Sillyness :)

A few days ago Amy and Sami had dropped in for something and they stayed and talk for a while. Mom and I had just gone to the party store to pick up a few things for her primary songs. Sami and I got into them and this is what happened....

I was up first. No, not my real eyes. Yes, I'm upside-down. And Yes, my chin makes the perfect "nose."

This is me "picking my nose" with my tongue.... :)

I know we look basically the same, but this one above and below is actually of Sami. Her little chin wrinkles so well that it looks like the holes in a normal nose.... She is SO funny!OK, now I don't have the right software or something to turn the video, but make sure your sound is on for this one. She was making us laugh so much!

Oh and P.S. This is Sami's latest dance. She says she learned it from Disney Channel.... Oh the all-knowing source of goodness and truth.

Baby Steps Re-charge

Ok, so after the "accident" my self-help improvement weeks got thrown off a little. But, after a wonderful visit from my home teachers last night, I'm back at it. One of my home teachers, Allan, talked about how thankful we need to be (good topic considering the up-coming holiday). He asked me a question that threw me off gaurd a little. He asked me how my relationship with Christ was. Now, this shouldn't be a hard question to answer, but usually the question is, "How is your relationship with Heavenly Father?" That one I can answer immediatly... But the "Christ" question was a little harder. It got me thinking about how much time I really spend thinking about my savior and all that He did and still does for me. I had to stop and evaluate: Am I thankful enough to Him for the tremendous gift which He has given me? Do I think about Him and all that He has done for me? Am I treating others how He would treat them?

I'm not saying I'm an awful person, but for the next couple of weeks I want to try and focus a little more on Christ and improving myself in a more spiritual instead of physical manner. Plus, I think this will really help to bring a unique spirit for this Christmas season.

The first Christ-like attribute that I want to work on is that of loving and giving more of myself. Few people know how demanding and impatient I've been in the past. To those people I say I truly am sorry. In high school, I realize I was too controlling with Hudson. I had him wrapped around my little finger and unfortunatley, that wasn't always a good thing. Hudson definately has gained a backbone in Russia, but I want to be better myself.

This week I'm going to try my hardest to serve wherever I can serve. To listen to people who need a shoulder to cry on. And to love, not judge, first.

"We are asked to be kinder with one another, more gentle and forgiving. We are asked to be slower to anger and more prompt to help. We are asked to extend the hand of friendship and resist the hand of retribution. We are called upon to be true disciples of Christ, to love one another with genuine compassion, for that is the way Christ loved us." “An Easter Greeting from the First Presidency,” Church News, 15 April 1995

Once upon a time...

So I was trying to think of something to blog about this week. I wasn't sure what you all wanted to hear from me... so I'll tell you a little story. Once upon a time there was this girl...Well, actually she was more like a young woman. Now this girl was very young for her grade. She didn't turn 16 until the summer after her sophomore year of high school. So that year, she had to sit by and watch everyone else go on date and dances and have fun. Well, the summer she turned 16 she started to like Mr. Redhead. Because of that, she decided to throw a pit of a birthday party at her house and invite Mr. Redhead and some of his friends. And so she did just that. Unfortuantely Mr. Redhead had to work. But she put on a good face for her guests. There was one guest in particular that she talked to a lot. He was Mr. Redhead's best friend at the time. His name.... Hudson. OK, ok.... so maybe this is my story. So what?!?! I just thought some of you might enjoy hearing how my whole situation came to be... put no worries. This isn't going to be a novel. It's going to be more of a.... um.... picture book! So, that night at my house we watched "Hitch." Kinda ironic now that you think about it. Hudson and I ended up sitting by each other and talking almost the whole way through the movie. When it was over, everyone else left, but Hudson stayed to help clean up a little. I ended up walking out to his car with him. Apparently I said something along the lines of "OH, I wouldn't mind going out on a date with a soccer player." or something like that.... but he heard, "Hudson, I really like you and want to go on a date with you!" :) And so the magic began. Right after that, my family and I drove my oldest brother out to Virginia. it was like a 2 and a half week trip. And my parents claim that I texted Hudson THE WHOLE time.

