Life

I feel that my life is kind of a sick joke.  Those who know my life might or might not agree.  But I feel like I am being constantly pushed down again and again.  That there is some malicious force who enjoys throwing things at me just so they can laugh every time I fall down.  And maybe there is.  Don't get me wrong, my life is great and I love it.  But there is always something.
For example, on Thursday I found out that I got accepted to Southern Utah University and I won the very prestigious Sterling Scholar award for Social Science at my school.  Yet on the same day a very sweet and beautiful daughter of God passed away.  It broke all of our hearts.  I just feel so blessed and privileged that she was allowed in my life.  Because I learned so much from her.
So, understandably, it has been hard to think about and be happy for the good things that have happened to me.  I feel like it's always like this for me.  And than I realized.  That this is just how life works.  It will always be like this, so I better get used to it.  I need to just remember and cherish the good things more and quickly get through the downs of life so I can experience more of the great things.

So more on Brittany Lacy (the girl who passed away) and the Sterling Scholar later.  This was about all I could write today.

The Christmas Spirit.

I love Christmas, I really do.  I love the tree, the twinkling lights, the holiday movies, hot chocolate by the fire place, and even the constant Christmas music.  I just love the whole magical feeling that is in the air during this time of year.

But sadly, and with no particular reason, for the past few years I havn't felt that warm feeling of Christmas.  Maybe my mind thinks i'm too old or maybe I'm just turning into some old man who yells at anyone who sings Christmas songs. (you know, besides the man part.)  Because I could totally see myself turning into this...

 (And I apologize for this cat picture, I know its going around   everywhere lately but i laughed way hard when I saw it.)

But tonight, for the first time, I got that tingly, happy, warm, Christmas feeling again!

So you know those annoying people who stand in front of Wal-Mart ringing bells and yelling Merry Christmas at you in order to trick you into donating your hard earned cash?  Well I became one of them tonight.  Yes I did it all.  I pasted on a smile, rang the bell, and shouted a myriad of season's greetings at the top of my lungs.  I surprised one lady so bad on her way out of the automatic doors that I wouldn't doubt if she had reoccurring PTSD every time someone said "Merry Christmas" to her.  Arn't I awesome. :)

We did that for about the first 15 minutes.  And I admit it was pretty fun.  But than it happened.  An angel from the other entrance came our way.  It was a helper from the shift before us with a Ukulele, volunteering to play and sing with our group for another hour.  I swear he had a heavenly light around him and I could have kissed right there in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  I didn't, even though he was quite attractive, and for the rest of the hour and a half we played the ukulele and sang our hearts out to Christmas tunes.  (We were so good that we even attracted quite a crowd at some points.  I honestly thought that the security would come out and ask us to break it up because we were causing traffic jams and risking possible accidents.)

Honestly, I have never been so happy while being so cold!  And the best part is, we were doing all of this while volunteering and serving others.  This is what Christmas is all about.  Coming together with complete strangers, being completely happy, having the time of our lives, and doing Christ-like acts.  Tonight this is what finally gave me that amazing feeling of joy and contentment.  All simply within a Wal-Mart parking lot...

Flashback to Halloween.

Halloween this year was really great.  But since it was over a month ago, I don't really have it in me to write about it.  So here is just a few pictures.

Family Pumpkins.  Mine is the amazing one on the right.

Putting finishing touches on Kenz's amazing costume.

                                           Can anyone tell who she is?? P.S. It rhymes with
                                           Rob Moss?? Anyone, anyone.  (oh and i totally came
                                                                                               up with the idea :)

                                                                  Crew the Caveman

                                                        Shauna's beautiful Day of the Dead

                                                A zombie attacking my bishop.  Walking dead anyone?

The cutest devil ever.

                                                             
                                                          And finally, the 3 cousins!