week ago) I am posting some of our wedding pictures. So excited to see what our future holds.

Happy Anniversary/An update

I know it's been a long time...months...since I have blogged. It's been busy. School, and other stuff. You all know how it goes. Well Joshua and I reached a mile marker. Yesterday we celebrated our one year anniversary. It was an amazing feeling. We have come so far, been through so much, and yet have so far to go. One thing that we do agree on, is that it's been the best year of our lives, and we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We've shed tears, laughed, lost jobs, quit jobs, had fears, had hope and faith. We have grown so much in the last year. We've grown so much closer, and more than before, I can say that he is my best friend. He is my rock. He is not perfect, and he knows it. However great his imperfections, I can match him up with mine. We are as imperfect as anyone ever was, but we have learned to love each other through our imperfections. I have learned so much about forgiveness and Christ-like love in this last year. I thought I understood it before, but I knew nothing about it. Thank you Joshua for a wonderful year. I'm so excited for the many years that are ahead of us. And the next year will be amazing. Joshua will be graduating next semester, and beginning his trek to a new career in radiology. It's going to be a great adventure!! I can't wait!

30 Day Challenge Day Three: Service and a Toilet

Today I couldn't make up my mind about what to be thankful for so I decided to share two things. Today started off with the toilet clogging...yes and flooding our bathroom...which is carpeted for some stupid reason...lovely I know. So already running a little behind I quickly through some towels down and ran out the door. While I was at work there was an accident out front involving three cars. This would have been a really upsetting thing except that I witnessed something amazing. Within minutes of the crash, there were women rushing to the aid of those involved. One woman even had a first aid bag in her car and ran over to make sure that no one was injured. They were directing traffic, and helping one of the drivers who was an elderly gentleman who could barely walk out of his car and away to safety. This was amazing to me because I thought about how often it actually happens. How often do we stop and help those who are in need? I know most of us reading this are guilty of seeing someone who could use our help and we don't stop to do anything. How many times have we ignored the Spirit prompting us to call someone who we know is down, or take cookies to a neighbor who is having a rough day, week, or maybe even a month or year? But today I saw that there are those who keep the world, that says that we should be selfish and not help anyone, a little bit of a happier place. I'm so thankful to those people who do stop to help and lift the needy when they know that it will not benefit them. I'm thankful to those who give so much time and charity to loving those around them and showing such Christ-like love.

The next thing I am thankful for is a working toilet...you don't realize how important it is until you don't have one and you really have to use it. I will admit I was very frustrated about this because as you know (if you've been reading my previous posts), I quit my job and will be done working next week and haven't found another one yet. So I was worried about having to fix up the bathroom. However now that I look at it, it is another blessing. I now have something to fill up my time with as I won't have any work for a while. Since I have so much time we have decided to finally fix up the bathroom like we've been wanting to. I will have at least one pretty room in my house and I'm very excited about it. So many small blessings that I probably haven't seen are all around and I hope that many more will come. 

30 Day Challenge Day Two: My Savior

Today is day two of my 30 day challenge. I've recently started reading the New Testament again. I always find it a pleasure reading about the Savior and His ministry. Today I am thankful for  His example, for His teachings of how to live a happier life and how to help others live a happier life. He was never unkind or selfish. Never once did he speak in hushed tones about someone else, He was always aware of the needs of others and always willing to serve and show His and The Father's love for His children. Today I was reading in Mark chapter seven. In this chapter the Pharisees are condemning His disciples for eating with unwashen hands as is tradition. Christ goes on to explain to the Pharisees and His disciples "Whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart...That which cometh out of the man, that defile the man. For from within, out of heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man." (Mark chpt. 7 18-23)

