Does it TRULY matter?

Does it truly matter?

Sitting on the bunk bed, we are at the ripe age of 6 and 3
Playing with our army men having a battle
You take mine and I take yours
We have a fight and mom teaches us now kids does it truly matter?

We have now grown a little older, supposedly wiser too
I am 8, you are 5 and we are watching cartoons
We fight over if we should watch dragon tails or rolley polly olie
Mom teaches us now kids does it truly matter?

The ages of accountability has reached both of us now
I am 12 and you are 9 and we are watching a movie
Something inappropriate comes on in the movie and we both are in SHOCK
Mom sits down and teaches us now kids, this truly does matter!

As we grow up and move schools
I am now 14, you are 11 and we are doing homework
You tell me a story of a boy you know copying someone else’s work
You then state you do not want to do homework and will do this tomorrow and put your homework away
I pull your homework back out and say, wait, this truly does matter!

We both have seen how crazy the world is now
Now being 18 and 15 years into our lives
We talk about things that are going on in our lives and you ask me what to do
You begin to cry and say you are so confused
I look at you with tears in my eyes, give you a hug, say I have been there before and this truly does matter!

We all have people in our lives that have taught us things that truly do matter and things that do not matter. Lets thank them for all that they have done for us!

Weekend Madness

Well this weekend was one in a million! So many fun things happened and so many new friendships were transformed. I am so thankful that i changed wards from my home ward to the mesa college ward. Verity and i this weekend had so much fun! We attended our ward christmas party and then went to a dance party afterwords with some fun boys from our ward:) For the christmas party we all dressed up in Pj's and had breakfast followed by SANTA CLAUSE! YES HE CAME! :) it was so much fun and i am so glad that i ended up going. yayyy for best friends! Sunday night we went to a broad cast followed by pizookies at my house:) after that spencer, one of the boys, asked if i would help him with his essay... hummm never thought it would take so long! I didn't end up leaving his house till five! Yes it was crazyness but we got it done so that is a good thing! lol. This weekend was great and i wouldn't change it for anything. YAYYY back to school tonight!

Sunday Thought

Last night i was able to go and watch my favorite little kids. 4 children under the age of 12... yes i love them and the sweetness that each one of them holds. While i was watching them last night and today at church something kept coming to my mind...it has made me have a new outlook on so many things in life. We all in this life are given challenges, obstacles if you wish to call them, that we must over come. It is not a matter of if we will over come them because we all have this power but it is a matter of when we will over come them. At points, when we feel that we have been given way to much, or "our plate is full" we start to feel down and start asking why this, why me, why now? These questions have such an impact on our outlook of a situation that is occurring in our life and most of the time in a negative way. We all have things going on in our life that we may not be... happy... with at the moment, i have them too, but i have thought of a new way to look upon these challenges that we are dealt. Challenges are given to us for a reason. We all are here on this earth to learn and grow and to strive to reach our potential. Each of us as human beings has a different potential to reach, none are the same and therefore we are all given different challenges in our lives, different strengths and weaknesses that we may help those we love when they are going through things. These kids last night, while i was watching them, taught me something huge. We were outside playing with the dog throwing toys and just laughing and having fun, no big deal when the little boy came up to me and tried to spit the words out, puppy happy. Simple words but it made me think yeah things are going on in life but we have the choice to be happy! LETS ALL BE HAPPY! SMILE! IT HELPS! haha! Love you guys!

Take a step back

Wow best day of my life! Have you ever had the burden of something on you and then all of a sudden it is gone? Yep that happened to me today! I have been stressing out so badly on how i am going to pay for spring semester this year... it has been a huge damper the past little bit and it finally left! I was so excited to go to MCC yesterday and pay it down right off! YAY! I cannot believe that this semester is almost over though it is amazing to me how fast time goes by. Recently i was thinking about how fast time goes and how quickly things change in this life and decided that i missed the good old days when we worried about where our bouncy ball went not our calculator for math class, where the letter from the school that said who our teacher was at the beginning of the year and not where our packets of homework to do over the summer went. Being 10 min early for school so you could play on the playground, now if i had a extra 10 min it is packed with either homework or sleeping. I miss waking up on Christmas morning excited because Santa came, or on Easter because we could go find the eggs. It is good to grow up, don't get me wrong, but what about all the good times when we were kids. Being in college is so much fun but at the same time you have so much to think about. what your degree is going to be, where are you going to go, how are you going to pay for school, what are you gonna wear, what are you going to do on the weekends, who are you going to be friends with and everything else. One thing that also hit me while thinking about this is the sweet spirit of a young child. The kind and loving to everyone person that they are, if only this traveled throughout our lives with us. I learned this past week to just take a step back and let life take its coarse! Sometimes you need to direct it other times just let the wheel turn where it may.

New Ashley

Well for the past little while I have wanted to dye my hair... well Nic is in town and guess what I decided to dye it! I am not too sure what I think about it yet haha! But here is a picture of it! We liking it or not so much? Never done it before... ahhh! I was so scared.

Thanksgiving Movie!

