Elder Brian

Hey Bloggers.
Its been a tough week. We finally sent Elder Brian out to the mission field. Can't believe he's such a man..? Weird.

Anyway, most of you who know me, know him, so I just thought you might wanna know, OF COURSE I made a mission blog for while he's gone.

 It's like a rite of passage for this time in my life, right? It probably in the missionary handbook that your sister is supposed to do this for you while you're gone. I dont know. Maybe.

Anyway, here it is. douginperu.blogspot.com

This was across the street from the MTC right
before we literally kicked him to the curb.

This muchacho es mi amigo. I like him. We're friends.

We met at a bowling alley one time about a year and a half ago.

I really love being his friend. He's so fun and I know I can always count on him for anything. He's a stud. I feel lucky to have him in my life.

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On a totally unrelated note, I planted an onion seed about 8 months ago. I don't know what I was thinking, because I don't even like onions at all. But, anyway, I grew an onion, and now I don't know what to do with it. It feels like a waste to throw it away because it took so long to grow. So I've just been saving it for a lonng time. I thought maybe if I found the right recipe it could still be good, but it's been a while and I can't find anything to do with it and its starting to go bad.

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He loves onions. He says he'd rather have an onion than anything else. He could eat onions every day for the rest of his life. And if he couldn't have onions, he would just look all over the place for the closest thing to onions he could find. He convinced me to try them and I've learned to like onions a lot more than I did before, but there's still no way you could convince me to sit around and eat onions for the rest of my life. Ya know?

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So yeah, I guess all I'm trying to say is that we feel really differently about onions, he and I.

The end.

Home is Wherever I'm with You

\I can't stop replaying this over and over and over.

It makes my heart melt. I love everything about it. It makes me hopeful there's still beauty and love and GOODNESS in the world. God bless youtube for letting me creepily have a peek into this tender moment between a father and his little girl.

I have this thing.

I just, really, really love families. (yeah, yeah, everyone loves their families..)
But I mean, All families. Any family.
Families make me feel safe and happy and like the world's a wonderful place. (People who really know me, know this.)

I think too many people are starting to forget this.

"The earth was created....that families might be"
-Elder Russel M. Nelson

"There is nothing in the world as important as the creation and perfection of family units"
-Elder Bruce R. McConkie

"It is possible to make home a bit of heaven; indeed, I picture heaven to be a continuation of the ideal home"
-Elder David O. Mckay

Employed.

I could sing.

"Get a job" has been on my to do list maybe since I transfered to Utah State LAST fall.

Haha, ohhh man I suck.

I've been dragging my feet and making excuses about how I dont have time for a solid year maybe. sick.

The application process is brutal and the rejection is nooo fun (thanks Brittany, for not forcing me to bear it alone)

but FINALLY! A silver lining!!

I got a job at a classy restaurant in Logan called Iron Gate Grill. I've never eaten there but there's red chandeliers and zebra chairs. So, = super classy. Obviously.

omgimsoexcited.

2011. What will you do with it?

"As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been."

"The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed towards the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives."

"Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has greater things in store for each of us"

"Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever. "

-Jeffery R. Holland
ps. Watch this.

December 29, 2010

Doug's mission call is just miles away from the same town we were at this time last year!! Couldn't be more excited for him!!

ps. check out this picture of me being WAY too intense while he opened his call...

I had my phone on speaker in one hand and the ollld flip camera to document every second in the other.
Also, I'm sorry for the super obnoxious screaming...jussst the way I am :/

Loves of my Life.

How cute are they!? right?!

These amazing, wonderful, beautiful people have been waiting on my hand and foot for the last week. (Literally, its hard to lift my leg up onto the couch, so one of my siblings comes running to lift it up and tuck a pillow under it for me.)

Maybe no one else cares, and maybe this might come off a little vain or pretentious to people not in my family? I apologize. But what's a blog for, if not to write about things no one else really cares about just because it feels good to throw it out there to cyberspace...?

Anyway.

My little sister brought a christmas scentsy into my room so it would smell like christmas this week while I was cooped up in there.

My older sister, Kelsey, strung about a billion little christmas lights on the palm tree in my room.

Jamie's done up and undone my brace about 800 times.

Jamie will run upstairs to grab my computer, and then downstairs to look for my phone charger, and back upstairs to grab me a shirt to change into, and downstairs for a blanket, and up and down, and up and down....And she never complains, or rolls her eyes, or normal 12 year old kid things--Not even once.

Sean scrambled around to finish the last minute Christmas shopping I couldn't do before the family party.

He brought me flowers when I got out of the hospital.

My mom, has brought me breakfast in bed, for the past 5 days. (and lunch and dinner whenever I want it)


She went to the store to get all my favorite snacks and brought me 3 different movies from redbox. (plus, Doug supplied the 1st season of modern family. SO funny)

My mom brings me things I need before I can even think to ask for them. She's patient and loving and selfless...she's seriously gone above and beyond this week, one of the busiest, most stressful weeks of the year.

(I honestly feel so blessed to have Sue Brian as my mother. Sorry for the rest of the world that didnt get so lucky.)

Doug heard me crying in the middle of the night when the meds wore off and came running to my rescue.

He also came running to catch me when I almost tripped down the stairs on my crutches. Super graceful.

Sean (and my cute grandparents) went to like 4 different stores on Christmas Day to find me some stupid ice.

My dad took extra care to make sure I got to and from our family parties without breaking anything.

He's stayed by my side and watched hours and hours of modern family with me.

He offered to skip work the day of the surgery in case I just wanted him to be there.

He gave me a blessing before I went in, and put me at peace.



I could seriously go on and on and on...

But let me just say, this was a really special Christmas for me.

I felt completely overwhelmed by the love I feel for my family.

I am so blessed.

Throughout this year, for whatever reasons, some friends I really love grew distant. Others just dropped out of my life altogether, and that kind of change is always hard to deal with.

It means everything to me to know these people are a constant in my life. And they always will be.

Forever.