Oh What a Journey It Is

According to blogger the last time I posted anything was June 25th. I don't know about you, but that seems like a long time ago. It's mean it's October. For those of you who know me personally, you know that I pretty much disappeared after starting to date someone seriously. Well this someone is going to be my husband in 8 days! I could give a long version of how we met and how it all happened, but for now I'll just say that when people tell you, "when you know, you know," they're not kidding. I'm definitely not saying that "knowing" makes it the easiest thing in the world to get married, but I will say it makes it easier in the hard times to know in your heart it is right.

So, I have a question for all of you who actually read this: have you ever felt so amazingly happy that you're scared of being unhappy ever again. Logically of course, this doesn't make sense, but I think some of you know what I'm talking about. We all know good and bad things happen, and life is always going to be a rollercoaster of the ups and downs, but do you ever feel afraid to be unhappy because in some way you've forgotten what real sadness feels like? Or because you never want to feel any different than you do at the moment, you hold on so tight not wanting to let go of what you have?

Just thinking. Respond if you would like. :-)

PlayLIZt: June (Love is You & Keep Your Head Up)

Okay, somehow, of course I have no idea how, I managed to make it through almost an entire month without posting one song. My sincere apologies. I guess you could say June has been quite the busy month. I decided to not try and catch up on the whole month, but I do want to share two songs with you. I have always said that great songs come from TV shows. The first song for June is no exception. I heard this song on the show The Practice and downloaded it right away. I love Chrisette Michele's voice, but most of all I love the message of this song. Song #2 is a much more recent acquisition. On Monday, I heard a song on the radio and immediately wrote down the name and artist so I could download it later. Well, Thursday night I went to the Natasha Bedingfield concert (she is one of the best, if not the best, live performers I have ever seen) and the first opening act was the same artist of the song I heard on Monday on the radio. His name is Andy Grammer and I am a huge fan, so of course I bought his album. So sit back and think of love while "keeping your head up." Enjoy! :)

"Love is You" by Chrisette Michele

"Keep Your Head Up" by Andy Grammer

Stubbs Family Reunion 2011

Over Memorial Day weekend my cousin Melinda got married in the Rexburg, Idaho temple. It was amazing! Afterward we had our annual Stubbs family reunion. I wrote this little paragraph below on Saturday. I think I said it better then than I could now.

There’s something about family—the way they always think the best of you and the way they support you without knowing all the details of your life. I’m sitting around at my family reunion thinking how lucky I am, how blessed I am to be so closely interconnected with amazing, truly good people. Not every family is perfect, in fact I don’t know any that are, but I can’t help but feel like I got the long end of the stick on this one. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. So today I want to count my family as another blessing. Amazing cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, sister, parents, niece, and nephew . . . I am one lucky girl!

Melinda's family at her reception.

Sean and the newest addition to his family asleep on the couch. Cute huh?

Tara helping James organize the scripture movie game

The view of the cabin from one of the upper floors.

Emily, Asher, and Maya watching Tangled in the theater room.

Uncle Brian sleeping under the ping pong table. He picks the most interesting places to sleep sometimes. :)

PlayLIZt: May Week 3 & 4

Time for another double post. Yes, this is what happens when life gets busier than busy. For these two weeks I decided to share two songs from a movie I saw recently called Something Borrowed. The movie itself wasn't anything amazing, even though I laughed at quite a few parts, but I found two great songs from it. These songs are definitely on the more mellow side, but I think that's what I love about them. They're good writing/thinking songs (everyone who knows me knows I love those). :) Enjoy!

"Poison & Wine" by The Civil Wars

"The Longer I Run" by Peter Bradley Adams

Reaching Our Potential

I have a question.

How do we live up to our potential?
Are we ever really living up to our potential?

Okay I lied...I might have more than just one question. :-)

I've thought about this a lot lately. Mostly, I've been thinking of how can we push ourselves to overcome fears in order to accomplish things we never thought we could/things that are part of our potential?

Thoughts?

I'm still working on the how, but I think there is a definite necessity to seek that potential and reach for it. I'll add it to the to-do list. ;-)

PlayLIZt: May Week 2 (Who You Are)

I could write so much about this song, but I'll just write the most important reasons this song is the PlayLIZt song of the week from last week. When I first heard this song there was a line that made all the difference to me. "It's okay not to be okay." I feel like I (and other people I know) spend so much time trying to "keep it all together" on a daily basis, and while some days it's easy to see the good and be happy, some days everything is just not okay. I felt like the lyrics in the song gave me permission to not be okay, but also to never let that be it, to keep living to be who I am deep down, and who you are. This song gives hope when there is none. This song is a gift. This song is for anyone who has ever doubted themselves. No matter what, remember who you are! On Saturday night I got to sing this song for a friend at an acoustic music event to raise money for cancer research. Although it wasn't the easiest thing to do, it was one of the coolest things I've been able to be a part of. So here's to a great song! A really great song!

Enjoy! :)

"Who You Are" by Jessie J

PlayLIZt: May Week 1 (Same Changes)

This is another song from one of my more recent favorite movies: Morning Glory. I probably loved it first because it plays during one of my favorite parts of the movie (where she is walking around early in the morning in a sort of reflective mood) and I love it second because of the message that things never stay the same. "Same" changes. As hard is it is to accept sometimes, well most of the time, it's true. Nothing really ever stays the same, but somehow this song makes me feel okay about that. Enjoy! :)

"Same Changes" by The Weepies