When we got back, he took me on my very first date. We went to the "Voice Male" concert at Thanksgiving Point. It was rather funny because his mom and his little brother came with us. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Sweet little Hudson, during the concert, turned and ASKED to hold my hand. I had never had someone ask before and was completely shocked. I wasn't sure that I wanted to hold his hand on the first date and so I told him "no." Looking back, I don't even know why it was such a big deal to me, but it was. Anyways, he seemed ok, but i knew that he wa dying inside. By the end of the night I had reasoned with myself and when we were in the car on the ride home, I reached over and grabbed his hand. He said, "Beth it's ok if you don't want to. I'm not mad. And I don't want you to do this out of pity or something." I told him that i wanted to, but I don't know that I had him completely convinced.

Our relationship only got stronger after that. It's funny because I had been praying for a long time for Heavenly Father to send me a friend.... someone I could talk to that would listen to me. Someone who loved me for me and just wanted to always be with me. I, personally, was thinking that someone would be a girl, but turns out the Lord had different plans for me. That someone was Hudson. We have shared so many good times and have had such great experiences together, I can't wait to see what it's like when he gets back.Hudson took me to the homecoming dance our Junior year. We look so little in this picture! I used to have a really big problem with the fact that I am ALMOST the same height as him. It never bothered him and so I got past it. Plus, now-a-days you can see tons of girls that are taller than their husbands. (Although, Hud has claimed that he's grown another inch on his mission... we'll see if that's just wishful thinking)We've been all over the country together..... From choir tour in california....To cleaning churches in Hawaii, we were ALWAYS together in high school. Here some more good pictures of dances and hanging out with friends.... these are some of my most favorite memories!

This is Prom of our Junior year. We had so much fun and I LOVED that dress. My mom and I made it.

Football games.... need I say more?

Yet another choir tour in California. This one was fun because both of our moms came... and they actually got to be roomies!

I feel so blessed to have been able to graduate with my best friend! He means so much to me!

This one is more the REAL us... This is actually at a Jon Schmidt concert (OUR FAV!!!) the summer before he left.

See... i do have a small social life! :)

So I just want to say that I have THE BEST single's ward on the face of the earth.... and it's not even a ward, it's still a branch. We are so small and so we're the only "branch" in American Fork. But that does not mean that we lack in excitement and fun. A couple of weeks ago we went up to my branch president's cabin in Heber, Utah. We stayed in "the mansion" Friday night and then came home Saturday afternoon. I drove up because I had to come back earlier than the group on account of work.

I got to spend a lot of time with some of my GFFL (Girlfriends For Life!) It seems that no matter what happens, how long we go between talking, or how far apart we drift, when we get together, we have fun. We party and talk and laugh like we're the closest of friends. I love them! Loran drove up with me and we just had the best time. I'm working on not talking so much and being better at letting others express themselves and so it was good to hear what she had to say. I learned a lot about her and I just love conversations that are more than knee-deep. Plus, it was good to have her there while we were driving through the scary mountains.... And Bro. Welch was getting us lost.

And speaking of the leaders...I'm not standing alone when i say that they are the bomb!!! Bro. Welch and his wife are in my parents' ward. He is so funny and one of the only ones that gets away with teasing me.... and I just have to take it. Pres. Myler is so kind and understanding. I have a deep love and appreciation for that man and all he does. He and his wife are adorable. I love that I can go to this single's ward and not feel like they're pushing me to get married right away.

And what would the ward be without it's members? The group of people that I get to hang out with at the branch are just great. We cry, laugh, and learn together and I feel like everyone is pretty open and honest with each other. It's cool to go and not feel like you're being judged constantly.

Can I just say that I love 4-wheelers. I haven't been on one for a very long time though.... probably the last time I was on one was a Jen's parents' house. And that was a good 4 years ago. Anyways, this is a picture of me and Andee Rowley. It took me a minute to warm up and get comfortable, but once I got going, I didn't want to get off. Hudson, I want one of these... just so you know!