His Power is in Us

I recently found a Christian music radio station here in Vegas. One song that really hit me and made me think is a song by Jeremy Camp titled "Same Power." The chorus lyrics say: > "The same power that rose Jesus from the grave The same power that commands the dead to wake Lives in us, Lives in us! The same power that moves mountains when He speaks The same power that can calm the raging sea Lives in us, Lives in us!" > These lyrics made me think of the baptismal covenant and the sacrament prayers. We promise to take Christ's name upon ourselves, and Christ promises that He will always be with us. Christ can do ANYTHING. We need not fear the unknown or feel overwhelmed at what we are asked to accomplish. If we accept Christ into our lives, He will live in us and give us the strength, patience, power, whatever it is we need to do what is asked of us. > I recently gave a Relief Society lesson about the influence of music in our lives. While I was preparing for the lesson, I began to notice the lyrics of the current pop songs on the radio station that I was listening to. I did not agree with the ideas the songs were presenting. Alana is at the stage where she is copying everything anybody says. I did not want the words of the pop songs coming out of her mouth, even if she does not understand what those words mean. I can tell a difference in my attitude as well listening to these uplifting, Christ-focused songs, even if they are modern sounding songs. > I encourage anyone reading this to really listen to the lyrics of the songs you hear, and notice the feelings they inspire. Make a change if you need to. Music really does have a larger impact than we give it credit for.

Rambling Writing for a Purpose

Do you ever feel like you have lost your grip on life? For me, life over all is good. It seems like projects and deadlines are never ending and just keep sneaking up. Maybe its because I just roll with the days, but I feel like time is just rolling on and I have to keep up. I had the thought yesterday that maybe if I wrote daily I could gain something grounding. Most days I don't write because I don't take the time to stop and think about something meaningful to write about. Today is the first day I have decided I am going to write just to write something. It's amazing how when you're in school and you have all these daily assignments you are frustrated with them and can't wait to be done. Now that I have been out of school for 5 years, I feel like I need some assignment to write about. It appears that I have a need to have projects! I feel so lucky to have Andrew as my husband. I have never been one to plan my life way out in advance. Andrew is the driving force behind our financial success. He has also taken a big part in trying to figure out how we can get pregnant again. I know, I know! We just gotta get busy in the bedroom! It hasn't been quite that easy for us. I did get pregnant 3 months after my period returned, but unfortunately that ended in a miscarriage in June. We are now working diligently at it again. We have come to a conclusion that between timing it right and getting progesterone as soon as I find out is the biggest thing to help. When I got pregnant with Alana, we had a fertility doctor prescribe me some progesterone the same day I took a pregnancy test. That was the only difference between Alana and my two miscarriages. Here's to hoping we can get pregnant and stay pregnant again!

Adventure at Crawdad Canyon

I just remembered about having this blog and decided that I am going to post a blog about our latest adventure. I'm getting bored with Facebook... Andrew took a whole week off this last week, which I don't think we have had that much time off since we bought our house and Andrew started his job 4 years ago! Side note- Andrew is now the controller at his company, American Kiosk Management. He just worked his way right into that job. He's pretty much amazing. Anyways, we spent our first real vacation in St. George, UT. Andrew has gotten us into rock climbing and he found a little resort place full of various levels of climbs - Crawdad Canyon. It was a nice little canyon that we could climb until mid-day without getting too much sun, which in August in the southwest becomes unbearable. We were able to meet up with some friends, Aubree and Skylar, who were also on vacation in St. George. They came climbing with us one day. We spent our afternoons reading books and swimming. Alana was so funny at the swimming pool. She would get in the water for a little bit, but then all she wanted to do was run laps around the pool. She would sit on the edge and kick her legs to splash me in the pool, but then get up and run a few more laps again. Andrew read 4 different books and I read 2 books while on vacation. Our evenings were spent exploring the city. We spent some time at the St. George Temple and played at the park. It was so relaxing to be able to do whatever we wanted to do and not have to be anywhere at a certain time. We were only committed to ourselves and nobody else for a few days. We did meet up with my Grandmother, Yvonne Lyon, and my mom was in town as well, so we were able to get a 4-generation picture. Alana is sometimes reserved around new people, but she warmed right up to her Great-Grandmother and even gave her a kiss when we were saying goodbye! As we were walking around town, we saw a group of teenage girls with a flat tire on their minivan. Andrew was able to get the spare tire on for them. He felt really good being able to give some needed help. It was a grand adventure and I am looking forward to the next one!