Wow! That is all I can say about this movie. My family and I today, it being Thanksgiving and all went and saw a movie. We looked and looked through the titles but none caught our eye. I was looking through and watched this trailer and I could not turn it down. For some reason I felt like this is the movie that I needed to see! This movie was about when Hitler was in reign and all of the Jews and the camps that they were put into. Yes you learn about this in "history" in school, Yes all of us have heard about how miserable this was for the Jews but this movie really opened my eyes to life. I am not one to be secluded to my own world and not want to look at the world around me but I NEVER have realized that this is what they were treated like. Throughout the movie there is a little boy who is in the camp and a little boy who is outside of the camp and they become friends, it is amazing to me how much culture okays the acceptability of being friends. The non-jew child was not aloud to see this Jewish boy but went around his parents backs to see him. Can we all not just accept each other for who we are and what we believe? Can we all not raise our children to be accepting of other races and other people that may not LOOK or ACT or TALK like us? This Thanksgiving, yes I am so thankful for all the things that most people are thankful for but I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to live in the country that I do. I am so grateful for the freedom that I have to BELIEVE what i want, to SAY what i want, to ACT like i want and to BE WHO I WANT TO BE! Do not take what we are given for granted! Live every day to the fullest because you never know what tomorrow will bring! Love you all! 

To you i will always be thankful

I am thankful for the person I can call at any hour when I am in need of uplifting

I am thankful for the teacher who puts well done on a paper that I worked so hard on

I am thankful for the person that makes me feel like there is a reason I am living

I am thankful for grandparents who call just to see how their grand daughter is doing

I am thankful for parents who  ARE  a part of my life

I am thankful for the friend who reminds me of how the Lord loves us no matter what

I am thankful for the power of forgiveness

I am thankful for the seminary teacher that showed me at a young age how much the Lord loves me

I am thankful for the girl who always can put a smile on my face

I am thankful for random phone calls just to say hi

I am thankful for phone calls that happen just so you can hear each other’s voice

I am thankful for an Aunt that helps me through SO much

I am thankful for an older “sister” that is always right by my side through everything

I am thankful for the person on the street that showed me how to be humble

I am thankful for the person that taught me to be true chaste virtuous and to always do good

I am thankful for the reading teacher that did not give up on me

I am thankful for a fifth grade teacher that saw a writing talent and made me reach it

I am thankful for the boy who taught me how girls should be treated

I am thankful for the girl who always listens to my sob stories

I am thankful for the best friend that always texts me even two words andmakes my day

I am thankful for the child that taught me not to judge

I am thankful for the teacher that taught me to go to college

I am thankful for the boy that I share my life stories with

I am thankful for the gospel in my life

I am thankful for the power of families and friends

I am thankful for those who befriended me when I moved schools

I am so thankful for those who are inspired to share something and it helps you

I am thankful for the boy that taught me that I am worth more than that

I am thankful for the physically and mentally challenged people in this world that have taught me to be thankful for the body and mind I have been given

I am thankful for my cute little mackduck and what she teaches me every single day

I am thankful for my grandmother and even on her deathbed she was telling stories to make us all not worry but to laugh

I am thankful for the experiences that I have been given

I am thankful for the tears I have cried so I have had the chance to learn laughter

I am thankful for the storms that have come my way so I can look forward to a rainbow

I am thankful for the relationships that have crossed my path

I am thankful for the pain I have gone through so that I have a compassion for suffering

I am thankful for each and every person that has made a difference in my life

So all of you that are in my life. Thank you for everything that you have taught and shown me. I love you all and would not be who I am today without you!

Temple trip

Well I was able to go to the Temple a few days ago and it was an amazing experience. I went to do Baptisms for the Dead and usually I go on Tuesdays just by myself and then go about my day. I was talking to one of my friends, Jordan, who is a return missionary. He expressed the desire to attend the Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead and he ended up coming with me! It was an amazing experience to have him confirm and baptize me! It was the best Temple trip! I am so thankful for him and the way he lives his life! Thanks Jordan:)

Minnesota Trip

Well this summer while working with my cute little girl i met her cousin Arielle. Since July we have been talking and communicating that we needed to get a trip together to see eachother! Well the time finally came! This last month i went to minnesota to visit. YES it was cold! YES it was so fun! I had the time of my life & am so glad that i went! I met so many fun people! I was able to be there for first snow fall and it was so fun to go out around the town and play in the little snow that fell, an experience you would never get here in AZ thats for sure! This trip really showed me how amazing and lucky we are to have this Gospel in our lives though. Going up to a complete and total college town and having none of the people be LDS brings across some different challenges, but it was an amazing experience! I miss the cold weather haha. And i cannot wait to get back up there! Thanks Arielle for having me girl! It was so much fun and i am so glad that i could go!

Jess Wedding

YAY CONGRATS JESS & JOE!

It was so fun this past weekend to see such a close friend get married! Man i cannot wait to plan a wedding, not get married just plan one haha! It was fun to see them come out of the temple so happy and how they could not stop smiling! Then to the lunch in where there was way good food and all us friends got to sit around and catch up on life because we have not in the longest time! Then the CUTE reception! Pretty sure the desert table was a hit! Carebear Shalaylay and i sat there for HOURS just eating, okay maybe not quite hours but for a long time! It was so fun to see so many faces that we have not seen in such a long time! Tal & Mel also got to come in for the wedding which was so much fun! It was nice to have the friendship not even change and just start where it ended a few months ago:)

PICTURES TO COME:)