The Savior teaches a very important lessen in this chapter, one which President Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke of in the April 2012 General Conference. In his talk entitled The Merciful Obtain Mercy, or as I remember it The Just Stop It talk. The talk is mainly focused on forgiving others and ourselves, however some of the things listed to be forgiven are things that coming from our hearts would defile us as sons and daughter of our Heavenly Father. He says "When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, pleas apply the following: STOP IT!...I don't know exactly how to articulate this point...with sufficient eloquence, passion, and persuasion to make it stick. I can quote scripture, I can try to expound doctrine, and I will even quote a bumper sticker I recently saw. It was attache d to the back of a car whose driver appeared to be a little rough around the edges, but the words on the sticker taught an insightful lesson. It read 'Don't judge me because I sin differently than you.'" I think along with Christ's list of those things which defile us, we should also add, judgment. The Savior said "I will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." The rude and unloving thoughts we have of others will also defile us and allow the adversary to have that much more influence over our lives. To all those I have judged, spoken evil about, or hurt, or gossiped about, or offended in any way, I offer my sincere apology and pray that you can forgive me .  This is something that I am not perfect at, but I have been striving to think positively of others and to speak kind words in their favor. I pray we can all become better at this and let the love of our Savior and Heavenly Father spread to all His children.

30 Days of Thankfulness Day One: My Eternal Companion

I know its been a long time since I last updated my blog. A lot has happened...too much in fact. As you know, two months ago I started a new job. However due to the amount of stress, unfriendly and unprofessional enviornment I have put in my two weeks notice and as of June the 27th I will be unemployed. There are a lot of things that could bring me down right now. I worry about how we'll pay for our school in the Fall. I worry about how I'm going to work and finish up a 17 credit semester. How will I help my husband who has been feeling the weight of being a husband start to bring him down as we realize that there are some things we may never get to do and some dreams that may not come to be realized in this life. Our lives have become somewhat chaotic as of late. Between the two of us we have five callings in our ward, full schedules and three families who are asking for our attention. There are days I feel so inadequete as a wife, a visiting teacher, a daughter, a sister, a housekeeper especially. So many things are calling for our attention. There are so many things that we have been promised in our patriarchal blessings, and so many things that the Lord expects of us, I feel that we will never be able to fulfill our potential, especially when it comes to starting our family. 

For the past little while I've been thinking a lot about what the Lord has given us. So many little things go unnoticed and unappreciated. So I have decided to issue myself a challenge. I've started The 30 Days of Thankfulness Challenge. For the next 30 days I will be keeping a photo diary of things that I am thankful for. I will also include an opinions I might have or any quotes from Church Authorities as I update this. I hope that by doing this I will be able to focus less on what I haven't done and more on what I can do, less on what I don't have and more on what I do have and will yet recieve, less on myself, and more on serving faithfully in my callings as well as serving others.


For my first day, I am thankful for my loving companion, and best friend, Joshua. He is always so supportive and wants nothing but to give me the world. I'm so very grateful that he loved me enough to take me to the Temple of the Lord and marry me there for time and all eternity. I know that because of that simple choice we will be able to recieve all the blessings the Lord has promised us pertaining to our family through keeping our covenents to each other and the God. I know that we can make it through anything. I am so thankful for his love and support as we tread our way through the troubled waters of this mortal life. I know with him by my side, we will be able to raise up righteous children and show them the kind of love that can be shared. 

It's been so long I have to catch everyone up on what's been happening. Well as you can imagine Joshua and I are having a wonderful time just being poor and muddling through together. The time we have had together has been sweet and wonderful. This is only amplified by the excitement of the sweet little bundle of joy we're expecting to arrive. For my one and only follower Aerika Newman, I am sad to report that I am not pregnant. The bundle of joy I speak of is a new kitten we hope to be adopting in the summer (or sooner if finances allow). Who knows how our poor Rocky will react to this stranger. Our callings have given us a lot to keep us busy (mine more than Joshua's as I now have a month of teaching), and work is getting busier and busier, there is less and less time in the day, and more and more money coming out of our pockets. I must also add that with these problems has come more and more love and faith. We are excited for the spring and are making all sorts of fun plans for fixing up our house and planning a fun trip to Cedar City so Joshua can compete in the free style wrestling in the Utah Summer Games. Because of this we have buckled down and have started working out hard core.