Happy 4th of July from the top of Mt. Charleston!

My dad always likes to go hiking on the 4th of July. He invited all my brothers, my bro-in-law, Andrew, & his brother, Phil to go hike to the peak of Mt. Charleston - the highest peak in southern Nevada. By Tuesday afternoon, everyone had chickened out besides Andrew & Phil. They all used their kids as an excuse, but I think they really didn't want to do the insane hike! My mom and I decided we would go too. We had done the hike 9 years ago, so we knew what we were getting ourselves in to. The hike is 18 miles round trip. My dad had told us that he did the whole thing in 4.5 hours one time - 20 years ago. I figured we could make it under 10 hours easy! > Wednesday morning, my parents picked us up at 4:30 am and we all loaded in the car with packs full of trail mix, pretzels, pepperoni, cheese, crackers, and water. We started our hike at 5:45 am. After hiking for only 1 hour, we were already at the 3 mile marker. If we kept that pace, we would be done in 6 hours! After 5.5 hours, we finally made it to the top - only half way!

> After stopping for lunch, we headed back down the mountain just before 12:00 noon. I had invited friends over for a BBQ at 5:00pm, so we needed to be done and in the car by 4:00pm at the latest. Andrew and I went on ahead so he would have time to get the car from the parking lot where we started and we could all hop in the car as soon as we were done with the hike. It seemed like the switchbacks went on forever! Not to mention we basically walked through a cloud along the ridge! Andrew and I got down at 4:15, but by the time he got the car and everyone else was done, it was almost 5:00! Luckily, we were able to contact everyone and let them know to come after 6:00. > On the way up, we found a rock the shape of Nevada!

> Just after we left the peak, we saw debris from a plane crash that happened in the 1950s.

> At one point, I was leading the group - just walking with my head down watching the trail. When I looked up, this tree kind of freaked me out:

What do you see? > > Two days later, and we are all still sore! The best thing about the hike was that we can say we conquered the tallest peak in Southern Nevada! (and I lost 2 lbs thanks to that almost 12 hour hike!) > I kind of want to do the hike again to see if I could do it any faster. I guess that's the kind of crazy that runs in my family!

Before & After Pics of the House

Here is what we have done so far. The people we bought the house from had some interesting color choices. Front Before

Front After

Garage Before

Garage After

Living Room Before (from the front door)

Living Room Before (ugly built-in entertainment center)

Living Room After (from the front door)

Living Room After (minus ugly entertainment center) Andrew went to town with a sledge hammer on that beast!

Kitchen before

Kitchen After

Kitchen After

Master Bed Before (notice the nasty, smelly carpet!)

Master Bed After

Master Bed After

New Bedding

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After

Still left to do are the 2 spare bedrooms and the landscaping. I just started a pretty neat but complicated paint job in one room yesterday. I am pretty excited for that to be finished!

New House

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! We have been in the house for 8 months now, but we don't have internet so I am never able to post pictures! The house is about 2 miles from my parents and 1/2 a mile from my sister. It is nice to have family close even if we don't hang out a whole lot. Andrew is getting closer and closer to paying up for internet service, so hopefully I can get some pictures up when that happens!

My Goal

So I have been trying off and on to lose about 20 lbs. I have not been successful because I keep getting distracted by life. This week, I have decided to be more dedicated and commit to exercising and eating well. I will be posting my food journal and exercise log here for everyone to see. You may not enjoy it, but if it works, hopefully it will inspire you to live a healthier lifestyle. This is mostly for me.

Monday, November 14, 2011
Breakfast(9:30am): fried egg, ham, and cheese on an english muffin
Snack (11:00am): Banana
Lunch (1:30pm): Backed potato w/ cheese, salsa, sour cream, and green onions
Dinner (6:30pm): Bowl of chicken chili and rye bread

Swam 1hr (2500yds)